What do successful presidential candidates, businesspeople, and military generals all have in common? The answer is that none of them go into a campaign without a strategy, without understanding their ultimate goals and the internal and external factors that influence their chances of success. In this week’s episode, McKay discusses how having a fully developed and articulated strategy is key in finding success in all areas of your life, and offers sage advice on how to design your own strategy.

First up is a discussion of political strategy and how Biden and Trump utilized it in their 2020 presidential campaigns. McKay points out that while Biden’s strategy worked better, the point is that, just as no presidential candidate would ever enter a campaign without a strategy, we can’t win at life without one either. Instead, using a series of examples including IKEA, the Disney Corporation, and Frank Sinatra, he demonstrates how having a fully developed, properly articulated strategy is key to achieving success. He also introduces SWOT analysis as a tool for examining your personal strengths and weaknesses to reveal your strategic focus. Finally, McKay encourages everybody to approach 2022 in a strategic manner, which will bring new energy and new success as we head into a new year.

The Finer Details of This Episode:

- The core of every political campaign.

- Winning at life.

- Comparing goals and tactics with strategies.

- The stories of IKEA, Frank Sinatra, Walt Disney, and Tata Motors.

- The steps in creating a life strategy.

- The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis.

Quotes:

“Our perspective directs our actions, and my hope is that after listening to this podcast, you have a new perspective of yourself, the possibilities in your life, and how you can find your way forward.”

“I’ve spoken to groups about having a strategy for life dozens of times, and each time I asked the question, ‘Do you have a written strategy for life?’ I usually get about 10% of the audience who raises their hand.”

“A strategy is a dynamic collection of interwoven tactics that enable you to reach and sustain advantage in life.”

“You too can create huge advantages in your life if you’re living based on a strategy, versus just letting life come to you however it comes to you.”

“In business, people buy you long before they buy your product. So what strategy have you put in place to make you more attractive? A strategy to improve you would make all the difference.”

“When you look at the external conditions in your life, you may have to make some modifications to your strategy. Perhaps your chosen career isn’t working, your daily schedule doesn’t allow you to do what matters, or you don’t like the group of friends you’ve inherited, and so forth. It will require some changes. And that’s the value of an external analysis.”

“One of the interesting things about COVID-19 has been watching how the changing external conditions in our life have caused so many people to adopt new strategies for life. People have reevaluated where they live, they’ve changed careers or started their own business. In short, external factors matter.”

“Once you’ve considered a few of these factors and completed your analysis, next, you need to start trying on a few strategies. Just like clothes shopping at the department store, you try something on and see how it looks and feels and evaluate it before buying into it.”

Show Links:

Open Your Eyes with McKay Christensen

S04E33 - Your Strategy for Life (Part I)