Chris Crouch's Blog

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.

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.

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.