Life is To Die For

 

NOTE: This was a particularly tough blog to limit to a single title. 

Equally serviceable titles included:  “Nine Lives” and “Metamorphosis”.

First, here’s a germinative suggestion: Take a trip through Arlington Cemetery sometime and ponder this thought:  What these honored men and women of our armed services died for was not our freedom to Tweet and Twitter and play video games; such are only degenerative collateral by-products.  They died trying to protect our ability to become the best we could be toward the end of making the world a better place for our having had the privilege of their protection.  It’s a sobering thought that ought to put a little fire under our belts. 

That’s Consideration One.

The Second Consideration is that we can’t become “all that we can be” [i.e., what our military heroes died for] without some very large and often traumatic changes in our lives.  The caterpillar paradigm of metamorphosis into a butterfly is instructive in this regard, but we rarely take it far enough.  In human development terms, the transitions are never complete.  Unlike the caterpillar, we are a very long distance from being “fully developed” once we get through puberty – or through high school … or college, etc.  Perhaps the arthropod paradigm is a better one: Being held together by an exoskeleton, the crab or lobster has to keep breaking out of its shell and fabricating new shells as it continues to grow. 

Humans, “being only human”, conceptually limit ourselves – i.e., fail to break out of our shells – due to what we imperfectly perceive about the world.  The first “shell” we need to break is that the world doesn’t revolve around us.  It took civilization a very long time to accept the fact that the sun does not revolve around the earth.  [“It was only in 1820 that the Church allowed another astronomer, Joseph Settle, to declare the heliocentric motion of the Earth, as proposed by Copernicus over 200 years before, as fact.” (Wikipedia)].   Most of us don’t have the luxury of languishing 200 years before getting it right! 

Also important is the fact that the harder our shells become, the more difficult they are to crack.  Comfort Zone “nesting” turns out to be a formidable exoskeleton polymerizing process.

And myriad others contribute to the hardness of our shells, with or without our overt awareness or conscious consent.  Who’s contributing to the hardness of your shell?  Rush Limbaugh?  The Tea Party?  The NRA?  

The bottom line is this: To get where we’re going and to find our “rightful” place in the world, certain things inside us have to die.  We have to move beyond ignorance, beyond mistaken assumptions, beyond unrealistic expectations and beyond unfounded entitlements.  We have to take the “blinders” off, become less myopic, and venture out of our small ponds into deep water beyond provincialism and sectarianism.  And we have to leave crippling dependencies and comfort zone callosities behind us. 

So here’s the challenge: Break through to greatness!  Shed the constricting/constraining contrived vestments and energize yourself through purposeful transformation toward a new state of “being” and “becoming”.  REAL life is to die for.  Quartermaster  

 

Out Of Code

In a recent grant-writing process, I encountered numerous points where I simply had no template for specifically what I was proposing/requesting, and/or for the way I wanted it to come out “just so”.  I felt like a computer must feel when it runs out of code!  But I had no choice of throwing up a flag, like “error” or “can’t compute” or “this program has encountered a problem and must shut down.”  I had to soldier on and create my own code.

In this case, I had to go off in a corner, sit quietly, focus and ask – and then answer: What am I really asking for/trying to say and how effectively am I tapping into resonating connectors for the target audience? 

However, I’ve found this was only a microcosm of the greater reality of my life: I’m actually “out of code” a lot and have to either “make it up” or carve my way out as I go. 

Fortunately, a lot of the code I’ve packed on board over the past 50+ years easily translates across similar circumstances.  That’s the good news!  The not-so-good news is that I probably have accumulated a lot of “nonsense” code as well as some apportionment of downright “bad” code. 

We should make a standard practice of monitoring our “code”, editing it, and expanding it wherever and however possible.  And we should not be timid about creating new code to get through uncharted waters.  That’s called experimentation, survival, growth, development and – eventually – progress!    

So here’s our challenge: Pile up as much sensible, sustainable and translatable “code” as possible as fast as possible.  Survival depends on it; quality of life is markedly enhanced by it; creation of new code is much less onerous when needed; and the distance and heights one can travel are so much greater.             Quartermaster

 

Collateral

When you apply for a loan, the bank will want to know what kind of collateral you have.  The bank is not in the business of losing money … notwithstanding the horrendous debacle of 2008.  Under more “normal” circumstances, if the loan is for buying a house or a car, the bank will count the house or the car as collateral; if you don’t pay off the loan, they will repossess the house or the car and resell it. 

When applying for a job, the same rules apply.  The hiring company is looking for some “collateral” – something as close to absolute assurance as possible that you will deliver what they need – with interest. 

Your experience is an excellent source of collateral.  But it doesn’t tell the whole story.  “Experience”, in many instances, may simply mean a person “put in time.”  In other instances, it may be the wrong kind of collateral; if you’ve jumped from job to job without obvious progression or without a purposeful theme or goal, it could be a liability. 

More globally, the hiring company is looking at YOU, Inc. as the collateral.  They want to know how much “equity” you represent in their grand scheme of things, and how much you can contribute toward their bottom line.  They’re not looking for someone merely to fill a position. 

For best evidence about the soundness of YOU, Inc. as collateral, the hiring company will look for two things: 1) Benchmark accomplishments and 2) Glowing references.  Outstanding benchmark accomplishments and glowing references are like gold collateral.  

Finally, the specific elements they will be looking for as applicable collateral represented by YOU, Inc. will include the following:

Education, technical skills, coherence in communication, focus/mental toughness, tolerance, balance, creativity/resourcefulness, flexibility, team-player, leadership, initiative, extra-miler dedication, enthusiasm/passion, realistic self-assessment, tenable personal aspirations, understanding of the marketplace, positive attitude, autonomy, discipline, persistence, affirmative core principles, self-confidence, and a sense of humor.  

Master these elements, and YOU, Inc. will have a generous core collateral to offer to any going enterprise. 

 

Pile up gold-bond equity and core collateral as much as you can as fast as you can and you will make life much more navigable.    Quartermaster

How You Respond

21^st century gurus of the marketplace have put a large amount of personal stock in articulating the now ubiquitous quotation of Epictetus:

            “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”

A modern version from the universe of sports is given by Lou Holtz:

            “How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine

            what you become after the game … whether you are a winner or

            loser.”                                                                                   

These are cogent enough thoughts to stand on their own weight. 

However, the most critical, unstated assumption here is that you have to have the CAPACITY TO RESPOND to have any chance at all of becoming a WINNER; if you are out of shape, don’t have the endurance, and haven’t done enough 300 lb. bench presses, you’re not going to make it in the universe of football. 

You have to have APPROPRIATE REACTABILITY – RESPONSE-ABILITY – before you can react/respond in the most appropriate way. 

NOTE: Acquisition of capacity requires both EARLY ENGAGEMENT and EXHAUSTIVE PREPARATION. 

TAKE HOME MESSAGE:  Prepare for the challenges of life so you can respond appropriately when they break into your world through the permeable time and circumstance barriers that surround you. 

I believe this is the other half of what Epictetus really meant.  It’s not just a matter of holding “reactive” intentions or an “It will not stop me!” attitude; it’s a matter of owning an “It will not stop me!” capacity.  Quartermaster