Little Deep Thoughts

Fortunately, for all of us, a new frontier is upon us. Because our nation, and world, has entered the Information Age, the old patterns for living are gone. An article by business writer John Huey appeared in the June 27, 1994 edition of Fortune . In it, Huey observed, "Let's say you're going to a party, so you pull out some pocket change and buy a little greeting card that plays 'Happy Birthday' when it's opened. After the party, some-one casually tosses the card into the trash, throwing away more computer power than existed in the entire world before 1950." In the old paradigm, forged in the Industrial Age, human beings became less and less useful and adventurous. We found lifelong employment in guaranteed jobs and did our jobs the same way until retirement. Then, once we reached retirement age, we became thoroughly useless to society and lived lives dependent on the government, our relatives, or our own savings that we accumulated in our "useful...

The problems we face fall in one of the three areas: direct control (problems involving our own behaviour); indirect control (problems involving other people's behaviour); no control (problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities). The proactive approach puts the first step in the solution of all three kinds of problems within our present Circle of Influence. Direct control problems are solved by working on our habits. They are obviously within our Circle of Influence. These are the "Private Victories". Indirect control problems are solved by changing our methods of influence. These are the "Public Victories". Most people have only three or four of these methods in their repertoire, starting usually with reasoning, and, if that doesn't work, moving to flight or fight. How liberating it is to accept the idea that I can learn new methods of human influence instead of constantly trying to use old ineffective methods to ...

Because our attitudes and behaviours flow out of our paradigms, if we use our self-awareness to examine them, we can often see in them the nature of our underlying maps. Our language, for example, is a very real indicator of the degree to which we see ourselves as proactive people. The language of reactive people absolves them of responsibility. " That's me. That's just the way I am." I am determined. There's nothing I can do about it. " He makes me so mad !" I'm not responsible. My emotional life is governed by something outside my control.  " I can't do that. I just don't have the time." Something outside me --- limited time --- is controlling me. That language comes from a basic paradigm of determinism. And the whole spirit of it is the transfer of responsibility.  I am not responsible, not able to choose my response.  REACTIVE LANGUAGE PROACTIVE LANGUAGE 1.    There’s nothing I can do. Let’s ...

Our basic nature is to act, and not be acted upon. As well as enabling us to choose our response to particular circumstances, this empowers us to create circumstances. Taking initiative does not mean being pushy, obnoxious, or aggressive. It does mean recognising our responsibility to make things happen. Over the years, people have been counseled for better jobs to show more initiative - to take interest and aptitude tests, to study the industry, even the specific problems the organisation they arre interested in are facing, and then to develop and effective presentation showing how their abilities can help solve the organisation's problem. It's called "solution selling", and is a key paradigm in business success. The response is usually agreement - most people can see how powerfully such an approach would effect their opportunities for employment or advancement. But many of them fail to take the necessary steps, the initiative, to make it happen. " I do...