Archive for the 'Change' Category

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Who is John Galt?

Published on 26 December, 2008 in Change and Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , , .

The New York Times published an article acknowledging the role played by Ayn Rand in the thinking of modern capitalists. My Grandfather gave me The Fountainhead when I was an arrogant 13-year-old with a warning that the first half was boring but the second half made it worthwhile. He was right on both counts.

While “the virtue of selfishness” might be very unpopular as a phrase, I was transformed by this book and still have it together with my Grandfather’s copy of Atlas Shrugged in a special place in my bookcase at home.

It’s not a complete philosophy. Assumptions arrogantly taken for “axioms” are adopted by ignorant idealogues undermine the intellectual integrity that Objectivists purport to uphold. However, as James M. Kilts is quoted as noting in the NYT article, Ayn Rand’s works uphold a very important value that has few other sources:

“that excellence should be your goal”

Spiritual masters, NLPers and psychologists are largely and unusually in agreement (though they won’t let you know!): Self-actualisers, prime mover geniuses and happy “ordinary” people everywhere live in accordance with the vision that Rand had for the world… rather than being the victim of what other people want for you or think of you, may we all take personal responsibilty for how you feel, what you think and the life that you live.

Be excellent.

Daniel Smith

What do you really want?

Published on 22 December, 2008 in Change, Personal Growth and Purpose. Closed Tags: , , .

May I a small house, and a large garden have.
And a few Friends, and many Books, both true,
Both wise, and both delightful too.

The Secret made it to Oprah. It’s an amazing thought that in the next 24 hours, Oprah will be helping to transform this story/ documentary of one woman’s experience with focus and manifestation into an even more powerful international success. But it leaves a very challenge part of the story unsaid: What do you really want?

Although the heart must be made to conceive before the eye will be permitted to discover, I find that one of the greatest challenges that we face is to let go of our self-imposed blindness. “What would you do if anything was possible?” is a question that I have asked at many of my seminars and workshops (as well as in personal coaching and consultation sessions), and the recurring theme in responses is that very few people really know what is possible.

Great spirits certainly do encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds, yet the greatest challenge for a great mind is to make the leap to being a great spirit. For a great spirit to be unleashed, you must believe in yourself. Whether it is a (delusional?) sense of narcissim, an inflated sense of self-importance, or perhaps just the irrational spontaneous adoption of a belief in personal purpose and direction, for someone with talent to apply that talent in the disciplined and focused manner necessary to accomplish anything great or to develop any great skills perhaps demands something of a state of mental or emotional imbalance.
So where do we begin?

That, to me, is the primary advantage that superior educational institutions afford over ‘ordinary’ ones. Great institutions, employers and places tend to attract those with talent and ability, and in doing so give the individuals the exposure to ideas and people that can expand their minds in otherwise inconceivable ways. While I believe that the truths of ‘genius’ are still somewhat waiting to be discovered by each of us, travel, education and exposure to new ideas is one of the surest ways of expanding your mind…
If you really just want the small house and large garden, are the things that you’re doing along the way really helping?

Daniel Smith

Lose Yourself… or Lose this Day Loitering?

Published on 19 December, 2008 in Change, High Performance and Personal Growth. Closed Tags: , , , .

Lose this day loitering – ’twill be the same story
Each indecision brings its own delays,
To-morrow – and the next more dilatory;
And days are lost lamenting o’er lost days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute -
Begin it, and then the work will be completed!
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated -
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

While The Secret is riding its wave of popularity it is easy to forget that things change when we change. Not just when we think, but when we do. Not think about doing, but actually do.

Von Goethe wrote about a tendency towards activity with such precision that his words continue to be repeated and contemplated perhaps two hundred years after he wrote this piece. While he was one of the creative giants of history – and a polymath, having attained world-class status as a dramatist, novelist, poet, journalist, painter, statesman, educator and natural philosopher – it is clear that as creative as he might have been, he made things happen and got stuff done.

Intellectualisation, rationalisation and introspection are some of my favourite hobbies. I like to think that many of the mistakes that I have made shall not be repeated as many times because I took the time to notice and amend the cause. But there is nothing quite as powerful as doing stuff! A bit of science helps us understand this – it seems that eminent performance comes after about a decade of disciplined and focused practice within a domain (from Ericsson originally, but more accessible here). Instrumentality – believing that what you do will make a difference – has a big impact in results too (kids who believe that they can get smarter if they work harder do get smarter!)…

But once you’re done intellectualising, the only way that you get somewhere is to get on the phone or the internet and buy the plane ticket… or buy your own plane of course.

Oh yeah… and a huge thanks to Daniel Lewis for his photographic work. You’ll see it here soon!

Daniel Smith

What would you do on the moon?

Published on 17 December, 2008 in Change, High Performance, Personal Growth and Purpose. Closed Tags: , , .

A while back, NASA came up with 181 things to do on the moon. While there are a few cool ideas about how to enjoy your time on the moon (eg mHH8 – “Provide leisure activities, in the form of arts, entertainment, and recreation, for people living on and visiting the Moon”), it looks like they have a few ideas about science too.

What I thought was interesting was the structure that they gave this information. The table is structured with the following headings: Category, Objective ID, Name, Summary, Value and then which of the six themes that the objective supports. I love seeing the parallels between business and personal life, so it really strikes me that this could be a great way for people to structure their objectives.

Goal setting is great, but it’s really easy to mess it up! Goal achievement is usually more hit-and-miss than anything else; often because of a lack of personal alignment. We might want to do something, but to actually make that happen is a different story altogether once you factor in ‘divine redirections’ (aka failures) and new opportunities.

The Balanced Scorecard/ Strategy Maps/ Alignment approach is powerful, though it’s still pretty limited in application to the business world. Covey’s ultra-popular “Roles” approach is nice and neat, though lacks the power; Tony Robbins’ RPM/OPA system is beautifully presented but (like so much of Tony’s stuff) lacks the real robustness (even through his Time of Your Life course – a course that sounds so great yet delivers so little at the real front line) that would allow it to really work. The best (in my view) at personal productivity is David Allen, and while he says “consider this stuff”, he largely abdicates any structure for higher level thinking in favor of the methods that do work very well at a tactical and operational level. I believe that the ’solution’, at least for me integrates the “Roles” of Covey within a BSC/SM/A framework somewhat like the NASA outline, and, while being mindful of the Outcomes championed by Tony, structures efficiency through the GTD/ David Allen approach. If that really didn’t make any sense, ask me about it and I’ll see what I can do…

I like the notion of identifying the themes that we are trying to fulfill… trans-disciplinary outcomes that we are using a range of vehicles to fulfill.

From an education framework, to me this is an uber-cool way to introduce personal excellence and achievement into science-minded students.

Daniel Smith

“Genius at birth” basically a myth

Published on 17 November, 2008 in Change and High Performance. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

One of the first things that we have to get out of our heads when we start looking at the formation of genius is the idea that people are born brilliant, or born average, or whatever the case may be (illnesses aside, of course).  Physically, we may be big or small, but the genetics of size don’t apply in anything like the same way as it might to any ‘genetics of the brain’.

In fact, we have very little basis on which that belief may rest.  Even in the human body, there is certainly a canvas, but the way each person lives will dictate where the canvas goes – a person can get a tan, for example, or can bleach their hair or work out at the gym.  The same principle applies to thinking – if anything, moreso.

Ericsson, Prietula and Cokely stated exactly this in their 2007 article, The Making of an Expert .  There, they provided support for the claim that expertise comes primarily through years of intense practice and dedicated coaching, through constant performance above and beyond what is currently possible – even comfortable – for that person.  This is something that is beyond a particular sport – managers, surgeons and musicians all had the common trait of deliberate, long-term focus on not-yet possible tasks and changing what was faulty in technique.  Ericsson (et al) makes clear that this takes at least a decade to reach expert performance, requiring another expert to give (often unpleasant) feedback.

K Anders Ericsson , Michael J Prietula, Edward T Cokely. 2007. The Making of an Expert. Harvard Business Review 85, no. 7,8 (July 1): 114-121.  Accessible through proquest.com .

This means something very particular for us: we cannot throw up our hands in despair whenever we hit a problem in our lives, whenever what we are doing just isn’t good enough.  If we want to be experts in a particular area, we must understand from the outset that it will take a lot of work, often painful work, and that it will be over a long time – about a decade’s worth of work, for starters.

That’s really hard.  It’s really daunting.  But, in my understanding, the most daunting part is that it’s all our choice .  We are able to choose to be experts in a given field, to be operating at that level.  As any expert can tell you – such as dancer-choreographer Twyla Tharp – it’s not through personal talent and innate genius alone.

Tharp’s interview was in: Diane Coutu 2008. Creativity Step by Step. Harvard Business Review 86, no. 4 (April 1).  Accessible through proquest.com .

It’s all about our choice – what we choose to do with our lives.  The one thing that we can change, no matter what stage or status of life we are in, is our selves.

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