Learning to Read (Yourself)

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Cesar Chavez, the great civil rights leader of the 1960’s and 70’s once said, “You cannot uneducate the person that has learned to read.” His point then, and mine now, is that there are certain skills that cannot be taken from you, they keep giving as long as you want them to and are willing to use them. Chavez’s example is even more poignant today than when he spoke them, as the internet has opened up nearly all of recorded history and knowledge to us all.

It is important to understand that reading is a relatively recent human skill. If we are inclined to believe the archeologists, humans have walked the earth for at least 2 million years, yet the first forms of written text (Sumerian Logographs) date only from around 4,000 BC. It would then take 2,000 years for the Phoenicians to create an alphabet, and another 1,000 for the Greeks to add vowels to make the first truly standardized and usable text system. Even then, the skills were reserved for only a select few who were deemed “worthy” and it wasn’t until the industrial revolution (1750-1850) that the masses were instructed in this basic skill of self-improvement.

My point is that for a long, long time, a whole lot of people walked around unnecessarily dumb but didn’t know it, and their lives were severely limited by the lack of this basic skill. And while reading is certainly the big kahuna of self-improvement skills, it is certainly not the only one. The new science of learning to read one’s own performance, devoid of self-delusion, ego, excuse making or rationalization, is a skill that opens many doors for those who make the effort. The science and process of learning the wisdom from within is a life-altering skill detailed in my two most recent books, Blue Threat: Why to Err is Inhuman and Going Pro: The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism.

Learning to read is not a natural process. We all remember memorizing word lists and weekly vocabulary tests, there was a good amount of drudgery involved. Likewise, learning to objectively track, analyze and learn from one’s daily activities also requires a bit of up front work. But the outcomes are worth the effort.

If you find yourself stagnating, either personally or professionally, give serious consideration to learning from the one who looks back at you in the mirror. Who knows, you might just find a new friend and mentor. And for those of you with some spare time this June 11-14, consider plunging in head first at our inaugural Going Pro Executive Retreat in beautiful Lake Placid New York, where myself and a world class set of speakers, including combat pilots, industry executives, and Olympic decathlon Gold Medalist Dan O’Brien will give you a guided tour.

Chavez completed his quote that I began this post by saying, “We have seen the future, and the future is ours.” Let’s not wait 2 million years to learn this skill. Harness your potential and seize the day.

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Bureaucrat Should Not be a Four-Letter Word

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Slow Losses of Judgment

I usually take great pains in avoiding the temptation to pile on or kick someone while they are down. But I’m going to make an exception here to talk about the recent scandals with the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Secret Service. These two events are related only tangentially, but three facts tie them together. First, they broke into the public eye within a few days of each other. Secondly, they involve entities of the federal government whose salaries (and apparently considerable perks) are paid with our tax dollars, and perhaps most importantly, they each involved an extreme level of arrogance and contempt for the public they purport to serve in flaunting known guidelines and acceptable norms of behavior.

Let’s start with the utterly ridiculous case of the GSA. If you are not yet aware of the Las Vegas conference scandal, click here to start your familiarization. The truly odd part of this one is the extravagant lengths that GSA employees and managers went to document their contempt for the taxpayer dollar, and eventually provide evidence in their own demise; rap videos (actually pretty good ones), semi-nude “Sangria in the hot tub” pictures from the top of high dollar hotels, among others. Seriously, the scriptwriters at Saturday Night Live couldn’t have done this level of work if they set out to parody a federal agency. I will leave it to the rabid media and politicians to call for and document the bloody aftermath of this egregious behavior, but for our purposes, we need to ask, how does this happen inside a relatively low profile government agency supposedly staffed with public servants?

Now let’s turn our attention to the sad case of the (not so) Secret Service and their alleged  hook ups with multiple Colombian prostitutes while on a Presidential protection assignment. Although it might appear that this was a “boys will be boys” misadventure due to poor judgment after a few too many Mojitos downtown, the magnitude of the involvement hints at more than a bit of preplanning. Be that as it may, the critical act of arrogance here appears to have occurred when one agent attempted to stiff his service provider. Let me rephrase that; when one agent failed to pay the agreed upon amount following services rendered. (Note to self; settle all debts honorably and responsibly when dealing with entrepreneurs in a foreign nation.)

My take is that neither of these pathetic cases were isolated events and likely indicate an internal erosion of professionalism over considerable lengths of time, a normalization of deviance (Dr. Dianne Vaughn’s term originally used to explain the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster). While they were certainly failures of personal accountability by those who have and will be named for these specific events, these events point to a deeper cultural erosion in our public sector, one that is more critical and harmful than that occurring within our elected officials, which is bad enough without the career professionals going south on us. Our nation, states, counties, cities and towns are run by public servants who make the wheels turn. It’s time for governments at all levels to embrace (and force feed if necessary) a return to professionalism. After the inquiry’s, humiliations, and trials are over, individuals and organizations that serve the public must reestablish a culture of respect for their employers (taxpaying citizens). This will not be an easy task.

In the meantime, all of us working in organizations – public or private sector – should take a close look in the mirror to make certain we are not living in glass houses, and hold our “public servants” to a higher standard.

Bureaucrat should not be a four letter word.

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Now or Never? The Soul Sapping Power of Resistance

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I died twelve years ago – but thankfully it was only temporary.  No, this isn’t one of those miracle resuscitation stories (although I love the reality TV shows where people claim to have seen the other side of the veil) but rather a story of intellectual and physical malaise that incapacitated me from making progress for a prolonged period of time.  It was the death of initiative, and in a larger sense, a death of the spirit.  I had simply finished one phase of my life and was not courageous enough to move on to the next. It has taken me nearly a decade to recover.

My story is not important, but the cause is, because it is one we all face when we have a choice as to whether to grow with effort or stay the same. People naturally resist growth and change, and this is especially true when external circumstances are already adding stress to our lives. Bestselling author Steven Pressfield, calls this force “the resistance” and says that it is present in “any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity.”  This is a much bigger issue than most of us recognize, because there is a lot of advertisers and industries out there who want us mentally dependent on them to fill the voids in our mental and physical schedule, so that we can stay passive, satiated, and content; not active, engaged, and improving.

Resistance is tremendously persistent and ever present. It favors the status quo.  It favors cultural norms. It favors inaction over action. It favors us as we are, over what we could become. Along with its malevolent cousin procrastination, it is quite possibly the greatest challenge we will face in our personal and professional lives. Whether its weight loss, education or any other items that require significant effort over time, the resistance is there to give us reasons for not taking action.

If a better future is out there, we have to go get it, not wait for it. The first key to overcoming resistance is to learn to recognize it in our daily lives. Try this simple exercise. Stop for a moment and seriously reflect on some aspect of personal improvement you might want to achieve; perhaps a new fitness regimen, quitting a bad habit, going back to school to finish a degree or certificate program, or learning a new language are good examples. Now notice the doubts, and multiple reasons your subconscious almost immediately brings to the table why you shouldn’t do it, at least not now. Listen to your inner voice tell you that there are too many factors that don’t favor immediate action. If you do this simple exercise, you will see the face of the enemy. In his enlightening book Do the Work!, Pressfield says that our “big brains and tiny hearts” result in a near constant state of doubting, over thinking, and hesitation when it comes to changing our current habits for something better. Once the enemy is recognized, it can be fought.

One final quote from Pressfield puts all of this all in perspective. “Resistance plays for keeps … its goal is not to wound or disable. Resistance aims to kill. Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on this earth to give.”  Resistance targets nothing less than our future and potential, and is the first giant we must slay on our journey towards a better future and true professionalism.

Is the resistance holding you back? Fight back. Start now. 
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