text:
Book 1: The Dawn of Civilization
Book 2: Knocking on Heaven's Door
Book 3: Bark at the Moon
Book 4: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Book 5: The Sunset of our Glory
Book 6: Life During Wartime
Book 7: Princes of the Universe
Book 8: Dust in the Wind
Book 9: Welcome to the Machine
Book 10: Symphony of Destruction
Book 11: A Wolf at the Door
Book 12: Total Eclipse of the Heart
Book 13: Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Book 14: Death Is Not The End
Book 15: Hell Below Me, Stars Above
You Cannot Deny Me
A Brooch Amongst The Blossoms
You Could Have Mentioned That You Eat People
Memory of a Kiss
You Are Not Supposed To Be Here
In A Big Country
You Can Be Angry
Markuran the Raven
Dreams Stay With You
Easy Problems Are Boring
War Need Not Be For Conquest
A Good Visitor Brings Gifts
I Won't Burn The Place Down
NOTHING HAPPENED
And Yet I Still Dream
It Is Not Me You Gave Up
It's Better To Start Small
An Experimental Procedure
You Also Built It In The Wrong Place
A Long-Awaited Spring
You Should Not Be So Afraid
Would A Few More Hobbies KILL You People?
Talk Of Your Assassination
A House In The Mountains
A Visit From The Maids
Change Is Not Always A Bad Thing
I Suggest A Tree
I Know That It's Coming
It Might Be Funny
The People We Were
What A True Circle Requires
Dance Without Moving
A Trip to the Caves
A Basic Text
I Work For Myself
Let's Build Us A Treehouse
I Was A Warrior, Once
Before I Outstay My Welcome
I Am No Great Leader
There Will Always Be More To Learn
That Doesn't Qualify As A Date
Where Is That Stupid Chart?
A Portrait of the World
Let Us Make You Perfect
I Am Here On Doctor's Orders
Touch of the Emblem
Losing Your Soul
Very Soon, My Friend
This Is What It Looks Like
Tales Make the Hero
Never Good At Reading People
A Matter of Intelligence
But Aren't They... Babies?
Almost As Beautiful As You
Still The Sun's Children
Book 15, Chapter 31
Maybe a Winter Palace
The Maw of Nine Dark Truths
Innocence Found
The Weight of Tremendous Glories
Never One To Shy From Excessiveness
I Could Do With a Night Off
The Mask of Summers
A Handful of Silver
The Finest Kind
Then Who Am I?
My Heart is Stupid
A Circle Is A Family
You Were A Marvel of Self-Control
And Some For Fancy Dress
Time Will Ease The Wound
The Crux of the Matter
Mud on the Carpet
My Better Interests Have Yet To Manifest
A Long-Awaited Tea
Your Badges or Your Balls
I Thought You Would Be Taller
Time To End This
The Truth Would Have Been Better
The Midnight Walk
Varanim the Hugbringer
The Light of the Green Sun
We Don't Need Another Hero
An Exquisitely Helpful Note
A Ship and a Banner
Widely, Though Gently, Delusional
His or Her Portfolio
I Do Have A Very Pretty Mask
A Doctor's Picnic
Tomb Raiding Again
The Perfect Crime
We Shall Be Doing Pushups
You Are Real After All
The Gift of our Promise
For A Sun To Love A Star
The Sidereal Infantry
Innocence Unchained
For Once I Wish I Was Thirteen
Gaze Into The Void
To Mugadesh
Dead is Dead
I Am Looking For Something
A Great Deal of Strategic Information
Impact: Assault on Solaria
Impact: Sunspot Bazaar
Impact: Outskirts Mansion
Impact: Blight of Aeons
Impact: Northern Hospital
I Try Not To Disappoint
As Elaborate As You Wish
Impact: Glorious Evening Sun Citadel
Impact: Thrice Entombed Self
Impact: Aurora District
Book 16: Things We Lost In The Fire
Book 17: Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos
Book Alpha: One World, One Vision
Book Beta: To The Ends of the World
Book Gamma: On The Thin Ice of the New Day
Lurkers' Guide
In-Character Documents
ClueWiki
XP Totals
GeminiSkin
STATIC COPY
< Dance Without Moving | Sol Invictus Logs | A Basic Text >
Summary: Lucent and Zahara visit a watery cave and discuss matters of the heart.
XP:L1, Z1
Lucent waits Zahara in the caves beneath the Cascade, the water lapping at the earth around him.
zahara wanders down into the caves below, looking for Lucent. "Ah, there you are."
Lucent "Yes. I always came here to think. The calmest place on all of the Cascade, you know." He crouches, touching the water. "Sometimes, it is a good thing to know where the roots of all that basks in the Sun lies. Do you remember, the last time you found me here?"
zahara kneels on the edge of the water next to him. "How could I forget?"
Lucent "Seems like an eternity now. Before the Eclipse, before I could say the truth..."
zahara "It has been that... an eternity and more."
Lucent "Oh yes." He sighs, thinking... "Simpler times, as well. When it was just us. Now, we are generals of all Creation... it is a strange thing. Especially being so alone, just us. So many Dragons and Lunars shared our burden in the Golden Age, you know."
zahara "I wish I did know. " She shifts and dangles her feet into the dark waters.
Lucent "You could try to remember." He does the same, letting his feet soak in the water. "There are some techniques for it. Meditations that would open your mind to your past self... you could see more accurately what Talmuda went through, and his former lives. Although I am told that remembering life as a different gender is... disconcerting."
zahara stares into the water, contemplating that, then hakes her head. "I remember some. I'm not sure that remembering the rest will provide any peace of mind."
Lucent grimaces, realising that looking at Cerin and seeing her killer... would not help. "I intend to talk with Nesula. I have something in mind for the children's Circle to do... if you approve of it. We have been extremely busy, with even more goals in front of us... and there is one important goal that will consume more time than we currently have; I want to delegate that to the children."
zahara "Oh?" She looks over at him curiously, "What is that?"
Lucent "You heard about the vision Ember had of the Sun, right? Where he revealed to Ember the location of all Solars that he could perceive, including the Abyssal Exalted and, apparently, the Lily?"
zahara "Hmmm, yes."
Lucent "There was a vision of Solars, true Solars, in the North. We know of none there. We should investigate this... but we have no time to search in such a wide area. And if those Solars are villains, the scouts need to be of equivalent power to even manage to get away and relay that to us. Hence..."
zahara leans back on her hands, thoughtfully. The water splashes about her feet. "I see. Hmm yes, if they are amenable they would probably appreciate the chance to go out and do something important. Nothing worse than being corralled up with nothing to appease your burning desire to prove yourself. Oh," she adds. "Don't call them children, I think they may take exception to that."
Lucent laughs! "Oh, I am sure. Although I might..." He grins, then gets up and begins taking the first layers of his clothing off, for apparently no reason, "It might make them work harder, to prove me wrong." He winks
zahara raises a brow at his sudden undressing, "Going for a dip?"
Lucent smiles, letting a golden shirt fall over the white jacket. "Yes! You coming?"
zahara considers this, from a few angles before shrugging and stepping out of her dress, leaving it folded neatly on the floor next to Lucent's growing sloppy pile. "I'm fairly certain that all the man-eating sorts have cleared out since the River God left." She stretches a little, the light catching on the extensive golden swirls that cover her body and the two pieces that stay on - the gold-leaf collar, and the chastity belt.
Lucent controls the Coronal, the first piece that had fallen to the floor, to form a stair for them. Serenity, Battles and finally Journey, three steps! He had undressed down to his underwear, perfect bronze body mostly visible to the world... leaving only Alveua's amulet on, shining gold and onyx over his chest.
Lucent Underwear of most golden variety, leaving littl to the imagination. "Ladies first!"
zahara steps gracefully down the thoughtful stairway into the rather murky depths of the underground river, slipping underwater completely
Lucent has the stair RISE... so it is a fair degree above it! He runs cheerfully up, jumping down from the journeys symbol and falling in the water close to Zahara, almost without a splash! "Ooh! So cold."
zahara laughs, ducking away from him. "Showoff!"
Lucent rises, laughing! "So, with the judges indecisive, how does the Empress of the Sunlands rate my jump?" He laughs... and then notices something golden slipping away, catching the Gold-and-Onyx collar before it strayed too far with a hint of desperation.
zahara "Oh," she says loftily, "It was only about an 8. I didn't see a triple flip in there..." She watches his reaction with concern, and then reaches over to him, "Here, give it to me for a second."
Lucent pulls back for a moment, a little defensive... then he softens, giving it to her tentatively. "Careful there, please..."
zahara "Thank you," she says quietly, then holds the pendant up to spin in the light. "Love is a precious thing." She runs her fingers along the chain, mending it; strengthening it. "Come here." But without waiting for him to come, she swims around behind him, lifts the chain around his neck, and fastens it securely.
Lucent "Yes." He nods. "Very precious. Even when lost... and found." He touches his pendant, an earnest, satisfied smile upon his lips. "Zahara... thank you." He turns around, so she can see it over his shoulder, "You... used to be wary of it. Not anymore?"
zahara "Things change," she says simply. "I'm not entirely sure I know why myself."
Lucent swims around, so he can look at her face. Around them, light from the river shines on his face, on hers', on the walls to form strange patterns. Lucent makes a decision, after taking a deep breath. "Would you let her into you? If only for a short time?"
zahara gets a complicated expression on her face that could perhaps be approximated by the phrase 'wait, WHAT?'
Lucent laughs! "Nothing like THAT!" He giggles, "See, I need her to craft something. I think she can still do that if she has a suitable medium... and you ARE the best artisan in the whole wide world!" He nods. "... and also, you are well-warded to stop misunderstandings."
zahara swims backwards a short way, and studies his face, to see if he's serious. Deciding that he is, indeed serious, she mulls the possibility over in her head. Dangerous? Yes. Possibility of losing her soul? Yes. Ironic? Also Yes. She laughs, a harsh edge to it and her eyes glitter. "I'll do it."
Lucent smiles wide! "Perfect!" He calls out, swimming about happilly! "Race you to the other side?"
zahara Without bothering to answer first, she ducks under the water, pushing off the bottom of the river for momentum, and kicks off for the other side
Lucent spreads his arms to either side to swim, moving up and down like a wave towards the other side... and getting there at the same time as Zahara does! A grin, a flashing dare, and then he kicks the cave's walls to begin a race BACK!
zahara wasn't expecting the way back, but dives after him gamely after a spluttered shout of indignation. "Jerk!"
Lucent begins to laugh, losing a little momentum that gets them on the same footing again, as they reach the Cascade's margin, tied again and laughing! "Wow... haha... I never realised you are so FIT, Empress!"
zahara gives him a good splash, "There's a lot you don't know about me, mister!"
Lucent splashes back! "Hahaha! Me? No, I know EVERYTHING!"
Varanim ambles in, whistling and starting to reach into her bag for something... and then stops. She blinks.
Varanim "Well, isn't that something."
zahara is startled by Varanim mid-splash, turning what was a rather beautiful sculped wave of precision into a sloppy skittering of her hand across the water.
zahara "Well," she recovers, "Did you know SHE was going to show up?"
Lucent stops laughing... and looks up at Varanim, startled! "Had NO idea. You did not call her?"
zahara shrugs, treading water and tips her head to one side, "Nope. But hello Varanim, did you come down for a swim?"
Varanim After a long appraising glance, Varanim smirks and says "Carry on!" Then she turns on her heel and wanders off in search of safer sunless caverns.
Lucent gets up from the water to a nearby rock, glistening wet and shining the way he could never manage not to... "Hey, wait! Come back! It IS fun!"
Varanim looks back, possibly to fire off a smart answer. She catches Lucent's exit and stumbles a bit, throws up her hands, and keeps walking.
Lucent frowns as she vanishes, slumping on the rock. "What is it with HER?"
zahara takes the opportunity to admire the beacon of the sun's truth, pulling herself partway out of the water to lean on her elbows speculatively. "Hmmm. That's an excellent question."
Lucent "She is always so angry at me. And never listens to a word I say. And when I try to make things lighter, like this... well, you saw it. She just runs away." He sighs deeply. "It's like she is only comfortable when we fight."
zahara "Ah, well, you do have that whole 'descent into evil' thing we spoke of before," she says distractedly. "Sometimes it takes more trust to show happiness than anything else."
Lucent "Yes, but... I want to prevent that. To save her!" He speaks with conviction, watching Zahara now. There is a moment of lounging as he admires her tattoos, as the right way of things - golden.
zahara flicks her wet hair over her shoulders, the tips darkened with the weight of the water. "You can't make her mistakes for her, Luc. You can't save someone who's not walking down the wrong path. Don't make it a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Lucent "But it is Necromancy. It IS evil." He lets his feet touch the water again, sliding down bit by bit. "And you saw how she did everything that... that Doctor did? He cut her arm and she was still a puppy for him!"
zahara "Is it? Is it not just another tool to use in our fight? She has not called up armies of ghosts or undead. It draws from a different source, yes, but perhaps she will use Necromancy in the way of Pluto." She grimaces and adds, "That jerk." Then she turns around against the side so she's propped up on her elbows, facing across the river, letting the waters flow over her. "And speaking of jerks, the Doctor may be an Abyssal, but t
zahara "And speaking of jerks, the Doctor may be an Abyssal, but the arm he cut off and replaced with a perfectly functional - if creepy - one, was going to kill her if it had stayed attached."
Lucent "It... was?" The Zenith looks positively shocked. Horrified, even. "You mean he... saved her?"
Lucent "That an... Abyssal did?"
zahara "Life works in mysterious ways." She smiles, possibly more than she should be.
Lucent slids down the rock and into the water, vanishing, as if he had just locked himself up somewhere to consider that. The surface above the point he disappeared on bubbles.
zahara waits to see if he comes up, curious.
Lucent splashes up, still looking... disjointed. "I. Um." a finger rises from the water to say something, then lowers. "Something is not RIGHT, here. So. Pluto! Necromancy. Um. You know. Ah." He quiets.
zahara "Right." She smiles again, and this time it is a little sympathetic. "Ah, I think it's time for a drink around the fire."
Lucent looks more than happy to speak of something else! "Well, we have no drinks. And no fire!"
zahara pulls herself out of the water and reaches out a hand for Lucent. "Don't worry, I can fix that."
Lucent takes a moment to admire the light playing on her tattoos, then smiles and lets her help him up, impressed again with how strong she is. "Ooh? The great goddess, giving poor humanity the mighty gift of fire?"
zahara grins, a wicked glint in her eye as she notes where his eyes stray. "Indeed, for cannot only a goddess create something out of nothing?" She demonstrates, carving a series of strong, dry pieces of wood from the air and laying them neatly in a pattern that mirrors one of the Cascade's shifting patterns, "And cannot only a goddess call upon fire?" (...)
zahara She lays her hands upon the structure she created, concentrating on her connection with the manse. The Essence runs through her body, the tattoos glittering with their own light, and she focuses the energy onto a pinpoint in the wood. She does not command the element itself, but the sheer amount of Essence is enough to cause the wood to burst into gold-orange flames.
Lucent "Beautiful..." he whispers, at that sight, smiling in wonder and sitting by the fire. "You know, I never realised that Cerin really IS the one with the key." He grins at her chastity belt, so evidenced by being the opaque part in all the lights around her form.
zahara She presses her fingers into the wall, passing through it as if it were liquid, and pulls a chunk of it out, which she quickly fashions into two goblets, offering them to Lucent. She chuckles at his comment, then replies, "Oh yes. Him and no other." Though one cannot help but admire. She follows the thought with a liquid cascade of sunlit ale which glows softly in the stone goblets.
Lucent And admire he did, as well, picking the goblet and taking a drink. "Hmmmm. They taste even sweeter as Lucent. Or maybe it is because cannabis dulled the taste last time." He chuckles. "I like the hair, as well. A gift from Riordan?"
zahara "Yes, blonde seemed terribly dull. Riordan is quite sweet for a soul-devouring monster from beyond the edges of the world, really."
Lucent "It fits you." He lets the goblet rest at his side, soaking in the warmth of the flame. "They are like Nibbles, in a sense. Tigers who will devour you... and have to devour other beings to live... but at the same time, beautiful creatures, who can give much wonder to the world."
zahara curls her legs beneath her, sitting across from him and sipping her ale thoughtfully as she stares into the flickering light. "Like tigers. Like fire. Like us."
Lucent "Like us." He sighs. "Why must she make everything so difficult, Zee?"
zahara half-smiles. "She is a woman."
Page last modified on February 08, 2009, at 01:47 AM
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What Motivates Our Brain with Phil Dixon and Aligning The Conscious And Subconscious with Vince Poscente
Our brain is a very complex and dynamic thing that needs to be explored in order for us to learn more about ourselves. Phil Dixon's work focuses on understanding the motivations and different factors associated with the brain. He is the CEO and founder of the Oxford Brain Institute and is one of the first employees at Apple. Phil lets us in on his research about the brain, discussing models on how we can understand it.
There are just some days where we find ourselves conflicted within. We want to say yes but something inside is holding us back. This is the conscious and subconscious fighting each other within us. Vince Poscente is a Hall of Fame speaker and New York Times bestselling author. He provides his valuable wisdom about the subconscious and the conscious mind and explores the possibilities we can achieve if we can align our conscious and subconscious agendas.
We have Phil Dixon and Vince Poscente. Phil is the CEO and Founder of the Oxford Brain Institute. He does some amazing research and works with understanding motivations and different factors associated with the brain. He is one of the first employees at Apple. He's worked with all the top companies. Vince is a Hall of Fame Speaker, New York Times bestselling author. He also deals with the subconscious and the conscious mind and some of the same factors that impact motivation. This show is fascinating for anybody interested in motivation and having fun. Vince should have been a comedian. No wonder he's such a great speaker at the Hall of Fame. He's made it for the US and for Canada.
What Motivates Our Brain with Phil Dixon
I am here with Phil Dixon who is the Co-Founder and CEO at the Oxford Brain Institute. Phil is focused on applying the latest knowledge from the field of integrative neuroscience in the areas of leadership development and organizational and cultural change. He has a diverse background. Everything seems to be around brain-related things. He's worked with Apple. The list of brain-related companies is staggering. His book is titled Safety: Using Your Brain for A Change. Welcome to the show, Phil.
Thanks. It's great to be here.
I'm fascinated by brain research in general and I do some of that research as well but not anywhere near the level of what you're dealing with. What got you interested in the brain in the first place?
It started off in the in the field of information technology more years ago that I can't remember. I did a sideways leap from running an information technology department into leadership development. I had always been used as the guinea pig and so I took over leadership development. I did that many years ago. As I was getting more and more involved in the field, I got more and more frustrated. It seemed like in spite of all the papers that were being produced, all the books that were being written and all the programs that were being run, we didn't seem to be producing any better leaders. That's an overstatement but in general, we weren't moving the profession forward. What was underneath all these things that we were expecting leaders to do? I came up with a working title for myself I called the Leadership Genome. I kept looking and looking and I couldn't find it. About several years ago, I was lucky enough to do a master's degree at Oxford my school in Paris Jouy-en-Josas. In that master's degree, we were exposed to the neuroscience of the brain. I realized that that's what I've been looking for all these years. If we can understand what's going on in the brain, at least the processes of the brain, etc. It doesn't have to be the deep physiology. If we can understand the processes of the brain, then maybe we could help leaders become better leaders. That's how I got involved.
I don't know if you've worked in terms of as a consultant or whatever. It says you've worked for NASA, Coca-Cola, BP, Google, Apple and Twitter. In what capacity?
Mainly as a consultant. At various points in time, I was doing leadership development for these people. Over the last several years it's all been the brain-based focus. Prior to that, it was leadership development in the same way that many other people are doing it. I chose to flip into the brain. The modern parlance is I pivoted into the brain.
The best excuse in the world that you could think from now on is this - it's not you; it's your brain. Click To Tweet
You have a peer-reviewed article in the NeuroLeadership Journal. I've seen a lot of the background of what you've done. I was watching some of your videos and you talk about Brainful Leadership. I was looking at the one where you were talking about the 1-2-4 Model and Brainful Leadership Assessment. Did you create an assessment? Can you tell me a little about that?
There's a lot of movement in the organizations in our profession to what's mindfulness. An ex-colleague of mine, Dr. Evian Gordon and I said, "How can you have mindfulness when we don't understand what the mind is?" so we coined the term Brainfulness. That didn't last long because what people heard was painfulness. That was not good, so we put that to one side. Dr. Gordon had invented the 1-2-4 Model, which is a simple model of understanding how the brain works. Is that there's one organizing principle of the brain which is to survive and help you survive. It does so by looking for threats and rewards. If it's threatened then she runs away, if it rewards it feels good. There are two ways it does that, it's consciously and non-consciously. There are four processes that go on which is recognizing what's happening around it, having supports, having some feelings and then deciding what to do is self-regulation. That's the model in 30 seconds. If you look at what people are people threatened by and what are they rewarded by? We've created an assessment which helps people understand what is inside the categories of what it is that frightens them and what rewards them.
I created the Curiosity Code Index and the four factors that inhibit curiosity are fear, assumptions, technology and environment. Under fear, you're talking about things that threaten people that totally goes along with what I'm interested in knowing is what are those things?
The main thing we're looking for is to feel safe. We want to feel safe in a whole number of arenas. When I say we want to feel safe, we want to feel protected. That's the first thing. You want to feel physically safe. We want to feel emotionally safe. We want to be treated fairly. We could expand upon that. It's about twenty facets under that. I call it protection. We want to feel protected. We're social animals. We want to be with other people. We want to participate but we want to participate under a certain set of conditions. We want to feel we are part of a group. We want to be with people that we like and are like us. We want to be part of a group, but we want to differentiate ourselves from the group as well. There's a whole set of things there that we want and if those things are frightened then we react.
John Medina had a wonderful book called Brain Rules. He says, "The brain is a prediction machine. It predicts problems about survival," and then he goes on to some other things as well. The third part of what we want is a prediction. We want to know what's going to happen. We want some consistency. We want to be able to understand what's going on around us. We want to be treated in a consistent fashion. We want our own thoughts to be consistent. All of that is around our need to protect. We got protection, participation and prediction. Once those are satisfied, then we can look for what I call purpose and pleasure, which is why we are on the planet, what are we trying to do with ourselves and our lives and then how do we gain pleasure out of it? Those are the five things and they break down into about 100 subcategories, but those are the five big categories.
Prediction plays into what I'm finding of what threatens people because they're predicting that things are going to happen the way they happened in the past, in the way. If they were negative things that happened, that's going to cause them to not want to be curious about something. They're not going to ask questions, for example, in a meeting because they know there are going to be shut down. They don't want to look embarrassed. They don't want to have something that has happened to them in the past. Do you deal with those kinds of things when you work with these companies when you're talking about the different Brain-based Leadership training?
Conscious And Subconscious: How can you have mindfulness when you don't understand what the mind is in the first place.
We've got 39 different categories or I call them facets that have been identified that will likely to trigger you one way or another. Picking up on that I might not say something in a meeting because of the fear I have of being ridiculed, embarrassed. If I'm ridiculed, I'm embarrassed, I'm threatened, etc. I might feel less than and therefore my participation in the group is going to be threatened as well. Any one event that can occur can trigger your thoughts with multiple threats. We could take lots of examples. Not only do we want to sit back and protect ourselves, but we also want to show that we're smart. We want to be right. We want to differentiate ourselves from the group. There are many aspects of it. Any one event can trigger a threat state in lots of different ways.
Those are the things that I research in. As I was writing my book, I started to think there are books about curiosity. There are books about finding your why. All the things out there drive. What I wanted to do in addition to discussing the importance of curiosity, to developing engagement and innovation and all the things that they're trying to do in the workplace now is how do you overcome this. You've had this bad experience in the past. Somebody shut you down in a meeting. You fear rejection, humiliation, whatever it is you fear again. How do we get this to not happen again and get people feeling safe again? If leaders don't buy in, how do we get the individual-level people to feel safe in that environment? Can it come from the bottom-up? Do we have to have the leaders buy into this?
I'd like to think that we can do it from the bottom-up, but I'm not sure my experience supports that. Leaders by virtue of the fact that they're a leader tend to create a culture, a company and in some case, a country in their own image. If that culture is not safe, then many other things won't occur. The culture has got to be created in some way that people start to feel safe. There was a magnificent piece of work done out of Google a few years ago where they found that the single most important component of successful teams was psychological safety. It was written up by Charles Dewey in the New York Times. In some ways, it encapsulates everything we're trying to do. If we don't feel psychologically safe, we're not going to be curious to go down your track. We're going to be threatened to go down my track.
How do we make them feel psychologically safe as leaders?
One of the ways is awareness. I believe the first step is making people aware. When I'm teaching some of my classes or doing some lectures, I'm going to give people the best excuse in the world from now on. It's not you, it's your brain.
My book was titled It's Not You It's Your Personality so you have to know I like that.
Commitment is a process. You have to step in and consistently step forward. Click To Tweet
What I found is a spinoff of that is that we are after people laugh. It gives them an excuse to look at the brain as though it's a third party. They can become a little bit taxed on what's going on and, "That's a perfectly natural part of my brain. It's not that I'm wrong. There's nothing bad with me. It's perfectly natural and this is what's going on. It's a whole bunch of neurochemical reactions." It takes the emotion out of being threatened.
You can distance yourself, you're saying. You can look at it.
That's an even better way of putting it.
It all ties into emotions. I'm glad you brought that up since I'm interested in studying emotional intelligence. When I started to write my dissertation on it, I hadn't known anything about it. I thought, "This is an interesting subject. I'm going to go this way." All these years later it's still huge. Do you think that we're getting to be more emotionally intelligent as a workplace? Has all this training and all this information made a difference?
I would love to say yes but my fear is that we haven't made a lot of difference yet. It's becoming more accepted in the workplace to talk about emotions. I don't think we've done a good job in describing what happens. The difference between emotional decisions, non-emotional decisions, rational, irrational, conscious, non-conscious, we need to look at all those buckets before we'll have a significant impact. We need leaders to show the way. One of the things about creating psychological safety is for the leader to exhibit some vulnerability. Exhibit some transparency in what they're doing especially more in the world. Bob Johansen calls it the VUCA World that we're facing. VUCA World stands for volatility, uncertainty, chaos and ambiguity. He talks about in his books. He talks much more about what it's going to be in the future when we have more of those four dynamics going on. If you look at the impact of those four dynamics and I suspect curiosity but also on the functioning of the brain. They will all join together to put the brain into a threat state, which the brain does not like any of those four.
Is it the same for all generations? When you talk about the brain, did you find any differences in the vulnerability or the younger generations' ability to speak up or any of the issues that we're talking about now? Have you seen any generational differences?
Conscious And Subconscious: If we don't feel psychologically safe, then we're not going to be curious to go down the track.
There are. I haven't specifically studied what's going on with any of the younger generations. If I was to project, my guess is that participation for the younger generation, for example, is probably a lot less face-to-face and with a physical presence. It is getting to know somebody online. I feel like I'm participating. I feel like I'm in a group with them, although I may never have physically met them. I suspect that might be a big change that's happened in the last many years or so.
Did you work at Apple? You were at Apple University.
I worked at Apple for nine years from 1980 to 1989. I was in the IT department for several years. I transferred a few years into leadership development in Apple University.
I had John Couch on the show and who was one of the original Apple employees. It was interesting to me what they're doing at Apple University. You've been involved in all these different university training types of programs. You had another brain-based University of the Brain that you co-founded.
It's many of the same things. University of the Brain sounded like a good idea at the time. When I got contacted by other universities saying, "Are you going to offer a degree?" I said, "No, I'm not," and then they said, "You can't call yourself a university." That's where it evolved into several other names. That's where it's ended up at the Oxford Brain Institute because that's where I live.
Do you do the same thing at the University of the Brain that you do now at Oxford Brain Institute or is it just in a different name? I'm thinking, "These are a lot of cool names for all these different things that you've done." Now that you've found all this research on neuroscience and everything from peer-reviewed journals to teaching all the things that you've done. What's the most interesting thing to you that you found about the brain in terms of leadership that's maybe most surprising or wormhole you'd like to go down even further?
Confidence has a direct line with the outcomes. Click To Tweet
I'm not going down any wormholes until I've published my book in a few months. I'm staying above ground until that.
I would love to know about your book.
The working title of the book is called Using Your Brain For Change. It's going to be in two parts. The first one is about the brain's constant struggle inside itself and the second part is going to be what I call a field guide to using your brain. I'm most fascinated with what drives people from a non-conscious aspect. We're also driven by our non-conscious. Lots of books have been written about that over the last few years. In general, we get eleven million bits of information land on our brain every second. Out of that eleven million, we process 40 in a conscious fashion. The other 10,999,960 are processed in a non-conscious fashion. That includes a lot of the ways we respond, a lot of our irrational behavior, a lot of our bias behavior. It's going on at a non-conscious level. That's probably the thing that most intrigues me at the moment. How we think we've got a lot of control about what's going on but many of the things we do, many of the decisions are completely non-conscious.
If you responded on a conscious level, what would be the difference? Does it have to be at a conscious level? Is that a problem that we're not responding in a conscious level?
In many cases, it's not a problem because the brain has hardwired our responses, so we don't have to think about it all the time. Somebody calculated if we had to think about everything all the time and make decisions on all of those eleven million bits of data, our brain would last about two hours before it exploded. I don't know how he reached that conclusion, but a lot of it is the efficiency of the brain. We don't have to logically and consciously think about everything. It's necessary. For example, let's say you run a wine shop and you've got an extra amount of French wine. If you play French music, you'll sell more French wine, likewise with German wine and things like that. They've done research on giving tips in restaurants. If we left a little mint on the plate afterward, we non-consciously think that we should give something back. It increases the tip we give back. There are volumes and volumes of books being written on what we do non-consciously. We make non-conscious decisions on whether or not we thought about it. We would make the same decisions or slightly different. For example, all the work that Kahneman and Tversky did was how we often behave irrationally at a non-conscious level. One way it's very good, it makes the brain efficient. On the other hand, it can lead us to make some decisions not necessarily in our own best interests.
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School
If we want to get people to be more curious for example, we want to eliminate some of the fear, some of the issues in their environment. Maybe their boss, maybe situations have made them not open to other opportunities because they haven't asked questions. They haven't felt safe or they thought something was boring, they didn't find interesting. Maybe it's something they'd like. How do we open up that dialogue with leaders to make sure that they are getting the most out of their employees?
Awareness is the first step. We're on to something; you down the curiosity track, me, down the brain track. We'd probably find there's a huge degree of overlap between the two. I have found is that when I speak to leaders about the brain, even the most curmudgeonly engineering-oriented leaders are intrigued when we can put the science of the brain there and say, "This isn't soft and fluffy stuff. This is as deep as science as we can get at the moment." I find that they pay attention. It'd be a good thing if we did this and it now gets some resonance and some stickiness.
I'd like to see action plans and strategies built around this. Some of the times we see so much research that says, "This is bad. We shouldn't be doing that," or "This is good and we should be doing that." People move on and then they don't go to the next step. That's what I'm trying to get to is that next step. Now that we know this is important, I agree with everything you're saying. There's a lot of research behind all of this that we've got to go beyond that. Just knowing something is important isn't enough. It's fascinating the work you're doing with all this neuro-based leadership training. That's what we have to do to get to the next level of innovation because you have to ask questions to be innovative. If you're not asking questions because of fear or some other factor and within the workplace, there are going to be a lot of people displaced by artificial intelligence and everything else that's changing jobs. Are you doing any work with artificial intelligence at all?
A little. It so happens that I'm actively involved with a company that is utilizing artificial intelligence for robotic process automation. I've been exposed to that in 2017 particularly.
I love the name of your book if you go with that name Using Your Brain for A Change. There are many people that could benefit from learning more about how our brains impact leadership. Your information is helpful and you've named some good books. I hope people take some time to look at some of those books as well. Do you have a website that people could find out more about what you're doing?
I don't have a website. It's under reconstruction. My focus has been getting the book written and then gets the website done. I can happily give you my email address if anybody wants to contact me they're welcome. It's PhilDixon1@Mac.com.
I'm sure there are many people that would be interested. The companies with which you've worked, the list is a who's who of who we'd want to work with. It's fascinating to have you on the show. Thank you so much, Phil.
The confluence of information coming at us with so much speed has created so much dysfunction in our world today. Click To Tweet
It's been great.
Aligning The Conscious And Subconscious with Vince Poscente
I am with Vince Poscente who is rated by Meeting Professionals as the Top Ten Motivational Speaker. He is a New York Times bestselling author who wrote the international phenomenon The Ant and the Elephant: Leadership For the Self. He's an Olympian, could be a comedian and he has a lot of energy and personality. It's nice to have you here, Vince.
Thank you. I appreciate it. It's good to be with you.
You're obviously an entertaining speaker. I want to know how you got to this level of success. Can you give a little background?
You mentioned that I was an Olympian. A bit of that story is I didn't start ski racing until I was 26 years old and ended up being in the gold medal round at the Olympic Games a few years later. A few years after my 26th birthday to be in the Olympic Games involved a specific strategy. While I was racing, I thought, "I was ranked tenth in the world after a couple of years. I've put together a specific mental training program to work well. I could win this thing," and then I didn't. Here I was placed fifteenth in the Olympic Games. I lost. There was no demand for my speaking business but many months after the Olympics, their speaker canceled. On the last minute, they said, "Would you come and speak to our group of 90 networking people?" Four people independently came up after and said, "You've got to do this for a living."
It's Not You It's Your Personality: Skills to Survive and Thrive in the Modern Workplace
If somebody said, "You got to see this movie," you'd go, "Yes," but if four people independently say, "You've got to see this movie," you would go, "What is it about? What do I have to see?" I paid attention and then grew my business. It was very much a standing start. There was no momentum at the beginning because I was in the Olympics. There are a lot of gold medalists getting their phone ringing off the hook saying, "Would you speak to us?" but to be in demand to have that referral network where people say, "Would you speak to our group?" that came from improving as a speaker. Much the same way I did it as an athlete.
You did it because you're only one of four people on the planet to be inducted into the USA and Canadian Speaker Hall of Fame. That's saying something. You're a New York Times bestselling author of seven books too. You're a busy guy. What was the most difficult book for you to write off all of those?
Always the most recent one, they're horrible. I've never given birth obviously. The gestation period in a book gets more and more difficult each time. I'm working on one right now. I won't tell you the title but it's a sequel to The Ant and the Elephant which is a parable about the conscious and subconscious mind. I'm working on that right now. They're all like your kids. You get out there and you can't pick a favorite.
I found what you were talking about the ant walking one direction and then the elephant walking the other. Can you share that a little bit because I liked the subconscious versus conscious discussion you had with that?
I went to a presentation by a guy named Dr. Lee Pulos. You know when you're sitting there and then light bulbs go off? This guy said, "In a second of time, your conscious mind is processing with 2,000 neurons." Right now, you're listening to what I have to say. You lead by saying, "I'm very funny and I haven't been funny," and all sorts of things you're thinking of consciously with 2,000 neurons every second. In the same second, the subconscious mind is processing with four billion neurons. The ratio between the conscious and subconscious mind when Pulo said is if you took a golf ball and put it on top of the Houston Astrodome. That would be the ratio of the conscious and subconscious mind. Mathematically, I took that down to what if you put an ant on the back of an elephant? There's a more alliteration with that, it's a stickier concept. I put that in my first book, that concept, about how we can have a conscious intention. You can consciously say, "I want to go on a diet," but the subconscious mind might say, "No way, pal. Not without beer or pizza, I'm not." It might have all these reasons why not that are unconscious.
Consciously, in the parable in the book, the ant says, "I want to go west," but it's on the back of the elephant. It doesn't see the elephant. If you're an ant on the back of the elephant, you're not seeing an elephant. You see just a gray landscape. It's the same deal with our subconscious mind. We can't possibly comprehend the power, the immense direction and agenda of the subconscious mind. In the same breath, what if we had alignment between your conscious intention and your subconscious agenda? The book, The Ant and the Elephant, is about creating the alignment of where you want to go with your life first. Where is it that you want to go? Identify that with what I call the elephant buzz, that thought that creates a physical reaction and then being able to get your subconscious mind to step in line. There is a technique and that's how I got to the Olympics in speed skiing. I end up skiing 135 miles an hour not because I wanted to, but I wanted to go to the Olympic Games. That emotional buzz, the elephant buzz of marching in the opening ceremonies. First you identify it, which I did and then I went, "How are we going to get there?" Aligning your ant and elephant is critical and then it gets easier. What if life got easier?
You said, "Where you want to go?" but a lot of where we want to go is impacted by our environment of what people have told us we should do or what we thought was boring, maybe we wouldn't find boring. It's impacted by our teachers when we're in school or friends. How do you get over that to open up your mind to be more curious and successful?
Without experience, we don't have the confidence. Click To Tweet
I split it into five C's and let me go through this real quick because that will answer your question in the broadest sense. When you clarify where you want to go with that emotional buzz, you're then going towards the second C which is commitment. Stepping towards something, you can be held back by all sorts of things that you are scared of, childhood wounds, limiting beliefs or all those subconscious things that exist. The commitment is less about a moment. Every Saturday, couples walk down the aisle and commit. That's a moment in time. Commitment is a process. You have to step in and consistently step forward. Another way to put it, I call it the Mathematics of Opportunity. You go into a hallway where you are in your life and you see a door. Open the door and then look for another door. Open that door. Stay curious and that feeds into the process of commitment. The third C is consistency and then you're in this process of consistency where you're consistently executing. While I was racing, the philosophy was to do what the competition is not willing to do.
If you want to know what your competition is not willing to do, it's typically those are the things you're not willing to do either. To look in the self-honesty mirror and say, "What are the things that the top, the highest performers are not willing to do?" I say the highest performers because this is back to the Olympic story. In order to qualify for the Olympic team, you have to be ranked top sixteen in the world or higher, at least where I'm from in Canada or the United States for that matter. What are those top sixteen guys in the world not willing to do? It changes the dynamic of what you do consistently from the heroes in business, the heroes in sport. The heroes in leadership are the ones that are working harder and the first one in the office and the last one at night. These are the people that we look up to that are working hard. Work smarter. The Olympic motto is, "Citius, Altius, Fortius," which is, "Swifter, Higher, Stronger." How about adding a fourth one which is Smartius? Why not be smarter in how you approach this? That's under the banner of consistency. Consistently executing, consistently innovating, consistently doing things the competition is not willing to do.
The fourth C is confidence. You can draw a direct line from confidence to outcomes. If somebody has high confidence, they'll have peak performance or their performance will be higher and then you're going to have better outcomes. What we consistently do is we always focus on, "I don't have the results that I need. I need to change my performance. I need to do things differently." That's the case, but go further back and go, "What is my level of confidence?" If confidence is high and fear is low, you're going to naturally have a better performance. Better on a sale or negotiation or speech you're giving. For the leaders reading and the people you're talking to and trying to get them going the same direction. If you have high confidence, you have better outcomes. That's the fourth C.
The fifth C is control. Control is an odd word. Give me the long list of things you can control in your life. It doesn't exist. You can control what you bring to the environment, meaning you can control what you bring to a meeting. You can control what you bring to a conversation with a teenager. You can control routines. The routines that I had when I was an athlete, I do the same thing prior to every keynote speech, that motivational talk I give, the exact same things. You get there early. I visualize the outcomes. I use something called the Vortex Technique where I get the highest and best energy and then I make the decision to have fun. I was preparing for our interview and I was going, "I want to talk about this," and I was focusing on this. I went through these notes and then I went, "Wait, have fun." Have you ever had a speaker you get the impression they're saying, "Take my advice, I'm not using it."
You brought up a couple of things that are important to my research. I was talking about how we have environment or assumptions. You also brought up fear. I came up with four factors that affect curiosity and fear, assumptions, technology and environment are the four that I found. Fear is such a huge thing. You talk about fear of opening the door or whatever. How do we get that high level of confidence? How do you overcome that fear?
The Ant and the Elephant: Leadership For the Self
That's huge and it's only getting bigger. The reason we have so much dysfunction in our world now is a confluence of speed, the volume of things coming at us and at the same thing with that volume is being able to say, "What could happen? The fear attached to that." Confidence is very much attached to experience, but we don't have the experience with the new marketplace or a new landscape that we find ourselves in. Political, interpersonal, everything's changed. Without that experience, how do you have confidence? If you don't have confidence, you don't have peak performance and you have the outcomes that you're unhappy with. Here we are in an insidious direct line to outcomes that aren't optimal. Go back to the clarity and find out where is it you want to hit? What is true north for you? We don't know how we're going to get there. If you're clear on that emotional buzz of that outcome you'd like to have, is it the family together in a family reunion? Is it a situation in the marching of the opening ceremonies? Maybe I set a goal of having a New York Times bestselling book, I said, "How cool would that be? I don't know how to get there." To be able to create confidence, one tool that I wrote in the book, The Ant and the Elephant, is the ant has a conversation with the elephant.
Your conscious mind has a conversation with your subconscious mind only when it triggers with a negative thought. A negative thought is anything that takes you off course from the clarity, that outcome you're headed towards. Let's say a leader wants to be able to have a launch of a new product that is going to be in the media and everybody's going to be talking about it. Everybody's going to be excited and it's going to be the new new thing. Let's say a thought comes up and says, "We don't have the budget for that." The conscious mind says to the subconscious mind, "Thank you, but that's not part of my vision. My vision is," and then you go back to the exact scenario that you painted in the first place. How cool would it be? The launch, the media attention, the new new thing. You've interrupted the negative thought, the fear and then pivoted onto the emotional buzz. Every time you pivot onto an emotional buzz means that you have aligned 2,000 neurons and four billion neurons at the exact same time. The physical reaction from a thought is a litmus test for your ant and elephant headed in the same direction. The more you keep those four billion neurons aligned with your conscious intention, the easier things will be and the more things will manifest and appear. They show up. Somebody gives you a phone call and makes it happen. It works out that way.
How do you use that to become a New York Times bestselling author? How do you get there?
It's very much a process. When I set out to be a New York Times bestselling author, it would have been my fourth book I was working on. I laid it out on the table and said, "This is the goal. This is the objective," and I've brought people in who are way smarter than me which isn't that tough. I have skied at 135 miles an hour. Let's put that in perspective. I got the marketing team and they said, "You raced in the Olympics at 135 so speed is your thing." We started with the speed concept and said, "If the speed's the thing, what's society dealing with right now? Society is in overwhelm. Why don't I write a book called The Age of Speed?"
I brought in my publisher then I brought in a publicist who'd worked with John Maxwell and Marcus Buckingham and big authors like that. I worked over with a publisher who probably in the last few years had about fifteen New York Times bestselling books. I assembled this dream team and not because I knew that I should upfront. I said, "If we got the concept, we got The Age of Speed, we got the publicist, what's next?" I know a guy and it's like, "Boom." Things in motion tend to stay in motion. Why don't you be the architect for the direction of that motion? Most people aren't.
Clearly define what the big puzzle piece looks like, smells like and tastes like. When I talk about a direction you're headed, when I say clarity of vision, I wish I never said that in the book. It's more than a vision. You've got to smell it and taste it. You got to bring in the five senses and then the emotion attached to that. That's something I've come up within the last few years. I call experiencialization. Experience it. Experience the entire physiological. The smell, the taste, the touch and then the emotion attached to that. That makes it clear to the subconscious mind, the elephant, where it is you want to go. If you've got four billion neurons working in the same direction as your 2,000 neurons every second, who are you to say, "How do I do that New York Times bestselling book?" Get out of the way. Be in that state and that direction. Thank you, that's not part of my vision. Pivot and then you go back onto what that outcome is. It's less about what you do and more about the state you're in and then people follow you. People follow people who have a passion for where they're headed. Look at the political races. Look at the debates that are happening. The people who are most passionate about where they're headed are the ones who are most appealing.
That's an interesting aspect of what you were talking about. You have a lot of passion for what you do. Your prior background was a VP of Marketing International Investment Properties. You had this award-winning sales career. I've been in sales for many years and different aspects. How much is that foundational to your success to have a sales background do you think?
The more you keep those four billion neurons aligned with your conscious intention, the easier things will be. Click To Tweet
I've got three kids. They're now 21, twenty and eighteen. From day one, my wife's an entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur. We knew that they will succeed based on how well they communicate. There's a saying, "If your lips are moving, chances are you're selling something." Connect the dots and say, "How well can you communicate? How confident can you be?" All three are extraordinary. The oldest is at Berklee College of Music. He's dropping an album. We don't finance any of what they do, by the way. It would be easy for us to write a check and say, "We got your back," but my son, example, wanted to release an album. He has to hustle. He went to these top studios. One in Seattle, one in Dallas and one in Boston. Each of these places he was going to school at and he said to the studio owners, "I got this job at this hotel where I've got the midnight shift. At the end of this week, I'm going to make $400. If I give you $390 and I keep $10 for food, would you?" These studio owners knowing in the back of their mind they charge about $10,000 a day. They've got a 21-year-old so passionate and so specific on what he wants to create and then he's making it happen. You do have to lead by example. We each knew. Do what you want. I know in my life that I have to lead by example. If I lead in a way that has people go, "That's the way we're going to make it happen." Our middle child, she's at Wharton School of Business. She went to an arts magnet school. She wasn't your prototypical Wharton-type kid, but she gets after it. The reason she beat out 39,000 other kids is that she was deliberate on where she wanted to end up and had an emotional buzz attached to that. The youngest is a dancer.
That's amazing that your kids do such interesting things. You do a lot of interesting things. I was in a rock-climbing competition and I found that you're the Founder of the Heroes Climb Initiative, climbing and naming mountains after everyday heroes. You've participated in six Himalayan expeditions. You're super athletic in all aspects.
Yes and no, but I'm more curious. If you looked at me, "You look like a chunky version of Anderson Cooper. You don't exactly look like an athlete," but I play beer league hockey. You've brought up all these things and I sound like an overachiever. I'm more curious. Everybody thinks about what I do. I don't do it for the accolades. I put it on the bio so people can feel good about hiring me as a speaker. Make it about your audience. What are you going to do to create that emotional buzz? What are you going to do to commit and step up? What are you going to do consistently? How can we break it down and make it happen? Your podcast, your radio show, you have such an opportunity to reach out to people and truly transform people by the people you interview. That's extraordinary, the privilege you and I have to get out there.
That's probably a lot of my goal with this. You talk about emotional buzz. My dissertation was in emotional intelligence. I'm fascinated by how much emotions and all the things that we learned just being in sales like you were. We have a lot of similar background things. I've never been to the Olympics to that extent, but the sales background and some of the stuff that we have in common. We learned a lot about the lack of some of the emotional intelligence that was out there, at least I did. I was a pharmaceutical rep and saw a lot of doctors. It's interesting to see all this training. Are you seeing people improving? What has been your experience? You've had some of the hugest clients. Your list is a who's who of who you'd want to have to consult and speak to in the world. Are you seeing that we're getting better at our emotional intelligence, our interpersonal skills and all the things that fall into the soft skills area? What are you seeing?
I see us getting worse on one level and it's affecting everything. It's this absolute determination to be right. The people are jumping up and down and sticking their feet in the ground and saying, "This is the way it has to be." That is a lack of emotional intelligence. That is a lack of empathy. It's creating a conversation. In one breadth I see things getting better. I don't know if it's just the kids I'm seeing around me. I speak to some youth groups at times. I am so optimistic about the future. I see so many aware people out there that the default to say, "What's wrong with Millennials or what's wrong with Generation Z?" This optimum comes from the awareness that people are going, "What if I'm not right? What if you have a point of view?" We had this little aside. When we're doing this interview, the midterm elections in the US are coming up here in the next few weeks. We decided to watch one of the big debates between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke.
The Age of Speed: Learning to Thrive in a More-Faster-Now World
We had a drinking game attached to it. What we did was every time Cruz said, "Hillary Clinton," we'd have to drink a beer. Every time Beto does say, "I've been to 254 counties in Texas," you'd have to slug a beer. The reason I bring that up is we created an environment to have a conversation. We paused the TV and then we talked about something. We had Republicans and Democrats in the room and people and kids. Not from Canada, but what am I. I'm not either. I just moved here. I don't have a predisposed political party that I have to be a part of. To create that dialogue, to put yourself in an environment where people are talking and being aware. Three of the people in the room were under 25. Part of their discussion was enlightening. To shift from being right to shift to having a conversation, just communicate is critical.
Creating a dialogue is important and that's what I'm trying to do with my work. A lot of what you do is important. Your books have been unbelievable. I'm looking forward to the next one. I'm wondering if it's going to entail that word that you created.
Experiencialization.
It was wonderful having you on the show. A lot of people are going to want to know how they can get your books or find out more to have you speak and all that. Vince, could you share that?
My website VincePoscente.com will get you there. You can go to AntAndElephant.com and you'll be able to find me that way too.
One way or another, hopefully, they'll find your work. It was nice having you on, Vince. Thank you so much for doing the show.
If your lips are moving, chances are you're selling something. Click To Tweet
You're a true pro. Keep it up.
I'd like to thank Phil and Vince for being my guest. What great guests we get on this show. If you missed any past episodes, you can find them at DrDianeHamiltonRadio.com. You can also read them at DrDianeHamilton.com/Blog. If you want to know more about the Curiosity Code or Curiosity Code Index, it's all at CuriosityCode.com. Hope you join us for the next episode of Take The Lead Radio.
Phil Dixon
1-2-4 Model and Brainful Leadership Assessment – YouTube
It's Not You It's Your Personality
PhilDixon1@Mac.com
Vince Poscente
The Age of Speed
AntAndElephant.com
About Phil Dixon
Founder and CEO at Academy of Brain-based Leadership. Phil is focused on applying the latest knowledge from the field of integrative neuroscience into the areas of leadership development, and organizational & cultural change. The former director of IT worldwide and head of leadership development and management at Apple, Dixon specializes in the areas of leadership and management development, organizational change and development and executive coaching.
Phil is a leading expert in applying the latest knowledge from the field of integrative neuroscience into the areas of leadership development, organizational and cultural change, and coaching. During a 40 year career ranging from IT, Learning and Development and Neuroscience, en route Phil has worked in both the private and public sectors, has established 2 management consulting firms and has lived, worked and/or taught in 21 countries. Phil's position is the application of the field of neuroscience to leadership; this has led to the publication of a paper in the NeuroLeadership Journal: Turn the 360 Around- A Brain-Based approach to giving feedback, and a chapter on Performance Management in the recently released book, Optimizing Talent.
He holds an MSc in Consulting and Coaching to Change, from Oxford Business School and HEC Paris, and a BSc in Computer Science from Warwick University. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of brain-based leadership and is in the process of writing a book "SAFETY: Using Your Brain for a Change."
About Vince Poscente
Vince Poscente is one of the most in-demand motivational keynote speakers today. His expertise in accelerating EXTRAORDINARY goals is based on tools to be more resilient and how to overcome obstacles. When you bounce back stronger than ever confidence and fun go up. Vince's client list includes world-class organizations dedicated to being bigger and better. When employees and entrepreneurs handle set-backs, supersede obstacles and are more focused – record-setting results happen faster than expected. Vince knows first-hand how innovation, persistence, fearlessness play in your future success. He speaks from experience. His foundation are with proven tools.
Tags: categories of the brain, conscious, Curiosity, Leadership, Motivation, subconscious
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Levy Green's winless run is extended
The latest local sports news.
Leverstock Green's poor run continued on Saturday with a 2-1 home defeat to North Greenford United in the SSML Premier Division.
The defeat to the team one place below them in the table, in 16th, means it is now seven games without a victory for Levy.
Levy, with two new signings starting, made a bright start but it was the visitors who struck first in the 10th minute when Nick Turner had time and space in the box to slot home a shot from six yards.
Green skipper Shane Wood was back in the line-up after a long injury lay-off and he required more treatment after a great saving tackle in the 14th minute, and was fortunately able to carry on.
More defending was required in the 22nd minute as the visitors broke away and Aaron McLeish had a run at goal, but Alex Yearwood kept pace with him and was able to put in a superb challenge.
The scores were levelled in the 39th minute when one of the debutants, Andrei Spinu, delivered an excellent cross from the left touchline and Jay Kossifos headed home.
Leverstock should have gone in front three minutes' later when good work from Kane O'Neil allowed him to get to the bye-line and pull back a cross which eluded the visiting keeper and a defender, but Spinu couldn't keep the ball down with the goal gaping.
Levy were then caught out by a lapse of concentration in first-half stoppage time when the visitors broke away. Turner hit a shot from distance which keeper Ryan Schmid could only parry and Sammy Adams followed up unopposed to slot home the rebound and send his side into a 2-1 half-time lead.
The second period saw little in the way of chances for either side, with Leverstock's best chance of an equaliser coming seven minutes from time when Danilson Vicente was momentarily through on goal, but pulled his shot wide.
Green will continue their quest for points to arrest their slide down the table this Saturday when they host ninth-placed Colney Heath.
Tudors win the trophy at the inaugural Spencer McCall tournament


The Tree Preservation Order and Street Tree Plan has recently been modified to encourage the planting of trees on private property, ensure the preservation of significant trees on public property and promote attractive street tree themes across the City.
In February 1997 Council adopted both a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) and Street Tree Plan for Lithgow. Having now been in operation for a reasonable period, certain issues have arisen which need to be addressed in order to satisfy the above objectives. The Tree Preservation Order prohibits the ringbarking, cutting down, lopping, topping, removal or any activity that may result in the demise of any tree greater than four metres in height or a trunk circumference of 300 mm without the consent of Council. The TPO applies to both public and private lands. It has been its application to private lands that has caused the most concern. Landowners have generally objected to what is seen as another imposition on their private property rights.
It has been difficult to enforce, particularly in rural areas that already come under the provisions of the Native Vegetation Conservation Act, 1997. It has been used as a means of getting Council involved in neighbours' disputes about trees that should be sorted out between the individual parties. This places an unnecessary drain on Council resources. However, of most concern is the apparent attitude that people are afraid to plant trees because they believe that when the tree gets larger, Council will not allow them to remove it. This fear has been reported in other areas and has even been the subject of a story on 'Burke's Backyard'.
The Street Tree Plan also required some modification. The issues of concern relate to appropriate responses when a person applies to Council to have a tree removed and where Council, or an individual, is seeking to have a Street Tree Theme established. The plan needed to be amended to establish criteria for consideration when an application is received to remove a street tree. Most requests to remove street trees relate to complaints of private property damage, damage to footpaths and gutters and sewer infiltration. In many cases the damage caused by the tree can be repaired and root barriers installed to alleviate possible future problems. Limited complaints relate to claims that a tree has overhanging branches or is structurally unsafe. A formula does exist to ascertain a monetary value for trees. It is also possible to provide an estimate of the cost of works required as a result of damage caused by a tree and the costs associated with installing root barriers to ensure no further damage. Whilst comparing the value of the tree to the costs of repairs is one way to arrive at a decision it may not take into account the wishes of the local neighbourhood, particularly if those in the neighbourhood would like the tree retained.
Finally, the Street Tree Plan adopts certain criteria for establishing street tree themes. It calls on surveys to establish 70% consensus for type of species and a commitment to community involvement for planting and ongoing maintenance. In reality it has been difficult to gain a consensus on species and even more difficult to gain a commitment to community planting days and ongoing maintenance. Whilst community involvement should be encouraged a fall back position needs to be adopted to ensure that street tree planting does not take place due to lack of interest. It is suggested that the Plan be amended so that if 55% of responses agree on a species then this will be the species planted in the street. Trees will normally be planted in front of all properties unless a property has an existing, good quality street tree. Fertiliser, will be provided to interested residents.
In order to address this issue Council amended the TPO so as not to apply to privately owned lands. It is still important to protect trees on public lands, particularly street trees, and maintain a mechanism to prosecute offenders where the TPO has been breached. An examination of the law reveals that a TPO can be applied to land owned by public authorities and the Crown. The only exemptions appear to apply to forestry lands or trees requiring lopping under overhead power lines. Hazardous trees overhanging public roads may also be removed by a roads authority. However, in practice the assessment of whether the tree requires removal is made under the TPO unless there is immediate danger. Certain limitations also appear to exist with regard to railway undertakings and specific works associated with public utilities.
Is the tree unsafe? – If so arrange lopping or removal.
Determine individual and streetscape significance of the tree.
If the tree is in poor condition or is a poor specimen remove and replace.
If the cost of the repairs is less than $2,000 and the tree is significant then retain the tree.
If the repairs are greater than $2,000 – survey the residents.
If 100% of the residents want the tree retained then retain the tree and repair the damage.
If less than 100% consensus, report the matter to Council.
In all but exceptional cases, such as where there are traffic safety implications, any tree removed should be replaced. The Street Tree Plan suggests that any new stock should be 20 to 45 litre stock. It is considered that unless there are exceptional circumstances the specification for new street trees should be upgraded to a minimum of three metres in height that would represent a root ball/pot size of approximately 100 litres depending on species. An appropriate planting specification including hole size and mulching will also be included in the Plan. The Plan will also indicate that root control barriers will be installed if trees are near footpaths and kerbs or private property.


text:
Q: How can I add lowess fit line and linear fit line to scatterplot matrix? I wrote the following command in SAS to draw scatterplot matrix. How can I add Loess and linear fit line to the plot?
PROC SGSCATTER DATA=HW3;
    TITLE "Scatter Plot Matrix";
    MATRIX Assets Invest Income Delinq CMembers Branches
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        ELLIPSE=(ALPHA=0.05 TYPE=PREDICTED)
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


For parents out there who love their children, who would do just about anything to secure their child's safety and freedom, what would you do if your twenty-one year old son ended up in a foreign prison of a totalitarian state for a first-time offense that he committed in a moment of youthful indiscretion? And even more heart-rending: a twelve-year prison sentence that should, by all rights, have been only a two-year penalty to fit the crime. Fill in the blanks with your answer(s) to such a tough question … such a difficult dilemma. Whatever your reaction, it's likely that such emotions as embarrassment, sadness, disbelief, anxiety, and probably anguish would flood your mind and heart.
But what if, by what many might call a stroke of luck, government bureaucrats of that dictatorial country relented and reduced the sentence to five years? Then … what if, by what others would consider to be the grace of God, court officials in an act of unprecedented mercy commuted your son's sentence by deporting him back to the United States, back to family and friends … back to you?!
Of course you would be thrilled and grateful for such an astonishing turn of events. But after all the preparations had been made for your son's return home, what would be your response if you received a call from your son telling you that he preferred to remain in prison for the full twelve years? Because he didn't think that his punishment (or the punishment for any crime) should be pardoned or forgiven. That he didn't believe in mercy of any kind, particularly a gracious amnesty that would give him a second chance for a brand new start to life.
Now, take this illustration to another (lower) level: What if your son told you that after serving his full sentence, he intended to remain in this autocratic state that demanded complete capitulation, absolute adherence, and submissive surrender to its laws and leaders for the rest of his life? He wanted no part of the democratic freedom so cherished in the United States of America. That he preferred the idea of rule by force, of might makes right, of survival of the fittest and strongest. In short, rejection of the precept that every person has the God-given inalienable privilege to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. Moreover, if he ever felt like reclaiming his freedom in America, he would first need to earn that right of return by serving under this system of despotically overbearing regulations; heavy-handed even to those who managed to obey most of these suppressive laws in an oppressive country full of mindless, robot-like submission to domineering leaders who demanded perfect performance (obedience) from their subjects.
That's exactly the Apostle Paul's reaction to what had happened in some of the churches in Galatia. Especially the Jewish believers who, for all practical purpose, wanted to give back their heavenly citizenship rights, to give up their incredible freedom purchased with the life-blood of Jesus. Some had returned to the Law of Moses as a means to salvation; thereby, becoming imprisoned once again to the enslaving notion that human effort (good works) was the only way to merit a right relationship with God.
Paul's greeting to the churches in Galatia begins with a solemn but joyful reminder of what Jesus had done for them: "Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. All glory to God forever and ever! Amen" (Galatians 1:4-5).
Should anyone think that (if the good things they do outweigh the bad) they might be an exception to this universal Divine truth, read again the last sentence of this verse: For NO ONE will ever be made right with God by obeying the law! (Upper case letters, italics, and exclamation point for added emphasis).
"For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations…." (Ephesians 2:14-15, italics for emphasis).
Today, just as in Paul's time, we see legalistic efforts to bend, shape, and contort the Grace of God into a massive maze of rulings and regulations and rituals that (1) cleverly contradict and deviously distort the very means of salvation; or (2) change the Holy Spirit led dynamics of living the Christian life with an inordinate impossible demand of keeping the Old Covenant as a means of staying saved or meriting God's favor (Grace) for daily life and (hopeful) entrance to heaven at the time of death.
Religious requirements come in packages of all shapes and sizes. Including, but not limited to, organizational church-imposed and/or church-expected meritorious works through self-effort such as: Infant and adult baptism, church membership, mandatory tithes, completion of non-Biblical catechism curriculum, periodic sacrament observance, compulsory recital of prayers or excerpts from religious books, obligatory giving to the poor, forced observance of special holy days, requisite penance for transgressions, necessary hostility to those who believe differently (infidels), rote performance of required rituals, prescribed practice of non-Biblical church traditions, involuntary abstinence from certain foods and drinks, confirmed celibacy, and perfunctory performance of "righteous" deeds—most of which are dutifully defined by the ecclesiastical hierarchy of that religion that end up being nothing more than self-righteous exploits.
Over and over the apostle Paul tells us that the Grace of God not only saves us, but keeps us saved. That trying to keep the law to get saved or stay saved is not only impossible, but an affront to God. Oftentimes well-meaning Christians as well as not so well-meaning cults that are Christian in name only will twist and turn the words of Jesus to try to persuade their listeners that the Law of Moses, including the clerical priesthood, was never removed. Therefore, they contend that it is incumbent upon all who want to obtain and maintain a right standing with God and with their church to comply with the Law and regulatory church traditions in order to enter and remain in a "state of Grace." Which means among other things that any unconfessed violations of the Law prior to one's death could very well prevent that person from going to heaven. For example, that's why Catholic priests administer last rites.
What exactly did Jesus mean when he said: "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17, NASB). The Greek word for fulfill is pleroo (pronounced play-ro'-o) which means: to complete, to consummate, to carry into effect, to accomplish the purpose of (the Law). How does this profound statement of truth from Christ match up with the above quoted passage from Ephesians Chapter 2, in which Paul, in no uncertain terms declares that Christ ended the system of law with its commandments and regulations?
Who's right; Jesus or Paul? Of course that's a senseless question because they're both right, even though they're saying what appears to be (at face value) opposite things. There are many verses in Scripture that are completely stand-alone verses, such as John 3:16. However, there are other passages that must be compared, Scripture with Scripture (the whole counsel of God), and not quoted independently as a means to defend a viewpoint or position that is wrong to begin with because of the very fact that the verse is used out of context or because it (if not adequately clarified and understood) might seemingly contradict another passage. The Bible never negates itself; so if there are two or more passages which seem to do just that, then they must be carefully analyzed, compared, and explained together as a whole. All cults are based on a handful of verses that, when not correlated to other Scripture, will distort the main tenets of the Bible (especially salvation) and create a whole new religion, which Paul calls a false gospel.
Without a properly balanced examination of the seemingly paradoxical fact that Jesus fulfilled the Law of Moses only to end the Law, three theological/spiritual errors will (many times have) result.
The misguided notion that God's Grace—without an equal emphasis on and keeping of the Mosaic Law—is not enough to be born again (saved, redeemed).
The idea that we must continually keep the law to gain God's favor after salvation.
That continuous good works (fulfilling the law) is necessary to keep God's grace intact right up to the time of death, in order that one not lose or forfeit their salvation.
When Jesus said, "I came to fulfill the law," the emphasis is on "I," meaning Christ, himself. That it was He, and only He who could have fulfilled the law; which totally qualifies him as the only one who could make the once and for all sacrifice for our sins. He didn't say or mean that he accomplished all points of the law in order that we, too, must strive to fulfill it. Just the opposite: He fulfilled it because we couldn't. Christ said this to reinforce the fact that no human being could ever successfully keep the law either as a means of salvation or as a means to preserve that salvation. Once he achieved perfection with the law, there is no need for any of us to try or to keep trying to fulfill it ourselves, because we can't … never could and never will. "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" (Romans 3:23).
Paul further reinforces what Jesus said and did: "For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God" (Romans 4:4). A commentary on that verse would be: Christ did all the work … now all we have to do is believe in him and what he did (before, during, and after the Cross).
In other words, Scripture tells us to stop focusing on (impossible or at least inconsistent) obedience to the law and focus on Jesus alone. Obedience will then come more naturally (actually supernaturally). For further clarification, notice that I, based on Scripture, didn't say that we have no obligation to obey God's moral and spiritual laws; rather the emphasis is how and why we obey the law. And it's certainly not to earn salvation or merit God's grace. Keep reading for more amplification.
What Christ is saying is that the law itself will never be abolished. "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and the other commandments will always be God's principled standard of conduct, but which no one can or ever will keep. (Break one law and you break them all is what Scripture clearly teaches). Of course the Ten Commandments are still a moral compass that is every bit as applicable today as it was when the law was given. But what about the hundreds of years before the law was given, going at least back to the time of Abraham? How were those folks made right with God, when there was no law? (See Romans Chapter 4 for the answer to that question).
According to Jesus and Paul, one of the most grievous most damaging sins were those of the Pharisees, whom Jesus called sons of the devil, sons of hell, hypocrites; and certain Jews (both believers and unbelievers) who Paul accused of combining Law with Grace, Why? Because not only did they consider themselves righteous by virtue of keeping the law, but they were making others "sons of hell" by telling them that the only way to gain God's favor and forgiveness was by keeping the law of Moses. That's why they crucified Christ, because he said he was the Messiah; because he told them that He was the only Way, Truth, and Life and that no one could come to the Father except through him. That's why they rejected him; because to them the Mosaic Law was the only way to God. How dare someone say differently!
Jesus warned the Jewish leaders, "Moses, himself, will condemn you" (John 5:45). That statement is utterly astonishing! How or why would Moses condemn anyone for keeping the law? Answer: Because they placed the law above the only way of true righteousness—faith in Christ (and before Jesus came, faith in the promise of his coming). That is why the only people that Jesus ever truly censured were the (self) righteous religious teachers of the law.
On the contrary, those who acknowledged their inherent sin nature and the iniquities this sin nature innately (naturally) produced, those who reached out to Jesus for physical and spiritual healing; experienced salvation through and from a Savior who loved them and who longed to save them from their sins … from eternal judgment apart from God.
What IS abolished is the keeping of the law or fulfillment of the law in order to be saved and to stay saved. In fact, that never existed in the first place … meaning salvation through the law. But neither is trying to live the Christian life ever successful or even recognized by the Lord through the self-effort of "fulfilling the law." That's why Paul told the believers in Galatia that they were "foolish." (Galatians 3:1). He went on to challenge them, "Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the Law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? …why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?" (Verses 2-3). Paul continues: "Why, then was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised…." (Galatians 3:19). The progenitor promised child was Abraham's son, Isaac (not Ishmael); with Jesus Christ as the ultimate Child of Promise (to the whole world).
Therefore, Scripture is crystal clear that the law was temporary. It's only purpose was to show just what sinners we are, so that we would stop trying to keep the law as a means of salvation or even as a means of trying to please God and keep in good standing with him after we're saved.
Our good works are a RESULT of the free gift of salvation (God's Grace). Not a requirement or the means of salvation. Our right standing with God is based on a RELATIONSHIP with him through his Son, Messiah Jesus. Not through any religion.
We can try all we want to satisfy the law or any rules and regulations that we impose on ourselves and others, and it will do us absolutely no good, whatsoever. In fact it only leads to total frustration and failure. Both secular humanism and clergy and laity alike in religious systems such as Mormonism, Catholicism, Jehovah Witnesses, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, but even some born-again Christians are constantly and in futility trying to: Work their way into or back into God's favor.
Frankly, that's an insult to God because it contradicts and replaces the only means of a right relationship with God … Jesus Christ. In fact, Paul tells us that when we make the law our main focus and falsely believe that keeping it will keep us in good standing with God, we are "crucifying Christ" all over again.
There's more. Paul perceptively states: "But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law (Paul is referring to anyone who would say we were "guilty" if we discard the law). Would that mean that Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die" (Galatians 2:17-21, italics for emphasis).
Those who have a legalistic mindset, including some Christians, are those who live by a list of do(s) and don't(s), including the law and other things they think must be followed. They (erroneously) believe that God's favor is earned by good behavior. Conversely, true Christianity is expressed by those who love the Lord and live in gratitude for his free gift of grace and eternal life. By relying on the Holy Spirit who enables us, "…to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).
To constantly tell or remind others that Christ came to fulfill the law but not to abolish it, without clarifying what that means or without explaining that both salvation and the Christian life, itself, is through grace and grace alone, is to confuse and mislead them. Cults do that all the time. They add to or subtract from the Bible. Or they take one or two verses and make an entire doctrine out of them, without comparing the passage with the whole counsel of Scripture.
It's a deadly spiritual recipe … a mixture of Law and Grace.
If anyone was told that they would be granted a full pardon for their crimes (sins) against God, why would they want to stay in or return to the prison (of their sins)? Why would they throw away the key of Grace that opened the prison door of sin to set them free? How could they step back into a prison cell of a legalistic penal system that requires flawless performance and picture-perfect behavior in order to be released from a jail with four walls and a ceiling covered with do(s) and don't(s) that no one could ever keep no matter how hard they try?
Stay tuned next week as we look at the third and final article on the Age of Grace.


On request from drivers, we issue four different types of certificates related to a driver's driving history, the clean accident and offense record, driving record, points accumulated and driver's license history.
This certifies that a driver has no record of accidents or traffic violations over a specified period. This certificate is used to encourage safe driving, praise good drivers, etc.
This certifies records of traffic violations, accidents and license endorsements in the past one to five year period. It is used to encourage safe driving, praise good drivers, etc., and is required when applying for or renewing a private taxi license.
This certifies the current points accumulated for traffic violations and accidents.
This certifies past lapsed or revoked licenses, the type of license currently held, the date it was obtained, etc.
Applications may be made via transfer from any branch of the Japan Postal Bank, after filling in an application form with the necessary details. Forms may be obtained at JSDC offices, police stations and police boxes. Also, you can apply directly to your nearest JSDC office.
Companies and other organizations may apply on behalf of individuals by proxy.
The fee is 630 yen per certificate.
SD Cards are presented to anyone applying for a Clean Accident and Offense Record Certificate or Driving Record Certificate who has no record of accidents or traffic violations, for more than one year.
The SD Card is a respected documentation of safe driving, and possessing one should therefore enhance the holder's pride and self-awareness as a safe driver.
Five types of SD Cards, depending on the length of no accident/incident period.
SD Card holders can enjoy discounts on gasoline, meals, accommodation and other purchases, as well as preferential interest rates for car purchase loans. The number of businesses offering these privileges is increasing year by year.