Egoless Clarity [A Tyro's Mindset]

Are you good at what you do? Chances are, unless you are completely new at what you are doing you have gotten good, perhaps you have even became an expert in your field. In one recent conversation with a client, he told me that after an average of 2 months most of his sales guys are 'great' at what they do and at that point are creating their own desired income. He says that it only takes a little time to learn their clients, their computer system and organizational expectations. Typically in my professional past experiences, I would say it was a 2-6 month time frame before I felt comfortable and in some cases good at what I was doing. Of course if there was previous experience in that industry then that 2-6 months could be mere weeks.

On one hand it is good… it's even great when a leader gets good at what they do or who they are. However, this can have an equal and opposite reaction that may not be beneficial to their personal leadership or their organization. When new directions and decisions need to be made the expert may be blind to new possibilities because they are an expert at what they have done. Notice the use of 'have done' as past tense. This can be the biggest setback for many seasoned veteran leaders as well as the novice leader due to the 'book knowledge' and previous wins that he has championed into his portfolio as another point on the scoreboard.

Often times the expert leader is bound to the the previous successes, she is bound to the past, and many times not open to the new and different ideas; the (un)tried.

Do you have an expert mind? Are you limited to the small closed world of an expert? Are you buckled down from the less concrete world of spacial creativity? Perhaps you need to think like a 'tyro', a beginner in learning. Tyro's have that child-like outlook on things. A child looks at a problem and thinks that some markers, mud, and G.I. Joes will fix it. They don't always think rationally. Think about a new hire, some young fresh college kid who has no experience. If you were to ask him an executive question that is too much for him to entertain you may get an answer that is not the status quo. Remember as an expert you might find yourself where the status quo only makes sense because that is what has always worked, so why shouldn't it now? Could the perception of his sub-par status quo thought actually be a new viable option, something (un)tried?

Here is the complication; your expert mind says, "this can't be done" or " this shouldn't be done." This is not beneficial to any situation. However when you begin to think like a tyro your beginner mind says, "How can this be done?" or "I wonder if this can be done?" What might you need to change in order to get your mind youth-enized? How might you get your thoughts in control so that you can think like a young tyro, a fresh college kid, child-like mindset, with new ideas and perspectives, yet maintain balance keeping your measurables and goals in perspective? Will your ego stand in the way, the ego that tells others that your success comes form your knowledge and your knowledge comes from your experience? Our ego treats us like a crooked accountant that shows a modest profit while lining his own pockets with wealth. This ego says, "because of who I am and what I have done proves that my ideas are superior." The need here is an egoless clarity.

Now the question to begin to reframe your thinking is, "How can this be done?" Can you perhaps gain an egoless clarity to the unseen?

Also be sure to read this post that deals with an egoless clarity.

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Within Reason

Leader: "Hey guys did you finish the way I wanted?"
Them: "Well, 'within reason'!"

I get this from time to time. As a leader that is such a scary reaction phrase when assessing completion. As a worker/volunteer/intern who doesn't have a strong grasp of excellence, this creates a large gray area of unfulfilled duties, a sort of sick justification. The toughest project for a team leader is to produce the culture in which the hands have a degree or sense of self-responsibility, self-motivation. When they lack this it slowly forces the leader to micro-manage, which any good leader dreads and never wants to walk in that role, at least the good ones. There are some manager/leaders that thrive on the micro-management philosophies. Scary land.

'Within reason' could be defined as 'within the bounds of good sense or practicality'. However within bounds is still missing the mark. Later we can debunk the difference between perfection and excellence but for now lets tackle the issue of settling for mediocrity, which happens to be the lack of excellence. When 'within reason' is good enough then all of our hard work and efforts become wasted time. Now don't get me wrong, some progress could have been made, no doubt, but typically it leaves the work still to be done by someone else. This is basically the Pareto Principle, the law of the vital few. It is based off the principle of factor sparsity, basically 80% of consequences build from 20% of the causes, the vice versa is true. 80% of greatness is created by the 20%. This should help us in our future decision making in all aspects of life and ministry. It should be used by everyone of you reading this, the simple fact that you are taking time to read this implies your desire to grow as a leader or simply your boredom or infatuation of my character (that's a joke).

If you would consider yourself any sort of leader and have any sense of intelligence the Pareto Principle should be part of your daily decisions making, if it isn't yet, then this should be the next immediate change in your life. It can multiply the efficiency of your work force or ministry team(s) and your own personal life in it's effectiveness individually or corporately. The value should not be ignored but leveraged for it's powers and abilities.

The value for you as a leader is that it works as a reminder for you to focus where your efforts where it has it's greatest return, the 20%. Of all the choices you make during your day, only 20% really matters, that does 1 of 2 things for me, makes me feel like I waste a lot of time, but as a pastor/leader/creative/etc it helps me to produce more energy to the GREAT choices that are made through the 20%. I must IDENTIFY then FOCUS then MOVE, process then repeat. Leaders/pastors/creatives, hear me... when the day begins, emails, txts, phone calls, stuff, begin IDENTIFY the 20%, FOCUS on the 20%, MOVE forward on the 20%. If something has to to be skipped, slipped, ignored or not get done by all means make sure it is not of the 20%.

Jesus modeled this greatly. He spent time with the 20% that would make the most changes in a world that was new to the thought of a Messiah that would not rule as others had expected in legal authority and power. The truth is his circle of 12 was probably much smaller than 20% of his regulars.

Some thoughts:

• Have a win range. Have a look at how much win comes from each aspect of your business or ministry. Put your efforts into the 20% that give you 80% of your wins - repeatables.
• Have a product of value. Take a look at the 80% of your success and what is the 20% that is creating it. Do you have a loss leader? - sellables. (Many pastors fear the word product, this can be saved for another post, but you have a product, quit fearing the simple obvious that is helping others be intentionally successful and causing you to sit back and make excuses for your lack of)
• Team leaders. Take a look at your work force, your ministry team. How much profit comes from each leader. Reward, retain and pour into the 20% that are your top winners not your top 20% whiners, yeah I said it! - loveables. (These are your "disciples")
• Have an affiliate program. Find the top 5-20% of those who support you, or give you 80% of your support/income. Support, encourage, affirm and reward your givers - supportables.
• Advertisements. Where does your wins come from, what 20% is it that gets 80% of your word out? People, Internet, twitter, email, etc? Refine your winning processes then re-run them where you can capitalize on them - winnables.

Your biggest rational fear is those in your network, in your area where you are doing things 'within reason'. If you are a pastor admit it... admit that there is an underlying fear of competition. Then if they are tearing it up and making it work you get jealous and begin to explain how it is not of God and it's not going to succeed. The reason they are winning is because they are unreasonably focusing on their 20%. "Oh, but we don't have 20%." Bull, you do, but you are focusing all your efforts on making the 80% happy and pretty and making sure they are comfortable and have nothing to complain about. IS there a balance? SURE, everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. You are not benefiting because your focused efforts are in the wrong place.

It is always the unreasonable entity that establishes a new benchmark or new niche. They then get the opportunity to redefine success and redefine what 'within reason' means. It is also the 'within reason' entity that reestablishes the status quo of minimization and mediocrity!

As Seth Godin says,

"I guess the only choice is to be unreasonable."

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Mind The Gap

In one of my recent grad projects we had to identify several gaps within our organization. Once identified came the task of trying to figure out the root cause. After knowing the cause the next process was to lay out a plan on how to fix the initiatives. Then the final task of the project was to point out any resistance to the initiatives.

What is tough is not identifying the gaps. We are good at that. We are great at looking at the flaws of a system, item, or process, and sometimes we are even good at exploiting those gaps to help out our own cause. However most of the times we do not inventory the root cause. If we do, typically it is in a cynical approach in which we attack the cause instead of simply identifying it. The difference is simple identification is only a step to better the situation, a cynical approach helps us look better by exploiting the weaknesses or flaws, a very ego-centric approach.

Laying out a plan is difficult for most people because they are not willing to cope with, or admit that the plan may include improving themselves or to point out personal weaknesses. When the plan is laid out the follow through can be a bear. Take for instance an organization that must go through downsizing. Having a plan to cut peoples jobs that you know will largely affect the families is a tough decision that is not made lightly. But because you have the bigger picture of an organization at risk of bankruptcy the plan becomes easier to follow through.

Then doing a little risk assessment and seeing who or what will become a resistance to the follow through of the plan can be pain staking. This becomes one of those conversions of, if it needs to be done then it must get done.

In London the tube has the words, "Mind The Gap" on the ground in front of all the ledges. They understand that not paying attention to the gaps can be fatal. Organizations understand that if they do not mind the gap it can be fatal as well. The bigger question and the personal application is going through the same process for your own personal life. Lets try it.

Step 1
Take a minute and try to identify some gaps in your own life. If you are serious about this you may even ask some friends that are close to you or family members to give you honest feedback. Don’t try to disagree with it, remember perspective is reality in the minds of others!

Step 2
Write these down. Now begin to try and figure out the root causes, there maybe multiple root causes. If it is others perspective then start there. Ask, ‘How might others view me?’ and see why they feel that way.

Step 3
Now make these gaps initiatives to change yourself. Begin to lay out a plan on how you can change these attributes. Remember you can’t change others, but you can change yourself. Changing yourself changes others perceptions. Make the plan simple and goal oriented so that you can measure your progress. Asking someone to hold you accountable is a great way to continue progressing forward.

Step 4
Now identify any thing that can be a resistance to your success of fulfilling the initiative (s). What are the pitfalls that can stop forward continual progress. The only difference between a stepping stone and a stumbling block is the position of your foot. Identify what could be possible stumbling blocks and then figure out how to make sure it doesn’t trip you up but instead help you by being a stepping stone to the next level.

Step 5
Repeat, repeat, repeat. Every few months repeat this whole process. Getting into the habit of personal reflection, measurement and analysis can be on of the best habits to get into. Remember habits are easier to form than to break.

Be changed and different! Mind The Gap!

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Carpe Diem - What Does Your Life Mean?

Jeff, a disbarred lawyer, on a TV show called, Community, signs up for a class at a community college that he heard was an easy ‘A’. When Professor Whitman tells the class to throw their textbooks away and simply "seize the day and live in the moment" to get an 'A', Jeff thinks he has hit the jackpot. Jeff encourages his study group to take a class that is supposed to be a breeze. This class has no tests, quizzes, papers, and appears to be no homework in the modern sense, except to ‘Carpe Diem’, Seize the day.

Professor Whitman catches on to Jeff’s carelessness and freewill desire for an ‘A’ and tells him he must ‘live life’ or face an ‘F’. Jeff begins doing all kinds of acts in front of Whitman to get caught living the moment, flying kites, dressing funny, etc. However Whitman calls him out each time. Professor Whitman finally tells him that he must,

“Live for yourself and not anyone else.”

Jeff gets upset and challenges his professor saying, “Have you seen the amount of work I am putting into this?” as he is trying to live the moment that he is setting up. Whitman then asks him,

“What do you mean, what does your life mean? How long does it take you in the morning to make it look like you have bed head? How many sports jacket combos did it take you trying on to finally find the one that says, ‘I don’t care’? Seize that day, go running naked in a hail storm, kiss a girl in the middle of a day, go fly a kite, BUT DO IT FOR YOURSELF or you won’t just fail my class you will fail life.”

Jeff is so caught up with himself that he doesn’t know how to live the moment and seize the day. He is so preoccupied with his image and stature that he bypasses formalities to gain free opportunities. I know so many people like this in the professional business world as well as the church community and many times even myself. What is unfortunate are the people who follow these self-absorbed individuals blowing them up and puffing their small egos and in a sick way justifies their inability to live for the moment.

So how do you live the moment:

1. Be Authentic_ You can’t be a sell out. You have got to be the real deal. There are enough Guchi impostors out there and not enough Rembrandts. I remember back in the day my posse and me loved to sport ‘Folexs’, you remember, fake Rolex watches. We were big time because we had a $10 watch that looked like a couple grand. Zane Anderson said, “pumped up people always leak but built up people take the city.
2. Be Excellent_ Quit settling for mediocrity. There is more competition for mediocrity then for excellence. Don’t focus on perfection, focus on excellence. Matthew E. May said, “Imperfection drives innovation.” Don’t allow your imperfection to compete for your excellence.
3. Be Direct_ Don’t beat around the bush. Stop weaseling around people to get where you want. The chief cause of failure is exchanging what you want most for what you want at the moment. Soon everything you go through will be seen as nothing more than preparation for the next step. However, the more you scheme for opportunities the sooner you deflate.
4. Seize the Moment_ How sad it is when we devalue real life while gambling our energies on the facade of what could be. You must be focused because there is a point where talent is meaningless or at least minimized if not accompanied by concentration. Take the opportunity, seize it and don’t let go!

What do you mean, what does your life mean? Seize that day, BUT DO IT FOR YOURSELF or you will fail life.

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Faith Makes Failure

To say that faith "is" or "makes" failure would be a sad ignorant definition but allow me to elaborate on faith becoming failure. A person must know faith makes things happen. Faith creates blocks. Those blocks then build structures. Our faith has the ability to create dreams, they have the ability to make masterpieces.

Many things in life that is powerful typically has the ability to be a power for good or to be a power to do harm/evil/ugliness. Faith is one of those things. I can have faith that a good person will make a good choice but I can also have faith that a bad person can make a bad choice. Most speak positively of faith and how it brings something out form within that one may have never have seen or felt inside. However we shouldn't fool ourselves to think that faith can't also be a destructive force.

For many, the problem is that faith for them has lowered their own expectation, or I should say their low expectations has changed their faith. Now they still have faith but their faith has a new target (maybe faith is similar to a habit, never destroyed only replaced). Maybe it is you, maybe your low expectations for yourself has begin to cause you to have faith that you will fail. The problem is that some of you have faith that you can't do anything so you fulfill your expectations. You typically live to your level of faith.

If I have faith in God I will live like their is a God (imagine that life lived out). You see my life will begin to change. If I live like I can overcome then I will be a champion. Whether you believe in God/bible or not, James in the bible talks about this, he says in chapter two, "do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?" He is saying that faith is lived out, what you believe is then turned into action. My best definition for faith is, "belief in action."

Check this out, a few verses later it says, "You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove." Here is the dilemma, if you have faith that you will fail, faith that you cannot overcome, faith that you will fall short then it is highly probable you will fail. James is almost willing to wager, set up a little gamble that you cannot do one without the other. True faith will cause action in your belief system.

Be careful for what you believe you will fail at, it might come true...
| but even bigger |
be aware [beware] at the world that you can change if you believe that you are a world changer!
[Maybe the world needs to beware of you]

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Digital Breathe - Living Simply Complicated

Wife's text response: "You could pick your bible and read it."

My thoughts: "How?!? The internet is down, so therefore crosswalk is not available, nor youversion, or any others, so how do I read the bible, dang it!"

I realize in life how digital I have become when even reading the bible or popular book becomes online reading or listening to an audio mp3. I grew up on a PC and now have been on a Mac for about 2 years and am quite the aficionado. I have always had this deep desire to learn as much as I can when it comes to technology. I would take apart my parents VCR just to see it then put it back together as a child, a slight affection towards tech stuff. Made magazines are a techies dream escape.

When it comes to ministry and technology and the digital life we as leaders/pastors/creatives strategize our efforts. The truth is things are a changin'. Therefore our strategies must change and adapt. I have realized that so much of my world is concentrated around the use of technology. If I got away from my alarm that sits on my nightstand and used my cell phone to wake me up then my entire world could be classified as mobile. Music, I got my old school 30gb iPod with as much movies as I do music and a few seasons of The Office. For calls, texts, tweets, light email and internet I got my Moto Q9C. For the rest of my brain I got my Macbook Pro, this helps me with EVERYTHING, literally my world is inside that or online. Here are a couple things I use:

• My calendar syncs from iCal to Google Calendars to Plaxo. It automatically updates all birthdays and anniversaries from Facebook and Plaxo updates to my iCal.
• All my contacts sync from my Address Book to phone to Google contacts to Plaxo to Linkedin, etc, etc.
• Every sermon I have every wrote over the last 8 years, every thought, two books in progress, and teaching, leadership lesson, etc are on my 120gb Macbook Pro that syncs to all my files on my work computer and many files synced to Google Documents.

I could keep going... my simply complicated life is wired! The internet and phone is down and I found myself sitting there dazed and confused. I would attempt to say most people, at least leaders/pastors/creatives are overly encompassed by their need of their tethered electronic world.

One thing to keep in mind is the people around us, your audience, the world around us is moving to a technologically attached mainframe. Many churches are looking at going to an internet campus. and looking at the internet as a viable asset to their churches.

The Denver Post wrote a great article on the role of technology in the church. Here is one important thought from the article that was very important:

“Church is not the Internet or a building — it’s people.” If the notion that a virtual community can be as real as a physical one seems crazy, you may be showing your age.

Thanks to online shopping, online dating, online social networking and online darn-near-everything-else, many young Americans don’t distinguish between their friends from school and those fromFacebook.

These youngsters just see them all as friends, said David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, a consulting firm that conducts survey research for churches and other religious groups.

In fact, Kinnaman’s firm predicts that by 2010, 10 percent of Americans will rely exclusively on the Internet for their religious experience.

10 percent! This is a moment that we must engage ourselves into our changing culture, we must ride the tide instead of chase the wave. That wave is understanding the language of the culture. A good friend of mine, Travis Clark defined culture in his blog as...

"...the "language" that people are currently speaking. And for us as leaders we must learn that "language" in order to engage the people."

If we do not begin to speak the language of our culture we become ignorant because we don't have the capacity to make intelligent conversation. The lanuguage is becoming more digital day by day.

Rhett Smith points out that the “front door” of churches is no longer a “physical” door:

Do we even realize that the physical building isn’t the front door anymore, but that the online world is the front door? If you don’t have a strong [online] presence, or aren’t telling a good story online, which is the front door–will you be able to bring people from the online world, to the physical front door of the church?

For the moment that we had no internet I realized that my "online" and "offline" are one in the same. As a matter of fact when it happend that for almost a whole day I was "offline" my life felt wierd. I belive for many that line will begin to blur more as more generations rise up with a connected lifestyle. Online and offline is simply becoming 'life', simple and functional.

As Justin Wise says, "If you (and your church) don’t begin to understand and learn to speak the language of this younger generation, no amount of catch-up and “digital cramming” will help in as little as five years."

One thing I have been thinking about and not really heard much buzz around it but guarantee if I searched hard enough over at churchmarketingsucks.com or beyondrelevance.com I could find a post on the topic of the difference between consumers that come to you/your church website versus the future of the consumer that is wanting you to feed them your information. We need to rethink how we are getting information to people, feeders and aggregates are the futures muscle for getting people information. Every person pretty much carries a cell phone, they are your mobile consumers, get them the information they want in their hands which is convenient. We need to begin to think smarter not harder.

So are you able to engage your culture in a whole new way? Does the digital language something you are willing to tackle? Are you willing to translate the previous language to the digital language?

So let me ask you, are these patterns happening in your local church? Does the ends justify the means?

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Foggy Days

Here in Arizona, rain, fog, snow, hail, etc are not the norm, however sun, sunny, and hot are. The last few days, five days to be exact, we have experienced rain and it is a great thing for a parched desert. You can recognize the life spring forth from the plants and you begin to have a greater sense of freshness. This morning as I loaded up my 4 month old daughter to take her to her sitter, everything seemed pleasant and norm. As I left my house and go a mile away I started to notice that my visibility was daunting and that there was not clear views ahead. It got so bad that as I sat at a red light I could see the fog blowing across the street as if the house to the right was set to fire. The visibility was reduced to less than a quarter mile and road signs were not readable more than a 100' away as you can see in this picture.

Many times I will have students approach me about their own life and their effectiveness. Almost having a sense of failing because they can't see the outcome of their influence. It is important to know that we don't have to know the plans, we don't have to see the big picture to know that God will lead us to his table. Jeremiah 29:11 says how God knows the plans for our life and His plans are not to hurt us or harm us but to give us hope of a bright future.

I realized in the fog that I was able to see far enough to be safe, that brought comfort however sometimes in life we may not have the visibility in life to know that we are safe. We have to put our faith in God and trust Him in His word that He will never leave us or ditch us or abandon us.

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Sometimes I Never Feel Good Enough

Demands. Expectations. Needs. Realizations. Schedules. People. Lives. Hurts. Pains. Goals. Ambitions. Oh and a baby.
My perspective.

It seems with all the things that are demanding of my time all seem to have the need from someone else. It seems I am being pulled into every direction that is requiring my time. It seems like I can't make certain people happy. Unfortunately the people that I let down are the people that matter the most.

Unbalanced. Preoccupied. Selfish. Lazy. Blurred. Unfocused. Narrow-minded.
Their perspective.

Call me what you want. The truth is none of those are true but peoples preconceived ideas and perception unfortunately define you more then the one who knows you best... yourself. Too bad people around me can't look into my life and be able to communicate with me their thoughts and what they are thinking of you. That would help but nonetheless, this is the life that we are given and need to figure out how to work with those parameters.

Well regardless, I am going back to my demands, expectations, fulfilling needs of being unbalanced, preoccupied, selfish lazy, blurred, and narrow-minded life.

See ya.

Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through him who gives me strength.
God will equip me and guide be to be balanced and not marginalized.

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Seven Reasons You Might Fail to Become the Best in the World

Seven Reasons You Might Fail to Become the Best in the World
by Seth Godin

1. You run out of time (and quit).
2. You run out of money (and quit).
3. You get scared (and quit).
4. You’re not serious about it (and quit).
5 You lose interest or enthusiasm or settle for being mediocre (and quit).
6. You focus on the short term instead of the long (and quit when the short term gets too hard).
7. You pick the wrong thing at which to be the best in the world (because you don’t have the talent).

By “you,” I mean your team, your company, or just plain you, the jobseeker, employee, or entrepreneur. The important thing to remember about these seven things is that you can plan for them. You can know before you start whether or not you have the resources and the will to get to the end. Most of the time, if you fail to become the best in the world, it’s either because you planned wrong or because you gave up before you reached your goal.

Even worse than quitting in the first six cases: not quitting. Settling. Sticking with it but not succeeding.

Is it possible that you’re just not good enough? That you (or your team) just don’t have enough talent to be the best in the world? Sure, it’s possible. In fact, if your chosen area is the cello, or speed skating, then I might even say it’s probable. But in just about every relevant area I can think of, no, it’s not likely. You are good enough. The question is, will you take the shortcut you need to get really good at this?

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/the_dip/2007/04/the_seven_reaso.html

------

Wow, may I never decide to quit, may I never accidentally quit. If I run out of time I will reset my clock. If I run out of money I will beg. If I get scared I will turn on the lights. If I am not serious about it then I will recast my vision. If I lose enthusiasm or interst I will try a new cuisine, possibly a cultural delicacy. If I focus on the short tem goal instead of the long term goal I will look up, if that short term gets too hard I will stop take a breath, a good drink of cold water then look up and go. If I pick then wrong thing because I am not talented I will surround myself with anyhing, everything, anyone and everyone that can help strengthen that talent. I WON'T QUIT, EVER!!!!

I am, I will be a speaker, advocate, lobbyist, activist for the God I believe in, not the Christianity that has been created through ideologies but through the mere understanding of his greatness.

Do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised' Hebrews 10:35-36.

God has created me to be who he wants me to be. What ever part of the world in space and time that he wants me to affect I must fulfill. I mut be confident in who God has made me to be. I can't throw that away. Just like in the 7 reasons we fail, without perseverance we are useless. God can't use me if I am not available to be used. If I quit I have limited God and his ability to use me in this place and time to affect my world. Perseverance is in a simplified definition; continued pursuit. Will I pursue God, will I pursue his passions, will I pursue his desires, will I chase his wants? Will I? I must, I have to, I must pursue everything he has for me but not just selfishly, I must pursue him as a living sacrifice. To take up my cross daily is to sacrifice it. God's promises are coming, they are on the way to interact with us in the intersection of finishing the race and doing it with confidence and not quitting. That is the life I want to live.

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Your (you are) Genius (Genie-in-us)

Every single person has in them what it takes to be something, to be someone.

You must take courage to find your genius, when you find your genius you will see that it comes out of your environment.
Have the courage to find your environment where you rub your magic lamp and your Genie-in-us comes out. God gave you the magic. What God gives never comes back in void. God is faithful in everything he says. He has equipped us to be something someday. Our soul for being, our heartbeat for existence is not to settle with mediocrity or to simply be comfortable. Once we know our environment we can begin to take it over. We will simply begin to master it and learn its features. When we know our environment well then we begin to over come it. Michael Jordan was a beautiful genius in his environment. He was the magic to the Chicago Bulls. He was the best person to ever touch the court. Because of his ability and agility to overcome his environment, his courage gave him the MVP and the title of the best player ever.

The saddest thing is that we limit ourselves so much by not believing in ourselves. We hold back our full potential. Maybe somebody one day, one time came down on you or told you that you didn't amount to what you were up against and that took everything you thought you were and it was crushed. You never picked up the pieces and put them together. You stayed there, became stalemate and let the environment overgrow you. IF we don't master our environment the environment begins to take over. I have never in my life seen a garden keep itself weed free, I have never seen a clean house stay clean, or let alone a bedroom. Nature goes bad, our courage to overcome yields its control. We need to step up, take courage and be strong to fight for control over our environment. Then we can be the genius that has been in us the whole time. Our untapped magic is there in everyone, when we see people that are a genius over their environment we think they are a miracle, a perfect package. It is not a miracle, it was one who showed courage over their environment, then the magic comes out and we become a genius.

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