When playing ping pong, it’s not uncommon for me to blast back a weak serve for a winner.

Often my opponent says something like, “wow you were ready for that one.”

And they’re right.

But it’s not that I happened to guess that he would have a bad serve at that exact moment. I guess that he’ll have a bad serve almost every time.

That way I’m ready to capitalize if the opportunity presents itself, but if he hits a good serve I’m still able to adjust quickly enough to make a decent play on the ball.

The opposite of this approach would be preparing for a perfect serve every time. The benefit is that you’re ready when your opponent does in fact hit a good serve, but the downside is that you’ll never be able to jump on a bad serve fast enough to hit a winner.

It’s the same approach that batters take when they prepare for a fastball and adjust to the curveball, and similar to the approach I take by generally avoiding time commitments so I’m able to take advantage of last-minute opportunities as they arrive.

Prepare for the situation that requires the faster reaction, and you’ll still have time to adjust to the other options.

-Brandon