How Should You Work on Strategies?
A strategy is good but loses value without being implementable. Therefore, Tom talks about the need to soak up strategies in the form of deliberate practice.
A strategy, in many instances, could be context-dependent. From an academic lens, this would differ from subject to subject. But how do you even form one? And how do you know that that would work, yielding results that matter to you?
Access to domain expert and relevant advice becomes key, taking you through the plethora of ways that seem to available to reach what is best for you.
Compare this to almost anything you do, let's say sports. If you want to make a particular move, no matter how hard you work, a technique that is not appropriate in that context will not take you too far.
However, not every strategy you come across through guidance will necessarily be something fetching you what you want. You, at last, are your arbiter, and nobody knows you better than your self. Be honest with yourself, notice your pattern of results and act on them.
Sports offer quite many examples to explore this area. Consider a player who finds it hard to retain or jump to the top rankings, but a new coach turns that around. But you might also encounter instances when following a coach's advice messes up the player's strategy, leading to horrible performances. While the guidance is a useful component, it all does boil down to what you deem right, as long as you dare to remain true to who you are. Own up to your faulty strategies. And remember, you have still learned something: one strategy that does not work.
However, while criticism-if offered constructively-is a helpful experience to learn, don't get swept away by that.
We tend to hang onto criticism, get affected, and remember that starkly-without recognising the swathe of compliments floating around. That is a smart strategy in itself. Is giving too much emphasis to one bad remark, when it does not offer something substantial, worth your time and energy?
The answer to that might fall onto a grey area, but maybe, so do working up strategies. Discovering them is your path, which perhaps cannot always be linear.
