When I think about the goals I’ve accomplished in life, I think about how I accomplished them. They did not come about with wishful thinking, but rather through a focused, intentional, and targeted mindset. 

Ambition

One of my most recent goals was to win as many levels as possible in the annual Toastmaster, a public speaking club, speech competitions. Winning at as many levels as possible of the competitions was my aim. Hiring a speech coach was a strategy I implemented in order to win as many of those levels of the contest as possible.

Once I hired my speech coach, we plotted out periodic times to meet while I also bracketed into my schedule, specific times to practice, privately as well as in front of other Toastmaster clubs in my area. 

I worked hard and won the speech contests at the local, division and district levels of competition, but not at the regional level. 

Did I meet my goal? Yes, I met my goal of winning as many levels of the competition as I could. Going further was in the hands of the judges, which was out of my hands. None-the-less, after feeling slightly slighted, I moved on with life and onto my next ambition.

Setting a goal is just the beginning to following a calculated, laid out and tactical plan to keep us on track so that we can accomplish the purpose we set for ourselves. 

Consequently, I often think about how applying strategic strategies to my regular, ordinary and daily patterns of thinking helps me to keep my thoughts from tail spinning into anxious and worrisome thinking.  

It hasn’t been that long ago that I used to spin webs of worry inside my mind. It would all begin with two little innocent words; “What if…” and then like a herd of wild horses, my thoughts galloped all over the place. When I’d finally come back to my senses, I’d wipe the sweat off my brow, feeling exhausted and disappointed that I’d wasted so much time thinking about the worst case scenarios.

I wanted to put a stop to such nonsensical thinking, so I laid out a simple strategy for myself. I imagined putting up a barricade across my thought pathways as soon as I thought. “What if…” 

 I wanted to stop my wayward thinking before it even began and the imagined barricade  was a helpful way to begin. Since then, I’ve added to my strategy. Along with the imagined barricade, I fix, dwell on and hold fast to any one of the million truths about God. For instance, 

although there are a gazillion things to worry about, it is not my job to worry about them. Rather. it is my job to cast all my cares on to the One who cares about me. 

I am not completely worry free, but I do spend much less time in the company of worrisome thoughts and more time in the company of grateful, joyous, and peaceful thoughts.

Why bother thinking strategically? Our success with anything does not suddenly appear. Instead our success occurs as we plot, calculate and devise a way to succeed.