Exploring Your Internal Map of Reality Part 8 – Strategies (Part 1b)

Continued from Part 1

So what makes a ‘good strategy?’

You need to have a good idea of the desired outcome. In other words, what does it look like, feel like, sound like, etc.If your preferred representation is visual, for instance, you will state your goal in visual terms. If you prefer auditory digital, you will state it in terms of information.

It should use at least 3 of the rep. systems (modalities) such as visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.

The appropriate rep. system should be used. If you want to make a great curry, may you rely less on how the dish looks and more on how it smells and tastes, but visual appearance is still important. You probably wouldn’t like your curry to be served up in a garbage can! [Curry A La Garbage…]

There must be an exit point, otherwise you have an ‘open loop’ with no ‘closure’. In computer programming this is known as a infinite loop, as the program runs around and around without reaching a conclusion.

You may go shopping and visit many different shops but not find what you’re looking for. It may be that your criteria for buying may be too narrow to be effective.

Some people might ‘give up’ at this point and consciously close the loop. Others may simply stop the ‘shopping’ activity and leave the desire running in the background. However, over time this can gnaw away and drive people beserk.

A good strategy has a complete number of logical and sequential steps. If something is missing or out of order, the strategy may fail, not be as effective, or even lead to an undesired outcome.

A good strategy will minimise unwanted feelings.

Every strategy has a trigger. For instance, most people have a motivation strategy and there is always something that triggers it. Those who are never motivated either don’t have a trigger or the trigger is ineffective in some way.

A good strategy requires the testing and comparison of sensory data. For instance, to buy an orange I need to know that what I am looking at is an orange. I see the object and compare it to my memory of what an orange looks like.

A strategy has to have a decision point at each step. This decision point is that which moves the strategy forwards towards the conclusion.

Next: Types of Strategies