“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
– Mike Tyson
Been there before? You thought you knew what you were doing and where you were going. You were prepared and you had a plan.
And just like a punch to the mouth, so many things can still go wrong. Now, I don’t say that to make you feel discourage or hopeless. Instead, knowing this fact can help encourage you to have more than just a “plan.” Have a strategy.
What’s the difference, Amanda? A rose by any other name smells the friggin’ same, right?!
Negative, Ghost Rider. A strategy is much more complex. It’s multiple plans. It’s an Atlas versus a Map. It shows you many routes and possibilities.
If I may be so bold, I am going to assume you use a mapping system on your phone to drive from point-A to point-B most of the time. Think about how the map looks on your phone. It’s an up-close view and shows you the next one to two steps. And when you pull up to the road closure that your App didn’t know about, you have to change routes. How do you decide which alternative route to take?… By expanding the map to see a larger image and which roads will take you to your destination.
Are the similarities clear here? When we give ourselves a larger “lay of the land” and are aware of the multiple routes that will deliver us to point-B, we can handle what comes up. Create a strategy for your business growth. Have more than one plan. Move onward with the plan the makes the most sense right now, and when you get punched in the mouth ‘float like a butterfly’ to an alternative plan that will still lead to success.
Having an atlas before you get punched in the mouth allows you to adjust without as much fret. There’s a brief shake off and adjustment, rather than a total knock out (…don’t let me fool you, that’s nearly the extent of my boxing vocabulary). It allows you to be long-term oriented and near-term focused – to move between the now and the then with intentional fluidity.
A final thought (and one more analogy). I don’t want to lead you to assume that I am saying to have LOTS of options. More is not necessarily better. There is a balance between being agile, and having so many options that you are overwhelmed or uncertain.
I don’t want you to be little Johnny at the Slurpee machine pouring all the flavors, all at once. That turns into brown.
Unless it’s chocolate, brown usually doesn’t smell good or taste good… Strategies should not be brown either.
Have more than one plan, just not too many.
If you are curious about how to create an intentional and fluid strategy for your business growth, and want to avoid the “Slurpee machine paradox,” then schedule an Intro Call and we can discuss how to choose one flavor at a time.
