"Those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things." Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Monday, April 28, 2008

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

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

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

Monday, April 21, 2008

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

Sunday, April 6, 2008

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

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

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.
"We are all in Sales. Period." - Tom Peters