Making A Mess

In the 1930's and 40's Oliver Hardy of the slapstick comedy duo, Laural and Hardy, was fond of saying: "Here's another nice mess you've gotten me into", after some calamity befell the pair.

And so it is that: "life imitates art far more than art imitates life"--Oscar Wilde

Recently, I've been discussing strategy formation and decision making in the context of data.  It would appear that with the advent of the digital age our society is obsessed with data.  There's BIG DATA, and little data.  There are entire academic and professional fields of  Data Analysis and Data Visualization.  How on earth did the human race make any progress prior to data?

Here's how--intuition.  

Intuition is that human ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning, or data. Thomas Edison had this ability.  He claimed that his invention of the phonograph was an act of pure intuition.  Other masters from antiquity to the modern age also possessed this great capacity--as do we all.

We've become so data-driven that we often get stuck in the paralysis of analysis.  I will submit that nothing significantly innovative, creative, or entrepreneurial was ever accomplished by analytical, deductive reasoning.  By definition, an act of creation is one of inspiration, not perspiration (except in bed, when it is both ;-))

People may ask: "how am I to decide without data?"   The answer is: meditate.  The mind is like a glass of water with dirt in it (notice DIRT = DATA).  Stir it up (analyze) and you can't see clearly.  Let it settle (meditate), and the mind becomes a crystal clear pool of water from which right action emerges.

More often than not, we make a mess of life when we do not listen to our intuition, or our inner knowing of what is right.  When this happens and a decision goes sideways or south, I offer the advice my mom often shared with me in my youth: "clean up your #mess!"

This Requires Total Concentration

#Focus
  
"This requires total concentration” (Bruce Lee paraphrase)

Martial artists can focus their mental attention and bodily energy to apply physical forces that astonish most other mortals because the latter cannot see beyond the distractions of their own busy, active minds.

Today, the advent of electronic media and the internet have enabled many distractions that seem appealing at first, yet enslave us in the end.

Text message.  Email.  Phone call.  Tweet.  Pandora.  ipod.  Video game.  Facebook.  Pinterest. Netflix.  Hulu.

Now, where was I? Oh, yes.  Focus.

Fox News.  CNBC.  Politico.  CNN.  Talk radio.  The New York Times.  The Wall Street Journal. Bloomberg.  Reuters.  

What was I doing?  Oh yes, writing a blogpost.

Napoleon Hill in his 17 Principles of Success described a quality he called “Controlled Attention” as the ability “to focus the powers of [the] mind upon the attainment of a definite objective and to keep it so directed at will.”  If one is often distracted, bouncing from activity to activity like a pinball on steroids, how can one achieve or accomplish anything worthwhile?  “Multi-tasking” is an oxymoron!

So, what can we do when we are either assaulted or tempted by the barrage of today’s electronic distractions? I do have a few simple recommendations:

1) Cancel your cable/satellite TV service.  Throw out all radios, ipods, gaming consoles.

2) Read only one literate newspaper each day.

3) When with people, place your cell/smart phone in “airplane” mode, and be fully present for the people you are with.

4) If you must check and respond to email, do so only 3 times each day (morning, around lunchtime, and late-afternoon).

5) Rise early and meditate each day.

I recognize that what I am suggesting here is a radical departure from the way many individuals act these days.  Who among you has the courage to reclaim your focus?