Sun Tzu wrote, “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”

Think about that for a second. Victory isn’t about exhausting yourself in endless battles. It’s not about proving your strength through brute force, grinding through every obstacle with sheer willpower alone. No, true mastery—the kind that elevates you above the fray—is about control. It’s about strategy. It’s about knowing when to fight, when to maneuver, and, most importantly, how to win before the battle even begins.