A Rising Tide

PREFACE:  This entry is one of an increasing number related to the challenge of living without a GOAL, MISSION, PURPOSE or PASSION in life – a privation with which I’m finding so many are unfortunately saddled.  Most entries on this topic are about practicalities, though elements of philosophy creep in.

The most important first principle of successful journeying is getting a grip on how life works – take it or leave it … and most of us are a lot better off TAKING IT!  Sustainability is a prime issue.  And “Hard Truths”, FACTS, VALUES and PRINCIPLES have to be FACTored in.  This entry was originally going to be entitled “Time, Energy and Place” (“Place” meaning circumstances or “Station in Life”.)  Let’s see how it turns out!

“A rising tide lifts all boats.”

Popular Aphorism

Example:

When the national economy improves,

more and better jobs appear, and

 life gets better for everyone.

NOTE: If all you want is a “job”, there are many to be had at the lowest level that offer no sense of challenge, dignity or fulfillment. 

 SOBERING FACT 1:  The “TIDE” of life doesn’t work the same as the tides of the oceans.  One will find sooner or later that the tide of life doesn’t naturally ebb and flow with phases of the moon so you can hop on and off the boat indefinitely, always returning to some prescribed point of entry or departure.  The tide of life “rises” only with applied effort, and “falls” of its own accord without applied effort!  If you happen to be enjoying a “high tide” moment toward which you made no personal contribution, you’re living on “credits” provided by someone else.  This is rarely a sustainable condition!  It happens early in life for a reason: so we can develop – without drowning – to a point of generating a critical mass of our own steam.  Thus, other-generated “credits” diminish over time as we are expected to begin pulling our own weight.

SOBERING FACT 2:  All our boats are “leaky”!  And they’re not anywhere close to “seaworthy” at the beginning of our journey.  A lot of safe-harboring is provided by significant others early in the game (see “credits” above), but “motorizing” and moving from rinky-dinky paddle boats to outboard motor boats to inboards with enough fortification and horsepower (“shark power”?) to get us through rip tide currents and buffeting winds and waves without getting swamped becomes a significant engagement for much of the duration.  It’s the largest part of the overall COST OF LIVING. 

“I never saw it coming!”

Plaintive Cry of the Woebegone Inattentive Sailor

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

“The time for taking all measures for a ship’s safety

is while still able to do so.”

Admiral Nimitz

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

[“That would be NOW!”]

Quartermaster

So, while there’s no absolute requirement for a grand GOAL, or VISION, or MISSION, or PASSION, or PURPOSE in life to move us toward getting our ship in shape for the journey, the clock is running, the tide is running, and they’re both running OUT! 

And, while we don’t need to take on noble causes and/or sacrifice life and limb for others, or for humanity in general, we’ve eventually got to float our own boat!  This WILL mean sacrificing indulgences along the way, as well as living well beyond the moment ... building, investing, accruing our own “credit”, and making ourselves USEFUL to others … almost as if we DID have a Mission or Purpose … e.g., like avoiding getting “swamped”! 

The 21^st Century is an interesting time in the development of civilization.  Early in social evolution one did “hunting and gathering” solely for one’s own purposes.  However, at this much later date, one can hardly gain anything (legitimately) for one’s own purposes without enriching another: You work to provide goods and services for OTHER people and they reward you with negotiable currency.  Work harder to provide more and better goods and services, and you may become more richly rewarded.  And the tide keeps rising! 

Wait a minute:  Why would anyone want – or ever feel compelled – to do any or all of that? 

In Peter Thompson’s words, it is simply “to be able to live a life of choice.”   The more negotiability and navigability one can acquire, the higher denomination choices one has.  It doesn’t get much simpler than that! 

So what if the choices one already has are more than enough?  Sad to say, many are unrealistically content … in the moment … with small choices – up until they have too many Defining Moments / Moments of Truth and/or NEED choices they can’t have and couldn’t foresee but unknowingly covet: 

“All I want is a warm bed,

a kind word,

…

and UNLIMITED POWER!”

Ashleigh Brilliant

In his book, “DO IT: Let’s Get off Our Buts”, Peter McWilliams says it takes an average of two hours a day to prepare for the future while we’re scrambling (or NOT!) to make it through a 24 hr. day.  That’s 14 hours a week … perhaps 7 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday if you can’t do it during week days.  That’s actually not a lot compared to an average of 30+ hr. per week that Americans spend watching television, not to mention unnumberable hours of immersion in social media.  Take a week off, and you’ve lost more than half a day in building a strong foundation for the most promising future possibilities. 

So let’s take a couple of hours today – steal it if you have to, a couple hours tomorrow, and make it a daily habit to keep the tide rising under our own boats.  Yes, it will also help float the boats of others, but we’ll all get dividends, and maybe create a “tidal wave” of even greater possibilities for an even brighter future.  Quartermaster 

Ambition

Dateline:  July 10, 2017

DEAR ABBY: My son, Allen, is 27 and a pretty good writer, mostly fantasy stuff. I don't like that genre myself, but I have enjoyed reading some of his work. He writes not only short stories but also entire books.

I have tried to convince him to submit his work to publishers to no avail. He has a college degree, but doesn't use it. He's content working a minimum-wage job when he could be doing what he loves and possibly make a living at it. Oh! And he still lives at home and does very little work around the house. Advice, please? -- FRUSTRATED FATHER

https://www.arcamax.com/healthandspirit/lifeadvice/dearabby/s-1974313

NOTE: This “Dear Abby” writer leaves out some key information … like whether or not the living-at-home son is paying back college debt, paying rent, or sharing other expenses.  If not, the price tag on household “Cost of Living” expense and associated effort should be assessed, according to his fair-market value ability to pay … which may mean cutting out any “discretionary” income and/or possibly getting a second minimum-wage job. 

am’biSH€n  noun

“A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work :: determination to achieve success.

Synonyms: aspiration, intention, goal aim, objective, object, purpose, intent, plan, desire, wish, design, target, dream, drive, determination, enterprise, industry, initiative, eagerness, motivation, resolve, enthusiasm, zeal, hunger, commitment, sense of purpose 

"her ambition was to become a diplomat"

https://www.google.com/search?q=ambition+meaning&oq=Ambition&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.4032j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Curiously, this posting includes an analysis of the usage of the term “ambition” in surveyed writings from 1800 through 2008, showing an 83.3% DECREASE in mentions of the word “ambition” during that period.  Stated in the reverse, usage of the term “ambition” was SIX TIMES as prevalent in 1800 writings as it was in 2008!  

But “ambition” is no less a challenge in 2017 AD than it was in 1800 AD or in 500 BC. 

“Whatever you do, do with all your might.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (428 BC)

“Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression.

No man is free who cannot control himself.”

Pythagoras (560 BC)

In fact, it may be MORE of a challenge in the 21^st Century, due to the fact that there’s more of everything to be had – and it’s all more easily accessible with less effort, there is less “hunger and thirst” for a better world, more diversions, and fewer readily “graspable” new horizons to visualize.  In addition, the “lowest hanging fruit” has already been plucked, and there’s no sense of urgency to climb a ladder that many in the third world would consider to have already breached “reasonable possibilities”.   

But AMBITION still matters!  If we’re not “DRIVEN into action” by someone or something above and beyond ourselves, our personal world tends to become gray, small and shallow with increasing echoes of disappointment, regret and a feeling of betrayal … that this wasn’t really what we “bargained for” … and “nobody ever told us this could happen”! 

Ambition cures many ills, including depression, despondency, hopelessness, haplessness, helplessness, apathy, depravity, desperation, and orneriness. 

Some believe there is greater nobility and “peace of mind” in being satisfied and content with what “is” and with what one “has” rather than being discontent with what isn’t or could be. 

From this perspective, it is felt by many that the Almighty will supply whatever they need.  But there is a big disconnect at the interface between heaven and earth where man is given the charge to pull himself together and cultivate what he needs – with everything the Almighty has already GIVEN him – “by the sweat of his brow”. 

The story is told of a man of great Faith caught in a great flood.  Found clinging to the chimney of his house as torrents of water rush by, he sees a guy in a row boat come by to offer assistance, but he cries out, “God will save me!”   Shortly after, a Coast Guard rescue boat comes by, but, again, the man cried out, “God will save me!”  Finally, as he is about to go under, a helicopter shows up, but, once again, he cries out “God will save me!”  When he finally goes under and ends up at the pearly gates, he throws a fit because God DIDN’T save him.  He then hears a ponderous voice: “I sent you a row boat, the Coast Guard and a helicopter.  What else could you possibly have expected?”

We acknowledge the fact that ambition can easily bleed into becoming the Eighth Vice. 

But Dreams are not the sole province of kings and conquistadors.  They are the most democratizing forces in human development and in civilization at large!  If America has become less “Great” than it was in the past, one might conjecture that it has become so largely due to a loss of DREAMS and a shortage of AMBITION!   Further, much of the ambition in America is now imported.  But, to be fair, most of the ambition that made America GREAT in the first place was imported! 

What DRIVES you?

What DRIVES ME …

·         To make my mother proud!

·         To BECOME everything I CAN become

·         To KNOW

·         To UNDERSTAND

·         To be IN CONTROL / COMMAND of as much of my own Destiny as possible

·         To be RESPECTED / certifiably “Esteemable”

·         To “OWN” some corner of the universe

·         To justify other’s high EXPECTATIONS

·         To justify MY OWN EXPECTATIONS

·         To expand NAVIGABILITY

·         To expand NEGOTIABILITY

·         To MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE than it was when I came into it

·         Simply to BE OF USE … to be of SERVICE … to offer some level of PAY BACK

“Winning” certainly isn’t the end all and be all in life.  But winning SOMETHING is really important … even if it’s “winning” against abject failure.  Our sense of wellbeing, control, navigability and negotiability are all at stake.  But we have to be circumspect about faux winning strategies … like simply trying to “Beat the System”.  The “System” can be “beaten” any number of ways in any number of microcosmic “battles” – up until the entire macrocosmic “war” has been lost. 

One of the most disconcerting circumstances is not having opportunity – nowhere to meaningfully direct ambition.  It is moderately alarming that, even in increasing numbers of “first world” countries, it can be said:

"… life offered few opportunities for young people with ambition."

But here is where we must look beyond “givens” … beyond the obvious … beyond “low-hanging fruit”.  Thank goodness for Dreamers who are constantly looking for new frontiers in science, engineering, medicine, social justice and the environment – along with many other areas of engagement.  If you can’t find and formulate your own Dream, latch onto somebody else’s Dream that’s more than big enough to share.   While opportunities in the orbit you now inhabit may be extremely limited, it’s neversomuch too soon to begin moving toward a higher orbit.  I expect to see you heading toward the stratosphere in the near future.  Make your mother proud!  Quartermaster

Onion Skinning

In our barbershop chorus, The Kentuckians, our Director keeps challenging us to keep our pitch up and stay on key by imagining the addition of “onion skin” layers of higher frequency sound, particularly when holding notes of long duration.  Without acute consciousness of this kind, the pitch will invariably drop in unaccompanied vocalization – no band, no keyboard, no orchestra to help maintain the proper key. 

It’s kind of a metaphor for life:  Without acute consciousness in execution – and with no supporting band or orchestra – our performance tends to sag.  So it would do us a world of good to do some “onion skinning” toward higher levels of performance in our everyday pursuits – certainly in the ones that count the most.

The question of the day is: What can we do to get the “Better of Ourselves” engaged to the fullest extent to get the fullest return? 

This narrative follows the progression of an international championship barbershop quartet, Forefront, featured in The HARMONIZER magazine, May/June 2017. 

Organized in 2009, this quartet went through multiple “onion skin” layers of development – both collectively and individually – on their way toward finally winning the Gold in Nashville in 2016. 

Early in the game, a couple of the guys were “dealing with some personal issues.”  One admits he “had a lot more diva” in him early on. 

NOTE: “Personal issues” often involve insecurity, intolerance, a “diva” mentality / attitude, “Tribal” tendencies, and lounging in a “comfort zone” apart from positive engagement with significant others.

When the “diva” mentality/attitude began getting in the way and wasn’t working anymore, there remained enough more “winning” to be had and more than enough “losing” to avoid that things began to change.  “I quit smoking and all that stuff to come back and say, ‘Let’s give this a shot.’”

One more thing about “Personal Issues”:  So often I have seen major “Difference Makers” who had incredible “personal issues” cope by burying themselves in their work to a point that work became their salvation.  Sometimes that’s merely running away from dealing with the vicissitudes of life, and it’s not necessarily recommended for everyone.  But it can help take the “edge” off some very sharp corners of life, especially where noble enterprise is involved. 

Several changes in Forefront personnel were made along the way.  Life happens, and it’s extremely difficult to find four guys from anywhere who are compatible in voice, social associativeness and a sense of Mission, never mind sustainably accessible for a major lifeline commitment. 

It also turned out that there was much more to “learning the trade” of Champions than they had imagined ... or had accepted for themselves, “being as ‘untouchably good’ as they were”.  But they committed together to take on the mantle of ownership for becoming the absolute best they could possibly become. 

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, how experienced you are,

you don’t know everything.”

Remember: These were not novices.  They had “been around the block” of a cappella music with years of experience plus a significant amount of formal training under their belts.

However, to make it to the next level, they needed some serious coaching from top vocal coaches.  Coaching emphases included technical accuracy, expression and expressiveness, stage presence and presentation, persistence toward consistency, and affirmation (they needed all the positive reinforcement they could get for the difficult stuff that didn’t come easy, for breaking unproductive habits, and for encouragement through the interminable repetitions to exhaustion.)

“We believed we could win

because she [Coach Jean] believed we could win.”

The winning formula turned out to be: First, BE COMMITTED, then work like you’ve never worked before and become EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD, and, along the way, submit to being SUPREMELY COACHABLE! 

“I found them to be supremely ‘coachable,’

being flexible and agile, willing to try new ideas,

and having the savvy to grasp and master subtle musical points.”

Coach David

But there were still significant personal benchmark hurdles to be overcome; the closer to perfection, the more difficult the bars are to be cleared.  [“Onion Skinning”!]   

“It felt more like a psychiatrist session than anything. 

I made excuses and fought him and didn’t want to give in.

He pushed me as a performer into areas that I had never gone before,

and I hated it.  He didn’t give up. 

Eventually, though, I accepted the fact that, to do the things we wanted to do,

I had to get [through being] uncomfortable.”
Aaron

Here’s a Boulder-Sized Challenge for us: Becoming “vulnerable”, while, at the same time, becoming strong enough – good enough – that vulnerability is not only a non-issue but a slingshot accelerator to higher orbit performance. 

“What’s nice now is that when we make mistakes,

we acknowledge them, we work to fix them,

but we don’t let them get to us.”

Aaron

That’s higher orbit “onion skinning”! 

So practice “Onion Skinning”.  BE COMMITTED, become EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD, accept VULNERABILITY and become SUPREME COACHABLE to help navigate rough water, keep you from going under, and accelerate your move to higher orbit functionality.  Quartermaster    

Quote of the Week

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”  Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Tool Musings

“Every new DIY project justifies the acquisition of a new tool!”

Herbie Halfmaster

[After all, the savings on labor and on avoiding subsidization of someone ELSE’S tools

more than makes up for the cost of whatever you need to do the job yourself …

… at least up until one has to be bailed out by a REAL expert!]

I’ve found, so many times – like today, that having the right tools to do a job is an indelible key for both getting projects off the launch pad and getting jobs done. 

I once had the enviable offer from a former boss to take on a moonlighting job for an ancillary organization whose Board of Directors he chaired.  His enticing conjecture was “You could run this place out of your back pocket!”  He didn’t entirely appreciate how many of my “back pocket” tools were already totally committed to my “sunlighting” job at the place I was already IN!  So I gratefully declined.  

What “TOOLS” are you carrying in your personal toolkit – in your “back pocket”?  And how up-to-date and relevant are they for what you need to do and where you want to go?  Here are some suggestions:  

KNOW-HOW is one of the first best.  But it needs constant sharpening, “pruning” and updating with the latest “software”, and it needs constant expansion.  “Know-How” includes knowledge, specialized skills and aptitudes.  It makes tough stuff easy!

A DETECTIVE’S INQUISITIVENESS: Daring to ask the tough questions: Where is the evidence that “I’m Special”?  How does the world really work?  Where is the best opportunity for growth and for the realization of my true potential?  Am I really being as efficient/effective as I can be?  Am I doing the “important” at least as much as I’m doing the “urgent”?  What’s possible?  What’s next?  What am I missing?  

A MARINER’S SEXTANT and COMPASS – to measure the “trueness” of our position in relation to the most reliable guiding star we can find, and to help maintain our direction toward our ultimate GOAL. 

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE:  This absolutely essential “tool” provides an ability to work through difficult times/circumstances while maintaining some semblance of equilibrium and still forging productively ahead despite barriers and disappointments.  It also provides an ability to recognize, respect and maintain rapport with others amid diverse emotional states on all sides.  EI is essential to support calculable risk-taking in moving toward new horizons, associations and possibilities.      

PURPOSE/MISSION/PASSION:  An incontrovertible “reason for being and doing” … an uncompromising INCLINATION toward advancing the most noble “Agenda” we can muster.

“GRIT”: Unwavering  commitment, determination and persistence required for making an indelible “Mark” in the universe.  (Ref. Angela Duckworth) 

A DEFINABLE POSITIVE:  To draw us unflinchingly toward our goal.  It could be the GOAL itself or the associated satisfaction and affirmation derived from a job well done.  

A DEFINABLE NEGATIVE:  Something to be avoided … like destitution, failure, disappointment, regret, embarrassment … like having to say “I coulda / shoulda been a contender!”

BLINDERS: To shield us from distractions.

A VALUE RULER:  To assure true worth of what we do – to help make Gold Star choices.   

A REFLECTOSCOPE: Asking the questions: Does this make sense?  Is this important?  Let’s do a REALITY CHECK!

A MIRROR: To see how well we are measuring up as Masters of our own Destiny.

RETROCHRONOMETER: To help count time in reverse … so we can get the truest “reading” on how long something is going to take.

An “OWE ME” VOUCHER:  This voucher provides us guaranteed access to preferred indulgences LATER as we engage DELAYED GRATIFICATION in tending the more compelling business(es) of NOW.

An “ORGANIZER VISER”/THINKING CAP: A tool to aid in “Getting our act together” … promotes Strategic Planning and the generation of Tactical Ways and Means.

A TID BIT – A wrist band reminder:  Time Is Disappearing /\ Begin Insightful Trajectory

This novel tool helps take best advantage of UNSCHEDULED TIME. 

A BOX OF INVITATIONS: To assist in recruiting significant others.

A CONSULTING VOUCHER: To get the best advice and guidance that our “Stock in Trade” can conscript.

A Pair of “BY-GOD ARMORALL COVERALLS”:  A vestment for imponderably difficult jobs … a vestment that confer invincibility of intentionality … a vestment which permits no excuses, no options for side-tracking … only option is full steam ahead! 

A JUMP STARTER: To get us GOING!

A LICENSE to do “THE RIGHT THING”: An indemnification against censure for anything and everything that justifiably needs to be done to assure best outcomes.

One of my collaborators along the way – who was much more experienced in the “Ways of the World” than I was – repeatedly declared that he was not about to be anyone else’s “tool” … meaning that he had taken himself out of the running to do anyone else’s bidding for anyone else’s personal gain.  However, there were other times he had to concede that he was, in fact, submitting to or had otherwise been knowingly used as a “tool” to further his own purposes. 

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

What if you had in your tool box a MASTER TOOL that could perform its own maintenance, transform itself into multiple specialized tools for specialized purposes, clean itself, put itself away where it could always be found, regenerate its own energy, make its own bed, prepare its own meals, solve problems, be self-programmable, mow the lawn, perform complex and ever-changing algorithmic functions, program a computer, is self-driving, can be constructive or destructive /\ compliant or defiant depending on circumstances and pre-programmed coding … ?!?

It turns out that we actually DO have such a tool at our command – it’s US!  But the “commanding” is generally the problem (as is the pre-programmed coding!)  Our Executive Function has been so conflated and confuted by emotional and emergent undulations that we simply default to comfort zone languishing.  ENOUGH ALREADY!   Let’s grab the reins of Executive Power and take over commanding control of this MASTERPIECE which is US UNBRIDLED … “BRIDLE” it and start a revolution of total intentional, meaningful, purposeful engagement!  I just started this new paradigm in my own universe and the results, so far, are awesome!  YOU, Inc. is about to move into higher orbit!   Quartermaster

Legitimacy

Our navigability in the world is heavily dependent on our real or perceived “legitimacy” …

le·git·i·ma·cy              

1.    conformity to the law or to rules.

2.    ability to be defended with logic or justification; validity.

https://www.google.com/search?q=legitimacy&oq=legitimacy&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2407j0j7&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

Legitimacy is strongly associated with AGENCY:

“In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.  By contrast, ... factors of influence (such as social class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs, etc.) [may] determine or limit an agent and his or her decisions.”        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(sociology)

“Agency” is enhanced by a strong underpinning of “legitimacy” and “legitimacy” is enhanced by a strong underpinning of “agency”.  Thus, the ability of an individual “ … to act independently and to make their own free choices … “ depends on the “legitimacy” of those choices. 

RESPECT is a closely related attribute or character-istic ... generally reserved for those who “conform to the rules”, who can be “defended with justification”, and who courageously act independently with a high degree of AGENCY to advance civilization. 

INTEGRITY is a closely aligned attribute ... a behavioral character-istic consistent with the highest values and principles of civilization.    

Why does this matter?

First, as noted at the outset, navigability in the universe heavily depends on these collective attributes.

More importantly, however, the loss of any one of these attributes – and certainly the loss of ALL of them – yields a loss of one’s ever-tenuous grip on life and living in almost any context.  From such losses, there is often no acceptable escape: 

“… Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time
Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth
Mama, ooh, I don't want to die …”

Bohemian Rhapsody

Conversely, no matter how deprived of life’s amenities one may be, retention of personal integrity or “respectability” is often ALL that matters. 

A grave account was given of an interview with a convicted murderer who had shot a college coed point blank in the head.  The interviewer persisted in asking “WHY?”   What had started out as a simple theft had ended in a horrendous and completely unnecessary loss of life. 

“She showed me no respect,” he said. 

[Really?!]

I couldn’t help wondering:  Respect on what basis?  Because he was a male?  Because he had a gun?  Because he was bigger than she was?  Because he was co-opting legitimacy and presumptively acting – illegitimately – as the “authority” figure in the exchange and she wouldn‘t buy it? 

Those without bona fide legitimacy (through which to gain at least the perception of respect) will try to co-opt it by inducement of fear.  In sports, those with a weak offense can only hope to mount a withering defense (ref., Rick Pitino). 

However, in most other fields of endeavor, the inducement of fear and application of withering defenses (aka “Black Belt Winning Strategies” or “Who have you licked lately?”) are very short-term winning strategies.  Sustainable navigation – at least in the 21^st Century – involves cooperation, collaboration, alliances, affiliation and negotiation; the world has gotten too complicated for Lone Rangers shooting from the hip seeking to rearrange the world in their own image on their own terms.   

In fact, very few people want to deal with a bully, and don’t want one on their team.  They’re not going to go out of their way to accommodate a power-grubbing, win-at-all-cost, my-way-or-the-highway despot. 

Legitimacy lives on a two-way street where all parties, truth, “right-reckoning” and civilized engagement are valued.  

Still, in all, the attraction of illegitimate engagement runs deep – especially after important doors have closed for legitimate engagement concerning desired or expected outcomes – or for perceived entitlements not otherwisely bestowed.  Literature, both ancient and current, is replete with examples of proverbial Faustian bargains: 

“A Faustian bargain is a deal with the devil, a pact with Satan, an agreement that allows you to have anything you've ever wanted – including youth, wealth, fame, talent/skill, knowledge and/or power.  In exchange … , all you have to do is hand your soul over to the devil for eternity.”  http://study.com/academy/lesson/faustian-bargain-definition-lesson-quiz.html 

Importantly, Legitimacy/Agency/Respect is gained by conferral from others not by coercive acquisition.  And just being “different” … like garnering the most tattoos … does not give one “commanding authority”.  [Yes, you dared to be different, but to what purposeful end and for what greater good?]   In addition, simply wearing a Superman cape or underwear or a New England Patriots jersey does not necessarily confer legitimacy/agency or respect.  (Why would you wear something with someone else’s name or insignia on it other than to portray yourself as something or someone you are not – which is, essentially, an illegitimate act!?!) 

So, back to our original assertion: Exactly HOW does “legitimacy” support “navigation of the universe”?

Very simply, legitimacy provides ACCESS to the best people and opportunities civilization has to offer.

Of course, one will quickly note that POWER and MONEY can easily – in fact, far TOO easily – “buy” access without legitimacy.  Such is its own Faustian bargain, relegating the players to shadows of conscience and shallows of contrivance and only temporary gain.  Here, an alt-“Golden Rule” is espoused:

Golden Rule – Alt Version

“He who has the GOLD makes the RULES!”

Curiously, the man with the gold will invest ONLY in one who has legitimacy/integrity.  Without THAT ONE, there is no more gold!  Build LEGITIMACY!   Be a dependable, accountable, respectable quality producer with “agency” and integrity. Quartermaster

Psychic Energy

First of all, this is not about crystal ball gazing and clairvoyant phrenology!   It’s about the “electrifying” energy that comes from the “Psyche” … variably referred to as the “pneuma, the anima, the inner being, or essence … “.  In simpler terms, it’s “mental energy” or “brain energy”.  But, in this context, it is distinguished from metabolic or electrolytic energy. 

At almost any major sporting event in the 21^st Century, you will see contestants pause to replenish their electrolytes with “Gatorade”.  In the 1950s, sports team managers would give players “salt pills” (electrolytes) and “sugar pills” (dextrose/metabolites) at half-time.  Neither mind nor body will function well if out of balance in any context.  But, all things stabilized, it’s the “psyche” that calls the shots.

By “Psychic Energy”, I mean that internal, ethereal, captivating driving force that rises up inside us – ready or not – to make stuff happen.  Without it, not very much of any consequence happens unless EXTERNAL energy is applied or a “fight of flight” response is engaged.  

The question raised here is: How do we capture, focus and better utilize MORE internally-generated “Psychic Energy” toward more profitable ends? 

The unbridled, non-focused psychic energy of ADHD is something with which an expanding array of victims, parents, teachers, managers and behavioral psychologists increasingly struggle.  And the annals of psychiatry are full of manic disorders (which many of us seem to have in variably milder forms!)

But a more fundamental problem is how to get more specifically “Psyched UP”, “Fired UP”, “Animated” and “In Gear” for doing useful things.  Fundamentally, we want to find out: “What turns us ON?”  

The book series “What Color Is Your Parachute?” by Dick Bolles, first published in 1970, has been an excellent guide for helping multiple generations define and design personal vocational aspirations, including purpose, passion and mission, to help guide “energizable” career choices.  However, whatever parachute we adopt or cobble together, we need to put “Psychic Wind” under it every day to keep it aloft! 

So, what drives the floatation of your parachute?  How much “Psychic Wind” have you got, and how much MORE of it can you generate or access? 

For me, much of my “psychic energy” came from a compelling “Need to Know” … a burning urge to know how the world worked … how to cure cancer and aging … how to test the next most viable hypothesis … how to get better results … how to become more efficient … how to make more sense of the universe …  

There was also an “avoidance” component to my psychic energy … a compelling desire to avoid deprivation, censure, embarrassment, “losing”, illness, weakness, “second class” status, etc.

And there was an “affirmation/validation” component: I needed external validation that I was held in some level of esteem by others – not only by “belonging” to a community of achievers, but by being a contributor … not only “pulling my own weight” but “making a difference” in some significant way – not merely “wasting oxygen”.  

Importantly, so many things can sap or zap our psychic energy, including: Uncertainty, indecision, procrastination, illness, imbalances in electrolytes, hormones or metabolites, anxiety, depression, stress, over-commitment, under-engagement, boredom (really?), competing sources of negative energy (including drugs, alcohol and “tribalism”), and what I call “sludge” (TV, social media and video games, as well as junk food and the negative impact it has on our “Biome” and overall wellbeing). 

Worse than diminishing psychic energy is its usurpation and misdirection.  Distractions, misperceptions and dallying in any or all of the vices can misdirect psychic energy in counter-productive ways.  Novelties are a particular nuisance.  We like to buy new stuff … the latest gadgets.  How many of us have “Prime” accounts at Amazon, or will have such by the end of this calendar year? 

[At this writing, I’m debating about acquiring a newer car with more “bells and whistles”.  Totally unnecessary!]

Attitude and enthusiasm require barrels and boat loads of psychic energy, but it’s got to be profitably directed!  TOP DOG discipline, focus and goal tending can engage seemingly bottomless wellsprings of psychic energy … almost always involving significant others – coaches, mentors, role models and miscellaneous “cheer leaders” (note “bandwagon effect”).    

A healthy spectrum of psychic energy absolutely depends on a healthy and well-balanced spectrum of metabolic, electrolytic and interpersonal “connecting” energies.  Get rested!  Exercise!  Eat right! Cultivate energizing, “enlifening”  and inspiring associations!  And seriously reduce or eliminate all the energy-sapping and zapping “Dark Matter”.  Finally, DREAM BIGGER!  A large enough Dream produces its own “fire in the gut” psychic energy.  Burn, Baby, Burn – and Sail ON!   Quartermaster   

Visioning for Beginners

Motivational speakers, personal coaches and self-help proponents all underscore the importance of having a VISION, a DREAM, a LIFE PURPOSE, a PASSION … an overarching GRAND GOAL as an essential driving force for a successful life.  Unfortunately, not everybody has one!

So, how does one go about “capturing” a Dream or a GRAND GOAL?

Or is that really necessary?

For the Neanderthal, mere survival was the GRAND GOAL.  Subsequent civilizations – roughly through the middle of the 20^th Century – simply worked and fought for a “better life” – more certain food supplies, better and more secure housing, more secure sources of heat and cooling, etc.

Eventually, the starkest realities dissipated and non-conscripted time became available beyond scrambling-to-cover-basic-needs.  This gave rise to aspirational & creative engagement, with innovation and unbridled imagination, which gave us literature, poetry and the arts, plus astonishing advances in science, technology and medicine. 

 However, we also used such non-conscripted, “unscheduled” time simply to entertain ourselves, artfully developing escapist Dreams and fantasies. 

Interestingly, slaves and the inextricably down-trodden developed strong spiritual roots and renderings, often buoyed by music and dance, to help them rise above their circumstances and engender Hope for a better day to come.  The power to be found in deep spiritual roots is hard to overstate. 

But as civilization advanced, life became “tough” in more complex ways, and we needed different coping skills.  Those whose mantra had always been “God will provide!” had to come to terms with a more fundamental Truth:

The Almighty had already given them hands, feet and all the rest of what they needed for starters, so most of the rest of “providing” was in their own hands! 

As life’s complexity increased, so did the path to independence.  Longer and better paved runways to the future had to be built.  Instead of slopping the hogs beginning at age 8 or 9, planting cotton, tobacco, rice and corn at ages 10-16 and bailing hay at ages 12-18, youth were sent to public schools through age 18 to learn the technicalities required to navigate a new world.  This separation from “old realities” – at a “ghosted subsidy” of roughly $300,000 per student in 2017 currency – distanced them from understanding the full power needed for lift-off toward NEW REALITIES. 

How so?  When the compelling needs to hunt deer, grow crops and put food on the table were taken out of the equation for survival, a new freedom from home-based authority emerged.  School, for some, became a ready-made venue for autonomous “freedom of expression”, “freedom from oppression”, perfecting the practical joke, bullying others, defying the new “authorities” and “seeing how much they could get away with”.    

Unfortunately, REALITY never took a day off!   It was there – always there – with its burgeoning indebtedness constantly accruing, waiting for each new wave of freshly minted “soldiers of fortune” to begin shouldering their part of a bargain they neither clearly understood nor completely accepted:  But the “Cost of Living” still had to be paid!    

Interestingly, the “Cost of Living” hasn’t really changed.  Everything we Deserve – and everything we can legitimately Dream – is going to take everything we’ve got, and it’s always been that way.  However, the cost of “slippage” has increased.  The speed of change, the increased demand for focus, the expansion of access around planet earth, and the increasingly “global economy” now require us to compete more competitively with 7 billion other inhabitants! 

So, here’s the question one could legitimately ask: If all that’s required for any one of us to “make it” is “everything we’ve got” – and if “everything we’ve got” we’ve already GOT – why aren’t more people “making it”?  Why are so many underachieving their true potential?  Why are so many 35-45-year-olds so hopelessly in debt … why so many divorces … why so many jobs lost … why so many promotions foregone … why such increasing numbers unable to consider retirement? 

While real reasons and contributing factors vary, including misfortune and the lack of opportunity, we need to take the poorest reasons off the table, starting with:

1)    Holding back on “everything we’ve got”, and

2)    Allowing too much “slippage” … which would include:

Shoddy preparation / Truncated Education / Limited Skills

Poor Use of Unscheduled Time

Excuses and Explanations

Blaming Others

… etc. …

The challenge is compounded by too little “burning passion” and a hollowed out sense of urgency.  “Living in the NOW” and immersion in “Mindfulness” doesn’t light fires … it puts them out!

So one is left wondering:  If we’re not driven by Dreams, Visions, Purpose and Grand Goals, what ELSE can produce, engender or substitute for “burning passion” and a “sense of urgency”? 

Ultimately, everything funnels down to a grand “WHY?”  If there’s no compelling reason to look beyond our immediate comfort zone, we’ll never see or pursue new horizons of possibility, even as the old horizons continue to shrink, become stale and obsolete, and disintegrate around us. 

Obsolescence and the disintegration of Absolutes [see “Living Without a Goal” by James Ogilvy] should galvanize our “WHY?” and “WHAT FOR?”  In fact, this realization should give us a new sense of liberation by releasing us from the constraints of unworkable Tribal Truths, “died in the wool” political party allegiances, prejudices, the incongruities of a 6,000 year-old earth, a Heaven that’s only one layer of stratosphere deep, etc.

At this writing, I’ve just found out that Kroger is eliminating its “Senior Discount Day” program – which I have “religiously” followed for its entire duration.  I now realize that this program had been holding me “hostage” every week until Thursdays; however, now I can shop ANY day of the week when provisions run low and not feel that I’m unconscionably compromising my principles of thrift! 

Sooner or later, we’re going to be faced with both the prospect and the necessity of deep water navigation where there are no constraining buoys, no prescribed “shipping channels”, capricious currents and weather patterns to negotiate, and a whole lot of flotsam and jetsam.  That – if nothing else – should send us scampering … with all the urgency we can muster … to maximally capacitize ourselves, gain more stabilizing “ballast”, and construct a life-line network of associations and affiliations to help get us wherever it is we’re going. 

Capture a VISION of DEEP WATER NAVIGATION, generously “Pixelate” that VISION [http://www.ertiaunlimited.com/pixelate-your-life/ ], and power UP for the voyage of your life!   Quartermaster