The Element That Hinders Accomplishment

The term 'reverse salient' is a term used in warfare that refers to a constraint or limiting process of an advancing military force. It refers to a point of weakness in an attack; or a lagging element that threatens a military force from accomplishing its mission. Inevitably, having components of any advancing system fall behind foreshadows impending doom.

A reverse salient can be broadened to encompass any system that evolves towards a goal. That is, personal growth, business development, even relationship growth. Without conscious awareness of reverse salients among these domains we risk sabotaging the whole enterprise.

A common reverse salient among individuals and groups is adaptability. Many groups and individuals become good at antiquated methods and procedures. Having become experts at old methods these groups and individuals struggle to "see" a different or better way of achieving their specified outcomes. When adaptability isn't actively nurtured, then it becomes a weak point. Being, a weak point, this reverse salient then becomes a blind spot that can leave the group or individual exposed to danger.

Almost every sales organization I have ever encountered is weak at this point. They are experts at old models that are only half-heartedly applied. Curiously enough, many organizations try to teach or coach best practices, but fail to understand that the message must be bought into and effectively sold to the sales force for the knowledge to become actionable.

To become aware and either cut or fix a reverse salient we must first become aware. To do this we must ask, what part of the process is hindering advancement of this particular enterprise? How would bringing this part of the system up to speed effect the results we are seeking? What can I do to strengthen this reverse salient and make it a strength.

Another insight into the use of the reverse salient concept has to do with zooming in. Most of us work from a strength position. That is we tend to work in things we are strong at. Being strong or effective in a profession for example would lead us to believe that a reverse salient isn't present. However, truthfully, a reverse salient is always present. To leverage this concept we need to zoom in to our specific profession. By doing so we can ask the questions previously mentioned, and inevitably surface a few reverse salients that could potentially lead to accelerated results, enhanced competence and effectiveness, if properly brought up to speed.

In a nutshell, reverse salients are sources of potential growth, and acceleration within systems that are made to advance and evolve.

- Angel Armendariz

Giving Away Today for Yesterday

What are the most pressing and urgent issues on your plate today? Are they perhaps similar to what they were yesterday? I think we can agree that we all have pressing issues that are so internal, that they seem to silently gnaw at our insides. So I ask this question now "How are you going to handle today's problems with yesterday's tools?"

It's interesting how even though we are given a new day full of potential, most of us sell it for yesterday's sentiments and yesterday's troubles. What is the cost of playing footsie with yesterday's issues for the next five years? Assessing a cost to our actions can many times clarify situations and expand our awareness.

To overcome yesterday's issues and pressing matters we must work on ourselves. More accurately, we must grow and be bigger than we were yesterday. Working on the same problem with the same tools in the same manner is futile. But, as Jean Gebser once said:

"All work, genuine work which we must achieve, is that which is most difficult and painful: the work on ourselves."

Work on oneself does not happen by accident, it must be methodically planned for, it doesn't act on you, you must act on it.

Overcoming our pressing issues requires work on some of the following:

- emotional intelligence (self awareness, self discipline, etc.)
- cognitive intelligence (mental know how, etc.)
- social intelligence (interpersonal effectiveness, building relationships, etc.)
- physiological intelligence (health, fitness, etc.)
- spiritual intelligence (faith, love, etc.)

If we fail to plan on developing ourselves through each of these dimensions, we will sacrifice our tomorrows for our yesterdays. Our freedoms to build a better future will be forsaken for yesterday's bittersweet sentiments.

- Angel Armendariz

Perfectly Increasing Returns and The Time Killer Cult

Perfectly Increasing Returns and The Time Killer Cult
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Investing can be a tricky game. After all its partially gambling on anticipated outcomes. What if you knew with almost 100% certainty what the result of an investment would yield? What if you could invest in perfectly increasing returns?
You can! What is the most powerful non-renewable resource you have?...Time!

Time is the most valuable, precious, non-renewable resource available to us. It is continually being spent by each of us in some form. The big question is whether your time is being invested or wasted.

How can we invest our time? Naturally, an investment supposes that there will be a return on the investment (ROI). So ask yourself this - What are the returns I'm receiving on my daily investments of time? For some, they might invest in harnessing a skill necessary to evolve professionally. Still, others might invest in development of their children.

Here's were time management deserves its spoils. Time management is the equivalent to your financial advisor in investing. Exact, purposeful allocation of your time is necessary for accurate results, according to what we wish to have as our life's ROI. Brian Tracy, executive consultant, says for instance that time management is not an auxillary in our life, but should be the very structure about which we build our days from.

One of the biggest enemies of skillful time investing are time killers. Time killers are those "entities" that didn't receive the memo that time is running out. These time killers seek to waste not only their time, but voraciously eat up other people's time. The only way to stop these killers is using a fancy two letter word that can be hard to say - NO.

The most successful individuals in all avenues of life invest their time wisely, they know the value of these investments, and thus they easily decline or say no to time killers. Tiger Woods for example, after one of his most impressive victories of his career said no to celebrating, and to the astonishment of most people was eagerly back in the gym at 5am the very next morning. That's skillful time investing at its best.

- Angel Armendariz

What Is The Purpose?

What Is The Purpose?
Category: Blogging

As you look at a current result that that doesn’t sit well with you, can you figure out how it came about? In retrospect it is a lot easier to see the parts that came together to create a certain result. I’ve come to gather that we don’t consciously create disasters. We do create them, and some of us more frequently than others.

If you can regress and analyze the steps that led to disaster you can probably correlate the result to actions that were taken without purpose. What I mean by that is an action or more precisely a conglomerate or sum of habitual actions that resulted in a horrible outcome.

Example: If you are out of shape or overweight, you probably didn’t purposefully become so. It was more than likely the result of actions taken without a purpose, actions taken out of comfort and momentary pleasure.

By their very nature purposes are things that live in the future, and hence taking actions based on current feelings as opposed to future pleasures leads us to act without purpose and create results that hurt.

Every action will create a result, and we are constantly creating something. To build towards our purposes we must be accountable for our actions. We do this by asking ’What will be the result of this action?’ The more often you ask this throughout the day the more likely you will take consistent action that will lead to meaningful purposes.

Angeol Armendariz

What Do You Want? How Bad Do You Want It? & How Are You Going To Get It?

To create a meaningful and engaging film or play the following questions must be easily answered by the protagonist - what does he/she want, how bad do they want it, and how are they going to get it. The plot then centers on overcoming the obstacles and challenges faced toward reaching the desired goal. Of course the higher the intensity of the protagonists want, the more powerful and convincing the actor will be. And the more challenges faced and overcome the more appealing the storyline.

The actors role is not that much different than real life. Our decisions to want something, and to want it badly ultimately dictates the roles and strategies we play in order to achieve them. Invariably life throws a continual series of roadblocks, challenges, and numerous obstacles on our path to our desires fulfillment. It seems as if a form of Murphy's law is continually in effect to obstruct the intended end result.

Any goal worth achieving will have countless resistances to overcome. That is a given. The most critical part of the whole scheme of things is the answer to the question: How bad do you want it? The more intensity you can associate toward your desired outcome the easier it will be to muster the will necessary to overcome the impending obstacles surrounding your goal. If you can't say with 100% conviction that you will do absolutely anything, that you will sacrifice anything to achieve your goal, then all obstacles encountered along your life path will scare you to death and leave you helpless and crippled; usually leading to acceptance of conformity and complacency.

The bottom line is this - to be taken seriously, to have the best chance of success, and be believable you must be convinced you can have what you want, and have an internal intensity that shows through your actions. Someone who actively is doing something to accomplish a goal is more believable and more certain of success than someone who only wishes or postpones. Lack of action means lack of belief in yourself.

The Bear Opportunity

The Bear Opportunity
Category: Life

Circa 1519 Hernan Cortez conquered the Aztecs. He is said to have established the town of Veracruz and to have marched on the Aztec empire of half a million with an initial army of 500. The begining of the campaign was solely to lay the groundwork for a town on the coast of Mexico. His ambition however had been from the very begining to seize Tenochtitlan and the many supposed riches of the Aztecs.

He lives in infamy for the amazing conquest and for the means employed to rally his 500 men to victory. Cortez employed a method of war known as the ’no-return’ tactic. To eliminate any second guessing of his men of the the possiblity for victory, Cortez had his ships destroyed! Thus, not giving himself or his men a means for retreat. Such conviction of action rallied his men and gave them a win or die mentality that led to the amazing demise of the Aztecs.

The goal of most endeavors revolves around victory in some form. Victory at times requires eliminating easy escape options that force us to win no matter what. Cortez new this and employed the tactic to win. Having had an escape route would have created an option to retreat. Being forced into only one option sparked primal energy, conviction, and creativity to employ a means of victory.

The current turmoil in the financial markets can be compared to a ’no return’ circumstance. There is no option but to succeed. Although Bear Stearns recently lost billions within a weeks time, life goes on. The option to overcome the debackle exists. Famous investor Jesse Livermore became wealthy during the Great Depression by shorting the Dow Jones.

Examples of success during turmoil are as old as written record. The way to victory through turmoil is to envision a win or die scenario, and summon all of ones faculties to execute. By not giving yourself an easy out you force your mind to figure it out and navigate your route to greener pastures.

- Angel Armendariz

Having a Mild Case of "Creative Tension"

Having a Mild Case of "Creative Tension"
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Peter M. Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline says:
"The juxtaposition of vision (what we want) and a clear picture of current reality (where we are relative to what we want) generates what we call "creative tension": a force to bring them together, caused by the natural tendency of tension to seek resolution. The essence of personal mastery is learning how to generate and sustain creative tension in our lives."
Clearly 'creative tension' is a general name given to the process of growth through overcoming resistance. Senge, refers to this attribute in suggesting habits necessary for sustaining growth in business through self development. This creative tension is constantly sought by those who realize that only through challenge can true growth and fulfillment be achieved.
Though creative tension at times finds us; it is a proactive seeking of creative tension that truly makes a consistent difference in personal growth and goal advancement. Some of us harbor a fantasy that elimination of "tension" is the cure-all for life's ills. This is not only erroneous but is pathological. Alfred Adler, the world-renowned psychoanalyst of the twentieth century explained it in terms of the "neuroticism" found in the "luxurious" class that lived in a world with little resistance or "tensions" in there lives.
Nietzsche went even further to proclaim that the most vital of human yearnings was the "overcoming of resistance" and thus humans harbored a "will to power." The value of resistance in our lives is multidimensional and goes beyond mere "resistance" workouts for physical health. So we can conclude that indulging in creative tension dissolves boundaries - yielding an enhanced sense of well-being - enjoyment.

-Angel Armendariz

How To Be As Deliberate As Nature

How To Be As Deliberate As Nature
Category: Life

"God himself culminates in the present moment, and will never be more divine in the lapse of all the ages. And we are enabled to apprehend at all what is sublime and noble only by
the perpetual instilling and drenching of the reality that surrounds us. The universe constantly and obediently answers to our conceptions; whether we travel fast or slow, the track is laid for us. Let us spend our lives in conceiving then.
...Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation..." - Henry David Thoreau

Consistency of purpose - that is the creator of futures yet to be seen. Nature's lessons are abundant, and thoroughly pointed out by Henry David Thoreau. To consider each moment sacred is the way of nature. The way of modern man de-sensitizes us to the continual renewal of present awareness. We must attend to our aim and nurture it with our purpose theat burns from within. Aim without purpose is tiresome and purpose without aim is meaningless. To live deliberately is the highest art; leave nothing to chance unless it be chosen such, and mold a sacred presence about you so that your beauty may shine forth.

How To Get The Response You Want

How To Get The Response You Want
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Personality assessments are used today in almost all social settings. Whether it be used for employer screening, military recruitment, or any other interpersonal environment, personality assessments attempt to give a behavioral understanding of how we interact. Two popular assessments are DISC, developed in the early 1900's by a Harvard psychologist; and Myers-Briggs, developed by two females two help women during WWII who were entering the industrial workforce.

While these two systems have there uses and critics; there is another model that has been somewhat dusted under the rug. Timothy Leary, a Harvard educated psychologist who become an infamous promoter of psychedelic drugs; notably introduced a personality assessment based on interpersonal behaviors; i.e., how we react to others behaviors, and how they react to us.

According to Leary's work we respond involuntarily in a reflex like fashion to someone else's behavior. This reflex serves to enhance our ego's and to diminish anxiety. So it follows that a persons most favored behavioral pattern is set in accordance to which types of behaviors have produced the least amount of anxiety.

Leary categorizes the major behavioral patterns along sixteen personalities. Each personality provokes a certain response. For example the "docile-dependent" provokes advice/help. Whereas a "managerial-autocratic" type provokes obedience/respect. Further along Leary's grid we find that a confident/independent "narcissist" provokes inferiority; and a "cooperative-over-conventional" type provokes tenderness & love.

The just of the interpersonal matrix is that if you want a certain response, you can provoke it by adjusting your behavioral signals to provoke the appropriate response. This provides a wealth of information to all of us who wish to have a better understanding of our personal, business, and political relationships. Many of the popular assessments tell us "how we are", and where we fit in. The beauty of Leary's model, is that it tells us "how we can be" to create the relationship we seek to build or sabotage. By focusing on how we can behave to change conditions, Leary's Interpersonal model puts the power back in our hands and allows us to develop a more flexible approach to our social behavior. In my next blog I will give a more detailed example of how to use multiple behavioral patterns at certain points along an initial meeting with a person to maximize rapport...

Further reading: "Self-Determinations" by Timothy Leary; "Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality" by Timothy Leary

Angel Armendariz

Have You Seen The Gorilla?

"In a recent experiment conducted by professors from Harvard and the University of Illinois, people were asked to watch a video-tape of two three-person teams of students passing a basketball back and forth, and count how many times the ball was passed among the members of one team. On that tape, while the students are passing the ball, a person in a gorilla costume walks slowly among them, stops, turns to the camera, thumps his chest, and then walks on.
So busy were the subjects with counting passes that fewer than half of them even noticed the "gorilla" at all. When they were shown the same videotape again but without the instruction to count the passes, they all saw the gorilla-and most of them refused to believe it was the same tape they had just watched. When a professor repeated the same experiment , live, before a group of four hundred people, fewer than 10 percent even noticed a dark shape, let alone the gorilla."
Scientists call this phenomenon "inattentional blindness." You can be paying so much attention to one thing that you're blind to a whole lot of other things. That's one way in which your brain can misdirect you when it thinks it's doing things right."
- Get Out of Your Own Way, by Robert K. Cooper

This "inattentional blindness" is the effect of habituation and limited focus. When we focus on a certain thing or things we selectively choose those "things." This choosing cuts off other things. Choosing what to focus on is a powerful capacity that when left to our old habitual tendencies suffocate our ability to see new opportunities or novel forms.
We are many times self-delusional in a sense when we affirmatively believe that what we perceive is absolutely the only reality. We have to consciously realize that what we consider real is only our selective attention to a group of things. To combat our tendency to this "inattentional blindness" we can use several methods to jolt us into re-evaluating our environment for the best possible opportunities. Three ways to do this are:

* Ask different questions throughout your day; i.e., "How can I do this more
effectively?"
* Take different routes to and from your usual places of commute.
* Seek Novelty - consciously seek a new experience through meeting new people,
or reading/learning something new.

By exercising your perception in different ways you open the doors to becoming aware of new opportunities. It is only by seizing opportunities that we breathe life and excitement into our spirit.

Angel Armendariz