The Pledge: Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life

As leaders, we are involved in providing strategic direction and vision for the organization. It's part of the job. But who helps us provide strategic direction and vision for our lives? Michael Masterson is here to help.

In his new book, The Pledge: Your Master Plan for an Abundant Life, Masterson provides practical advice on making your life vision a reality. I've read six of his previous books and numerous e-mail, newsletter and web site page he has written.

About half of the material in this book I've seen before, but the rest is new and was very helpful. On page 8, Masterson asks the reader to commit to "The Pledge" by signing and dating it. It reads:

"I have committed to creating a master plan that I can use to succeed this year. I commit to following that plan without question or complaint. I further commit to keeping a journal on my progress and investing the time and money needed to achieve my goals. At the end of the year, I promise I will write to you and explain exactly what I have accomplished." (page 8)

Several things I like about this, including:
1. You have to write it down. Studies have shown that written goal are more likely to be accomplished.
2. It includes accountability. You have to write Masterson at the end and tell him how it went.
3. It removes doubt. By removing questioning and complaining. These are a couple of my biggest road blocks.
4. It provides measurement. You can't manage what you can't or don't measure. Keeping a journal helps you measure the progress you are making.

The Pledge starts with a test called "How Good is Your Life?" If you buy the book at the deeply discounted Amazon price, this test alone is worth the price.

I've already read this book cover-to-cover, underlining as I went. Then skimmed back through it again and underlined some more. I anticipate more encounters with this book in the years to come.

As a practitioner of personal development and planning for over a quarter century, I found suggestions for dealing with some of the issues I find particularly troublesome. Masterson includes advice on: information addiction and "being in a rut." A couple of things I excel at.

Favorite quotes:

"The single biggest reason that people fail in life is that they never take effective action." (page 6)

"The cost of failure, successful people know from experience, is very modest compared to the cost of inaction" (page 7)

"That was the shape of my delusion when my father said, 'If you want to be a writer, you have to write. A writer is someone who writes.'" (page 114)

"Attitude can change behavior, but it is much more common for behavior to change attitude." (page 174)

The 25-25-50 rule for preventing analysis paralysis (courtesy of Bob Bly).
"No more than 25 percent of your time studying."
"No more than 25 percent of your time observing."
"At least 50 percent of your time actually doing the things you are studying and observing." (page 155)

Hopefully, this whets your appetite for more. You can get you own copy here:

The Mission Statement Book

The Mission Statement Book: 301 Corporate Mission Statements from America's Top Companies provides information on 301 of America's top companies.

You can find (when available):
1. The Name of the Company
2. Their Mission Statement -- may include vision, mission, goals and objectives or some combination of these
3. A Description of the Corporation
4. Address
5. Industry Category
6. Number of Employees
7. Size of Revenues
8. The Source of the Information

Using this resource allows you to find competitors to benchmark against. You can select companies in the same industry with a similar number of employees and similar size revenues. Then you can determine their strategic niche by reviewing their company's strategic descriptions.

For instance, say you want to compete in the software industry. And you decide to take on Microsoft. In fact, you want to pattern yourself after Microsoft. Then you would turn to page 396 in The Mission Statement Book . (Companies are listed in alphabetical order.)

Here you would find that Microsoft's Vision statement is nearly a page long. The first line would be what we would commonly refer to as a missions statement:

"A computer on every desk and in every home."

Microsoft elaborates on this statement for three paragraphs and then follows up with a paragraph of goals. These goals are related to product development and delivery, infrastructure development, infusion and diffusion of computer technology, and hiring practices. They end with a promise of putting "Information At Your Fingertips."

While you might not be able to compete with Microsoft in size or revenues, you can have a vision that is as big as theirs.

The Mission Statement Book includes information from companies in 34 industries. Some industries have only one representative, others have information from a couple of dozen firms.

They range in size from General Motors with 710,000 employees to Forest Oil Corporation with 187 employees. These companies represent 42 states and the District of Columbia.

Are You Ready to Succeed?

Srikumar Rao's book, Are You Ready to Succeed? Unconventional Strategies to Achieving Personal Mastery in Business and Life is an attempt to help the reader adjust his or her mental paradigms about life. Not specifically a spiritual based book, it none the less focuses on the meaning of life.

A very practical book, Rao outlines 21 exercises to help the reader adjust and correct their own mental models about life and the world around them. Some of these exercises I've seen recommended in other places. Such as #7 and #8 "Appreciation and Gratitude #1 and #2." Or #12 -- "The Other-Centered Universe." Or #14 -- "List Your Accomplishments." Or #17 -- "Your Ideal Job."

Other exercises he recommends were completely new to me. Such as #2 -- "The Alternate Reality." Or #5 -- "Eating Mindfully." Or even #13 -- "Doing Nothing."

In Are You Ready to Succeed?, Rao explains that changing your thinking patterns takes time and practice. Some of the exercises can be done once and then periodically reviewed and revised. Such as "Your Ideal Job," "My Mental Models," or "How To Create Miracles in Your Life."

Other exercises must be done repeatedly and regularly to gain the most benefit from them. Such as "Present Moment Awareness," "Eating Mindfully," or "Appreciation and Gratitude."

Exercise #10 is probably my favorite. I've been trying to teach this basic concept to people for a decade. And Rao provides and illustrative example of what I've been trying to teach.

Exerise #10 is called "Good Thing? Bad Thing? Who Knows?" It's based on a Sufi tale that you can read here:

There is a very old Sufi story about a man whose son captured a strong, beautiful, wild horse, and all the neighbors told the man how fortunate he was. The man patiently replied, "We will see." One day the horse threw the son who broke his leg, and all the neighbors told the man how cursed he was that the son had ever found the horse. Again the man answered, "We will see." Soon after the son broke his leg, soldiers came to the village and took away all the able-bodied young men, but the son was spared. When the man's friends told him how lucky the broken leg was, the man would only say, "We will see."Gratitude for participating in the mystery of life is like this.
Source: http://www.lifebalanceinstitute.com/

The point of the story is that something may appear to be a good thing to you or a bad thing to you based on your expectations and cultural preferences. But that it's not possible to know for sure until later when you see what the ultimate consequences are.

In my opinion, I should realize that everything is good in the eyes of God. He is in control of all things. He works out all things for my good (Romans 8:28). Whether or not I ever see it or recognize it. Because I'm not on the earth to serve my own desires and expectations, but God's (Isaiah 43:4-7).

Therefore, whatever it is, it's all good for God's purposes.

I could go on, but this is getting long and I want to post it.

Economics in One Lesson

While not really classified as a leadership book, Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics elaborates on one lesson which is of great importance to leaders.

Henry Hazlitt explains his one lesson as this: "The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effect of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

I would contend this lesson is as applicable to leadership as it is to economics. Hazlitt believes his lesson requires a long, complicated, and dull chain of reasoning. He thinks such a chain of reasoning is difficult for many people to follow and so they give up. They are looking for the short, immediate, and visible result.

Such a view will lead to bad economic decisions. I believe it will lead to poor leadership decisions, as well.

Throughout Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics, Hazlitt illustrates time and again how economic policies that consider only the immediate effect on one group of people have detrimental effects for the long term on most other groups of people.

His examples are stunningly simple, yet, evident in every day life all around us. Hazlitt's insights clarify many of the apparent inconsistencies I see in organizational and government policies. Rather than inconsistencies, these are merely the natural outcomes of short-sighted thinking intended to positively impact one interest group.

Hazlitt explores the apparently unintended consequences of taxes, tariffs, price-fixing, rent control, minimum wage control, unions and inflation. None of them appear appealing under his instructive review. Even the groups who benefit in the short-term from such policies are seen to suffer in the long-term.

The lesson for leaders is: Consider the likely long-term impact of your decisions on all groups.

One Second After

One Second After by William Forstchen is a post-apocalyptic novel. Forstchen's premise is that an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) would effectively wipe out the electrical grid capabilities of the United States and all that entails.

The protagonist of the book is a retired army colonel living in a small town in North Carolina. Now teaching history at a small Christian college, our hero finds himself being challenged to take increasing leadership responsibilities in the midst of social collapse.

One Second After may be the most disturbing book I've read. Forstchen's ability to present likely scenarios in a realistic way is captivating. It took me only three days to read this 352 page book. I was, and am still, challenged to consider how I would respond in a similar social collapse and what I can do to prepare now.

The student of leadership will find this book an instructive read. It presents situations requiring leadership decisiveness. For each situation it presents one alternative choice. The leadership student should consider a variety of potential solutions/responses and their possible or likely outcomes. Throughout the story, alternative choices are presented by other characters in the book as a way of illuminating the thinking of the protagonist.

Some of the scenarios seem implausible making them difficult for me to want to think about. However, each situation presented in this book is possible. Therefore, I chose to mediate on each one and try to determine how to best prepare.

In this novel people die. People who I did not want to die, died. It disturbed me, but it also made me face the reality that people close to me could have been in anyone of those situations. And will be in every one of those situations in the case of social collapse. Therefore, the prudent leader will take action now to prepare for these possibilities.