The Role of a Lifetime

If you spend anytime on the internet now you have probably come across any number of popular memes. These self propagating pieces of information have the ability to spread quickly on the internet mainly because of the connectedness of this medium. Examples of memes are the jokes or stories that quickly get passed from person to person. One recent example of a meme is the one where you are asked to answer a series of questions and then tag another person. The questions are thought provoking and so for reference sake I am pointing you to one site HERE where you can take a look.

My thoughts today don’t deal with the meme itself. However, the thoughts I have began for me after I read and responded to a meme. The meme asks you to consider a number of questions. The questions range from philosophical to practical. Questions such as if you could live forever what would you do? Or the practical questions like if you were a painter? The meme does not constrain your answers in any way as they are open questions. Thinking this through I began to see the questions as an examination of the roles we hope to play in life. With the meme you are answering questions about roles that you do not possess. I thought that I would take a different approach.

One of the key considerations in Finding Your V.O.I.C.E. is determining your personal Objectives. Your objectives define for you where you want to go. In defining your objectives you create a personal mission statement that maps the journey. One key component of that map is a definition of the roles you play.

It might sound odd to say that we play different roles in our lives. Maybe you have never thought of it this way but in fact each of us plays several roles at different times. Have you ever heard yourself saying when speaking of a close friend “she is like a sister to me?” When making such a statement you are describing a role in your life. The statement describes the way in which you relate to a person that is not actually your sister. We have other roles in our lives. For many of us those roles include wife, husband, father, mother, friend, boyfriend, or girlfriend. The list goes on and on. Each of these roles requires you to perform in a certain way. In your role as a father you would behave differently than you would in your role as a friend.

Sometimes we give little thought to the roles in our lives. Some roles are thrust upon us without our agreement. Other roles we create for ourselves. Yet in each case we must make certain that we are taking the time to define those roles for ourselves. When you define yourself as a friend what does that mean? How will you perform in that role? Maybe your role is leader. What characteristics do you need to demonstrate to effectively play that role? If your role is mother, are you playing the part well? Have you been clear about how this role relates to the other roles in your life?

It is very important that we take the time to define all of the roles that we play in our lives. At times we may find that we have more roles than we can handle. Or you may find that you have not been living up to one of the roles you accepted. All of our roles require time. Take a look at your past couple of weeks. Have you put in meaningful time in your roles? If you have not are going to change your schedule to make sure that you are living up to the role you accepted?

I have often heard that some actors get to play the role of a lifetime. Or you hear that an actor is playing the part that they were born to play. I am not yet sure if I agree with those statements when I hear them. However, I do firmly believe that each of us was born for a specific role in life. It is possible that your role is to become someone famous or an important business executive. But it is just as possible that the role of a lifetime that you were born to play is the role of peace maker. Maybe your role is to be a volunteer in a women’s shelter. You could have been cast as a mentor to young men, or as a world class writer. Whatever the role there is one that you and only you were meant to play.

Recently veteran actor Morgan Freeman won an Oscar for his role in the movie Million Dollar Baby. Prior to winning his first Oscar, Freeman played in a number of diverse roles. He has been the President of the United States, a chauffeur, a convict, a pimp and even God. He has played twenty three different roles in films. However in this film Freeman plays the role of an old man who is unashamed of being an old man. Freeman is in his late 60s. Maybe there is a message in that for all of us. Freeman has been a successful and convincing actor for many years. However, the pinnacle of his acting success has come when he embraced a role that very much reflected much about who he is.

I don’t know what role you play in your life. Maybe your most important role has yet to be discovered. Or perhaps you have already been given the chance to play in the role of a lifetime. Whatever the case may be for you when you discover your role I urge you to define it well. Then embrace that role and play it for all that you are worth.

Our most important roles in our lives usually do not come with the recognition awarded by Hollywood. Your reward will be reflected in the lives that you impact. Playing your role well will change someone’s life and if you are lucky it will also change your own. Let’s take it again one more time from the top, only this time play your role with feeling.

Puzzles

I have always had an attraction to puzzles. I find them to be both entertaining and challenging. Over the years I have collected more than a few that have stood the test of time such that I will still pick them up to try to solve them once again. I think that one of the great things about a puzzle is that even after you complete it you can attempt it again and still find it challenging.

As much as I have enjoyed puzzles over the years there is one type of puzzle that I have never really mastered. That is the jigsaw puzzle. My abilities seem to be more in solving puzzles that have patterns or systems involved in their solution. Jigsaw puzzles require a different skill set. I am told that the solution to most of these puzzles can be found by first uncovering the outer edges and working your way in. The outer pieces are relatively easy to identify since they have straight edges. You then have the ability to use this frame to define the limits of your puzzle. There is a certain security that comes when you have an understanding of the boundaries within which you are going to work.

A jigsaw puzzle is a picture that has been cut into hundreds of small and seemingly random pieces. The more pieces you have the more difficult the puzzle. As you work your way through you look for similarities in colors or attempt to identify shapes that appear to go together. The best puzzles will have a number of pieces that are similar in shape but just different enough to require that they be placed only in their unique position. Sometimes you can be working with the right piece but you either need to turn it a certain way or combine it with another piece not yet placed to make it fit correctly. You also learn when working with your puzzle that no matter how hard you try, if you are working with a piece before it is time to place that piece you can spend a lot of time but will not yield any success.

No matter how difficult a puzzle can always be solved. You must be willing to devote enough time, and you must be patient. You can place a puzzle on your work space and devote chunks of time to the solution. If you are lucky enough to have a space that is undisturbed by others, consistent effort is all that it takes to solve the puzzle. In the end you always have a reference point to refer back to because every puzzle relates to a big picture that you can access when necessary.

We often use the term “big picture” to describe something that is not easily apparent. The term suggest that many pieces must come together to get the big picture. We tell people that they need to “think big picture” when we desire that they focus beyond the immediate. The big picture is the vision. It is the end of the journey. When we see the big picture all of the pieces have been put together in their proper places. We can stand back, hands on hips and proudly bask in our accomplishments.

Wouldn’t be great if all we had to do in our lives was to see the big picture? Imagine how easy things would be if we could abandon the small and seemingly insignificant tasks and just look at the big picture. We could see the end results of our efforts, be assured that the goals are achievable, and know that we are headed in the right direction. That would be great, but our reality is that each of us is holding individual pieces of our puzzle.

In our life’s journey we have periods when each piece of the puzzle we touch seems to fall neatly into place. We instantly can see where a piece belongs. During these times we can even see the form of the puzzle and we feel certain that the picture will be completed. At other times we find ourselves studying a piece for long periods. We wonder whether or not the piece we are holding in our hands is the right piece to work with at this time. Sometimes we select piece after piece and examine them only to reject that piece as not being the right piece at the right time. In these periods we don’t see much progress and we wonder if we will ever be able to put the picture together.

I have seen seasons in my own life when I was having trouble with the pieces of my puzzle. At times I have been so distraught that I became convinced that I was working on the wrong puzzle altogether. Those have been times of confusion and frustration. I can recall saying “if I just had this piece then everything would come together.”

When I have worked on puzzles that I have successfully completed I have always experienced periods when I was stumped. My first reaction to those times has been to “try harder.” Yet after trying harder I find that I am still stumped. Ultimately my frustration gets the best of me and I walk away. When I was younger I might even destroy all the work I had done up to that point. As I grew older I would just place the puzzle aside and allow myself to forget about it for a while.

The puzzles in our lives are really not very different from a jigsaw puzzle. We will all reach a point when the pieces just are not coming together. Sometimes people will encourage us to just try harder. Sometimes that may work. But, working hard at something that does not work, does not work. You need to step away from the puzzle. At times just stepping back will cause you to see the big picture and you can continue with your work. At other times you need to leave the puzzle completely and begin again at a later time. However, you should never make the mistakes I made in my youth when I would destroy my work up to that point.

The vision you have for your life or the big picture that you desire to achieve is made up of many small and seemingly random pieces. It is true that at times you might be working in the wrong section of the picture. However, if you follow the guidance of successful puzzle mavens you have already defined the boundaries of your vision. Maybe you need to move to a different section of your puzzle for a time. Perhaps it is time for a complete break just to regain your perspective. Or maybe all you need is a moment to step back, reassess the picture and begin again.

In my life I have had many periods of being stumped. Those are tough times. However, I have learned that immediately following those periods I find myself back in the zone where the pieces just fall into place one after another. I am still working on my puzzle, but I have no doubt that the picture is actually coming into view.

The Biggest Word of All

As a child growing up in Philadelphia one of the early gifts my mother gave to me was the gift of her time. As a single parent with three young children at the time there were few opportunities to spend one on one time with my mom. Yet, I remember with fondness that my mom spent special time with me her oldest child.

Perhaps there is a special relationship between a mother and her first born. This could also have something to do with the fact that I am nearly two years older than my closest sibling and over three years older than the next. I could also attribute the difference to the way that boys were raised in those days as compared to how girls were raised. I think it is safe to say that I don’t know all of the reasons why I had a special relationship with my mom, but I know that I benefited greatly from the time we spent together.

I guess that I was what we might call today a precocious child. I can remember from an early age constantly inserting myself into what was called “grown folks business.” I would engage any and every adult in conversation about subjects that seemed to amaze them. I doubt that this was so much related to my intellect, but because I can remember that early on I talked too much.

My mother took it upon herself to teach me to read before I entered grade school. She elected not to send me to kindergarten which I now suspect is due to her knowledge that I had no skills in painting, drawing, or playing with crayons. What I did love to do was read. This made me antisocial to children my age. My limited skills at the finer points of being a young kid probably added to their distrust of me. But through reading I was able to entertain myself and my young sisters. The time I spent reading also helped me to engage adults as I was fond of reading from a world book and quoting abstract facts that while generally meaningless would always get a raised eyebrow from most adults. Thinking back now I think I just figured out why I became so introverted as a child. I really did not fit in.

When I learned to read the books my mother chose were the Dick and Jane series. The words we all remember from those books are “see Spot run.” These books worked as early readers because of the word repetition. Words like see, come, and run would be repeated over and over in each consecutive sentence. Learning to read using these books created a sense of familiarity with words. The one syllable words could be pronounced easily and did not require much coordination between teeth and tongue. Other than the names of the characters the words in the early Dick and Jane series were three letters long. It was not until you got through the first couple of books that you were introduced to words with more than three letters and two syllables. It was in the Dick and Jane series that I learned what I still refer to as the biggest word of all. That word is “look.”

The word look of course has four letters. Yet, I call this the biggest word of all because it means so much to me. In my early reading look is introduced with the sentence “Look Jane, see Spot run.” This was my first encounter with the power of observation. Dick is telling Jane to pay attention. Later my mom taught me to cross the street in our busy neighborhood. There was my favorite word once again. My mother taught me to “stop, look, and listen.” Once again I was learning the power of observation now engaging one of my other senses. My mother further admonished me that when crossing the street I was to “look both ways” before I crossed, making sure that there was no traffic coming from either direction.

As a father now I teach my children about my favorite word. I have taught them the all important survival skills related to crossing the street. They have learned to look both ways and to stop, look, and listen. But I have built upon my mother’s early lessons. I have learned and have taught my children to look at people. I have learned to look at people when I talk to them. Looking people in the eye gives them a sense that you are interested in what they are saying. I also look at the people around me. I make it a habit to be observant of my world.

The word look is now inserted into my personal mission statement. The words I have written there are “I will look and pay attention. There is so much to see.” This is my reminder that there are so many opportunities in the world that we only need to look to see them. I encourage myself to look for opportunities to enlighten. I look for a chance to help others. I look for teachable moments with the people in my life. I look at my values and character. I remind myself that others are looking and so I must always be the best that I can be.

Look. This is such a simple word that we have tucked it away in our vocabulary. We engage our senses without fully knowing that when we look we must also see. Sometimes when you look you will see injustice. At other times you will look and see a person that could use a kind word or a moment of your time listening. When not looking at people take a look at your checkbook. There you will have a chance to see what things you have been valuing. Perhaps it is time in that case to look in a different direction.

Our world has become so high tech that we have lost the art of looking. When we want to communicate we use Powerpoint to make a presentation. Next time you sit through one of these take a look. The person presenting is not looking at you and you are not looking at them. Instead, everyone is just looking at the screen. Maybe the next time you find yourself in this situation you can yell out “look Jane, see spot run!” Remind the people in the room that real communication, real observation, real meaning is established when we take the time to look at each other. Let’s look each other in the eye. Let’s stop averting our attention. Stop, Look, and Listen.

I Saw What You Did

In my youth Saturday afternoons were spent at the movies. In those days an afternoon at the movies included at least two features plus cartoons. Kids were dropped off there and generally left unattended except perhaps for being with an older sibling. Of course the result was that spit balls would fly, too much candy would be consumed, and the teenagers in the theater owned the back seats of the theater and much of the balcony.

My recollections of those days more than forty years ago include seeing some of the classic adventure stories, westerns, and of course horror movies. I remember the horror movies best. This may be more related to the nights of lost sleep afterward when I became convinced that some creature, monster, or murderer actually lurked in my home. The really good films would cause me to leave the lights on at night for weeks. The only rating for movies in those days was “X” so generally we would go to see all of the movies that came out. When you consider that the price of these films was just twenty-five cents for the matinee, this was the cheapest form of babysitting available for parents at the time.

During the summer of 1965 there was a popular movie titled “I Saw What You Did.” This movie was a campy low budget film about a couple of teenage girls making prank telephone calls. During one of these calls the girls whisper to the person on the other line “I saw what you did, and I know who you are.” This is all done in good fun except that the receiver of this call is a psychopath that has just murdered his wife. Being psychotic of course our killer is now convinced that there are witnesses to his crime. The rest of the movie involves the connection of the girls to the killer, and includes some much overacted scenes by a drunken and sex starved Joan Crawford.

I admit that it is unfathomable today with the advent of telephone features like Caller ID that prank calls would be very entertaining for modern teenagers. Besides, what can compete with on demand movies, five hundred television channels and the ubiquitous Ipod? But I really enjoyed the idea of the movie. The premise is that people respond differently, at times even murderously, when they believe that someone has seen what they did in private. Of course we would not have a movie premise if your private act was not something as heinous as murdering your wife. I guess that given one of two options, contrition or murder, that murder might easily be a popular choice for a psychotic killer.

This perhaps strange stream of consciousness caused me to think about all of the things that we do in private that are not heinous. The things we do when we think that no one is watching. Eating that second donut, smoking after we told everyone that we quit, or telling your family that the doctor said your cholesterol level is now in the acceptable range (OK a bit too personal on that one). What changes would we make in our behaviors if we knew that someone was actually watching everything that we did?

I have come to believe that the majority of the people we know are good and decent folks. Most of us are generally honest and trustworthy. We seek to do the right thing and avoid temptation. Most of us are consistent in our behavior both in public and in private. I think that this aptly describes most of us but does not accurately describe me. The fact is that I often behave differently in private than I do in public. I have taken the extra donut. I have littered secretly, and I am now not afraid to admit that I once passed gas on a crowded elevator (only once!). These are all things that I did when I thought that no one else would know and I could easily create a much longer list without much effort.

I am like most people. Sometimes I don’t uphold my commitments. There are days when the private me and the public me are out of sync. I struggle with times when I don’t want to do what is best for my health, or I give in to an erosion of my value system. I am not perfect. Recognizing my personal imperfections I have built a system that I find useful. I call it my personal accountability system. The system is simple and very effective. When I make a commitment I try to share that commitment with one or more people that I know. Different commitments require different people, but the list of people is not very long. I also write down my important commitments. I place the written copy in a place that is conspicuous. I tell my children about those lists.

My accountability system works because like you I too want to be understood and accepted. The people that help me to remain accountable are both gentle and sometimes not so gentle reminders of what I have said I want to do. My children quickly point out to me that I am eating something that I said I would not. My friends will ask me about my progress on an important goal as a gentle reminder that progress is expected. My exercise partner checks in regularly to ask about my workout and even calls to make sure I am awake at the time that I am supposed to be working out.

We all need a bit of a reminder from time to time to keep us on track. It is also possible that you are much like me and you could use your own personal accountability system. I encourage you to adopt my system and get other people involved in helping you to make your life what you want it to be. We all need people in our lives with whom we can be completely honest. Ask the people that love you to be willing to accept your honesty without being judgmental. Enlisting people in the accomplishment of your goals, and having someone holding you accountable are the key to ensuring your success.

Ask a friend to call you often and remind you that they know who you are and they saw what you did. As long as you have not committed a crime your reaction should be just enough to keep you honest. Going back to those teenage pranks, they do still involve telephones. Now days teens think that it is funny to use camera phones to capture their assaults on innocent people. What a difference forty years makes.

Monday Morning Reflections

There is a somewhat universal sense that Monday is a tough day. I have already had four conversations today and in every one at some point in the conversation we talked about the difficulties of the coming week or just the difficulty of getting through a Monday morning. The fact that Mondays are tough should come as no surprise to us. Most of us begin our week on Monday and we tend to be reflective about what the week may bring and generally, most of us do not approach the beginning of the week with much optimism.

I am no different than the average person in this regard. I find Monday to be oppressive in the sense that on Monday I am forced to deal with the realities of life. Monday has a way of being full of could of, should of and wish I had kinds of thoughts. On Monday my worry meter is usually pegged hard in the red zone as I think through all of the looming disasters. This matter is complicated by the fact that most Mondays my body is tired from the weekend and the way that I allow myself to get out of sync. I eat and sleep differently on the weekend and the effects of that always become obvious to me on Monday morning. This is a pattern of which I am aware but I have yet to change.

I thought that today I would capitalize on our normally reflective mood for Monday morning. Today my writing will be brief as I would much rather you spend your time thinking. You probably have a world of issues that you are facing today but if you have taken the time to read this then you have already decided to take a break. I want you to capitalize on your time here today by committing to undertake a number of activities. Most of the activities require you to answer some questions. These are unscientific questions but are things that I was thinking about yesterday and today.

I started this process last night so I am a bit ahead of you. Read each of the questions listed and spend a few moments reflecting on the answers. Don’t hurry your way through this. Even though I started last night I have only completed three of the activities as I write this. My goal is to complete the list by the end of the day. I think that for you a goal of completing this by tomorrow morning is reasonable. The list follows:

Choose three words that describe you. Ask your closest friend and one family member to do the same. Compare the list.

What is it that you do that makes you unique?

If you could put together your own group of highly talented people for any purpose you wished what would the individual talents of those people be? Would you place yourself in the group? Limit the group to five people.

Have you ever admitted that you have failed at something in your life?

How did you handle that failure?

If you knew that you were going to die within days, what people would you need to talk to and what would you say to them?

At your funeral, there will be four speakers. One will be from your childhood, one from High School, One from your work or social life, and one from your family. What will these people say about you?

What three things do you really want to do with your life that you have yet to do?

Commit to thirty minutes of silence today. No noise and no distractions. Write down your thoughts after the time is up.

After the completion of these exercises, take a moment to pray. In your prayer make no requests but express your reflections on this day.

The purpose of these questions is to raise our consciousness beyond our present and begin to think about the future. When we focus on the end of our lives we can have a clearer sense of direction for the present. Perhaps the issues and problems you face today are critical, but often times they pale in comparison to the rest of our lives.

Maybe we should use Monday to focus on the end rather than the beginning. I hope that after you complete this exercise your focus and your perspective will have shifted moving you in a different direction.

Getting Your Juice Back

I want to start out today with a confession. For the past two weeks I have been burned out. The stresses of work (finding it not doing it), chasing money for work done, and the daily rigors of life have gotten me down. My sleep patterns are off and I have been pretty much in isolation mode for a while. These symptoms are not new to me. I know that from time to time I get like this.

I was having a telephone conversation with a friend today that usually knows when I am down in the dumps. Yet, as friends will do, we carried on the conversation anyway. During our conversation we talked about serious things, business matters, world events, and life in general. The conversation included some verbal gymnastics, analysis, and lots of laughter. At the end of the conversation I found that I felt so much better than I did at the beginning.

In this conversation I learned a thing or two about myself that I had not previously paid attention to. I think that what I learned would be helpful to most of us. Looking back at my conversation we spent almost no time commiserating. The conversation focused instead on things that were outside of the very things that were getting me down. We talked about business but not so much our businesses but other things that were happening in the business world. We sparred on an issue or two, and we laughed about some of the silly things going on both with ourselves and in the world. We talked about our flaws and foibles in a way that reminded me that we are all human and generally imperfect.

All of this got me thinking about what it takes to recharge the spirit. We have often heard that laughter is the best medicine. Yet as grown ups we don’t allow ourselves to engage in the general silliness that once gave us so much fun. With my friend I find that I can be silly and we poke fun at each other. We laugh at ourselves and we laugh at each other. The laughter feels good. We also talked about things that were outside of the box. There was no need to sound profound or prove our intelligence we were just bouncing off of one another.

Many of us have seen the television commercial where the young man has just started his first job. In the commercial this young man is constantly being called on his cell phone by his friends that have not started working yet. They ask him silly questions like “guess how many cookies I have in my mouth?” Or remind him that he needs to bring home toilet paper from work because they are out of it at the house. All of the calls are silly and very immature. But they make you laugh because we can remember what things were like for many of us at the beginning of our “serious work” career. At least for me when I started out in the work world I worked hard and I played hard. As I have gotten older I find that more and more I just work hard or do hard work.

One of the ways that I recharge my battery is that I will spend time playing video games. I will play puzzle games like Collapse, or games like Splinter Cell or Medal of Honor. These games can generally consume large amounts of time that we have so little of in our hectic day-to-day lives. However, the games allow me to escape for a short while using skills that I don’t need for work. I compete either with or against my boys to see who can hold the record for our house in a particular game. You might think that someone my age should not spend too much time playing games, and I would generally agree with you. But brief periods of time spent on these activities help us to kick back and let go for a while.

I was reading a story about Pixar Entertainment recently which talked about the incredible pressures they have placed upon themselves to produce one blockbuster hit after another in the shortest time frames imaginable. The pressures are immense and the work week often exceeds eighty hours. Yet, these people remain creative and avoid burnout. The turnover rate at Pixar is only 5%. How do they do this? The answer is that they have an organized system that helps people to recharge. The company provides improvisational acting classes for employees that are interested. They play basketball or volley ball at lunch time. Generally all of the employees are permitted time to get out of the box and just play a while.

We have all got to get some fun and general silliness back into our lives. We can start by not taking ourselves so seriously. This should be easy enough since if you really checked most of the people you are dealing with probably don’t take you very seriously anyway. Why not join them and even amp it up a bit. I keep several sets of juggling balls in my office at home. I have not practiced them in months. However, today I plan to practice for a while. Usually one of my sons will join me and we work on getting better. If you don’t have a game on your computer, then get one. Get one that challenges you but that you can learn quickly then compete against your kids. You probably will not beat them but having them beat you (and this is because kids are better than all of us at these games) will encourage their self-esteem and confidence. You can also have a lot of fun with them.

Another thing I like to do is tell jokes. I actually practice a few of them just so that I can have them at the ready when I talk to a friend. Helping my friends laugh helps me to laugh too. If jokes are not your thing you could try telling the truth. I know that I do enough stupid things on a daily basis that when I recount these stories to my friends we always get a good laugh. If you have not done anything really dumb that you can talk about then you really are not getting out enough. Go ahead and try laughing at yourself for a change.

Each of us has a long list of things to do. We have goals to accomplish and many serious pursuits that we must engage in. Yet, if you are tired, or burned out you are not going to get them done anyway. Have a little fun and play a while. Make sure that you manage to laugh out loud. The problems in your life are not going anywhere so you might as well take a minute to laugh, joke and crack a smile. It worked for me today and I know that it can’t hurt if you give it a try.

Changing Your V.O.I.C.E.

There is something interesting about change. Sometimes we see change as a negative occurrence to which we are resistant. At other times we can see change as an opportunity that we can take hold of to make a difference. It is the latter approach to change which is common when we change jobs or move to a new environment.

It seems that when we experience change that is self imposed we react to those changes in a positive light. Of course this statement is by no means profound as changes that we create for ourselves should be viewed positively. We see this kind of change as another chance to make things right or to undo things that we perceived as not working in the past. During such times we may experience a sort of personal makeover to create for ourselves the person that we now want to become.

Sometimes a personal makeover is more than buying new clothes or changing our style of dress. There are times when while experiencing our personal metamorphosis we take a look at our behaviors and make decisions to change those too. This works well when we are talking about bad behaviors like failing to exercise, eating poorly, or smoking. Any time we can take an opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes we experience very positive results. But what about times when we make decisions to change parts of our personality or work style? What happens when a person that was once meek becomes aggressive? Or when someone that was shy becomes bold? People have a way of making changes to their persona when they believe that the way they behaved in the past will not serve them positively in the future.

Sometimes changes in our persona are not changes created by our conscious decisions. Like creatures in nature we humans at times adapt to our environment. Take for example the stuffed shirt business type that suddenly finds themselves working for a laid back technology company. In that case the stuffed shirt must adapt their work style to fit in to the organization. As another example consider a person that finds themselves in an aggressive environment where everyone wants to be heard and you are judged not by what you do but how you position yourself. What sort of changes would that impose?

I learned recently of a case where a person went to work for a Fortune 500 company that is rated among the greatest companies in the world. The company is noted for their processes, business theories, and their leadership capacity. As an outsider many people would aspire to work for this world class organization. However, once inside, you learn that like many companies the company does not always live up to its reputation. On the inside you find yourself working among petty and spiteful people. The culture turns out to be aggressive but not for the sake of business progress, but rather purely for personal advancement. Inside such a company you find a level of incestuous activity that only breeds distrust. To succeed in such an environment you become like everyone else. You keep your cards close to the breast. You create and protect turf, and you eventually lose your own sense of values and begin to ascribe to the shared values of the organization.

We might look at this situation and conclude that this is only what is necessary to survive. We might easily dismiss this as the kind of thing that is necessary in order to succeed in the business world. What could be more normal? Is this really normal? Should a change of jobs result in a change in values? Should we morph when we become part of a new culture becoming more like a chameleon that changes colors based on the surrounding environment? While this might well be normal and perhaps we could assume even necessary to survive in a new culture I want to suggest that there is another way.

Each of us that have ever attended an interview remembers the preparation that we engaged in to get ready. We clean ourselves up and put on our best suit. We study the company and think through hypothetical questions and answers to show our knowledge of the company and diversity in our thinking. We remind ourselves of our basic manners and try to be engaging, intelligent and even a bit witty if the opportunity presents itself. Note that we do not reconsider our basic values in advance of the interview. We do not make a decision to become more aggressive, or lose our ability to be thoughtful. We do not in preparing for an interview decide to become a different person we only decide to make sure that the interviewer can see the person that we are in a positive light.

It is very tempting and perhaps all too easy to adapt to a new organization. As we seek to survive in a different culture we can take on the personality of the organization. Yet, in doing so that is when we lose our voice. Part of what makes a person attractive to an organization, is the freshness in that person’s perspective. We usually forget that who we are wins friends and influences people. While we all can agree that making the right impression is the thing to do initially, changing who we are in order to adapt is not.

We are each so very unique and bring to our situations our perspectives and ideas. What makes companies and organisms thrive is constant renewal. New people with new ideas and new approaches keep companies fresh. To the extent that we lose that freshness and begin to conform to everyone else we sell ourselves short and we no longer serve the company well. This is not to suggest that all newcomers should be mavericks or outcasts. Getting along is always the required minimum for playing in any sandbox. Yet never lose your fresh perspective or change positive values for the sake of conformity. If your values don’t fit the organization, live your values anyway.

Every organization has a unique culture. This is part of the social chemistry. The chemistry always changes when anyone new is added. When we find ourselves in a new environment we are faced with a choice. Do we desire to blend in and become like everyone else, or do we bring our unique voice to the mix. I hope that in every case we remember to always maintain our unique voice. The sound may be different from the rest, but harmony is never achieved with identical voices. Harmony is achieved when we successfully blend different voices and emphasize those differences when they are needed most.

Once you have found your V.O.I.C.E. never lose it in the crowd.

Life Without Limits

This morning I have been unable to escape thinking about a story that has been in the press for the past several days. That is the story of the five year old Florida girl that was removed from her elementary school in handcuffs, and later restrained in a police car with nylon cuffs on her wrists, and traditional steel handcuffs on her ankles.

Today the national news showed video footage of the young girl’s actions prior to her arrest. The video also captures the arrest of the young girl. Naturally, the news this morning also gave air time to the Superintendent of the school district the girl attends as well as the attorney now representing the family. All sides have been positioning themselves on this issue and given the state of affairs in our country today and the fact that this took place in Florida, I expect that congressional action is not far behind.

Let me say early on here that it makes no sense to me that anyone, including the police, would ever even think to restrain a five year old with handcuffs of any kind. I am sure that this issue will be discussed fervently by people on both sides of the argument. While this issue is to me very unfortunate, it does speak to a larger issue that is far more in line with the topics I write about on this page. That issue is a prevalent lack of boundaries in our society.

Someone recounted to me recently a story of a young child that kicked them in the shin at a grocery store. This happened in full view of the child’s parent. The parent failed to apologize for the child’s actions, and in fact never took action to remove the child from the situation. Rather, the parent ignored the event and continued with her shopping. In my own town there is a story of a four year old boy that was killed last week when he was hit by a van that may have been driving too fast. At the time of the accident however the four year old was walking home alone from a playground and was hit in the middle of a well traveled street.

Each of the incidents I have described here are isolated occurrences. Yet, I believe that each speaks to a greater problem in our society. That is that we no longer believe in the establishment of boundaries.

A generation ago Malcolm X popularized the term “by any means necessary” as a call to action. Years later, Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, established the “boundaryless organization” as a way to remove barriers, encourage cooperation and build trust. Today, one of the most popular terms used by young people is “whatever.” Each of these speaks to a sense that anything goes. Somewhere in our subconscious nature each of us is being told that given the right set of circumstances, or for the right reasons, we can do almost anything we choose. We no longer operate by a set of standards. We do not establish rules for acceptable behavior. We can justify and defend almost any action socially, politically, practically or morally. At some point there must be boundaries established. Some things must be deemed to be inappropriate or wrong.

There are laws in nature which are true for every time and every place in the universe. These laws are not subject to interpretation. They are absolutes. The laws of nature are what keep our world in balance. Natural laws do not require our agreement, and our opinions do not change natural laws. We seem to have shifted in our society to a point where we no longer believe in absolutes. Everything is conditional. This presumes that there are times when certain bad behaviors are acceptable. It presumes that human kindness is not required at all times. It further assumes that parents are not responsible for their children, when in fact each of these is incorrect.

As people we need to understand that there are limits. There are behaviors that are unacceptable. There are rules that should be followed without bending, and there will always be consequences for our actions. In our workplaces there are rules for the way that others should be treated. We should follow those rules. There are rules for the proper way to raise children and to teach them to relate to others. Parents should be required to follow those rules because the safety of their children is at stake. Socially there are rules that require us to respect all people and to treat everyone fairly. Breaking those rules without regard to political purposes, or social prejudices causes us all to lose.

Limits, rules and boundaries are all painful. Anytime we find that we just can not do anything that we desire we experience pain. Boundaries require self discipline and sacrifice. But more importantly, they require definition. We define our boundaries when we can say what we believe in and what we stand for. The boundaries are then created by those things that our outside of what we believe, or that do not agree with what we stand for. You can not establish boundaries on the fly. Social groups establish boundaries in advance so that everyone in the group knows what can and can not be done. Families establish boundaries when they establish what is and is not acceptable in the family. It is then up to each and every member to honor the established boundary.

The issue in Florida is tragic indeed. What is even more tragic still is that we will not stop and ask ourselves when should we establish clear limits so that we can know that there are things that we will not do? What has been lost in our culture in America is a sense that there is anything that we are willing to stand for such that we would die for what we believe. For me the ultimate in establishing boundaries is the creation of lines in our society that we can all agree we will never cross no matter the consequences. How can we expect our five year old children to have control when we as adults live lives where control over self is no longer a requirement? When anyone in our society can justify the arrest and handcuffing of our youngest children, then we should stand back and take notice that we are living in a world where there are no limits and the result can only then be chaos.

At Some Point the Dumbness Has to Stop

The other day I was standing with a group of people that I know casually. These were not people that I would make the mistake of referring to as friends, but people that I know through my children’s school, sports activities, and other social events. For the most part there were a number of conversations going on that did not involve me. This worked out well for me and I actually was enjoying spending the time not talking. Finally, someone asked me a question that required that I give them my opinion. Unfortunately, I knew immediately that my opinion on the matter being discussed was going to be unpopular. Yet, that did not keep me from expressing my opinion. Those nearby listening to me were shocked. How in the world could I hold an opinion that did not agree with the opinions of those in the group?

The discussion I was having in this group is not so important. The issue at hand was neither critical nor important. What was most interesting to me was how ill prepared most people are to hear opinions which differ from their own, or that differ from the crowd. It seems that when groups are gathered together that there is little real thinking going on. Rather, most groups just follow along like cattle. One or two people have a point of view, and everyone else seeking to belong either just follows, or tries to find a way to articulate the popular opinion while still sounding like they had an original thought.

My sense is that much of what is going on around us is just plain stupid. People are for the most part just moving nose to butt of the person in front of them. There is no examination of what we are doing, where we are going, and no one dares to question why. We are all generally uncommitted to any point of view or cause. There is just one large mass of people that just tolerate things as they are. Not too long ago a friend had a sign in their office that said “At some point the dumbness has to stop.” The mindless movement from place to place really does need to come to an end.

Two days ago I tuned in to NPR during the lunch hour. They are celebrating Poetry Month and on that day they featured a poem by Taylor Mali titled “Totally like whatever, you know?” This poem talks about the insidious question marks that have crept into our language and have been attaching themselves to sentences, even when the person has no intention of asking a question. Mali goes on to assert that we are generally uncommitted as a society and urges us to develop convictions. You can listen to the poem by following this link: POEM

As I examine the failures I see every day in business, in relationships, and in families I find that most can be traced back to this pervasive lack of commitment. We have become a society that has proven the old adage that says if you stand for nothing you will fall for anything. Independent thought or personal commitment of any kind is so lacking that we are shocked when we encounter anyone that has a genuine point of view. Even more amazing to me is that rather than attempting to reason through another’s viewpoint, we simply become intolerant and therefore dismiss that person.

I am convinced that most of the people I have the good fortune to know are very good people. However, very few are willing to suffer the pain and personal sacrifice that comes with developing a committed point of view. For the most part many of these are very smart people that are just doing very dumb things. They have become tolerant of their lack of commitment because it is much easier than the pain and sacrifice required to change. I know this on a personal level as I see in my own life the areas where having a commitment to an ideal is much harder than just continuing to do what I am doing. Even I need to read what I am writing.

So how do we move from this sense of totally like whatever? I dare to say that we must develop a sense of love and passion. I read once that Ray Kroc (the founder of McDonalds) said that in order to be successful in his business you had to love a hamburger bun. Most studies tell us that seventy percent of people do what they do because it just gets them by. They just tolerate their work, or their customers. This is not just a work problem. Most of us just tolerate our families, our friends and even have a “tolerable existence.” There is little passion in our lives.

I wonder when is the last time you got to ask yourself if you believe in what you are doing. How many of us care about the people around us whether they are customers, family, or friends? Now here is the interesting question. Do you think that others know that you don’t passionately believe in what you are doing? Do you think that your customers, employees, family or friends know that you just tolerate them? While we want to answer these questions in a way that puts us in a good light, it is time to be honest. They know! If they don’t know how you really feel then shame on you for not being genuine.

Are you doing what you are committed to? Can you describe in a sentence or two what you are passionate about? Does anyone else know? I think that it is time for us to believe in something, love something, and do something that we are committed to do. In the short term we will experience pain and sacrifice. In the long run with discipline we will achieve goals that we could never have dreamed possible, and emotionally we will find happiness. At some point the dumbness has to stop.

Sign Language

I was an adult in the 1970s. Generally that statement does not provide much information except that any person that can add certainly can use that little bit of data to determine my approximate age. Although, the roughly 20 readers of this page pretty much have that little tidbit down so even my age is no secret. I make the statement because most of us that were adults or teenagers in the 70s will recall that in those days a popular question was “What’s Your Sign?” The question related to one’s birth date and their astrological sign. Back then we believed that your sign told us much about your personality, your traits, and even predicted your most suitable mate. The question was also a popular ice breaker or way of initiating a conversation with a member of the opposite sex.

Although I have not heard the question lately I have noticed that we have not gotten away from the whole sign thing. Except now, we don’t have to ask the question for now everyone wears their sign or signs boldly for the entire world to see. The signs are everywhere. Take for example the signs on T-shirts that you will see everywhere this summer if you have not already seen them. These T-shirts say things like “Jesus is my Home Boy or Mary is my Home Girl” of course these signs suggest the religious persuasion of the wearer. Over the past week we could not turn on the television without seeing the signs of the Catholic Cardinals in their red vestment which signifies their position in the Catholic Church.

Perhaps your sign is not quite as obvious as those I mention above. Just walking around town I see many more subtle signs. I saw the ubiquitous white cardboard cups with the green logo on it that signifies that the carrier drinks only the most expensive coffee. I pulled into the parking lot at my children’s school this morning and saw the signs of affluence in the cars parked there. I even saw one woman that had a sign in the form of her purse. It had the designer’s initials emblazoned all over. I think that her sign had something to do with a misplaced sense of value, but hey who am I to criticize her sign.

I guess that in some subtle and sometimes not so subtle way we all wear a sign of a sort. Today at school my sons were given lapel pins by the school’s Head Master. The pins have the word “Leader” written on them to signify their joint achievement as Lead Student for their school. As a proud dad I hugged them today and congratulated them for their accomplishment. Now I wonder if their new sign will change their behavior. Will they now act more like leaders since they have their new sign?

We use signs to label people all of the time. We see a man wearing a turban and that sign we assume tells us all about him. A young woman with a pierced belly button or tongue stud is yet another sign and we all knowing wink to one another having read the sign. A young man with his hat to the side and wearing baggy pants is yet another sign. We read that sign and step away guarding our possessions for his sign tells us that danger is near.

Some of us display our signs because we want others to read them. I have an acquaintance whose signs send totally false messages because they suggest that he is something that he is not. There is a sign in a Seven Eleven near my home that says “Persons wearing dark clothes and ski masks are not permitted in this store.” Now let me think about this one for a minute. Dark clothes and ski masks are the clothing of choice of someone planning to rob the store. At least now I have a great sense of comfort that at my local Seven Eleven robbers that stop to read the sign will not enter. That’s a real comfort for me just because of that sign.

When I was in grade school we sometimes played a joke on our classmates by surreptitiously placing a sign on their back that said “kick me.” Of course then people would walk up and kick the poor sign wearer always excusing themselves saying that the sign asked them to do it. Even though we have all matured so much since those days I wonder how many of us are still wearing those “kick me” signs. How often do we by our choices or actions display a sign that leads to abuse or improper treatment? Perhaps your sign is not so extreme but rather is that look on your face that says don’t approach me. Maybe your sign says “I am arrogant”, or “I have no self-confidence”, or “I don’t belong here.” Perhaps you should, like that kid in grade school, take a moment to reach back and check to see what sign you are wearing. If the sign you wear is not conveying the message that best serves you, then change the sign. Start wearing a smile if you want to be approached. Learn that your arrogance is generally unbecoming or at least usually undeserved. Try wearing a sign of confidence. I can assure you that we are all imperfect and you are no more imperfect than the next person. If someone has placed a sign on you telling you otherwise, ask them to please remove the sign and keep it for themselves.

Signs are everywhere you look and often times they provide excellent advice or information. About a year ago an organization paid to put up signs all across the country that were called “signs from God.” One of my favorites said “That “Love Thy Neighbor” thing... I meant that – God.” To me that was a useful sign. While you are out and about today take some time to read the signs you see on the people you encounter. If you know them well enough you might take a moment to tap them on the shoulder and let them know that someone taped a “kick me” sign on their back and that they should consider removing it. You might just make someone’s day, but then of course you could also just have misread their sign.

It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know

So often in life we find our selves wondering about what it really takes to get ahead. We see one example after another of successful people and we wonder “How did they get that job?” We see people that sometimes have the uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time. And every one of us knows that person that has a charmed career or is just plain lucky.

I remember early in my work career someone telling me “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” That was often the explanation that was given for the person that seemed to move up quickly or that seemed to rise far above their abilities. This popular notion has led to networking as an art form with everyone having a differing viewpoint about how to best get to know people that can help your career. I remember so vividly the days of passing out business cards or saying “let’s do lunch” as the common way to make acquaintances and build relationships. There have been books published teaching us the tricks of the masters of networking so that we too can get to know all of the right people. I have read a couple of those books and they do offer sage advice on the art of networking. However, most of those books have tended to focus on what you can get from other people rather than what you can give.

I do not doubt for one moment that knowing the right people can serve you well in life and in business. I have benefited on more than one occasion from knowing someone that could open a door or make an introduction. I have even benefited from my last name when I was a younger Young. Yet, I think that focusing on knowing others can only work well for us if first we endeavor to know ourselves.

One of the things that I have been forced to do these past few years is to ask myself some serious questions. The first question came to me after I read an analogy about a telephone answering machine. The analogy pointed out that an answering machine is really a questioning machine. The machine asks us who we are, and what do we want. Perhaps the people you call have a less direct approach on their voice mail message, but the essence of those messages is to ask you two very important questions. Who are you? What do you want? I also added a third question for myself four years ago. That was, who do I want to be?

Have you taken the time lately to ask yourself one of these questions? Let’s start with the first one. Who are you? For me I know that the answer has changed many times over the years. I can remember a time when who I was could be reflected by how I dressed. Then later who I was could be found on my business card. As I continued to grow older who I was became my car, or my address. It was not until many years had gone by that I came to realize that who I am is best reflected by who people think that I am. My actions, my character, my beliefs should reflect who I am in such a way that all of the external trappings should not be relevant. Who are you?

The second question I was forced to examine is “What do you want?” Here again time has been the great clarifier for me. I can remember when what I wanted reflected my sense of status. My wants related to the wants of others that I admired. I wanted what they had or wanted. My dreams and my vision were not unique. Rather, they were the dreams or visions of having what I observed in others. In my younger years what I wanted could be easily boiled down to those things that satisfied me and me alone, or things that made me look successful. As shallow as that seems looking back, it does reflect my past reality. Now I notice that what I want is to make a difference in the lives of others. My wants have shifted from material possessions to my desire to teach others how to live a more balanced life and to live it earlier than I have done. What do you want?

The final question is “Who do I want to be?” For me this is the question that keeps me living. It is the question that understands that I am not finished yet and that there is so much more to learn, so much more that I can impact, and so much more to do. Who do I want to be allows me to see myself as a work in progress. It fuels my desire to read more, listen to others, and continually practice self examination. What I love most about this final question is that you never really get to complete the answer. It is the question that defines the road ahead, but the answers are always just around the next bend. I caution you here as this question and the answers you will find are no picnic.

Have you taken responsibility for who you are? Have you taken the time to examine yourself? I once read that coping with difficult people is always a problem, especially if the difficult person is you. Sometimes we are our own worse enemy. It is time to call a truce. Stop letting the person you are ruin your relationships, waste your money, or damage your health. You can start by networking with yourself. Imagine meeting yourself at a party. Ask yourself the questions you might ask of someone you really wanted to get to know. Ask a friend to tell you about yourself in the same manner that you would ask that friend about a person you wanted to meet. Finally, armed with your new information about this new person in your life, make decisions about who you want to be. It is never too late to become what you might have been.

The following words were written on the tomb of an Anglican bishop who lived in the eleventh century:

When I was young and free my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it too, seemed immovable. As I grew in my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realized: If I had only changed my self first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed my world.

Perhaps today is the day to take a good look at you and ask “Who am I, What do I want, Who do I want to be?

Are You Listening?

More than fifteen years ago I had a casual conversation with a friend and mentor that changed my way of thinking about dealing with people. In that conversation my friend said to me that all people want to be understood, accepted, valued, and part of a trusting relationship. He was giving me this advice as I was preparing to make a presentation for a prospective client for my young company. However, the words struck me and stayed with me far beyond the presentation that I was preparing on that day. Since then I have thought back to that conversation and have incorporated his comments into my personal philosophy, and have taught this to others over the years. Today I want to focus on just one aspect of this philosophy which is the need for people to be understood.

In Franklin Covey’s Seven Habits of highly successful people Habit five is “Seek first to understand then to be understood.” This is called the habit of empathic listening. When listening empathically we seek to truly understand what the other person is saying. We listen deeply. In listening deeply we have the chance to see the world from the perspective of the other person, rather than the more typical sort of listening which is when we listen for clues that relate to our own experiences, knowledge or point of view. As soon as we hear one of those triggers, we jump into response mode and begin our own dialogue usually ignoring what the other person said.

Each of us yearns to be understood. Those of us that spend time writing exercise our craft in an effort to get our message out to the world. Writing creates a unique opportunity for understanding because writing is a unilateral dialogue. We have the opportunity when writing to flesh out our thoughts without immediate commentary criticism or interruption. While this is certainly a form of communication, even when writing we can not be assured that our message is understood. Even as a reader reads these words an autobiographical tape is running through their head. Those thoughts are the real impediments to truly understanding another.

People want to be understood. You and I and everyone we know have a deep need to be understood. We want people to listen to us. We want them to connect with our feelings. When we communicate we are reaching out. Sometimes that communication is us reaching out for advice or answers. At other times we just need a sympathetic ear. And at still other times we just need an audience so that we can talk out loud and sort out our thoughts for ourselves. The key as a listener is to know which of these responses is being required of you, and then act accordingly.

I must admit here that I am probably most guilty of failing to listen. Just yesterday I was engaged in a conversation where my wife was asking me a question. If you have ever watched the television show Jeopardy then this scenario will sound familiar. My wife was about half way through what she was saying when I interrupted her and gave her the answer. She immediately hit the buzzer and pointed out that my answer had nothing to do with what was ultimately her question. I had given a great answer to the wrong question. The reason this happened was that as usual I was not listening. I stopped in my tracks, let her finish, confirmed that I now understood the actual question, and then and only then was I able to provide an answer. This scenario has been played out far too often in my personal and professional life.

In order to truly understand another we need to slow down our own expectations. Most of us think that we are required to give immediate and brilliant answers to every question as though we were competing on a game show. We blurt out answers without understanding the question. We slam on the buzzer in mid conversation interrupting the other person quickly telling them how the same thing happened to us, or “when I was your age”, or “you think that is something, let me tell you.”

In a recent telephone conversation I was intent on listening to the problem being described by a friend. At the beginning of the conversation my friend said “I want to ask you a question.” As my friend talked I just listened intensely. I worked hard on turning off the monitor in my head that typically sorts out answers and scenarios. I turned off that little voice with the quick answer or witty reply. I just sat there and listened. After a point my friend stopped and said “hello, are you still there?” I responded that yes I was but I was just listening. We laughed together as this is something I do so rarely that my friend was convinced that we had been disconnected. My friend then went on discussing the problem. At the end we both realized that she really had not wanted to ask a question, but rather just wanted to talk about her current situation. We both got a huge laugh from that but we learned a valuable lesson. Just listening was all that was required in that conversation. In fact in that conversation no question was actually asked. My friend just wanted to be understood. The problem was not solved in that conversation, but both my friend and I felt as though we had truly communicated in that moment.

In order to understand people we must learn to listen. Learn to look directly into the eyes of the person you are talking to. At first this will typically scare both you and the person you are talking to. Most of us are inexperienced with paying close attention. Practice this skill. Next, make sure that your responses are only questions for clarification, or words that acknowledge that you are listening. Finally, when the other person is done talking, make sure that you review what you heard them tell you and take the time to ask them if you understood what they were saying. Listen again as they clarify their point in response to your question. All the while practice looking at the person, and giving them your full attention. And by the way, if you are doing this on the telephone it might be helpful if every so often you say a word or two just to let the person know you are still on the line.

As I write this today I am aware of several instances over the past couple of days when I was not listening very well. Today I am going to go back to apologize to those people to let them know that I did not seek to understand them. I can’t go back to those moments but I can redouble my efforts to become a better listener. I can practice listening empathically, and I can concentrate on not interrupting or telling my personal story in conversations. I am a better listener today than I have ever been. Still, there are times when I fail in this area. Today is a practice day for me. So if we engage in a conversation today please know that I am listening. If all you do is read this then thanks for listening to my point of view.

What We Believe

One of the weekly rituals I have established for myself is to read my personal mission statement. I have done this fairly consistently now for the past two years. I try to read the statement on Monday of each week. This week did not start off well and so I did not take the time to read the statement until today. My mission statement is a personal map. It reminds me of who I am and where I am going. It is helpful to me every week as a reminder of what it is that my life is all about. I use it to reorient my direction when I find that I need to make minor course adjustments.

Thinking about my mission statement today reminded me of how important it is to take a moment to remind ourselves of who we are. Every time I read the statement I experience a swell of emotion. This is true not so much because it is well written, but rather because it inspires me to be true to myself. It moves my thoughts away from the problems of the moment and causes me to think about the future. It adjusts my perspective in a way that always leaves me hopeful and encouraged.

Writing a personal mission caused me to spend time thinking about what I believe. This is not so much a question of religious doctrine, but rather an overview of the things that are important in my life. Living your life in a manner that is consistent with what you believe is challenging. Every day we encounter people that seem to achieve enviable levels of success while living their lives in a manner with which we might not agree. Many times these people are our bosses, our leaders, or even our spouses or close friends. We can become frustrated or even angry when we see examples of people that seem not to live by our value standards.

The challenge we face is how do we remain true to who we are when we encounter those that have completely different points of view? I think that the answer lies in having a sense of humility. For centuries wars have been waged and lives have been lost when people of differing points of view have been brought together. In the corporate world while not as dramatic we see similar effects. Brilliant careers have gone off track, employees have lost jobs, and CEOs have been fired when they have encountered those that hold different beliefs. Both history and work experience have taught me that right does not always win. Simply having the proper values and beliefs does not translate into success. Success is found in being true to ourselves and those we serve.

If asked most people would consider themselves to be humble. Yet, this is a virtue that is mostly misunderstood. Humility requires that we consider ourselves to be less than everyone else. This includes those that we know are wrong. We lose sight of the need to be humble when we act on our urge to correct those that we observe making a mistake. We lack humility when we criticize or find fault. When we defend what is right we can often make ourselves appear to be “holier than thou” or superior to those that we confront. The natural response to our admonishment is resistance. Sometimes a fervent battle for what is right may be the right fight. However, usually it is the right fight at the wrong time and is conducted in the wrong manner.

Still, it is important to remain true to our beliefs. We must always make sure that our example is consistent with what we believe in. The best way to help others see the error in their ways is to continually live up to the values we espouse. Generally, we will not win awards or achieve recognition for living a life consistent with our values. But when we add humility to our value system we can live expecting that we are less than those that we serve. In this understanding we achieve a level of truth to ourselves, and we offer a demonstration to the world. This consistency is its own reward.

I often use an inverted triangle to make this point visually. If every leader imagined that they were at the bottom of an inverted triangle they would notice two things. First and most obvious is the fact that at the bottom of the triangle everyone else is above them. These are the people that we serve. As leaders we should serve everyone and not ourselves. Second and most important, at the bottom of the triangle there is the least amount of room to move to the left or right. This for me reflects the lack of freedom and intense responsibility of leadership. With no room to move to the left or right we must live consistent with our values. There is no wiggle room. We must practice what we believe because when we do not everyone can clearly see that we are not being true our stated values. Of course, this is just what I believe. It is entirely possible that you believe something completely different, and I guess that is the whole point of this article.

Getting Your Head Above the Clouds

Returning from a recent business trip I arrived at the airport early. After a long day of meetings I appreciated having the opportunity to sit down and relax quietly for a few minutes in advance of my flight home. It had been a busy couple of days when I found myself flying into four different cities. The end of this trip was welcome and I was anxious to get home to familiar territory.

Boarding my plane I checked my boarding pass only to realize that I was seated near the back of the plane, and also next to the window. My preference is always to have an isle seat. This gives me just enough room to stretch my long legs as much as possible. I also even appreciate the occasional interruption from seat mates that need to use the rest room. Again providing a further opportunity to get up and stretch. I was disappointed when I realized that for this flight I would be crammed into the window side. I was also a bit preoccupied and so I did not think that I would just be able to sleep through the flight. For the first time in years I found my self just staring out the window watching the landscape fly by.

The afternoon was clear and it was early enough that there was still light. As I sat staring out the window the first thing I noticed was just how slowly the things on the ground were passing by. The few vehicles I could make out on the highways below seemed to be just meandering by my window. Flying over hills, or stretches of green seemed to last forever and we just seemed to be floating. I saw trails of vehicles during this flight reminding me that below I was passing by rush hour traffic in some areas. All of this seemed to register with me but it was not until yesterday that it all became immensely clear.

Yesterday I had one of those afternoons that many parents complain about. My children played their first game of Little League Baseball yesterday. We were required to get them to the field by 5:30 for a 6:00 game. We prepared and planned for the events of this evening telling the boys that they should work on homework during the day at free time. We also asked them to organize their equipment in advance so that the sports bags could be placed in the car. We planned to eat out near the field which would reduce our commuting time to get to the game, and picked a fast food restaurant that would also work as a way station where we could complete homework before the game thus not extending our evening any more than was necessary. We picked up the boys at 3:30 from school. We were able to get to the restaurant, have dinner, complete homework, and have the boys change into their baseball clothes all by 5:15. A short drive to the field had us arriving right on time even though the coaches had not arrived when we got there. Somehow our planning had worked out for a change. The scheduling was hectic but we accomplished our goal.

The baseball game was for us uneventful except that one of the children was hit in the nose by an errant pitch from a twelve year old pitcher whose primary ability was speed over accuracy. That seemed to shake the boys up a bit but did not deter their enthusiasm. We lost the game however by a wide margin and one of my sons was disappointed that he did not get a hit. He seemed to have forgotten that he spent most of his time in the batter’s box jumping away from any ball that seemed close less he suffer the fate of his teammate with the bloody nose.

The game ended at about 7:30 leaving us just enough time to drive home, stop in the park to practice actually hitting the ball and staying in the batter’s box, and allow the boys to have a snack. All in all we got them in bed by 9:00 which is a bit later than normal but not exceptional.

Here is what struck me comparing these two different evenings. In both cases I was able to start out planning to accomplish a stated goal. Both required a fair amount of organization and planning. In the case of the plane trip the goal was to arrive on time and safely board the flight to get home by a reasonable hour. In the case of baseball the goal was to accomplish the other important tasks such as dinner and homework while still allowing for a fun activity during the week. However, I experienced these two events differently because in the first case I managed to get my head above the clouds. In the second case I was down among the trees watching everything whiz by. The physical exertion required of me on both evenings was fairly equal. Yet, yesterday I felt far more tired at the end of the day than I did after the plane flight. And to be fair in my assessment, in both cases I was able to sit for about one and a half hours, first on the airplane and in the other instance on the bleachers at the ballpark.

What I have concluded from these two events is that we all need to spend some time with our head up in the clouds. From that vantage point we have a unique chance to watch the world go by much more slowly. While things below might be just as hectic, getting above the clouds slows down our perspective. While I was sitting above the clouds I was still moving forward towards my stated goals. Yet, the emotional experience of achieving those goals was distinctly different. Down among the trees the pace is faster. We don’t get an opportunity to look around and see what else is going on. Down among the trees we are caught up in the moment, and we experience things like the kid that gets hit in the nose. Feelings and emotions are magnified, even though it might not be happening to us. Down among the trees we sometimes swing and miss and the dust from the field can at times get in your face. We experience success and failure, wins and losses and we take the time to practice those skills that have gotten rusty.

We spend far too much of our time down among the trees. Naturally, this is where the action is. However, I am suggesting that we need to make sure that we find more time to get ourselves up above the clouds. The pace is much slower there and your perspective widens. Somehow, time spent above the clouds helps us to be better equipped for the moments when that kid gets hit in the nose. Having had a chance to take a step back we can realize that even in that painful event a lesson was learned. It pays to keep your eye on the ball, and sometimes, it is just best to duck.

Time Bulimia

Time is of the essence. This is a legal term that is invoked in certain types of transactions. Generally the term means that there is a limited amount of time left to complete the transaction. This term is used to create a sense of urgency and to force someone to take action. I can only assume that those using this term do not generally believe that time is important until we reach the end of a transaction. Perhaps this points to one of the most important problems we have with our perceptions about time.

I was reading an article recently that mentioned the fact that most of us have a false perception about available time. In a recent survey college students were asked if they would be willing to make a specific time commitment. They were given a choice of making the commitment on that day or at a date exactly one week later at the same time. The consensus was that making a commitment on that day was not possible. However, when asked if they could make the same commitment exactly one week later at the same time, the general consensus was that yes they could make that time commitment. The researchers conducting this study were pointing out what is common among most people, not just college students. That is that we generally have a misperception about time that causes us to believe that we have less time at the present, but we will always have more time in the future. This misperception usually causes us to make time commitments in the future that we would not make today because we believe that we will have more time then. Of course in
reality when the future date arrives we have no more time than we had at the moment that we made the time commitment. This then results in our having to make adjustments and cancellations in order to make room for our now over committed schedule. The fix of course is to then schedule these events into the future once again when we believe that we will have more time.

This is a bit of an illness which I will for the sake of this article call “Time Bulimia.” I wish I could say that I coined this phrase, but I did not. I first read about the phrase in an article where someone referred to their boss as a time bulimic. This busy executive would “binge” by scheduling their days minute by minute in advance. The calendar would be quickly filled up with future events such that the executive’s schedule would be brimming over. Then, when the day came the executive would review their schedule and “purge” the events with a series of cancellations and rescheduling. I certainly do not want to trivialize the very serious illness of bulimia by comparing it to time management problems, but this comparison seems to me to be very appropriate. I would also argue that this sort of time management is a sickness and has many calamitous effects.

In the corporate world we see daily examples of this illness. We read of or directly witness the “heroics” of those workers that put in eighteen hour days running from project to project, or meeting to meeting. We canonize these workers as “extreme employees” and even often times reward them with more pay or promotions. We idolize those that can work the hardest, put in the most hours, and essentially live highly unbalanced lives. Those that don’t keep such schedules are labeled as lacking ambition, lazy, or uncommitted. I know that I personally have suffered from this disease often times placing too much on my plate binging on commitments only to later purge them with cancellations and rescheduling. We go through this binge and purge cycle until it all finally catches up with us and shows up in the form of fatigue, illness, stress, and broken relationships.

My understanding of bulimia tells me that sufferers generally have an unrealistic view of themselves. They are unable to see their physical features accurately. They look in the mirror and despite facts to the contrary see only a fat person. Their desire to be thin leads them to continuously do things that they believe will help them to achieve the body image they so desperately want. Time bulimics are similar. They have unrealistic perceptions about how much time they have available. They believe that they can always add on one more commitment. These sufferers are almost competitive with their missed sense of time. They brag about what time they get up, how little sleep they need, how long they work, and the “all nighters” they pull so frequently. They eat meals at their desk, multi-task to get more done and employ the latest in “time saving” technology to become even more efficient.

I am sure that you know a time bulimic. The tell tale signs are easy to spot. Look for someone that is always apologetic about missed commitments, or is frequently telling you that they are extremely busy. Another tell tale sign is that most time bulimics tend to look unhealthy. Look for the pale skin, or quickly growing extremities that come from bad meals, lack of sunshine, and failing to exercise regularly. Don’t be fooled by the lack of high tech gear. Not all time bulimics use high tech equipment. Many have the ability to over commit and yet keep their schedules in their heads. It is harder to root out these sufferers since they don’t refer to their calendar or schedule. Rather, these people are usually just missing most of the time. They are constantly running from place to place and event to event. In order to recognize these people you must listen carefully to their conversations. You will hear them use words like “I have to” or making statements that indicate that they have little control or choice over their many obligations. Their badge of honor is the events they attend, the committees they are on, the children’s games they never miss and their dual roles as bread winners and super mom/super dad. These folks are not nearly as obvious since on the surface they appear to be doing all of the right things. However, even for these people it is not that they are doing the wrong things, but rather that they are doing too many things.

We all need to slow down. Time maintains a constant pace. I like the quote by Margaret B Johnstone where she describes time as a “fixed income.” She says that the real problem facing most of us is how to live successfully within our daily allotment.

If my analogy of time bulimia is like similar diseases then those that you know who are suffering from it do not realize the problem they have. You can’t tell them they are sick and most don’t realize it until they suffer disastrous health consequences. Perhaps even you are suffering from this disease. Yet, you can’t see the negative image being created. I can only hope that reading this will cause you to stop just long enough to examine your time and decide whether or not changes might be in order. After all, we are only talking about time, and time is the stuff that life is made of.

You have to allow a certain amount of time in which you are doing nothing in order to have things occur to you, to let your mind think.
--Mortimer Adler.

Information Arbitrage

In the financial markets there is a term known as arbitrage. Arbitrage is commonly accepted as a method by which a financial transaction is carried out where there is a profit without risk. Arbitrage transactions were very a popular in the 80s with traders like Ivan Boesky. Boesky used arbitrage transactions to make millions and perhaps billions of dollars in deals where he would buy the stock of a company about to be taken over. After the takeover would be completed, Boesky would sell the stock and thereby make a huge profit. We later learned that Boesky’s deals were not really legal as he seemed to use information he had gained from company insiders to place his arbitrage bets.

Today arbitrage transactions still remain mostly in the finance arena. Institutions use arbitrage to buy a commodity or security at one price when they become aware that the same commodity or security can be sold in another market at some small profit. Such transactions require speed, low transaction costs, and access to legal information. This final component of today’s arbitrage transactions, legal information, is what I want to talk about.

We live in what some social scientist may someday refer to as the age of information or the age of knowledge. Our society has moved from a time in the 1500s when information was held in the control of an elite few, to today when a young child can perform a Google Search and acquire all of the information available around the globe on almost any subject. There is a certain equity that has developed today in that anyone with a free library card has access to documents and information that was heretofore beyond our imagination. Yet while access is free, we see so few people that avail themselves of this unlimited resource. I believe that it is this very phenomenon which has created modern arbitrage opportunities that we can now call “information arbitrage.”

In my work as a consultant I am an information arbitrageur. The majority of my work results in my obtaining information from one source, and in turn selling that information in the form of knowledge to another source. Within the areas of my expertise, the opportunities are endless. As I continually obtain information the available sources for the sale of that knowledge grows. However, in order to become an effective arbitrageur, you must learn to continually ask the question “how can I use this information?”

Information arbitrage is not new. I can recall my mother using information arbitrage when I was a child. She would scan the various sale sheets that arrived at our home each week in order to determine which of the local grocery stores had the best prices say for ground beef, breakfast cereal, or a five pound bag of potatoes. She would use these markets to purchase those items that we routinely used, and would then “offset” her profits to buy an item that she wanted to purchase for her. I see similar transactions on eBay. The apparent price variations or commodity availability around the country has created entrepreneurial opportunities for sellers. A seller in New York can purchase an item on sale in Manhattan, and in turn sell that item to a buyer in Idaho. The arbitrage opportunities are even greater for so called “must have items” where consumers are willing to pay above the market price to purchase something today that they might not otherwise get. These arbitrage opportunities include everything from the hottest concert tickets, to designer clothing.

In all of these cases someone is taking advantage of the vast sources of information that exists in our society. Information arbitrageurs are using this information to make profits from their knowledge. In this information and knowledge age we each have a chance to become arbitrageurs. We must increase our awareness of the world around us and begin to process the information we gain in our every day life. New ideas gained from conversations with friends and peers create arbitrage opportunities. A casual conversation with the postman can yield new knowledge that you can arbitrage in some way. A visit to your local grocery store or coffee shop brings to you new knowledge that has value. The key is to be on the alert for this knowledge, and to ask “what can I do with this information?”

Information arbitrage will not make you as wealthy as an Ivan Boesky. But if you begin to pay attention to information arbitrage opportunities, you will increase your knowledge and your value. And who knows, you might even save a little money on your purchases, and maybe even identify that next fashion trend that will make you an internet tycoon. The information is all around you. You only need to look and listen.

Edge Makes The Difference

This morning a news story on National Public Radio caught my attention. The story chronicled the 75th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s “Dandi March”, which is also known as the “Salt March.” Tomorrow people from across the globe will join together to re-enact this march which encompasses some 241 miles to the beach in Dandi Gujarat. The Dandi March is considered by many to be the biggest and most successful of the defiance campaigns initiated by Gandhi. At the age of 61 he walked to the sea to perform a simple act of making salt. In doing so he defied the mighty British Empire and the laws that they had established prohibiting the people of India from making salt.

In 1965 on the March 7, some 600 marchers headed east out of Selma, Alabama onto route 80 headed towards Montgomery, Alabama. These marchers walked only six blocks before they were met by police, police dogs, water cannons, and brutal force. Two more attempts would be required before these people could reach their goal in Montgomery. They were marching to achieve the right to vote for African Americans.

Sometimes a message can hit you so hard that you reel backwards from the awesome weight of its significance. As I spent time today thinking about these two events, I could not help but immediately see the similarity. It is well known that Martin Luther King Junior both studied and admired Gandhi. Many of the tactics used by the Civil Rights Movement in the United States were modeled on Gandhi’s non-violence principals. I can’t help but to also believe that the very timing of the march may well have coincided with that historic march taken up by a man in his 60’s some thirty-five years before. Each of these singular events sparked a movement and a sea change for a nation. Gandhi moved his people against the tyranny of the British Empire, while King moved his people against unfair laws and policies in the United States.

Writers and historians far more significant than me have written about these events. I have no illusions that I can add anything more eloquent to the discourse that has already been provided. Instead I raise these two points to highlight a more current issue. The issue I want to address is the absence of Edge.

Gandhi and King held strong convictions. They spoke about the things that they believed in. But more than their words, each of these men in their own way acted. In each case they stood up against forces that they believed were wrong. Given the times in which each of these men lived the risks they faced were enormous. Each man knew that their actions could well cost them their lives. Each man suffered jail time for their actions, and each of them were beaten or otherwise physically abused for fighting for what they believed in. Gandhi and King were men that possessed deep courage. They were men that understood “Edge.”

Every day I see and I experience so many examples that tell me that Edge is gone from our society. I speak with workers that accept unfair work practices or treatment from immoral or corrupt bosses and employers; I see parents that give up on their rebellious teenagers; and I see friends not standing by friends in times of need. In each of these cases I see a lack of Edge when the stakes are high. I see professionals in the work place that have become so convinced of their self-importance that they have lost sight of productivity, or customers or meaning. People are too afraid or too complacent to make a difference.

Our world is full of far too many examples of people that don’t have Edge. We see repeated random acts of callousness. We ignore or condone injustices as long as they are not being done to us. We want more, we get more, and we do less. We abandon people that need us most, because we are too busy or perhaps too important to stop for a moment to understand their troubles. We only look out for ourselves, and don’t consider needs of the world around us.

Gandhi and King risked their lives to start movements that changed their worlds. Their singular actions did not effect change overnight. They endured personal hardships. They suffered in jails and experienced many forms of abuse. They used Edge to make a change that did not benefit them. They gave their lives to make a difference.

I want you to ask yourself some questions today. What have you done lately to improve the circumstances of someone other than yourself? I am not asking if you have risked your life for a cause. Rather, I am asking something simpler. Have you picked anyone up that you knew was down? Have you made a difference in the life of someone else this week? What are you celebrating? Is it a great meeting, or an incredible sale? Have you celebrated the joy of a child? Have you high fived the hug of a loved one? Have you been seen thrusting your fist in the air saying “Yes!” because of someone that you helped? Are you doing what matters?

As you began this day you were given yet another opportunity to make a difference. First, express gratitude for the 24 hours you have been given today. Next, shake off all of the negative thoughts you have had today about the weather, traffic, or the coffee being colder than you like it. Decide now that starting today you will make a difference. You will say what needs to be said when an injustice is being done. Today you will say no to your unhealthy urges and impulses. Today you will sincerely thank someone, listen to someone, and hug someone.

Your actions today will not change the world. But you may inspire another who will someday make a difference, and in that small way, you too will have made a difference. We have our history to teach us about how small actions can change the world. Take the time to act now.