Strategic Thinking: How to Achieve Goals Over the Long-Term

Here’s an interesting tidbit:

A study was done on extremely successful individuals on the types of personality traits they possessed (or lacked) in an effort to see why they were so successful.

The result?

The people who were wildly successful all took into account what’s called “long time perspective” (strategic thinking)

They planned out their long and short term goals when deciding their current and future actions.

They were willing to sacrifice and pay the price in order to have greater rewards in the future.

(This comes courtesy of Dr. Edward Banfield)

Now you may be wondering: why is this so important?

Hm… well… I’m guessing you want to be ballin’ in the future, right? You wanna make it rain? You wanna have a big house, five cars, and money you use as napkins.

Or…maybe not.

Either way, I’m just guessing you want to be “successful” (whatever that means to you).

Well, you’ll need to be a strategic thinker in addition to thinking long term.

Why you should read this article…

Listen… I’m not here to force anyone to do anything – but I think you should read this article and take action on it.

If you use the strategies I talk about here, you will:

Make less mistakes, meaning you waste less time
Start to become “psychic” and see into the future
Train your brain to resist instant gratification

Sounds stellar to me. But first, let’s talk about strategy

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What Is Strategic Thinking?

Strategic thinking is the act of organizing physical and mental resources in the attempt to create favorable outcomes in the short, medium, and long term.

The best strategy itself is the art of mentally using all of the pieces at your disposal in order to achieve a favorable end in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of effort.

Chess is a game of strategy. Mainly, it’s a game of how to defeat the opponent in as little moves as possible with as little effort as possible while losing as little pieces as possible.

Life is more often than not like chess. You can win the battle but lose the war and visa-versa. The person who uses strategic thinking isn’t concerned with losing a few pieces here and there. They want the grand prize at the end.

If you want to achieve long-term goals, being a strategist is a must. There are no two ways about it.

But in order to do that, you need to have the mindset. Mainly – the mindset of a strategist.

The Inner Landscape of a Strategist

In 33 Strategies of War, Robert Greene calls the person has long term goals and a vision on how to get there – a “grand strategist”.

This person is always devising ways to think ahead of the curve and to “win the war” instead of being content with short term victories.

This is what YOU need to do. You must think of yourself as a “grand strategist”.

The grand strategist doesn’t fret about things he can’t control. Instead, he takes action on the things he CAN control and affect in his immediate area of influence.

He is a chess-master that is cool, calm, and detached from the outcome.

He has an unearthly nonchalance, as if he can see into the future. He may have setbacks and disappointments, but he is looking to win the war – not just one battle. He is self-assured because he knows he will win.

He knows he will win because he has a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset.

Carol Dweck explored this in her aptly titled book, Mindset.

Dweck introduces the concepts of growth vs fixed mindsets and how they can add or to or detract from our short and long term goals.

Here’s what it is in a nutshell:

Fixed Mindset

I cant… I’m just not good at that… Some people are cut out for it, I’m not… I’m just not a musician… I’ll never be good at math…..

You may have said things similar to these in the past or you may have been told you’ll never be this, that, and the other.

Well, I’m here to tell you – it’s mostly bullshit.

The human capacity for growth is virtually unlimited, especially when you introduce neuroplasticity into the picture.

People with a fixed mindset are usually quick to point out how they’ll never be successful in any undertaking because they just “weren’t born with it”.

These are the losers who believe in “luck” and “talent” and worst of all… they believe in “genetics“………..This is contrasted with the ultra liberating growth mindset

Growth Mindset

You know, I’m not that great at it – but I know I can get better…I don’t know how to do it, but I’ll learn it… I can be a great piano player, if I tried…

These statements characterize the essence of the growth mindset.

These are the people who understand that change is possible through repeat efforts.

These are the people who strive towards self-actualization.

This is the mindset of a strategist. The strategist is always seeking to grow in granular ways that create a big win at the end (kaizen).

Your adoption of the growth mindset will determine whether you’ll be able to think long term.

The Mindset You Need For Long Term Thinking

Since time is largely subjective, the definition of “long term” will vary between individuals.

For people in their 20s, long term goals are anything 18 months and up.

The 20s are a time of massive turbulence with a bunch of things going on and happening fairly fast, so 18 months is a good runway for a long term goal.

It gives you enough of a time to gain momentum but also some time to adjust if necessary.

To someone who’s 5 years old, a month seems like a really long time compared to someone who’s 35.

Let’s say you’re 21 years old and you’re planning for something to happen 18 months in the future. Well, you’ve only lived 252 months generally speaking, so 18 months is only about 5% of that. To you, that’s going to seem like a really long time.

Five years is going to seem even longer. However, as you age, you can clearly remember where you were 5 years ago. If you’re 25 right now (like I am), you can clearly remember who and where you were when you were 20 (unless you had amnesia or something).

Weren’t you a completely different person at 20? Didn’t you think 25 was never going to come? But here it is. Now, here’s the real crux of long-term thinking:

If I’m able to imagine myself 5 years from now feeling exactly how I feel right now, looking back what am I happy that I did and what do I wish I would have done?

That should give you some idea of what your long-term goals should be.

Super small actions lead to incredible results over a series of time (again, kaizen).

Think of time as something you spend to something you want to buy later in the future.

You can only do two things with time: spend it or waste it. Choose wisely. Click To Tweet

Friction in Long Term Goals

As with anything in life, you will inevitably encounter some opposition, some “friction”.

Something didn’t go as planned. A family member died. You got into a car accident. You got fired from your job.

Anything you can think of, it can and probably will happen. Nothing moves in a straight line for long. We’re not all going to be eager young guys with tons of testosterone pumping through us forever.

So, we’re gonna need to be able to mitigate or lessen the impact of some future blows. We’ll do this by taking preventative action in the present so that we’ll be able to act appropriately later.

Here’s some examples:

Emergency fund (or the “I Fucked Up Fund”:)
Getting jacked
Choosing a great career
Having spares

Basically, you want to create a “safety net” to fall back on in case anything happens to you.

By having a stockpile of cash that you can readily access, you can be ejected from your job and still have something to fall back on. You won’t panic and go searching for another job like a chicken with its head cut off. Instead, you’ll think rationally and calmly about your situation.

By having a great physique, you’ll increase your self-esteem and you’ll feel really good about yourself. Not to mention, you’re less likely to get health problems.

By choosing a great career, you’ll have a lot of gusto for the job and throw your whole heart into it. Which means, you’ll be paid more and promoted faster. Meaning you’ll have more money to spend and save, making you more antifragile as a result. It’s an upward cycle.

How will you pivot?

As I said earlier, nothing stays the same. Things are constantly moving and changing. We live in a time where change is the only constant.

What’s dandy today is not always good tomorrow. The more comfortable you become with change, the better off you’ll be.

When things aren’t working, you need a way to “pivot”, To take what’s working for you right now and change it into a different form.

If you were an athlete in school and didn’t turn pro, you can use that knowledge you have of different sports and apply it to a career. Maybe you can be a personal trainer or a physical therapist.

Always ask yourself:

“How can I leverage the skills I have right now and turn it into something better?”

A Long Term Strategic Thinking Methodology + Wrap Up

Unsurprisingly, there’s many different ways to play the long game. There is no one-size-fits-all method.

However, thinking long term makes you realize that today matters. What you do this hour, this minute, this second, will be felt five years from now.

With that in mind, you start to see how short-term milestones lead up to goal achievement over the long term.

Here’s a simple methodology you can use to achieve your long term personal goals.

Create a specific goal – If you don’t have specifics, if you don’t have numbers, you won’t know what you’re working towards. Here’s a specific: gain 5 pounds of muscle in 15 weeks. Here’s a non specific: gain muscle.
Create a closed-loop system – Your system should make each day flow into the next easily. For this example of working out: work out every other day at 8am. The decision is already made, there is no friction, there is no “should I” or “should I not”, the decision is already made. Your job is just to follow through.
Create a sustainable environment – You need an environment that will make your habits easier to execute. If you’re trying to be fit, having junk food in your house will make it that much harder (create unnecessary friction). Your environment should feed into your habits.
Create a “minimum effective dose” – What is the minimal amount of work needed to make progress? If you’re trying to gain muscle in the gym, what’s the minimum amount of food, exercise, and sleep you need to attain this? You don’t need to do millions of sets and reps, eat 10,000 calories a day, or sleep 10 hours a day to achieve your goal. But you do need a minimum. What is it?
Create a measuring system – How do you know if you’re making progress? Are your shirts getting tighter? Are you lifting more in the gym? Is your weekly average weight increasing? This is where it helps to know your numbers.
Aim for consistency, not supremacy – You don’t need to be perfect, you just need to follow through. Going to the gym on a consistent schedule is a lot easier than only going if you know you’re going to set personal records. It’s about the process, not the result.
Never miss two – Life happens. We all miss a day when we’re supposed to do something. Just make sure it doesn’t happen two days in a row, or you risk losing momentum. Hitting the gym 3 days in a row is much easier than hitting the gym one day, missing three days and then resuming.
Optimize as you go – As the weeks go on, you will see what’s wrong with your system and where things can be improved for better results. If you’re spending too long in the gym, what’s the problem? Are you too busy talking on the phone, talking to people at the gym, etc. Identifying these potential leakages will allow you to make your process much more efficient, making goal achievement that much easier.

Playing the long game, “thinking from the end”, having long term goals…whatever the hell you wanna call it… is not easy to do.

We live in a society where we have been socialized into the lure of instant gratification. We’ve been told that success is right around the corner… just don’t lift a finger… We can have it NOW with no down payments or sacrifices whatsoever.

Unfortunately, this runs contrary to nature. If you want anything worthwhile, you’re going to have to pay a certain price. The only way to see the worth of that price is to look into the future and see if the outcome is worth it for you.

For YOU. Not anyone else. From that vantage point, you can then align your present actions to lead up to that ideal future.

Now, I want to hear from you. How are you going to play the long game? Do you have long and short term goals? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments.