There is an old adage that says, “If you continue doing what you have always done, you will continue getting what you have always gotten.” Today, if you continue to do what you have always done, you may not get what you have always gotten. That which was true may not be true any longer in our modern world of change, change, change.
Change is the standard of business. Bill Gates said that we should expect more change in the next decade than used to occur in a half century. Because of the rapidity of change, the most expensive sentence in business is probably: “We have always done it that way."
While you may have never heard anyone say those exact words, consider the opposite. Have you ever heard, “How do we do what we don’t know how to do ... and may not even want to do?”
We have always done what we do, the way we do it, because “that way” worked well enough, and often enough, to go through the process of creating a habit.
We have all conditioned ourselves to automatically do some things one way … whether using a mouse with the right hand ... or stepping on the brake with the left foot ... or simply the way we tie our shoestrings. These are examples of habits that we formed to make life easier. Many habits serve us well, while others … well, you know what it is like to break a bad habit.
Since habits are learned behaviors, not instinctive reactions, how do you learn other ways? Is it easier to replace a bad habit or implant a good habit? How do we learn to do things differently from the way we have always done things? How do we stop doing what we do, the way we have always done it? Should we?
Habits, like addictions, frequently have a negative connotation. Yet habits per se are not necessarily bad. Without habits, things that were difficult to learn would remain difficult to do.
Think back to when you were learning to drive a car. Can you remember when you could not automatically signal for a left turn, look over your shoulder without drifting out of your lane, while holding a coffee cup of hot coffee in your right hand, without skipping a beat in the pattern of a conversation on a cell phone, or the pattern of traffic, and ... all at the same time?
The next time you put on a pair of shoes with laces, try to tie the knot quickly and easily … after reversing which lace you put on top of the other? Sounds simple, doesn’t it? We don’t think about things like tying shoe laces because we formed habits to make such repetitive actions almost automatic. We do certain things a certain way, because that way has previously worked well, because we don’t have to think about how to do it, because … why should we try a different way that may not work as easily?
When considering habits, the easiest place to start is by identifying the four phases everyone goes through whenever they create a habit. Those four phases are unconscious/incompetence, conscious/incompetence, conscious/competence, and unconscious/competence.
When we progress through the four phases with a repetitive act, we develop a habit. When we progress through the four phases to enhance a skill or ability, we develop a mastery. The four phases have been part of our learning processes from infancy to fancy degrees.
Both habits and mastery begin in the first phase which I jestingly call oblivion. Oblivion is when you are unconscious and incompetent. You simply do not know that you do not know. One of my mentors calls this phase “the most dangerous place to be” because this is where you can get blind-sided.
The plastics industry was in phase one when they did not know that BPA, the chemical used to make plastic hard, would act like a hormone (xenogen), disrupting the normal maturation process of children. The full consequences of this act of oblivion will not be known for years, perhaps decades.
I am looking for a clinical study on using electrolyzed water to remove xenogens. If you know of such a study, please advise me. I already have a variety of clinical studies that document using electrolyzed water to remove other man made toxins. Xenogens are different because the immune system does not appear to recognize them as abnormal.
When a toddler sticks a bobby pin into an electrical outlet, he is in phase one. Usually, the potentially lethal shock tells the toddler not to do that again. However, my eldest son stuck metal objects in electrical outlets repeatedly. He didn’t cry from pain following such incidents so I could only conclude that his thrill at watching the flash of light exceeded any electrical shock he may have felt. Of course, we soon put safety covers on all the electrical outlets. My toddler son may have been in phase one, but his mother and I were not.
Not all consequences from phase one are dangerous or detrimental. For example, at some point in your life you did not know that helicopters existed. You were in phase one regarding helicopters. You may have been a few months old, or a few years old, before you saw a helicopter. Not knowing that you did not know that helicopters existed had no impact on your life.
However, as soon as you know that helicopters exist, then you progress from phase one to phase two: you know helicopters exist but cannot fly one. We all have many things in phase two that do not create impediments in our lives. For example, I know that Boeing 727s exist because I have take flights in them. However, I do not know how to pilot a 727, nor do I want to learn to do so. I am quite contented to remain in phase two regarding flying airplanes.
I am also in phase two regarding hang gliders. I know about hang gliders but do not know how to fly them. Unlike my phase two perspective on flying a Boeing 727, I sometimes imagine myself soaring silently through the air while hanging below a huge wing. But ... I don’t want to fly a hang glider enough to invest the time and money to learn the skill. I don’t want to transition to phase three with a hang glider.
Phase three is when you know something exists and you can do whatever is involved … but you have to think about each action while you are doing it. If you have to look at the keyboard when you type, you are in phase three. When you drive a different car, you are probably in phase three until you can minimally turn on the windshield wipers, the headlights, and adjust the radio without taking your eyes off the road.
Some people have a phenomenal ability to act in phase three. My late wife’s cousin was twelve years old when he stole an airplane from the San Carlos airport. He flew it around for an hour and then landed it ... to a welcoming committee of police officers. The boy grew up to become a commercial airline pilot ... probably flying Boeing 727s.
In phase three you have studied a foreign language enough that you can communicate readily … but you still think in English and then translate into the foreign language. The language in which you talk to yourself in your head, is your phase four language.
Phase four is mastery, when you can do something without thinking about it. This phase is what James Allen called habit force (here’s a free modernized copy of James Allen’s classic As A Man Thinketh in EZ format (arrow down until you see the title), and modern psychologists call subconscious actions. Psychologists also tell us that more than 95% of our daily activity is accomplished in phase four.
You are in phase four when you leave home in the morning, arrive at work, and have no memory of the journey. You are in phase four when a thought comes to mind and your fingers dance on the keyboard until the thought has become words on the screen.
A person is stuck in phase four whenever they complain, “But we have always done it this way!” In actuality, resistance to change is merely resistance against returning to phase three … where one has to think … in order to develop new phase four skills.
Whenever I sense myself resisting change, I know I have something new to learn because I hear my Dad’s voice telling me “When you stop learning, you start dying.”
Perhaps that’s why I like Spock’s benediction in the old Star Trek series, “Live long and prosper.” To live long and prosper requires continuous learning, developing new skills, exploring new horizons, perhaps even acquiring a new language … even if it is only a phase three language … or spending a Thursday evening at a Denny’s listening to a white haired business man.
Be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise,
Tom Van Drielen
Home of Red Ox machines for triple conditioned water which flushes toxins out of the body, gently reduces systemic acid, while supporting the immune system with massive amounts of free radical zapping electrons.
Well, the Fourth of July is right around the corner. July 4 is when we honor those valiant men in 1776 who signed their names to a document that became their death warrants because it had paradigm shattering sentences, such as ...
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Among those inalienable rights, probably the most difficult to define is “liberty.” Because we do not live in a state of tyranny, we Americans tend to take our “liberties” for granted and blur the distinctions between “liberty” and “freedom.”
Consider this. In speaking to someone, if I referred to the Statue of Freedom in New York Harbor, they would not know what I meant. The Grand Lady in New York harbor is not called the Statue of Freedom. She is the Statue of Liberty. Yet, in everyday conversations, we use the words “freedom” and “liberty” interchangeably. There is a subtle difference between the two words that is more than the arrangement of letters of the alphabet.
Freedom is a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restraints or restrictions.
Liberty is a political, social, and economic right that belongs to the citizens of a state or to all people.
As I understand the definitions of these two word, “liberty” is a legal word and “freedom” is an experiential word. “Liberty” is something you protect, while “freedom” is something you garner. “Liberty” is a birth right while “freedom” is to be achieved.
With that distinction also comes a caveat: liberty and freedom cannot be separated. A citizen must have liberty in order to enjoy freedom. A citizen must also have some degree of freedom in order to produce or sustain liberty. We have liberty because of the Declaration of Independence which precipitated the American Revolution, and produced the US Constitution. This year, rather than laud the signers of the Declaration of Independence for their steadfast pursuit of liberty, as is my custom, I want to look at the availability of freedom … today.
In contrast to liberty, freedom is not a legal issue. Freedom is heartfelt sense of satisfaction with the quality of life, and/or the potential of the future. There are many freedoms we have the option to enjoy, or perhaps I should say the option to attempt to enjoy. Among those many freedoms, four stand out as paramount. Upon these four freedoms, the majority of other freedoms depends … perhaps even liberty itself. Those four freedoms are: location, time, finances, and expression.
Location Freedom is the ability to live or travel anywhere in the world (or at least the USA). Few people experience this freedom because we (myself included) have too many honorable commitments that keep us tied to one small piece of this planet. We have a job or business, house payments, college tuition, car payments, utility bills, ad infinitum.
My younger brother savors his location freedom. In the 1960’s he abandoned a full scholarship to UC Berkley and went on a trek around the world. He left San Francisco with ten dollars in his pocket and returned a year later, having visited many countries. Even after he married and had two children, if he and his wife (who shares his penchantment for location freedom) wanted to winter in Mexico, they would not hesitate to hitchhike from Canada to Mexico with their small children. Even today he structures his life so he has location freedom. He lives in the Canadian outback, in a log cabin he build from trees he felled and scrap lumber. He has no car, no electricity, no running water, and no bills. When he wants to go somewhere, he goes. When he comes back, he comes back. Location freedom is high on his value list.
Time Freedom is the ability to choose what you will do next. Time freedom is waking up naturally because you are completely rested not because the alarm clock jangled your nerves. Time freedom is working eighty hours a week because you are captivated with an idea. Time freedom is not working for a year because you just feel like vegetating. Time freedom means you can do whatever you want with your time. Most Americans have limited time freedom because they work door to door.
Working door to door means, in the morning workers go through their front door, then the car door, and then their office door. At the end of their work period, they go through their office door, then the car door, then their front door. Tim Ferris was working “door to door” and decided he wanted more time freedom. Over a period of time, he was able to reduce his work week to four hours, while still holding down the same job. If you haven’t read Tim Ferris’ book The Four Hour Work Week, then you might be missing a little, or a lot, of time freedom.
I wrote the micro-book Corollaries prior to reading Tim Ferris’ book. As a result of Tim’s insights, I have added a tenth corollary to the Information Age. The tenth corollary would be “any job that can be done from home, will be done from home.”
A free copy of Corollaries is half way down the left side of the page of free eBooks at the eBook menu page.
Consider 9-11. Except for face-to-face sales clerks on the lower floors, most workers left home in the morning where they had a computer and a telephone. They traveled into the city, rode up the elevator to their office … where they worked using a computer and a telephone. Now, you can see why I believe the tenth corollary will be working from home … a form of time freedom.
The antithesis of both location freedom and time freedom is a prison inmate. A penitentiary inmate never leaves the walls of his prison, is told what clothes to wear, what to eat, when to eat, when to sleep, when to work, what work to do, and with whom he can hold a conversation or correspond.
Financial Freedom is not about being rich. After all, if you are reading this email, you are already rich compared to the standard of living of over half of the world’s population (the average household in Bangladesh earns $500 a year). Financial freedom is a state of mind in which you no longer worry about money, bills, taxes, etc.
Financial freedom is having your finances so well ordered that you finally discover the reason why you were born. Financial freedom almost forces you to evaluate what you will do with your life now that you no longer have to chase the almighty buck. Financial freedom gives you the resources and the time freedom to make a difference to people and/or the planet.
Donald Trump is rich, but I don’t believe he has financial freedom. Bill Gates is rich, and is discovering financial freedom now that he is managing a foundation to dispose of his wealth. Bill Gates is currently finding answers to the question, “What legacy does Bill Gates want to leave to the next generation?” Such a question is not easy to answer. I am eager to experience the conundrum.
Another of my brothers retired from the Environmental Protection Agency a few years ago. He rattled around the planet for a while, not knowing quite what to do with himself. I think he found his purpose when he found himself in southern Mexico helping people with their English. His federal retirement income provides a bountiful lifestyle in Mexico so he can help people without having to charge them any money. Sounds like a win-win situation to me. I wonder what Donald Trump would think of that kind of life style?
Inner Freedom is the ultimate freedom. Victor Frankl observed and experienced inner freedom while in a concentration camp during the Second World War. In the midst of cruel living conditions, forced labor, and meaningless executions, some people found their inner freedom. In the final analysis, inner freedom is the ability to choose how you will respond to a situation.
Perhaps inner freedom is what caused the signers of the Declaration of Independence to sign on the dotted line. They knew the consequences of signing such a document. They also believed they had a right to choose how they were going to live, even if they had to die in the attempt. Patrick Henry expressed this concept clearly in his “Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death” speech. Of such beliefs are great nations formed.
Here is a re-enactment of Patrick Henry’s famous speech "Give Me Liberty or give me death" is the fourth item down on the left column.
The Declaration of Independence did not create the environment in which the above four freedoms could flourish. Establishing and sustaining freedom has always been done at the price of soldier’s blood. As a veteran, I see the Fourth of July as a day to honor our servicemen. Toward that purpose, I added a video to my homepage that I call “Tribute.” An old friend of mine, whose only son had just been deployed to Afghanistan, asked me to create this 20 minute video, which he narrated. When he had finished there was not a dry eye in the house, and everyone was on their feet cheering … not for the speaker … not for the video … but for all those who have sacrificed their lives … or been willing to sacrifice their lives … for freedom based on liberty. Place a box of tissues nearby, you will need them.
At the end of the Fourth of July holiday, if the Red Coats didn’t burn your home to the ground, clap you in irons, and put your family in a dungeon, then you will probably be available to attend the Entrepreneurs Club meeting in Milpitas on July 7th. I have been invited back to speak to this very creative group of people, some of whom are looking for venture capital, some for joint venture partners, some are wondering if they will ever find their market niche, and some just wander in out of curiosity. I will be speaking on changes in the market place based on studies by Frank Luntz, Stephen Covey (Junior), the Better Business Bureau, and others. These changes can be boiled down to two principles:
1. We have been taught to focus on “What do I want from the market place?” This is selling.
2. The new focus will be more like “What does the market place want from me?” This is un-selling.
Be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise,
Tom Van Drielen
Home of RedOx (say Red Ox) machines for triple conditioned water which flushes environmental toxins out of the body, gently diminishes acid reflux, while supporting the immune system with massive amounts of free radical zapping hydroxyl ions.
Change is the standard of business. Bill Gates said that we should expect more change in the next decade than used to occur in a half century. Because of the rapidity of change, the most expensive sentence in business is probably: “We have always done it that way."
When considering habits, the easiest place to start is by identifying the four phases everyone goes through whenever they create a habit. Those four phases are unconscious/incompetence, conscious/incompetence, conscious/competence, and unconscious/competence. 
Phase four is mastery, when you can do something without thinking about it. This phase is what James Allen called habit force (here’s a free modernized copy of James Allen’s classic As A Man Thinketh in EZ format (arrow down until you see the title), and modern psychologists call subconscious actions. Psychologists also tell us that more than 95% of our daily activity is accomplished in phase four.
Home of Red Ox machines for triple conditioned water which flushes toxins out of the body, gently reduces systemic acid, while supporting the immune system with massive amounts of free radical zapping electrons.
