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 49.48 seconds. That’s the fastest 400m by an American woman since Richards-Ross won the 2012 Olympic Trials in 49.28.”  http://olympictalk.nbcsports.com/2014/06/28/dawn-harper-nelson-wins-100m-hurdles-usa-track-and-field-championships/

I couldn’t help wondering …

                                                … what’s MY “personal best”?

What’s YOURS? 

Of course, neither of the two of US is in the business of doing Olympic Trials. 

So we would first have to define the business we ARE in, and then assess how we’re doing.    

 It gets a little “sticky”, doesn’t it?   After all, most of us are not ONE-DIMENSIONAL persons vying for Olympic Gold!  We’re sons, daughters, bread-winners, friends, socially conscious contributors to the community, parents, teachers …  

Still in all, there’s a needle somewhere in that haystack that calls us out for some degree of “bestness” accountability.  

Point to Ponder

An “All Time” personal best requires ideal or near-ideal conditions ... superimposed on days and weeks and months and years of training, conditioning and perfecting the art.  But ideal conditions are largely beyond our control; one has to be ready-to-the-max when the ideal conditions finally do materialize.  Otherwise, it’s a matter of doing one’s ANYTIME personal best with whatever circumstances present themselves. 

“What I want is better people, better products, better services …

building a better company so I don’t sit here and worry a lot about the recession.

I want to be so financially strong that nothing can hurt the company.”

Bank One CEO, Jamie Dimon 

“’It’s absurd to play a World Cup game in Manaus.’ 

Rivelino, Brazilian soccer legend, [commenting] on the stifling heat and humidity in the Amazon city Manaus, where locals claim just two seasons – summer and Hell.  The pace of the Italy-England game, played in 61% humidity at a temperature of 84ºF, slowed to a crawl at times as players struggled with the jungle conditions.  One player said he felt as if he was ‘hallucinating.’”

[Time, June 30, 2014, p. 22] 

But somebody’s going to win, despite the conditions!  

Kentucky Derby winning times stay fairly close to 2 minutes over the years, but here are some interesting statistics:  

Winning Horse            Winning Time              Year

California Chrome            2:03.66                   2014

Monarchos                       1:59.97                   2001

Secretariat                       1:59.40                   1973 

So did Secretariat have “ideal conditions” or ideal conditioning?  Perhaps both! 

And what about Richards-Ross, Olympic champion and fastest American woman in the 2012 Olympic Trials with a time of 49.28 sec., who conceded the 2014 U.S. Championship in Sacramento to McCorory with a “personal best” time of 49.48 sec.?   

Dateline: June 27, 2014

“Three months into her comeback from toe surgery, four-time Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross is already making significant strides. 

Richards-Ross ran a relaxed but encouraging 52.39 seconds in her heat Thursday to advance to the semifinals at the U.S. outdoor track and field championships. It was a full second slower than Richards-Ross' best time this year and well off her American record set in 2006. 

Not that she's worried about it. 

‘This is the best I've felt all year,’ Richards-Ross said. ‘I felt my rhythm down the backstretch was better and I got good position around the curve.’ 

Although the pain in her right big toe hasn't subsided much since the surgery, Richards-Ross is using each meet as another step forward in her recovery. 

She looked strong in her heat and was stride for stride with Francena McCorory until coasting over the final 10 meters. 

More importantly, Richards-Ross showed no lingering effects from the surgery she had for hallux rigidus, a hereditary condition that is similar to turf-toe injuries suffered by football players. 

‘It's similar but I think it's worse," Richards-Ross said. "I'm actually in more pain most of the time but I'm getting through.’" 

http://espn.go.com/olympics/trackandfield/story/_/id/11142934/sanya-richards-ross-highlights-1st-full-day-us-track-field-championships 

“Conditions be damned!  Get out there and do your PERSONAL BEST!!

Like it or not, ready or not, you’re a competitor.

GET ready – the very BEST that you can …

and go compete – the very BEST that you can.”

Taskmaster

Final Point to Ponder

Choosing well is the consummate vectoring engagement leading to Personal Best.

Did you choose an appropriate goal to pursue first next?

Are you focusing your time and energy in line with top priorities?

If you make personal best choices,

you can expect nothing less than personal best outcomes!

Quartermaster

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 demonstrated as effective for improving productivity in jobs that are repetitive or transactional. But as the type of work in our society increasingly evolves toward creative work – such as designing new software, creating new marketing campaigns or inventing new products … not only are  financial incentives less effective in eliciting improved performance, … they can actually impede performance.” 

 “Motivation 2.0's assumptions ... rest on the belief that work is not inherently enjoyable -- which is precisely why we must coax people with external rewards and threaten them with outside punishment. One unexpected finding of the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ... is that people are much more likely to report having 'optimal experiences' on the job [in heuristic work] than during leisure.” Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us Daniel H. Pink (2009) Riverhead Books 

“ … solving novel problems or creating something the world didn't know it was missing – depend heavily on ... the intrinsic motivation principle of creativity, which holds, in part: 'Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity.'”  Teresa Amabile [Cited in “Drive:”] 

So here’s the real question: What incentives drive YOU?  

·         Money/Free trips to exotic places/stock options/ ...?

·         A sense of accomplishment in great jobs masterfully done?

·         Opportunities for growth – to “Become all that you can be”?

·         Continuing education opportunities?

·         Opportunities to build/create/innovate/discover?

·         Being part of something “larger” than yourself? 

·         Opportunities to serve others/Altruistic gratification?

·         “Self-Actualization”?

o   [See Maslow http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs]

·         A “corner office”?

·         Being on a winning team?

·         Plaques and awards – being publically recognized?

·         Fringe benefits: Vacation/maternity/paternity leave/healthcare coverage?

·         A “second chance” … the opportunity to come back tomorrow and do even better?

·         Family tradition of excellence?

·         Having a forum and captive audience for your own “Reality Show”?  

What about the “stick” end of a “carrot and stick” approach to moving the world forward? 

·         Fear of missing out on rewards?

·         Fear of penalties/censure/castigation?

·         Fear of losing a job?

·         Fear of deprivation?

·         The threat of competition?

·         “Losing Face” … family/culture/individual? 

But here’s an even “more real” question:  How good are you at “incentivizing” your own engagement = generating “intrinsic motivation”?   

Point to Ponder

 

As organizational charts have flattened, evolving structures have called for more “Chiefs” than “Indians” = more independently engaged individuals … almost like independent contractors within organizations.  This “Sea Change” has created the increased need for intrinsic motivation – finding/creating reasons and ways to generate your own fulfillment/fulfill your own Destiny.] 

Or are you simply content or driven to “work the system” or “game the system” to “get your happy on”?  [Are you an incurable and unrepentant “manipulator”?] 

·         One-ups-manship?

·         Ofbuscation?

·         Control-mongering? 

The true professional finds and creates ways for:

1.    Self-actualization/self-motivation/self-inspiration

2.    Motivation/inspiration of others within the team or work unit

a.    “Leading by example” is an excellent place to start

b.    Being “accountable”

3.    Motivation/inspiration of others outside the team or work unit

a.    Fostering mutually beneficial engagement

b.    Being “accountable”

4.    Motivation/inspiration of those in positions above his/her position

a.    [Whoa! Who does THAT?]

“Stars are hard to see in bright daylight. 

But they’re always there and shine brightest in the dark of night.” 

Pastmaster

“No one can give you what you do for yourself.” 

Arnold Berwick’s Grandfather

[Reader’s Digest, June 2014, p. 46]

 

Grow to understand what makes you “tick” and what best “turns you on” to make good things happen, and indulge it often.  Then you will own your own “incentivization” and create your own place among the stars.  Quartermaster  

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 are extremely helpful, and, truth be told, all one has to do is keep mining available information, applying it to current purposes, filling in the blanks, crossing the “T’s” and dotting the “I’s” until it’s all accounted for. 

Easier said than done, to be sure.  But more tedious than tough! 

That’s pretty much “par for the course” in life. 

One of the first truly paralyzing encounters I remember from my own journey was filling out the scholarship and student loan applications for college entrance.  SO MUCH DETAIL!!  And all in triplicate, it seemed.  But there is no “catch”.  Fill it out and you can be considered.  Don’t fill it out and you CAN’T. 

You want a mortgage?  Same deal.  Fill out the forms!   Driver’s license?  Same deal. 

Of course, for college entrance you also have to take the ACT and SAT exams; if you want to go to medical school, you have to take the MCAT; and when you finish law school, you have to pass the Bar exam … all of which are correspondingly more difficult.  But you commit to doing it, you do the studying (“information mining”), you take the exam, and, hopefully, move to the next level. 

It’s all a matter of taking the time and making the time – including adding content to the brain. At some point, you’ve simply got to let your brain take over with whatever content you’ve packed into it – with as many “blanks” filled in as possible.  It’s the loading and “filling in the blanks” that’s more tedious than difficult.  The really “difficult” part is giving up everything else we’d much rather be doing!

Starting a new business is equally daunting in tedium.  Yes, it’s also formidable for first-timers.  But there are lots of agencies and individuals who are willing to help – even traditional “gatekeepers”, like the US Patent and Trademark Office, are willing to assist where needed.  All you have to do is ask!  (See "Catalysis" below.)

Wow!  

And, generally, it’s not just a one-time pass or fail deal … you get to ask again and again as many times as you need to or want to until it’s “passable”.  (NOTE: Earlier in the going is better than later in the going.)   

“Perfection is achieved in small steps … but you have to take the steps!”

Halfmaster

Committing the TIME and committing the EFFORT is the tough part – not only because the unknown and unwelcome is compounded by fear, but also because of our recalcitrant reluctance simply to be “bothered” or nudged out of our comfort zone. 

 

In chemistry, nothing happens unless the ACTIVATION ENERGY (an appropriate amount of “commitment”) for a particular reaction is sufficient to get it going.  Often that requires heat.  Sometimes it takes high pressure.  [And it certainly helps to get everything else out of the reaction flask that might interfere – get rid of the newspaper, already … and the video games … and the TV … !]    

The presence of a catalyst is extremely helpful.  NOTE: Biological chemistry runs almost exclusively at ambient temperature and pressure with catalytic assistance from micronutrients and enzymes. 

Autocatalysis – the spontaneous generation of “order” out of “disorder” – is an unusual but extremely powerful process where permissive conditions exist.   

“There are many instances in which physical systems spontaneously become emergent or orderly. For example, despite the destruction they cause, hurricanes have a very orderly vortex motion when compared to the random motion of the air molecules in a closed room. Even more spectacular is the order created by chemical systems; the most dramatic being the order associated with life.” [Wikipedia]

Getting to the point where the blanks start “filling themselves in” is the ideal circumstance.  Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi uses the terminology “Finding Flow” to construct such circumstances.  [Finding Flow, BasicBooks, 1997, NY, NY] 

Meanwhile, ignore all the “fluff” you’d rather be doing; just keep mining and filling in the blanks.  (Anyone up for a trip to the library … a web search for key content needed for your next project … ?)

Repeat after me:  “It ain’t that TOUGH; it’s merely TEJOUS!” 

Let’s get “T’d UP”!

Quartermaster

 

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 purpose in the moment. 

Developing a common-ground knowledge of what IS and what WORKS is a compelling engagement.  Many do NOT know or understand some basic precepts of life and most of us who DO know at least some of them don’t always follow them.  This foible causes great angst and earnst, truncates potential and possibilities, and can get us into much more trouble than we rightfully “deserve”. 

The list of what we know is long … and getting longer … as it should.  But let that not deter us from getting some very fundamental stuff on the docket.  We generally act on what we believe.  But let us first be sure of what we know.  Here’s a beginning list of what I believe we know “for sure” – or should:

Life isn’t fair.

What we think we know – even if “plausible” – doesn’t always pass the litmus test of durable goods; It won’t hold water in a flood or stand up to wind in a storm.

Everything we need to know was definitely not conveyed to us in kindergarten.

While perfection may not be a justifiable end, in itself,

perfection is not imponderable and certainly not unapproachable.

And, while perfection may be impossible in some circumstances,

excellence is not, and an all-out effort is not.

Ownership and productivity have replaced seniority as the prime tickets to promotion and tenure … to sustainable engagement.

What we decide we’re willing to “settle for” bears no relation to what the universe will allow or to what we will eventually need or to what we think we “deserve”.

The ante keeps going UP.

NOW lasts only a moment but can have permanent consequences.

Hard work is more likely to be rewarded than light work or no work.

Purposeful engagement is more enlifening than diversional engagement.

Time poorly spent and choices poorly made are ultimately penalized.

Some mistakes are unrecoverable. 

Opportunities are irrelevant to the unprepared.

Extra effort is required for extra credit.

“Due Diligence” is sometimes not enough.

Downhill is the only direction things move when left untended.

Some things aren’t really worth “all the effort you can muster”. 

Some things aren’t worth any effort at all. 

Some things are only worth avoiding.  (Work is not one of them!)

Royalty aside, people considered “Special” do more than expected, not less.

Unscheduled time is not “Free Time”; it can be very expensive if used poorly.

“Natural inclinations” are generally detrimental to our welfare.

Change is disarmingly slow and imperceptibly of great consequence. 

The universe has a lot of “give” … but not so much as we’re inclined to “take”.

Habits form spontaneously.  “Good Habits” are acquired only with purposeful applied effort.

Virtual effortlessness – the ability to say “There was nothing to it” – is only possible because of effort already applied … by somebody. 

Gravity rules.  UP is much harder to acquire than DOWN.  But the company of winners is so much more enlifening than the company of losers, and the view from UP is so much clearer and inspiring than the view from DOWN and BEHIND.

* * * * * * * * * *

This is only a starter list. 

And, still, in all, it’s important to retain a healthy skepticism about what we think we know.

“One can’t be too sure of certain things.”

Halfmaster

When in doubt, err in the most positive direction!

Each of us has an “Achilles Heel” – a “fatal flaw”, though it may be latent until too late to deal with or compensate for.  Some of us know what at least one of ours is.  Many do not.  I, personally, act on the conviction that I don’t know, and purposely try to over-compensate with the hope that nobody finds out.  Quartermaster

 

Mental Health

Dateline: May 29, 2014

In the wake of yet another mass shooting by an obviously deranged college student at UC, Santa Barbara, America struggles with how to deal with the identification, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness – not to mention its very definition. 

There was both good news and bad news buried in a comment by Pennsylvania Congressman & Clinical Psychologist Tim Murphy in response to this tragedy:

“The vast majority of violence and abuse in America is not the result of mental illness.”

 

 * * * * * * * * * * * * *

NOTE: Statistics on mass killings since 2006 are compiled at the following USA Today website: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/16/mass-killings-data-map/2820423/ SUMMATION:            On average, a mass killing occurs in the US every two weeks.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The good news from Congressman Murphy’s observation was that everybody with mental illness does not need to be sent into lock-down.  The bad news was that most of the rest of us probably do! 

… which raises a compelling conjecture …

There’s an important but very fuzzy distinction between “clinical” and “sub-clinical” pathology – not to mention more deferential aberrations that may seem a little off-the-wall but “within normal limits”.  Over time, nature has, in fact, endowed us all with the reserve capacity to function at a fairly “normal” level while, in fact, being significantly compromised.  Cancer cells can be present in the body for many years before they become sufficiently manifest to cause functional calamity.  Cardiovascular disease is actually detectable for decades before manifesting a “clinical pathology”. 

My personal suspicion is that sub-clinical mental insalubrity is equally or even more prevalent but better camouflaged. 

And what about those precious few “normal” souls – maybe even including some of US – who, being regularly bombarded by vested interests, come to believe … and act upon … completely trumped up assertions about trolls and trappings that need to command our attention? 

[Point to Ponder]

[On what basis did you vote in the most recent election? 

Do you realize that folks like Homer Simpson and Archie Bunker

actually DO exist … actually DO vote … and help determine the outcome of elections?]

 At what point does bias/prejudice/bigotry weigh in as a sub-clinical pathology?  

And at what point does simple or not-so-simple naiveté – refractory, defiant or otherwise?   

“Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

John F. Kennedy

 
We’re better than that!

We can DO better than that.

“A man who does not suspect his own sanity …

who does not question his own assumptions and assertions …,

and who does not regularly make the effort to identify

and corral/correct errant thought

isn’t doing due diligence.”

Quartermaster

 We will do better !