As one of my mentors tells me frequently, life is a game of chess not checkers. While both games require skill and strategy, in chess the player plans moves or holds for individual pieces thinking multiple steps ahead. Chess is not a game of reactivity but a game of high strategy in order to prevail over the opponent. Developing fortitude supports us when we need to play chess. Fortitude allows you to implement strategy in your life to control the most space, hold your center, and take initiative that cannot be ignored. It requires fortitude to maintain patience with the game and express responses productively rather than reacting with burned out defense.
Effective chess mastery maintains control over the most space on the board, particularly protecting the center, while managing response to the actions of the opposing player. Life is often not different in this respect. We recognize we cannot totally dictate the behavior of others or maintain full control of our surrounding environment. That said, we do have the ability to influence people and situations around us and we absolutely have the power to design our engagement and response when we are implementing effective self-leadership.
Developing individual self-leadership strategy allows us manage our environment in our favor to the extent we can, provides more power of choice though life's evolutions, enhances patience, and sets the stage for powerful advancement when the time is appropriate. Think of the breadth of our personal and professional lives as the board where we want to maintain control over as much space as we can. Our core, or the center of the board, is unique to every individual and represents those areas of our lives of critical importance and include our main activities and values - for many this may be represented by faith, family, fitness, finances, homelife, or others.
When you are aware of the board space and have identified your center, you can design a path to take initiative that cannot be ignored. You get to be in the position of attack or pursuit of the life you design rather than one of reactivity or constant defense. You get to create momentum in your favor and have better use of defensive practices as necessary. Setting up effective defensive posture is important so you are responding with responsible expression and not overworking defense which leads to lack of control, burnout, and reactivity.
Are you maintaining control of your board? Can you identify your critical center? Do you have the patience to pause and measure your responses so that you are expressing thoughts and emotions through action productively? Or do you make the immediate move in front of you based on reaction in the moment because you are in constant defense?
Are you playing chess or checkers? Let me know if you want a partner designing your chess match strategy.
I
Kommentare