Stay alive in 2025: Why strategy is a survival skill this year

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Winging it is a death wish in 2025. If you don’t know what you want, the next 10 months are going to swallow you whole. Never fear: strategy will save you.

2025 is wild

It’s a weird time to be a person, and they will make nostalgic pity films about us in future decades. We sold our peace for a free email address and cat memes. We swapped work that took reasonable time and achieved actual things for digital tippy-taps with no tangible outcomes. We’ve got more ways to communicate than ever, and we’re experiencing a loneliness epidemic.

And we’re overwhelmed. Man, are we overwhelmed.

Four different platforms are screaming for your attention this instant. (I’m one of them. Sorry!)?Everything is urgent and important, but if you reflect on your day for more than five minutes, half of it is unnecessary.?

Inside us, there’s a whirling vortex of distraction. Outside us, there’s a hurricane of confusion. The economy is all over the show, there are some astonishing weirdos in charge across the globe, and AI robots are marching up the road for your job (or at least, marching up your feed on sponsored posts for your clicks).?

Just surviving is a win… right?

The problem with survival mode

Surviving daily is the junk food of decision-making: fine occasionally, but a nasty, bloated trap if it becomes your go-to - and wholly unsatisfying in the long term. There will always be new crises to justify choosing junk food. ?

When you wing it, you gamble with your future. You miss out on opportunities, burn out from overwhelm and watch your dreams float past in a sea of?‘soon’,?‘maybe’ and?‘one day’.

If you don’t make intentional choices that move you toward the future you want this year, you will stagnate or go backwards.?Every time you make a choice that isn’t tangible proof of your most important goals, you send a message to the world:

“I’m not serious about what I want. I don’t mind waiting.”

Stop it.

Strategy is your lifeline

You have time to be more strategic. In fact, you don’t have time not to.?Strategy doesn’t make more work; it drives more focus. But it’s a slingshot effect: you pull back, ask some tricky questions and/or have some challenging conversations to launch forward with clarity and intention.

At its most basic, strategy asks you to decide?how you will decide?in the future. We can’t trust In The Moment Us to be at our best, so we set our intentions ahead of time. We decide?‘Where are we going, and what is most important to us?right now?’, so that when we have to make a choice about our time, money, or attention, we can choose the option that best aligns with that. It’s really that simple. No complicated plans, no long-range predictions: clear intention followed by committed execution.

This double-punch combo is the secret weapon of every ambitious high-achiever throughout history who’s faced the challenge of big aspirations and limited resources. They knew what they wanted, and they made the right choices, even in tough conditions.?

Strategy is your secret weapon, too. When you are clear and committed, you:

• Take the power back:?You’re not at the mercy of others or randomness. When you know what your priorities are, you can handle the unexpected while still making choices that move you toward your goals. (Warning: this also removes excuses as an option.)
• Use your time better:?Instead of bouncing between urgent issues with minimal payoff, you proactively channel your efforts into high-impact activities, and view distractions (even the ones that cosplay as opportunities or emergencies) with suspicion.
• Spend your money better:?Rich people can do it all, but smart people have to think. When fewer resources are available (time, money, energy, spoons), strategy helps you make better choices about where to put them (hint: it’s in the place that offers the best alignment with your goals.)
• Have fewer arguments:?If the direction of your life or business depends on the agreement of another person or people, agreeing your strategic criteria together prevents arguments over the details later. You both/all make choices that align with what you agreed on, and have much healthier and more productive conversations along the way.

Your strategic starter pack?

There are lots of ways for you to become a strategic superhero. Spoiler alert: they all involve clarifying your true intentions and committing to them with your choices.

Here are six ways to do that, depending on what you’re battling with most.

1. If you’ve lost motivation… Reconnect to why.

Why did you start doing this in the first place? You work for more than a paycheck. You parent for a reason. You own this home for a reason. You chose this relationship for a reason. You offer this service for a reason. You are here to make a difference, and you get to decide what type. Why are you doing this?

How can you amplify the presence of that purpose in your world?

2. If you’ve overcommitted… Focus on your priorities.

Not all things are created equal, and you are allowed to say no and cancel things. People will be far less upset than you think. Use that freed-up time to focus more on what matters most. The year will pass, no matter what. What do you want to be able to say changed for you? What is one thing you could commit to, to make that change possible? What is the one appointment or commitment you should have in your diary?

What do you want to point proudly to in December 2025? Schedule more of that.

3. If you’re feeling torn… Clarify your values.

You don’t feel torn or uncertain when you’re living in alignment with your values. If there’s something a bit off, the person you want to be is facing off against the person you’re being.?List your values, and score your options against those. Values-based decisions don’t always make the most money, get the most attention, or offer the most excitement but they will give you the most peace.

What would the best version of you do to move forward? Be that person.

4. If you feel stuck… Do some frame-storming.

If all of your solutions look bad, you might need a different problem. Challenge your thinking by throwing open the frame. What if you’ve got the cause of the issue all wrong? What if it was enitrely in your power to shift? What would you do then? What if you had unlimited money, time, or resources? What would you do then? What would you do if there were no consequences? What are ten terrible ideas for moving forward? … And how can you bring some of those new sparks to reality?

How can you redefine the problem to generate better solutions?

5. If you’re feeling broke… Improve your goal.

Money is the laziest currency. If your goal is compelling and important enough, the money exists. If your startup idea is excellent, someone will fund it. If your business case stacks up, you’ll get the cash. If your personal goal is important enough to you, you’ll direct the funds. A lack of cash is more often a lack of commitment and genuine belief. You’re not broke. You either don’t want it enough, or it isn’t worth that much. Which is it??

Are you facing a crisis of commitment, or are you chasing the wrong thing?

6. If you’re feeling frustrated with others… Find your common ground.

Odds are, the people you’re making decisions with are more like you than you realise, but your differences are magnified because of your proximity and interdependence. Focus on commonality to move ahead. List ten things you both care about a lot. Find values, experiences, or opinions you share. Then, find ways to bring more shared ground to your time together and the decisions you need to make. Do this long enough and you will be less concerned about the times you have to compromise.

What common ground can you use to form a shared intention?

Bonus: If that all sounds too hard… Have a lie down.

Exhausted people make terrible decisions. Go for a walk. Have a nap. Take a week off. Have a bath in the afternoon. You’re cooked, mate. And you can’t strategise when you’re cooked.?

Choose one of the above, try it out, and let me know how you get on!

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