What Have You Got To Lose?

It’s an important consideration, especially if you’re risk-averse: 

What do I stand to lose if I make this or that choice or commitment?

The "Catch 22" conundrum is, if you’re totally risk-averse, you risk losing everything by not wanting to lose ANY thing. 

Life –if it’s anything at all – is a risk.  Worse, in large part, it’s a losing proposition.  You can’t have it all – at least not all at once – and you have to give up both good and not-so-good to get GREAT (adapted from Glen Campbell.)

So let’s define the question more specifically: 

What have you got to lose by risking everything you’ve got

to achieve your highest Destiny –

and to get what you really deserve?

Examples of things you might have to give up for a Greater Good include:

·         Television sit-coms, soap operas, reality shows and late night variety shows

·         Web surfing, tweeting and twittering

·         Excess sugar, fat and salt

·         Excess everything else

·         Mindless connections to significant and insignificant others

·         Getting “passed over” for promotions

·         Pettiness

·         Gossip

·         “Free Time”

·         Drug dependencies

·         Artificial crutches

·         Insouciance

·         Cultural dogma/drama/indoctrination

·         Outsized ego

·         Lame excuses and explanations

·         Unrealistic expectations

·         Unfounded assumptions

·         Mediocrity

·         Abject failure

·         Regret/Remorse

·         Lack of accolades

·         Feeling “wasted”

·         Feeling guilty

·         Feeling unworthy

·         Feeling “cheated”

·         Bad Luck

It’s also important to point out that stress, anxiety and frustration – while not necessarily becoming less intense – will become more self-generated than externally imposed, and will, thus, become more controllable / more manageable and more focused toward productivity than toward destructivity. 

Summation: Lose the chains of pandering underachievement and overindulgence in mediocrity: Start shedding the non-necessaries and frank hindrances and start claiming some well-deserved victories!  Quartermaster

Somebody Do Something!

In my diverse wanderings about the world, I experience variable angst about “the way things are”.  And, when things aren’t the way they should be, I catch myself thinking “Somebody should do something about THAT!”  (Quite inauspiciously, at this very moment, I have a dripping water tap in the bathroom which needs fixing.  Grumph-frumph-frumph!  Somebody really does need to do something about that!) 

Then, without missing a beat, a still, small voice inside me says, “If YOU’RE somebody – and if you’re anybody of any account – YOU do it!”   

Of course, if you’re nobody,

you don’t sweat the small stuff!

In my previous real-life, work-a-day role in administration, I would frequently encounter disorderliness in anything from a refrigerator (salvaged from the loading dock) that needed defrosting – or decontaminating … to dust bunnies in stairwells … to errant trash in the hallways or surrounding grounds … to a piano out of tune ... to phones that needed to be answered … to a jammed copier … etc.  But we were a “skeleton crew” at the mercy of support services that had many other priorities and significant delays in response.  So if it needed to be done NOW, guess who got “fingered”?  [NOTE: Most of this stuff could be sandwiched between comings and goings with very little extra time or effort involved. (The refrigerator stuff I did on Saturdays or Sundays while catching up on more mainstream essentials).  And simply doing it and having it DONE kept all of us from tripping over it … i.e., from thinking “Somebody should DO something about that!”]  I once went ballistic with a security guard/parking attendant posted at the front traffic circle of our main building, who was blithely asleep-on-his-feet without regard to accumulating wind-blown refuse from a nearby waste receptacle.  I thought I could provide a positive example, or perhaps even “shame” him into action, by picking it up myself. It turned out to be a wasted thought; he was somebody who wouldn’t be caught dead stooping to such a level!     

I’m guessing that part of my sense-of-duty and angst about small things awry is about ownership.  I don’t relish being part of anything that isn’t all it can or should be.  I don’t deny that some of the angst could be an OCD aberration.  But part of it is also about fighting attrition – feeling compelled to resist anything suggestive of the world “going to Hell in a hand basket”.  Whatever the driving force, a sense of “doneness” is wonderfully therapeutic.

Gotta go fix a water drip.

There is much to be done in the world to make it all it can and should be.  When you’re caught thinking “Somebody should do something about that!”, you’re IT.  Either call in the troops for help or stoop to it, DO it and move on.   Be somebody – and DO something!  Quartermaster

Decide -Or Else!

An annotated excerpt from Expect to Win by John Mason *

After his first audition, a casting director told actor Sidney Poitier, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" It was at that moment, recalls Poitier, that he decided to devote his life to acting. He wasn't going to let someone else decide his life path. "There's nothing in the middle of the road, but yellow stripes and dead armadillo," says Jim Hightower. Decide to do something now to make your life better. The choice is yours. "My decision is maybe—and that's final." Is this you? Being decisive is essential for a successful life. If you deny yourself commitment, what will you do with your life? Every accomplishment, great or small, starts with a decision. David Ambrose remarked, "If you have the will to win, you have achieved half your success; if you don't, you have achieved half your failure." The moment you definitely commit yourself, change begins. All sorts of things happen to help you that never would have otherwise occurred. Kenneth Blanchard observed, "There is a difference between interests and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you only do it when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results." Lack of decisiveness has caused more failures than lack of intelligence or ability. Indecision often gives an advantage to the other person because they did their thinking beforehand. Helen Keller said, "Science may have found a cure for most evil; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings." Don't leave a decision for tomorrow that needs to be made today. Remember, don't be a "middle-of-the-roader" because the middle of the road is the worst place to try to go forward. You can do everything you ought to do once you make a decision. Today, decide on moving your dream forward.

Quartermaster’s Perspective:  The world is continuously moving on – in its own way, on its own course and according to its own terms … with or without our participation.  If we want to participate – and if we want any of OUR terms included, we’ve got to get on track and consciously commit to making something positive happen.  If we don’t decide, circumstances or others affected may do the deciding for us.  And the decisions others make on our behalf – particularly without our personal consent, commitment and impassioned determination – will almost certainly yield a poor outcome.  You be the “Decider”.                    

*SOURCE: Simple Truths, LLC, 1952 McDowell Rd Ste 300, Naperville, IL 60563

Experience Redux

[Adapted from Peter Thompson, TGI Monday, 18 February 2013]

People say they have experience.

As you and I know – some of them actually do, though most of them have far less than they think they have or artfully represent – because:

When they state they have 20 year’s experience, in reality, many have 1 year’s experience – 20 times!

There they are doing the same things time after time after time.

·         Getting up at the same time
·         Eating the same food
·         Travelling the same road
·         Doing the same tasks
·         Meeting the same people
·         Going to the same places
·         Saying the same things
·         Going to bed at the same time
·         Watching the same TV programs

The same – the same – the same!

This is NOT, no way, no how – 20 year’s experience.  It’s ONLY the same stuff repeated.

How about…

·         Doing something new – something more exciting
·         Something more – experiential
·         Getting up at a different time
·         Eating different food
·         Travelling a different road
·         Doing different tasks
·         Meeting different people
·         Going to different places
·         Saying different things
·         Going to bed at a different time
·         Watching different TV programs
·         Living a ‘different’ life!

OR, how about doing whatever you do a different way, BETTER, FASTER, more EFFICIENTLY, with HIGHER QUALITY OUTCOMES, with ADVANCED/EXPANDED APPLICATIONS ...

The target here is not simply the reduction of boredom.  It’s increasing and expanding our capacities; it’s “Becoming”; it’s making a statement about YOU, Inc./ME, Inc.; it’s about being on the “A-Team” and in the mainstream.   It’s about how much of a DIFFERENCE we make.  QM 

“You’ve gotta get outta your own self’s way.”

“Change your attitude and change your habits and you can [not only] change who you are [… but become a key ‘Change Agent’ for the world].”  UK Basketball Coach John Calipari

Pathological Dependencies

Eaglets have a physiological dependency to stay in the nest as long as possible until their “flying wings” are ready.  But mother eagles eventually get to a point where they have to push the eaglets out of the nest.  They can only hope they can fly!  [See also “Even Eagles Need a Push” by David McNally, Delacorte Press, New York, 1990)

Humans have a more complex constellation of dependencies, which include: Physiological, psychological, financial, emotional, motivational, recreational and otherwise (e.g., cultural, political, religious/spiritual, vocational and attitudinal).

Unfortunately, great numbers of humans never make the full transition to independence – probably because they never “have to” – they rarely get completely “kicked out of the nest” like eaglets.  And/or they find other “nesting” places. 

I’m defining the incomplete transition as “pathological dependency”.  For eaglets it would be certain death – precipitous as the transition needs to be – if they simply failed to take it upon themselves to “straighten up and fly right” under their own power.  Fortunately, for eaglets, they have a natural instinct that kicks in to spread their wings and soar.  However, the most ingrained natural instinct in humans is to hide their wings and go kicking and screaming against the very winds that might otherwise serve to give them “lift”! 

Rare is the teenager whose parents don’t have to wrench them out of bed every morning to get a productive day underway.  Not-so-rare is the teacher who has to cram knowledge and information into students’ heads, hoping some of it will stick – in spite of both overt and passive-aggressive resistance!  

Curiously, the “free-fall” to mediocrity and oblivion is exhilarating to the uninitiated, coat-tails-clinging so-sojourner: At 16, we can get a driver’s license (to drive someone else’s car); at 18, we get certified as “fully sanctioned” inductees to society with high school diplomas in hand (“earned” with no small investment by teachers, parents and coaches); and at 21, we get legislatively decreed autonomy (simply as a result of the passage of time).  Ain’t life grand!

Then the pathologically challenged move into adult day-care centers – frequently referred to as “Jobs” – where their paths to oblivion and mediocrity are tempered with great angst by employers/supervisors.  When not mercilessly hounded by a supervisor looking over their shoulders, the hopelessly recalcitrant wander off into the never-never land of immediate gratification from video games, YouTube, tweeting, twittering … and worse.  One of my former employees actually rigged a rear-view mirror for his cubical so he could preemptively see a colleague or supervisor approaching his workstation. 

Some never completely “get it” and the dependencies extend to all aspects of life.  Coaches quickly get to wit’s end with minions who exert themselves only when pushed.  Choral directors are flummoxed by would-be singers who constantly make the same mistakes and perpetually “lean” on section leaders to get the notes, rhythms and choreography right.  And the medical professions spend incredible amounts of unnecessary time and expense with patients who can’t or won’t look after themselves. 

Despite all of the above, the human being has an almost inestimable capacity to become not only overtly independent but self-developing and self-correcting.  That transition generally requires a Defining Moment/”Wake-Up Call” comprised by sheer terror or devastating deprivation.  But it CAN happen more spontaneously and doesn’t need to involve trauma or drama. 

Our “birthright” is to be all that we can be.  Spread your wings and GO and BE!  Quartermaster

 

 

Why We Must Buy New

  “I Want it NEW, and I Want it NOW!”

It’s no secret that shopping is a national obsession.  Spend a day at the mall on the weekend (i.e., when there’s NOT a UK basketball game!) and see the merchandise being hauled out or at the post office to see the number of mail-order catalogs being processed, not to mention e*Bay or Amazon traffic on the WEB.  Holiday time is especially notable as shoppers vie for the latest toy or game … or (sorry, dad) most pathetic looking tie!  Truth be told, it really doesn’t much matter WHAT you take home, as long as it’s SOMETHING and as long as it’s NEW.

Why do we like NEW stuff?
 

Why can’t we be satisfied with REGULAR stuff that’s used a little – that’s even survived the test of time?  The art and passion for “rejuvenatin’” and “fixin’ things up” has long since passed and we don’t even give a first thought about recycling things – unless, perhaps, it’s a 1934 Ford Coupe with a rumble seat.  
 

Part of our fixation with newness is that we’ve become a “been there/done that” culture.  Old news is no news and old stuff has had its day, and, while we were THERE, we’re now HERE, and we’re “movin’ on”.  
 

But the bigger part of the fixation – I contend – is the distance NEWNESS puts us from the “ordinary”, and, more particularly, from anything “used”, from dirt, dust and the “cutting room floor” ... from where the thread, metal and plastic first take shape (not to mention the toxic waste) and from where wear and tear and rust and thermodynamic calamity and disorderliness are finally banished and something emerges that is shiny, new, untouched, “virginal”, unspoiled, pristine and completely segregated from the components used in its construction – not to mention from the condition it will unfailingly assume once pressed into service.  (Unless it’s a “collectable”, of course, whose sole character depends on NEVER getting pressed into service, and which only has to be protected from dust, humidity, and the occasional earthquake tremor or hurricane.)  And note the marketing ploy of exaggerating the immaculate differentiation of a product from all of its surroundings by providing distinctive and contrasting background, color, lighting, textures, etc.  In this context, it becomes much easier to comprehend how a person can have a closet full of clothes and “nothing to wear”.  Everything in the closet blends in, and nothing is sufficiently differentiated to stand out – even in “Designer” mixed company.   
 

Another component of the fixation with NEWNESS is that we’re constantly in search of perfection and renewal and we tend to look for it outwardly.  Like a breath of fresh air, we’ve just GOT to have a new something or other to keep going, else we lapse into an unconscionable depression.  An absence of new stuff is like holding our breath: if the dearth of newness doesn’t end soon, we just might DIE!  
 

Finally, “salvation” is perceived as a state of pristine, unadulterated, pure being, and the closer we get to that state, the more “in” we feel with the heavenly throng.  
 

But the real heroes are the ones in the trenches – the ones digging out the diamonds, separating them from the dross, cutting and shaping and polishing them and placing them in the distinctive settings we so delightfully “discover” on the show room floor. 
 

“Become a “trench rat”: Do the digging and become a ‘processing expert’ to create gems for the marketplace and you will neither want for something worthwhile to do nor for due recompense.”  Quartermaster

 

 

How Much Is Enough?

How Much is Enough?

And according to whom?

Is 40 hours a week “enough” in the work arena for where you’re going, for what you expect out of work and life, and for all the things you’re “entitled to”?  I’ve had some employees for whom 20 hours a week was more than “enough”, considering the productive work they did.  But they continued to put in their 40 hours.  Wow!  Is that dedication or what!?!

Sometimes we determine what “enough” is by counting backwards from what constitutes “too much”.  For some, getting to work on time is too much.  For a considerable number, “too much” is whatever interferes with their indulgences and comfort zone. 

Often we determine what “enough” is by what we perceive got us to where we are.  In fact, what got us where we are was a sizeable apportionment of “forgivable loans”.  Such “loans” are investments society and parents make to assure that we can become independently capable of investing our own education (mostly accrued on their dollar), time and energy toward making wise choices to support ourselves.  But the way things work is that the loans become less “forgivable” with time.  It’s a sobering realization to wake up and find – all of a sudden /\ neversomuch too soon – that we’re completely responsible for our own welfare. 

Sometimes we conjecture that “enough” is what we perceive others are doing [or “getting away with”] … all other things being equal.  But our perceptions can be all wrong and “all other things” are hardly ever equal.  Some people have more talent; some have more skill; some have rich uncles; some are skimping on savings; some are sacrificing substantial amounts of personal time; some are spending an hour-a-day at the gym, bringing work home, reading professional journals and going to bed early instead of watching 6 hours of television; some have a lot of family support; some are in debt over their heads; some are more articulate; some are a better “fit” for certain circumstances; and some are running way ahead of themselves.  More to the point, nobody is going where we’re going – wherever that is … unless it’s going down the tubes to oblivion, and that group has lots of company.   

Finally, how much is “enough” to see our Dreams realized?  For starters, it’s not “enough” simply to stand on the shore waiting for “our ship to come in”.  And it’s not “enough” to persist in some non-descript holding pattern while Lady Luck churns her stuff on our behalf through the lottery, bingo or the slot machines. 

You really want to know what “enough” is?

Enough is when you can’t do any more – as in there is nothing more you coulda done.  Life – as we would like to live it and feel fulfilled – is going to take everything we’ve got.

Now get in there/out there and “churn your best stuff” to make the kind of difference in the world that will be worthy of the distinction of which you are worthy and that is yours for the making!   Quartermaster