Author: appliedlearningblog

We will generally come to pause and to rest at a point in time. The reasoning for why we pause is worth consideration.

We may pause to rest due to physical or mental exhaustion so that we can continue on refreshed. We may pause before we are tired in hesitation for what may be next in the form of an anticipated challenge. It might also be that we pause because we have no clear motivation nor determination for where we should be going, clearing having made no decision at all.

If there is an action worth taking, it is worth doing as well as we can do it. To pause ought to be a planned strategy for analysis and refreshment toward your purposeful effort to set your next steps firmly. We shouldn’t be all accelerator and no brakes, to pause in thought on the journey is often critical to a successful and impact effort.

Decide to go or not. When you go forward in application of learned experiences, pause only for sustaining efficiency of effort and you will be living a fuller life.

“Many people die with the music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes —

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Dwight D. Eisenhower was once quoted as saying, “The middle of the road is all of the useable surface.” At one far edge and then the other, the track is only apparent to a very few.

As an independent thinker that is learning their way, the useable surface has been the course that I have set for myself with others. A compromise may be necessary to reach a shared value for more than just myself. From compromise, the productive value is generally far greater and much broader in scale on the useable surface.

None of us should compromise integrity. There is no place on the road, nor at the edges of it to secure any real value in this manner. The essence of compromise must be on the useable surface. When the approach or resolution works, it will make great sense to others engaged as well. From a mutual agreement of many, greater and better things will occur.

From compromise, find your place on the useable surface to reach the best outcome. You needn’t always be right, it is better to do the right things with the direction we set ourselves off on with others. In future learning with others, you may evolve to another track closer to your originating thoughts or even further away. You’ve compromised, but likely not forgotten your basis at the onset of the journey toward the greatest of principles.

“I shall argue that strong people, conversely, know when to compromise and that all principles can be compromised to serve a greater principle.” — Andrew Carnegie —

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Life can become a simplified order of sequence we follow to just get things done so we can move onto the next. There is a predictable way to move through the days with little to no risk and then we do the same the next day.

What if we aim to break the sequence a little each day to generate a new and better outcome? A break that would create a new and different perspective of things and add value to our contributions. From a conscious decision we could trigger new thoughts, experiences and possibly reveal a new revelation.

As a parent, seek today to invest in a better sequence of life to add more value and quality time with your child. As a leader, seek to genuinely reinforce what is good in another to inspire them to do more for themselves as well. As a coach or mentor, adjust the sequence with another to open their mind to new and better opportunities as they adjust their sequence.

Seek to reveal something as being “new” each day. Work outside the given sequence to experience something differently to promote new value to be discovered. Avoid the ruts to do and to be more as you continue learning.

“The events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.” — Eudora Welty ––

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It’s nice to dream for the day that a great thing will come to you in reality. Having this ideal vision for what you might desire can serve to motivate you to act. But know, without informed actions, the dream is unlikely to ever be realized and remain to be just a dream.

From the appreciate moments of actions taken to move toward your dream, memories can be made. It is within the moments of memories made, that a great value to life is added. In the creation of moments and memories, lives are changed for the better.

To merit the memories we will come to hold onto dearly, we must be a person of action. Those that continue learning and investing in the attainment/achievement of dreams will add by contribution to their lives and those of others close to them.

Enjoy the treasure of moments and memories you’ve experienced in the past as you continually focus your efforts to generate many more in your future. Each new memory fulfills us in many ways.

“Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.” — Oscar Wilde —

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All of us hope to simplify our lives by overcoming barriers with our initial theory of how we will accomplish that. But, it is only theory until it is applied in reality for an outcome. What seems most plausible and simple is rarely the right solution in the end. Theory is only a launching point for the efforts of actionable change to eventually address and resolve a problem to the desired outcome.

To reiterate, to manufacture a plausible solution is not the difficult part. Anyone can offer a simple and even seemingly intelligent solution. The real work, comes is in the learning application of the predetermined solution steeped in reality. We learn as we go, not beforehand.

It is important for your learning progress to recognize that an easy solution, before it has been applied, remains only a theory and not a tested solution. Because it appears plausible and resonates with others, doesn’t make it any better than the next theory or the one after that.

Fall in love with the problem as you experience it for yourself and not the yet-proven solution. Solutions must be discovered and proven in reality by application. What is plausible is merely an assumption, even for the very well informed.

“There is always an easy solution to every problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.” — H.L. Mencker —

MITM

As we reach the level of success to attain a goal or to reach a milestone of progress, it is natural to celebrate a bit. Within reason, this is also the point at which the next set of goals and milestones ought to be set for your next productive course. The next challenges and dilemmas will come, we may as well be invested in a goal to determine your way through it.

From goals set and met and desired milestones attained, I have fewer regrets. Looking back to June of 2018, my goal was set to accelerate my own learning and that of others. The vehicle to do this was to be a blog written each weekday related to applied learning. Today is post # 1,215 and I have missed just one weekday over this time period. There has been just under 14,000 “views” of this work from well over 80 different countries during this time. I’m still aiming to accelerate forward and the goal continues to evolve past prior milestones.

On December 27th of 2019, I set a goal to work out for 30+ minutes per day and to burn 700 active calories per day, as tracked on my I-Watch. For 1,161 consecutive days, I have met this goal and evolved a great deal physically and mentally from this concerted effort. Today will be consecutive workout 1,162 and I’ll continue onward, determined to surpass new goals and milestones.

We progress to fulfill our lives with goals and milestones with what matters most to us. They help to chart our own unique course of progressive success and meaning as we learn to fulfill them. The investment made comes to determine our eventual level of contributions made and the earned value we share with others in our lifetime.

Continue on to the next milestone. Enjoy the moments of progress, there is much more to be done.

“One of the most important milestones we’ll hit along the way is the moment we finally own our own unique point of view and realize how priceless it is.” — Sara Breathnach —

MITM

To reach a level of mastery within an identified area requires more than most people are willing to invest of themselves. The value a masterful person would bring tremendous value for their craft, but most will fall far short of learning to that level.

Not all surgeons will become masters in their area of speciality. Not all carpenters or athletes or teachers will do so either. To become a master requires a plan full and continuous pattern of learning and application of learning until they would consistently provide the best feasible outcome, each and every time.

Mastery may only be attained through a heavily focused and actively pursued effort over time. It takes time to gather the broad range of specialized knowledge required along with the application of that knowledge across every sort of feasible circumstance and condition. This is where people tend to fall short of moving to a level of mastery.

The opportunity is there for each of us to attain. When knowledge and application of knowledge over time is the focused answer, mastery is available to us all if we would only determine to do so. Invest of yourself from within your life’s purpose to excel at higher levels and your level of mastery will follow.

“Mastery is not a function of genius or talent. It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.” — Robert Greene —

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With no intentional pause, we miss the defining mementos of progress we had worked so hard to attain. While we wait until the very end of the journey to celebrate, we miss the gratification and celebration of key moments of progress in our lives. We even tend to pause and concern ourselves more with the valleys of challenges than we do the progress sustained in the peaks.

Most of us are conditioned to only celebrate at the bigger, planned and more traditional occasions. The ones that industries defined to grow from and Hallmark cards built a business around. National holidays, graduations, weddings and birthdays are not the only time to celebrate moments in our lives.

Celebrate the peaks along the way at the moment you have made a great step of progress. The week you crushed it at work in an effort to one day be promotable. The time you peaked in your weekly workout routine with several personal bests obtained. The moment another reached out to you for support with a task you have obviously began to master at a higher level.

To celebrate amid the flow of life, rather than waited for a planned fun moment conjured up for commercial success, is gratifying and momentum filled. The positive and lasting impact of celebrated moments with others generates great memories of peaks reached along the way. These are what you’ll remember most in the end. The satisfaction and gratification lie in the moments along the way and not only in the culminating tradition of a retirement party at the end, when your staged time is declared over.

“If life, we can work so hard to get the kinks out that we forget to put the peaks in.” — Chip Heath —

MITM

Achievement is the decisive extension of thoughts and actions rightly taken until the desired level of achievement is attained. Without a clearly determined series of priorities, we hesitate and postpone our eventual achievements. Our pause is often a fear of failure or a fear of success when we may already be halfway there.

Postponing one success journey incites the failures of multiple efforts. The backlog of these “on hold” efforts occupies the mind with needless strain, thereafter derailing the attainment of anything significant in terms of achievement.

Define the target of achievement within your life’s purpose and finish each to the desired end with your full potential. No postponement, just determined and prioritized effort to excel with the most critical for you and your learning endeavors.

Clear the postponed backlog, it holds no value for you and merely occupies the space of necessary resources and bandwidth for your more disciplined thoughts and actions.

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.” — Seneca the Younger —

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The deference to our success often comes from our own hesitation to proceed at all. We profess to want something, but then put no real thought, plan or action together to reach toward it. If we would pursue to learn more of it and act accordingly with purposeful effort, then we would have progressed.

Life is not all that unfair. We can accomplish most all that we are determined to do and when we decide for ourselves to do it in our lifetimes. There are nominal restrictions to our free thinking and actions of character to evolve with success. Some have greater advantage and potential than others, but in any case, success can be pursued and attained by applied learning.

Take one thing in your life that you have often professed that you wanted to succeed with, but haven’t done so yet. Start today to gather new knowledge and experiences in that direction. In a matter of a very short time you will have exceeded beyond your self-imposed limitations. You will be on your way with a pattern of habits to promote your earned success.

It is largely on us to act without hesitation and excuses to find a way to win. Get out of your own way by continuously learning.

“Our greatest enemies, the ones we fight the most often, are within.” — Thomas Paine —

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