Wendy is a yoga teacher of teachers with decades of experience in the practice and teaching of yoga. One of her passions is the uncanny intersections where Western research validates the instructions for emotional regulation laid out in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Strategy is a roadmap to success in both business and our personal lives because it gives us purpose, a guiding light to map out and plan the actions needed to achieve our goals. In both work life and personal life, strategy is about making informed decisions, planning for the future, and adapting to changing circumstances to achieve desired outcomes.
Strategy clarifies our objectives and prevents us from getting lost. It is a map, the GPS to prioritize actions, and make informed decisions about how to spend time, talent, energy, and money.
We are multifaceted beings, bringing our bodies, minds, emotions, and souls to everything we do. If strategy is essential for business success, it is equally vital for personal success, however you define it.
Taking the time to find what makes you tick, makes your heart sing, and to do honest and ongoing self-assessment; understanding our unique qualities and how to work with them; allocating resources accordingly; planning and taking action; reflecting, correcting, and continuing—these are the foundations of a successful life. After that, rinse and repeat.
Keys to business success strategy
Research has shown that profits alone do not predict long-term sustained growth and market success. Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter defines the dichotomy between operational effectiveness and strategy, two key but opposingly different engines of performance. While operational effectiveness is essential for companies to achieve superior profitability, it’s not enough to guarantee long-term success; strategy is!
Drawing from yoga philosophy, consider strategy as the alignment of intention, action, and mindfulness to achieve one's highest purpose. Just as a yogi sets an intention before practice, businesses define their vision and mission. Monitoring progress and adapting aligns with the practice of svadhyaya (self-study) and constant refinement on the path to self-realization. In both business and life, strategy is about making informed decisions, planning for the future, and adapting to changing circumstances to achieve desired outcomes.
What are the components of business strategy?
Vision and Mission: Defining long-term direction and purpose.
Goals: Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals.
Analysis: Conducting internal and external analyses to understand the business environment.
Competitive advantage: Identifying what sets the business apart from competitors.
Resource management: Determining how to best use resources.
Implementation: Executing the plan through coordinated efforts across the organization.
Monitor and Control: Tracking progress and making necessary adjustments.
Strategy leads businesses to identify opportunities, mitigate risks, and achieve long-term goals. It creates an environment where businesses stay competitive and agile. Allocating resources means carving out time to holistically define the business strategy.
Applying strategy to our personal lives
In our personal lives, we often do not acknowledge the power of strategy in defining the kind of life we want. This involves setting personal goals and determining the steps needed to achieve them. While some goals are physical, the deepest and truest ones are spiritual, those that give us the strength to joyously move mountains.
Vision and Mission
Defining a purpose, understanding that no purpose is too small or too big, and recognizing that our purpose evolves over a lifetime. Changing the world through music is as valid a purpose as living a life of service to our family in need or building solar-paneled cars.
Goals
Setting personal and spiritual goals. For example, finding more work-life balance.
Self-assessment
This has a specific name in yoga, Svadhyaya. 1. It involves looking at ourselves honestly to truly understand our strengths, weaknesses, values, and motivations. This takes time, perhaps professional counsel, and the courage to be beautifully yet brutally honest with ourselves. Self-assessment is essential for radical personal change.
Competitive advantage
In our personal lives, this means understanding our unique qualities and motivations, both those we are proud of and those we are not. This analysis, perhaps with professional insight, brings compassionate understanding for things we have previously criticized ourselves for. For example, someone may criticize themselves for making small mistakes but learn that their superpower is creativity and getting things done quickly. Understanding that mistakes are part of the process creates self-awareness and puts and end to self-flagellation.
Resource management
Deciding how to best use time, energy, finances, etc. Take the example above, the goal Deciding how to best use time, energy, finances, etc. For example, to find more balance in our lives, we might block out time in the calendar for yoga, a massage, or a walk, just as we would for a doctor’s appointment or a client meeting. It takes one yoga class to start a habit. Stay committed, start small, and celebrate small successes as steppingstones to bigger ones.
Action plan
Creating a plan for finding more balance in our lives. If yoga nourishes you and feels like self-care, plan one yoga class every other week, then every week, and eventually two classes weekly. This may mean less Netflix, Candy Crush, saying no to your boss for overtime, or paying for a babysitter. Honest self-analysis will provide the answers to make the action plan work.
Reflection and Adaptation
Self-reflection, growth, and evolution are constant. It is not a one-and-done process. We try, we fail, we try again. As we change and life changes, we redefine and refine our goals and how we want our lives to feel. Reflecting, correcting without judgment, and continuing are key. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali advise us to be committed to our self-growth and to approach our shortcomings to get back on track. Another valuable teaching from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is to cultivate contentment (Samtosha) now with what is. Contentment leads to wisdom, wisdom to courage, and courage to commitment, which, in turn, leads to profound change.
Harnessing the power within
Work-life, personal life
In both work life and personal life, strategy is about making informed decisions, planning for the future, and adapting to changing circumstances to achieve desired outcomes.
Strategy clarifies our objectives and prevents us from getting lost. It is a map, the GPS to prioritize actions, and make informed decisions about how to spend time, talent, energy, and money.
We are multifaceted beings, bringing our bodies, minds, emotions, and souls to everything we do. If strategy is essential for business success, it is equally vital for personal success, however you define it.
Taking the time to find what makes you tick and makes your heart sing, and to do honest and ongoing self-assessment; understanding your unique qualities and how to work with them; allocating resources; accordingly, planning and taking action; reflecting, correcting, and continuing—these are the foundations of a successful life. After that, rinse and repeat.
Read more from Wendy S. Vigroux
Wendy S. Vigroux, Yoga Teacher of Teachers, Scholar
Wendy is a yoga teacher of teachers with decades of experience in the practice and teaching of yoga. One of her passions is the uncanny intersections where Western research validates the instructions for emotional regulation laid out in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Wendy's dedication to both the ancient wisdom of yoga and the modern scientific approach has earned her the loving label of "Yoga Geek."
