Whose Strategy do you Play?

Seems to me that there are quite a few times in life when we know better and yet we find a way to ignore what we know and follow an alternative path – one driven by the competition. You know the scenario, you take the court, you run the race, you take the test and the first thing you do is you check out what the competition is doing.  In tennis, they start hitting the ball hard and you hit it back hard, in running one runner sprints from the start and you start sprinting, and when you are taking a test and it seems like everyone else is going faster than you are then you follow suit.   

It’s not as if you did not expect this situation – as a matter of fact most of us who follow THPL show up with our own plan, one based on our strength and our experiences.  We are ready to execute that which we know works well for us and yet, as hard as we try, we often cannot get back to our strategy – we continue to follow “their” lead and we have, as a result, put our fate in their hands. 

I suggest that rather than find yourself in this trap that you build a few tactics that allow you to get back to your plan.  Yes, the first tactic is quite obvious -  stay with your plan from the outset.  If a point or a mile starts to drift in their direction find a way to stop the point or slow down the run – essentially start the process of taking back control.  Second, find a way to disrupt the competition.  Do something that they will not expect or will not be able to use their strategy to respond too.  Hit the ball easy for example – run right behind the “rabbit” – either will serve to distract enough that the competitor now needs to think – this is the first level of weakening the competition. Third, once you have them “thinking” you go easier, or harder, or whatever is counter to their approach and you have now taken back control. By so doing you are back to your THPL enabled plan and you have the opportunity to compete on your terms and you have given yourself the best odds of winning. 

I leave this post with the following thought; you ever wonder why a politician never answers the question asked of them by the reporter.  They are polite and acknowledging of the reporter but in fact they only have one approach they know – they play their own game, they answer the question they want to and they never, ever, play the game that the reporter wants them to play.  Seems to me they figured this one out and have found a way to stick to it…..

Loving life, that’s all for today

Ciao

Joe