Seeking Coastal Utopia

Fear. Abject, mind-numbing, paralyzing fear. Photo by Kiwihug on  Unsplash We have fears that are far from life or death situations. Fear freezes us, makes us indecisive. We have a fight or flight mechanism that protects us from fear (see Lizard Brain ) assuming, of course, you need protection from that fear. Yet, if you decide to face your fear, to step toward your fear, you may find yourself in a new world that you never knew existed . There are different ways to face your fear, but many of them require a change in your behavior, or a change in your demeanor that leads to courage, to act on those fears . Turning that fear into anger (or even fury depending on the level of fear that exists) can be your guide. Not everyone has realized this is a choice they can make. Now in my case, this behavior may have been programming from an early age, or even the military mindset created from the Marine Corps (Semper Fidelis brothers), but fear is a catalyst for me. It is the reason or t

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”―  Mark Twain Photo by  David Clode  on  Unsplash Meaning — you really need to do the hardest thing first. Period. End of story. Stop arguing. Just shut up and get to work. It’s hard. It’s difficult to  get motivated  to do something that is challenging. You are afraid of trying to do something hard.  You are afraid that you will fail .  There are different schools of thought about what should be done first, on what sequence you should do certain tasks, but realistically you need to do the hardest things first. Why? Because I said so. Now with that, I don’t mean just jumping right in, tearing it open, trying to get it completed haphazardly. Sound and fury mean nothing. You still need to plan and understand the steps that are necessary to do those hard things. You would not just walk into the gym and deadlift 500 pounds, you would hurt yourself! So why would you attack the

Everyone is guilty of it. We are subconsciously unaware that everyone knows what everyone else knows. Confused? What? You do not know what I know about this? Ugh. What do you really know? Academic creep is a plague that affects all of us. It typically happens in academia, the teacher or professor who has taught the same lesson plan over and over, 300 times in the last 10 years, and students are asking some of the same questions that he has already explained 299 times before today. Or your boss who did the same role you are doing today — yet twenty years ago — has the experience she learned when she was in the trenches, cannot figure out how you are unable to see the trainwreck in front of you. How come these people don’t get it? They are new students. New employees. This is the first time they have ever seen this presentation. The first time they heard of this concept, they are babes in the woods. We do it with our children, to our spouses, to our co-workers. I am extra guilty

Check your ego at the door, please. It is time to wake up and realize you are NOT the smartest in the room, and you really should not be if you wish to be successful. If you are the smartest in the room, maybe it is time to change rooms. Remember in grade school when picking teams? You knew who the good kickers were. You knew those that could roll a perfect pitch. Everyone had the ringers recognized. Why should that be any different at work? Before everyone starts squawking about wanting to have inclusion, I am talking about surrounding yourself with experts. The smartest people available that will force you and the rest of your team to up their game. We talked about the Hawthorne effect in a previous post ; how does that affect you when you’re working at your job? The observer effect makes you change your behavior. You find yourself working harder and being busier (yet maybe more inefficient) because somebody is watching you. When you notice your change in behavior because of t

How many times have you heard this? Dude, I work 60 hours all the time. OR I have been working straight from 6AM to 6PM. Everyday. Really? Being AT work versus WORKING are two disparate remarks. Just because someone is AT work does not always mean that they are working. How often do you see someone at work wasting time? Socializing, chatting with their coworkers or cubemates, standing around, sitting in meetings but not participating? Sure, they are at work, but not physically (or actively) working. It happens quite often. I suspect that these same people who claim these massive schedules, wearing them like badges of honor, always have all their work done? Or claim that they have SO MUCH WORK they are drowning. Man, I am Busy Dude. Crazy Busy. More work, less talk. GO DO. Quit slacking off. Do your work and GO HOME. Additionally, many businesses say that they want to be more flexible and be more edgy. They say they want people to have a more flexible work-life schedule. Yet c

Intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, what really gets you out of bed? Why do we do the things that we do? What are the things that really make us take that leap? Motivation. The influence or the stimulation of doing something — anything! Depending upon what flavor of motivation will elicit a similar response, but with different results. Every one of us is influenced by motivation. We each react to a particular motivation and if we have a better understanding of which type of motivation moves us, this helps us use that motivation to our advantage. What motivates you to wake up and go to work every day? To go through the same slog. Wake up, brush your teeth, wash your face, get dressed, drink your coffee, commute to work? You run around in the same ruts every day. Why do the things you need to do throughout the day so you can come back and do it all over again tomorrow? There are two primary behavioral motivations, intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation . Just

Have you seen the NSFW music video from Childish Gambino ?  Or this NSFW one by Joyner Lucas ?  One shows a stimulating and violent visual worldview; the other is an audible and mental worldview (yet still visual but a stark contrast) - both provide a dichotomous perspective on today’s U.S. society.  You have to watch and listen to both songs multiple times to capture items that you missed the first time you watched. Because of those songs and videos, your worldview has changed.  Did you feel the shift?  Do you now look at people differently? What is your worldview?  Everyone has their lenses and filters that they see the world in. I recently had a debate with my nine-year-old daughter about color.  She asked if I saw a particular object as blue, but she said, "What if I said it was red, who would be right?”  How did I learn it was blue ?  How did she learn it was red?  This debate with my nine-year-old daughter about something we perceive as fact - color - and I am realizin

Competencies There are four types of competencies - also described as stages of learning. 1. Unconscious incompetency - you don’t know what you don’t know 2. Conscious incompetency - you are aware that you don’t know and can recognize you have a lot to learn. 3. Conscious competency - you are aware and you know how to do it and the level of effort that is needed to remain good at it. If needed, you know what questions to ask 4. Unconscious competency - you are aware and it is rote, second nature. You know what to do, how to do it, and you can do it in your sleep. *this is the highest form of competence* These stages of competence is what defines us as professionals and recognizing each stage is key to growing as an individual and a leader. Let’s break each one into better examples. Unconscious incompetence - this is not derogatory, just a simple fact. You really do not know what you do not know. There are functions and actions taking place outside your worldview that you have

I started my career in the military, working on avionics for the United States Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B Night Attack program (VMA-211 ).  In avionics, you quickly learn that feedback is a bad thing. Its negative connotation stems from electronic sound distortion caused by a signal input from the same device, the electronic noise (squeal) that you experience from a microphone being too close to a speaker of the same source.  The most entertaining example form of system feedback is best managed by The Culps as they set-up to start singing to a medley of songs (not the pros, but close enough!) Alas, the real feedback is good. The intent of feedback is to reinforce good behavior and is the easiest way to learn how to provide feedback.  Look for others doing good around you, recognize that good action, and reinforce these actions with positive feedback, which will lead to that good action being repeated in the future.  That positive reinforcement form of feedback is usually the mo

Boomerang Effect NO! Not the social psychology term which is best described as “ reverse psychology .” Boomerangs. Everyone has the mental image of the boomerang. The bent and shaped piece of wood with Aboriginal origins? The shaped stick, the one that is designed to return to it’s thrower if enough energy is remaining from the launch? We aren’t going to talk about the hunting versions, but of the returning version. Did you know that the boomerang has the same behavior characteristics as business and relationships? Do you know how bomerangs work ? Have you ever tried to throw one ? Do you even know how to throw one ? Understanding how to exert the right amount of force in the right direction will bring the boomerang back to the thrower. You can’t go and fling it as hard as you can without direction and expect success, it crashes violently or fails to fly correctly. Nor can you throw it lightly , not giving the right amount of energy it deserves as it will not have enough energy

Have you ever sent a flaming email? Have you ever received one of those flame emails? How did you feel when you wrote that evil email? Did you feel powerful?  Did you feel that you were in a better position after sending it, letting the world (your recipient) feel your fury?  Did it make your arguments stronger? How about when you receive one of those emails? How does that make you feel about being on the receiving end of a flaming email or of an angry letter? What sort of flooded feeling did the email give you?  Did you feel the anger boiling inside? The dropped feeling like your guts were liquefied?  Think about the end result, was the objective reached? Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln were some of the many notable figures in history to learn the art of writing this poison pen letter.  Yet most often those letters were never sent.  Each of these men and others understood the purpose and reason of writing these letters.  They also understood the gravity of the letter and what it

Parkinson’s Law simply states that work will expand to fill the time available to it.  In a recent personal effort with the altMBA, the opposite is also true — work will compress to fill the time available. If you have less time to get the work done, you will figure out a way to get it completed. This is all about productivity and it is amazing how we all follow this “law.” The same truism can be applied to money. The more money you make, the more money you spend. Having been in and around manufacturing environments for more than 25 years, it is easy to see how Parkinson’s Law comes into play. I have fallen into the trap of allowing work to expand significantly because there was nothing needing done next, but I also used this to my advantage through artificial constraints to get work completed within a period of time that was more compressed. Learning to say “good enough” and not allowing the hunt for perfect cause any more delay is imperative in the business world. However I ha

Hawthorne Effect Have you ever had the feeling you were being watched? What did that awareness feel like? When you have that feeling, what do you do — do you change your behavior? Do you modify your routine? I am the boss and I am watching. You are the one being watched, what are you doing? You start working harder, being busy. Maybe not necessarily effective, but more active than you once were before you recognized that I was watching. The Hawthorne Effect is real. Having been in and around the manufacturing world since the mid-1990’s we have all seen and been affected by the Hawthorne Effect . Yet the Hawthorne Effect is not just industrial or business; it is social pressure. Having also been into pacing sports for most of my life like running, swimming and biking, the pressure to keep up with the person you are next to or linked to in social networks is not a random phenomena, but an opportunity to better one another. Whether it reflects the competitive spirit, or the pr