What’s up? Appreciate you for checking in. By now, it’s clear that our favorite game is chess. We love how the game applies to life in so many different ways. This post is meant to remind you of the importance of thinking moves ahead. Throughout this post, we will discuss how life and chess are similar in that you always have to prepare for the next move. Life is all about preparation. Hopefully this post is simply a reminder of how you can plan your next steps to achieve any dream you want to come true.
We always like to reiterate previous posts we’ve shared to help all of this make sense. Of course, our REAL Values post is very relevant and valuable to this one, where we discuss what we believe to be the core values of any successful person. We’ve also shared How To Make Your Dreams REAL, which is another great post that discusses planning for your journey towards success. Lastly, there’s REAL Habits 4 Success, which goes into detail about specific habits you could do (including creating a schedule) that embraces this idea of thinking ahead.
Let’s keep it REAL, we could all have a plan for how we might want things to turn out, but life doesn’t always go the way we planned it to. That’s why this post is not necessarily about planning for the future, it’s more about preparing for the future. Yes, there’s a difference. Planning for the future means you’re expecting a certain process that should get you to your desired outcome, however, a lot of the process is out of our control. Preparing for the future is more about “expecting the unexpected”, which is just how life operates. We have to accept the fact that a lot of the journey will not always go according to plan, but we can also accept the fact that we can do everything in our power to prepare for whatever circumstance arises.
To successfully think ahead and prepare for what’s to come, just like chess, you must understand both the moves that have already been played and the options that currently exist that will dictate the future. For example, if you’ve started the chess game with your pawns, eventually you will need to incorporate the other pieces that you have available. How and when you do that is completely up to you; but you will inevitably have to involve the other pieces at some point. Let’s reiterate this example to life… let’s say you’re doing your homework and the paper you are writing requires a citation. Thinking ahead would require you to take into consideration what references you plan on using, how to cite those references and how those references will flow in your paper to strengthen the point you are trying to make. You might create an outline ahead of time or find key references that you plan on using in the paper before you start to actually write it.
As you continue this mindset, you’ll realize that thinking moves ahead will help you prepare for situations that you did not expect. You might also think of new ways to approach an issue based on your thinking by incorporating strategies that may seem outside of the box. Never settle with the present because, as we already know, life has a funny way of always making it interesting. Thinking ahead also allows you to possibly reframe the situation in a way that allows you to see the big picture. This mindset will take practice if you’re not used to it, but there is so much value in deciding to prepare for the future. Life is all about Choices, so choose to always stay three or four steps ahead of the game. You’ll Thank Yourself Later.
Keep it REAL.
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