Hope is not a Strategy...is Worry?

While I'll be among the last to declare merit in worry, there is a light dusting of truth herein: "Hope is not a strategy, but worry is."

Why?

Because those who live by hope, and hope alone, don't exert much effort looking around corners. 

On the other hand, that's all worriers do!  Almost like the paranoid, the worried are constantly looking around corners.  But sadly, they are often inventing and imagining corners as well...

But as I've written and described extensively, we can--with caution--learn from the worrier because he or she is, in some ways, only 1 or 2 degrees away from the strategist.

How? 

Just as a great strategist is a chess player, constantly evaluating moves, potential moves and possible repercussions, so is the worrier.

The primary differences being "healthy and constructive" (the strategist) vs. "unhealthy and destructive" (the worrier).

So yes, if you aspire to be more strategic, continue envisioning and looking around corners. 

Just make sure you do so with others, do so with an eye toward creating the future and, lastly, do so in ways that are reasonable, healthy and constructive.

Better yet, while pondering the future--never lose your sense of wonder and hope.

Lighthouses (hope) bring many a man to safe harbor, while flying through fog without instruments (worry) is a one-way trip to nowhere good.