The Art of Comparison 11: Self-Control
You can have an advantage and still entice an opponent.
You can be disorganized and still be decisive.
You can be ready and still be preparing.
You can be strong and still avoid battle.
You can be angry and still stop yourself.
You can humble yourself and still be confident.
You can be relaxed and still be working.
You can be close to an ally and still part ways.
You can attack a place without planning to do so.
You can leave a place without giving away your plan.
You will find a place where you can win.
You cannot first signal your intentions.
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Chapter 1, Section 4: Lines 7-18
The English version above adds a lot of context to Sun Tzu’s more abstract ancient Chinese. For this article, however, I will be working from the Chinese so we can more clearly see his conceptual approach. The Chinese characters are not even nouns or verbs as much as concepts that are more broadly useful than what we create in translation. In my various adaptations for different areas of strategy, I work from the original Chinese. Below is my Chinese character-by-character transliteration from The Art of War Plus the Ancient Chinese Revealed:
[Advantage] [and yet] [entice] [it]
[Disorder] [and yet] [choose] [it]
[Substantial] [and yet] [prepare] [it]
[Strong} [and yet] [evade] [it]
[Rage] [and yet] [obstruct] [it]
[Low] [and yet] [proud] [it]
[Leisure] [and yet] [exert] [it]
[Intimate] [and yet] [leave] [it]
[Attack [this] [without] [prepare],
[Exit] [this[ [no] [intention][Here] [army] [home] [of] [victory[
[No] [can] [first] [transmit] [also]
Without going into all the shades of meaning in each character, you might see several other possible ways to translate these concepts. All of them are acceptable and many are useful. But to create any useful and acceptable translation, we must choose just one.
In this article, we are not going to translate but explore the conceptual pattern. Sun Tzu offers us a list of various situations, conditions, and emotions. Following each is the opposite to our normal instinctual or trained reaction. Why do this? Because reacting in any predictable pattern is not reacting strategically. We must not respond by making obvious and expected moves. All those Chinese [and yet] characters mean that we have a better choice, the surprising one.
However, making surprising moves relies upon our self-control.
Self-Control
Action is motivated by emotion. Emotions are good because we need them to get moving. Emotions arise from situations and conditions. However, these emotional reactions often do not chart our best course. Nor do our trained ones. Using either, we are not comparing all our options in the larger context of our situation. It is a common misconception that we must do what the general rules of strategy dictate. We must control our behavior, not any rule book. These reactions are what others expect of us. If we always do what is expected, we can never surprise and delight anyone.
People see us through the lenses of their expectations and the positions to which they have placed us. We want to improve our positions in their minds. To change the way they see us, we must not act according to their current view. Our more interesting moves force them to reposition us. Unless we surprise people, they have no reason to change their opinions of us.
Self-control is our ability to redirect our energies away from our initial reactions into something else more surprising. Instinct is inborn. Reflexes are trained, but self-control balances our natural instincts and our trained reflexes against the bigger picture of our mission. Speed is important when completing a move is the critical factor, but the dangers of many situations make our ability to avoid missteps even more important.
Conditions and Emotions
[Advantage] [and yet] [entice] [it]
[Disorder] [and yet] [choose] [it]
[Substantial] [and yet] [prepare] [it]
[Strong} [and yet] [evade] [it]
These first four lines from the Chinese are conditions describing situations: advantageous, disorderly, substantial, and strong. Substantial refers to the number of resources, while strong refers to the efforts those resources make possible.
[Rage] [and yet] [obstruct] [it]
[Low] [and yet] [proud] [it]
[Leisure] [and yet] [exert] [it]
[Intimate] [and yet] [leave] [it]
These next four lines are all emotional responses to situations, feeling anger, feeling inferior, feeling relaxed, and caring about people, places, or things.
These common conditions and emotions can trigger our instincts and training. After the [and yet] Chinese characters in these lines, we have the surprising responses.
While we would normally advance when we have an advantage, we can entice others to move first. While we would normally avoid movement during chaotic situations, we can choose to move. While having an excess of resources usually indicates we should advance, we can, instead, build up more resources. When we are strong, we would normally meet the competition, but we can also avoid meeting them. The point is that we still must compared our situation as a whole before reacting.
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