Be Strategic About Your Life, The How. (A series)

Have you ever been in a series of difficulties, that life just seems so unfair. Or maybe you are in a position that you are always dependent on people to make your life move forward, for instance pay for your house rent, feed you and the likes? Or maybe you just find yourself in a series of depts or so much work you have no room to breath!? If you have, it means life has happened to you and you didn't happen to life. Life got you off guard and it is taking you for one hell of a bumpy ride.

Life can happen to you, which is not a very pleasant sitution and you will most likely hate it and blame everyone and everything but you.
And YOU can Happen to life, which is not an easy road but it is the most rewarding with no regrets, plus you will most likely enjoy life to it's fullest.
Life is full of choices that you must choose to make, since you can choose not to make a choice which that is a choice in itself.
Life doesn't happen unless you make it happen. It's a choice you have to make daily, you have to decide to be strategic about your life.
If you have never tried it, it maybe a little of a puzzle and on this particular tuesday I will love to share some tips on HOW TO, that I have been learning.

1. Know who you are.
If there is one important aspect about life you should invest time to know, it will be you. You are an important player in your life and anu team captain must discover the players in the team.
You can first discover your personality type, on this I will advice on Myers Briggs sixteen personality test, here.
Know what makes you tick, what arouses a passion in you like no other. What do you ache for, what is it that scares you, inspires you or drives you to your highest or lowest. Know you!!

2. Know the forces and the reasons behind your being here.
I have always wondered if there is something called destiny. Maybe there is and maybe there is not. I believe you choose the outcome of your life and every choice you make has a very well known outcome.
Why am I born?
Had been a question that bothered me since I lost my dad at age 10. Since then, I would not stop questioning God since I believe he exists.
I wonder if you question that too. Whether you do or not. You must know why you are here, born at a time and season like this, at a geographic region as such in which you where born, with talents and abilities as the once you possess. I don't believe in coincidence. Believe me you, I don't believe in accidents. As the internet is not an accident, so such a major thing as "life" is not an accident.  And since as humans we have the amazing power of creation so do I believe we originate from a creator and to him I personally directed the question.
So whoever you are and whatever you believe, it is important to question why you were born. Either you believe you are god so you can determine your own "why" or whether you believe yes there is GOD, question, question, question and don't settle for answers that don't satisfy your soul. And when you get the why then that is your purpose to fulfill.
There is one thing I know to be true, you are not created for you. For if you were, it would not have made sense that we have the deep longing to be loved and to love.

3. Know your strengths.
This has something to do with knowing yourself. But it just seemed right to talk about it separately.
Know your strength and more so your weaknesses. Know what of good or bad characters you have picked from each of your parents and how you can leverage all of these for your benefit and that of the world.
Your value is seen on how much you bring to the table. And what you bring is what you are most good at, and that is your strength.  Life is give and take. You have to know and master what you can give, so you can gain the advantage of taking.

Know where to best apply your stength.
In economics there is something called Opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the value of a resource when it is employed in its next best use.
If you have work A and work B, and when you apply your strength to work A you get the best use of your strength and if you apply the same strength to work B you get half of the outcome. Then naturally you are inclined to succeed more at work A.
Learn in what way you can best use your strength.  People have different strength but not every one can apply their strength in a particular matter and get the same out come. So much so that not every one can be a teacher, an athlete, a mathematician or an artist.

4. Discover the world. Know how the world works.
It is that simple.
Learn to ask the right questions from the world and learn to get the right answers.
Learn how people are, how money works, how politics functions, how the internet works. Anything and as many things. It will open your mind to new ideas and possibilities.

5. Discover and at most create opportunities.
I could write tons about this, instead I will choose to lengthly discover ways to create opportunities with you in the upcoming posts. Waiting for life to happen to you is waiting for other people to find and create opportunities for you to prosper.

6. Think big. Think short and long term. Learn how to think. Not every one thinks. Litteraly few people take their time to really think. Most of us had rather sit on tv or scroll through our social media feeds than sit down with a pen and paper to think of things that matter to us. Take time to think and think big.

7. Put a plan down. Do the plan. Be proactive and have a well writen plan for your life. Things you want to accomplish. The person you want to be, places you want to go, works you want to do, kids you want to have or have not and all other things pertaining to life.
Not everyone is a planner, but everyone can learn to live purposefully with a vision. Plan on your next best action and follow through.

8. Be flexible.
There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord ’s counsel—that will stand.
Proverbs 19:21 NKJV

It's heart relaxing to acknowledge that not everything takes place as we plan, but we plan anyways and allow room for flexibility.
Being flexible goes beyond changing plans. It can also be translated to being "open-minded". Be ready to change the way you think when given proof that what you thought before is not right. Stubborness is for the immature. I admit, I am a very stubborn person, learning to be otherwise.
Life has curve balls. Sometimes life can be pretty hard to. Don't be too suprised. Be flexible and open minded enough to accept change, being wrong, failure and the likes.

In the end HAPPEN TO LIFE. Be aggressive about life....
Until next time in this series......