The one thing I learned while driving across half of the United States is that the answers are already within you. I’m going to go out on a limb and add the word “always” to that notion. That’s not to say that you can’t receive encouragment from outside (Jeff) or wisdom (Julie) or unconditional love and support (Lynn). And then there old fashion listening (Luis). All that is there, and all that is real. However, when you go looking for God, the Universe, or some other bolt of lighting from Above…well, just like a lightning strike, half the power and the energy comes from some place on the Earth. That’s what I learned: whatever exists out there is in “here,” as well. I sort of knew I already had my answer. What I needed was the peace and the quiet to listen to my inner voice, my higher self. A little cabin in the woods helped, but it was always mainly about me.
Musings
Cabin in the Woods
There is a cabin in the woods. I arrived there in complete and total darkness. I could see little else but the cabin itself and the few trees illuminated by the light from the car. I opened the car door, and the smell of pine rushed in. And to my utter surprise, the sound of running water filled the air. There is a river nearby.
Considering what I wish to achieve while I am here, that is no coincidence.
There is a stream, literal and figurative, for the wading. So, I am here. I am ready. I am listening.
The Art of Rolling Snowballs
There’s one skill that I haven’t mastered: the art of snowball rolling. In theory, one should be able to start with a tightly packed snowball, roll it, and wind up with a behemoth of a snow boulder. This is how snowmen are built. I have seen them with my own eyes in my own neighborhood. I recall once, on The Quad of the University of Illinois, watching some students rolling a ball along the length of The Quad during a really heavy snowfall. They rolled the biggest honkin’ snow boulder I’ve ever seen. It was crazy. I swore I’d roll one of my own some day.
Not every swear yields results, though.
My yard today is pretty heavily inclined in spots. I have enough room and enough of a hill to get a good ball rolling. I’m not talking about a little hand-packed snowball, either. I’m thinking that there’s enough room for a mid-sized snow boulder. The key word is “thinking” because I’m not “making” a mid-sized snow boulder when I’m laboring out there in the bone-chilling cold of an Illinois winter. What I’m really making in those instances is a modest snowball that leaves a trail behind it when I roll it but acquires no additional mass. I’m obviously missing something.
Snowballs are a funny thing to think about in August. Regardless, in nature, the rolling snowball scenario requires no human intervention. It just happens. I’ve not observed it myself, but it happens all the same. Often in life, there are snowballs rolling all around us. Many of them we don’t initiate. We’re not even always aware of them. But then there are the ones that we do start rolling.
In the world of metaphors, I’ve almost mastered the art of snowball rolling. At minimum, I’ve gotten pretty good at it.
The One Thing…I Learned from Tito Puente
I’m wasn’t a music major in college. I don’t have a vast library of music in my home. I barely have any jazz music, and even less could be considered Latin jazz. Or mambo. Or whatever other categorization people use for the music of Tito Puente. So, take everything I say with a grain of salt, OK?
Pardon the language, but I could listen to Tito Puente all day long. Seriously, all the fucking day long. Have your tired it? Oh, you really must. His stuff is genius. He does this rendition of “Take Five,” the classic Jazz piece by Paul Desmond made famous by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. You know it, trust me. EVERYONE with ears has heard it. If you are deaf, then please accept my sincere apology and even more sincere condolences. “Take Five” is like a slice of red velvet cake accompanied by a frothy cappuccino that is spiked with Kahlua. Exquisite. You can watch this groovy video over at YouTube to jog the memory:
.
Exquisite. Dave Brubeck plays the piano in this piece. Paul Desmond is the cat playing the alto sax. There’s something unique about the time signature that I don’t understand, but, for Pete’s sake, who the heck has to understand it to enjoy this song. It melts me. It makes me want to cry. It sinks in deep, deep into a warm place at my core, and grooves. Exquisite.
So, the original is the definition of cool. Tito’s version? Well, imagine Latino cool. Better yet, imagine Tito Puente cool. Check it out here:
.
What do you think? The original is in a class all it’s own, for sure. Tito’s version, though, is a great homage with Tito’s undeniable fingerprint. That piano riff that starts the song out remains the same. Then the layers start, and that’s where the jazz becomes Latin jazz. Tito just take it someplace different without losing the whole point of the groove. I feel it in that same place. It feels a little different, a little sassier.
The recorded track that I play over and over again is about 6 minutes long. Almost from the start, you know you’re listening to a Tito Puente track, but it isn’t until minute 5 that you can actually HEAR Tito’s signature sound. The master timbalero doesn’t make his presence known until the end of the song. And THAT, my friends, is what makes him great.
Tito Puente didn’t always have to have the spotlight. When he was on stage, he owned the stage and the audience. I went to one of his live performances when I was still in college. It was phenomenal. There was no mistaking why anyone was there. You went to see Tito do his thing. And his thing was magic. However, when you listen to one of his CD’s, you get a different take on the man. The showman, the ham, the rebellious timbalero sort of disappears. He fades in and out of your consciousness. Some times he’s right there, in your face, undeniably Tito. Then on the next track, he’s gone. He’s in the background somewhere, just another layer adding character to the piece. I love that about him.
Not to knock Kenny G, but every Kenny G song is so obviously a Kenny G song meant to spotlight Kenny G. The dude has talent, no doubt. And he’s also the secret in the secret sauce. Not much of a secret, really. With a Tito Puente album, you have to follow his thread. He weaves in and out of the melodies, taking center stage for a spell, then adding richness to the chorus behind a classic piano piece in “Take Five.” Like I said, I don’t know the music lingo. What I do know is that Tito Puente loved the music, adored the music, and, above all else, respected the musicians who gave of themselves to play the music. He honored them by sharing the spotlight with them.
So, the one thing I learned from Tito Puente is to always be generous in your work.
Investing Time
I wish I had something insightful to say about investing money, but, alas, I do not. That’s not an arena in which I have a great deal of skill. Or knowledge. Or talent. So, if I were Marcus Buckingham, I’d say, “Ric, investing isn’t one of your strengths!”
You see, Marcus defines a strength as this perfect storm of skill, knowledge, and talent that results in near perfect, consistent performance. It’s the stuff you do exceptionally well the vast majority of the time. The “skill” part are the steps it takes to complete a task. You can learn those tasks. You practice them. You master them. That’s you mastering a skill.
The “knowledge” part is more stuff that you learn, but it’s not about steps but about details. Knowledge is what makes you convincing when you argue a point. Knowledge is amassed and gives us credibility. You learn and learn and learn, and you impress with your expertise. That’s you mastering knowledge.
The “talent” part is the place where science and technique sort of go out the window, and the stuff you’re born with, the stuff you do because…well…it’s just natural. That’s talent. It needs no other description. You do it. You’re good at it. You enjoy it. That’s you mastering your talent.
Put them all together…again, skill, knowledge, and talent…and you have your strengths. Strengths give you personal power. They give you an adrenaline rush. They give you a thrill. You soar when you do them. You feel energized. Weaknesses, on the other hand, aren’t necessarily the things that you’re bad at. They are the things that suck your energy. They drain you. They give you bags under your eyes and remove all trace of joy from the moment.
So, if you’re going to invest time in anything, in which area should it be? Should you spend your days investing time and energy into those things that steal your life away from you? Or should you spend your time and energy on those things that bring positivity to your life? There is a body of research that demonstrates that you’ll never get the return on investment from time and energy spent on your weaknesses that you will get on the same time and energy spent on your strengths.
As a matter of fact, they’ll tell you that a fraction of that time and energy spent on a strength will return more to you than two or three times that equivalent spent on a weakness. To paraphrase Dan Pink, this isn’t a feeling…this isn’t philosophy…this is science. There is scientific, statistical data that demonstrates that the best way to improve your performance in life is to focus on your strengths. To quote Marcus again: “Work on your weaknesses just enough to make them irrelevant, then move on.”
To me, that’s the best possible investment advice that anyone can ever give you.
Action for Answers
Asking yourself the hard questions is the first step towards crafting a different life for yourself.
Answering the hard questions is even better. We can call that the second step.
Taking action based on those answers is even better still. We can call that the third step.
How many people do you know who get past the second step? How about you? That third step is a killer, that’s for sure. It’s like the third rail of the subway. Well, not really. We just convince ourselves that it is. It’s easier to avoid the third step than face the potential consequences of disrupting the status quo.
That’s the voice of experience. No need to fight to convince anyone of my credibility today. Something tells me that nobody is going to challenge this post.
Why Before What Before How
I have this friend who likes to remind people that you have to put your “what” before your “how.” He has to remind people of this because most of us (that includes me!) get an inkling of the answer to the “what” question, then run off, half cocked, and start tackling the question of “how.” This is almost always a less than ideal course of action. Why? Simply stated, if you haven’t fully answered the “what” question, you’ll never fully solve the puzzle at hand.
So, completely answer “what” first, then go after “how.” I’ve done this before at his urging. Great results…seriously.
Now, I want to add something to the formula, and that something is “why.” The answer to the “why” question is actually the hardest of all. It is easy for “what” to change, particularly in light of the challenges that might arise when we start on the “how” part. I’ve come to believe that “why” is the deepest, most personal, and often most compelling question to both ask and answer. When “why” is clear, “what” is clearer and more enduring. As I’ve already said, “how” follows “what,” and that part of the question remains the same.
In summary, understand the reason a thing must be done (why), define the desired outcome (what), then build the plan to get there (how). It seems elementary to me now, but “why” is the question that I have been avoiding all along. I can already see that the reason I’ve stagnated is because I’ve been pursuing “what” without knowing “why.” As I begin to put “why” into perspective, I can already see the distracting “what” question narrow in focus.
The Opposite of Fear
A friend posed this question: “What is the opposite of fear?”
I had to think about that one for a bit. Then I came up with an answer.
The opposite of fear might be death.
Fear is built in. We can’t remove it. It’s in the fabric of life. Life and fear go hand in hand. If you remove fear, you remove life. Removing life is the definition of death. Death is the opposite of life, thus…death as the opposite of fear? I’m stretching the transitive property here, but you get my drift.
Fear doesn’t’ have to be all bad. Fear tells you things about yourself and about the world in which you live. Fear gives you reason to pause, and pausing helps us from diving into swimming pools with no water. Fear sharpens our senses thanks to jolts of adrenaline. Fear provides us with the context for risk. In other words, fear is a component of wisdom. Fear only becomes a problem when the individual allows it to paralyze them to the extent that they cannot participate fully in their own lives.
Maybe there is no opposite of fear. Fear simply is, and what it “is,” more than anything, is a subjective label we slap on to an emotional or cognitive state that can keep us from action. The absence of action is called “inaction.” Inaction, I am pretty sure, if a characteristic of death.
To recap, fear is part of life. Life is characterized by action, so fear is characterized by action. The absence of action is inaction. Inaction is a characteristic of death. Fear, though, is also characterized by inaction. So, fear is part of life, and fear is part of death. Fear is living, and fear is dying. But…as living and dying are verbs, they imply action. Action implies life. The opposite of life is death. I think we covered that already.
So, the answer is death. No fear equals no life. No life is death. The opposite of fear is death. If you are feeling fear, then you are still alive. Feel fear, but just don’t let it keep you from life.
A Matter of Perspective
Life simply is. Whether life is good or bad is a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of perspective.
A stone simply is. When the artist looks at the stone, they may choose to paint a realistic landscape with the stone at its center. A graphic designer may choose to create a stylized representation of the stone in just two colors. A poet may choose to create haiku about the stone. A journalist may choose to write a story about the significance of the stone within the context of some greater political issue. And when a sculptor looks at the stone, they see within it the hidden potential of the next Venus or David locked away inside. Regardless, the stone remains a stone. The physical properties of stone still apply. It may simply appear different. At its essence, it is still the same; it is still stone.
What makes the difference is what the individual brings to the stone. It’s about the perspective.
In the world we live in, we have to expect difficulty. We have to expect challenge. We have to expect adversity. All these are guaranteed. All those good times are guaranteed, too, but I find that people seldom lament their good fortune, their propensity for having such fantastic and transformative experiences. No, most of the time, when we obsess, we obsess over the moments that just don’t seem to go our way. Even then, with hindsight, we can often find benefit from the difficult times. Unfortunately, hindsight doesn’t help us in the moment. In the moment, we seem to be incapable of assessing our situation from just more than one perspective.
Applying multiple perspectives to life is about looking at life in the moment, from multiple emotional states, to help you understand yourself better. To see those positive perspectives at the moment of great adversity takes work. It takes deliberate and conscious effort to push through the fear and the anguish. It’s not easy, but doing so will help us find a resolution to the problem at hand more quickly. It clears the mind, and it opens us up to the creative possibilities. We are at our most powerful when we are applying our strengths to any situations and actively co-creating resolution. It beats the alternative: waiting for resolution to find us, then reverse-engineering a positive perspective.
Positive perspective in the moment is a tool we can learn to use not only for ourselves but for those we influence. Whether or not you lead formally is irrelevant. Every human being we interact with every day of our lives, once they come into contact with us, fall into our sphere of influence. We all lead by example. The power of positive influence, or the influence of positive thinking, is immeasurable. It’s as easy to benefit from it as it is to share the benefits with the world.
In the work that I do as a leader of people for a large organization, my perspective is often the best gift that I have to offer. My role is often that of coach and of supporter. People come to me often with issues, knowing that I will listen and offer them my unique perspective. People don’t normally come to me for my technical expertise or because I know the right people or because I hold the organizational hammer over them. I think people come to me because I will listen. If all I can offer is a positive perspective each and every day, then I’ve managed to achieve something meaningful. In many ways, I believe this gift of being present for others is the purpose of life.
The next time someone comes to you seeking your counsel or you find yourself in a moment of despair, gripped by fear, think first about positive perspective. Choose to find that perspective. Apply it. It can make all the difference in the world.
We are the painters, the graphic designers, the poets, and the sculptors of our lives. Life, in the end, is precisely what we make of it. Whether the moments in life are good or bad…that’s all a matter of perspective.
I Think Satan is a Creative Consultant at ABC Television
I’ll probably regret posting this, but…for Pete’s sake, what is WRONG with ABC Television?
Here’s how I know that Satan has a hand in the TV programming at ABC: I watched “Freefall” last night.
What’s “Freefall?” It’s a primetime gameshow. The contestant answers questions correctly, they get prizes. Simple premise. The hook? Their prizes are on a conveyor belt. As they attempt to answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly, the conveyor belt moves the 3 prizes along. The fourth object in line is a cash prize. The faster they answer the questions, the more likely the contestant is to score all 3 prizes PLUS the cash bonus. Like I said, simple premise.
So, what happens when the prizes pass by the contestant on the conveyor belt? Well, how about…THEY FALL OFF THE ROOF OF A MULTI-STORY BUILDING! That’s right, the CRASH…they EXPLODE…on the ground below. And when I say “prizes,” I’m talking about furniture, plasma TV’s, barbecue grills, exercise equipment…you name it, they got it.
Let’s recap this vital point: if the contestant fails to answer correctly in time, a washing machine might plummet to its destruction.
Notice, I’m not being flippant. I’m not trying to inject humor. This isn’t funny.
I cannot remember EVERY seeing something so reprehensible, so environmentally irresponsible, so socially…MESSED UP…wrapped up and delivered as “family television.” Seriously? Seriously?!? I mean, SERIOUSLY ABC?
You know, the Roman Empire fell in part because it decayed from the inside out. If there had been TV back then, I am sure ABC’s “Freefall” would have led the ratings.
I ask myself a few simple questions. Like:
– How much does this show cost?
– Where does this stuff come from?
– Where does the broken stuff go?
– Who thought that people should be shown that it’s OK to just break stuff, for no reason?
– Who thought “because I bought it” was a good reason to the previous question?
– Does anyone at ABC know where “away” is? You know, as in, “We’ll throw it away?”
I’m so angry right now. I don’t normally have these visceral reactions to TV. There was just something so WRONG with what I saw last night. My not-quite-10-year-old son would have been appalled. This show is a primetime show. Kids WILL watch it. What a horrible and sad example these adults have set. Is this what our society has come to? At least if my kids see some horrible act of violence on TV, I can explain it away as fiction, as special effects wizardry. This…this I can’t explain. I shouldn’t have to.
I’m not angry. I’m heartbroken.
Illuminate Possibilities 