I’ve been intrigued by strategies ever since I learned about them in my neuro-linguistic training program. I find them so fascinating because by understanding strategies, I’ve been able to control so many things in my life.
If you’re ready to take control of your life, keep reading.
What are strategies?
Strategies are simply a series of thoughts, emotions, memories, or sensory experiences that become a recipe for all that we do…like mini habits.
Even though it’s a “mini” habit, don’t overlook its importance. For example, how you brush your teeth is a strategy, and if you don’t think it’s strong, switch the hand you use and you’ll see how ingrained it is and how difficult or awkward it can be to change.
Our strategies are often unconscious habits.
They are important because without them we’d constantly have to be consciously aware of how to do things like walk or talk, and we would not be able to do anything else at the same time.
However, helpful as strategies are, they can be disempowering if we allow them to be. This is especially true around our emotional strategies.
In my experience as a coach, I am often asked how people can control their emotions. So many people are walking around as victims in their own lives, claiming they have no control over their emotions.
I believe we always control our emotions, only often we are not consciously making the choice. Still, it is a choice, which means you do have control. And the benefit to understanding strategies is to help you take control of your emotions.
5 Steps to Create a Success Strategy
1) Have awareness that you have strategies and you also have a choice.
2) Decide whether or not to follow your existing strategy. If it’s a disempowering strategy, decide to create an empowering strategy instead.
3) Work backwards – start with what result you want and then determine what you need to do to make it happen.
4) Find something you can use to create the result you want. For example, if you want to make a sale, you might determine that confidence is an empowering emotion and will help you achieve that result. So bring up a memory of something that gives you confidence, listen to a song that evokes that emotion, or simply read a quote or recite a saying that helps you feel confident.
5) Test & tweak. If you don’t get the result you want, don’t give up. Make a change and try again. Keep repeating it until you get the result you’re after. You’re worth the investment to do it.
So follow these five steps and see how successful you can be. It’s empowering to simply know that you can change your habits, because they’re just strategies!
