Knight Moves - Part 2 of 7 (The King)

Knight Moves - A chess player's guide to succeeding in life

The King

The King is an important figure in chess and in your life. He's your strategist, tactician, visualiser, dreamer and the goals setter. By now it should be apparent that you need to have some kind of vision for your life. What do you want your chessboard to look like when you sit in your rocking chair one day contemplating your achievements, or lack thereof? Have you worked out your strategy? If you don't have long range goals, if you don't have a vision of your future, the decisions you make will be reactive. You'll be playing other people's games and not your own. Others will dictate your destiny, not you. You want to be the master of your own destiny, don't you? Not only do you have to have a great life strategy, you need to be able to stick to it.

Of course you can't only have strategy, you need to become a master tactician too. The battlefield changes and you need to change your tactics to adapt or you'll die. Changing tactics could mean the difference between success and failure. However, ensure that your tactics fit in with your overall strategy. Sun Tzu summed it up, "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."

So, become clear what it is you want out of your life. Find your purpose by asking the right questions. Your destiny is dependent on the quality of your questions. Why am I here? Who am I really? What do I want to do with my life? How can I make a difference to my family, my friends, my colleagues and my country? Once you've found the answers to these questions always ask "why?". This will give you the reason why. The so that moment. Because if you don't have a big enough reason why you should do
something, you'll falter, give up and discard your dreams. Have you noticed in the movies that kings don't seem to be doing too much. They're typically sitting on their throne contemplating their navel. Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. You need to learn to contemplate, to visualise and to dream. Dreams have a magic in them that can inspire you to achieve almost anything you want to. However, you can dream as much as you want, talk about your desires and visualise until the cows come home, unless you take some kind of action, nothing will happen. You'll miss the opportunity to fulfill your destiny. As Thomas Edison said: "Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." And I suppose he's right. In comes our next piece, the Queen.

The business generator, Jacques de Villiers helps organisations make sense of sales and marketing for real return on investment. He is a keynote speaker, consultant and trainer focusing on sales training, sales management training and internet marketing.

Comments

[Brad Fallon]

Thank you for this post.