Transition Person I: Don't Continue the Rusted Chain

No matter what has happened, is happening, or will happen, there is a space between those things and our responses to them. ­– Stephen R. Covey

 It is easy – much easier – to react to things rather than respond to them. We are taught in physics that action and reaction are equal and opposite and so we internalize that and give back what has been given to us.

In the same way it is easier to continue the chain of what we see around us rather than break it. In our desire not to be the weak link we become blinded to the fact that the chain we are protecting is rusted. A rusted chain is the family in which mummy got pregnant out of wedlock, first daughter, second daughter and third daughter let's it "happen" to them. It is a business in which boss is verbally abusive, manager verbally abusive, supervisors verbally abusive. It is the home in which father beats mummy, sons beat girlfriends.

We all have had (or still have) our share of rusted chains. The easy thing to do is ensure the rusted chain doesn’t break with you. For example, my Dad gave himself to alcohol for much of his young life and I found myself with an alcohol bottle every evening in my early youth. Not only that, I initiated my younger brother! I had to get to the point where I spoke sense to myself to not continue the habit I so hated in lovely daddy.

It is only when you decide not to continue the rusted chain that you become a transition person. A transition person, in the words of Stephen R. Covey, is “one who stops unworthy tendencies from being passed on from prior generations to those that follow.”

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          The transition person is a chain breaker. He doesn’t sit back and allow life happen to him but makes life happen. He doesn’t react to stimulus, he responds to it. He recognizes that he has the power to determine how his life turns out and decides daily to take only the steps that ensure the rusted chain breaks.

Transition persons are priceless to the future. They are the hope we have for a better tomorrow. They are the reasons we will not have better yesterdays. They set a different example for the next generation to emulate. Do you want to be a transition person? Sure you do! Follow my next article as it shows how to be one.

Intellectual Capital

When you know better you do better. ­– Maya Angelou  

One of the biggest misdoings we bring into a free-flowing idea process is the consideration of financial capital. Of course money is important – only, not as important to our success journey as we make it. Sometimes there is little you can do about the money you do not have. Instead all it does is shut your thinking down.

While there is little you may be able to do about your needed financial capital there is a lot you will be able to do about other forms of capital. One capital you can have unlimited supply of is intellectual capital. To not know is to be limited. A maxim goes: “If you think education is expensive try ignorance.” Indeed ignorance is expensive and its exorbitant price is clearly experienced in developing countries that pay little attention in educating their fast growing young population. Your intellectual capital will set you apart from a world of lay men.

Intellectual capital is transferred through various ways. The first, and most natural, is the seamless transfer from one generation to another. Life is a school and those that go through it have lessons to teach those coming after them. Do not be so haughty as to say you have no need for “old” folks’ knowledge. By doing this many have traded their potentially great futures for meager presents. Depending only on the wisdom of your generation makes you produce repeatedly poor results.

Second, an ocean of intellectual capital is found in books. Is there a book you are reading at the moment? Why not? Good books are researched for, written, and rewritten over years. When you purchase a book and read through it you are getting in a matter of minutes what took the author years to write.

           {To order for my new book, Do it Like Kids, click here}

Finally, you can increase your intellectual capital through readily available media resources. From eBooks, through the internet all the way to audio books, we have myriad options to know more and be more. Why not take advantage of them?