The above title is so dear to my heart. In fact, this is the second time I have used that statement “the best strategy is to have a strategy.” When I wrote an article under that caption somewhere in 2015, it received wider media publication. I can confidently say that it is one of the most widely read articls of mine.

When I entered into the best student writer competition, I presented that piece as evidence of my passionate works and it indeed helped me in winning the National Union of Ghana Students’ platinum Awards, the best student writer for 2017. As a young person growing up with a lot of passion and enthusiasm to make it in life, I have come to a point of realization, that nothing works in a vacuum, visions are achieved with strategic plans that provide a clear guidance of progress and prosperity.

Those who solely rely on the miracles and wonders from men of God, do so with some amount of strategy. In practical terms, when you wish to travel abroad, rationally, the next thing to think of, is how you are getting there. Where you want to go, what will take you there, what you want to achieve there among other things. All of that helps one to compose a guiding principle called a strategy.

According to Merriam Webster dictionary, a strategy is “a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time.” It is indisputable that every man has something in mind to achieve. A man without a strategy is like a body without a head. You can imagine a body without a head. It would obviously be lifeless and can’t achieve anything. When a strategy is mentioned, people begin to think of some skyrocket science. In my personal view, I see strategy as a vehicle that is moved by a clear self-understanding.

According to Jonathan Gullible, "the harvest of your life is your philosophy. It is the fruit of your labour, the product of your time, energy, and talents. Two people who exchange possessions voluntarily are both better off or they wouldn't do it. You have the right to protect your life, freedom, and justly acquired possessions. "

The above quotation from Jonathan Gullible is only a validity of the relevance of a personal strategy.

The plans you set for yourself to help you achieve your goals must be synchronically to your personality. That is why self-understanding is fundamental in every sphere of life. If you fail to have meaningful self-perception and self-understanding, you would have difficulty in getting a working strategy.

The best strategy must come from you. You do not have to import, blindly copy or mimic one. It might end up being a white elephant or a paper that only gathers dust in your file. Don’t have to think that you can ever get the best strategy from another person because we have varying distinguished personality characteristics, requiring varying workable strategies. The concept of individual difference is a justification for different strategies for different individuals.

Even though there is no any generally acceptable laid down procedure for coming out with a personal strategy, the following can help one in forming a workable strategy and working within it for meaning results.

1. Originality matters. You must be original and make your plans within your defined personality. To be original is to accept whom you really are. That is to say, your background, present situation, your status, be it; social, academic or economic must be carefully considered in drawing up a sustainable working plan. For example, if you are a student at the Senior High School, your plans for life must not devoid or exclusive of passing your examination.

2. You must have a winning mentality. A strategy is a long term plan. It is not merely being pursued for the joy of it. The ultimate aim is to get a desired result. When you get your desired results, you are a winner and there you get the joy and satisfaction. Consistency and focus in the penchant for the desired results are the major constituents of a winning mentality. You have to stay focus and consistently eye, imaginatively, the nature of the results you so desire.

3. Take a personal responsibility for your own life. You must sit up and take responsibility for any results you get. If you rely solely on somebody else and consistently want to blame another person for your failure, then you are already a failure. The strategy of somebody may lead to the failure of others’. What you need to do is personal adjustment through deep self-reflection and reformation. Over reliance or over dependence on others by many teeming youth, in contemporary times, is the major cause of failure in diverse forms. A cursory interaction with many young people make reference to this factor. It is not uncommon to hear many a youth blame their uncles, fathers, siblings among a host of others, for their failure. The disappointment of another person must not fail a determined young person with the right thinking mind.

4. Keep your focus out of the crowd but the crown. The ultimate aim is not to please the public but to win. We must be careful of public attention because it can sway you off your purpose. There is a saying that a toad does not run in a day time for nothing. It runs for a purpose. If you read the Holy Book, 1st Corinthians 9:26, it reads “so I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air.” I am neither a theologian nor intend to be one but what I deduce from this quotation is that, it is the purpose and crown that matter and not how others perceive you, praise or ostracized you.

5. Beware of detractors. Detractors come into your life in numerous forms. They could be your friends, relatives, coworkers, amongst others. Frankly speaking, they are more destructive and more dangerous than the fear about witches and wizards. May be the known detractors in our lives are those we often call enemies of progress. A detractor’s main motive is to cause you to fail by redirecting your strategy. All your positives are seen as negatives and your negatives as positives. We must all always be alert to avoid or know how to manage such people in our lives. The ability to detect them and manage them, to a large extend, contributes to the success of our strategies.

It is important to state that my opinion is not that of an expert opinion but that of an ordinary poor boy that is determined to make it. I may not be older than you but I think that life is purely an experience we must always share for the benefit of the entire society. The progress of every society is the progress of the youth who are the future leaders and the active labour force of our country.

It is not for nothing that some of us have been advocating for youth empowerment for some time now. However, any attempt to invest on the youth would not produce any meaningful results if we do not place ourselves strategically to develop ourselves, hence the need for peer counselling, self-reflection whilst having moral development in mind.

Instead of engaging in social vices like sexual promiscuity, drug abuse, armed robbery, prostitution, among others, let’s think deeply about our lives, make a workable plan and be determined to get to where we want to get to. It is doable.

Shall be back………………….