A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis
Michael Jordan on his intensity…
I never took a day off. If I took a day off, then Scottie was going to take a day off. And then Horace. The next thing you know, the whole scope of what we’re trying to do is being weakened. I never took a shortcut, and I never wanted anyone else to take a shortcut. If that meant someone interpreted me as a tyrant, I’m pretty sure they’re appreciative now.
A couple of pretty good profiles of some of the iconic men of the last 50 years in the October GQ. These quotes from the article on Colin Powell…
So what is the great threat we are facing?
I would approach this differently in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there – ones that we can take advantage of?
And this…
Avoid war – and if that’s not possible, and it’s necessary to use arms to solve a political problem, then do it in a decisive way. You remove as much doubt as you can about the outcome. In addition, you need to have a clearly defined mission, and you must have some understanding of how it’s going to end.
It’s been a pretty good couple of days – that pesky “another year older” thing notwithstanding! Here’s kind of what’s happened thus far to make the beginning of my 47th year pretty good…
Just saw this story in the Atlanta paper…
Alpharetta police say they clocked a motorcyclist, with a female passenger on back, going 135 miles per hour on Ga. 400 Monday night.
YIKES!
From a guy on his cell phone this morning…
You know, some people who are really good at the people part just plain suck at organization!
This story – about a guy who lives in Atlanta’s Fabulous Fox Theatre – is pretty neat, if you ask me!
The Thistle and Shamrock, on our local public radio station…Celtic music. Up next, A Night On the Town…same channel, Broadway…see, I’m not stuck on Christmas music all the time!
Ah! Ironic coincidence! I’m sitting outside on a gray overcast day, having just picked up Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast from the little used-book shop down the street. Hemingway tells of sitting in a fine Paris café, writing in his notebook with a pencil, and Miller’s once-banned classic is set in the same city. And here I am, on the “sidewalk” in a suburban substitute for the cozy cafés of Paris, writing in my notebook with a pencil, and drinking the not-quite equal of Hemingway’s café au lait.
It’s quiet on this dreary day, even with the chiming church bells from across the highway, the constant stream of traffic, and the bouncy pop music blaring from the Starbucks speakers.
There are signs of life: commerce, travel, building, eating at the fast-food drive-thru window, the big box store across the way. People have computers inside. They are huddled around the tables, discussing this or that, reading the latest romance novel, and computing on important-looking projects. Not exactly the cultural center of the Earth, but likely a prime example of what passes for culture in our day and place.
I’m anonymous at the table. At least no one lets on that they know me, and I happily leave them alone as well. In my imagination, they probably look at my little notebook and little black pencil and say something like, “Look! There’s a new Hemingway, writing something profound in his notebook!” I could be a writer, I guess, except for the fact that I can’t write.
I wonder if there’s an Arby’s across from the fine Paris café where Hemingway sat and wrote and drank. I wonder if the fall of Miller’s second year in Paris included a Wal-Mart parking lot. I wonder if either of those observers ever thought of the kind of impression their presence was making on those around them.
I wonder which is more interesting – the traffic outside or the people inside?
Good mentors/coaches know…
What else do good mentors know?
Ken Blanchard says in Self Leadership and The One Minute Manager that the first “trick” of the self leader is Challenging Assumed Constraints. He defines an “assumed constraint” as…
a belief you have, based on past experience, that limits your current and future experiences. (p. 33)
So, if I’m going to challenge the assumed constraints in my life and my organization, and if I’m going to move beyond those past assumptions to a more productive and effective future, the starting place seems to be identifying what those assumed constraints are.
I started thinking about those assumptions this week, and as they came up, I started listing them in my notebook. I’ve got to tell you, it’s not a pretty picture. Especially when I realize that the assumptions I’ve placed on the people I lead and serve may be more detrimental to our mission than the assumptions I assume they operate under themselves.
And that scares me.
So, since you’re already praying for me after “I Quit,” you might as well go ahead and look with me into these constraints that have been holding me – and us – back.
Assumed Constraints for Our Church
What About the Constraints I’ve Placed On Our People?
What About the Assumed Constraints I’m Fighting Against Personally?
This week, I’m in the challenging mode…if you need to challenge your assumed constraints, share them. Let’s commit to praying for and helping each other with challenging – and overcoming those things that are holding us back. Deal?