We’ve got to get over what the next generation is not getting and how uncomfortable it is making the previous three generations feel. We have the answers they need and they have the energy we need! You can’t stop change. You can’t contain change. And you can’t control change. But, what you can do is leverage change.
In order to be successful in times of transition, you need a fulcrum. A fulcrum is a physics term that has to with (a) the support that turns a lever or it is a literary term that means (b) the one who supplies capability for action. I like to think of a fulcrum as an individual whom which is used to turn a person or an organization. It can also be a person who helps others turn their thoughts and ideas into the correct course of action. Every formula needs a fulcrum. Every tested formula rests on timeless principles.
What this next generation is missing is simple: principled living.
Smart phones aren’t actually making us any smarter. One day we looked up from our smart phones and realized that we weren’t actually an smarter. We had just become buried in a swamp of information and a quagmire of feelings. Emotional maturity and self-awareness died with the advent of social media and photo filters. As we looked around this landscape where everyone else was still looking at their smart phones we realized a glaring absence from the way we live, the way we make decisions and the direction we are moving towards…the absence of principles. They were lost somewhere along the way when we traded honor for convenience, justice for popularity and the sacred for secular. They were lost amidst a deluge of information and the rapidity of technology changing the way we live. We traded principles for speed, for wealth, but mostly for popularity. Public opinion, which changes like the wind, became more important than principled outcomes. The new generation had their opinions which used to be tested by time and trials, elevated instantly to popular status. A generation that had been told everyone was a winner, then had their opinions, pictures and thoughts elevated to proportions that used to take a life time, maybe to achieve. What was thrown out were the principles of the past in favor of popularity and privilege of the present. The previous generations were not only exposed to principles, but had them ingrained along every stop of life. Leadership, life and learning used to be driven by timeless principles. What has been thrown out in the beginning of this 21st century is the importance of principled living and learning.
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”
~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Principles are timeless and tested guidelines that contain truth for application in any situation or circumstance that give clarity for action and response. They are especially helpful for guidance in crisis, confusion and temptation. Principles are like guardrails for the escarpment of high and dangerous places, but also like goads to keep us moving when the temptation to stray into places of pleasure and comfort come calling. If you want to help teach and train the next generation, if you are a part of the next generation, a storm is coming and the thing that you will cling to that will save you and make you successful is principled living.
Let me use a Bible Verse and give you a simple formula that will help you live principled:
“…we are getting what our deeds deserve…“ Luke 23:41
This is part of the conversation as the two thieves on the cross full of a lives that demanded consequence looked upon Jesus as he was dying on the cross and realizing that his deeds didn’t deserve what he was getting.
The formula for success is found in the D.E.E.D.S. These letters are a simple formula for teaching and forming your life around principles. The word serves as a reminder of the principle.
Discipline: Discipline means training yourself for what may come, despite what actually comes. Discipline can be taught. Discipline can be exacted, but only you can be self-disciplined. Self-discipline is dying a rapid death in among a generation that believes that you can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want to do and not pay a price for it. Discipline is the price you pay to prepare for success. Discipline does not keep you from success, discipline drives you toward success. It is a ten-thousand practice sessions that lead you to the perfect performance. It is the thousand of hours in solitude training when everyone else had quit or gone home that prepare you for the right opportunity. When you are self-disciplined, you are training yourself to face the unknown. This is why we’ve thrown discipline away, because we think we know our futures. We have become masters of our own destinies because information is so readily available. Discipline means doing the right things over and over again even if no one ever recognizes you. You do it because it is right, despite how you feel or how you don’t feel. Discipline is never a matter of the mind, it is always a question of the heart. Discipline is what leads you to effort.
Discipline + Effort
Effort: Effort is the not the great equalizer. It is the great elevator. Effort is both that which takes a few to the top, but many ride it to the bottom. Discipline + Effort is where the elite began to move away from the average. Average people are disciplined people. Elite people are disciplined and give maximum effort. Effort is the amount of energy you are willing to expend. Most people today are looking for the least amount of effort they can give for the maximum return. This is the loser’s attitude. This is the attitude of the entitled, not the elite. You don’t have to be skilled. You don’t have to have great pedigree. You don’t have to have talent in buckets to give effort in buckets. Everyone has the same amount of time, but not everyone will maximize that time with maximum energy. Effort is easy to spot, because it requires energy. Energy is active. Entitlement is static. When you add discipline to effort you sustain results. Effort without discipline creates a pendulum that will swing your results back and forth.
When I ask someone if they are a hard worker, what I am really asking for examples of their effort. Effort is how you measure work. It takes effort to lift your hand to your fork. It takes effort to chew. It takes effort to pick up a shovel. It takes effort to dig. But, it takes endurance to keep digging. Have you worked outside in a while? The earth yields nothing easy! Why then are we always looking for the easy way. Things that last are hard things. Things that fade are quick and easy. If you want with rock, you have to be able to lift it. Effort and discipline are what build spiritual and mental fortitude–muscle. Each generation will ultimately be measure by their fortitude.
Discipline + Effort = Endurance
Endurance. Ah, this principle is one that is seldom talked about, preached or taught any more. I’m not even sure that many of the next generation have any idea what enduring actually is and what is requires. If you lived through the Great Depression or the Dust Bowl in America, then you know what endurance is all about, because you didn’t have a choice if you wanted to survive. If you lived through World War I or World War II, then you know about years of war, losing hundreds of thousands of the best and brightest of the next generation, and living on rations. If you lived through slavery or indentured servitude, then you know about endurance. If you lived on the prairie on a farm, then you know about endurance. If you didn’t have running water, refrigeration or indoor plumbing, then you know about endurance. If your ability to eat and live was based upon the weather, then you know about endurance. But, what does anyone today know about any of these things? We don’t.
Endurance is patience concentrated.
– Thomas Carlyle
Concentration is critical to endurance. The next generation lacks an ability to sustain concentration. Concentration is focus with purpose. In order to be a truly successful endurer, then you have to get over concentrating on yourself. I will say it until I die, in development, you are your greatest enemy. In order to sustain, you have to not only focus, but hold and maintain your energy in a specific direction for an unspecified duration. The next generation just wants to ask “Are we there yet?” That statement was for little children on uncomfortable car trips before portable electronic devices and GPS. Stop asking that question as an adult. You must learn to concentrate or you will never learn to endure.
The problem today is this: abundance never teaches endurance, but endurance is absolutely necessary for success. Endurance is the ability to sustain discipline and effort through prolonged periods of suffering, uncertainty and loss. It was what helped defined “the American Spirit”–this idea that we would keep working, keep going that our bodies would fail long before our spirits would. That is no longer the case. We live in a world of emotional weaklings. Endurance is a question of soul and spirit. It is ability to say yes over and over to the right thing despite the wrong feeling. It is the ability to say no over and over again to the wrong things despite overwhelming temptation. This is because Endurance is not possible without denial, actually, self-denial.
Denial: Denial is the ability to say no. Self-denial is the ability to tell yourself no. No, this is not good for me. No, this will not help me in the long run. No, despite how I feel, this isn’t right. No, I should not respond, I should think spend more time in thought and less time in reaction. Better thought brings for better responses. This is an instant world we live in. We want instant answers, instant coffee, instant food, instant service, instant wealth, instant acceptance and instant success. But, life does not work that way. We must learn to say no. We must learn to tell ourselves no. The opposite of self-denial is self-indulgence. Indulgence is a principle you want to stay very far away from. People that indulge themselves lack restraint. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.” This means when you have no vision or the wrong vision, you throw out the ability to tell yourself no.
Denial is a part of waiting. Success is built over time, never in an instance. You may see success happen in what appears to be an instance, but it never is. It is always the result of seasons of preparation, seasons of struggle and seasons of sweat. If you can’t learn to say no, then you lack vision. A vision gives you guide rails or lines to stay inside of. Another word for these buffers are laws. No is the base of laws, because no is absolute. Be willing to hear no. Be willing to accept no. Anarchy and chaos is the absence of no, the absence of restraint. When you can learn to deny yourself, you become more selfless. Selflessness is the final ingredient in the formula of success.
Selflessness: Selflessness is the ability to put your self last, to see yourself only as important as those around you need you to be. We live in the most self-important generation ever. Self-important people are self-promoters. Never have so many unqualified, inexperienced and immature people touted themselves so highly. If you look historically at the strongest generations and strongest societies, they do not preach or teach self-esteem. In fact, they teach the opposite, that self needs no esteem. This subtle shift happened in our culture when popular psychology became more influential than timeless truth. The most successful people don’t look for praise, encouragement or recognition, because they don’t need it. Selfish people need lots of attention. Selfless people need no attention. The code word for attention today is “feedback.” We have over-elevated the importance of feedback. I have learned that feedback among the next generation is really a code word for “positive attention.” As soon as you offer negative feedback it becomes unwelcome.
Dabo Swinney
Selflessness pushes self away and leads you to service. The most successful leaders are those who see themselves as servants of the organization. They see that they serve the greater good. I heard the NCAA College Football National Championship Head Coach of the Clemson Tigers, Dabo Swinney say recently that his role as head coach was “to serve the 30 year old version” of the 18-year old standing in front of me. It requires selflessness to place yourself in unpopular positions based upon truth and conviction. You will never serve others if you aren’t selfless. It’s not that you think less of yourself, its that you think of yourself less! The selfless person doesn’t ever see themselves as arriving only departing. The selfish person is only focused on the arrival. Successful people keep departing, keep learning, keep growing and keep serving. You can’t be selfless without continual humility. You must chose to be humble, even as you are ambitious, seek success and and lead others. Don’t make it about you. Make it about them. Selfless people have genuine joy when others succeed. In fact, they have become so emptied of self, they make it part of their personal mission to see others reach their maximum potential and their calling.
Discipline + Effort + Endurance + Denial + Selflessness = Success
The leverage you need to succeed is a principled life. It is your character that matters more than your competency. It is your reality that will influence your destiny not your fantasy. You will become a fulcrum in your home, on your team or in your organization as you apply these principles to your life. Your influence and impact will both grow. You will not have to look for success. Success will find you. Success is like a magnet. It is drawn towards those who are emitting and sustaining the right attraction. We are in an exciting time on planet earth. To maximize our footprint and our legacy we must live disciplined, principled lives. A world in flux needs leaders who are like fulcrums!
(c) Alex Vann, 2017