How to Succeed in a World (Seemingly) Hell Bent on Self-Destruction. That’s the working title for my next book, which is now officially underway.
This week and next, I’m looking for your help. Each day, as I give a quick overview of a new chapter from the book-to-be, I’m hoping you’ll ping me with comments, questions, suggestions, and additional resources you think should be included. The framework for each chapter is already done, including detailed outlines. What I’m looking for from you, my readers, is three-fold: first, a gut check that the outline matches what you’d expect from the title and from the preceding chapters; second, honest feedback about how compelling the topic is; and three, a quick description of specific content you hope would be covered in the chapter. This could include concepts, anecdotes, references, how-to’s, etc.
So the root of the problem may ultimately be you… but getting to the root of the problem is not always easy. There are complicating factors:
Ego—You spend all your time brushing the part of your hair you can see to perfection. Later, walking down the street, someone snickers behind you and says, “Ha! Would ya look at that hair!” You think the person is a doofus, because you are totally unaware of your own goofy-looking bald spot. Well your ego is like the back of your head: you know it’s there, but you can’t see it, even with a mirror. To glimpse it, you generally some help and a special arrangement of multiple mirrors. Your ego operates in much the same way, giving others reason to criticize you while staying almost totally out of your own line of sight. And while your ego is still “you,” it qualifies as a complicating factor because it blinds you from the real issues.
Time—They way we perceive time also complicates our ability to see our real issues. For instance, as a nation, America values short-term results; we don’t value the journey. This causes us to devalue critical long-term learning processeses. Also, we take an almost exclusively linear look at time, rather than appreciate its cycles. As a result, we have institutionalized a sense of forward progress. This creates several complications, including creating false choices (i.e., “What will another year of school COST me in terms of career advancement?”) that keeps us worrying about what we’re missing and stymies us from experiencing Quality Time in the moment.
Pressure—Pressure inherently changes nothing of a situation. What pressure does do is shrink or remove any margin for error, which creates fear and anxiety and stress and a whole host of emotional responses that make it difficult to perform well.
Sphere of Control—Call it fate, call it destiny, call it being in check. Your sphere of control dictates your degrees of freedom. A slave could achieve nirvana, a piano prodigy could be born in the slums of Rio de Janierio. To use their gifts, they will have a much different, longer, and more difficult path than if this pair were born in, say, Boston.
In this section, I am taking a look at these factors at some depth, through a mix of anecdotes and research; by putting them together, I hope to be able to show how specific development strategies can be used to alleviate multiple complicating factors at the same time. I also hope to show the mechanisms by which such complicating factors are eliminated through a shift in perspective. I think that while for someone who has achieved some success, it’s easy to see how the difference between success and failure is often a function of perspective, for someone who has not—for the person who really NEEDS this material—such a statement often sounds absurd. That’s the bridge I’m building in this section.
Is this the right mix? Have I left out anything major? Are there specific subsets of “sphere of control”, etc., that I should explicitly call out?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Great start Jason. I actually view Sphere of Control as THE macro factor with Ego, Time and Pressure as separate (but related) variables. Within control, I see internal factors (acuity, communication skills, etc.) and external factors (access, opportunity, etc.). This is probably a longer discussion than a quick post but I think you’re on the right track but need to blow these out in quite a bit more detail with perhaps a slightly modified emphasis.
You might want to discuss Iran Contra and what our country should have learned from it. Iran Contra reminded me of the Roman Empire that had security guards of Emperors involved with the murdering of Emperors and helping to choose new Emperors.
You might want to discuss the Savings and Loans Crisis and that if Congress had learned from it the mortgage mess might have not taken place. Congress should have figured out that it needed to require down payments on homes and fixed rate mortgages.
You might want to discuss Xerox and how it did not market its inventions well that modern personal computers are based on.
You might want to discuss 3M and other companies which have been successful innovators for many years.
You might want to discuss our public k-12 schools and what changes you think makes sense.
You might want to discuss health insurance and health care delivery in our country.
You might want to discuss how some people have survived lost in the woods.