4 Key Steps To Design A Strategic Life, Apple Style

You probably have at least one Apple product in your home. Or if you don’t have one, you know someone who does. Apple has become shorthand for ubiquitous, sustainable success and instant recognizability.

Apple has a small stable of products that they do exceptionally well. They are focused and strategic in their product development and marketing. But what adds to their and helps to fuel their success is the big not-so-secret weapon: They invent something, make it nearly “bulletproof” and then they continue to refine it with each new successive iteration.

Apple does not stretch to far out from their core competencies. For Apple, new usually means improved. Apple does not toss out their previous successes but rather they continue to build and innovate on them.

This approach to innovation and incremental change is something you can easily adapt to your own life. Here’s how.

1. Keep It Simple Sunshine – KISS (Not the band)

In the beginning, before Apple had the market traction that they have today, Steve Jobs made a strategic decision to keep Apple’s focus tight. He simplified their product lines down to four computers.

You can easily model Apple’s KISS approach and simplify your life right now by eliminating the elements that waste your time and your resources. Start by cutting down or cutting out TV and video games, which are both low-return uses of your time. Free-time is an oxymoron. Time may not cost money, but it certainly has value and it is not free. Do not waste your time.

Then think of how you can downsize your resources from switching to a smaller car, a smaller house, de-cluttering, to not buying more stuff you don’t need. Free up time by shopping in bulk and batch cooking.

For most of us the most easiest and obvious place to start is to stop buying things that you do not need!

2. Learn To Iterate

Any psychologist will tell you that small, incremental lifestyle changes are much more successful than the big sort that tries to change everything at once. Think of how successful most New Year’s resolutions are (Hint: They are not).

Make a commitment to a significant life change, like early retirement or budgeting for more vacations. You can make a series of small changes, like switching from an-on-the-way-to-work coffee to having one at home. Then add in complementary changes, like cutting down on takeout, downgrading your subscriptions and buying a smaller car. Small iterations compound over time and can make a massive impact on your life.

3. Be Curious

One of Apple’s big successes is its research and development capacity. They are committed to not missing an opportunity to learn and grow and improve over time.

Stay ahead of the pack by being curious, by always being open to learning and change, looking for new opportunities, tweaking your goals, and always staying committed to improvement.

You may no longer be enrolled in the education system, but learning never, ever stops!

4. Being Okay With Imperfection.

One of Apple’s motto’s is ‘just ship’ meaning that they don’t wait to get a product absolutely perfect before they launch it into the world.

Being okay with imperfection doesn’t mean you just leave it there and turn out low-quality work. It means you keep hustling. You give it your best shot, get it out, and then make improvements. You keep moving, keep thinking, keep improving.

Waiting for perfection usually means that nothing gets done. Don’t let your fears of imperfection hold you back. Do your best. Put out what you have. Then pay attention and learn, accept constructive criticism and apply the new information and your next iteration will be that much better.

Section Conclusion

Living your life strategically will allow you to focus on what is important to you, let you figure out how to act on the things that are important to you and then when you drill down, to also figure out what ought to be done on a day-to-day basis.

With having a strategy for your life you are better able to make the best decisions based on your strategy. You will make less mistakes with what you do and will end up feeling better about yourself and the direction that you take your life on.

5 Questions You Need to Ask Yourself In Order To Clarify Your Strategic Thinking

Are you feeling a bit confused by strategic thinking? You know it’s essential for your career and your business, but how do you actually do it?

Here are five questions to should ask yourself to really sharpen your strategic thinking.

1. What Do You want?

The most important thing to work out is where you want to be. Everything—goals, strategies, steps, should all be pointing to your desired destination. Do you want to be CEO, or be running your own company?

What do you want to achieve this year, in five years, ten? What are your actual goals? What’s your vision? Get it all down on paper and think big!

2. Where Are You Starting From?

Do a survey of exactly where you are right now. What skills, resources, and assets do you have? What are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks in your current job or business?

Are you satisfied with life the way it is, or do you want something more (Hint: You should always want something more)? What connections do you have? Map out your network and what value you provide to them, and what they offer you. Write up your self-inventory.

3. What Do You Have the Power to Change?

Think about what is in your control at the present moment. What can you streamline or eliminate? What do you need to add, enhance, or modify to reach your goals? This can include anything from training, networking opportunities, to investment advice or strategic career planning.

4. What Do You Need to Move Ahead?

Take another look at your self-inventory. What skills, resources, knowledge, and connections do you need to get closer to success? If this is difficult or overwhelming, consider finding a mentor or life coach who can help you find your way.

5. How Can I Reach My Goals And Still Enjoy Life?

Really going for success shouldn’t make for a joyless life, totally focused on getting ahead. Make sure you take time to have fun and do the things that give you pleasure. Think of what Future Successful You enjoys doing. What makes your future worth striving for?

Write down all the cool things you will do, whether it’s staying in 5-star hotels or being able to work for only half the year. Imagine driving your dream car. See yourself in your future executive suite.

See what elements of your future life you can start to incorporate in the present and build on those. Before you know it, you will be achieving your success and then looking forward to your next challenge!

Conclusion

The basis of any plan starts with an idea of what you want to do and where and with whom you would like to go. From the plan you can lay out the goals and then start taking the actions of the plan that would need to be used in order to get there. Having a strategy is a high-level overview of what you want to set as your goals.

Be A Man, Do the Right Things can be considered as a strategy for how a man should live his life. With the strategy in mind, in each aspect of a mans life, goals can be set that meet the strategy. If a goal comes up that does not fall within the umbrella of the strategy, the goal can be modified so that it does meet the strategy, or passed over and left out, completely.