It's About Choice

 

“It’s all about choice.”

Chip Gallent

[A reference to the breadth of options now available through the internet.] 

But that’s pretty much life in a nutshell, isn’t it?  Our goal – particularly in America – is to maximize choices … and to maximize negotiability among multiple choices. 

It’s not necessarily that way everywhere, and not necessarily that way everywhere even within the US.  Some folks are more content to have fewer choices with less effort, less hassle, less autonomy, less complexity and fewer tough decisions. 

Unfortunately, fewer choices beget even fewer choices.  And poor choices (as in fewer tough decisions) beget even poorer choices. 

NOTE: This does not count or ignore the fact that substantial numbers of folks suffer a plethora of deficits and paucities of opportunity and/or wellbeing due to poor choices someone else – like parents, significant others or society in general – made, severely impacting their lives.  Thus, it’s important for “right minded” leadership and citizenry to help level the playing field wherever possible in an effort to expand the possibility of positive choices for all. 

Perhaps one can play the odds on Good Choice /\ Bad Choice:  Does one good choice cancel two bad choices?  Or vice versa?  I’m as guilty as anyone, insisting on having a Diet Coke with a hamburger and French Fries!  Does choosing to take a taxi home cancel a wild night of drinking?  How much broccoli does it take to balance out two chocolate covered donuts? 

Unfortunately, poor choices are triple indemnity bad and good choices are only singularity good.  French Fries not only add girth and arterio-venous plaque, they engender the desire – translate artificial “need” – for more French Fries, and … due to delayed ramification …, in essence, “license” us for further indulgence.  Then, it’s “Well, Hell! I’ve already ruined a good thing; let’s have the cheese cake, too!” 

Poor choices generally arise from coasting downstream along the path of least resistance and “natural inclinations”, whereas good choices generally require upstream navigation against the grain of natural inclinations. 

So choosing well … i.e., choosing Good, Better and Best, particularly in the face of gratuitous and enticing options to the contrary … is something we have to do INTENTIONALLY – with preconceived Visioning, Vectoring and self-discipline/self-mastery fully engaged. 

Choices made with defined Mission and Purpose are much better choices than those made by default – i.e., during perceived “unaccountable”, unstructured and unsupervised “free time”.  [Note the fine print in Life’s Little Instruction Manual clearly states there is no such thing as “unaccountable” or “free” time; there is only scheduled and unscheduled time, and what we do with all of it matters.] 

Habit is an inextricable traveling companion of choice.  Good habits are driven by and produce good choices; bad habits are driven by and produce poor choices. 

Poverty leaves us limited choices.  Lack of education seriously limits our job, career and quality of life choices.  Lack of connection to significant others limits our active engagement choices.  Underdeveloped talents/skills /potential leave us lousy life choices, punctuated by disappointment, regret, remorse, frustration, inefficacy, disillusionment, fatalism, “bad luck”, purposelessness and overall lack of fulfillment. 

It’s really about TOP CHOICES. 

The bad news is that achieving TOP CHOICES takes GUTS, GRIT and GUMPTION.  The good news is it CAN be done!  The price you pay is full sticker price … translated “everything you’ve got” … no discounts or shortcuts.  And there are no “consolation prizes”. 

Points to Ponder 

You never compromise UP! 

You never “coast” UP! 

The gravity of life pulls in only one direction. 

When the engine isn’t running and the gears aren’t engaged,

there is only one direction you can go, and that’s DOWN –

either ahead (if you’ve already reached the top) or backwards (if you haven’t). 

Sometimes the fastest way ahead is to limit choices – better yet, to simply eliminate poor choices.  It is the Quartermaster’s view that allowing unlimited choices encourages poor choices: 

As long as we allow ourselves the option of choosing what pleases us,

we will struggle unnecessarily to choose what is “good” for us. 

So here’s the formulation:  Expand Blue Chip choices and eliminate Junk Bond choices.  It’s easier said than done, of course.  But tying our wagon to a Star … a Mission … a Great Purpose, and then – with GUTS, GRIT and GUMPTION – stiffening our backbone, exercising strict self-discipline, engaging with successful others, and using our unscheduled time to plant seeds and lay down tracks to a brighter future can move things from possible to probable to inevitable. 

Make positive choices an obligatory charting tool

for achieving your personal Manifest Destiny.

Quartermaster 

“When you make a [positive] choice,

you mobilize vast human energies and resources

which otherwise go untapped.”

Robert Fritz

 

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% blockage in one coronary artery and 70% blockage in three others.  He eventually had a quadruple bypass operation and lived another 25 fruitful years – with an artificial hip, arthritis, and BPH, besides.  But, through it all, he only ever missed a couple of Sundays teaching Bible Study and never forfeited his “country farm” garden until the very last. 

Rosa came highly recommended to the Chairman’s lab as a Senior Technical Associate.  She had been the manager of a sizeable federal contract research program at a private lab just across town.  [The contract was expiring and the head of the program – who, in fact, had highly recommended her – was retiring.]  Rosa turned out to be “a real piece of work”.  She dressed “to the nines” – which was substantial overkill for a lab-rat, had just married one of the top graduating medical students [her second marriage], and was a “drama queen”, the likes of which I had never encountered before.  She claimed to have used the divorce settlement money from her original marriage plus some of her retirement money to outfit a personal contracting lab in a warehouse somewhere downtown.  She was occasionally late or distracted by major daily crises involving a plethora of disparate friends, associates and family members.  She showed up faithfully for regular lab meetings but was MIA at odd times throughout the day.  And she produced a variable volume of data which could not be corroborated by other lab staff.  After nine weeks, Rosa had to be let go.  Things just weren’t adding up.  As it turned out, Rosa was discovered to have a drug addiction with a pathological Prima Donna complex masquerading as a near-functional human being.

“Roughly 19% of adults experience a diagnosable mental health issue, federal data shows, and countless more go through a tough time without talking about it.”   [Mandy Oaklander, Time, March 16, 2015, p. 24] 

It’s the number of under-the-radar, non-diagnosable compromised individuals that gives one harrowing pause … a number that is not only “countless”, but undoubtedly huge. 

An underdeveloped or damaged prefrontal cortex leaves one stuck in adolescence, with truncated executive brain function.   “Heavy drinkers also experience the frontal lobe system double whammy: They may lose certain capabilities, such as impulse control or motor coordination or the ability to drive safely, but they aren't aware that they've lost them -- or simply don't care -- so they forge ahead anyway."  The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload [Daniel J. Levitin, Penguin Group, 2014.] 

The Social Security Administration now recognizes over 200 “Compassionate Allowance” conditions and, as of 2013, more than 14 million persons, nationwide, were receiving disability payments.  [NOTE: While these individuals are not deemed “abled” for all profitable purposes, many are, nonetheless, functional to a point of moderately manageable survival and do not require supportive care.  Thus, they can appear, for all practical purposes, as functionally “normal”.] 

“The number of Americans receiving federal disability payments has nearly doubled over the last 15 years. There are towns and counties around the nation where almost 1/4 of [working age] adults are on disability ... Planet Money reporter, Chana Joffe-Walt … [particularly singled out] Hale County, Alabama.”

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/490/trends-with-benefits] 

On the “flip side”, we encounter more than a handful of Unlikely Champions – i.e., individuals who are born with or acquire life-altering handicaps or functional deficits by which they are “compromised” in many different ways, yet, through sheer fortitude of the human spirit, they are able to rise to the top of their chosen field.  [viz., Wilma Rudolph, Christy Brown (“My Left Foot”), Stephen Hawking (“A Brief History of Time”, etc.] 

Thus, a “Compromised” circumstance is sometimes a figment of the beholder – or the beholden. 

Truth be told, we’re all “Compromised” in some way(s).  We’re not tall enough, strong enough, attractive enough, skilled enough, “polished” enough, smart enough, coordinated enough, confident enough, talented enough, “lucky” enough, etc., to make it through life without substantial extra effort and more than a little sacrifice.  We also tend to have, and often cultivate, extended “dependencies”.  Add to this: warped values, unsound judgment, and lack of discipline – plus prejudice and the customary vices – and one has to wonder, seriously, how much legitimate hope there is for any real progress in the universe! 

LOS ANGELES (CNN, October 22, 2013) – [A] Video of Glenn Taylor [a “leave no footprint” Boy Scout leader] shoving the huge rock off a slender pedestal boulder in Utah's Goblin Valley State Park, where it rested for millions of years, went viral online and prompted media scrutiny  ...  [Taylor had] filed a personal injury lawsuit just a few weeks earlier, claiming he suffers from "serious, permanent and debilitating injuries."  http://www.wptv.com/news/national/glenn-taylor-man-who-toppled-rock-formation-at-goblin-valley-state-park-filed-claim-for-injuries

… perhaps a “serious, permanent and debilitating mental condition … “ 

* * * * * * * * * * *

The Pareto Principle holds that 80% of real progress comes from 20% of those involved.  That 20% may be our only hope!  They are the “Change Agents” … the leaders … the doers … the “keepers of the flame”.  Yes, they are all “compromised”!  But they’re fighting back, fighting through their challenges and compromised circumstances, and fighting FOR a better life … a better world … a better tomorrow. 

Compromise be damned …

Be an uncompromising TOP 20! 

Quartermaster

Dream BIG

Is Your Dream BIG Enough? 

This is America!  The land of Dreams!   How BIG is YOUR Dream? 

For the Children’s Sermonette, the pastor asked the kids:

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” 

Not everybody had an answer – it’s a big question for 5-10 year olds.

However, a few did:

Jackson said, “I want to be a CAR WASHER!”

Derek: “A GAMER!”

Jetter: “A YOUTUBER!”

Marlise: “A ZOOKEEPER!”

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

Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA)

Put out a similar question to high school students in the form of a

Dream Out Loud Challenge

“How will I change the world after I go to college?” 

The answers are still percolating … 

How about YOU? 

“To get a job?” 

Is that all you got? 

Some folks have tiny dreams: They just want an “allowance” … not even a “job”.  They need just enough to get them through the next week and maybe the next weekend.  

But weeks and weekends living from allowance to allowance or paycheck to paycheck turn gradually into years.  The work is often demeaning and the associates uninspiring.  And the financial return from tiny dreams is … well … TINY … hardly enough to survive, let alone thrive.  Emergencies happen, credit scores tank, needs get larger, wants get larger, debts accumulate, and “independence”, in general, gets a lot more expensive. 

Unfortunately, too many fail to understand or appreciate what it really takes to “Make It” in life.  With a couple of quarters in your pocket and a five dollar bill in your wallet, the world may seem like a shining “oyster”.  But, early in the going, it’s hard to tell how much money you’re really going to need or how DEEP you’re really going to have to dig when you’re wrapped in a cocoon of subsidized support, living under somebody else’s roof and feeding off somebody else’s investment … and/or of ballooning debt.    

[Check out http://doonesbury.washingtonpost.com/strip/archive/2015/02/15]  

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

Real Dreams have to have substance.  They have to have sustaining power.  They have to have drawing power / driving power.  It takes a life-encompassing Dream to carry us through bumps in the road, disappointment, rejection, depression, despondency and disaster.  Dreams need to be bigger than Twitter, Facebook, Angry Birds and “Better Call Saul”, combined.  Dreams of any account at all need to have meaning and purpose, because they’re going to require everything we’ve got.   

For those without a compelling Dream who have no idea what or where their passion or purpose may be, it may help to starting thinking in terms of mere/sheer survival – as in very likely not “making it” in the manner to which they would like to become accustomed.  Other attributes to consider are enhanced independence, negotiability, expanded choices, mainstream engagement, enhanced opportunity, “leveragability”, and, ultimately, “being at peace with oneself”.    

NOTE:  Those who think playing video games, watching sports in the arena or sitcoms on TV, watching movies, shopping ‘til they drop, wearing designer clothes and “living large” is where it’s at and what it’s all about are, in fact, vicariously supporting a whole bunch of other people’s Dreams.   

This is about YOU!  It’s about YOUR PASSION and YOUR PURPOSE.  

We need to find our own PASSION, OWN our own passion, GROW our own passion. 

• Mother Teresa found her “calling” to minister to the destitute at age 46, although she had committed herself to a life of service at age 12.
• Grandma Moses was artistically inclined from early childhood but only developed into a renowned painter beginning at age 78 … after arthritis ended her devotion to embroidery.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart learned to play the piano at age 3 and was composing music and performing in public at age 6.  

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write,

if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

What one can be, one must be.”

Abraham Maslow

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

What is YOUR passion?

How DEEP are you digging to FIND it?

How are you GROWING it?  

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

Quartermaster

 

If I Fail ...

If I fail, let it not be for FEAR OF FAILURE or of FALLING SHORT OF PERFECTION. 

If I fail, let it not be for a lack of PRESENCE … 

            ......... of PURPOSE; 

            ......... of VISION  

            ……. of COURAGE /\ of CONFIDENCE; 

            ……. of BELIEF IN MYSELF /\ in ULTIMATE SURMOUNTABILITY 

            ......... of CARING  

            ……. of INITIATIVE; 

            ......... of PLANNING /\ of PREPARATION;

            ......... of KNOWLEDGE &UNDERSTANDING; 

            ......... of EXPERIENCE /\ of WISDOM /\ of MENTORING; 

            ......... of TIME; 

            ......... of EFFORT;

            ......... of CREATIVE ENTERPRISE; 

            ......... of PERSISTENCE; 

            ……. of willingness to RISK /\ willingness to SACRIFICE; 

            ......... of ENGAGEMENT of SIGNIFICANT OTHERS; 

            ......... of  “FEELING LIKE DOING IT”.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If I fail at any one thing ^__ or at ten or a hundred or a thousand ^__

let it be wisdom’s quarry for much greater success to come. 
Quartermaster


“A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.”             

 Jonathan Swift

 

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 … fully YOU ... fulfilling our true potential … and it’s an ongoing enterprise.   Whatever age or stage of life we’re in, each of us is a kaleidoscopic conglomeration of unfinished business.   

Anyone who has stopped and gotten off the train is incomplete to a fault.

 

"The life so short, the craft so long to learn." 

Hippocrates 

Sometimes it’s important to analyze and upgrade or completely change our assumptions, expectations, and perceived entitlements – even things we consider “Givens” … even things that appear – for all practical purposes – to be working fine.  Unperturbed moments don’t last, our knowledge base and experience are extremely limited, and our personal view of how the world works is patently biased.  We each have “tapes” playing in our heads with our own version of how the world works.  However, … 

“It ain’t necessarily so.”

George Gershwin

Porgy and Bess 

In case it’s been some time since you encountered the delightful John Godfrey Saxe poem “The Blind Men and the Elephant”, it graphically illustrates our short-sightedness / blind-sightedness and you can find it here:  [http://www.constitution.org/col/blind_men.htm] 

Four complementary approaches to “Becoming All That We Can Be” are suggested: 

1. Applying “If …, Then … “ conjecturing logic.  This is how computers work and it’s how scientists conduct much of their research.  “If THIS is true, and THAT is true, then we might reasonably expect a natural extension of THIS and THAT to be true.”  Or: “If X works THIS way, and I do Y, THEN I can pretty well predict Z will happen.”  This is hypothesis generation and hypothesis testing.  NOTE 1: Sometimes W happens and we have to revise or discard the hypothesis.  NOTE 2: For computers, there is only one answer already programmed.  [While major strides are being made in designing and delivering artificial intelligence, a complete leap to abstract reasoning remains elusive – and often not just with computers!]  NOTE 3: The “If …, Then … “ process can be corrupted by gratuitous, self-serving indulgence: “IF I skip doing my homework and hang out with my friends, THEN I will have more and better friends!” versus “IF I skip doing my homework and hang out with my friends, THEN my grades will suffer, THEN my parents will be upset, THEN my future options will be more limited, THEN I will be disappointed … etc.”
   Rule # 1
   The person I first most don’t want to fool – or BE fooled – is me.
    
   Rule # 2
   The person I second most don’t want to fool – or be fooled – is YOU. 
    
2. VECTORING: This is the art and act of choosing our target goals wisely and then laying down specific tracks, steps and stones for wherever it is we’re going and however it is we’re going to get there.  Rockets, missiles and space ships engage continuous vectoring, using both planet Earth and celestial object reference points to guide their trajectory.  (It’s important to keep our feet on the ground, but to “… take something like a star to stay our minds on and be staid.”  [Robert Frost]) 
3. Engaging “Blue Sky” VISIONING.  In this approach, one is unbounded by what is or has been and is free to envision how things could or should be: “Wouldn’t it be terrific if we could do X, Y and/or Z to make life easier, better, more sustainable, more productive or more exciting!”   
4. Making it happen!    
   “It ain’t right ‘til it’s RIGHT,
   And it ain’t done ‘til it’s DONE!”
   Pastmaster

One of the higher level personal growth competencies required for successful passage – and toughest to get right – is EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (Ref. Daniel Goleman, Bantam Books, NY 1995, 342 p.).  EI competencies include: 

• Self-motivation / Initiative / Taking control of /responsibility for one’s own Destiny
• Maintenance of “right reckoning” / Virtue
• Persistence
• Anger management
• Delayed gratification = Impulse management
• Mastery of vices, “natural inclinations”/cravings/passions
• Dealing with disappointment
• Ability to feel and extend empathy
• Ingraining Hope and a sense of Ultimate Surmountability 

However, for all of life’s complexity, the key to successful journeying is a surprisingly simple formula:  

Do the best you know, learn more, know better,

and keep doing better for the duration.

Quartermaster 

“If you do what you’re supposed to do, life will turn out the way it’s supposed to be.”

Inscription on an old farmhouse calendar 

“The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.”             W.E.B. Du Bois 

“I am driven by two main philosophies: Know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others.  You’d be surprised how far that gets you.”    Neil Degrasse Tyson