Don McMinn

Life is a sum of all your choices. Albert Camus

In his book, The 8th Habit, Steven Covey says, “Fundamentally, we are a product of choice, not nature (genes) or nurture (upbringing, environment). Certainly genes and culture exert strong influence, but they do not determine. Next to life itself, the power to choose is your greatest gift. This power and freedom stand in stark contrast to the mind-set of victimization and culture of blame so prevalent in society today.”

Covey shares three sentences that underscore the power and importance of our freedom and ability to choose:

1. Between stimulus and response there is a space.
2. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.
3. In those choices lie our growth and happiness.

Throughout each day, and life itself, you continually receive both negative and positive stimuli. Often, you have little control over what comes your way.

• Someone at work unleashes an angry tirade on you.
• You are given an incredible opportunity at work.
• You see a billboard with a seductive picture on it.
• You hear disappointing news.
• Someone compliments how you look.
• Your car breaks down.
• Your child becomes ill.
• You are seriously injured in a car accident.
• You get a raise at work.

Immediately following the stimulus there is a space—a period of time—during which you choose your response. And herein, Covey says, is your opportunity to control and shape your life and destiny. You have minimal control over what comes your way, but you have ultimate control over how you respond to it.

Some people don’t want to accept responsibility for how they respond. When battered by difficult events, they assume the role of the victim and begin to blame others. When good things happen, instead of being grateful, they feel entitled. When you acknowledge your power to choose how you respond to life’s events, you assume control and responsibility for your life.

We not only make choices in response to stimuli, we are also responsible for the stewardship of our lives—how we spend our resources of time and talent. This is primarily an issue of initiative or lack of it. How many years have you been an independent, self-regulating adult and what have you done with your life during those years? If we assume that the first 17 years of your life were orchestrated for you and you are now 35 years old, you have been solely responsible for the majority of your life (18 years), and that percentage is growing every day.

Amazingly, our capacity to choose is so powerful that we are not even restrained by our past choices; we can choose to change our decisions and/or correct our mistakes. For instance, perhaps you’ve never developed any marketable skills; you can choose, today, to change that. Perhaps you’ve been in the wrong career; change careers. You are not a tree—move.

Here’s a list of some important areas in which you have or can make choices. Carefully consider how your decisions in each area have shaped who you are and how they will impact your future.

Skill development—relationships—values—beliefs—virtues—attitudes—habits

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All leaders can become good problem-solvers. To do so, they must do four things: Anticipate problems before they occur; maintain a positive attitude while they occur; use all their resources to solve them as quickly as possible so they cease to occur; learn from them so the same problems do not occur again. —John Maxwell, Developing the Leaders Around You

The biblical story of David and Goliath pits a giant against a young man in an epic confrontation between good and evil. My favorite part of the story is when the duel begins: “Then it happened when the Philistine rose and came and drew near to meet David, that David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.”

David ran at Goliath.

It wasn’t a display of youthful hubris or stupidity; it was considered aggression and confident courage. David’s pugnacity must have thrown Goliath off balance. The giant was used to frightened, tepid foes, but here was a young man running towards him.

In your personal and professional affairs, run at your problems.

The alternate approach is procrastination or avoidance. Most problems do not resolve themselves; they must be aggressively and tenaciously pursued.

Identify at least two problems in your business or personal life that need to be addressed. Schedule a time to deal with each one.

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What gets measured gets managed. Drucker

A car’s dashboard offers a quick assessment of key systems: engine temperature, speedometer, odometer, fuel level, amps generated—important information that is constantly monitored and clearly stated.

Every organization should have a “dashboard”—a system that identifies and consistently measures key indicators of health and growth.

What does your organization’s dashboard include?

For-profit organizations are better at tracking key indicators than non-profit organizations. Non-profits often rationalize their lack of monitoring by thinking, “The mission of our organization is too ethereal to track; we deal with intangibles that can’t be expressed using numbers.” That’s a lame excuse. Every organization can identify key metrics that are quantifiable.

Metrics not only benefit  organizations; they are also advantageous for individuals. Track your finances using a budget (Quicken software is an easy system to use). Track how often you exercise. Weigh yourself every day and try to stay within five pounds (+ or -) of your ideal weight. Keep a record of how many books you read. Track how many social encounters you have each week.

It’s difficult to manage something unless you measure it.

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The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity.  Albert Einstein

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.   Kipling

Curiosity is simply a strong desire to know or learn something. It is a wonderful trait. It is the antidote for a passive mind; it takes you to new places; it adds zest to life; it is the key to learning. I can’t think of any downsides.

Brian Grazer is the poster child for curiosity.

In his must-read book, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, Grazer delves into the value of being curious. He dedicates the book, “For my Grandma Sonia Schwartz. Starting when I was a boy, she treated every question I asked as valuable. She taught me to think of myself as curious, a gift that has served me every day of my life.” What a great grandmother.

Early in life Grazer (who is a Hollywood movie producer) channeled his curiosity toward what he calls “curiosity conversations.” He contacts interesting people, requests a meeting, and if it happens, spends the time asking them questions. He’s had conversations with Muhammad Ali, Jeff Bezos, Jay Z, Steve Jobs, Condoleezza Rice, Ted Turner, Andy Warhol, Oprah Winfrey, and hundreds of other well-known people. What a wonderful expression of a curious mind.

The sixty-four-dollar question is: are you curious? Here’s a short self-assessment.

• Name three things that you are currently curious about and actively pursuing.
• What have you changed your mind about, lately?
• What have you learned, lately?

“CQ stands for curiosity quotient and concerns having a hungry mind. People with a higher CQ are more inquisitive and open to new experiences. They find novelty exciting and are quickly bored with routine. They tend to generate many original ideas and are counter-conformist.” Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Samuel Johnson said, “Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”

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