A 30 Day Exercise

When I'm drivin' in my car

And a man comes on the radio

He's tellin' me more and more

About some useless information

Supposed to fire my imagination

- M Jagger / K Richards

The research and evidence is strong. External suggestion as well as auto-suggestion affect your results and your well being, e.g. the words and works of Napoleon Hill, Dr. Dean Edell, Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor, Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Maxwell Maltz, George Leonard, Marcus Aurelius, Lawrence Gonzales, James Allen, John Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., etc., etc., etc.

The February Allied Ronin e-newsletter topic was Don’t Lose Your Attractiveness by being dragged down into the trap of negative thinking. The article was inspired by communication I was engaged in for over a month as friends, clients and associates related how they were struggling with and bemoaning an economy in turmoil. “How could I have missed this!” – “Where did I go wrong!” – “What am I going to do!?” February’s article urged: (a) we need to own up to where we are; yet (b) not overindulge ourselves with self-doubt and/or worry lest we destroy the very attractiveness that creates the healthy foundations and relationships upon which constructive results depend.

A preponderance of fear-based advertising and communication pervades the TV, radio and print medium. My opinion, yes, though I think it’s safely accurate. No new news here. But I believe we are numb, anesthetized to just how prevalent this is. Haven’t noticed? Perhaps it’s time you did. Why? Because, ideas that journey past the outer ear do impact you and me in real and tangible ways. Until and unless we notice this, our senses will dull, as will our thinking and our capacity to act with a clear and discerning mind.

Whether the radius of your world is measured by the distance between where you stand and the nearest traffic sign, or some spot on the other side of the globe, what you hear, see and feel generate perspectives and creative capacities that are then walked into and called “reality”. Our perspectives perpetuate to such an extent that we no longer view them as perspectives – rather, we begin to view them as truths. Every so often we should stop, look, listen and take stock of the subtle ideas we are being fed by others. Then we ought take action, including owning up to past perspectives that were mistaken or held in error.

Many (me too) consider themselves students of the mind-body connection, or the mind-wallet-bank account connection, or the mind-relationship connection. At some point in our lives we started tuning in to what our thinking was actually being barraged by. We listened to a talking head, or watched a video, e.g. The Secret, and latched onto the notion that, as my old teacher used to say, “To Think Is To Create.” Then most run off to try to push-think hopes and dreams into material stuff. But in the doing so, we rarely discipline ourselves to attend (i.e. pay attention) to the radio or TV, or the images in ads, or the political spin masters as they weave paragraphs laden with doublespeak and shoddy premised foundations. Rare is the person disciplined enough to notice his or her own resultant self talk! If for no other reason than this a meditation practice is important.

Whether you consider yourself an ardent student or just a dabbler in this regard, you probably have a degree of understanding that outside thought and suggestion affects your grey matter. Yes? But, just because our technologies (computers, google & Yahoo, twitter, etc.) add seeming ease to life does not relieve us of the responsibility and accountability to guard the thinking mind. Advertisers know that subtle shifts in image and tone affects the buying public. News media (TV, radio, print, online) know that the pictures and words that confront you will color your perspective. CNN will show you one image of a smiling politician, while FOX News shows a growling image of the same politician (and vice versa) … both images used to report the identical event but shaping a different story. Why? Because it’s not the news they are selling, it’s something else. Doubt it? Then why so much money spent monthly on political campaigns after the elections are over? --- and on advertising the reason you should buy a certain burger, attend a particular brand name church this weekend, scent to your skin with this one oh sooo good and chug that brew at the party?

Case in point: almost every politician says, “I’m against negative campaigning!” Yet negative campaigning (i.e. fear-based selling) continues decade after decade. How come? Maybe we’ve just normalized to it. Perhaps we’re even comforted by it. Like a frog in the proverbial water-slowly-coming-to-boil we’ve been swimming in “it’s just the way things are” and we no longer recognize the water is there, let alone the temperature rising. Kind of like smelling foot odor as the tennis shoes come off after a game. Then the smell goes away. Except, the smell doesn’t go away. But our discerning mind sure does.

And another: I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard radio talk show hosts rant and rave about a particular injustice, only break away for ads that promotes the very injustice or notion the host is hammering against. What’s going on? Show business, that’s what.

Many of us (or the companies that employ our time and talents) have spent sizeable amounts on workshops, courses, lectures, videos, books and audio programs calling us to our attend to our thinking. But what practices do we put in place and return to on a regular basis for our well being after the course or seminar or lecture is over?

For the sake of clarity, I’m not necessarily addressing wellbeing as physical health and wealth, though wellbeing in those domains is important. I’m addressing the wellbeing of the emotion and spirit, and the well being national consciousness and global awareness.

So, with the above as background grist, here’s an exercise (or practice) to engage in for the next 30 days, with full knowledge that something will come your way to distract you from hanging in there with this. If you are willing to take on this simple exercise, I recommend you give it a fair shot for the full 30-day duration.

Here are the tools to use for the exercise:

(1) a pen or pencil,

(2) a small pocketsize notebook,

(3) a brain (yours) and a degree of alertness,

(4) a willingness to pay attention to what is going on around you: the conversations; the TV; the songs, ads and talk on radio; the pictures, symbols and words in print and internet medium strung together to convince of a point of view OR worse yet something that some one say YOU NEED, that you didn’t know beforehand that YOU NEEDED!

The exercise.

Stay alert, pay attention and note each communication or piece of rhetoric that meets your eyes and/or ears that is either fear-based, guilt-based, greed-based, or entitlement-based --- or any combination of the four. It doesn’t matter if these come in the form of advertisement, political commentary (regardless the brand name of the espousing political party), religious conviction (no matter the brand name of the espousing church), etc. At this stage the source doesn’t matter. What does matter is: (1) pay attention, (2) take note, and (3) ask at least these three questions: “What is being said, fed, sold or told?” “Why this?” “Who, besides myself, stands to benefit if I am convinced or agree with what I am hearing and/or what is being implied?” Listen to it all. Look at what you record. Sift through it at the end of the day. Look for patterns.

Pay attention to what you are being told by others that “YOU WANT” or that “YOU NEED” – especially in advertisements - that you didn’t know YOU actually WANTed or that YOU actually NEEDed prior to the suggestion that was so generously offered in double or triple doses by advertisers, talking heads, politicians and/or the oh-so-righteous. It may sound something like this: “What the American People want is (blah, blah, blah) ” OR “Surely you know, truly smart people understand the need for (yatta, yatta, yatta)” OR “What that teacher really meant way back then was (this and that, this and that, all translated to fit today’s context – a context non-existent way back then)

In some ways, this exercise may become a rather humorous. You might find yourself laughing in a few days. You might even catch yourself talking to the radio or TV, “Heck, I didn’t know I needed that.” Then again, you might find yourself switching to another station or channel, or just turning the darn thing (or person) off.

Return to the list of names that opened this article, particularly Napoleon Hill. He finished his research for Think and Grow Rich in 1927, then published the manuscript ten years later. He didn’t invent what he wrote about, he reported on it. As I recall, and I’m willing to be wrong, he promoted the idea of SERVICE, and that this (service) was the result of FINDING something that OTHERS (not self) TRULY NEED and then HONESTLY going about FILLING THAT NEED so that those OTHERS would and could BENEFIT. I don’t recall him writing that service resulted from creating or inventing an imagined need and then convincing others that the thing created was in fact something that had to be filled so that the person who imagined it could benefit. Again, I could be mistaken, so I’ll go back and take another look at the book. But, this I will say – it is disturbing just how many programs, products and so-called “services” exist today that say they are based on Hill’s work and yet they operate with darn near the sole intent of filling their own need. And here I’m including some that exist in my field of the human potential, leadership education and team effectiveness. Self-help spun in a different direction, i.e. which “self” are we talking about being helped?

Back to the above offered exercise. I don’t think anyone needs to do it. Consider it as simply what it is – an exercise. You’ll benefit, I’m confident, by touching on something important to you. I honestly believe it will be enlightening, ear and eye opening, especially if preconceptions and past certainties are set aside. From it you may find, over the next thirty days, possibilities forgotten or overlooked, accompanied by renewed strength to take action. Inspect, account and discern what is flowing into your consciousness that is being promoted by someone else’s self-serving motivation.

When I'm watchin' my TV

And a man comes on to tell me

How white my shirts can be

But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke

The same cigarettes as me

I can't get no, oh no no no

Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction

- M Jagger / K Richards

Food for Thought/Action

Sow a thought reap an act.
Sow an act reap a habit.
Sow a habit reap a destiny.
-Anonymous

I was listening to Ronn Owens’ morning talk program on KGO Radio this past week. KGO reaches tens of millions of listeners. Ronn is one of the station’s most recognized hosts, holding the morning commute time slot when probability dictates an abundance of listeners. His guest, a well-known psychologist, was addressing the need for people to keep positive attitudes and make a practice of visualizing what it is they want rather than the obstacles that are currently afflicting their lives. She also espoused taking the time to be daily grateful for the good things they have, no matter how small, because gratefulness alters the course of one’s thinking.

After five minutes of lead in during which Ronn playfully bantered with his guest, asking her if this wasn’t just psychobabble, he opened the phone lines. The first caller blasted the psychologist. “With all due respect to your guest,” he forcefully pronounced, “she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. How can anyone who has lost their job or is dealing with bankruptcy or has had their home foreclosed on use something as silly as this?!? It’s crazy.” He took his answer off the air.

Ronn’s guest listened. Then she calmly replied with something like this, “Well, the caller certainly has a point. What I’m proposing is simple. I’m not saying it is easy. But if we put our economic problems of today in perspective with something truly profound, like Dr. Viktor Frankl’s survival of the Nazi death camps, ours are actually quite small.” She then went on to remind us who Frankl was.

I first read Fankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, a few years ago during a bout of my own negativity. It was as if he was slapping me in the face, telling me to get off my butt and do something rather than wallow in resignation. Writing these words today I imagine the scene from the film The Godfather when Johnny Fontane, a fictitious popular crooner, sits on Don Vito Corleone’s desk and laments that he can’t get the lead role in a film because he’s a victim to the producer’s prejudice. Then he puts his head in his hands and cries, “Godfather, what am I supposed to?” Corleone reaches across his desk, cuffs him aside the head and responds, “Be a man!”

Frankl states (p 157), “A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes – within the limits of endowment and environment – he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions, but not on condition.” Earlier in the book he speaks to dignity, the need for finding humor in everything, having a positive mental attitude, accepting things as they are and then moving forward regardless of circumstances – and he addresses the need to visualize a positive outcome no matter what.

The good psychologist on Ronn Owens’ program demonstrated composure and put forth her point well in the face of a highly agitated and negative individual.

I suggest that you:
(1) read Viktor Fankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning;
(2) dedicate a month (minimum – though 90 day’s would be preferable) to practice what Ronn’s guest espoused; and
(3) time your practice to a few minutes each morning - maybe right after waking up and before you turn on your computer or read email or watch/read the morning news – taking a walk before doing anything else. Then practice again a few minutes following your mid-day meal, and then again a few minutes as you are dropping off to sleep each night.
This won’t take much of your time; but it will make all the difference in the world.

This week a client called to address a need: that people in his companies invest themselves in the work of having positive mental attitudes. He wants his organization to do some training with that. He referenced Napoleon Hill’s book, Think And Grow Rich, (1937); and the work based upon it which he recalled doing with me years ago in seminars I used to teach. One of the primary mechanisms used in those seminars was visualization. The specific technique taught was called Screen Of The Mind, an adaptation of something that has been referred to throughout written history. In the seminars we used to say that Screen of the Mind is perhaps the most powerful mental technique one could apply. Hill’s research from 1907 to 1927 included the 500 most successful people of his era. They all used this methodology, though they referred to it by different names.

[NOTE: if you would like outline of the Screen of the Mind Technique and how to use it, contact info@AlliedRonin.com and request it. The information will be emailed to you.]

Hill opens his sixth chapter, Imagination: The Workshop of the Mind, The Fifth Step toward Riches, by saying, “The imagination is literally the workshop wherein are fashioned all plans created by man. The impulse, the desire, is given shape, form, and action through the aid of the imaginative faculty of the mind. It has been said that man can create anything which he can imagine.”

That’s powerful stuff! Yet, Hill doesn’t specify that man creates only the positive which he imagines. Hill is addressing the entire creative mechanism. Using the buzzwords of his time, WHATEVER the MIND CONCEIVES and BELIEVES it ACHIEVES. The creative imaginative faculty is impersonal. It really doesn’t care if the picture you are feeding it is positive or negative, constructive or destructive. It will go about producing whatever you feed it. The imagination isn’t the seat of choice, it is merely a willing servant. Viktor Frankl would offer that you are always at the helm of your ship of life by virtue of your decisions and the kind of images that you hold, even without awareness. The creative imagination produces on your order. That isn’t to say you are immune from external forces, but it does say that you have infinite options within the bounds of those forces. You can perform.

Back in the 1970’s as I was starting my work with this kind of “mind stuff” it was considered esoteric and fringe. As years passed, it became more accepted. World-class athletes talked publicly about how they would let thoughts of defeat drift away. Olympic skiers revealed how they would visualize a perfect run – with eyes closed mentally watching imaginary movies and while simultaneously making subtle physical body movements precisely as they wanted to do on the actual course. Competitive divers spoke about spending time on the platform relaxing and “seeing” their moves in advance, all executed to perfection. Medical professionals began having their patients practice visualization. None of this guaranteed a perfect outcome. But it did increase performance, ability, hopefulness and – yes - results.

Maxwell Maltz, M.D.,F.I.C.S, published Psycho-Cybernetics in 1960. At that time he was one of the world’s most renowned plastic surgeons. He lectured throughout Europe. His work well references the creative imagination. He offered that people would come to the plastic surgeon asking for a change of face or body. After their procedures a significant portion could not see the change themselves, while others around them saw a whole new person. Frequently the individuals having received procedures could be heard saying, “No, it’s still me!” Maltz’s premise: unless and until one changes the internal image nothing else will change.

About imagination Maltz wrote: “Imagination Practice Can Lower Your Golf Score. Time magazine reported that when Ben Hogan is playing in a tournament, he mentally rehearses each shot, just before making it. He makes the shot perfectly in his imagination – ‘feel’ himself performing the perfect follow through – and then steps up to the ball, and depends upon what he calls ‘muscle memory’ to carry out the shot just as he has imagined it.” (Psycho-Cybernetics, p.38)

Ask a young sales person or account manager, “Who was Ben Hogan?” Odd are they’ll probably be at loss to say. Ask the same person, “Who is Tiger Woods?” And they’ll respond, “Where have you been?” Hogan and Woods, both champions of the same sport, were masters of the imagination at different times in history.

Isn’t it interesting: people can make the link between visualization/imagination and a good golf score. But, going back to the caller on the Ronn Owens’ show, they refuse to make a link between visualization/imagination and having a good life or financial score. “Come on,” some will argue, “golf’s just a game! You’re mixing apples with oranges.” Oh really? Tell that to the professional (or the aspiring pro) when she or he has a livelihood on the line, and a boyfriend or girlfriend or husband or wife at home berating them for trying to turn their passion into a career rather than getting “a real job”, and is hammering them about the mounting bills, the kids with nothing but peanut butter to eat, or the rent that’s two months overdue. I coached a fellow like that for a year as he was attempting to get into the U.S. Open Tournament. My job was literally distracting him from his own negative thinking and from it I wrote my booklet “The Mental Game”.

Also this week someone called to talk about the Law of Attraction made popular by a video and companion book The Secret (a body of work that finds its roots in Think and Grow Rich). The person said, “I have been applying the Law of Attraction recently and it’s making a big difference for me in how I’m approaching my work and family.” This is good news. And I was left wondering: At what hour of the day, or under what circumstances or conditions is the Law of Attraction not being applied? No one on this planet lives outside the law of gravity, right? Logically then, if the Law of Attraction is as much law, as say the law of gravity, doesn’t it follow that Attraction is in operation all the time? If you and I think destruction, we attract destruction. If you and I think success, we attract success.

Read Dr. Richard Strozzi-Heckler’s In Search of the Warrior Spirit (pub 1990), which chronicles his work with US Army Special Forces using - you got it - meditation and visualization over long periods of time. Richard’s work dramatically increased the effectiveness and results of highly trained individuals whose performance was supposedly already at max capacity.

I guess the guy who berated Ronn Owens’ studio guest has every right to his perspective, doesn’t he? But he also has the responsibility for that perspective, yes?


Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,
if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise,
THINK on these things.
- Philippians 4:8, the Bible

BREATHING AND SERVICE

Some Things Need Repeated Attention

"I don't know why it is. Why the next generation can't learn
from the one before until they get knocked in the head by experience.
I'll tell you one thing for sure. The only things worth learning are
the things you learn after you know it all.
Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States
(p. 153, Plain Speaking by Merle Miller)

Before we get started I need to say that this month's article is not about the physical act of breathing, though breathing is a good metaphor to use as we begin. Remember this as we transition about half way through.

In the mid-1970's Miyamoto Musashi and his Book of Five Rings caught the attention of American businesses; a significant feat for someone born in 1584. One of Japan's most revered samurai, Musashi was considered invincible as a swordsman. By the time he was 30 he had defeated more than 60 opponents, all contests to the death. His philosophy focused on practice as the Way for those who want to learn strategy.

Martial art masters remind students that mindful practice and deep breath are foundational for performance and progress. For Musashi these two were embodied realities. He advised others to daily attend to them, especially under the calmest of conditions when no conflict was at hand. In this way, these ideals would become second nature, available and useful at a moment's notice, without having to think about them. With this approach these principles were generally useful for everyday living, and particularly useful during stressful conditions when death was imminent.

We are always practicing something. But most people are practicing things without awareness of their practice or the consequences. They repeat thoughts and actions that become their practices. They don't realize this or where it's taking them. If they did, they might change course. Some practices are healthy. Others, lead an individual into destructive and unsustainable territory.

Normal quiet breathing is both active (inspiration - in breath) and passive (expiration - out breath). In deeper or more rapid breathing the out breath may also be active. Deep breathing can become an object of practice. Through this practice one can develop an ability to bring the body into states of relaxation and awareness, and increase a capacity for flexible action (quick or deliberate) under intense conditions. When faced with surprise, stress, tension, conflict and fear the body automatically moves into rapid states of breathing. With practice, the ability to deeply breath can become second nature, sustaining a person through periods of stress, attack and fear. Establishing a breathing practice is something you can begin and work with on an average day, under any condition, and for as long as you want.

We live within certain boundaries. Breathing is something that you cannot escape. Like gravity, you are subject to and bounded by it. You can't negotiate with it. You can't permanently quit it and remain conscious or alive. You have to do it, or you will pass out or die.

But within boundaries you can learn actions that create many, perhaps infinite, options. Play with deep breathing and you might notice certain positive things occurring for your awareness, sensitivity, attitude and your capacity for effective action under increasing levels of pressure. Surprisingly (or not), you may find your practice creates options and actions, also constructive, for those around you.

This can sound simplistic or foreign. Some may say, "This is way too esoteric." My response: (1) In a courtroom, all other things being equal, an attorney who practices breath control has the advantage over an attorney who hasn't. (2) In an airplane, a pilot who has practiced breath control and who is now facing an emergency, will have an advantage over a pilot who hasn't. (3) A salesman who practices breath control has an advantage over one who doesn't. (4) A soldier who has embodied a controlled breathing practice, shoots more accurately than one who doesn't. The stuff about breathing isn't theory. It's not esoteric or New Age. Lower the voice of your expectations and preconceived notions. - expectations and preconceived notions that become addictions and practiced ways of living in a society used to quick-fixes, instant results, fast food, throw away relationships, drugs for every ailment, ready cash at the ATM, the lottery, and TV reality shows.

Try this. Give breath control, as a practice, an honest daily effort for two weeks. Consciously extend the depth and rhythm of your breath as often as possible throughout each and every day. Set up reminders to keep yourself on track. Notice what begins to happen for you. Pay attention to those you come into contact with, because you might see something constructive happening with them as well. What have you got to lose? Try it. Check the results for yourself.

This month's article is not about physical act of breathing, though breathing is a good metaphor to use as we move forward.

We're always practicing something. Repeated thoughts and actions become practices. Practices that are not constructive and sustainable move groups, organizations and nations into dangerous, destructive and unsustainable territory.

Two hundred ninety-two years after Musashi walked his path, Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich, was published. The year was 1937. It, too, caught the attention of American businesses. Today, Think and Grow Rich is one of the most read books of all time.

Hill, a reporter, was sent on an assignment in 1907, to interview Andrew Carnegie. Originally set for two hours, the interview evolved into a twenty-year research project. Carnegie captivated Hill's imagination and suggested he embark on having one-on-one discussions with the world's five hundred most successful people. The interviews were conducted around the globe, during prosperous times and hard times, during World War I and during the Roaring 20's, and ended around 1927. The results proposed some amazing discoveries and possibilities. But Hill's work was not immediately accepted by publishers. Why? It sounded too esoteric.

It took Hill another ten years to find a receptive publisher. During these ten years he and the rest of the world lived through the Great Depression. Hill's text suggested the existence of an important universal secret. This secret, he said, was woven like thread throughout the entire book. He offered that the secret could be revealed on every page, if one diligently looked for it - in other words made a practice of seeking the secret. Today, Think and Grow Rich is arguably the foundation for a widely marketed video, The Secret, and its accompanying book by the same title, which put forth an old and respected idea, The Law of Attraction, placed inside an up-to-date cover. Alas, I doubt that Hill has received, or will receive, proper credit for the influence he had on this most recent iteration.

"[B]efore you begin the first chapter," wrote Hill in his introduction, "may I offer one brief suggestion which may provide a clue by which the Carnegie secret may be recognized? It is this - all achievement, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea!" Then he continued, "If you are ready for the secret, you already possess one half of it; therefore, you will readily recognize the other half the moment it reaches your mind."

Like the martial arts, the business arts have foundational principles, too. Practice is one of them. And as with martial artists, artisans of business or career must attend to and have the courage to uncover the true intentions of what their practices are. In business, money is blood, blood that must flow freely throughout the entire business body, and blood that must be enriched and refreshed by some kind of breath.

What is the breath of a business, without which - or if shortened, or not attended to, or left unstudied, or reduced to slogan status - the blood becomes stale? And without which a business - no matter how well structured - will shrivel or die? Perhaps this breath is SERVICE.

The world is full of smart people, and with every increase in technology we think we're getting smarter. Many people behave as though our technologies and smarts are more important than principles. Some suggest that principles don't matter in a postmodern world. Yet, today's news suggests that corner cutting and sloppiness may be the norm when it comes to the fundamental attitudes of being a SERVANT.

Enron, what brought it down in 2001? Why? (Interesting, the word "why" was once Enron's trademark question.)

Arrogance. Intolerance. Greed. Somewhere along the line that company's pivotal organizational interrogatives became: "Who is our target? What can we get? How fast can we get it? When can we dump the target once we've used it/them up? Where can we hide the truth of our actions?" These questions drowned out a series of more wholesome and principled interrogatives: "What can we honorably provide? Who can we provide it to? On what time schedules can we realistically provide it? Where and how can we do this in sustainable ways such that good occurs for all involved? How can we ensure that trust is built - trust that will carry us and others through tough times when they inevitably come?" And so, a corporate consciousness went adrift without a compass, without a rudder, without conscience, without common sense. It may not have started that way, but over time s-t happens. Lost or less heard were: Whom do I serve? What do I offer? What am I doing? Why am I really serving people and making these offers? Where are we going, honestly? If we keep doing this, where will it lead? What are the long-term consequences of our attitudes and actions?

This month's article is not about Enron, though Enron is a grounding point to use as we move forward.

Most of the people who worked at Enron were good and well intentioned. Enron didn't invent greed. Enron reflected and turned up the volume on it. Enron wasn't a disease. Enron was a symptom of something to be recognize and learned from. But did we learn? Once the ills were exposed, a barrage of bandages, words, slogans, structures, promises and proposed statues treated the issues that Enron revealed. And then what? The hearings were conducted, the committees spoke, the laws were passed, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. We had our morning caffe' latte', our afternoon martini or beer, went bass fishing, attended the symphony or rock concert, kicked the can down the street --- and we quietly got back to the same attitudes and embodied actions that had become habits created by misguided long-term practices. But, we had relief: new jargon, new structures, new systems, new promises and new laws. Whew! We wiped our collective brow and the problem was solved. Yes? No.

The man who for eight years was one of my mentors (1975 - 1983) authored a book. In it he quoted Napoleon Hill, "It would be no great overstatement of the truth if we said that mental attitude is EVERYTHING." Like Hill, he believed in the Law of Attraction. In meetings, in classrooms, in private talks this mentor hammered on the topic of SERVICE as being the foundation upon which Hill's philosophy was based. His opinion was that SERVICE was a major part of the secret. He surmised that those who fail to attend to people and to their needs and to the quality of service rendered, will eventually undermine their own best conceived plans. No one is immune from the ups and downs of business and market cycles. During the period I worked for him we had good and bad days, months, and years. We went through a miserable recession. But, regardless of the ups and downs of our times, we were instructed repeatedly to pay attention: (1) to people, (2) to what they needed and (3) what we were thinking about all of that.

"Service," he used to say, " means - find a need and fill it."
Never did he say, "Service means - create a need and fill it."

There is a big difference between finding and creating when it comes to the needs of human beings.

It is one thing to uncover a need through honorable investigation, reveal this need to someone such that his or her life benefits, and then take action to assist the person so that his or her life benefits. It's quite a different thing to concoct a story (system, scam, ideology, method) in an effort to convince a person (or group) he has a need (manufactured, but in reality nonexistent) and then go about getting that person to buy into the invented story such that the storyteller benefits while the person to be served loses. Sadly, I'm not the only one who has been in a boardroom or backroom and heard a manager or boss or executive or teammate demand: "Our job is to make sure we get as much money as possible out of these people. Promise them whatever, but leave nothing on the table. Our function is to get the cash, understand? Now, how much money do you think we can get out of these people?"

Where's the common sense for the long haul?

One who spends time creating and filling needs, may gain in the short run, only to eventually lose over the rhythms of a lifetime. People can be mistreated and fooled for a while, but they are not stupid. The human brain (everyone has one) is a growing, evolving, life-sustaining thing. Eventually most people wake up and wise up. Over the long haul, a focus of creating needs, leads to unhealthy scheming, and enhances a capacity for developing dead-end relationships. Such a practice builds: (1) a short-term, self-absorbed, me-focused perspectives, and (2) long-term reputations of disgust and distrust.

One who spends time in the practice of finding and filling needs, places him or herself in accord with other people. Such a person understands that all things have rhythms; they rise and fall. There are no guarantees of success. They know that there are great forces that can stop a business that has even the best intent at heart, and takes all the best action. But over the long haul, one whose focus is on finding needs, builds a capacity for respect for self and for others, and a capacity to return on a new day, even after defeat, no matter how bad things get. This practice of finding and filling need, builds: (1) an observant other-focused mind, and (2) healthy sustainable reputations. Those involved with an honorable SERVANT, experience him or her as refreshing, attractive and valuable, particularly during times of stress. Like breathing, finding and filling needs can be practiced anytime, all the time, anywhere, and for as little or as much as one asks in return, or pro-bono. All that it takes is attitude and a willingness to look.

To paraphrase my old mentor and Napoleon Hill, it would be no great overstatement of the truth that SERVICE (find a need and fill it) is everything.

Service ought be practiced as though it is an art form. It should be daily studied when times were good. Not as a six-hour management course at a company's annual meeting or as a part time undertaking, but with recurring commitment and mindfulness. It's easy and painless to do. Service should be studied and practiced when times are bad. Not out of necessity, or to patch up a mistake, or for the sake of a slogan or slick corporate mission statement. Rather, because it's the healthy thing to do. Generally speaking, people are looking for others that they can trust. Service breeds trust. During good times those with needs can get lazy, become short sighted, and they can tolerate untrustworthy folks and shoddy attitudes. In bad times, however, untrustworthiness breeds contempt; and contempt can be dangerous, if not catastrophic.

It is most important to take time every day to practice the art of SERVING other people, and sometimes just for the sake of sustaining a keen ability to SERVE. I'm not saying that SERVICE by itself will dig us out of the mess we're in. But without SERVICE becoming and remaining a core issue, we'll just keep on kicking the can down the street.

In 1645, Miyamoto Musashi wrote:
"There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice. Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good. Timing and rhythm are also involved in the military arts, shooting bows and guns, and riding horses. In all skills and abilities there is timing. There is also timing in the Void. This is the Way for (those) who want to learn my strategy:

· Do not think dishonestly.
· The Way is in training.
· Become acquainted with ever art.
· Know the Ways of all professions.
· Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
· Develop intuitive judgment and understanding for everything
· Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
· Pay attention even to trifles.
· Do nothing which is of no use."

Musashi penned this in his Go Rin No Sho (A Book of Five Rings), a few weeks before he died. These words apply to service in the business arts just as they do to good swordsmanship and breathing in the martial arts. His purpose in writing this had nothing to do with making a momentary heap of cash at the expense of someone else. He wrote in SERVICE to others who would walk their path long after he was gone. He wrote so that they could thrive and survive even the worst of times.

©Lance Giroux, 2009