Winning Uphill Battles: The Power of Creativeness for Ascending from Obscurity to Relevance

By Darryl Moore PgMP

This book builds upon author's insightfulness for navigating life's slalom course one chapter at a time by using this series of letters: C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E-N-E-S-S: Conviction, the lifeblood for winning; Replicating Practices that Produce Champions; Expectations, the Genesis for Thriving; Assessing Core Competencies; Tenacity, Turbulence for Triggering a Breakthrough; Intensity, the Nucleus for Authentic Personal Improvement; Vigilance, the Umph for Accelerating a Needed Breakthrough; Empowerment, the Magic for Ascending to Relevance; Neutralizing Unacceptable Risks; Enthusiasm, the Seed for Sprouting Faith, Hope, and Joy; Serendipitous Opportunities, Life's Amazing Moments; and, Success, Victory's Unmistakable Moment.

Proprietary models plus numerous charts, illustrations, Interactive exercises are provided throughout the text to help ensure the retention of the content provided. Seventy-four visual images aim to enhance understanding of the context. This resource is most useful as a desktop reference for personal development into a highly accomplished practitioner in your chosen profession or calling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098327668

Book preview

Exclusive rights of the author prohibit reproduction of this book in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying form without the advanced written permission of the author, Darryl Moore.

Copyrighted on September 19, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-0983276-6-8

You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.

~ Zig Ziglar

This Book Honors My Mother

Transformative learning practices that bolstered conviction to realize self-determination and strategic relevance as a project leader-manager beseech me to dedicate this book to my late mother, Izella Taylor Brown, a gifted educator for forty-two years within the Saint Louis, Missouri, public school system. Mom taught me the value of attaining a marketable college education and employing acquired knowledge with purposefulness.

I honor and dedicate this book in remembrance of my ancestral gladiators, great-grandparents, grandparents, wife, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, my late step-father Daniel N. Brown, extended family, and my late father, Louis Moore, Jr., whom I did not know due to our mother divorcing him when I was a toddler.

Dedication

I earmark this book to:

Every parent lying awake at night wondering how to equip their child or children to thrive even though an imbalanced playing field remains a staunch reality;

Every learner motivated to ignite their talents and unleash skillfulness to pursue an abundant life;

Every individual encountering Machiavellian-type discord yet continues to motivate self and persevere through unimaginable challenges to realize a comfortable livelihood for their family;

Every person striving to reverse complacency so that their emotional intelligence becomes a channel for inspiring someone else to ignite their aspirations;

Every dreamer exerting intense determination and ingenuity to navigate their way through a formidable battle to launch an initiative with few resources, particularly money;

Every free-lance activist pushing relentlessly to advance their #me-also initiative despite battling a hindrance, injustice, ignorance, or intimidation;

Every believer heartened by the power of prayer while exerting knowledge to plow right through an adversarial ordeal, and propelled by faith while progressing their vision towards its intended destination;

Every pioneer on a winning streak, nevertheless still ignoring a truth that sustaining success is predicated on expanding capacity and improving agility to prevail amid unforeseen barriers;

Every champion determined to reinforce their proficient skills, develop untapped talents, and accelerate creativeness initiatives to fruition; and,

Every person born after December 31, 2019, who reads this book and acts upon its insights.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Introduction

Index of Charts and Illustrations

Chapter One: Conviction, the Lifeblood for Winning

Chapter Two: Replicating Practices that Produce Champions

Chapter Three: Expectations

Chapter Four: Assessing Core Competencies

Chapter Five: Tenacity

Chapter Six: Intensity

Chapter Seven: Vigilance

Chapter Eight: Empowerment

Chapter Nine: Neutralizing Unacceptable Risks

Chapter Ten: Enthusiasm

Chapter Eleven: Serendipitous Opportunities

Chapter Twelve: Success, Victory’s Moment

About the Author

Author’s Workshops and Courses

Introduction

Do you aspire to engage in your unique giftedness effectively? Or, are you ill-equipped to transform your monotonous livelihood for pursuing peak potential? If so, applying empowerment strategies in this book with prudence will fast-track the ideal solution to queries like these reflective questions. Each chapter builds upon insightfulness for navigating life’s slalom course using this series of letters: C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E-N-E-S-S. This hypothesis signifies an approach for persevering throughout life’s uphill battles so that aspirants can: 1) make the most of access that evolves from a modest upbringing into a thriving and gratifying career-life journey; 2) influence a course correction decisive to bypass inevitable disappointment; 3) plow through an obstacle; or, 4) reset lofty expectations so that one’s mission ahead aligns with their intended destination. Even though an uphill battle can become an edifying experience, it’s not frictionless or painless. Readiness for bold action requires in-depth self-study, tailored instruction, and specific preparation.

Winning begins with Alpha, expressed in this resource as preparation for carrying out near-flawless execution resulting in a product, service, or outcome that realizes the objective for undertaking an initiative like becoming financially sound. It takes commitment for a person to design specific actions and successfully implement a purposeful initiative to completion within pre-defined constraints. Good judgment is necessary to identify, evaluate, and realize doable opportunities while avoiding risks that may hinder progress towards succeeding. Winning any uphill battle involves dealing with challenges requiring tenacity to maneuver amongst thicket on the pathway to achieve each milestone that makes career-life journeying a thrilling adventure. The toughest battle an individual must win originates from within when the aim is to shift into a champion’s posture. Winning begins within a person’s mind and is accomplished by engagement. This tip is cast-iron certainty.

Chapter one describes how attitude emboldens conviction that decides a winner’s demeanor. Defeating any Goliath requires determination along with offensive and defensive tools. When empowered with in-depth preparation, conviction invigorates a champion’s desire to repeat. Resiliency provides a defensive mechanism for battling a problematic situation. Conviction is an offensive tool that reveals a person’s unique and specific giftedness for disrupting the imbalance enjoyed by complacency, which is a seedling for bringing up the rear.

Chapter two probes the primary behaviors that highly accomplished individuals replicate to differentiate and then engage a meaningful endeavor, claw ahead, and contest unwaveringly until victorious. Established processes and best practices provide the means for dealing with unexpected adversity and powering through resistance. Prevailing amid hardship requires trench warfare to emerge unbowed. Winning life’s struggles feeds an individual’s appetite for enduring the pursuit of relevance and ultimately realizing delight. Just as a dream has no limits, winning has no one recipe. Denied access only defers a champion’s future. Any crack in the access levee opens a floodgate for seizing a new season. Unfulfilled potential is ripe for transformation.

Chapter three features a visionary approach with quick-thinking maneuvers for gauging and managing realistic expectations crafted to transcend more conventional rationale. This approach utilizes a hierarchical format to compile data and then categorize it into useful information needed to transform a person’s mentality with a high degree of confidence in overcoming life’s challenges and seizing opportunities within a person’s capabilities. Competency, adaptability, responsiveness, and enthusiasm are strengths that can be drawn upon to deliver maximum capacity. Furthermore, aligning expectations with one’s vision validates operative actions that produce better results. This chapter spotlights Dr. Jon Rowe’s Achieving Communications Excellence© (A.C.E.) executive training course, a powerful catalyst to the portfolio of knowledge needed to ascend from obscurity. A.C.E. activates the genesis of the creativeness thesis for wisely choosing what to do with success.

Chapter four links a scalable method with a pivotal platform for assessing and solidifying competencies to purge apprehension originating from a dysfunctional posture that struggles with ambiguity, indecision, and complexity within a volatile organizational setting. Core competencies that are difficult to master prolong an individual’s competitive advantage. Deep insights conveyed in this chapter particularize how applying earned skills and expertness can 1) differentiate a person’s value; 2) shift attitude towards change to a positive posture; 3) expand an individual’s diversity of thought and their range of perspective; and, 4) anchor self with a neutral tolerance to the potential downside and potential upside risks. Applying these transformative insights reduces vulnerability to complacency by leveraging the power of creativity with the conviction of a champion.

Facts, analogies, illustrations, and references included in chapter five provide a holistic view regarding how tenacity tailored with ample resources to handle contingencies equips an individual for an uphill battle. Sufficient resources increase the likelihood of a speedier breakthrough. Defending champions recognize that winning involves adaptive training, intuition, and near-flawless execution. Tailoring enhances a SMARTER technique for thwarting undercurrents spawned by turbulence while navigating towards the desired outcome, such as monetizing one’s creativeness. SMARTER is a forward-thinking acronym that advocates specificity, measurability, attainability, realistic, time-sensitive, expectations, and relevance. Transformative intelligence (TI), when integrated with a smarter approach, injects momentum to elevate an individual’s capacity to its highest viable upside. TI creates an atmosphere for inspiring personal as well as team performance excellence.

Chapter six scrutinizes intensity, a powerful, agile, and advantageous multiplier for attaining Authentic Personal Improvement (API), which influences thoughts, ideas, and plans for executing a program designed to reach an unchartered objective. Intensity is winning’s dynamic X-factor. When fused with passion, intensity facilitates winning battles that differentiate an individual’s real value. Creating an insurmountable lead requires a commitment to exponential (ex) instead of linear capacity growth, as shown below, combined with performance excellence in one’s current job function. The gap represents an opportunity to apply API actions for further capacity growth. Mastering the competencies detailed in chapter three is key to closing this gap.

Chapter seven connects cleverness with ingenuity essential for activating vigilance to 1) shift focus to executing an initiative as planned; 2) energize defensive measures to ensure clinching a victory or achieving a favorable outcome, and 3) expand capacity to realize a needed breakthrough. The essence of chapter seven puts into words the primary benefits of broadening and deepening propensity for winning. Vigilance provides a powerful catalyst for activating transformative intelligence for making exponential growth happen.

Chapter eight explains how empowerment leveraged with mental athleticism contributes to the near-flawless execution of an endeavor by taking into account the gravity of dissimilar viewpoints. An encapsulating strategy for engaging a struggle for relevance and prevailing usually emerges after evaluating ideas that create advantages and hasten success. Leaders of the 2020 decade will reimagine the benefits of value creation and incentivizing performance. Ascending to relevance should be the highest priority. Achieving this objective requires creativeness to excel and talent to make it happen. Empowerment is a seed for closing a wisdom gap.

Chapter nine synchronizes bold actions for detecting and neutralizing unacceptable risks, the principal challenge to achieving predictable outcomes. Winning battles for realizing a forty-plus year career necessitates drawing upon insights to perfect performance plus street smarts to shun one-dimensional reasoning, which equates to unnecessary vulnerability. Emerging leaders and API aspirants should attain specialized knowledge to formulate intelligent solutions that accelerate endeavors along an ascending trajectory to a definitive goal. The image at the top of the next page illustrates a dynamic view of risk that informs intuition and provides the fundamentals comprising the contextual aspects for differentiating risk intensities and raising the odds of winning. There are three distinct risk chunks within the occurrence range of > 0% and < 100%. Zero percent and one hundred percent chances are a certainty. The most significant portion is the uncertainty zone, which subjectively ranges from > 10% and < 90%. The uncertainty zone is the crucible from which known and knowable risks initiate when triggered. Risks (threats and hazards) assessed as high have a likelihood of occurrence of greater than eighty percent of something adverse happening. Threats and hazards assessed as low have a possibility of less than ten percent of something undesirable happening.

Chapter ten conveys the fundamental aspects, the dynamic impact of enthusiasm, and the essential ingredient for solidifying aspirations. Just as prevailing through a life-altering situation strengthens an individual’s character, stomaching the exasperating moment of a jolt such as a cultural change enlarges the capacity to endure the next battle with poise. Functioning with enthusiasm paves the way to the winner’s circle. It plays a vital role in a reskilling effort to avoid disruption due to innovation. Enthusiasm partners with TI and faith to attain success.

Chapter eleven explains the basic features of the Relevant-Idea-to-Realization progression that often triggers a serendipitous opportunity, winning’s gift-horse. API aspirants will learn how to cultivate ideas into prosperity by consistently applying these winning influencers: 1) mental power; 2) fortitude; 3) distinctiveness;4) resiliency; 5) informed judgment; 6) resoluteness; and 7) imagination. Exhibiting these influential strengths, together with a gladiator’s temperament, empowers conviction in one’s quest to seizure foreseeable prospects, thus abating exposure to ineptness or apprehensiveness. A battle for equal opportunity is still worth fighting.

Chapter twelve focuses on how to apply insight to win a lingering battle. Recurring success confirms that your born-to-be journey is producing abundance. Expect a nefarious rival to nit-pick your triumphs and criticize your setbacks. Sharing how you applied sound practices with a personalized approach to navigate a straightforward pathway that realized successful outcomes is a diplomatic solution for disabling discord. Repeated success seeding returns conviction's dividend. What level of jubilance are you empowered to ascend? Practical subject matter throughout this book resource builds upon these attributes of thriving individuals: 1) attentive listening when participating in a difficult negotiation; 2) aptitude for initiating transparency that clarifies uncertainty or ambiguity; and 3) savviness applied to contextualize factual data into SMARTER and useful information that substantiates planning activities for maneuvering around complex situations. Count on improving your 1) proficiency for visualizing and integrating strategic concepts; 2) skill to sustain a modus operandi that inspires people; and 3) propensity for engaging deeper thinking from a 360-degree perspective. These capabilities are the principal contributors to challenging and winning any uphill battle worth fighting.

I encourage you to complete each exercise and take full advantage of the author’s shared learnings. If you are devoted to a life-inspiring journey, now is the time to absorb how to win big! Planning assembles a reliable foundation for facing forthcoming battles and expeditiously triumphing by executing an adaptive posture tailored with agility. Applying unique insights presented herein one chapter at a time draws prospects to your endeavors and arranges the table for repeated future achievements. Furthermore, the contents of this book encourage a limitless learning mindset teamed with a conviction for successfully engaging a winnable battle. What's more, this unique, opportunity-inspired resource furnishes its esteemed readers with vigorous strategies for identifying and managing beneficial and adverse risks. The image below is my foundation’s signature theme. I urge you to make its wisdom a habit and put into practice the profound quote below. It solidified my learning of the subtleties of creativity while rousing my attitude regarding "finding a new way to yes."

"I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work." ~ Thomas Alvin Edison

Thomas Edison’s approach towards solving a momentous problem proved his genius. When challenged with a seemingly insurmountable challenge, Edison exhibited purpose-driven creativeness, as opposed to apprehensiveness, that ultimately resulted in realizing his intended outcome. The best example of creativeness is Edison’s persistence, demonstrated by utilizing the trial-and-error technique over ten thousand prototypes before his incandescent lamp became a viable product. Even though Edison did not invent the first light bulb, he undeniably brought to the global marketplace the first commercially practical incandescent light bulb. Edison’s first patented invention, an electrographic vote recorder, solved a crucial inefficiency problem that advanced a democratic system of consensus and economic development! Now start your mental engine and take action to realize a remarkable future. Talented and creative individuals like Edison are rare.

The encapsulating benefit is its creativeness in expressing forward-thinking and staying on the expertness path towards realizing a person’s brilliance while pursuing their highest calling.

Index of Charts and Illustrations

Figure 1 - Conviction for Leadership Model

Figure 2 - Slalom Course to Career Enlightenment

Figure 3 - Practices Strengthening Model

Figure 4 - Quality Communications Model

Figure 5 - Straight Answer Model

Figure 6 - Practices Dashboard Model

Figure 7 - Hierarchical Structure for Questioning

Figure 8 - Hierarchical Structure of Competencies

Figure 9 - Scoring of C.A.K.E. Competencies

Figure 10 - Mindset Empowerment Model

Figure 11 - Performance Intensity Model

Figure 12 - Designing an Engaging Modus Operandi

Figure 13 - Six Essential Facilitation Skills

Figure 14 - i-telligence Core Attributes Matrix

Figure 15 - Expected versus Delivered Outcomes Model

Figure 16 - Empowerment Assessment Matrix

Figure 17 - Nine Discouraging Actions to Avoid

Figure 18 - Nine Ways to Empower Direct Reports

Figure 19 - Weekly Engagements Assessment

Figure 20 - Risk Event Response Strategies

Figure 21 - Shifting the Balance of Risks

Figure 22 - Practices for Increasing Results

Figure 23 - Major Categories of Risk

Figure 24 - Actions that Demonstrate Expertness

Figure 25 - Relevant Idea-to-Realization Sequence

Figure 26 - S.I.M.P.L.E. Process Flowchart

Figure 27 - Creativeness Assessment Matrix

Figure 28 - Creativeness versus Empowerment Map

Figure 29 - Creativeness versus Empowerment Details

Figure 30 - Creativeness Questions

Figure 31 - Empowerment Questions

Figure 32 - Creativeness versus Empowerment Mapping Diagram

Figure 33 - Competence-Enhancement Breakdown Structure

Figure 34 - Relevance Attainment Breakdown Structure

Figure 35 - Five Relevant Seeds of Achieving Success

Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.

~ Michelle Obama

The First Episode Covers:

S trategic inputs for bolstering conviction

C onviction for leadership

I nfallible approach for realizing self-esteem

P earls of wisdom – Conviction matters

This chapter extends appreciation to each person helping me to win an uphill battle so that I could engage a destiny-propelled life. Chapter one humanizes conviction with intellect and passion. These strengths were repeatedly planted, cultivated, and harvested during my forty-plus year career as an equipped and dedicated employee. Expressed in this chapter are learnings from practices and processes I applied regularly to ascend from a novice to strategic relevance as a PMI® program management professional (PgMP) certification holder, and currently as a Competence Enrichment Instructor. The illustration below shows typical ordeals faced during each battle towards achieving mastery in my professional roles. Expect to clash with each test during the emergence from obscurity process.

Confidence galvanizes creativeness for exerting resolve to stay positive during each awkward encounter while fulfilling purposeful objectives, presenting a concept, or progressing your life’s journey towards its born-to-be calling (or legacy). Critical thinking, meticulously sculpted from knowledge, open-mindedness, and expertise, activates a smarter action for navigating life’s meandering thoroughfare to attain mastery. Now is the opportune moment to let go of all disappointments and avoid misinformed mistakes, paralysis of indecisiveness, and preconceived notions. Alternatively, pursue constructive engagements that add tangible value to your life’s journey. Abstain from all doubts and hesitation. Instead, build the capacity to ascend greater heights, to live inspired every day, and to create a better future by planting seeds for realizing abundance. Emphasize education for attaining skills to radiate conviction. Exert giftedness with humbleness to hollow out fear, uncertainty, and alternative facts.

Conviction to climb a steep mountain with the expectation that self-determination awaits at the top takes courage to fight the good fight of faith to reach this aim. The pressure to succeed causes an individual to act impulsively, like striking out on their own or taking on higher risk than their ability to manage. I encourage you to journey judiciously. Applying insights herein lights the way to realize this objective, followed by persevering until fulfilled. The lifeblood for winning and living your dream resides within. Thus, if attaining a prosperous future is your aspiration, confidence is essential. Broken or hindered concentration leads to a fiasco.

Chapter One: Conviction, the Lifeblood for Winning

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life." ~ Marcus Garvey

CONVICTION is the best force multiplier for experiencing gratification. How confident do you feel about your near-term situation, current possibilities, and financial resources invested in realizing abundance in the not-to-distant future? The alpha attribute of conviction is decisiveness. Imagine the struggle to discover a creative solution while being frustrated by a corralling setback weighing heavily on both shoulders. A situation such as this compels drawing upon the insightful information detailed in chapter one. Conviction 1) sparks genuine enthusiasm; 2) ignites imagination; 3) amplifies brain waves; 4) advances a practicable idea into a needed breakthrough; 5) filters fear, so that forward progress to purpose quickens; and 6) refines an initiative that matters and transforms it into a tangible benefit. Conviction helps a person deal with a setback, ascend from it, and thrive.

Conviction, the first aspect of the creativeness thesis, radiates actions into a torrent of energy for refining work activities or topping a personal best. Its Paralingual insight fortifies a holistic approach for realizing the most effective solution to a fateful predicament. An example is developing a novel vaccine that diminishes the risk of infection from a deadly virus by working with a person’s natural defenses to develop