Change Your Tactics But Not Your Goal

If you want to succeed and leave your competitors behind, you need great plans and even greater strategies - Pooja Agnihotri .

Once Upon A time, In a Far away kingdom called Jejistiva, the people of this kingdom were all farmers, and basically depended on their products for survival and commercial purposes. The land was fruitful and there was plenty to eat, which attracted a lot of visitors .One day Calamity struck, the land was infested by locusts. They ate their crops and wreaked havoc on their farms. Everyone became devastated, they consoled themselves with the hope of the next planting season becoming better. 

The next planting season became the worst, as their food stored from previous seasons, were almost exhausted and the dangerous insects still troubling the land. 

All the crops in the land were destroyed except for the fisherman's farm. His crops were green, healthy and fruitful. Everyone wanted to know his secret but the secret was staring at them. He used his fishing net to make a tent over his crops, this prevented the locusts from devouring his farm produce. The next planting season everyone followed his technique and they were able to put the locust away from the land. 

The above story portrayed a group of people who had the same goal of growing crops for consumption and commercial purposes. They shared the same planting principle which gave them high yields for decades. This principle was questioned by the infestation by locusts. Though it was a huge blow to the community, they had no other technique as they repeated the same steps they have been using for years. It should have yielded the same plenteous harvest but they had a limiting factor.

We are often faced with these challenges of accomplishing our goals using the same idea, methods and principles. When we are met with several barricades (failures) we run from our goals. To us they seem impossible to accomplish. 

The problem lies in the approach to the goals, the ideas we used. Rather than putting all your effort into achieving your goal, why not focus on your tactics to achieve your goals.

I know it sounds a little bit confusing but there is a thin line between focusing on achieving a goal and focusing on tactics to achieving a goal. 

When we focus on achieving a goal, we are almost bombarded with only the outcome of achieving our set goals but when we focus on tactics used, we will be experimenting in different approaches to achieving our set goals.

Quite confusing ? Let's go back to the story used above;

All the farmers had the same motive of producing green and healthy crops using the same crude methods of clearing the farm, digging up holes and planting their seeds and waiting for it to grow. That was a technique they used before their ordeal with the locust.

Another farmer, who was also a fisherman, had to sit to reason a way out of the situation. He devised a means by using his fishing net to make a barricade around his farmer. This was an unusual tactic which took the locust colony by surprise and it yielded great results. 

Everyone had the same idea of producing healthy crops but not everyone had the idea to change their tactic. If you want to achieve set goals, you need to change your tactic. 

If you are a student who wants to pass with higher and better grades, you need to change your approach to studies. In your previous days, you study for five hours, and you are done for the day, obviously, that's how everyone else studies. If you want to get higher grades, you need to change your studying tactic, rather than study for five hours and close for the day. Why not study for seven hours, at the end of your study. You attempt some questions regarding what you just read. And the next day, before you study new topics, you go over what you read the previous day. This will enhance your mental alertness and boost self confidence. Remember your goal shouldn't be focused on just passing with higher grades, but also to develop the courage to defend those grades whenever you are reckoned to do so.

 That was just a tactic I have been using and it has helped me get both good grades and boost self confidence. 

Changing tactics will require a lot of self discipline and motivation. We often get demoralized after a series of trials and failures. So before trying out new tactics, you need to encourage yourself and also promise yourself that you will be victorious. It's a tactic used by most of our famous achievers. It won't be easy trying again but it will, if only you can reassure yourself it was going to be the last, though most times, it's never the last. I call this technique the mind trick, convincing yourself to do something even when you are not sure of success.

If you want to make more sales in your business, rather than switching lines of business, why not analyze the general approach to clients. How did you treat them? How does your sale's representative treat them too? Are they always satisfied with your service?  If not, what can you do to enhance your services? This is no time to start calculating your profits. But a great time to evaluate your general performance. Little acts like smiling at a customer, helping them make a choice (not compelling them) could be all the tactics needed to boost your business. If your workers are not satisfying your clients, its better to change them than lose valuable clients, these are all little tactics which if introduced in business will boost productivity. You don't have to switch from selling bags to running a coffee shop, you just have to sit and re-strategize your past techniques.

As a teacher, how well do students understand you, rather than bombard them with a series of homework and mental sums? Why don't you sit to evaluate your method of teaching.  Your main aim is to educate and the students being able to replicate 65-80% of what you taught. Analyzing your teaching technique will help boost your career. The use of pictures, drawings, telling of stories or even telling jokes while teaching could be all you need to achieve your aim.  Be open to questions and don't be too scary to approach, I never liked my Mathematics teacher because she was too rude, and that was what made me perform poorly in all my examinations.

In Conclusion

Wherever sphere of life we find ourselves, whatever goal we've set and no matter the number of attempts we've made. Don't change your goals for your failed attempts but change your tactics. This will help us explore other options, rather than sticking to the same technique and getting the same result.

Lead image edited using canva