Chris Crouch's Blog

Opportunities for Providers of Ordered Knowledge

With so much information at our fingertips, I believe more and more people are going to seek providers of ordered knowledge. 

Professor Hugh Heclo of George Mason University observes: "In the long run, excesses of technology mean that the comparative advantage shifts from those with information glut to those with ordered knowledge, from those who can process vast amounts of throughput to those who can explain what is worth knowing and why."

...quote from The Power of Simplicity by Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin   

Are you an information glut peddler or a provider of ordered knowledge? What about the people you count on to help you accomplish your life goals? Are they fire-hosing you or providing you with ordered knowledge?

What's in the Well, Comes Up in the Bucket

Let’s play a word association game for a moment. I will give you a word and you think of the first thing that pops in your mind before reading any further. After a few seconds, see if you can come up with a sentence using the word. Here’s the word:

TEAR

What popped into your mind? There are at least two easy possibilities. You could have thought of pulling or ripping something apart (“Tear up those old papers and throw them away.”), or maybe if you are a Hank Williams fan you thought of a drop of salty fluid secreted by the glands of the eyes (“There’s a tear in my beer ‘cause I’m crying for you dear; you are on my lonely mind.”). I’m not as interested in what you came up with as I am in why people see the same four letters and come up with different ideas or different interpretations of the letters.

In a nutshell, here’s what happened:

• You saw four ink characters on a page or computer screen.
• These characters were immediately converted to electro-chemical impulses by the receptors in your eyes and routed to various areas of your brain for interpretation.
• As the impulses headed toward your memory storage area something unusual happened. The impulses lit up a network of neurons representing pulling or ripping something apart…or the impulses lit up a network of neurons representing drops of fluid.

Now, here’s the interesting part. I could have probably swayed your interpretation (in other words, altered the neural pathway to your memory storage area) by making a simple statement before asking you to play the word association game. For example, I could have said, “This is a word that has to do with sadness and crying” or “This is a word that has to do with destroying something.”

Here’s the point: Your current thoughts significantly influence your future thoughts and interpretations. And here’s the point related to productivity: Your current beliefs related to productivity significantly influence your future thoughts about what is a productive use of your time and what is not a productive use of your time. And here’s yet another related point: Many, perhaps most, people nowadays have some irrational and erroneous beliefs about what is and what is not a productive use of their time. Here are just a few examples:

• Consistently working more than eight hours a day is a good way to stay on top of things.
• There is no real harm in consistently overloading your day.
• Multitaskers consistently get more done than people who do not multitask.
• Being plugged in and accessible 24/7 enhances your productivity.
• Busyness is good for business.

Look around. If actions truly speak louder than words, most people these days must believe that all the above, and many other bad productivity habits, are actually productivity enhancers. As a matter of fact, these are things that you might hear smart people brag about doing.

Let’s put two and two together. How can we use these insights to alter your neural pathways when it comes to sorting good ideas from bad ideas in terms of being more productive? And how can we help you convert your productivity intentions into productive actions? Here are two simple ideas:

1. Read good books on productivity.
2. Attend good courses on productivity.

Of course, I probably just lit up the “he’s really a self-serving book author” neural network in your brain. Yes, I write books on being focused, organized and productive and work with a group of trainers who teach a course on the topic. However, I don’t really think it is wise to apologize for something I do for a living and passionately care about. On the contrary, I think it is OK to spread the word about it. My books and courses tend to focus on the human behavioral aspects of productivity…and are based on sound, proven strategies. In other words, the ideas work! However, you are not going to suddenly become the Oprah of productivity by simply reading my books or attending a course. The real value in such activities is the fact that they will serve as catalysts to begin altering your “productivity neural pathways.” Just as I can alter your interpretation of the four letters “TEAR”, I can encourage your neural impulses to go to different, more productive places in your memory storage area. Good books and good courses create new memories to draw on when you are trying to increase productivity or solve problems.

There is an old saying, “What’s in the well, comes up in the bucket.” When you are struggling with your workload and priorities, what comes up in your bucket? If, in this situation, you access thoughts that motivate or compel you to work harder or longer, maybe it’s time to upgrade your memory files. Maybe it’s time to read my new book titled Being Productive: Learning How to Get More Done With Less Effort. Maybe it’s time to attend a GO System training course. These activities will forever alter your neural pathways related to productivity and could possibly make you so happy it will bring tears to your eyes.

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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. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, is now available through Amazon.

Do Things Have to Be So Complicated?

In one sense, life is quite simple. As humans we all basically start out as little bits of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen...the building blocks of life. These four basic elements bond together in different ways to form more complex molecular compounds that make up most of our bodies. For example, hydrogen and oxygen (also known as water) bond to make up almost 60 percent of our bodies overall...and 70 percent of our brains, 80 percent of our blood and 90 percent of our lungs. Before you know it, enough molecules and compounds bond together to form something called amino acids...the building blocks of proteins. Throw in a few fat molecules (lipids) to help develop a membrane around the molecules (now bonded in the form of amino acids, proteins and other stuff) and you suddenly have a cell wall. This cell wall creates an inside world and an outside world for the molecules that somehow bonded with each other. At this point, new bonds begin to form and existing bonds begin to break apart inside the cell wall. As these new molecular bonds form inside the cell wall, they store energy...and when existing molecular bonds break apart, energy is released. By the way, this process of storing and releasing energy is called metabolism. We're getting pretty close to life at this point. Technically, we only need three things to classify something as living:

1. Metabolism
2. Boundaries (life needs boundaries - such as a cell wall - to separate "in here" and "out there")
3. The ability to make copies of itself 

Other molecules inside the cell wall (called nucleotides) form into twisted ladder-like chains called DNA and, as Archimedes said when he stepped into his bath, "Eureka!!!" Our internal copy machines are in place and ready...and we are ready to get serious about life. The first cell copies itself, the resulting two cells do the same, then four new cells do the same, etc, etc, etc. All the cells are pretty much the same when they start out, but then something even more amazing happens. They migrate to different parts of our newly forming bodies and differentiate. Some morph into brain cells, some into liver cells, some into heart cells, and so forth and so on until we end up with all we need (if we are fortunate) to sustain life, get an education, overuse fossil fuel, get a mortgage, get on junk mail and e-mail spam lists, run up some credit card debt, create a worldwide financial crisis, etc.   

Ok, let's stop here and think about it. All this happens - you happen, life happens - because four basic elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen) somehow bond in different ways. Understanding everything about how these bonds ultimately are formed can take you down three fascinating paths: the path of spiritual knowledge, the path of scientific knowledge, or...if you are willing to ignore Descartes' separation of these paths (as I am), the path where spirituality and science merge. But here's my simple lesson for the day in all of this: If it only takes four basic elements to make us and sustain life, why does it take so much to make us happy and sustain happiness? Here's a possible answer: It doesn't really take that many things or that much to make us happy. Sometimes we just think it does!

Here's my suggestion. Learn from mother nature and stick with the following simple four-element plan for generating happiness:

1. Every day, think of the activity that creates the most joy in your life...then do it.
2. Every day, think of the activity that kills the most joy in your...then don't do it. 
3. Repeat step one above for the rest of your life. 
4. Repeat step two above for the rest of your life. 

One joy-generating activity is enough to get started on this plan. I am lucky. Currently, there are 26 items on my list of joy-generating activities. Most of them cost little or no money. The activity that struck me as most desirable today was writing (yeah...unlike some people, I actually like to write). Now that I am almost finished with this blog, I'm moving on to the next activity on my list. On a good day, I can make it through many joy-generating activities. Yesterday, I participated in 15 of the activities on my list...so, it was a very good day! Of course, make sure the activities that creates joy in your life are appropriate and good for you and others in your environment in the long run. Follow this simple plan, get plenty of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen and life should work out fine for you. Good luck!

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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. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, scheduled for release in early December is now available for preorder.

Should I Quit or Keep Going?

In terms of pursuing your own goals in life or trying to help others achieve their goals, there are two grand mistakes in life: quitting to soon and not stopping soon enough. Today I want to tell you about two resources that might help you consider and make the "let it go or keep going" choice if and when you encounter it.

Resource 1: If your gut instinct seems to be telling you to keep on going.

I read a book this weekend about people who "knew in their heart" they should keep on going. The book, The Secret of Success is Not a Secret by Darcy Andries, includes over 250 stories about people who refused to quit too soon. In many cases, these people were strongly advised by so-called "experts" in their chosen field to give up...pack it in and find something else to do. They were often treated poorly and disrespectfully by critics and naysayers. These persistent, high achievers were told that they were not qualified...not good enough...or, in some cases, they were branded as outright failures. In most cases, they ignored the critics and kept right on going or made adjustments based on valid criticisms...and then kept right on going.

Resource 2: If your gut instinct seems to be telling you it is time to let go and move on.

About four minutes! If you read at an average pace, that's how long it will take you to read Edwin H. Friedman's fable called The Bridge. When you read it, many of you are going to realize it is time to let go of some of your choices....especially any inauthentic choices. Inauthentic choices are not really our choices; however, we all make inauthentic choices simply because we are human. We set out to do certain things because someone else was sure that it was the best thing for us or someone else wanted us to make a certain choice for their selfish reasons. If you choose to take the four minutes or so it will take you to read The Bridge, think carefully about past choices that are now preventing you from pursuing an authentic life.

In a sense, emotions are our only direct source of knowledge and guidance. Think about it...we learn almost everything in life from a teacher, a book or some other indirect or external source. Our emotions are just that...solely ours. When you are making a major life decision, after you get through with all the logical thinking...and the pro and con thinking...and the cost/benefit thinking...don't forget to tap into your emotional side and ask, "Do I really want to make this choice...How does it feel to me?" In the end, going to a quiet place and tapping into your emotions will probably help you make the best choice when you find yourself at the crossroads of going forward or letting go.    

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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.

Four Lifespans of a 40 Year Old

I've been thinking about human lifespans today. I think about weird things all the time. Anyhow...someone called me yesterday and in the course of our conversation I found out they were 40 years old. For some reason, it struck me that just four forty-year life spans ago (that would make it 1848), the Civil War was still 12 or 13 years in the future. Then I started thinking about how much has happened in our world in such a short time. For example, here's a few things that had not been invented when my young friend was born in 1968:

• iPods (2001)
• Viagra (1998)
• Commercial E-mail (1993)
• The World Wide Web (1990)
• Prozac (1988)
• Microsoft Windows (1985)
• Cellular phones (1979)
• VCRs (1971)
• ATMs (1969)

Go back forty more years to 1928 and you eliminate the following things from our world because they had not been invented yet:

• Yo-Yos (1929)
• Copy machines (1937)
• Ballpoint pens (1938)
• Color TV (1940)
• Microwave ovens (1946)
• Credit cards (1950)
• Diet soft drinks (1952)
• McDonalds (1953)

Go back forty more years to 1888 and you eliminate the following things from our world because they had not been invented yet:

• Zippers (1893)
• TV (1927)
• Air conditioners (1902)
• Airplanes (1903)
• Talking motion pictures (1910)
• The bra (1913)
• Band-Aids (1923)

The forty-year period before that knocks out automobiles, bicycles, telephones and puts us right in the middle of the events leading up to the Civil War.

Now let's go back a few more lifespans...in terms of evolution a mere blip in time. Anthropologists and archaeologists use a term called behavioral modernity (also known as the Great Leap Forward) to describe something significant that happened to humans about 35,000 to 50,000 years ago. Apparently, something triggered some unusual changes in the brains of our ancestors. Suddenly, in terms of evolutionary time, homo sapiens began to think abstractly and creatively. Between then and now (an evolutionary "bat-of-an-eye") humans invented language, tools, religion, art, music, cooking, Prozac and iPods. The current world average lifespan is 67 years (the world average...not the U.S. average). I don't know about you, but I'm amazed at how much we have accomplished in only about 634 average lifespans (let's average things and say the Great Leap Forward occurred about 42,500 years ago and divide it by the current lifespan of 67 years).

Wow...a lot has happened in a relatively short time! A lot of people have accomplished a lot of stuff! It makes me want to think more carefully about what I do with my time and energy every day. After all, I'm only 634 lifespans forward of the Great Leap Forward. I think I'll spend more time thinking about what really matters in my life today and for the rest of my particular lifespan. I think it is time to let go of some of the things that are inhibiting my forward progress. I think it is time for me to make some kind of Great Leap Forward in my life. Why don't you join me!

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.