Strategic Thinking

To be up there with the best strategic thinkers, you need to use both the left and right sides of your brain, a skill which takes practice as well as confidence. Having the logic and creative sides in your skillset is of immense value. Here are the key skills that the very best strategic thinkers have, and use, every day.

They Have a Vision
They are great at both thinking with a strategic purpose as well as creating a “visioning” process. They have both tools in their kit and they use both to complement each other. This form of supportive thinking and seeing the future, creates a way of thinking and evolving strategy that is focused and yet broad.

Make Time
In a busy business or organisation, be they small or large, making the time is vital. At the top of their game key strategic thinkers take time out. Maybe a retreat (maximum points!); maybe a day in a hotel foyer; maybe an afternoon somewhere/anywhere, with a blank sheet and a thinking hat on. Whatever works for them - but they do it.

Are Not Hasty
The clue is in the description, “Strategic Thinking” is not about today, tomorrow or next week. In close partnership with holding a clear vision for the business future, these two create the tomorrows of the future. But not tomorrow! This is shaping, coaxing, tuning for a quality business performance in the years to come. Great exponents take time to fine tune, revise and engineer quality futures!

Absorb and Notice
They are truly aware. In any business, there are clues, often subtle, both internal and external, to help guide future direction and realise opportunities. Great Strategic Thinkers take all of this in, so that as they set aside time to think, they have a full deck of information to guide them. Sometimes, it's an 'aha' moment on vacation, when they observe something that resonates; it might be on a morning walk out in the country; it might be what someone says as they serve them coffee. Making links, however tenuous, is what makes this work so well.

Review Often
The best Strategic Thinkers check that their thinking has been validated. Is it going to work, against a world of regular, consistent and yet sometimes volatile change? This activity is a moving target, so to build a better understanding, snapshots; benchmarks and regular stocktaking are all very useful to confirm the quality of the thinking - and absorbed into the skillset for their and their organisations future.

Learn from Experience
Over time, these people use their experiences, small and large, to think better on strategic issues. This makes their use of this time really efficient and particularly effective. There are learned short-cuts to the perhaps more formalised strategic planning process and experience is a huge, valuable added bonus.

Use a Team
By utilising more than just their own brain (though this is vital for some of the process!), those great at Strategic Thinking bounce ideas off others in the workplace and encourage their input above and beyond their delivery of the day job. The old adage that 1+1=3 in the input of thinking is hugely valid. And 5 people make a much more significant contribution than 2 - and so on!

Realism Rules (A Little!)
Although they create ideas very openly, key strategic thinkers have a sense of realism and honesty about what is achievable in the longer term. This is not to hold them back; more it is to deliver success. They underpromise and overdeliver, whilst also ensuring that the day to day business of the organisation - the 'now' - is served adequately too. That's what gets the business paid today, whilst building the future of tomorrow.

Have Clear Milestones
By creating checks in their thinking, to review progress, they have the opportunity to tweak. They have an innate ability to spot the twists and turns necessary. A 5,000 mile journey by plane reaches the destination only by regular and consistent course checks and adjustments.

Are Non-Judgemental
Because the route to a successful future is not bounded by judging their, or others, thinking as they get creative - that is for elsewhere - better ideas flow. Open minds are encouraged and the detail tested later. Open minded thinking needs real checks and balances - but AFTER the openness has stimulated the breadth of imaginative ideas only such freedom can provide.

In the most successful organizations over the years and decades, where the test of time has shown them the excellent businesses they are, the Sony's, Coca Colas, Nokias and Toyotas of this world think ahead and encourage great Strategic Thinking at least somewhere in their busness plans.

In a cut-throat today world of this year's bonus and dividend, big business has a tendency to look short-term and manage that efficiently and well. A sustainable future needs more, whatever size your business is.

The word Abundance expresses "more" and evokes the idea of surplus, excess, or having a large quantity. It is the opposite of scarcity or being scarce.

When people think of more and surplus, they usually think of having a surplus of money.

That's why when people focus on attracting abundance, they mainly focus on being financially prosperous - and for good reasons. Try living for a month without any money to buy food or pay for housing, and you will quickly see that wanting to be financially stable is a reasonable pursuit.

While financial prosperity is important, it is not the only area that people can prosper in. There are many who have enough money to buy just about anything they want, yet they are still unfulfilled. That is because they lack prosperity in the other areas of their lives.
So even though focusing on financial abundance is important, one should also focus on attracting abundance in other areas to feel satisfied and be fulfilled.
Let's have a look at the other areas of prosperity one can enjoy and improve on.

Mental
Mental abundance is about having an abundant mentality. It is realising that there is no scarcity in this world, and that there really is enough resource in the world to go around. A mentally abundant person is not driven by a fear of lack or loss, so they don't act in desperation. They can enjoy the present moment and be able to give and be generous.

Emotional
Emotional abundance means one is fully human. They feel love, joy, and other positive emotions that make a person happy. It means possessing emotions that bring about a balance in one's humanity. An emotionally abundant person will have more space in his heart to accept the shortcomings of other people.

Physical
Physical abundance is about having good health and physical fitness. It means absence of sickness and disease and being able to heal the body when it is confronted with such diseases.
Health is one form of surplus or excess people take for granted the most. When people are healthy, they do not appreciate just how fantastic good health is. It is one of those things that money can't always buy, which is why when you lack physical health, it limits you in more ways than lacking financial, mental, or emotional abundance ever could.

Spiritual
For the purpose of this article, we don't mean spiritual to mean religion or your beliefs. It has to do with passion and enjoying what you do. Being spiritually abundant means delighting your soul and connecting to something bigger than yourself.

This is a small, but important list of some of the many forms of abundance, besides the financial, one can develop and enjoy. And as you learned from the wealth example above, attracting abundance in only one area doesn't guarantee that you will be fulfilled.

This is why it is important to work on attracting all areas of abundance and prosperity in your life. Only then can you truly be fulfilled.

So find ways to build on areas where you lack abundance and learn to appreciate the abundance you already have. Whatever it is you possess, keep attracting the missing abundance so you can bring more joy and fulfillment into your life.

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Be creative!

"The economy is collapsing," is an expression of gloom and doom that one hears frequently these days on the radio. Newspapers and TV illustrate current catastrophes with pictures of unemployed workers demonstrating in front of closed factories. No wonder that those who watch those images get the feeling that the world is coming to an end. If you ask yourself what most people are going to do to help the victims, chances are that your answer will be "pretty much nothing." One could argue that the sole purpose of reporting those nightmares is to exaggerate existing problems and induce numbness in the audience. The implicit motto seems to be "watch and be paralysed."

Presenting problems as allegedly unsolvable is not an approach conducive to finding solutions. Why on earth are people devoting their precious time to watching news about dreadful events if they are not planning to contribute to a solution?

The antidote against this type of negativity is simple. Cut down the hours that you spend in front of the television. Spend less time reading newspapers. Ignore depressing messages on the radio that are meant to turn misery into entertainment. Rational individuals are never satisfied with hearing about problems. An active mind looks for alternatives and practical solutions.

The question becomes essential when we focus on our immediate environment. A man needs resilience and creativity to face problems that affect his family and friends. Compassion and good words rarely save the day. Acquiring the habit of looking for alternatives might do more to increase your success and happiness than receiving a substantial inheritance.

A man becomes an independent thinker when he readjusts his views in favour of a realistic perception of the world. Sooner or later, you will have to deal with a catastrophe in your life. Your ability to search relentlessly for better options will minimize your losses and lead you out of the danger zone.

Insecure men and women are paralysed by dreadful news, but rational individuals know that media reports tend to exaggerate catastrophes. Passive spectators love to point out how desperate a situation is, but self-reliant individuals know that depressing media stories tend to portray people who lack initiative to improve their own life. When scaremongers conclude that all is lost, independent thinkers are already exploring new opportunities.
Every minute devoted to contemplating disasters is wasted. If you are a victim of a major economic shift or personal tragedy, stand up, wipe the dust off your clothes, refocus your goals, and move on.

Remind yourself that today's catastrophes might be regarded as minor annoyances a decade later. In the long term, your goals, actions, and persistence play the decisive role in your life. An active mind does not stand still in the dark and is always searching for better alternatives.

False convictions, in particular when a person believes that he is not creative, can constitute a monumental barriers to independent thinking. This is the kind of myth that is meant to keep you down and destroy everything you own. This is the sort of fantasy that can make you small and reduce your ambitions to nothing at all.

• Have you ever been fed nonsense such as that creative people are exclusively those who do artistic things, such as singing, playing guitar, drawing, or directing films?
• Have you been sold the mistaken idea that most jobs in industry and commerce consist of boring routines to be performed in a narrowly-described manner in order to arrive at predetermined results?
• Have you been wrongly told that only top positions in an organisation require some measure of creativity and that all other employees are not supposed to put forward new ideas?

Those statements are misrepresentations you should not believe a word of them. Whatever your station in life, you owe to yourself to see things as they really are and let go of myths about creativity. The truth is that you are an intelligent, creative human being, and that it is up to you to decide how to exercise your creativity.

Nobody has the right to exclude any fields of human activity from creativity and innovation. You are the only one who is entitled to choose what goals you want to pursue and in which way. Your life and your personal conditions are unique. There is no one else like you in the world and there will never be.

Your perceptions and experience cannot be taken over by another human being. The combination of knowledge that exists in your mind is singular to one person. Your creativity is the factor that allows you to reshape that knowledge and produce something original.

The years of your life will end some day, hopefully in the distant future. No man knows how much time he has, but we are all conscious of our mortality. This fact should not be interpreted negatively. On the contrary, it should become an encouragement to make the best of every hour. Today, right now, is the best moment to discard preconceived ideas about creativity. It is the ideal time to reclaim for ourselves, in our chosen field of activity, the right to exert our mind to the utmost.

Don't waste a minute in admiration of someone else's grandiose view of his own self-importance. Develop an active mind that looks for alternatives. Make your own decisions and throw away what doesn't work. Creativity can be demonstrated daily in all our actions. When we choose and when we move, we become ourselves the living proof.

The Million Entrepeneurs

This is such a great idea - the globalisation of entrepreneurship - still in it's infancy, but here's what it's about.
Do you work for yourself or would you like to?

• Are you a Solopreneur?
• Are you a Small Business?
• Are you a Start-Up?
• Are you Self-Employed?

Good! Then we would love you to be one of The Million Entrepreneurs, an experiment which is all about nurturing global entrepreneurship. They say us Entrepreneurs are the future, but largely we are unsung heroes and heroines, keeping the unemployment lines shorter as we quietly get on with the job of paying our bills from one laptop at home. And we wouldn’t have it any other way, we know we signed up for the freedom to be ourselves, to be our own boss and to shape our own days and lives.

But now we want you to imagine a team of 1,000,000 Entrepreneurs all pursuing their dreams – together. Imagine a tribe of Entrepreneurs spread around the world, sharing their hopes and intentions and encouraging others to do the same. Imagine a peer group dedicated to furthering the goals of Entrepreneurs just like you, people who get up every day and make their own opportunities. Wow!

And imagine what a difference we can make together. What might happen?  Here are just some of our ideas:

• Hook-ups with successful Entrepreneurs who can help you make your own dreams come true
• Online parties and local global events offering networking, learning and inspiration
• Buddies, mentors and forums
• Tools, money, know-how, support and sharing
• Crowdfunding your great little business ideas, grants, prizes, sponsorship and private lotteries
• Surveys, opinions, books and blogs, radio & TV, PR, comment and lobby
• Roadshows with inspiring leaders face to face and web-streamed
• Your voice, your heart, the Entrepreneur’s Story – be heard and encourage others to follow in your freelance footsteps
• Sharing our experiences and resources, helping others and helping ourselves

What next?

Well, firstly we can’t wait to have you join us and hear all about your entrepreneurial dream and what you think you need to make it come true. They say Entrepreneurs are just dreamers with no focus or follow-through – so let’s prove them wrong. Let’s prove that we can help each other to do entrepreneurship even better, more profitably, easier and more successful in every way by sharing ideas, top tips and support and much, much more.

Possibility Thinking

Rev Robert Schuller, a preacher in the USA coined the term possibility thinking as part of his teaching and it sits well with the Law of Attraction and just keeping an open mind as to what is possible. The whole concept of possibility thinking can best be summarised as follows:

1. Never reject a possibility because you see something wrong with it.

2. Never reject a possibility because you won’t get the credit.

3. Never reject an idea simply because it’s impossible.

4. Never reject a possibility because your mind is already made up.

5. Never reject an idea because it’s illegal (laws can be changed).

6. Never reject an idea because you don ‘t have the money, manpower, mental power, the muscle or the time to pull it off.

7.Never reject an idea because it will generate conflict.

8.Never reject an idea because it’s not your style.

9.Never reject an ideal because it might fail.

10.Never reject an idea because it is sure to succeed.

The Law of Attraction

Do you ever stop and think about how powerful you are? Probably very few of us do, and the reason is that we don’t think we are powerful. We tend to think of powerful people as being those in positions of authority, but the reality of life is that everything that has ever happened in our lives, and more importantly is yet to happen, is in full response to our thoughts and the emotions behind then.

Most of, if we take a step back and look at our lives will see parts we are happy with and parts we are less happy with – often those parts we are less happy with tend to be blamed on circumstances and we kid ourselves that they have only happened because of constraints over which we have no control. So actually what we do with our lives and what we achieve actually depends on how we play the game of life and to what extent we understand the rules.

These rules are generally known as the Universal Laws; whether you are aware of them or believe in them, they are there – for example you don’t have to consciously be aware of or believe in the law of gravity but it exists and it impacts our lives.

Of these Universal Law, probably the most significant and most well known these days is the Law of Attraction – the simplest way of understanding this is to view it as “like attracts like”. That means whatever you are focused on at any point in time is you draw to you – so when you are focusing on what you want, you will be attracting what you want. The reverse is also true.

So if it’s really that simple and obvious why don’t we all have what we want in life simply by focusing on it? For example, things relating to money or wealth are probably the most obvious examples. So, if you focus on that Ferrari you’ve always wanted, it should just come to you, correct? Wrong!! It’s far more likely that your so called focus will be along the lines of “I really want that red Ferrari…..but I can’t afford it…..and even if I could afford it the insurance would be so expensive…..and then there’s the petrol…….” So in fact you’re not really focused on what you want but on the obstacles to your having it. Hence, you won’t attract the Ferrari!!

One thing probably most of have wished for more than anything in our lives is money. The problem with money is that it causes conflicting emotions and all kinds of confusion, so focusing on it is very difficult. It therefore becomes a state of mind that you can influence your thoughts and feelings and actually practice the Law of Attraction. In fact although money is probably the most evident example, you can change pretty much anything in your life the way you feel about any subject is really your barometer on life – and your emotions don’t lie about the way your energy flows so that barometer measures your emotional state.

For much more information on the subject, see Abundance Abounds. This site is run by Jeanna Gabellini and Eva Gregory (no relation!). They are both master coaches, speakers, and authors of several programs and books. They have instructed thousands in person, on the radio, and in dozens of teleconference training seminars and workshops on how to deliberately create a life by design using the Law of Attraction. In addition to their successful coaching practices, in 1999 they formed Abundance Abounds, to make an even greater impact together – take a look today.

What's this unconstrained thinking about?

What on earth is this unconstrained thinking? It’s a phrase designed to encapsulate the thought that too often we are constrained and limited in our thinking and therefore our ability to reach our goals and realise our dreams. We are conditioned by our environment, be it the world at large, our home, or a corporate or other organisational frameworks and we therefore tend to think within those boundaries.

Unconstrained thinking is the old cliché of thinking outside the box, and it allows us to realise ambitions in a way that is not otherwise possible. Think of it as positive thinking or having a “can do” attitude.

People are inherently resistant to change and will often throw up barriers immediately and come up with reasons why something can’t be done – sometimes these are as naïve as saying something can’t change because it’s always been done that way, so as Anthony Robbins puts it, if you always do what you’ve always done, you‘ll always get what you’ve always had. In other words change has to happen to progress, sometimes even to maintain the status quo, but change and betterment are essential parts of life.