Bettering

I could do better.  You could do better.   

And the whole lot of us could do a lot worse.  

So what’s the point of “going above and beyond the call of duty”?  If it’s not urgent, important, completely necessary or life-threatening, why bother?  If it’s “passable” – if it’s “good enough for government work” – why not just let it go, get it out the door and move on?

“ … one of the reasons artists in fifteenth century Florence made such great things was that they believed they could make great things. They were intensely competitive and were always trying to outdo one another, like mathematicians or physicists today—maybe like anyone who has ever done anything really well.”  Paul Graham

Maybe the point – for them – was that it mattered – to them.   

The thought for today is about “Out-Gooding” ourselves.

A prominent minister related an embarrassing incident that brought home a lesson in “Servant Leadership”.  As he was leaving the church one Sunday, he found one of his distinguished Board Members – a prominent surgeon – walking along the side of the road in front of the church picking up trash.  He was compelled to stop and inquire – with some degree of incredulity – what the nature of this unexpected engagement really was.  Quite simply, the surgeon explained, there was a perceived need and he was simply making the need disappear. 

Here was an individual who would have – in his normal work environment – 10-15 nurses, aides, house staff, technicians and support specialists at his command to handle the incidentals.  Why not here at the church? 

Quite apart from the fact that the church has a completely different “command and control” structure, there is an over-riding “situational imperative” here: 

Do the most good you can do wherever it is you NOW find yourself.

Obviously, the best “good” the surgeon could do in the operating room would be to save someone’s life, as all the support team was doing the “best good” they could do in their respective supporting roles.  But the “best good” the surgeon could do following church services – on this particular day – was to make this particular distraction disappear – probably not dissimilar from removing a tumor from a patient, but simply using different resources available – nothing more than his own two hands. 

For him, it mattered!

Perhaps he couldn’t stand trash.  Perhaps he wanted “better” for his Community of Faith.  Perhaps he needed the exercise.  Perhaps he needed some mindless active engagement while contemplating the sermon of the day or the next week’s surgeries or the death of one of his patients last week.  Perhaps all of the above!   Whatever the underlying reason or reasons, he was doing the most good he could do in the place he happened be, seeing the need for something to be done and simply DOING it. 

Back in the operating room, there were a lot more ponderous “Betterings” to be done:  More efficient and effective surgical procedures to be devised with better patient recovery times; better supportive care; lower infection rates; streamlined processes; better “staging” of patients; Etc.

Here we encounter an apparent visioning paradox:  Things appearing to be done “for no good reason” might actually be being done “for every good reason”!  Climbing a mountain “simply because it’s there” not only gets us to the top of the mountain but gives us a breathtaking vista, capacitizes and incentivizes us to climb other mountains, and gives us a running start for whichever way out, over or across we want to go – and it’s all downhill!  Instead of just two-dimensional degrees of freedom wandering to and fro about the “plains”, we get 3D! 

“Bettering” ourselves, our work and our world actually has no downside – other than sacrificing all the “nothing” we might rather be doing.  It puts us in a more competitive position, globally, increases the currency of engagement, engenders a sense of accomplishment, and contributes toward satisfaction and self esteem. 

“Bettering” doesn’t have to be about BIG things.  And nobody else has to know about it.   

When going to the grocery, take a shopping cart IN!   

The greatest tragedy is not to care.  Care a little.  CARE a LOT!  Do something that matters to you.  Do something that matters to somebody else.  Do something that makes some positive difference, period.  Let’s get BETTER at caring and doing things that matter, and see what a bright world this can be!  Quartermaster 

“Do all the good you can. 

By all the means you can. 

In all the ways you can. 

In all the places you can.

At all the times you can.

To all the people you can.

As long as ever you can.”

John Wesley

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 from Clayton Christensen’s theory of “disruptive innovation”:

“The theory of disruptive innovation was first coined by Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen …  and … popularized by his book The Innovator’s Dilemma, published in 1997.  The theory explains [how] … an [unconventional] innovation transforms an existing market or sector ... where complication and high cost are the status quo.”  [From Wikipedia.  See more at: http://www.christenseninstitute.org/key-concepts/disruptive-innovation-2/?gclid=CjwKEAiA7ZajBRCpur2xi47n1zkSJADqV2Wlp0ojpvJw6FQxtAj5tjqLWS_X1pV0kswwm-_I44nBLBoCELHw_wcB#sthash.xgINn2uz.dpuf]

However, the precipitating notion for Disruptive Motorvation came from a pre-season sports analysis:  

“[Coach Matthew Mitchell] wants Kentucky [Women’s Basketball] to be the fastest team in the nation, the most disruptive team in the nation, and the toughest – mentally and physically – in the nation.”  Jennifer Smith, Lexington Herald-Leader, Nov. 14, 2014, B1.

Frankly, I can think of few things more disruptive in almost any sport than “fastest” and “toughest” – aside from being the BIGGEST or having immaculate execution, resourceful cunning/creativity, “athleticism”, or deadly accurate scoring capacity!  But fastest, toughest and disruptive can certainly make a defining difference – all other things being more or less equal.  If you can disrupt execution, neutralize size and athleticism, and hold scoring capacity in check, you’ve got more than half a chance of coming out on top.    

And then there’s soccer:

“US [soccer] teams have been run with the implicit understanding that they rely on hustle because they aren’t skilled or schooled enough to play straight up with elite teams.”  Jürgen Klinsmann, Coach of the 2014 US World Cup Soccer Team

But basketball is where it's at in Kentucky.  UK Men’s Basketball coach, John Calipari made the following observation immediately juxtaposed to Coach Mitchell’s comments above.    

“We need adversity  … We need to be down 10, and let’s figure out what we are [i.e., – how to disrupt the motorvation against us].  We need to get these freshmen into heated games … Can you make a basket [under highly adverse circumstances]?  Can you make fouls [shots]?  We don’t know until we get some adversity.”  Jerry Tipton, Lexington Herald-Leader, November 14, 2014, B1 

Write this down:

Adversity is going to happen! 

Water runs downhill,

Life untended runs downhill,

Any system un-nudged to the contrary runs downhill,

And MAYHEM lurks on the downhill side of everything!

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Get MOTORVATED/ANIMATED and go DISRUPT some ADVERSITY!

Disrupt the status quo!

Disrupt AVERAGE!

Disrupt complacency!

Disrupt incompetence and ineptitude!

Disrupt "complications"!

Disrupt negativity!

Disrupt stress!

Disrupt uncertainty / timidity / insecurity!

Disrupt non-productivity! 

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Don’t settle for half-a-loaf of mediocre goods;

Become “Hell-on-Wheels” against barriers to advancement and excellence!

Quartermaster

“Make it, break it, hack it, study it, improve it, perfect it.”

LVL1 Hackerspace

 

Formula I

“Do what you’re supposed to do

and life will turn out the way it’s supposed to be.”

[Found on an old farm house calendar] 

It’s a pretty simple formula – not rocket science.   

But it’s a bit deeper than the water in the tin cup at the well head next to the farm house, and so hard to do.  

The “catch” is that what we’re “supposed to do” covers a lot more territory than simply staying out of trouble.   

First of all, “supposed to do” implies that somebody else is calling the shots – doing the “supposing”.  Early on, they do.  Parents, teachers, coaches, etc., are usually pretty clear in lining out the ground-level “supposed to dos”.  For the most part, these are the STDs that are “supposed” to keep us out of trouble.   

But we’re “supposed to do” a lot more.   

The unspecified supposition – expectation – here is

that we will do everything we are capable of doing.

[Whoa!  Who does THAT?] 

Furthermore, at some point, WE are the ones who have to start picking up the “supposing” on our own behalf … lining out the above-ground formulation for wherever it is we’re going. 

Ownership of our own journey – ownership of our own Destiny –

is the crux of the game called “Life”. 

Simply “meeting [everyone else’s] STD expectations” may allow you to come back to do the same job tomorrow, but it will not get you a promotion or whatever else it is you’re going to want or need … and it most likely will not be a sustainable engagement.   

The ones who advance are those who visibly progress beyond expectations … who add particular value to whatever they do. 

This brings us to the Formula I guiding principle summation: Success is built most solidly on purposeful, goal-directed, productive accountability – on the demonstration of “supposably” diligent stewardship, not only of our own personal time, energy and resources, but also those of significant others invested on our behalf (see below).   

But don’t panic!  It doesn’t have to be all that tough!  As implied above, we only need to do what we CAN do.   

“There is only so much you can do,

but you have to do that much.”

Garrison Keillor, Prairie Home Companion

The tough part is moving above and beyond all the nothing we’d rather be doing … beyond the distractions, the trivialities, the “chilling out”, the degenerative disengagement.  

However, there are also some impressive collateral benefits in the formulation because you don’t have to do it all alone!  Consider: how much more could you do … how much better could you be … how much farther could you go … if you had a host of willing and able supporters nudging you along and "greasing the skids"?  As soon as we start demonstrating the heart, passion and initiative beyond baseline STDs – i.e., as soon as we start going out of our way to be useful … as soon as we start doing things as if we really meant to do them with every best effort, we start turning heads … people take notice … and bonus points start appearing on the scoreboard.  Teachers, supervisors, business leaders, coaches, talent scouts and movers-and-shakers at all levels are perpetually tuned-in to “who’s got game”.  They’re not into losing propositions or “average” players who are simply along for the ride and unlikely to become positive “change agents”.  Geniuses, “Superstars” and “Unlikely Champions”, alike, garner support at the highest levels because they demonstrate incredible accountability for talents with which they have been endowed.  It’s called the “Bandwagon Effect” or “Tidal Wave Phenomenon”; people can’t resist jumping on a moving train … they can’t bear NOT being part of a “going enterprise”.   

NOTE: Sometimes all you need to do to get a commitment of support is to ask for help.  Anyone with a genuine capacity to assist is hard pressed to forego a legitimate opportunity for engagement.  Get over the idea that it makes you look “stupid”, “vulnerable”, inept or incompetent!  Anyone who’s anxious to learn, who is sincere in their quest, who shows promise/potential and who is non-threatening is a prime target for generous assistance.  

So there’s the deal.  Start “supposing” toward the highest Destiny and brightest future you can Dream, and then get Formula I fully engaged to make it happen.  Quartermaster 

“If you have built castles in the air,

Your work need not be lost;

…

Now put the foundations under them.”

Henry David Thoreau

“Walden”

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 I approach this project, the “business end” of which (i.e., roots) is entirely underground?  

Theoretically, if I cut the roots, the stump should be much easier to remove altogether, but I wasn’t sure whether crabapple trees had a “tap root”, which would represent an imponderably larger challenge.   

Not knowing what I didn’t know, I decided to go “POKING AROUND” … progressively removing dirt around the base of the stump and around the visible roots to get a better sense of the scope of the project – sort of an anatomical pre-mortem.  This was instructive.  I discovered what I later learned were “buttress roots” – roots that extend both above and below ground that hold the stump, the tree and the underlying earth together.  They were impressive, to a point of discouraging any tactical approach to disconnection from the stump.  I also found that the stump did not, in fact, terminate below the surface root system but disappeared below my “poking” tolerance depth, further discouraging any attempt at complete physical removal.  Hereupon, we had an “Ah, Ha!” Moment: 

This is precisely why commercial tree removal services simply grind up the above-grade portion of stumps and leave the remainder to disintegrate underground! 

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New strategy: Since I had already acquired a chain saw to cut down the trunk of the tree, I cleared enough additional dirt around the stump to top-cut it just below ground level.  As a result, I now have a 3” deep X 12” sort-of-round souvenir paperweight!   It’s not Redwood or Sequoia … but its 25 years in the making represent just a little more than 1/3 of my life … so far.   

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More “Poking Around”

The instruction packet for the new chain saw … and the battery … and the battery charger was almost as impressive as the buttress roots of the crabapple tree!  As a “good scout”, I did just enough “poking around” in the manual to get the combination operational without endangering myself or others.  But I only did selective need-to-know poking around to get to that point.  Once the final deed was done, I figured I should learn more about the proper care and tending for this new tool.  Alarmingly, about half the manual was dedicated to sharpening the chain – which turns out to be a completely imponderable task, even with detailed instructions!  Perhaps if I do some more “poking around” – with saw and manual both in hand – it will become a more manageable proposition.  Otherwise, I’m going to leave the sharpening to the experts!

“Know when to hold ‘em; know when to fold ‘em.

Know when to walk away; know when to run.”

Kenny Rogers

“The Gambler” 

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Summation:

“Poking around” has many advantages.  It provides information; it debunks mistaken assumptions; it fills important gaps in our knowledge base; it can inspire; it can dispel myths; it can add some level of “sense” or reality to an otherwise errant belief; it can discourage unprofitable or untenable pursuits; it can get us off dead-center uncertainty paralysis; it can make the imponderable ponderable … the impossible possible … the possible inevitable.  

Don’t settle for being “stumped” or stuck in the mud; start “poking around” YOUR sandbox, watch life become more manageable, and look for great things to start happening!  Quartermaster