Getting within striking distance 2: Broad and Targeted Preparation (A Personal Story)
- Morawo Seun
- Mar 1, 2023
- 8 min read
Adeolu Morawo
Key points
⁃ There are 2 modes of preparation for time-bound, non-recurring opportunities: broad and targeted preparations.
⁃ We prepare broadly when the opportunity or problem is not clearly defined and urgent. When the opportunity or problem becomes defined and urgent, we must switch from broad to targeted preparation.
⁃ Deliberately make opportunity-expanding choices and avoid opportunity-limiting choices today.
⁃ Life-changing opportunities can be completely unanticipated. The key to broadly preparing for those opportunities is to engage deeply and positively with what we are doing today.
The phone call that changed the course of my career
In the early hours of a July morning in 2012, I was barely awake when I grabbed my phone which was buzzing with a call from an unfamiliar number. I would often not pick up such calls, but for some reason, I picked this one up. On the other end was the familiar voice of a colleague. We had graduated from medical school more than 3 years prior, and we had not heard from each other since then. With this phone call however, he would prove to be one of the friends who has had the greatest impact on my life. This was the call that would massively change the course of my life and career.
My friend had become aware of a new scholarship award for which he knew I qualified. The scholarship was aimed at honors (first class) graduates and medical graduates with distinctions. The initiative was to fully sponsor the Masters and PhD training of 100 of the best graduates in the country in the top 25 universities in the world.
With only a few days left to spare, I applied for the scholarship and was fortunately invited along with about 400 other graduates nationwide to take the aptitude test. Between the invitation and the aptitude test were just a couple of weeks. In that short time, I had to do a targeted preparation for that aptitude test, but nature had other plans for me.
Not so fast!
The day before the test, I fell ill with a stomach bug. I was vomiting profusely and nearly fainted at a point. On the day of the test itself, I was weak and my thinking was foggy. The results were automatically generated after the test and mine was 61%. Several other candidates around me that day had scored in the 80s. It was not looking good, and I was not optimistic.
Weeks later, I got another phone call that changed everything for me. This time, it was my dad on the phone. “Congratulations!”, he said, “I just saw your name in the newspaper. You have been awarded that scholarship!” I was one of 100 candidates chosen in the end. I paused for a long moment, trying to take in the enormity of what just happened. I continued to wonder how my 61% got me in until I learned about something interesting from the administrators of the scholarship.
A little help from the past
On the day the awards were formally given, they told us they had decided that it would not be enough to use just the aptitude test, so they factored in our standardized high school graduating grades! They assigned weights to these grades and combined them with the score from the aptitude test to arrive at the final score. The highest-scoring 100 candidates were eventually chosen, and I was one of them. I could never have anticipated that my high school grades would make a massive difference after I was already a practicing physician!
In high school and in medical school, I knew that academic excellence could open doors in the future. However, I did not and could not know the specifics of those doors. I could not anticipate that this scholarship would come up, or what the criteria would be. I was just preparing broadly. As you could see in my situation, my broad preparation boosted me for the opportunity. Also, when my targeted preparation was sabotaged by a last-minute illness, my broad preparation compensated and saved the day.
Evidently, there were key fortunate events orchestrated by God that had nothing to do with my efforts. However, my story illustrates that while broad preparation does not guarantee you’ll be lucky, it increases the probability thereof.
David’s broad and targeted preparation
But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.
1 Samuel 17:34-35 (New International Version)
Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
1 Samuel 17:40 (New International Version)
Broad versus targeted preparation
Many opportunities are time-bound and non-recurring. People refer to these types of opportunities when they say, “opportunities come, but once”. There are two modes of preparation for such opportunities: broad and targeted.
Broad preparation is what we do
1) consciously when we have no specific target yet, but we anticipate a target (or a category of targets) emerging in the future OR
2) unconsciously as we respond to life conscientiously without knowing that we are being prepared for a future opportunity.
Targeted preparation is what we do when our problem or opportunity is already here and defined and we are preparing ourselves to attend to it.
For example, building military bases around the world, forming long-term alliances with other countries, and performing routine drills and military training exercises in times of peace represent broad preparations. However, when war is already declared and the enemy is known, the preparation for that war must shift from broad to targeted.
Saving up, maintaining good credit, building a financial knowledge base, and insuring property are examples of broad preparations that make it easier to mount a targeted preparation and response at the moment when financial emergencies and opportunities arise.
When a business (such as a fast-food store) can assemble and deliver your complex order smoothly and quickly, it is because they have broadly prepared and organized to efficiently serve different customers in a targeted way.
In the above examples, the opportunity or challenge is at least vaguely defined even though the specifics are lacking: There is no timeline, and there is often no absolute certainty that the event would occur. However, there are many more unconscious ways we prepare broadly without having any idea what we are being prepared for.
In David’s case, his positive and robust response to being a lowly shepherd was his broad preparation for the unanticipated battle against Goliath. Preparing to convince Saul and choosing his stones were his targeted preparations to face off with Goliath.
Whether conscious or unconscious, however, a robust broad preparation that yields positive results in the long term is active and not passive. It involves deliberately responding to life’s ebbs and flows with an attitude that promotes growth and learning.
Here are some of the differences between broad and targeted preparation.
Broad preparation | Targeted preparation |
The opportunity or problem is not defined, or it is vaguely/broadly defined | The opportunity or problem is clearly defined |
There are no (or only minimal) externally imposed time constraints | There is a limited time window, and it is externally imposed |
Pressure is minimal or absent so it takes discipline and internal motivation | Pressure is on and desperation might take over |
You get many shots, each of them low-stakes, but collectively are cumulative | You typically get a one-time, high-stakes shot |
It involves a growth process happening beneath the surface | It is the visible offshoot from a hidden base of broad preparation. |
Results are less apparent because the ensuing change is gradual | Success or failure can be dramatic and is usually clear for all to see |
As you might have noticed already, both modes of preparation are important but understanding and appreciating their unique time zones and layered relationship is key to success.
The appearance of a specific opportunity brings with it time and resource constraints, and signals the transition from the phase of broad to that of targeted preparation. In essence, when a time-bound opportunity becomes clearly defined, it is too late to prepare broadly; you must now target your preparation. In the case of Israel, the appearance of Goliath on the scene called for a targeted preparation with a time constraint attached. They had no luxury of time to go back to the basics of training.
Broad preparation as a launching pad
The effectiveness of targeted preparation is often based on the robustness of the preceding broad preparation (on non-preparation). The broad preparation may be as simple as training (or lack of training) in social skills while growing up, or as elaborate as thousands of hours of high-quality deliberate practice in one’s field.
Broad preparation is the launching pad for targeted preparation. Let us again take an example of this relationship in war. The US has military bases all around the world, a network of allies and intelligence apparatuses, and the military undergoes constant training. When an unexpected war arises, launching attacks, resupplying from those military bases, and utilizing their networks of allies and intelligence agencies provides for a robust targeted response.
Any country can get angry and be motivated to respond to war, but only a few countries have the robust broad resources to successfully prosecute one.
Broad preparation as a pedestal
Broad preparation can place us on a pedestal to spot opportunities long before others see them, in situations where others see danger, and when others must take a pass because they cannot harness it. David and his brothers were both presented with an opportunity to defeat Goliath in a targeted battle, but only David had the broad unconscious training to meet the moment.
The fallacy of the ‘all-powerful final step’
Simply mimicking the final steps of a successful person without exploring their foundational steps hardly ever guarantees one would replicate their success. If one does replicate their success, sustainability becomes difficult. One must explore their foundational steps to inform one’s broad preparation.
Negotiating with Saul, picking up stones, and running to a vantage position were David’s final steps (targeted preparation) in confronting an immediate and clearly defined threat to Israel’s sovereignty, Goliath. No other Israelite soldier could simply talk to Saul, pick up stones, and slay Goliath because they did not have the required broad preparation.
The costs of broad and targeted preparation
Broad preparation can cost a lot upfront and seem like a waste of time and resources that could be used for more urgent and shinier endeavors. However, in the long term, broad preparation pays more than enough to offset its cost. Moreover, the cost can be spread over a longer period because there is no time pressure.
Studying few hours every day to acquire a broad knowledge base when exams are not in sight, saving and investing consistently while earning little, and equipping and training the military are good illustrations of this concept.
When built on a foundation of solid broad preparation, targeted preparation can cost little to nothing. You simply leverage what you have acquired during broad preparation, reorganizing them for a coherent and precise response to the challenge or opportunity at hand.
Broad preparation strategies are ill-suited when the problem appears in part because of cost. One cannot simply afford the enormous cost and the time broad preparation demands: The cost is high, and it is demanded immediately in a lump sum. Both conditions are incompatible with the circumstances that demand a targeted preparation.
Opportunity-expanding and opportunity-limiting choices
Broad preparation is as much about making opportunity-expanding choices as it is about avoiding opportunity-limiting choices. In other words, broad preparation is not just about what we do, but also what we actively avoid doing. Here are a few examples.
Opportunity-expanding choices (Make them) | Opportunity-limiting choices (Avoid them) |
|---|---|
Forming good habits and shedding bad habits | Acquiring and maintaining poor habits |
Taking deliberate steps to stay healthy (good diet, exercise, mindfulness e.t.c) | Indulging in habits that lead to an unhealthy body |
Investing time in developing one's mind broadly and in the areas of one's interest and potential | Wasting time and feeding the mind junk |
Having a growth mindset: Learning new things, exposing yourself to differing opinions, actively seeking feedback, being adaptable in one’s method while being firm on one’s principles | Having a fixed mindset: Sticking to what one already knows, shutting down any dissent, avoiding or ignoring feedback, being rigid |
Trying, failing, learning, repeating the cycle | Avoiding challenges |
Having a long view. Thinking about the effects of one’s actions on others and beyond the immediate | Shortsightedness and fixation on immediate gains |
Saving and investing | Splurging and spending only |
Trustworthiness, faithfulness, and stewardship | Being an opportunist and being untrustworthy |
Sacrificing, volunteering, and caring for others | Selfishness and being unkind |
Connecting with others | Isolating oneself |
I invite you to take a personal inventory of your CURRENT opportunity-expanding and opportunity-limiting habits and actions. Focus less on choices of yesterday that may be limiting you today. This exercise focuses more on how today affects tomorrow, not how yesterday is affecting today!
Prepare Broadly for tomorrow by engaging today!
The key to broadly preparing for future opportunities we cannot anticipate is to engage deeply and positively in whatever we are doing today. Considered disadvantaged by negative proximity factors, David had no idea his broad training in the wilderness would one day put him ahead of a vast army of his kinsmen in an epic military upset whose legacy will endure through the ages.
David actively engaged in the state of being a shepherd, even if it was perceived as a demeaning job by his family. Deliberately engaging means actively participating in our responsibilities and duties whether they represent what we have always desired, or they are beneath our desires.
When proximity factors (including opportunity-limiting choices we made in the past) put us out of striking distance of our opportunity, it is time to start from where we are by engaging deeply and positively with whatever God has placed in our hands today.
Do you have personal or other examples of broad and targeted preparation? Kindly engage in the comment section! Kindly like and share this blog post!
Whoa, thank you for another life-changing article and also for sharing your story. My wish is to be in constant state of broad preparedness in order to harness targeted opportunities when they come.