Archive for the 'Overcoming' Category

Page 2 of 3

The modern world is a wonderous thing…

Published on 18 May, 2006 in Lifestyle, Overcoming, Science and technology and Social development. 0 Comments

Living in the skyscraper filled developed world, it is easy to forget that most of the world lives in a poverty that we could barely comprehend…

A group of 80 people coming into a town in Columbia, after having lived for their lives in “the bush”, serves as a reminder of the difficult balance that so much of our world sits in. They are now struggling to join a society that they do not understand, to move from shooting monkeys with blowguns to a world of drive-by shootings, to face a whole new world of challenges. And it seems that the threat of communist guerillas, a rival tribe and a leader polluted with thoughts from the city, acted together to bring the most radical change that this community is likely to have seen for thousands of years.

Who knows whether the challenges of the city are better or worse than the challenges of the bush… and how could you decide anyway?

What makes someone good at something?

Published on 18 May, 2006 in High performance and Overcoming. 0 Comments

Great minds frequently encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds. Yet, those great minds should also be physically superior if you listen to our friends from Cambridge (Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance).

Observing that those born earlier in the year tend to perform better – especially at age-level sports but also beyond – researchers are trying to understand why. While having a few months as a child over the person sitting beside you might give you a little advantage as a child, it’s the gap created by teachers, coaches and the public reinforcing talent that really creates an advantage. By inadvertently rewarding earlier development rather than genuine talent, and punishing delayed development rather than accepting variations as just part of the heterogeity of childhood, we make the smart kids smarter, and let the less talented students trail.

I didn’t realise that it was so marked until I learned about how national youth teams (the ones that feed into the senior teams) have children born in January, February and March – at the start of the measured year – outnumber those born in the rest of the year by up to a dozen or so to one!

Sure talent has a role – especially in grabbing attention – but, according to Ericsson, the key to learning is less talent: the game is really about immediate feedback and specific goal setting. So do what you love… it’s the only thing that you’ll bother to do well anyway.

Learning to Run

Published on 29 April, 2006 in Overcoming and relationships. 0 Comments

My father taught me how to run. He was never a good runner himself, though he did his best to get me to swing my arms and lift my knees. Yet, I never learned to lean forward, always appearing uncomfortable and awkward. His greatest weakness he also passed on to me.

In time, I learned to lean forward while running. It was like a revelation for me – suddenly, I was an athlete! Yet, it was not my father who taught this to me, but instead an old friend who had watched me struggle for years. He just mentioned it in passing one rainy afternoon.

How often have I remained trapped by my parents’, my family’s or my friends habits, beliefs and shortcomings? How often have I mistaken their faults for my own? How often have I imposed on those around me those same faults that I have inherited from those around me?

It is a challenge to go beyond our inheritance. To break free of your bondage can feel like a great leap into the unknown, yet we have all done it at times. You can remember times when you have rebelled against them – it’s part of growing up.

While you may not like your children rebelling against you, you also know that their rebellion also reminds you that you are doing your part in helping free the next generations from the mistakes of the past.

Don’t you just love summer?

Published on 9 January, 2006 in High performance and Overcoming. 0 Comments

The following is rough, wordy and needs some working on… still, there might be something there for you. As my brother summarised: Get off your deck chairs and start surfing.

One day, I was sitting on a deck chair, looking out over the ocean. From my comfortable seat, I could see a long way out from the shore. I could see the small, gentle waves that lapped against each other, and felt peaceful and content: What a beautiful life.

For some reason, after a time, I stood up from my comfortable position, and walked towards the ocean. As I approached, I noticed that the ocean changed. As I got closer to the shore, it dawned on me that what I thought was the shoreline had deceived me, and instead I was well above the water. As I continued to go closer to the edge, I realised that I was actually at the top of a great cliff. While somewhat frightened by this realisation – realising that I had been deceiving myself for such a long time – I felt drawn to go closer and closer to the edge. Eventually, crawling as a lizard, I was able to look out over the edge of the cliff to see the crashing of the waves below.

I was even more frightened by the sight of the waves – or perhaps I was feeling exhilarated – but I found myself growing curious. Below, people were descending the cliff face. Some were climbing, some were abseiling, others were rapelling, while still others had just jumped off the side of the cliff-face with a parachute strapped to their backs. I couldn’t understand why anybody would leave the comfort of the deck chair to climb down a dangerous cliff – never mind jumping from the edge – to an uncertain world below.

As I spoke, they could not hear me. However, I could hear the conversations of the people with whom I previously sat on the deckchairs. They were talking with each other about how I was wasting my time lizard crawling and that I should just sit back and enjoy the view. Part of me felt drawn back to this world.

Yet, for reasons that I did not understand, I felt drawn to explore further. Finding safety ropes and a harness, I started to abseil down the cliff face. As I disappeared over the edge, my previous friends asked after me, yet somehow they didn’t notice where I had gone – it was as if they couldn’t believe that anything existed beyond their own little world of enjoying the view of the far-off seas that I once had known.

As I descended further and further, a whole new world opened before me. There were people climbing up, others flying past me with and without ropes, and I felt quite confused. Why were these people doing this? Why was I even here? Regardless, this was fun!

Finally, I reached the bottom of the cliff. Around me I saw a bunch of people that I seemed to remember as if they had previously sat with me on the deck chairs. I was able to speak with some of them, yet others appeared to be living on a different plane, and barely registered my existence. It was great talking about the new world that was opening before me – strange and exciting and fun!

Rather than gentle waves lapping each other, we saw huge waves breaking just a little out from the shoreline. You could walk along the waters edge, feeling the sand between your toes, enjoying seeing new things and experience life on a whole new level. As I looked out to the ocean, I could see people riding the waves. Not just watching the waves, not just swimming like we used to do in the pool beside the deck chairs, but catching the waves and riding them.

I noticed that the biggest smiles were from those who would try anything and everything – those people who would ride the waves, even after they’d just been dumped… who would climb back up the cliff face so that they could jump off and parachute back down again, knowing the beach for the first time… those who would then use their parachutes to help them ride the biggest waves, parasailing through the air like birds. Maybe it was scary and seemed a little dangerous, yet I noticed that they never really got hurt – even when the biggest waves crashed, it was as if the God of the ocean protected them wherever they went.

And, as I thought back to life on the deck chairs, it occurred to me that they didn’t even know what they were missing… and that by staying on the deck chairs, they never really came to know who was with them in every moment. Don’t you just love summer?

The Birth of Plenty

Published on 18 November, 2005 in Cool friends and ideas, High performance and Overcoming. 0 Comments

From time to time, there are books that we need to read. Sometimes it is someone significant who gives us these books (as my Grandfather did for The Fountainhead, The Ugly American, and A Brief History of Time). Other times, it is when a book stands out to us when we happen to flick through a bookshop. The latter is the case here, with The Birth of Plenty.

William Bernstein explains how the prosperity of the modern world was created, and identifying four requirements for its continuance in the developed world and its foundation in the developing world:

  1. Property rights to offer the incentive to create,
  2. Scientific Rationalism so that we have the tools to innovate without fear of retribution for disruptive innovations,
  3. Capital markets to fuel the conversion of ideas into reality, and
  4. Efficient movement of ideas and goods.

Consider those parts of the world that are successful, and observe how these four factors are present. Contrast to the developing or impoverished and even starving parts of the world, where one or more of these are missing.

On Property Rights
Without reinforcement for desirable behaviours, organisms and complex systems will tend to chaotic wastefulness. Unpredictable rewards and punishments leaves us feeling helpless and activity pointless. When instrumentality is managed effectively, organisms are motivated towards desirable activities and actions; With the recognition and rewarding of efforts, with the belief that an individual should benefit from their efforts, efforts will be increased. Where pirates, foreign powers and governments are able to change the rules and ownership at a whim, individuals will not be motivated to produce the superordinary returns necessary for wealth and abundance.

On Scientific Rationalism
The Islamic world of the European dark ages flourished under an era of great thought and growth-focus, though this enlightenment disappeared when new interpretations of Islam were ceased and Orthodoxy enforced. Likewise, observe the Western Christian world – with its secular tolerance of ambiguity, uncertainty and debate – in contrast with the Eastern Christian or Orthodox world, so heavily focused upon conservativism and maintenance of tradition. Where free thinking is permitted and encouraged, great abundance may follow. Where aberrant behaviours and disruptive thinking are persecuted, poverty and tyranny remain. While adherents will tend to encourage a society based around strict obedience to their religious truths, without questioning in any way that underlying spiritual truth, such obedience impedes and inhibits development.

On Capital Markets
Ideas are powerful, yet need capital to drive them; Capital in terms of financial backing, and in terms of the human and intellectual resources that financial backing also facilitates. Clear thinking and a good understanding of the market enable us to increase the probability of success in our ventures. Access to capital on the basis of the merit of the idea promoted (rather than familiarity or proximity) maximises the value of that capital, increasing value throughout the system.

On the Free Movement of Ideas and Goods
At the dawn of the 19th century, nothing moved faster than horseback. At the dawn of the 21st century, we expect communication to be instantaneous around the world, travel faster than the speed of sound, and rely upon the internet to break down international legal and geographic barriers to allow for ever more fair valuations of work and utilization of capital.

If this is true, wealth is a choice, a choice bound by rules and principles. Should we not give the developing world the opportunity to profit from our experience… Not just to receive loans and food? Where lies the line between social engineering and being a good citizen of the world?

An idea, once thought, can never be un-thought.
What does this mean for you?

Making things happen…

Published on 17 November, 2005 in Business and Overcoming. 0 Comments

In reengineering an organisation, here are some of my thought processes:

  1. Identify stakeholders
  2. Identify stakeholders’ needs
  3. Distill into handful of key deliverables/ benefits
  4. Link benefits back to meeting structure, financial plans, education program and significant events
  5. Design “involvement experience” for an ‘ideal’ or ‘model’ new member, tracing their key benefits and the value placed upon these

Values in this process:

  • MECE
    Ideas and strategies should be Mutual Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive.
  • Outcome focused
    Focus attention on the desired benefits first, only referring to the existing conditions after the ideal has been identified.
  • Manage risk deliberately
    There are places of uncertainty and ambiguity, and circumstances that rely upon individual talent. Strive to build strength into the system, rather than relying upon brilliant individuals.
  • Summarise, evaluate and operationalize the ideas generated
    There are two causes of strategic failure: Poor strategy and poor execution…No matter how great the strategy, success relies upon excellence in execution.

Living your own life…

Published on 8 November, 2005 in High performance, Overcoming and Self-awareness. 0 Comments

In Sydney, I came across this little shard of wisdom. Some of it is quite interesting, if challenging to me. What do you think?

Excellence is a way of life, a relentless pursuit of better and better standards. It is not something that some have, it is something we all ought strive towards.

Be in control, part of the ruling elite, rather a victim of those who are. Control gives freedom.

Live your life with passion… Do what you want, and make your dreams a reality… Learn and grow and look to discover new directions. In particular, challenge your mind – train it to be disciplined, focused and aware of the world, rather than getting lost in structured limitations… Those are the traps for the unwary created by the frightened to protect the weak. Don’t avoid something you are scared of on the pretence of not wanting it: that merely deludes yourself and traps you.

You are loved. I tell you this to give insight into my thinking and suggestions for you to consider… Living your own life is challenging, uncharted and fraught with dead-ends; we all strive to profit from the wisdom of those around us, rather than learning it all from experience. And, I believe, we can explore this together.

… It’s amazing the things you can find lying around Sydney airport!

I have confronted a barrage of criticism on website forums for simply stating the truth…

Published on 14 October, 2005 in Business, High performance and Overcoming. 0 Comments

Welcome to being a change agent, a thought leader and a trouble maker.

The trouble with seeing things as they are, rather than as society is, is that you are inevitably criticised.

Did you ever hear of the experiment done in social learning with the monkeys? As I recall, they put a bunch of monkeys in a cage with a banana hanging just out of reach. In the cage, there were a few items that, if correctly arranged, the monkeys could use to be able to reach the banana. Eventually, the monkeys started to try to reach the banana, but before they reached the banana, all the monkeys were punished (electrocuted or something). In time, the monkeys learned that to try to innovate was dangerous and those who tried were punished by the rest of the group. Then, they started replacing the monkeys, one at a time, slowly enough that the new monkeys were punished by the existing monkeys though not by the actual experimenter, so that eventually there were none of the original monkeys left. Despite none of those monkeys having been punished for trying to reach for the banana, if one of the new ones tried, they would be attacked and punished by the other monkeys… the monkeys had been trained in what to do and lacked the self-awareness to questions assumptions.

Scripture reminds us that we ought not place pearls before swine, as the pig will turn and attack us.

We, as a society, will usually attack the messenger… no matter what truth they might bring.

I understand why you are being attacked. If you want to, you can too. There is a reason: Great truths frequently encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds (at least that’s what Einstein thought). It matters little where you advocate change – all systems are built so as to reinforce conservativism.

And conservativism is a good thing. Conservativism helps ensure that only the good ideas are adopted and promoted so as to become part of the whole. In a “free” system, new ideas will be bombarded with tests and challenged repeatedly to ascertain whether the individual advocating the position really believes in the idea as much as to whether the idea is good. That is their job! The challenge is to take our ego out of the equation and to promote the truth, regardless.

Likewise in love. In my experience, intimate relationships tend to highlight our greatest insecurities and fears, and are able to cause us the greatest pain. However, it is only through experiencing such pain and overcoming those insecurities that we are able to move forward… in that context, I believe, we are to face challenges until we remember that ultimately we are designed to be pure love, and share that pure and unconditional love with those around us. And it is only when we have stared down our greatest fears and weaknesses – even reconciled with the darkest parts of our soul – that we are able to be truly free to give purely of ourselves.

Unique Genius

Published on 26 April, 2005 in Overcoming. 0 Comments

Every great person has become great when their unique talents combined with the right opportunity. To ‘combine’ and to give your talents, you must have those talents that we all have, AND be ready, willing and able to give.

Many of us are scared to put ourselves on the line, of really believing in something and ourselves… Of taking our ego out of the equation. Our ego needs to be put out in the trash so that we can let go of its weight and fly.

Martial arts: Microcosm-Macrocosm

Published on 14 April, 2005 in Cool friends and ideas, Lifestyle and Overcoming. 0 Comments

We ought give respect to all those who follow their path, no matter what that path might be.

We ought look for excellences that we might emulate.
We ought be aware of deficiencies in others that we might correct those flaws in ourselves.

We ought pursue our path while remaining detached and focused; Detached from the actual outcomes achieved, though focused on giving our all in each moment.

Martial arts training is a powerful metaphor because the links are many, multi-faceted and yet retain depth. Martial arts is a microcosm of life: Perfecting a cut or a punch or a kata has parallels and lessons that can be applied throughout the Universe.

Our strengths, unleashed, grant victory.
Our weaknesses, hidden, ensure defeat.

Appreciating the paradox is a mental exercise. Applying the paradox through distinction, contradistinction and self-awareness of ourselves and our place in the Universe is a spiritual experience. Training ourselves to unleash our strengths without hiding our weaknesses is a physical discipline.

-->