Strategic Positioning

You often hear about strategic positioning in the marketing and business world. It’s all about proper product placement and marketing angles and opportunities. Strategic positioning is about observing patterns, being aware of the behaviors for your target market and audience, and knowing and understanding trends, which requires: doing your homework, paying attention and having excellent situational awareness.

I’m keeping the terms very broad because I want to point out that strategic positioning applies to everything in life…finding a date, a job, new opportunities, the best deals, getting a raise and even cutting time off your commute—to name a few.

I actually thought about this post and the topic while I was driving. I think much of life’s wisdom and lessons are found on the open road, but that’s a whole other post…heck, I also think you can tell a great deal about a person’s personality and abilities based on their driving. But, once again, that’s a whole other post.

So back to strategic positioning, and how it saves me about 10-15 minutes every day while driving into work in the morning. It took me a day or two to notice the pattern and then another two days to confirm my findings. What I discovered is that a timely and specific lane change at a certain point in my commute on I-495, both before the merge with I-66 and right afterwards…allows me to keep moving into open road, while everyone else is bumper to bumper.

Normally, on any routes I take more then two times, I discover which lanes move faster, the timing of the lights (so I know how fast to go to be sure to catch all green lights) and the state of the road itself.

People do normally apply strategic positioning to acquire the things they want; however, once they acquire them, they go back to living a life in the shadows and in slumber. The key is to continuously keep improving your strategic positioning opportunities and skills…even, if it’s only through driving. This is important to do so you remain sharp and conscious of all your surroundings.

A lack of situational awareness and the natural habit of constantly looking for the best strategic positioning is what brings people to follow in tow. Ever wonder why people in a burning building all go for the same door when other exits are available…or why, although there’s two turning lanes, everyone is lined up behind one another in the same exact lane...

I don’t just drive, I don’t just work, I don’t just talk, and I don’t JUST do ANYTHING. I’m always observing, deciphering, looking for patterns, the best options, smartest alternatives and therefore, the perfect strategic positioning for my next move. Being at the right place at the right time isn’t about just luck…