Retreat to Gain Perspective...

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Every morning this year I've read the "law" of the day in Robert Greene's book of 366 "meditations" titled, The Daily Laws. Each month is dedicated to a specific theme and September has been all about "Strategy."

This entry is for 24th September. It's all about pausing and stepping back to gain perspective and insight. Stop responding to events and people mechanically and in the heat of the moment. Stop lashing out. Detach yourself from influences that are infecting you. Retreat. Give ground to gain time.

One of my projects for the last four months of the year is to read War and Peace. In the novel (and indeed in his actual campaigns against Napoleon) the Russian general Kutuzov favoured calm retreat as a way to weaken Napoleon.

Sun Tzu understood that circumstances are fluid; that you should not wildly attack, but retreat and await for disorder to appear among the enemy's ranks.

How would you apply this strategy to your circumstances?

Thanks to @jongolson and the INDEX team for this new #index4index initiative. :)

Cheers!

David Hurley
#InspiredFocus

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49 comments
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This is a good one, David! I can be really reactive sometimes. But doing that constantly just wears me down and I have no energy to do what is really important.
!CTP
!ALIVE

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I know what you mean! This weekend I have "retreated" from an active social life. I decided to do that a few days ago, and so when two different friends contacted me to see if I was up for hanging out... instead of reacting by throwing my own agenda out of the window, I was able to calmly text them back saying "not tonight Josephine" or words to that effect!

!CTP
!ALIVE

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I think that is a great atrategy. Often you can get a much better propespective by taking a step back. Thanks for sharing.

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Yes indeed, Bob. One step back and two steps forward is better than rushing into the first step only to be forced to take two steps back!

!CTP
!ALIVE

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Very good quote, strategy and advice my friend unfortunately a lot of people simply do not know how to pause and step back because they are stuck in a reactive mode.

If you can keep your head in a situation to gain perspective and insight you will have the a stronger position to overcome and deal with the situation at hand.

Have the best weekend @hirohurl

!ALIVE
!BBH
I will be including this content on the @heartbeatonhive curation collection

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Thank you, Ben.

I'm having a good weekend so far... with nothing scheduled, I've "retreated" into my room where I can work steadily on my own projects or relax just as I like. :)

!CTP
!ALIVE

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You are welcome that is good buddy
We all need some time to do what we want as well as what we need.
Have the greatest day
@hirohurl
!ALIVE
!BBH
Hive Tipped

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Hi, David. This looks like really good stuff to read, and
Great laws to go by in any situation.
I never read War and Peace. The book is too long for me.
I might have to give it a shot though :)
Barb
#thriveonhive

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The Daily Laws by Robert Greene puts a lot of his previous stuff into a "daily reading" format.

As for "War and Peace" I also avoided it for several decades because it was supposed to be "too long." Now I'm glad it is so long because I'm absorbed by the characters and the incidents and the whole world that Tolstoy creates in the novel... so far at least...

!CTP
!ALIVE

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Fantastic advice there David, and The Art Of War truly has a lot of them that can be applied not just to war but to many situations in life, and gaining perspective on things is a good one, enjoy your weekend and stay !ALIVE

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It's funny that it's not fully understood when you're young. And you could have avoided making so many mistakes along the way...
!PIZZA

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Perhaps if I had avoided all those mistakes I would be (even more) insufferable than I am as it is!

But let's at least use the secret power of retreating to try and avoid the mistakes of old age!

!CTP
!ALIVE

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😅 That's true! Let's go!

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Nice one.
Strategy is a good one.
Nice read, thanks for sharing.

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Stop responding to events and people mechanically and in the heat of the moment. Stop lashing out.

This really summarized it all. Pause and think before you act. Thanks for sharing this insight. !ALIVE

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bradley approve 3.gif

!BBH

!ALIVE

!CTP

P.S. Came here from ListNerds

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Thank you for popping over and letting me know where you found the post, Bradley.

!CTP
!ALIVE

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Interesting
Daily laws.
That's inspiring.

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Incredible wisdom there that we can apply daily, pausing for a moment of perspective before speaking and doing. It's easy to forget we have a choice in how we react to things.

!ALIVE

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The Art of War is required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, life, politics, war...

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