Fight smart battles

Last week, we held a Men’s Business Breakfast event at Sunbird Capital in Lilongwe. Some 100 men paid and showed up.

In fact, these men invested their K35 000 each to gain knowledge, tactics and motivation to move up in their business and career ladders. Today, I will share just a summary of my one-hour motivational talk at the event.

I shared stage with Justice Dr Chifundo Kachale who spoke candidly about achieving professional excellence with integrity and ethics.

My topic was Fighting Smart Battles. I chose this topic because my observation shows that many of us lack focus in life. We chase too many things that go in multiple directions without coordination or directed flow towards success.

And yet, we know that resources are not infinite to enable us to fight all those battles. Even time itself is not limited and not even renewable. Once you waste time, you can neither claim it back nor replenish. On the contrary, if you fight smart battles, you gain focus and this will subsequently boost your success rate.

So, what are these smart battles? These are projects, ideas and things you do that feed into and support your purpose in life and your vision for what you want to become in five to 10 years’ time or longer if you are much younger. You need to start with defining your purpose in life. Why do you exist? What legacy and impact do you want to leave behind?

And therefore, what is your vision for yourself? These questions will define what future you want for yourself and, therefore, give you a good framework within which to define and choose the battles you want to fight and filter out the battles you do not want to fight so that you can be efficient and effective.

What decision metric can you use to choose your smart battles? There are three components of ‘litmus test’ that you can use. First is to check if the battle feeds into and supports your vision or purpose in life.

If the battle doesn’t help you achieve your goals in life, ignore it and do not fight that battle. Secondly, what is your chance of winning the battle? If the chance is near negligible, do not even bother, there are a lot more profitable and value-making battles that you can choose and fight.

Do not waste your time and resources on battles that are lost before you even begin to fight. Thirdly, check with your intuition and spirit if you possess the will power to fight the battle. Do not fight a battle that your soul doesn’t want to fight!

How do you fight your battles? Three important factors to bear in mind when planning and executing your fights. First, have a winning strategy. Without a strategy, you will win no battle at all. You need to carefully chart your plan for winning your battle. This strategy needs to be broken down into short, medium and long term components.

Secondly, you need determination. Battles are never easy. It is easy to reach moments when giving up becomes the easiest choice. But once you start your battle, you have to fight on till the end. You might need to change method and approach but the battle remains.

And that takes us to the third point: dynamism. Do not have static strategies or approaches to fighting your battles. At times you may have to change some parameters depending on how the battle goes on, in response to how the competitors are fighting their battles, in reaction to changing environmental factors and due to other unforeseen circumstances. You may even change some timelines but the goal remains the same. To win your battle.

Remember, there are so many battles that you will be tempted to fight. But, if you want to be successful, you need to be economical with how many battles you fight at any specific time.

Choose only the smart battles that support your purpose in life and vision. If you do this now, in 2020 and beyond, you will definitely rise and shine. Good luck!