15. Chess Not Checkers
Power Acronym: A+S+GOYA=R
Over the last few years, I’ve been collecting what I call Power Acronyms.
These are acronyms and acrostics that are packed with wisdom for a variety of different lessons for life.
As a poet and lover of language in general, I’ve always had a penchant for acronyms as tools for learning, so one day I decided to start collecting them and making notes on who I heard them from so I could provide appropriate credit when I would inevitably share them again.
I intend on sharing at least 52 through this newsletter over the course of 2023, so if you haven’t yet, subscribe!
Here’s a sneak peek:
A+S+GOYA=R
Or
Ability + Strategy + Get Off Your Anatomy (and do the work for) = Results
This one is from mental performance coach Brian Cain. As a coach, Brian helped dial in the mental performance of top-level athletes like UFC fighter George St-Pierre, NFL Rookie of the Year Kyler Murray, and teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and PGA.
In other words, it’s much more than letters and words.
I wanted to share this Power Acronym with you today for this Life Lesson “Chess Not Checkers” to highlight the importance of that ‘S’, Strategy.
As defined, strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve an overall aim or goal.
As part of my role as director of sales and marketing for the freight brokerage I work for, PDQ America, my team looks to me to put together the strategy for how we are going to sell and market ourselves to have an even better year next year.
Another definition of strategy I read said “plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty”.
Creating a sales strategy in the face of a recession? Seems uncertain to me!
Last night I started writing down my goals for 2023.
I was equally excited and uncertain about what is possible.
Can I do all of this? I thought.
Of course, it is.
As therapist Phil Stutz, the subject of the wonderful Netflix documentary ‘Stutz’ says:
“You will never be exonerated from pain, uncertainty, or doing the work”
This point may sound blunt, but it’s the truth. The quicker we realize it, the better off we’ll be.
Chess is harder to learn than checkers, but it’s still fun to play.
It’s actually more fun because it’s harder!
There’s a reason chess is the visual of choice when speaking about strategy and checkers is not.
When’s the last time you heard of a checkers grandmaster?
Whatever the goal is for your 2023:
…physical, familial, professional, spiritual, parental, emotional, financial, vocational…
They are all attainable…you just have to take your current Ability, draft up a Strategy, Get Off Your Anatomy and get RESULTS!
Don’t like the result? Go again!
Today is a new day. Let’s play.
Your move.
