Operational Phenomenology
Sometimes technicalities get in the way of practicalities. Who cares about the biochemistry if you can cultivate a rose to bloom! We can infer a lot about the universe that we don’t totally understand, but we…
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Category: Leadership & Motivation
POWER OF WILL
First Volley: The traditional concept of “Willpower” really doesn’t work! “Any human construct offering infinite choices will result in poor choices, with each and all of us Invariably choosing what PLEASES us rather than that…
Consequences
In the end analysis, life is all about CONSEQUENCES … things that actually happen as a result of other things that did or did not happen. Some consequences are predictable. Do good things / useful…
Just This Once
It’s just become clear to me that I don’t have to do everything everywhere all at once – nor do you! But ANYTHING generative, regenerative or “debulking” done here and now can help smooth the…
A Higher Calling
With so much dissonance, discord, dishegience and mental health challenges permeating the early days of a still nascent 21st Century, we seem to have lost sight of any meaning, purpose or zest for living. Some…
FIVE HANDED NAVIGATION
LIFE’S TOUGH! The CHALLENGES are FORMIDABLE The RESPONSIBILITIES are AWESOME The EXPECTATIONS are OUT OF SIGHT And TIME is always TOO SHORT for what we want and need to do Consequently, it’s increasingly clear that…
Life is Like a Cave
Plato had it about right and was well ahead of his time, trying to explain why we all fall so far short of our potential – and short of our ability to enjoy the full…
Self Driving People
The development and production of Self-Driving cars became all the rage at the beginning of the 21st Century. Tesla was early out of the gate, and “autonomous trucks” soon followed: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a30196644/self-driving-truck-cross-country/ The stakes are extremely…
Headwinds and Tailwinds
“The Head Winds / Tail Winds Asymmetry” Tom Gilovich and Shai Davidai https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27869473 J Pers Soc Psychol. 2016 Dec;111(6):835-851. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-my-life-so-hard/ “The idea should be familiar to anyone who cycles or runs for exercise. Sometimes you’re running…
Embrace Better
Life is an evolving progression. There is no stasis … no parking lot … no statutorial sanctum … To embrace life, we have to embrace CHANGE. We change or die! And the world around us…
Asymptotically Speaking
“In analytic geometry, an asymptote (/ˈæsɪmptoʊt/) of a curve is a line such that the distance between the curve and the line approaches zero [but never actually GETS there] as they tend to infinity.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymptote In practical terms, one can approach…
Life is Like Parachuting
The annually updated book “What Color Is Your Parachute” by the late Richard Bolles has been a helpful life and career guide for multiple generations. The basic thrust of the book is one of personally…
Who ARE You?
Looking in the mirror and having it talk back to you is an unnerving experience: “What have you got to say for yourself?” “ Are you of any salvageable earthly account or not?” “ And…
Onion Skinning
In our barbershop chorus, The Kentuckians, our Director keeps challenging us to keep our pitch up and stay on key by imagining the addition of “onion skin” layers of higher frequency sound, particularly when holding…
Nature Versus Nurture
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/10/first-children-are-smarter-but-why/280725/ In the study noted in the article above, investigators confirmed the postulation that first-children generally excel beyond the levels achieved by their younger siblings, and they asked “Why?” A genetic basis for the difference…
Bringing It
We occasionally need to take inventory of what we “bring to the table” to advance our personal stake and holdings in the world … to advance the enterprise(s) in which we are engaged … to…
WILL Power
“ … (have you ever been running, and decided you need to run a little faster … and then you WILLED it and it happened; have you ever tried to open a jar of pickles and decided…
Hindsight Mindsight
I’ve struggled to articulate – in “digestible” terms – what I mean by “VISIONING” … i.e., being able to “picture” how the future might unfold – including discernment of hurdles and barriers to be overcome…
Brain Sum I
At this dawning of the 21st century, we don’t know everything we’d like to know or need to know about the Brain. But we know enough to set a more profitable course in life than…
Winning II
FLASH NEWS! Your success is guaranteed! In fact, you may already have WON! Wherever you spend the most time and energy is where you will realize the most success. You may become an EXPERT: Eating…
Resignation
“Our society has resigned itself to suffering.” Jamie Studts, Behavioral Scientist [Describing the fatalistic acceptance of a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence] ************** I’ve had a growing suspicion that, as with a cancer diagnosis,…
Undeterrable Invincibility
“I can’t function without my second cup of coffee; but, once I’ve had that second cup, look out world – I can do ANYTHING!” Herbie Halfmaster What gets you going and keeps you going through…
Winning Characteristics
[Reference: TIME Magazine, May 2/May 9, 2016 “100 Most Influential People of 2016”] This issue made me wonder: What makes winners “Winners”? It was a compelling challenge to compile a list of characteristics that best…
Competitive Advantage
In a capitalistic system of civilization, competition is the currency of passage. You’ve gotta be BETTER than the competitors in your chosen field of endeavor! Unfortunately, some can’t compete, and many do not have a…
Potpourri 1710A
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF What does it take for you to believe in yourself? Something as simple as looking in the mirror? Or something more? How about accomplishments? There’s nothing like “proving yourself” to make believing…
Hopelessness and Helplessness
Lamenting the “State of the Workforce in 2016”, I shared with our Business Owners’ Advisory Board (BOAB) my feedback from the state Workforce Development (WFD) Office, which indicated that the main problem in WFD is…
Force the Issue
In describing the ERTIA UNLIMITED “Lifecourse Diagram”, one of the major points to be made is how important it is to make ourselves “helpable” … i.e., by showing some degree of initiative … by being…
Buck Stops Here
The wife was cleaning out the refrigerator shelves but couldn’t figure out how to remove a retaining rack, so she called Super-Hurango for help! [OK, it was probably a ploy to make retired SH feel…
Slingshot Accelerators
We first encountered “Slingshot Accelerators” in the blog, Virtual Reality YOU. [https://ertiaunlimited.com/virtual-reality-you/] A “slingshot accelerator” is a paradoxical contrivance. In order for a slingshot to work, it has to be forcibly pulled back into a…
Virtual Reality YOU
Motivational speakers frequently promote the idea of imagining one’s Dream Job or ideal circumstance as a means toward actually achieving it. A football coach, for example, may exhort his quarterback to envision himself throwing…
Making America Great
… again! It’s the perpetual siren call of politicians … or would-be politicians … especially during election years! But I caught myself wondering: Back to WHEN, exactly? … to when all the roads were…
Benchmarking
This week’s question is: How are you doing … and compared to who(m) or what? Everything is relative, right? No less than Einstein, his own self, said so! However, what’s dangerous about benchmarking…
Breaking Better
I reflexively wince when seeing or hearing reference to the Kentucky motto: “Unbridled Spirit”. Of course, there’s the superficial first inclination – at least in Kentucky – to conjure images of “unbridled” horses galloping idyllically…
Driving Forces
“Anything not underway tends never to get there unless or until imposed upon by a force of sufficient magnitude to get it moving.” Law of Inertia “The human being is one of the most inertially…
Be A Player
Ed Romond loved mathematics. After high school, he got a BA in math, and started his career teaching high school math in Boston. While his wife was matriculating through a Psychiatric Nursing program, she planted…
Brain Wiring
“It’s like brains get wired differently over time.” – Elizabeth Warren [Commenting on the evolving and often contradictory regulations for major financial institutions] In fact, life is nothing if it’s not about “getting wired differently over…
Insulation
Life is hard. Most of us don’t realize either how insulated we are from life’s hardness or how fragile that insulation is. Consider the plight of a young, single black mother of three children…
An Unusual Formula
[From Season of Life by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jeffrey Marx, Simon & Schuster, 2003] Gilman High School in Maryland has an unusual and highly successful football team. And its coaches have a few unusual rules…
Wind Wonderings
Sitting at a stop light with my mind wa/ondering on and off about nothing and everything all at the same time, I became peripherally aware of a small, gray, animated “presence” moving along the sidewalk. …
Gratification
Gratification is the intimate and ultimate driving force of first and last resort: We want and NEED to be happy! If love is what makes the world go around, happiness is the overarching sentiment…
One in Twenty
[From Peter Thompson TGI Monday, May 4, 2015 (annotated)] The 1 in 20 rule wags its finger everywhere in life. [NOTE: The Pareto Principle states that 80% of effects come from 20% of causes; thus, 80%…
Goals Revisited
“Our emphasis is not on goals but on culture. Who we are; What we do; How we do it; How it reflects our core values; How it surprises – exceeds expectations.” David Kennedy CEO, University…
Habits and Beings
Like it or not, habits pretty much define us: What we “habitually” do is who we are. My Latin Professor in college used the term “wont” to describe what we are “accustomed” to doing: …
Trustworthiness
An earlier blog (http://lifemasterymusings.blogspot.com/2014/12/character.html) examined the fundamental elements that comprise character. These included, by various accounts, all of the following: Optimism Wisdom Courage/Bravery Humanity Persistence Justice …
Life Choices Simplified
Either PAY or GET PAID. It’s that simple! How much are we paying (i.e., investing versus wasting) for the privileges we enjoy and how much are we getting paid for the services we…
Piling Up Dots
I’ve come to hold the view that life is about piling up dots … piling up building blocks, including connectable anchoring and reference points … that can, over time, be connected, rearranged as necessary, and…
Matriculation Failure
You may be astonished, as I have been, to learn that the failure rate beyond high school and beyond college is much greater than it is in matriculation through those institutions. Endless studies point out…
Compromised
I am astounded by the degree to which humans can be debilitated and still function – or appear to function. At age 62, my father was found to have severe cardiovascular disease with 90%…
Personal Growth
What is it? And how do you DO it? Personal Growth is the nuts and bolts business of life. And it’s required! It’s the process of “Becoming” … fully human … fully US…
Light Up Your life
One of the great experiences of my youth was going to the Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh. Among many other things, I was fascinated by the bicycle in the main lobby they had rigged to generate…
Battle Cry
What is your Battle Cry … your “Call to the Post” … your absolute imperative … your “Call to Action” … when important stuff needs to get done? What gets you off the dime and…
Be A Warrior
“ … he took to business as if it were war.” Cornelius Vanderbilt: Bare-Knuckled Capitalism The Economist (London, UK) Apr 16, 2009 In the unperturbed moment, it’s easy to lose focus … to take your…
Pre-Clinical Conditions
Many metabolic, physiologic and endocrine abnormalities are “silent”; i.e., they show no warning signs before (“pre-“) one’s life or wellbeing are tangibly threatened (“clinical”). Great numbers of such “pre-clinical” conditions can be identified in formative…
Random Walk Ponderings
“[The] random walk is a mathematical [representation] of a path that consists of a succession of random steps. For example, the path traced by a molecule as it travels in a liquid or a gas,…
“Riffs” and “Reps”
The person in charge of things I’m not in charge of [which represents an entire alternative universe] dragged me to the local fitness center during the holidays to sign me up for an almost limitless…
To Be Human
What differentiates the “human being” from non-human beings? Reason enough to ask comes from both historical record and the daily account of man’s blatant inhuman behavior, reflecting an unchecked rush toward satisfaction of “animal appetites”.…
Odd Fellows
Perhaps I was doomed to be an “Odd Fellow” from the start. My father was a card-carrying member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. (Yes, it’s a real organization! http://www.ioof.org/) But, quite apart from…
Colonization of Space
There is an increasing concern – at least an increasing discussion – about the fact that earth has finite dimensions and finite resources while its population – at this cusp of the 21st century –…
Adjustments
“It’s the most agile that run closest to the front on the most challenging obstacle course.” Craftmaster LIFE is one of the most challenging obstacle courses we will ever face – whether we have the…
Disruptive Motorvation
Disruptive Motorvation is the process of purposely and proactively “breaking bonds” and “breaking rank” with convention and prevailing winds to create new realities of possibility and to achieve out-of- box results. This term borrows conceptually…
Poking Around
The stump of our former flowering crabapple tree needed to be removed, but I was … well, … a bit “stumped”! My DIY inclination was undeterred, but I was obviously in unfamiliar territory. How do…
One Minute Challenge
Peter Thompson passes along this advice from Alex Garcez, who teaches speed-reading, on learning a new skill: “He says, ‘Make a promise to yourself that you’ll practise for at least one minute per day.’ This…
Acts of Conscientious Objection
Despite escalating provocation, I really didn’t want to move the house numbers higher on the house to accommodate a bush that was growing higher than it needed to be. Really! However … when ignoring the…
Acts of War
After six hours of manual labor yesterday – spent thinning out a flowering crabapple tree in preparation for eventual removal, I was inclined to go purposely off-line today. For the record, the flowering crab has been severely…
Wind In Your Sails
In the “Bite Sizing” blog (http://lifemasterymusings.blogspot.com/2014/09/bite-sizing.html), it was noted that putting air in bike tires (i.e., increasing the pressure) makes the biking experience so much easier/better. To the uninitiated, that may seem like “cheating”. And…
Pressure Cooking
“I don’t need time. What I need is a deadline.” Duke Ellington “One forges one’s style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines.” Emile Zola The truth is that most of us don’t function very…
Bite Sizing
Have you ever been presented a sandwich you couldn’t get between your teeth … and once you do manage to tear off a chunk, you can’t readily chew it until you mash it down to…
Aboriginality
It’s only frightening when you think about it: Our DNA only takes us so far in the universe – with a primary emphasis on things like survival and perpetuation of the species – and gives…
Accountability
Being “accountable” is the prime currency for “making it” in the universe at large as well as for “making it” in the personal universes we each inhabit. You may have money and you may have…
Beating The System
Everyone wants an “Edge” … wants to have “a Leg UP” … wants to Beat the Odds … In fact, we will go to any length – even lying, cheating and stealing when the chips…
Affirmation
It’s what “Makes Our Day” … the acquired, adopted or bestowed assertion that we’re OK … that we have value and are headed in a reasonably ”right” direction. It’s what we live for – a…
Manageability II
OK, let’s face it: Most of the things that make life more “manageable” range from boring to downright unpleasant: · Picking up after ourselves · Doing the laundry · Making the bed · Loading and…
Manageability
First Principle of Manageability You can’t have it all and/or do it all – at least not all at once. We CAN – and DO, however, all hope for better and wish for more. And…
Running Away
Who has not thought – at some point – about running away? · … from oppression … · … from boredom … · … from constraint … · … from inextricable calamity · … from…
Personal Best
U.S. Championships; Saturday recap (Nick Zaccardi Jun 28, 2014, 6:01 PM EDT) “In the women’s 400m final, Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross couldn’t run down Francena McCorory. McCorory, the World Indoor champion, ran a personal best…
Incentives
“Pay me more and I’ll do more work!” [Overheard from a staff assistant] Point to Ponder [Soon following this remark, this SA was “passed over” for a key promotion.] “Financial incentives, or ‘pay-for-performance,’ have been…
It’s Really Not That Tough
As this entry is taking shape, I’m in great angst working on “Terms and Conditions” for web site registration and find the confounding, compounding detail required to be excruciating. However, templates from other notable sites…
What We Know 4 Sure
Some things are certain. A lot is not. Much is only conjecture. And some things are true or practical only in certain circumstances. But, if what we suppose is useful, the supposition serves a sure-enough…
Operating Under The Influence
DUI, as in “Driving Under the Influence” of mind-altering substances, is illegal. But OUI – “Operating Under the Influence” – of myriad factors in our ever-expanding universe – is standard practice, some of it legal…
Fighting Chance
In the book Top Dog, Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman summarize a plethora of studies demonstrating the importance of having a reasonable, “fighting chance” of winning in order to function at peak performance levels. Being…
If I Only Had a Brain
Remember the scarecrow in the “Wizard of Oz”? Here’s his theme song: “If I Only Had A Brain” “I could wile away the hours Conferrin’ with the flowers Consultin’ with the rain And my head…
Peak Conditioning
“If I miss one day’s practice, I notice it. If I miss two days, the critics notice it. If I miss three days, the audience notices it.” Ignacy Paderewski, Pianist [NOTE: An absence of practice…
Life’s Toughest Lesson
“None of you is special. You are not special. You are not exceptional.” David McCullough, teacher, addressing Wellesley High School graduates June 2012 This admonition comes as a sobering comeuppance for all of us raised…
Slow Motion Visioning
I’m fascinated by superstar players in sports – how they almost seem to see things in slow motion despite the frenetic pace of a game and can seemingly adjust in mid-air. Some of that enhanced…
Hiding in Plain Sight
LIFE’S TOUGH The CHALLENGES are formidable, the RESPONSIBILITIES awesome, the EXPECTATIONS out-of-sight, and TIME is always too short for what we want and need to do. To protect ourselves from the vicissitudes of life, we…
Visioning Conundrum
The fundamental, nagging, gnawing question that keeps me up late at night is this: Why do we have so many “Defining Moments” / “Moments of Truth” in life? “It ain’t fair!” “Why ME?” “I never…
Can’t Wait
I’ve always had my share of “stage dread” … if not outright “stage fright”, sometimes with mind-numbing anxiety about being on stage, despite the fact that I’ve been on stage a lot, singing in two…