Galvanize

“Galvanization is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanization, in which parts are submerged in a bath of molten zinc. Galvanizing protects in two ways:

• it forms a coating of corrosion-resistant zinc which prevents corrosive substances from reaching the more delicate metal
• the zinc serves as a sacrificial anode (electrolysis) so that even if the coating is scratched, the exposed steel will still be protected by the remaining zinc.

The term is derived via French from the name of Italian scientist Luigi Galvani. Originally, galvanization was the administration of electric shocks, in the 19th century also termed Faradism. This sense is the origin of the meaning of the metaphorical galvanize into action referring to suddenly stimulating a complacent person or group to take action.” [Wikipedia] 

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At some point in our lives – if we ever hope to make a full distance run, we need to get “Galvanized”.   

The “metal” that’s in us needs to acquire some thick skin and it could use some sacrificial armor – most of which is provided early on by parents and by the extended fabric of the gratuitous community-at-large.   

But this early armor is friable and evanescent – “sacrificiality”, by definition, having its innate limitations.   

Those who develop effective, internally regenerative galvanization fare best, overall.

Independently generated galvanization usually happens by the “hot-dip” method in the wake of a calamitous Defining Moment – a “Moment of Truth” … a point beyond which we never-so-much-too-soon realize “life will never be the same again” (as if it ever WAS!) 

Unlikely Champions generally get their life-defining Moments of Truth early.  Through imperfections at birth, abject poverty, severely compromising accidents, or not-so-mere discrimination – or, in some cases, through catastrophic combinations – such individuals come face-to-face with the reality that their lives will never follow a perceived “normal” progression.  Yet astonishing numbers continue to rise well “beyond their station”.   

[NOTE: The “galvanization” of Unlikely Champions also serves as a “lightening rod” for infusions of energy and support from substantially significant others.] 

War Cry of the Unlikely Champion

“I’m not going to make it unless I give it everything I’ve got …

and, even then, it’s not guaranteed …

but I’m willing to die trying!” 

A preferred alternative “Galvanization” method is to cultivate a larger-than-life (as we currently know it) DREAM, MISSION, PURPOSE … dare we say CRAVING.  

What galvanized “The Greatest Generation” (Tom Brokaw) was the desire – the NEED, in most cases – to “better their own circumstances”.  After the horrendous nightmares of WWI and the Great Depression, which essentially lasted to and through WWII, they had little more than desperation to drive them onward and thin shards of hope to pull them through.  Through the rear-view mirror of the “Roaring 20s”, through multiple experiences of winning against imponderable odds with more-than-equally imponderable sacrifice, through the resulting conviction that they had it within themselves to create a better day, and through the lens of burgeoning opportunity, they saw a “Promised Land” of possibilities they would not be denied.   

“When we were growing up, we didn’t have a steady supply of food on the table or a reliable roof over our heads, never mind a room of our own or a television.  And five kids had to share one bike and a bathroom.   Now that’s motivation!” 

[Reference lost] 

Future generations, who became accustomed to the unprecedented fruits of such effort being readily and almost universally available – as presumptive “entitlements” – considered the effort excessive, unreasonable and unnecessary.     

Unfortunately, momentum requires constant reinforcement.  Even well-oiled machines need a source of energy.  Steam engines need steam, steam boilers need fire, and fire requires fuel.    

The Second Law

“Any system left to itself will tend toward the state of greatest disorder.” 

We need to restore “order”.  Let's get “GALVANIZED”! 

“I’m HERE and this is NOW!

What can I do HERE and NOW

to keep NEXT from running off the tracks?”

Quartermaster

 

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 well – if at all – unless or until we’re advertently imposed upon by some one, some thing or a deadline.   

“We’d simply rather not if we don’t have to!” 

As much as it may “stress us out”, the deadline serves multiple practical functions:

·         It sets the clock ticking on a time-defined goal

·         It removes diversions from the playing field

·         It hones our focus;

·         It vastly expands the scope of concentration   

[NOTE: Members of the ADHD club tend to function much better under pressure!]

Hold that thought …

Self discipline is a universally underscored principle in getting things done:  

"There are 999 success principles that I have found in my reading and experience,

but without self-discipline, none of them work."

Kop Kopmeyer 

“Without self-discipline, a person with every blessing of background,

education and opportunity will seldom rise above mediocrity.”

Brian Tracy

However, it occurs to me that self discipline is little more than a means of applying pressure internally – unilaterally – without the need for external nudging.   

While “pushing ourselves” seems a complete absurdity, what with all the hassle we get from every corner of the universe outside ourselves subverting our best efforts to maintain some semblance of sanity and equilibrium, it turns out to be one of the most important “difference makers” in attaining our Destiny and Dreams – sanity and equilibrium be damned!  Yes, one has to be a little “crazy” – call it PASSION.  And the “Perfectly Unbalanced Life” can be a little unnerving … precipitously teetering off-center (Leaning In?) in the direction of our Dreams … but the rewards are remarkably “enlifening”.   

“Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

“ ... he took to business as if it were war."
Cornelius Vanderbilt: Bare-Knuckled Capitalism

The Economist (London, UK); Apr 16, 2009 

“Life is many things.  But all things in life worthwhile involve a struggle at some level.

… until we start struggling necessarily, we’re going to struggle unnecessarily.”

Halfmaster 

Early in the going, I found it helpful to artificially raise the priority of things that needed to be done – particularly larger and more important things I was not enthusiastic about doing NOW.  So I coined the term “Priorit-hi-zation” to represent this approach and have found it can work wonders!  Yes, it’s a complete fabrication, but so what?  We fabricate excuses for NOT doing things all the time, so it’s the least we can do to help even the playing field!   

“We can’t go through life deluding ourselves.” (Stanley)

“But we must, to get through life!” (Sophie)

[From Magic in the Moonlight by Woody Allen]

When we finally take that definitive leap across the threshold of becoming ME, Inc., and taking on the mantle of self-mastery/life-mastery, we get to start making our own rules … like Priorit-hi-zation is OK.  And like:  

·         It’s OK to be a nerd

·         It’s OK to delay gratification

·         First chances are better than second chances

·         NOW beats LATER

·         ____________ [you fill in the blank] 

That’s also the point where “Flow” begins (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi).   

Final Point to Ponder

When we stop resisting life at every turn, defying/challenging anything and everything that would add value to our lives – but that requires some deliberate effort, the “struggle” disappears.  

“When we do what we’re supposed to do,

life turns out to be the way it’s supposed to be.”

(Notation on and old farmhouse calendar)

“He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”

James Wells, “The Parables of Jesus”

[Adapted as the slogan of Boy’s Town, Nebraska, by Father Edward Flanagan]

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 a more manageable bolus?  NOTE: Snakes, eels, alligators/crocodiles and a number of other species have hinged jaws that can accommodate extraordinarily large meals.   

Hold that thought …

I ride a 21-speed bike (gears 11-37 minus #s 18, 19, 20, 28, 29 and 30).  In my fair-weather treks around the neighborhood, I primarily use gears 22-37, depending on whether I’m going seriously uphill or wide-open down.   

Point to Ponder

Who in their right mind would even consider peddling DOWN hill?

[More about that below] 

Uphill is the main challenge, of course.  And the uphill approach is critical; gear-down too late and you’ll be pushing your bike to the top!  So how do you know which gear you’re going to need if you have to change gears before you get to the grade level at which you’re going to need a lower gear?  You start gearing down the moment you feel increasing “drag” … and you keep on gearing down until you find the right “bite-sized” gear that allows you to “get your teeth – aka legs – into the climb” with sustainable, applied power.   

Life is like that.  

Sometimes life presents us with challenges that are “outsized” and unapproachable unless or until we can gear down to bite-sized engagement.  (NOTE: Untended chores and responsibilities can quickly pile up to untenable – “larger than life” – levels, so not all of our outsized and unapproachable challenges are generated by forces beyond our control!)   

Sometimes it doesn’t matter what “gear” we’re in, as long as it’s not REVERSE and as long as we’re not “idling”.   

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

AA Milne

[However, the secret of rivers is this:

Rivers never stop; they’re always filling up and they keep on running!]

Additional thoughts:  

·         It’s generally not wise to simply “swallow things whole” – even if they’re “bite-sized”; you’ll likely get serious indigestion with minimal nutritional benefit.   

·         Only taking on what others have already dumbed down to “bite-size” will not “condition” you for the full journey.  Parents, teachers and coaches go to great lengths to break more complex things down to bite-size, but sometimes you have to “chew” on them a while to get the full benefit.    

·         Expanding the capacity to take on and process larger and more complex “bites”/”bytes” with more “substance” is a key strategy for significant advancement. 

o   With repetition, I recently moved up from gear 23 to 24 on a couple of neighborhood hills – yea! 

o   [It may have had something to do with putting more air in the tires.  But don't discount the "pressure" to beat yesterday's mark!  Adding pressure to the formulation is not always a bad thing … if it’s done proactively with total intentionality and with the goal firmly in view.  It also helps focus.] 

·         Peddling downhill can not only speed progress, it will make the subsequent climb a lot more manageable … and provide an intoxicating thrill!  

·         Sensitivity to and perceptive anticipation of increasing “drag” for approaching hills is extremely important in maintaining momentum. 

·         Side streets and easy paths will not get you where you need to go. 

Bottom Line:  No matter the size of the hill ahead, start bite-sizing, stay focused and keep peddling!   Quartermaster 

“Life is a scramble.  If you’re not scrambling, you’re not ‘Making It’.  If you’re not ‘pressing on’ or ‘being pressed’, you’re not experiencing a full dose of reality.  The good news is that life doesn’t throw everything at us at once.  The bad news is that it will do so eventually!  And the more vulnerability we have, the more devastating the impact will be.”  Pastmaster Present

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 us little evolutionary underpinning for functioning in “civilization” at large, never mind AT LARGE!.  So we have to superimpose the more esoteric “civival” attributes on whatever our DNA gives us to make it work.  All of us struggle with the process.  And it doesn’t help that the world around us keeps changing faster than we can adapt.  [It further doesn’t help that we’d simply rather NOT if we don’t HAVE to!]  

Point to Ponder

From a single, fertilized cell, our DNA takes us through an incredible journey of

biological “becoming”, and it’s a circuitous route:

“By studying ontogeny (the development of embryos), scientists can learn about the evolutionary history of organisms. Ancestral characteristics are often, but not always, preserved in an organism’s development. For example, both chick and human embryos go through a stage where they have slits and arches in their necks that are identical to the gill slits and gill arches of fish.”  [http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIIC6aOntogeny.shtml]

[NOTE: This is simply a means of conserving an already established technology.] 

Thankfully, it doesn’t stop there!  

The momentum of development carries us through many additional stages, including biological maturation and perhaps even aging.   

What evolution DOES endow us with – to get the “rest of the way” to wherever it is we’re going – is the ability to LEARN and ADAPT.  It doesn’t have to “wire” us for everything; it simply gives us an incredible toolkit, which we have to learn how to use.   

So, then, the question becomes: How far can we travel beyond our individual biological “roots” to develop essential “civival” attributes?   

Some are more inclined than others.  Some adamantly won’t (it impinges on their freedom of individual expression); more than a few simply don’t (“keeping up with the Joneses isn’t my bag”); and a significant number can’t.  Genetic “predispositions” DO play critical roles.  Some have inborn aggressive tendencies, some passive.   

My own “predisposition” was passive – a “Type C” personality.  I liked daydreaming, listening to and performing music, reading and writing poetry, reading the comics, etc. – until I realized I really didn’t want to end up mining coal, slopping hogs or hauling sludge from oil refineries in order to put food on the table and a roof over my head.  Being raised in a foreclosed bank building carried its own mark of foreboding.  

Moving from a “Type C” to a “Type A” personality wasn’t easy … and it turned out to be an unending process – perhaps a “road less traveled by”.  But I now have a roof over my head and food on the table, “and that has made all the difference.”  

Some are obsessive, some have ADHD … The range of human “wirings” and “inclinations” is mind-boggling (sic.).  An exhaustive list of clinically diagnosable derangements is only the tip of a very large iceberg caricaturizing the full spectrum of differentiation anomalies.  (http://www.psyweb.com/ICD/ICD10/icd10.jsp) 

Point to Ponder

What’s YOUR inclination/caricaturization?

How “aboriginal” are you?

How is your wiring helping or hindering your progression to “civival”?

And how successful have you been in pushing

beyond the limits of aboriginal endowment? 

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Take heart!

The outcome CAN be influenced to an incredible degree.

Think positive, feed your passion, and keep pushing!

Quartermaster

 

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 power, but if you don’t have accountability, your run at the trough will be short-lived. 

Aug. 26, 2014: RICHMOND — Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell concluded his nearly 24 hours on the witness stand Tuesday by telling jurors he regretted taking lavish gifts from a wealthy businessman but firmly insisting he never promised favors in return.  “I, as governor, allowed my life to get out of balance,” McDonnell (R) testified, agreeing that he and his family accepted too many luxury goods from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., the former dietary supplement company executive. “That was my error.”

By Matt Zapotosky and Rosalind S. Helderman

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/mcdonnell-again-says-he-promised-no-favors-for-gifts/2014/08/26/756aa1e8-2d41-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

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“The most damning thing you can say about a man is

‘He ain’t no account!’”

Max Master 

In large organizations, accountability tends to suffer in proportion to the size of the organization.   

“Too many people responsible, ain’t nobody responsible!”

Rufus Rufbucket 

 “In 2012, Breathitt County schools superintendent Arch Turner went to prison for running a vote-buying scheme with other local officials. As the bars clanked shut behind him, state audits showed that students routinely missed class and failed to learn; dropouts were erased from the books by reclassifying them as "homeschooled"; schools were in terrible disrepair; and the school district was running out of money, in part because of incompetent budgeting, inappropriate spending for insiders' personal benefit and an unnecessarily padded payroll.”

http://www.kentucky.com/2014/08/23/3393120/breathitt-school-board-remains.html##storylink=cpy

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“… as part of the [contract] settlement [between the Metropolitan Opera and associated artists, musicians and labor unions], the Met's finances will be subject to unprecedented oversight, with powerful new mechanisms put in place for enforcement and accountability. The contract calls for an "Efficiency Task Force" … to trim unnecessary costs [$11.2 million annually from Gen. Mgr. Peter Gelb’s budget], ensuring that the Met can be run more effectively.

We hope our unique system for financial oversight will … give all stakeholders the means to ensure that the past practices that led us to this brink [of insolvency-triggered demise] will not be repeated ...”

Metropolitan Opera Newsletter Vol. I, No. 4 (August, 2014)

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Surrogate accountability or accountability-by-proxy is common for athletes, relying mainly on coaches to keep them out of trouble, but is a very precarious way to live.  Unfortunately, when the coach isn’t looking over their shoulders, many athletes go off-track:  

“Kentucky Coach Mark Stoops … announced the suspensions of senior offensive tackle Darrian Miller and junior receiver Rashad Cunningham for Saturday's season opener against Tennessee-Martin.  Miller, a 6-foot-5, 292-pounder who had started the past 24 games for the Wildcats, was disciplined for an unspecified violation of team rules … Stoops also said that Cunningham will sit but the coach did not say what violation the receiver committed.  The coach says that senior wide receiver Demarco Robinson has “paid his price” and will play after being suspended for the final two games of last season for an unspecified violation.”  

http://www.kentucky.com/2014/08/25/3395847/kentucky-suspends-2-for-opener.html##storylink=cpy

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Unfortunately, not everybody gets a second chance.  Accountability “credits” are crucial for second chance justification – if there’s any justification to be considered at all. 

Accountability is comprised by the core elements of TRUST and DUE DILIGENCE.  We are charged to execute faithfully, fruitfully and expeditiously ALL of that with which we have been entrusted.   

Accountability is our ticket to the next dance – to progression, to promotion, to affirmation, to commendation.  Someone who can be “counted on” to do not only the “necessary” but the “right”, the “better” – dare one suggest “best” (?) – is like gold.  Wherever “the buck stops”, where principles are upheld, where practices and processes are perfected and where ownership is evident … where one deigns to do what others will not or cannot – that is where accountability shows its highest mark of distinction.   

Perhaps the best benchmark reference for accountability ever given is in Elbert Hubbard’s epistle: “A Message to Garcia”, originally published in March, 1899.  A link to this timeless piece is given here: http://www.pbs.org/wned/elbert-hubbard/message-garcia.php   Do take the time to read it, and liberally pass it along, as appropriate.  I think it should be required reading in the new Core Curriculum, underscoring Life Mastery Skills.  Quartermaster

“Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment –

the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.”

Jorge Luis Borges