C Plan

I was impressed to hear that Alabama coach, Avery Johnson, has developed a “C-Plan” for his basketball team: 

“Compete on the Court

Compete in the Classroom”

This was a terrific concept, emblematic of a highly enlightened coach! 

However, I thought we might flesh it out a little for a really COMPREHENSIVE C-Plan. 

So I’m going to suggest we including the following:   

CAPITALIZE on every advancement opportunity

Own the CAREER you would like to pursue

Become CERTIFIED :: Get the GED, the BA/BS, the MA, the Ph.D., Electrician, etc.

CENSOR your behavior :: Become acutely self-aware

Accept CHALLENGE

CHANGE for the better

Develop CHARACTER

CHECK & DOUBLE CHECK (Start EARLY so you have time to EDIT)

CHOOSE wisely

 Put CIVILITY in CIVILIZATION

Seek CLARITY

CLIMB the heights

“The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not attained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night.”

                        Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Be ever-vigilant = COGNIZANT

COLLABORATE & COOPERATE

COLLECT, COLATE and CURATE:  Knowledge, Resources, Treasures, Valued Associates

COMMIT … to your Dream … to your Goals … to Excellence … to Better …

COMMUNICATE

COMPLEMENT your team and associates / Fill in the gaps

COMPLETE your work

Be COMPULSIVE in Goal-Tending

Make excellence COMPULSORY

Be COMPREHENSIVE … leave no stone unturned

CONCENTRATE / Focus / Pay Attention / Be Attentive

CONCEIVE Excellence /\ The largest DREAM you can muster

Develop CONFIDENCE (Practice, Practice, Practice!)  

CONFIRM … your Purpose, your Mission, your Engagement

CONNECT

CONQUER … Fear, Doubt, Uncertainty, Mediocrity

Be CONSCIENTIOUS

CONSPIRE / CONTRIVE… to do Good … to do BETTER

CONTEST & CHALLENGE … assumptions, assertions, theories, postulations, innuendo

CONTRIBUTE :: Support Progress and the Betterment of Mankind

CONSTRUCT … be a “Builder”

CONTROL … everything you CAN control

Be CONVINCING … CARRY the water, Deliver the goods

COPE :: Be Resilient

CORRECT errors, wrong assumptions, unfounded expectations

Be CORRIGIBLE – moldable

Be COURAGIOUS

Value, Develop and Demonstrate exquisite CRAFTSMANSHIP

Be CREATIVE

Be both CREDIBLE and CREDITABLE :: TRUSTWORTHY

CRITIQUE each Failure /\ each Success

CROWN your work with excellence

CRUSH inanity, ignorance, folly

CULTIVATE sensibility, CHARACTER

Be ever CURIOUS

C<>Z every Moment of Unscheduled Time possible to build your Personal CAPITAL

 Quartermaster          

  

Copyright ©2017, ERTIA UNLIMITED

WILL Power

“ … (have you ever been running, and decided you need to run a little faster … and then you WILLED it and it happened; have you ever tried to open a jar of pickles and decided you need to squeeze or turn a little harder, but not until you WILLED it did it happen; etc.)  Our WILL is important in everything.......we just need to WILL ourselves more or harder.”  Darwin Allen   

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Disclaimer:

This narrative is not about WILLPOWER … as in the ability to avoid eating donuts, fried mozzarella, double-fudge sundaes, etc.  WILLPOWER in this sense – as in stopping ourselves from doing self-indulgent but deleterious things – doesn’t work!  As long as we give ourselves unlimited choices, we will consistently choose what “pleases” us over that which is “good” for us. 

It’s about WILL POWER … the ability to WILL ourselves beyond our comfort zone and beyond just “letting life happen”.

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Unfortunately, engaging the WILL is something we generally relegate

to when there are no options, like:

... when what we're doing isn't working
... when what we're doing doesn't "cut it"
... when our back is up against the wall

“Man is a strange animal:

He cannot read the handwriting on the wall

 until his back is up against it.”  

Adlai Stevenson

So, it seems we would be well served to get the WILL engaged more routinely and right up front ... part of Total Intentionality.  What if we could operate in WILL POWER MODE all the time? 

The Toyota Prius Hybrid has three different power modes available:

EV = Electric Vehicle (only the electric motor engaged)

Eco = Economy (electric motor predominant but gas engaged as needed)

Power = Full Engagement (Both electric and gas motors running full out)

Some perspective helps.  Nature has endowed us with the default wiring to conserve energy whenever and wherever possible (EV mode) – which, “only being ‘human’”, as we are – we are accustomed to taking to preposterous extremes.  Adrenalin is the antidote when emergencies emerge.  But adrenalin gets over-used when we take too much liberty on the energy-conserving side of the equation.  And then we get all stressed out trying to catch up!  At that point, our WILL is irrelevant.  We merely defer to survival instinct and have to burn the candle at both ends. 

Anecdotal reports of absolute and unbridled WILL Power applied in unusually emergent situations exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/extreme-fear-superhuman/m

 By sheer FORCE OF WILL – or perhaps by SHEER FORCE OF WON’T … as in “failure is not an option!” – “nature” and “unusual circumstances” can bend and focus the power of WILL in awesome ways. 

It often happens in sports.  Some underdogs judiciously “prime” themselves to overcome even the longest odds.  So it happened that an unranked Florida team soundly and embarrassingly beat the number 4 ranked Kentucky Wildcats by 22 points in normal season play in early February, 2017.  [Twenty days later, Kentucky – WANTENLY and WILLFULLY looking for revenge, while defending their home territory – beat Florida by 10.]  

Unlikely Champions do it … rising from hopelessly dismal prospects to the top of a field or profession. 

So the reality is that we CAN rise if we have the WILL to rise, but more often than not we don’t WILL it.  We simply “take life as it comes”. 

Sometimes our WILL can be truncated by a sense of unworthiness or censure from the “tribe” for even giving the appearance of trying to stretch beyond our “Class”.  (Check out “Five Myths About Class in America”.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-class-in-america/2016/07/01/244ddb44-3e20-11e6-a66f-aa6c1883b6b1_story.html?utm_term=.eda0c999bcb7

Self-Talk can be important in getting WILL power engaged: Like … “Don’t be such a wimp”!  Or … “You CAN do it!”  Or … “I will not be denied achievement of this GOAL!”

Knowing what it takes, and having the tools and HOW-TO experience to do what needs to be done [otherwise called “Preparation”], provides a strong underpinning for successful … even indomitable … WILL Power engagement.  The rest is sheer determination not to fail or be left behind and perseverance to see it through.  [And don’t discount the “Bandwagon Effect” of significant others being drawn to support an all-out effort made toward an ascendant purpose.]  WILL it done – no excuses – and you will POWER through!   Quartermaster

Rule of Consequences

Why do we have persisting “Achievement Gaps” both in public schools and on the job … why do so many business owners complain that they can’t get “decent help” … and why do so many fail, personally, to achieve what they “reasonably” ought to achieve – never mind reaching their full “potential”? 

I submit that a lot of the answer has to do with inadequate application of – or sensitivity to – consequences of behavior. 

It’s particularly difficult to understand or appreciate the potential impact of long-term consequences.  Counting on delayed ramification is like counting on virtual fungible currency borrowed from the future; with any luck at all, there won’t be any consequences … at least of any consequence … even as the statute of limitations on “delays” progressively runs out and “ramifications” progressively pile up.     

We have heard much in the news recently about the “Rule of Law”.  But I think we have a much larger and more pernicious problem in the lack of a “Rule of Consequences”.  One shouldn’t have to wait until only the most offensive breach of accountability occurs (as when the “Rule of Law” has to be invoked) to hold a person accountable for less than “accountable” behavior.  Accountability (both to oneself and to civilization at large) is a citizen’s responsibility across the board – else one risks a loss of “enfranchisement”. 

While a loss of “enfranchisement” may be “no big deal” in the moment – and may even be perceived as a “badge of honor” to the more defiantly disposed – the collateral damage from losses of association, affiliation and indemnification (which translate to deficiencies in respect, legitimacy and trustworthiness) required to significantly advance in the universe represents a much larger and longer range liability.

Conservative psychologists and educators have long decried the emergence of permissiveness in parenting, combined with educationist innovations of the mid-20^th century, which shifted the focus of nurturing future generations from disciplined and “consequential” guidance of youth to the minimization of consequences, elimination of competition, inflation of grades and enhancement of self-esteem, with “Trophies for Everyone” ... thus, fairly convincingly foreshadowing the emergence of “Achievement Gaps” and regression of personal potential.  In fact, one might argue that “Achievement Gaps” only exist because the “overachievers” (both parents and youth who refused to give in – and who insisted in both getting and being the best) kept forging ahead, leaving the willful or baneful non-participants behind. 

One might also argue that such a state of affairs has given a “windfall” advantage to less talented individuals and “Unlikely Champions” who adamantly maintained an insistence on both getting and being the best, while the more savvy were seeing how much they could “get away with”,  “beating the system”, outsmarting the “authorities”, writing their own rules … beating their own drums … etc. – trying to force the world to meet them on their own terms and to compel the universe to bend to their personal will!      

From this perspective, the more consequences we minimize and/or eliminate, the more “equal opportunities” become available to those more goal-oriented and positively driven. 

The Urban County Council General Government and Social Services Committee of the Lexington Fayette UCG recently passed a proposed change to an ordinance that would expand the current city-wide curfew for youth 18 years of age and under from 11 pm to 1 pm on week nights. http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article131285794.html 

What a great way to “thin the competition”!  

[Unfortunately, it’s also a sure-fire way to “thin the herd” http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/crime/article124332179.html ]

For a similar reason, one might be inclined to support legislation legalizing the recreational use of marijuana; it would bring in massive amounts of tax revenue and open a lot more opportunities for the more disciplined and positive consequence-driven to rise uncontested.

The blossoming of craft beer and bourbon enterprises in the Bluegrass Region, combined with the change in curfew, will be expected to have similar impact … driving revenue and creating increasing numbers of job vacancies for the more soberly ambitious to fill. 

There are gut-level fundamentals of human psyche and physiology in play here.  Perhaps first and most of all, we’d simply rather NOT if we don’t HAVE to.  Thus, finding ourselves in a civilization where we’re as free to do ourselves harm as we are to chase our dreams, we have a sure-fire formula for degenerative regression, not progression.  Add to that our innate “Rogue”, defiant, self-serving nature, and we become extremely creative – even dedicated to a point of preoccupation – with “Beating the System”.  

It takes an extremely diligent application of discipline – and at least the awareness of potentially harsh consequences – to forge our way through, above and beyond the latitude we are given to do ourselves in. 

My short-lived and exhausting term of volunteering in the public school system during 2015-2016 left me with the unalterable conviction that a lack of interventional guidance is THE core element in the emergence of “Achievement Gaps”.  Not only are poverty-riddled parents unable to spend the time and energy necessary to supervise and mentor children toward productive citizenship, they are unable to get them engaged in positive community-supported activities where significant others [the "Village"] can have a positive impact and where they can gain a much broader and more global view of how the world works.  Personally, I was very lucky.  I was raised in a small community where noble role models dotted the landscape and strict behavioral expectations were de rigueur.  I was in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, church choir, church youth groups, 4-H, the American Federation of Music Clubs, took piano lessons, was in band, had excellent coaching in baseball, football and basketball, and attended a college which had a 10 pm curfew. 

This brings us to our final, defining moment revelation:  Positive Consequences make Negative Consequences totally irrelevant and unnecessary!  Give a person a Vision, a Purpose, a Mission and possibilities large enough to capture their hunger-to-succeed in that Vision/Purpose/Mission for an entire lifetime, and all you have to do is stand back and watch miracles happen!  Except that you won’t be able to stand back at all; you’ll be itching to help!!  All we have to do is find the switch that turns it on.  How “turned on” are YOU?   Quartermaster

Hindsight Mindsight

I’ve struggled to articulate – in “digestible” terms – what I mean by “VISIONING” … i.e., being able to “picture” how the future might unfold – including discernment of hurdles and barriers to be overcome … and HOW they might be overcome – toward getting us most directly, efficiently and effectively where we want and need to go. 

VISIONING is an extremely helpful skill to develop and engage.  For those lacking the capacity or inclination for VISIONING or FORESIGHT, there’s nothing like EXPERIENCE to spawn indelible HINDSIGHT!

  

Hindsight can foster insight … like insight into what works and what doesn’t.  And it can plant the seeds of foresight … like envisioning the need to invent a snow plow … or an axle … to yield better outcomes!   

HISTORY is an indispensible companion resource (except for caveats below): 

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana

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“There are three kinds of men:

The ones that learn by reading. 

The few who learn by observation. 

The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.”

Will Rogers

Odds-makers depend almost exclusively on hindsight for insight into foresight … exploring “how things turned out the last time” – and WHY – except that they swim against formidable cross-currents of unwarranted optimism or pessimism anchored to emotional baggage. 

Mechanistically, Visioning liberally utilizes “If …,  Then … “ conjecturing.  For example: 

If I drink and drive / text and drive, then my chances of an accident substantially increase.   

  

If I get a college degree, then my prospects for lifetime income increase more than two-fold.

If I continue consuming things that aren’t “good” for me and fail to exercise, then I can reasonably expect to encounter health problems

The major forces interfering with productive “Mindsight Visioning” include: Wanton Willfulness, an inclination toward self-indulgence and immediate gratification, calculated gambling on delayed ramification, short-sightedness, low Emotional IQ, defiant “Rogue” malingering, unanchored Values/Principles, misplaced passion, truncated dreams, foreshortened accountability and a perverse reliance on deus ex machina rescues.   

For hindsight to be a certified 20/20 proposition, it requires careful scrutiny – absent rationalization – and, often, coldly calculating analysis.  Exactly WHY something happened and HOW are critically useful features of hindsight.  Depending on how far out we are from actual events, and how much vested interest we may have in how they turned out, our recollections may become distorted.  Thus, caveats abound:

“Hindsight is a double-edged sword. Too much of it and the past seems inevitable, With too little hindsight, a panoramic perspective is impossible.”  LANCE B. KURKE

“Hindsight is of little value in the decision-making process. It distorts our memory for events that occurred at the time of the decision so that the actual consequence seems to have been a "foregone conclusion." Thus, it may be difficult to learn from our mistakes.” DIANE F. HALPERN

“Hindsight, or our ability to see our past clearly, is a learning function that, when damaged ... renders us unable to look at the past to guide ourselves through the present and into the future. Without this ability, we cannot learn from our mistakes. We cannot clean up the wreckage of our actions. We are locked into a cycle of repeating the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. This is commonly known as the definition of insanity.”  BARBARA S. COLE

So, yes, there are caveats to a blind reliance on knee-jerk hindsight.  But we can get better at benchmarking and evaluating it as we go.  It provides helpful perspective over time, and it certainly beats the alternative of going through life with either rose-colored glasses or bags over our heads. 

Bottom Line:  Develop as much FORESIGHT VISIONING as you can, bolstered by whatever hindsight is available.  But don’t shy from forging ahead in the direction you want to go “with eyes wide open” … laying tracks for future HINDSIGHTS that will be particularly useful in future VISIONING!  Quartermaster  [Coming attraction: CONSEQUENCES] 

“If I had to live my life again I'd make all the same mistakes--only sooner.”

TALLULAH BANKHEAD