Chris Crouch's Blog

Goodbye Edward Lorenz

Yesterday I read that Edward Lorenz died a few weeks ago at the age of 90. In 1961, Lorenz, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematician and meteorologist, developed a mathematical model to help predict weather. For some reason, he decided to reexamine a previous simulation generated by his computerized weather prediction model. In order to save time, he entered data from his previous printout and restarted the computer simulation in the middle rather than at the beginning. Lorenz apparently assumed data from the new simulation would exactly match data from the previous run. It didn’t!

The two simulations quickly began to diverge dramatically and lost any resemblance after just a few “simulation” months. As it turned out, the computer printout from the previous simulation rounded numbers to three digits and the internal computer memory rounded to six digits. Therefore, instead of continuing the simulation with the previously computed number, in this case .506127, the computer restarted the simulation with the rounded number .506. This ever-so-slight variation in the middle of the simulation triggered significant changes in the ultimate outcome of the simulation. Scientists refer to this phenomenon as “sensitive dependence on initial condition.” It is more commonly called the Butterfly Effect.

Years before Lorenz ran his computer simulation, the idea that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can create tiny changes in the atmosphere that might cause or prevent major weather patterns somewhere else in the world appeared in a short story by Ray Bradbury about time travel. In 1972, when Lorenz failed to provide a title for a planned presentation on this topic to a group of fellow scientists, someone titled his presentation: "Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wing in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?"

Here's the point of the lesson that Lorenz taught us: Seemingly inconsequentially minor events can make all the difference in the world.

Remember, the Butterfly Effect cuts both ways. Minor events can create positive outcomes in the future or prevent negative outcomes. People who understand this are in a much better position to create positive and prevent negative outcomes. What are you doing today, no matter how insignificant it might seem, that will create a positive outcome in the future or prevent a negative outcome? Think about it!

I'm glad people like Edward Lorenz pass through this chaotic world and help us understand it a little better.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

External Versus Internal Reality

Among a group of people, the most successful person is usually the one whose viewpoint or image of reality is most closely related to reality. But why would someone's image of reality deviate from reality in the first place? It's easy to understand how that can happen if you understand how the brain creates images of reality.

In order to get information from your external world (your environment) into your internal world (your brain/mind), all incoming sensory information must first be converted into a language that your nervous system can understand...electrical impulses and chemicals (usually called neurotransmitters and hormones). The conversion to electrical impulses happens early in the process; so in one sense everything you experience quickly becomes just a bunch of electrical impulses. If you consider the five conventional forms of sensory input, they all work this way. Light waves, sound waves, molecules in the air, molecules ingested, pressure, temperature and pain are all converted to electrical impulses by your eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin. The process of converting one form of energy to another is called transduction. All of your sensory organs have something called receptor cells (transducers) that perform this function. So...once your retinal receptor cells in the case of vision, or similar receptor cells in the case of your other sensory organs, finish processing the incoming information, the data is sent down the line and routed throughout your nervous system in the form of electrical impulses that trigger chemical messengers. The brain uses this data to reconstruct the experience that occurred in your external world. That's why neuroscientists say that we "see" with our brains...not our eyes. For example, in the case of eyesight, the impulses are routed to over thirty different cortical areas (areas of our thinking brain) for processing. Then the pieces of the vision puzzle are reassembled to create an internal image that we perceive as eyesight.

Well..so what? Well...that's why our image of reality can differ from reality. If we focus on just one part of this process...the reconstruction of the image...we can uncover some interesting things. The brain reconstructs the internal image that represents what we encounter in our external world by making comparisons. Comparison to what? I'll give you a hint. It's a key word in the theme song to one of the biggest chick flicks of all times...The Way We Were. You guessed it, the brain draws on your preexisting internal memory files to interpret what it is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or feeling. That's the point in the process that can create vast perceptual differences between and among different humans.

Most things get encoded into your memory with some sort of associated emotional tag. Let's say two people pass a certain place everyday overlooking a scenic view of the ocean. In one person's case, it is the very spot where their spouse proposed and they have now been happily married for over 20 years and still very much in love. In the other person's case, it is the very spot where their spouse told them they wanted a divorce after 20 miserable years of marriage. When the first person passes the spot each day, their brain probably creates a delightful and positive image of the scene. In the second person's case, their brain probably creates a delightful and positive, or dreadful and negative, image of the scene depending on whether on not they wanted to get out of the marriage. So...in both cases light waves interact with their retina...the light waves are converted to electro-chemical messengers that provoke various parts of the brain into creating an image of the scene in their brains. Running these electrical impulses through their memory filters creates the potential for similar or different interpretations of the same sensory input.

Here's a few practical insights we can draw from all this transduction, impulse-generating, emotional-tagging, brain-related talk:

• Surround yourself with things that trigger positive memories for you.
• Get rid of things that represent compromises in your life.
• Get rid of things that have negative memories associated with them (yep...including old photographs of people you don't really like that much that you have been hanging on to for some reason).
• Use feelings of failure, frustration, anger, anxiety, sadness, etc. to help you identify and upgrade faulty memory files. Odds are these particular memory files are out of sync with reality in some way.

You can probably figure out a lot of other ways to use this information to improve your life. I'll write about a big one in my next blog. Until then, remember...among a group of people, the most successful person is usually the one whose viewpoint or image of reality is most closely related to reality.

So...Streisand and Redford fans...who do you think was more in touch with reality...Hubble or Katie?

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Beware, Emails Can Simulate Brain Damage!

Most of you have probably fired off an emotionally charged email to "nip a problem in the bud" and quickly discovered that not only did your message fail to nip the problem in the bud...it made the problem worse! Or maybe you sent someone an email that you considered to be innocuous and it turned out that the recipient considered the message quite controversial. These things probably happened because emails have the potential to simulate brain damage. Huh? Read on if you are interested!

One of the fundamental purposes of emotions is to promote accurate communications between humans. For example, if someone says, "You look nice today", what does it really mean? The meaning of those four words can vary significantly when you consider the emotional tone associated with the delivery of the words. For example, is the other person being sincere, sarcastic or seductive? Body language, voice tone and something called limbic resonance (a potential future blog topic) help communicate the true intent of the four words.

In order to understand why emails can be so easily misinterpreted, it helps to understand a little about how the brain processes language. Two areas of the brain central to language processing are Broca's area and Wernicke's area (the areas, typically on the left side of the brain, are named after the people who first discovered the language processing functions associated with the areas). Broca's area has a lot to do with converting your thoughts into words and Wernicke's area has a lot to do with understanding or comprehending words. People with damage to their Broca's area can understand you, but they cannot express themselves verbally. People with damage to their Wernicke's area can express themselves verbally, but cannot understand what is said to them. There are two corresponding areas on the opposite side of your brain that give emotional meaning to spoken language. People with damage to these areas cannot sort through and choose the appropriate meaning of spoken words nor deliver their words in a way that will accurately convey meaning to another human.

Okay, enough brain talk for now. The last sentence in the previous paragraph is the reason I am telling you about all of this. Think about it. When you use email to communicate with another human, it is the equivalent of damaging the areas of the brain that give emotional meaning to spoken language. You can, as some people do, try to overcome this shortcoming with emoticons :) or excessive words; however, you are probably going to be disappointed :( with the outcome. Anyhow, as you can see, emoticons are distracting.

Therefore, if you must communicate emotionally charged information to another person it is probably best to call them and deliver the information over the phone (introducing the element of voice tone)...or even better, tell them face-to-face (introducing the additional elements of body language and limbic resonance).

I probably should have told you all of this in person. Sorry about that! If the fact that I didn't tell you all this in person upsets you, please do not send me an email about it. :):):)

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Things That Jump Out of the Water

I recently spent a week at the beach and have a question for you. Why do you suppose humans are so mesmerized by marine mammals and fish that jump out of the water?

Last week from my vantage point on our balcony overlooking the beach, I had a global view of several fish-jumping events (yeah...I know most of them are mammals, but people don't usually say, "Look at the mammals jumping out of the water!"). Anyhow...the marine creatures jumping out of the water were mildly interesting to me; however, my brain is primarily tuned-in to notice human behavior. That's what gets my attention. The fact that these leaping aquatic creatures seemed to stop all other human activity on the beach was more interesting to me. As the creatures began their jumping show, I looked to the left as far as I could see...and looked to the right as far as I could see...and everyone seemed to be totally focused on the aquatic show. Most people were not content just to watch it on their own; they wanted to make sure everyone else saw the show. There was a lot of pointing and yelling, "Look...look...look out there!"

What's that all about?

I don't know the answer yet...but I've got some ideas. I would be especially interested in finding out the answer if I were in sales, marketing, or any other line of business that wanted to attract and hold the attention of otherwise occupied people. Wait a minute! That's all businesses, isn't it? Including mine! I'll bet even my good friend Phil Mitchell in Atchison, Kansas would be interested in this issue. He's got an incredibly creative brain and he's trying to figure out ways to attract people to hardware stores with his brainpower. I'll bet ol' Matt Cornell up in Massachusetts would be pretty interested in this question. He likes to think about stuff like this and he's trying to attract people to his business. When I think about it, I'll bet a lot of people would like to know the answer to this question. I suspect all of you reading this could figure out some way to use this knowledge.

I'd better go now and see if I can figure this out. When I do, I'll write about it in a book and see if I can attract a lot of readers. Wouldn't it be interesting in the future if you were walking down the beach and saw people reading my book on why people pay attention to fish jumping out of the water? I wonder what would happen if they were reading my book about why people pay so much attention to fish jumping out of the water and fish actually started jumping out of the water. Oh...the dilemma they would face!

I've got to get to work on this issue. It's got my attention now!    

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Revising Unproductive Tapes - Part 3

In the last two postings, I discussed the importance of awareness and understanding if you want to revise or eliminate unproductive behavioral tapes. Sometimes awareness and understanding alone can help you minimize any negative consequences of a tape. In this third and final posting on this topic, I will offer a bizarre tip for rewriting unproductive tapes. First let's explain survival tapes and then explore some common survival tapes to illustrate the bizarre method of revising tapes.

By survival tape, I simply mean a tape that was formed when you were very young and still viewed your parents (or primary caregivers) as your primary link to food, shelter, protection, and other elements of life that were critical to your survival. As you can imagine, the actions and viewpoints of the people critical to your survival were extremely important to you at that point in your life. You looked at your parents or caregivers as role models when you were learning about, and deciding how, the world works. For example, if they possessed a fear-based, scarcity mentality...odds are you picked up on it at an early age and adopted this as your worldview. If they possessed a trusting, abundance mentality...odds are you adopted this worldview. It is also likely that you initially adopted their views on money, religion, politics, nutritional habits, careers, and many other aspects of life. Some of these viewpoints may still be serving you well to this day; some of them may not. As you matured and took more responsibility for your survival, maybe you challenged and revised your viewpoint on some of these issues. Maybe not. That's the critical issue to explore! Have you developed your own worldview or is someone else's worldview still driving your behavior? With this in mind, let's take another look at some of the "clues" that a tape might be driving your behavior that I listed in the first posting on this topic (February 19, 2008 posting).

• Thinking that struggling is the norm
• Possessing a scarcity (versus abundance) mentality
• Feeling the need to stay busy all the time (workaholic behavior)
• Over-medicating yourself with food, alcohol, drugs, etc.
• Feeling that you (or your work) are not good enough
• Difficulty accepting praise or compliments
• Difficulty accepting criticism
• Difficulty asking for or accepting help from others
• Feeling that what you have is never enough
• Irrational or illogical guilt feelings
• Being outwardly successful but feeling like an impostor

If these, or similar, tapes are creating problems in your life, or limiting your potential...you probably picked them up at some point during the "rely on others for survival phase" of your life. Therefore, it would not be unusual for you to feel strongly about these beliefs and hang on to them even if you know they are not currently serving you well. Guess what? Going along with these beliefs is no longer a matter of survival! You can challenge these beliefs if you want to do so. With all due respect to your parents...you should challenge these beliefs and either willingly adopt them as your own on revise them as appropriate. In other words, you must think through your belief inventory and make sure your beliefs are really yours. If you think long enough, you will come to the following conclusion about some of your beliefs:

"How bizarre is that...that I am 30 years old (or 40, 55, 62, 76, etc.) and I am still letting my parents control my behavior! It's time for me to make my own decisions and adopt my own worldview."

That's my bizarre tip for today. Have fun playing around with it!

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Revising Unproductive Tapes - Part 2

In the last posting we discussed the importance of awareness if you want to revise or eliminate behavioral tapes. It is difficult to alter anything when you are unaware that it exists. Unfortunately, that is why many people go to their grave with many of their self-defeating behavioral tapes fully intact and unchallenged. So, we'll call step one of revising unproductive tapes awareness. Awareness does not necessarily mean that you understand something. Awareness is simply the ability to consciously feel or perceive something. Therefore, step two of revising unproductive tapes is understanding. Understanding a behavioral tape is a bit like understanding the weather. As we increase our understanding of things that typically cause certain weather patterns, we can get better at predicting the weather and being prepared for it. In similar fashion, as we increase our understanding of things that typically cause certain behavioral patterns, we can get better at predicting behavior and preparing for it. Fortunately, we have much more control over behavior patterns that we have over weather patterns.   

When you notice clues that indicate a tape might be influencing your behavior (I offered several examples in the last posting), what specifically do you do next? There are several schools of thought on this. Some feel strongly that you should diligently dig into your past in an effort to discover the source of the tape (a parent or authority figure injunction, an experience, etc.). Others aren't as adamant about exploring your life history. Others will advise you not to do this. These people feel it is enough to know that certain behavior patterns are unproductive and there is little benefit to delving into the past. I think is it a good idea to remain open to all of these approaches.

I personally find trying to track down the source of tapes interesting. I recommend that you give it a try. However, if a tape was created at an early age, you may be unable to track down the source because of memory encoding limitations. For example, if a traumatic tape-creating event occurred during the first year of your life, the primary brain structure that handles fact-related memory encoding is not fully developed and won't be fully functional for several years (that's why it is difficult to remember many of the details of your life prior to age four). The structure that handles emotional tagging of memories develops much sooner in life; therefore, later in life the emotional component of a memory can be triggered while the facts surrounding the memory remain quite fuzzy. And prior to their first birthday, most children have very limited vocabularies. Therefore, facts surrounding early life events are stored in memory with little or no descriptive labels. As a result of these encoding issues, you can feel anxiety, anger, sadness later in life...and have no idea why.

Fortunately, you do not always have to understand exactly why your particular tapes were created. Sometimes it is enough to understand what might typically create a particular tape. For example, a perfectionism tape might be created when a child somehow begins to think that the price of a mistake is too high. That kind of thinking, in turn, might come from a parent, a sibling, a teacher...or it might turn out to be a self-imposed standard.

Now go back through the list of clues in the last posting and see if you can make any connections between the clue and the kind of past event or thinking that might cause the behavior or feeling. In other words, see if you can get better at understanding the sources of behavioral tapes. For example, what past event might cause an adult to procrastinate or to think that struggling is the norm? I listed fifteen clues in the last posting. This blog allows you to respond to these postings. What are some of your thoughts on the fifteen clues? We'll talk about the next, and possibly last, step in the next posting.            

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Revising Unproductive Tapes - Part 1

Over the last few weeks I covered a few behavioral tapes that influence your relationship with money, your spouse, children and other areas of your life. Remember, not all tapes are counterproductive, some tapes are quite helpful. For example, the "look both ways before you cross the street" tape should serve you well throughout life.

But what if a tape is not helpful and you want to eliminate or revise it? It may require professional help to revise some well entrenched tapes that drive serious forms of self-defeating behavior; however, you can probably revise many of the more common counter-productive tapes on your own. I'm certainly not implying that it will always be easy to alter some of these tapes that have been so much a part of your psyche for many years; however, it can be done and it is worth the effort to give it a try. And sometimes it is easy. If you want to eliminate or revise a tape that is not serving you well, here is the first step:

• Awareness - You must be aware of the fact that a tape has been activated, is controlling your behavior and is taking you in a direction that is not in your best interest. Here are a few clues that indicate a counterproductive behavioral tape has been activated: You publicly say yes to something but privately would prefer to say no, you publicly say no to something but privately would prefer to say yes, you overreact to a minor or insignificant event, you can't seem to get closure on an important event, you sense unexplained frustration, restlessness, anger, sadness or fear...in general, something about the situation just doesn't feel right to you.

Here is the hard part about detecting or becoming aware of a counterproductive tape. You are much less likely to realize that a tape is controlling your behavior when you are experiencing strong emotions. Therefore, when you behave in a way that just doesn't feel right to you, or ends up taking you in a direction that you really did not want to go, make a note to slow down as soon as possible and take some quiet time to think about what happened. Think about why you said yes, or no, or got angry over an insignificant event, or behaved in some other counterproductive way.

That's enough to get started. We'll take about what you might do after you become aware of a tape in the next posting. Meanwhile, here are some more tape "detection and awareness" clues for you to consider:

• Procrastination
• Thinking that struggling is the norm
• Possessing a scarcity (versus abundance) mentality
• Feeling the need to stay busy all the time (workaholic behavior)
• Excessive multitasking
• Over-medicating yourself with food, alcohol, drugs, etc.
• Repetitively encountering the same problem
• Feeling that you (or your work) are not good enough
• Difficulty accepting praise or compliments
• Difficulty accepting criticism
• Difficulty asking for or accepting help from others
• Feeling that what you have is never enough
• Irrational or illogical guilt feelings
• Avoidance strategies (working on the unimportant and ignoring the important)
• Being outwardly successful but feeling like an impostor

These are some of the more common clues that indicate a tape is in play. I'm sure you can come up with plenty of additional clues. We'll talk more about what to do next time. However, here is the good news. Sometime awareness is the cure. Tapes rely on illusions to survive. Tapes can rarely survive a strong dose of clarity and reality. Block out a few minutes of quite time and think about the beliefs that might drive some of the above forms of behavior. Have fun!

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

The Mother-of-All-Tapes

During the last few weeks, I posted some comments on behavioral tapes in general and a few comments on specific tapes that might cause problems with your spouse, your children, your relationship with money, etc. This week I am going to keep things short and tell you about the mother-of-all-behavioral-tapes. I'll leave it to you to decide if and how this tape might be influencing your behavior. Mild versions of this tape are relatively normal. If you are human, you've probably got some version of this tape. A strong version of this tape can create serious problems in your life. Here it is:

"Everybody ought to love me all the time."

This is a classic example of irrational thinking. Yes, it would be nice if everyone loved us all the time. Nice, but not realistic. If this tape is constantly playing in your head, how do you think it influences your ability to:

• Be an effective leader/manager?
• Be an effective salesperson?
• Be an effective speaker or writer?
• Be an effective teacher or coach?
• Be an effective parent?
• Be an effective human being?

Do you know anyone with a strong version of this tape? How effective are they? How enjoyable is it to be around them?

How are you doing with your version of this mother-of-all-behavioral tapes?

Think about it!

Marriage Tapes

In the last two postings, I shared some general comments on behavioral tapes and specific comments on tapes related to your relationship with money. Now let's explore marriage tapes. Marriage tapes are feelings and beliefs that somehow were encoded into your psyche and are now influencing your relationship with your spouse (or significant other in the case of an unmarried couple). In order to illustrate how marriage tapes can influence your relationship with your partner, let's talk about a young married couple with a child. Here's some information on the couple:

• Mary and David are both twenty-nine years old and have been married for three years.
• Their son Steven is two years old.
• When Mary was growing up, holidays and birthdays were festive events.
• When David was growing up holidays and birthdays were non-events.
• Mary's extended family...aunts, uncles, cousins and others frequently gathered together for family events. If something happened to one of them, it was as if it happened to all of them.
• David did not get along with most of the members of his family. He didn't particularly care to spend time with them.
• Members of Mary's family openly discussed their problems and asked each other for help with them.
• In David's family it was best to keep problems to yourself and work them out on your own. 
• Mary grew up in a comfortable home. Her parents were not overly concerned with neatness.
• David grew up in a formal home. Clutter of any kind was not tolerated.
• Mary's parents loved to go on family vacations.
• David's father did not take vacations.   
• When Mary was young, her dad came home every day around 5:30 pm and spent the next hour playing and talking with her. She has fond memories of childhood experiences related to her dad coming home from work.
• When David was young, his father almost never came home until after 8:00 pm. Upon arriving, David's father usually fixed himself a drink, went into his home office and worked, read the newspaper or watched TV. David learned from experience that it was not a good idea to bother his father when he was in his office.

Okay...that's enough. I think you get the picture. Do you think there is any potential for conflict and stress in this marriage? And I didn't even discuss religion, politics, money or sex. What do you think Mary's tapes tell her about how a marriage works? What do David's tapes tell him about how a marriage works? Can you predict some of the likely fights between Mary and David? For example, what happens on holidays and birthdays? And what is a father supposed to do when he gets home from work?

These are just some examples of how tapes can create chaos between two people in a relationship. Mary and David may be great people, they just don't see eye-to-eye on many issues that can make or break a marriage. Unfortunately these differences in tapes often get personalized and destroy marriages. If you plan to develop and maintain a healthy and enjoyable relationship with any other person (friend, co-worker, boss, subordinate, etc.), it is a good idea to spend some time learning about their tapes. If you plan to enjoy a fulfilling and lasting marriage...it's a great idea to learn as much as possible about your spouse's tapes.       

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Money Tapes

Last week (January 20, 2008) I shared some general information on behavioral tapes and promised to follow up with thoughts on some of the more common tapes that influence our behavior. Let's talk about money tapes this week.

Money tapes are feelings and beliefs that somehow were encoded into your psyche and are now influencing your relationship with money. These tapes help explain why some people have a positive and healthy relationship with money and others have a negative and unhealthy relationship with money. It basically comes down to the internal messages and emotions that are triggered when you think of money. Remember, behavioral tapes are made up of two main components: facts and emotions. Unfortunately, the facts that are encoded into your memory are not always correct. Here are some common, but not necessarily true, messages about money that some of you might have heard during your formative years:

• Money is the root of all evil (a common misquote).
• Rich people are arrogant.
• Rich people are snobby.
• Rich people are miserable.
• Rich people are ruthless.
• You'd better hold on tight to your money.
• People who have a lot of money are...(you add a descriptive term).

I'm sure you can come up with a few more negative money messages. In general, these messages imply that people with an abundance of money are in some way flawed or unscrupulous. Other negative money messages help create a fear-based or scarcity mentality when it comes to dealing with money. Once these messages are programmed into your psyche, you might find it difficult to enjoy the tangible rewards of success.

When taken to extremes, irrational beliefs about money can lead to various forms of self-defeating behavior. For example, if you grew up in poverty and suddenly find that an abundance of money is flowing in your life, you might become too focused on the possibility of losing your money rather than enjoying your material success. This, in turn, could lead to counterproductive behavior that might alienate some of the people in your life who helped you become financially successful in the first place. In the end, money is neither good nor bad. Money is simply what you make of it and what you make of it is often based on your money tapes.

Hopefully you have a positive and healthy relationship with money. However, if you feel this is an area of life that you want to examine, here's a simple exercise that will help you explore your money tapes. Imagine you are very young (less than 10 years old) and you walk up to your parents (or primary caregivers) and boldly announce: "When I grow up I am going to get rich!!!" How do you think your parents would react to this statement? What would they say to you? Your thoughts should offer some strong clues to help you reveal your money tapes. And remember, when money is printed or coined by the government, it has no intrinsic emotional value or association. You give emotional meaning to money. Explore your money tapes and think about whether or not they are helping or hurting you when it comes to developing a healthy relationship with money.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Behavioral Tapes

I'm sure you've read that your brain is like a computer. However, in one sense, your brain is very similar to an old-fashioned tape recorder. And, this biological tape recorder is driving much of your behavior!

Tape recorders create highly predictable output. In general, you record sounds on a tape...rewind the tape to the beginning of your recording...and then press the "Play" button. When you do this, if your tape recorder is working properly, you will hear the sounds you originally recorded. Some tapes have more than one recording track. This allows you to record separate things (for example a voice and an instrument) on different tracks of the same tape. In this case, when you rewind and press the playback button, the sounds are merged and played back together.

Certain structures in our brain function much like a two-track tape recorder. When things happen to us in the ordinary course of our lives, these brain structures constantly make two-track recordings, rewind them, and store them in our memories for potential playback at a later date. However, unlike a simple tape recorder, our brains can record our internal feelings, sounds, sights, smells, emotions and many other forms of sensory input. This playback process, in turn, has the potential to significantly influence our future behavior. If we are aware of and understand our tapes (and the tapes of those we must interact with on a frequent basis), we can get better at understanding and predicting behavior.

There are two main components of the events that occur in our lives:

1. Perceived facts surrounding the event.
2. Emotions related to the event.

As we experience things:

1. Certain structures of the brain record the facts related to our experiences on one track of our biological "memory tapes".
2. Other structures emotionally tag the events on another track using four general categories of emotions: joy, sadness, fear and anger.

The facts and the emotions are then merged, encoded into our memory as tapes, rewound and stored for possible future use. For example, suppose you were attacked by a dog as a child. The facts related to the event (type, size, color, sound, smell of the dog, the place the event occurred, etc.) were merged with the emotional tagging (probably fear) and encoded into your memory as a behavioral tape.

We all have forms of programmed behavior. In other words, when things happen to us, or we think certain thoughts, our response is preprogrammed. The behavioral tapes we have been exploring have much to do with creating these preprogrammed responses. In the example above, what do you suppose will happen to the child who was attacked if he encounters similar dogs in the future? Any element of the past event...the appearance of the dog, being in the same place, hearing similar sounds, experiencing similar smells, can serve as a playback button and trigger the "being attacked by a dog" behavioral tape and the corresponding bodily responses. The facts surrounding the past event and the fear associated with the event will likely come flooding back into consciousness.

How can you use this information? Well...if you sense a pattern of sadness, anger or fear, it might be worth doing a little detective work to see if you can track down the tape that is driving your emotions and behavior. Among therapists, there are three schools of thought on this topic. Some think you must track down the original events that created the tapes driving such behavior if you want to eliminate the emotions and behavior; some think there is little or no value in exploring tapes; and some think you should first attempt to uncover the cause of any tapes that may be generating unwanted behavior and emotions...but if you can't do so...recognize that a preprogrammed tape is driving your behavior, use other methods to modify your behavior and move on. The third group of therapists makes the most sense to me. By the way, I fully acknowledge that at times all emotions are appropriate and useful...including sadness, fear and anger.

Well, this blog is getting too long. Think about any tapes that might be influencing your behavior and how understanding these tapes might be useful to you. In the future, I'll discuss some of the more common tapes such as those related to money, marriage, parenting, selling, perfectionism and other common life issues. Eventually, I'll share some ideas on how to eliminate (or actually rewrite) tapes that are no longer serving you in life.       

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Your Possible Evolution

Years ago I read a book called The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution by P.D. Ouspensky. I don't remember exactly why I was attracted to the book. It was one of those books I somehow just stumbled across. Anyhow...it is also one of those books that I never quite got off my mind. I still drag it out every so often and ruminate on P.D.'s thoughts. My copy is full of underlined passages and notes from years of rumination. Some of Ouspensky's thoughts are pretty far out there for a plain-old-boy raised in Florence, Alabama (of course I moved to the big city of Memphis years ago...a place known more for ruminating on barbeque ribs than ideas of Russian philosophers). Here's a passage from P.D.'s book that popped into my mind the other day as I was finishing up some material for a new course we are offering in March (italics are P.D.'s, not mine):

"Our fundamental idea shall be that man as we know him is not a completed being; that nature develops him only to a certain point and then leaves him, to develop further, by his own efforts and devices, or to live and die such that he was born, or to degenerate and lose capacity for development. Evolution of man in this case will mean the development of certain inner qualities and features which usually remain undeveloped and cannot develop by themselves. Experience and observation show that this development is possible only in certain definite conditions, with efforts of a certain kind on the part of man himself, and with sufficient help from those who began similar work before and have already attained a certain degree of development, or at least a certain knowledge of methods."

Coaching is a fashionable term these days. Those who constantly analyze Tiger Woods' success talk about the value of coaching. Here's a guy who is clearly on top of his chosen profession...and he still uses a coach. I think P.D. was trying to say that we all need coaching to evolve. As I reread this passage and thought about it, I was struck by the modern-day relevance of P.D.'s thinking (he died, by the way, in 1947). Although Bullwinkle would have likely lumped Ouspensky into the same category as the pedantic announcer on Rocky the Flying Squirrel..."He's a bit wordy today Rocky", P.D.'s comments capture the essence of why we are offering a course on coaching in 2008. Of course, we gave our course a fancy name (Achieving Extraordinary Career Results); however, those of us who developed the course informally refer to it as the "coaching course." P.D. recognized years ago that people need help if they want to evolve. It was true then, it's true now, it will be true in the future.

By now, most of you have figured out that my use of famous Russian philosopher and Bullwinkle references in this blog entry is a shameless and not-so-well disguised ploy to get you interested in taking a look at our course offering. I'll eventually post some blogs about the sales process and the fact that if you are not proud of your offerings and willing to tell people about them...why bother calling yourself a businessperson. And I promise not to get "Donald Trump" on you, but from time to time I will chat about the business side of my activities. Anyhow...I had one more reason for posting this particular blog. I am a big believer in the "Law of Attraction" (as it was articulated long before the popularity of the video The Secret). Robin and I have always tried to attract interesting people into our personal and business lives. Although we identified our "official" target audience when we were initially planning this course as those interested in having a coach or those interested in being a coach; unofficially, I would like to attract people to this course (and our circle of friends) who find Russian philosophers, Bullwinkle and people like Albert Einstein, The Beverly Hillbillies, Carl Jung, Gary Larson, the presenters at a TED conference and the crew of Star Trek equally as interesting and capable of teaching us valuable life lessons. Who knows where we might boldly go in March if we get the right kind of people together in the same room.

Live long and prosper!    

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

The Refusal of the Call

Last week I wrote about the Call to Adventure and mentioned that I would follow up with comments on the Refusal of the Call. If you sense a new adventure awaits you in life and for whatever reason you refuse to take steps to pursue the adventure, you can probably expect one of the following outcomes:

• Life will "dry up" and become uninteresting. You might feel as if you have "been there...done that" as you approach your daily activities. Things that previously excited and energized you will no longer do so. Feelings of restlessness might drive you to seek various forms of "medication" such as overindulging in food, drink, TV watching, buying grown-up toys, etc. to counter your increasing level of boredom with the status quo. Or...

• The forces of the universe (in various forms such as chance, serendipity, synchronicity, disaster, misfortune, accidental occurrences, an injury or financial setback that prevents you from pursuing your current life path, etc.) will "kick you in the seat of the pants" and force you to pursue the adventure (a new position with your current employer, a job with a different employer, starting your own business, a new relationship or marriage or any event that catapults you out of your normal world).

Getting up in the morning and looking in the mirror with regret and dread rather than joy and excitement every so often is no big deal. That's a normal part of the ups and downs of life. It's when you notice an ongoing pattern of regret and dread that you might want to challenge your life-path assumptions and think about the fact that a new adventure might be seeking your attention.

So...if you are tired of being bored or being booted around by the universe...what do you do about it? How do you detect or discover your next Call to Adventure? Follow the energy trail. It's similar to the game we played as kids when someone told you if you were getting "hot" or "cold" as you wandered around a room looking for a secret object. Look for small, medium and large things or activities that energize you...they are clues that you are getting closer to your calling. Consider small, medium and large things or activities that drain you...they are clues that you are moving away from your calling. Keep playing the game until you develop a "knowing" (or at least a sense of relative certainty) that you are on the right path. Be patient with the process...keep experimenting with new things and you will eventually discover your calling.

P.S. Special note to some of my personal friends on the topic of discovering your calling: I think you are getting very close! Callings do not always call for radical changes in your lives. Sometimes minor tweaks make all the difference in the world. Sometimes guardians of the threshold (to a new adventure) are just trying to test your resolve and make sure you are truly ready for your new adventure. Trust your instincts and forge on if it feels right.      

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Kindle Update #1

For those who did not read the December 12th blog, a Kindle is the new wireless reading device that Amazon is promoting.

After several weeks of Kindle-ownership, my enthusiasm for the Kindle continues to grow. If you are a serious reader, you might want to take a look at this device. When I was waiting for my Kindle to arrive, I told many people that this device would never replace paper-based books; however, I am not so sure of that now. Maybe I should revise my statement and tell people that it will be a long time before such reading devices replace paper-based books. I can now easily imagine the possibility that the Kindle (and future versions of the device) might totally replace paper-based books for me.

At this point, I have already become very fond of turning pages with a slight movement of my thumb, looking up words with two slight movements of my thumb and ordering books (at a significantly lower cost) with a few thumb strokes. Maybe it is just the novelty of the situation...but I already prefer to read things on my Kindle. People know I love to read, so they give me books for Christmas, my birthday and sometimes for no reason at all other than they want me to read the book. It is still my favorite gift...to give and receive. However, I now have several traditional paper-based books in a holding pattern...circling waiting to land and be read. The good news...I am still finding time to read some of these books. I read them when Robin has swiped my Kindle. Twice lately I have gone to get my Kindle to read for a while and found that she has beat me to it. It seems to be growing on her too.

Any frustration related to using my Kindle is mostly due to "pilot error" ...mainly the fact that it is too easy to turn pages electronically. Sometimes when I accidentally turn a page and lose my place, I think I am backing up to find my place and I am actually going forward. I have already developed some habits to deal with this problem and I'm sure future design features will minimize or eliminate the problem. 

So far...still no buyer's remorse whatsoever. I am a very happy Kindle owner at this point.   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Your Call to Adventure

In movies, the main character usually experiences some sort of Call to Adventure. Here's a common moviemaking pattern you might often encounter before you finish your popcorn:

• You learn something about the main character's Normal or Ordinary world. This phase of the movie gives you an idea of what things are like before the main character experiences his or her Call to Adventure. It is not unusual for the ordinary world to be...well...ordinary. Perhaps this world is even boring, unchallenging, unrewarding and unfulfilling. However uninspiring this world may be, it is the world the main character knows best...their comfort-zone world.
• The main character is somehow presented with a problem to solve, a challenge to overcome or opportunity to pursue. In other words, the main character is "called to a new adventure" in life.
• Sometimes the main character temporarily refuses to answer the new call to adventure. After all, most people are quite hesitant to disrupt their comfort-zone world...even if it is boring, unchallenging, unrewarding and unfulfilling. I'll address the implications of the Refusal of the Call in the next blog.
• Eventually, the main character accepts the Call to Adventure and the movie (and adventure) is kicked off.

What has all this got to do with you as we wrap up 2007 and get ready for the adventure we will call 2008? As they say..."Art imitates life!" 

How many people do you know who are pursuing their true calling in life? Just for fun, make a list of the ten people you know best and try to guess how many of them are using most of their time and energy to pursue their true calling in life. And by the way...go ahead and put one more person on the list...yourself. How are you doing with this Call to Adventure stuff? Here's a simple test to see if you are headed in the right direction: For the most part...does your life's work energize you or drain you? Here are some points to ponder if you decide to think about your Call to Adventure:

• It appears that everybody has a specific Call to Adventure (something specific that you are supposed to accomplish with your time, talent and energy during your time on Earth). If you haven't discovered your true calling yet...keep trying!
• The adventure doesn't always get kicked off in dramatic fashion (like in the movies). Your Herald (the person, event or force that announces your adventure) might be a passage in a book, a comment by a friend, an attraction to something, a feeling of ongoing restlessness, any person, event or force that generates an adventure-kicking-off epiphany, etc.
• Some Calls to Adventure have an expiration date. Activities that formerly energized you are now routine and boring. Often an early life Call to Adventure is simply a stepping stone to a higher calling later on in life.
• Some people, perhaps most, cannot detect their Call to Adventure because they are simply too busy or too caught up in monkey traps such as maintaining a certain lifestyle, waiting out certain benefit vesting periods, parental or spousal expectations, not letting go of an earlier life choice that no longer makes sense, etc.
• Some people think they have to totally abandon their current life path to pursue a new adventure. This is true in some cases (if you are way off your true path in life)...but not true in most cases. Odds are you have already made many career decisions based on some level of interest in the activities you are currently pursuing and only need to make some adjustment to your life path. For example, most of my past career moves (some of which looked like mistakes in the past) seemed to prepare me in some way for my current life adventure.
• It is never too late to discover your true path in life. If you are still alive, your work on Earth is not finished.

When I was young, I only heard about preachers being "called" to their vocation...the ministry. I now believe that all our lives are a form of ministry and we are all "called" to a specific adventure that awaits us. Think about it! Happy New Year! Have a great 2008!   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

My Kindle Is Here!

A few weeks ago, Robin (my spouse) came into my office and said, "Do you think we should consider taking a look at this Kindle, the new wireless reading device that Amazon is promoting?" I had just finished reading an article about the Kindle in Newsweek and references to the Kindle seemed omnipresent in my life. The buzz on this new gadget reminded me of the early iPod days and a milder, somewhat saner version of the iPhone pre-release frenzy. This gadget looked very interesting! I didn't immediately respond to Robin's question. I thought about it for a few seconds and responded by turning to my computer and ordering a Kindle. After placing my order, I turned back to her and said...yes! Shortly afterwards (which I understand is not currently the case), the Kindle...my Kindle...showed up on my doorstep. I have now had my Kindle for over a week and read a few books on it. Here are my initial thoughts and impressions:

• This thing is very cool! It is sort of the iPod for people who love to read. In the doctor's waiting room the other day people noticed that I was reading a book on my Kindle. It easily trumped all the other electronic gadgets in the room and drew a curious crowd. Thumbs quit thumb-stroking, people with blue-flashing earphones stopped pacing around and talking to the air, laptops were closed...and suddenly there arose such a clatter, that even some of the old fashion geezer-like readers temporarily closed their paper-based books and magazines and sprang from their seats to see what was the matter! I'll give it a +1 for coolness.
• It is easy to see the text, even in outside light. There is something (I can't really define it) about the font that is very appealing to the eye. The best word I can think of to describe it is "pleasant." You can increase the font size if you feel so moved. I haven't found it necessary to do so yet. Another +1.
• If a book has pictures, they are not always easy to see. They are okay...but not as clear as the pictures in paper-based books. I'll give it a -1 on picture quality.
• I find it more comfortable to read with my Kindle. If you consider the physics of reading (motion required turning pages and such), it is easier to maintain your relaxed position in a chair and turn the pages with your thumbs. A definite +1 for lazy readers.
• The process of ordering a book is downright fun. I used to hang out at a bar in Keystone Colorado that kept a large metal urn in the middle of the bar. People would stand around and throw quarters at the urn. You "won" this little coin-tossing game when you successfully tossed the coin in the urn. That's all you won...the satisfaction of being good at tossing money in an urn. The bartenders, of course, won whether you hit or missed the urn...since they kept all the quarters regardless of where they landed. Even though we all knew the game was financially dumb...we enjoyed playing it. Ordering a book from Amazon "just to see how it works" is a bit like tossing quarters at the urn...but at least you get a book in return for your investment. I'll eventually read all of the books I have ordered. Fun factor...+1.
• Books are much cheaper. When Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson was originally released, I started to buy it (at $32.00). When Amazon offered the hardback version of the book for $19.20, I started to buy it again. When I got my Kindle, I ordered it for $9.99! Because of my Kindle, procrastination is my new ally. I am saving money hand over fist! That is...if you don't count the almost $400 I paid for the Kindle!! Forty-four more transactions like that Einsteinian-deal and I will break even on this electronic money-absorption device! We'd better count that as zero points...it's a wash.       
• The highlighting feature is very nice. When you highlight something, it also sends the highlighted text to a separate area on the Kindle and makes it very easy to review your highlighted passages. +1 for highlighting.
• The "look up a word" feature is one of my favorite features. Even without the wireless connected, you can easily look up words you do not understand. With the wireless feature activated, you can roam around Wikipedia and look up things. +1
• Battery life...so far so good! I read one of the books I sucked into my Kindle through the airways in one evening and the battery indicator did not budge from "full." +1 for battery life.
• Accidentally turning pages is a problem with the Kindle. It is so easy to turn the pages on a Kindle that it also makes it easy to accidentally turn pages. Since the power switch is on the back, it is especially easy to do this when you are turning the power on and off. -1 for this minor frustration.

That's enough Kindle-stuff for now. I'll keep you up to date on my Kindle experience (pros and cons) as things unfold. I don't really care about the plusses and minuses. The truth is...my Natural Child wanted to buy this toy...I mean educational resource. If you are a serious reader and have four hundred unencumbered bucks to spare...it is a great buy. I have no buyer's remorse so far. If you are not a serious reader...you would probably get more value out of doing something else with your four hundred bucks...perhaps visiting Keystone Colorado and tossing quarters in an urn. In any case, it is probably worth visiting Amazon's website, scrolling down a bit (skip the short video) and watching the six-minute video to get up to speed on what the Kindle is all about. You will probably be hearing a lot about it in the near future.   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Something to Do at Family Gatherings

I'll bet many of you have heard the story about the holiday gathering and the woman who cut off both ends of the ham before cooking it. When her daughter asked her why she cut off the ends of the ham, she replied, "I don't know. Your grandmother taught me to do that. She's in the living room. Go ask her." When asked the same question, the grandmother said, "I don't know. Your great-grandmother taught me to do that. She's in the den. Go ask her." When asked the same question, the great-grandmother said, "Because I had a small cooking pan...the whole ham wouldn't fit in the pan!"

Cutting off the ends of a ham without really thinking about why you are doing it is an example of a behavioral tape. When we perform certain functions, encounter certain situations or recognize certain patterns, we sometimes respond with automatic or pre-programmed behavior that is driven by a behavioral tape. Sometimes these tapes serve us well...and sometimes they do not. For example, most of us have a tape that makes us automatically "look both ways before we cross the street." This tape served us well as a child and continues to serve us well as adults. The "cut off the ends of the ham" tape illustrates how things we learned from our family members can strongly infuence our behavior and easily be passed from generation to generation...even when the tape no longer makes sense! 

Being mysteriously influenced to cut off the ends of a ham is a relatively harmless tape. Such tapes probably won't cause many serious problems in your life. However, some tapes related to how marriages work, how to raise children, how to handle money, how to interact with people and how to respond to the inevitable ups and downs of a normal life probably shouldn't be passed on to the next generation. It might be time to consider re-writing some of the behavioral tapes that are not serving you well and stop them during your lifetime. One way to start this process is by conducting a little informal research on your personal inventory of behavioral tapes. What better time and place to do that than at holiday gatherings?

Don't get me wrong. I am not suggesting that you approach this task by grilling your relatives and trying to probe deep into their inner psyches in an all-out effort to release your inner demons. Lighten up and just engage them in some interesting conversations about "how things were" when you were growing up. Since it is likely that your parents simply passed on many of the tapes they learned from their parents, you will probably get better results by asking indirect questions. For example, rather than asking your parents about their attitude toward money when you were young (which is the point in time that you probably formed many of your attitudes about money)...ask them about their parent's attitude toward money...or ask them what their parents taught them about politics, religion, dealing with authority figures, scarcity, abundance, trusting others, assertiveness, sympathy, compassion, risk-taking, etc. If your parents are no longer living...ask relatives to tell you about your parents. And remember, you may have duplicated your parents tapes...or you may have reversed their tapes and decided, "When I grow up I will never be like them!" For example, if you saw people take advantage of your mom or dad because they were kind and gentle, you may have decided to be more assertive and forceful as an adult. Again, keep it light. You don't want anyone feeling as if they are being psychoanalyzed during holiday gatherings. If you uncover something heavy...go slam down a cup of egg nog and make a mental note to follow up on the issue later.

Here's an example of a behavior tape that I had to re-write to improve my marriage. As a child, I was taught (primarily through actions and not words) that women always cooked the ham, turkey or anything else during the holiday season. My new "holiday cooking tape" (and "everyday cooking tape" for that matter) calls for men to also participate in the preparation of meals. Therefore, if my future great-grandson tells the "cut off the ends of the ham" story...he might have to finish the story by saying, "Your great-grandfather is in the kitchen...go ask him."   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

The Perilous Plight of the Peppered Moths

It's good to be smart and adaptable. If not, you have to take what life gives you...and if you are a peppered moth, that may mean becoming a light (or dark) snack for a hungry bird. Here's the highly summarized story of the perilous plight of the peppered moth. The facts:

• Some peppered moths are predominantly light colored.
• Some peppered moths are predominantly dark colored.
• Some trees (where peppered moths hang out) are predominantly light colored.
• Some trees (where peppered moths hang out) are predominantly dark colored.
• Birds think peppered moths are tasty and like to eat them.
• Birds are most likely to eat the peppered moths they can easily see.

So what's a peppered moth to do...or more importantly...where should a weary peppered moth land and hang out for a few minutes of rest? You can mentally run through the possibilities and finish the story. Here's a link to an article and a photo of a couple of peppered moths (look closely...unlike a dumb, hungry bird) and you can better understand the benefits of matching your characteristics with your environment and the perils of not doing so. So what can we learn from the peppered moths that can help us improve our chances of career survival and success? Let's use the facts above related to the plight of the peppered moth as a template and apply them to humans. Here's just one example of how the story might unfold:

• Some people are predominantly extroverted and spontaneous.
• Some people are predominantly introverted and methodical.
• Some careers call for people to be predominantly extroverted and spontaneous (for example, some people-oriented careers where you must constantly interact with others and operate in a highly unstructured environment).
• Some careers call for people to be predominantly introverted and methodical (for example, some task-oriented careers where you must work alone in a highly structured environment).
• Bosses like downsizing and especially like to get rid of people who do not seem to fit their job.

Once again, I think you can finish the story. Now let's draw a few conclusions:

• Moths are not smart enough to know they should adapt to their environment. They don't really understand the implications of landing on a dark versus light tree.
• Some people are like moths...they land a job that calls for them to be extroverted when they are introverted or spontaneous when they are methodical...or vice versa...or they mismatch some other predominant personality trait.
• Other people understand the implications of trait mismatches and take the time to fully explore and understand their predominant personality traits and then...they wisely select an environment and career path (or make changes to their current career path) that will most likely allow them to take advantage of their strengths and minimize their struggles. For example...some people have their personality assessed and pay close attention to it when they are making major career decisions.

In other words, know thyself...and as Willie S. said, "To thine own self be true."

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Sometimes It Is a Good Idea to Flip-Flop

I read an article titled "The Dog Handler" in the October 29, 2007 edition of Time Magazine. The article was about the new White House press secretary Dana Perino. Apparently she trained her Hungarian hunting dog, Henry, to retrieve a flip-flop whenever he hears the name John Kerry. Now...I am neither supporting nor defending Kerry; however, I do want to support occasional flip-flopping in certain situations.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could always get things right the first time. Unfortunately, that's not the way life always works. Okay...I'll admit it. I don't always get things right at first. I bought a Corvair, an 8-track player, a Betamax recorder, an IBM PC Jr., and I always seem to buy Apple computers and iPods just a few days before they announce a "new and improved" (and often cheaper) model. At one time in my life, I even decided that it was a good idea to be a CPA...and I did it! As it turns out, it is a great idea...for some people...but it was a dumb idea for me. I didn't like being a CPA. So, I decided to be a teacher (to be more specific, I am a self-designated, renegade teacher operating outside the formal or factory school system). Here's one of the problems with being a teacher...sometimes people actually listen to what you say...or read what you write...AND THEN REMEMBER IT, FORRRR.....EEVER!!! As Martha Stewart used to say, "That's a good thing!" As Martha now knows oh so well, it's only a good thing for people to remember what you said in the past if you got it right.

Maybe this has happened to you. You make a statement in the presence of someone who took the time to listen to you in the past. The NIGYSOB listener quickly jumps in and says, "Wait a minute! That's not what you said before! You're flip-flopping aren't you?" A friend of mine, Kate Harper, relayed a story to me a few years ago that I think offers a near-perfect response to such NIGYSOB-ers. If someone accuses you of flip-flopping, you can always say, "When I get new information...I change my mind. What do you do!" I got new information on Corvairs, Betamaxes, 8-tracks and IBM PC Jrs. I don't still own them because at one time I thought it was a good idea to own them.

So, flip-flopping is another of life's dualistic concepts. Sometimes it is okay and sometimes it is not. If you are constantly doing it just to try and suck up to voters, it's probaby going to get you in trouble. However, if you have encounted new information and genuinely believe it is appropriate to upgrade your beliefs...why not flip-flop!   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Something to Do on a Rainy Day

Are you looking for something to do on a rainy day? Why not explore some ideas to help you get more focused, organized and productive? There are almost thirty articles (mostly short articles) in the Library on one of my websites on general topics related to productivity. Browse through them and maybe you can find a few topics that are interesting and relevant to you.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Flatland: The Movie

We often hear people talk about "thinking out of the box." How would you like to help a group of people not only "think out of the box"...how would you like to help them "think out of the dimension?" If so, consider showing them a video titled Flatland: The Movie (not to be confused with Flatland the Film...which may also be good, but I have not seen it yet and am not recommending it at this time). This 34-minute video is based on Edwin Abbott's book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions written in the late 1800s. First of all, if a book was written in the late 1800s and it is still currently in stock in most bookstores...there must be some pretty good stuff in the book. Watch the short trailer on the website if you want a sample of the ideas presented in the video. Here are just a few thoughts Flatland:The Movie triggered for me:

• The power of truth and profound knowledge.
• The limiting power of false beliefs.
• The joys (and normal frustrations) of helping lift others to a higher level of understanding.
• That the real role of a teacher is to encourage and nurture curiosity.
• That a master teacher should disrupt the current beliefs of their students or no new learning will take place.
• That many of life's so-call certainties are illusions.
• That many people operate in a false economy...valuing things that are of no real value and ignoring things of real value.
• Don't let your advanced knowledge shut down the possiblility of further learning.
• The value of coming up with novel ways to help people understand abstract concepts.
• Chance really does favor the prepared mind.
• A little imagination can change your world.
• Different people look at the same information and see opportunities or threats.

It is difficult to ignore the potential religious and political implications of the video, but this is neither a religious or political blog...so I will wimp out and stay away from those topics in this forum.

This video only touches on the zero through fourth dimensions. Well...actually the fourth dimension is only mentioned a few times (and we are warned by the all-knowing character Spherius that the idea of a fourth dimension is "utterly inconceivable"). Quantum physicists, especially the String Theory and M-Theory crowd, are speculating that at least 10 or more dimensions exist in the world we inhabit. Maybe someday we will all meet in the forbidden zone Area 33H (it's in the movie) and have a multi-dimensional experience together. Or who knows... maybe we are already together in some other dimension!      

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

Overloading and the Plimsoll Line

There's this thing about fluids and buoyancy that anyone responsible for a vessel traveling through water needs to understand. Archimedes discovered long ago that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Apply this principle to the world of boating and shipping, convert it to plain-speak and the consequences of overloading are clear. Ships and boats sink when they weigh more than the water they displace.

In 1873 an Englishman named Samuel Plimsoll published a book titled Our Seamen that documented the fact that nearly 1,000 sailors a year drowned in ship sinkings near or around the British shores. You see...that was about the time Lloyd's of London began insuring ships. Therefore, shipowners had strong incentives to overload their ships. If the ships made it to their destination, the higher loads were more profitable. If the overloaded ships sank...the owners collected on their insurance policies. Eventually overloading got so bad that people began to refer to ships that carried immigrants to North America as coffin ships. Plimsoll's solution to this problem was simple. Determine the maximum load a ship could handle and make sure the vessel never exceeded that load. He proposed that a mark or line be painted on the side of all ships to indicate the limit to which the vessel could be legally loaded. If the weight and bouyancy of the ship caused it to dip below the line, referred to as the Plimsoll Mark or Plimsoll Line, the ship could not set sail. The Plimsoll Line worked then and it still works today. Simply drawing a line reduced a tremendous amount of suffering and anquish...and saved thousands of lives in the process. Many of you exist today because of Samuel Plimsoll's idea and the fact that it helped your ancestors survive their voyage to America.

I tell you this story because so many people seem to complain about being overloaded these days. Okay, let's do some substitutions. Take this story and substitute the word 'me or I' for the word 'vessel' and the practice of personal overloading for practice of ship overloading...and then rethink the story. Then think...WWSD (What Would Samuel Do)? I'll bet Samuel would try and come up with an incredibly simple way to prevent oveloading. Would he paint a line on your waist, your chest or your neck? Naah...that wouldn't work. Painting lines doesn't sould like a good solution in this situation. But what did Sam have to do to determine where to paint the line? That's the real issue. He had to determine the proper load for the vessel. So, how can you determine the proper load for your vessel (body)? There are probably many ways to do that...however, here's one very simple way (I am going to simplify things by suggesting this technique without discussing the theory behind the strategy for now. Maybe the underlying theory will become the topic of a future blog entry):

• Start your next week by loading no more than one highly important task, preferably the most important task you can think of, in a single workday. Work on the task sometime during the first 48 minutes of your day or the first 48 minutes after lunch (therefore, if you are working on a huge project, you will need to break the project into a task that can be completed in 48 minutes or less). Stay totally focused on the selected task...the whole task...and nothing but the task for the entire 48 minutes. No emails, no phone calls, no interruptions, no breaks, nothing but total laser-like focus! Do whatever you want for the rest of the day...including working like a crazy person and overloading yourself.
• On day two increase the load, select two tasks and two 48-minute periods and do the same thing.
• On day three increase the load again, select three tasks and three 48-minute periods and do the same thing.
• Keep this up until you start to feel overloaded. Then subtract one or two tasks and consider that number of tasks your Plimsoll Line.

You can do the math. In an eight-hour workday there are ten 48-minute segments of time. I suspect three to five tasks and segments is the opitmal level for most of you. For example, if you draw your Plimsoll Line at five...that gives you half of the day to work in a sane and reasonable manner...and you still have half a day to work like a crazy person if you insist on doing so. Remember, in the end...you can't trick Mother Nature, gravity, mathmetics (unelss you divide by zero) and buoyancy! If you start to get that sinking feeling...stop what you are doing and try to determine your personal Plimsoll Line. 

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.