The Brutal Attack on Positive Attitudes

Good Morning!

Before we jump into today...take a moment to ponder the fact of how lucky we are!  We arose this morning, in the dawn of the human age's awakening, a true consciousness of the universe and and the abstract reality of possibilities!  I was awed to think that for the billions of years (within the life of the universe) prior and for the millions of years of human existence, there has not been an intellectual and scientific awareness like ours (to my knowledge)!  And we have been given a seat within this drama!  What a priveledge!  What are you doing to participate?  What is your cosmic contribution...are you acting like our ancestors or are you an active member of the future!  This was my awe inspiring thought for this morning...what a glorious chance to participate in this chapter in the human epic!

OK...ENOUGH RAMBLING......NOT!

I bet that you have had another great week!

You "won some" and you "learned something!"  What more can you ask?

Next week will be progressively better...for your having done so...it is the path of Continuous Improvement...

The Continuous Improvement Management Methodology...CIMM for those who love letters!

The important thing is that you are committed to this path and thay you stay the course...

It is a difficult thing to constantly stay on the "High" performance "Road!"

There are times that just doing a "meets requirements" job...is so alluring!

We all get tired...but we can not give up!

Doing an average job is the "kiss of death!"

Why?

The moment that you do...the "I told you..." people will crawl from the gutters or soar from some lofty point in the heavens, to point out that all of your work in the past was just a facade...and...a farce...and that you are no different than the rest of them...

It is important to know and constantly be aware that the vermin...better yet, "vultures" of an organization are on constant vigil..."looking" for weaknesses...and failures to provide their next meal!

I have to chase down this rabbit hole...SORRY!

Vultures are interesting creatures...

For years, ornithologists believed that they possessed uncanny eye-sight!

For years, they believed that they were related to hawks and eagles...because of the way the soared while "looking for food."

They were wrong on both counts!

Let's address the latter first...

Through DNA testing they found that vultures and storks are more closely related. It "put to rest" a long standing controversy! The last thing that I read after this enlightenment was "this explains why the skulls of vultures and storks are so similar..." Scientists knew of the physiological resemblance for years...yet they wrote it off as an anomoly...a physical resemblance would not convince them that these two birds were related...they were classifed as raptors because of the way they flew...physical resemblence could not unveil the real truth...

...even after years of repeated testing of bird DNA...the controversy still pops its ugly head up...from those who refuse to take two scientifically wonderful data points...for what they mean!

Now the first...later...

Ornithologists long argued that vultures had uncanny eyesight! How else could they find a half-decomposed field mouse lying in a woods?

The answer actually is embedded within the rhetorical question...

The answer? SMELL!

Vultures have an uncanny sense of smell...

As they soar around...hundreds, if not thousands of feet in the air...they are not looking for food...

They are sniffing...and can hone in on the source very quickly!

A budding scientist proved this by burying some raw meat in a forest and watching it for a while...

Guess what?

The vultures found the decomposing meat...dug it up and ate heartily!

Fresh meat set just a few yards away was totally ignored until it too became rotten!

He repeated this experiment numerous times with the same results...and independent research found exactly the same thing!

It’s their sense of smell that is phenomenal!

Vultures do not need to be within seeing distance to find death and decomposition...they can smell it for many miles...traces on the air currents upon which they soar...I find that totally amazing!

Back to our discussion...

Cultural Gravity...

It is a normal human tendency to try to pull extreme behavior back to what they believe is the norm...

Cultures desire normal behavior in order to survive....

Cultures detest "ab-normal" behavior...anything that strays from the mean on the bell-curve!

Cultures are attuned to the identification and response to anything out of the norm...

Extrememly great behavior is reigned in because it threatens the "normal"...

And cultures attack extremely poor behvaior also...the reason being...to elevate themselves...that is when they point out a behavior or performance that they feel is below them...and the mass nods in agreement and disgust!

That behavior is what creates and maintains a culture...I call this behavior "cultural gravity!"

Like physical gravity...It is the pull by a larger body or mass upon that behavior which is tending to stray from that norm...

Think about that for a moment...it is not unlike our solar system! Planets do not stray...smaller bodies are pulled into the larger bodies...The moons to planets...planets to the sun...the sun to the galaxy and the galaxy to the universe...and so on!

Things tend to stay the same...and gravitate towards a central point!

That tendency also permeates the human condition!

Cultures do not want to change...unless...there is disruption...a crisis!

Crisis (to a culture) means pain!

Cultures do not change unless there is a benefit...

Extreme pain gives them an extreme reason to seek something different and sometimes even extreme differences...CHANGE!

Some may say that because humans and cultures are reasonable...they can be convinced (through logic) that change is beneficial...

I have seldom seen that happen...

Even in Ancient Greece...the most logical of all societies...change was VERY difficult!

There is a story of a great philosopher who was put to death because he challenged the status quo!

Hmmmmm....could that be Socrates?

So my thoughts lead me to think that trying to convince a culture that they need to change...with only words and logic is a nearly impossible task!

More often than not...it leads to hemlock!

So what is a change agent to do?

Convince them through action!

Show them that what you stand for is faster, better and cheaper than what they are doing...create internal crises by comparison!

Internalized crisis...without pain...but it is REAL!

That calls for absolute consistency in your performance...and continuous exceeding of expectations!

This type of work is adrenalin filled and demanding!

Average performance will only convince or confirm to, your audience, that average performance is OK!

Your audience must see you out-perform them consistently with less effort...ALL THE TIME!

Now you have created an environment that is in crisis!

Now you have proven a disparity!

This takes time!

This is why I say...plan what you need to do and do it!

In between the plan and the performance is an announcement of intent...(this is today's hint!)
Make tomorrow significantly better than today!

Don't talk happy talk...do it!

SPEAKING OF HAPPY TALK...

A book recently hit the stands that (with the cold precision of an assassin) attacked the Power of Positive Thinking and Purpose Driven Life and everything in between!

I believe that this was a long time coming and well deserved by those fanatics that overused this concept for their own gain!

I have watched people spend their entire life (I would rather say "wasted") looking for their purpose...and people driven to suicide by fanatically happy people around them...

I am an advocate of positive thinking and authentic happiness...but for different reasons!

Let's hit authentic happiness first...

I like being happy infinitely more than I like being sad and depressed...so I choose to be happy...

I do not choose happiness because happy get more stuff!

I advocate happiness because it is better than sadness!

END OF STORY!

Now let's look at "Purpose."

It is a bit more complex...but people believe that they have this higher calling and they seek it with everything they have...rather than realizing that where they are is their higher calling!

Talk about missing your boat!

Crazy happy fanatics...and people who have deluded themselves into their higher calling gives this whole power of positive thinking philosophy a bad name!

It is time to call these people out and isolate them from the real positive thinkers...they are not the same...

It is time to separate out the crazy happy people and isolate them from the authentically happy people...

The abnormal behavior here is not the attitude condition...but that from which the facade is built!
This book does a great job of that...

Positive thinking...purpose...happiness are all good things for wise and intelligent people who do not abuse the gift...

These are traits that are found at the beginning, during and at the destination of a true adherent's journey...it is not a means to an end...

When an individual treats a personality trait as the vehicle of success..They detract from the gift and are simply a hollow Manichean...success comes (if it comes at all) to them is through luck rather than hard work...

Plan your work...adjust and ensure success...be happy along the way...

It is a full venue or no venue at all...if you fail...or your job stinks...thse organizational "vultures" have a highly attuned sense of smell and they'll pick up on your mediocre performance from miles away...swoop in and live on your carrion!

Do not give them an opportunity to feed off of you or your performance...

Like the real vultures...they'll totally ignore true success as if it doesn't exist...that has no nutritional value to them...they thrive in an environment of failure...they find it and feed off of it!  Do not let them feed off of you!

Stand in defiance of the carrion eaters...by constantly residing in the world of the living and improving...they will not be able to even find you!

Stand, (with me) for just a moment, in awe of our role in the human journey!  Consciousness is an absolutely amazing thing and we should (the human race) not simply be a meaningless blip in the universe's history...make it better for your having been there!

Enough Said!