Lighting Your Own Fuse: A Glossary of Mission, Vision & Passion

By Mac Alexander Macdonald

Unlike so many other leadership, management, and self-help books, "A Glossary of Mission, Vision, and Passion" is written with punch and verve, reminding us who we are and what we can be, especially during times of stress. This illuminating book serves as a snappy reminder how to stay out of our own way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LYFECO
• Release date: Feb 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9780578369358

Book preview

ANow, to keep your fuse lit… A#1 – You

You are #1. No return from deity or country, family or company will ever occur until you understand that it is about you: this is all about you first. Your commitment to work on yourself, to find the inner harmony, to face fear, to pick up the skills, take the leap, cut the negative self-talk, untie the tethers, put down the harpoons of blame, examine your intentions, do the work, and commit to getting on board and staying on board the future train is paramount – it is A#1. The seeds of success must emanate from you first, then everything and everybody lends a hand to water and fertilize those seeds; but only then. We ultimately learn that we alone are the true authors of our own destinies, the conductor of our symphony. No higher power can save you without your cooperation. As editor, orator, and former slave Frederick Douglass said, I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

A#2 – Others

A#2 is an unrelenting, uncompromising, unquenchable desire to assist our external customers - those we sell to or serve, and to our internal customers, who might be stakeholders, and those we work with and for.

A#2 is your commitment to create goodness at home with love partners and children, at work with coworkers and customers, and to be of utmost service to your community Then, as part of the A#2 pledge, to spread that commitment so that others will do the same.

As St. Frances of Assisi said, Once you have heard the message go spread the message, and if you have to use words. Or as Voltaire stated so indictingly (if I can make indict an adverb), Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.

Affirmations – without discipline

Say to yourself, I know that writing affirmations without showing discipline is delusion. I do not delude myself. I make affirmations about who I want to be, where I want to go, and how I want to get there. I affirm my place on this planet fully committed to a common endeavor to make my family, my community, and my organization a communicative mission-oriented place to operate. I then show the patience, the professionalism, the creativity, and the discipline necessary to make it happen. We can talk all day about commitment but …

Good words do not last long unless they amount to something.                                                                                - Chief Seattle

Accountability

Say out loud, At this time in my life, I am going to take personal responsibility for who I am and what I want to become. This is the time to create the prosperity (which takes the form of cash or just better relationships) needed to help set me up for the rest of my life. It can be done; I am already doing it. Firstly, I must understand that I will not change toward greater productivity or greater effectiveness in my life unless I commit myself to my own improvement. That means I must realize that I am 100 percent accountable and 100 percent responsible for what goes on in my life. I create that which is most important to me.

We create our happiness. Not our wives or husbands, not our customers or our companies, not our supervisors or our employees, not our children nor our parents, the government, or the weather. I create the spirit and attitude that makes me want to come to work versus thinking I have to. I create the attitude of wanting to get up in the morning versus thinking I have to. The forces are not beyond my control. I can raise myself out of victim-speak. All the strength, all the talent, all the ability to achieve whatever I want lies right inside of me. I can reach down into myself and bring it out. Due to the stuff that life throws at us this takes some deeper reaching and deeper digging for some people than for others, but you have what it takes.

Accountability – risk

Taking personal responsibility and personal accountability for changing things to make them right takes risk. Saying, The buck stops here may open you up to even more violence or harassment. Just ask survivors of domestic violence. Saying enough is enough and seeking an escape route can open the door to even greater abuse. But through tenacity, perseverance, guts, goal focusing, and asking for support you will sketch and mold and chisel and sculpt what you wish to create for yourself, and, in their case, for your children.

So at the outset taking responsibility may seem to be taking insurmountable risk. In actuality, the greatest risk lies in taking no risk at all. Managers manage, leaders take risks. In other words, says poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, Don’t follow where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and carve a trail.

Dimensional Accountability - Self, Horizontal, and Vertical Down at the bottom of where life doesn’t work is a person who refuses to be accountable for his or her thoughts, his or her behaviors, and his or her decisions. True accountability is the ability to challenge and the ability to be challenged.

There are three dimensions to accountability: The first is Self-Accountability. This lies in taking responsibility for every aspect of your life, and certainly for making relationships work, putting in a full day’s work for a day’s wage, not goldbricking, helping others, etc. Is it your alloy that is weakening the integrity of the chain?

The second is Horizontal Accountability; this is peer to peer, individual to individual, group to itself. You will see this in the animal world, especially in horses. You do not have to wait until a problem is passed up to the supervisory level. You can all see where someone is falling behind in meeting their responsibilities, are milking the system, or are letting their ego or authority fly to the moon. It is critical to create the dialogue necessary to police the herd, to hold each other responsible and accountable, to enforce ethics, honesty, and forthright communication.

The third is Vertical Accountability which is manager to employee, or parent to child, and back. Manager’s must ask for feedback and critique as well as give it.

Alignment and Attunement

How am I going to make money, get that new house, or achieve my dreamt about opportunities, you might ask? Or you might ask, How do I find peace in the midst of all of this political turmoil? You are going to see it, feel the effects as if you already had it, and then aim yourself in that direction, aren’t you? Firstly though, as a conscious contributor you look to find your true purpose as an individual. You ask, Who am I? Where have I been? Where am I going? What do I want for myself, my family, my group, my community, my future? These are questions basic to your personal alignment. More importantly we simply want to be in harmony with our universe – balanced, even keeled, able to respond correctly, in other words, response-able.

Alignment

What do you want? How do you get there? How do I align myself with my objectives? How are you showing up? If you ask someone how they are doing and really care about their answer, or say good morning and really mean it, then you are in alignment with good character. When you pat someone on the back or cheer someone after a bad day, that’s alignment. Knowing how to stop on a dime to rid yourself of a curmudgeonly attitude in order to find inner peace, and a better, stronger you, that’s alignment. As you will see in an example about the famous conductor Itzhak Perlman, who loses his violin string right in the middle of a performance, alignment means being able to tap a deeper source that allows you to play on the strings you have at your disposal rather than complaining about those that have broken, or those that never came with your violin in the first place. Alignment lies in knowing you are an angel and remembering how to fly with the feathers you have.

Attunement

The next step lies in expanding your personal purpose and joining it with your organization’s purpose. Attunement is the quality of feeling shared by the members of a team. Attunement is the critical variable in team performance, both positive performance and negative. The Japanese are masters at this. Their amazing productivity levels are a testimony to the level of their attunement. As an individual, and yet also as a member of a team, you identify with the greater purpose of your work. This is the factor in your job life that makes you want to get up in the morning and go to work versus dragging yourself there.

Again, how am I showing up as a proud, respected, integral member of a fine and sophisticated organization? Do I want to please more customers thereby increasing sales? Is it to portray yourself to your customers, your clients, or the public as a member of a very credible, fine-tuned, hardworking beneficial machine? Are you the gossipy type, the backbiter, the second guesser, the non-supporter of your boss’ decisions? Do you act the pessimist hoping to be proven wrong? If you are, or if you do, you are dragging the team effort down. Do you resist change? Do you see change as a curse rather than as an opportunity for growth, or are you a member of a team with the enthusiasm to grow, and change?

If you are in management, are you asking for and receiving the input of those you are supervising? Are you learning the skills necessary to motivate others, to learn what they want as individuals, and to stay out of a my way or the highway attitude?

You can tell which are the more successful groups and organizations. You can feel their energy. Their members care about each other, and they support each other in the achievement of team goals. They are attuned. Visit the next Olympics and note the active commitment each individual participant makes toward pleasing their team and you will get an idea of attunement. You can be a cross-country runner, a dish washer, a night security guard, or the owner of a factory working until the wee hours of the morning. Your work might be isolated and performed far away from the rest of the team. But at all times you know how much you count, and how much your individual effort and zeal affect the bottom line. That’s attunement.

Alignment Plus Attunement Equals Synergy

Now what in the world does that mean? To the customer world it means a lot. To the work group, it means everything. Strictly speaking, synergy happens when two things work together to accomplish or create something that each is incapable of, or not as effective at, doing alone. To a team it means having personal focus (the I am which is alignment), joined with the common feeling of team harmony (the we are which is attunement), to achieve uncommon performance which is performance beyond what you are currently achieving. Same thing in a marriage or loving partnership. Synergy!

Your first question to yourself might be, How am I personally contributing to the positive general atmosphere of my work, family, or social environment? This is the spirit of alignment. Embracing company, team, or group vision, that’s attunement. Linking the two creates synergy.

So, get aligned, become attuned, and create the winner. Don’t compete. Dragging out a sales or productivity chart to show who is worthy and who isn’t creates antagonism and discontent. One upping to try to prove right, is just might. You want cooperation, not competition. Cooperation creates a helping attitude while competition means that someone hopes that someone else fails. The savvy leader creates an atmosphere where those in the lead really want to mentor those who are further down the accomplishment list. It is good to have goals, it is better to have a sense of what are we focused on? The world then becomes synergistic.

A Manager’s Wish (from an employer’s roundtable discussion)

I wish my employee would:

…be honest.

…do more than is expected as they did when they first hired on.

…be on time.

…be reliable and do what their resume told me they would do.

…be flexible.

…be patient.

…act as if they owned the company.

…give me feedback.

…let me know what I do right, what they like about their work, I sure hear the reverse.

…provide a win-win solution to their complaints.

…not just adopt a Union line without first examining their self-worth.

…stop holding onto resentment.

…stop resenting the fact that they were not advanced in lieu of someone else and that they can trust we are taking everything into consideration.

…show enthusiasm, and don’t stop.

…find ways to govern themselves, and hold each other accountable, at least

discuss things amongst themselves and come up with solutions before turning to me for them.

An Employee’s Wish – (From an actual employee roundtable)

I wish my manager would:

…take my suggestions and act on them. At least let me know he/she heard and thought about them.

…be clear about what he wants.

…be consistent.

…care about me as a person.

…be herself.

…just compliment me every few days.

…do what he says he will.

…get all details before making a decision.

…give me feedback.

…have the courage to make the tough calls.

…keep me informed.

…relax a little and smile.

…support me, understand why my Union is asking for what it is.

…assume the best of me as opposed to micromanaging.

…offer enough support so that I can develop ideas.

…clearly define what the problem she would like me to solve is.

…encourage risk knowing that failure is also part of the equation.

…don’t just tell me, show me, and be the example.

…make a decision and stick with it.

…value my time.

…tell me why we are doing things.

…say thank-you.

…trust me.

Anger

Always take deep breaths before you let anger ruin your day. Traffic hangs us up, personality issues derail us, time demands, new computer programs, faulty equipment, fellow staff attitudes, tardiness, absenteeism, laziness (our own or that of others), mistakes, (our own and those of others) can throw us sideways. New technologies or new organizational policies may intimidate us, fluctuating workloads flummox us, language barriers, generational differences, gender differences, being asked to do more with fewer resources, the inconsistency of others, all of these can try the most patient of us.

However, you are a model. You are a leader even if the only person you are leading is you. As someone in control you know how important it is to stay calm, and to communicate your concerns, to know that you are experiencing only a temporary setback. You also know how to get back on track, to stop on a dime to correct your attitude, to breathe deeply, to reframe, to walk away from the confrontation if need be and revisit it later. You know how to get help or support if it is needed. You know how important you are. You know you can acquire new skills to overcome a perceived or actual deficiency. You know you are the model for so many others in your family and/or organization. Try not to give your power away to anger or resentment, or the things that cause it.

Anger’s need for its antidote - Breathe!

When irritants or setbacks arise, say this to yourself and to others: If this is the worst thing that happens to me (or us) this year I am leading a blessed life.

I am here through this book to give you hope, to give you faith in yourself. But hope is not a strategy, and neither is faith, unless you first carry the conviction that you will overcome any propensity to anger. Then you must carry that conviction into discipline, the actual practice of conquering your excuse-devils and your control-monsters.

As Seneca once said, Anger if not restrained is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provoked it. Karl Jung the famous student of Freud said, Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Anger scours

Anger scours your insides. Anger is the ill wind that blows out the candle of the mind.

Apocalypse Now

Listening is critical. Here is something I learned to my great embarrassment on the set of the movie Apocalypse Now in the Philippines. Having the fortune to be chosen as a performer in various roles, because of my relationship with a wonderful nineteen fifties genre rock group called Flash Cadillac, who were also appearing in it, I was mouthing off about a decision the producer Frances Coppola was making having trusted the Filipino military to deliver on promises. Robert Duval who was standing nearby said, Kid, let me tell you something. Everyone standing around became dead silent to hear what he was about to say. He said, There was a Cavalry Scout lying spread-eagle in the middle of the road face down, ear to the ground. When an Indian rode up and asked him, What are you doin’? The soldier replied, Stagecoach - four horses, two brown, two speckled: One driver, two passenger, much luggage. The Indian now incredulous asked, You can tell all that by just listening to the ground? The cavalryman replied, No, just run over me two hours ago".

Those around us laughed but I knew there was something still coming up and I needed to learn it. And learn I did. Duval went on to say, Kid, there are two kinds of actors in this world. There are those who treat themselves as professionals, they are constantly reading their scripts to get their parts right. They are reading other people’s scripts so if the roof caves in they can be plucked from one part and put into another. They are constantly watching other actors so that they themselves might become better actors. In other words, their ears are glued to the ground for what’s coming up. Then there are those actors whose faces are on the ground with their mouths open run over by what might have been had they not been talking or complaining.

Talk about embarrassment but what a good lesson, what a wondrous great lesson. It was something we all needed to hear, me especially. I glued my butt to his shadow for the rest of the filming just waiting for the chance to have him nod his head meaning sit down here with us, shut up, and listen (to Martin Sheen, Dennis Hopper, Larry Fishbourne, Marlon Brando, Frances Coppola, Harrison Ford, or a half dozen other fine talent). (You can read about that experience by going online to the Seattle Times August 24 th, 2021 Entertainment section.) To this day I love Bob for that needed advice.

Appreciation

Just as we value our customers, so too we value our coworkers. Say, I always show the people I work with that they are an important part of my team, and I theirs. I give recognition freely. As William James, psychologist and philosopher tells us, The deepest principle of human nature is the craving for appreciation. Got it parents? Got it leaders? It is what employees need, it is what staff desire, it is what children must hear. In so doing they begin to learn gratitude.

As simple as the book The Secret tells you it is? Hell no it isn’t!

This fuse-lighting book you are holding in your hands is certainly about positive thinking and positive visualization. It is not however a super-sized bottle of feel-good. It does not offer as simplistic of an answer to life as just seeing yourself on the other side of your problems then seeing those problems miraculously disappear as we read in the book The Secret. I read that book, then I listened to it again on audio. Accompanied by mystical new age music I heard a lady’s ethereal voice tell me that if I have debt in my life it is because I am seeing myself in debt, but that if I just envision checks appearing in my mailbox they will. Effortlessly she continued, if I just see the health and wealth and relationships I want, they will just appear.

So, if I just cheerily see those things in my mind, they will all just fall into my lap ey?

What absurdity, what stupefying salve. Leaving it at that will do exactly that, leave you at that. Never did I hear in that book the words discipline, or hard work, or lesson-learning, persistence, hard-knocks, sweat, pain, patience, compromise, or sacrifice. Yes, yes, I did hear it say that getting to where I want to go won’t feel like a chore if I just keep a positive view of things. This is true and I agree with that statement. That has everything to do with maintaining a good attitude about your work, chores, tasks, and responsibilities. But wishing for something and then thinking it is going to magically appear is the type of unmitigated horsepoop that has led people down a dead-end passage. Thinking you will win the lottery is dead-end thinking. Seeing yourself owning a mansion without taking the hard and incremental steps to work your way to it is dead-end thinking. In fact, it is not thinking. So many multi-level marketers are sent down a futile path being made to think they will be one of the miniscule percent who actually make it to Diamond Level without putting in the time, effort, and sacrifice necessary to reach that status. Yes, you can reach that level, just as you could be the President of the United States, but network marketing is not notwork marketing.

I love Oliver Burkeman’s book The Antidote. In it he quotes Barbara Ehrenreich from her book, Bright-Sided (clever take off on blindsided): How Positive Thinking is Undermining America. One underappreciated cause of the global financial crisis of the first decade of 2000, she argues, "was an American business culture in which even thinking about the possibility of failure – let alone speaking up about it at meetings – had come to be considered an embarrassing faux pas". Bankers, their narcissism stoked by a culture that awarded grand ambition above all, lost the capacity to distinguish between their ego-fueled dreams and concrete results. Meanwhile, homebuyers assumed that whatever they wanted could be theirs if they simply wanted it badly enough and envisioned it strongly enough (which is exactly what The Secret claims), and accordingly sought mortgages they were unable to repay.

The secret to The Secret is there is no secret. There never was. Nothing but discipline and putting in the hours ever got anybody anything or anywhere at any time ever. Have dreams? Absolutely! Focus on your desires? Of course! Set goals and feel deep passion for your vision? You bet! But now the real work begins. You’ll hear me say this several times in this book; affirmations without discipline, is delusion.

Opportunity is missed by many people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.

                     - Thomas Edison, quoted in The Washington Post

God sells us all things at the price of labor.

               - Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, architect, genius

Attitude – Concentration Camp

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a person except one thing; the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

                          - Dr. Victor Frankl, author, Holocaust survivor

Attitude – Harry Potter

Harry: What if the reason for this connection between me and Voldemort is… well, what if I’m becoming more like him? I feel angry all of the time. What if something’s gone wrong inside of me and I’m becoming bad?

Sirius Black: "Harry, listen to me very carefully. You are not a bad person; you are a very good person, a good person that bad things have happened to. You can conquer your anger, which is another way of saying you can conquer fear, anger’s birthing seed. Besides, the world is not split into good people and Death Eaters. We’ve all got dark and light inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are."

 - J.K. Rowling from The Order of the Phoenix

Attitude – personal

Say, "I know that I don’t know it all. I know I have much to learn. I never get complacent. Nor do I take my job, my job skills, our clients, my fellow workers, my relationships, nor my family members for granted. If I make a mistake, I learn from it. I know that I have something significant to accomplish on this planet and in my organization. Whether that is in helping a customer win, a fellow employee win, or in helping my own child win by simply being a good listener, I know how much I have to offer. I am relentless in my pursuit of how to do it right, and how to keep it right. I take the personal response-ability to create a better atmosphere at work and home in which to operate."

I take personal responsibility to see that a culture of can-do exists here rather than an attitude of, Oh God, why is this happening, this policy has never existed before?, or something similar. Whether it be in understanding new computer programs, picking up new and emerging technologies, learning better parenting or managerial and leadership techniques, I show personal accountability to co-create an atmosphere where caring trumps bravado, where vulnerability trumps ego, and where a cooperative culture trumps strategy and politicking. If I see someone getting something I think I should have gotten, a job position or promotion perhaps, a girlfriend or a boyfriend, I don’t compare myself and bring myself down, or get envious. I study. I show the same discipline, I make the same sacrifices, I take the same classes and I endeavor to pick up the same mental, physical, and interpersonal skills to one day achieve what they have achieved. As President Obama said during his inauguration, Greatness is never given, greatness must be earned.

Attitude – The Two Wolves (You’ve heard this before perhaps, but you have never heard it stated in this manner.)

An old, but present-day Cherokee Chief is teaching his grandson and granddaughter about life. Grandchildren, said the wise Indian to the kids, "There is a fight going on inside of you. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One of the wolves is destructive. Just as we all can be at times;