Category Archives: Personal Development

Personal development posts

Principles for Life

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Principles for Life

by Walter McIntyre

I have personal operating principles that help me have a happy and fulfilled life.  I guess you would say that this helps me lead a principle centered life.  These principles, when followed, even when it is not convenient, help me move through my life with happiness and peace of mind.  I am not advocating what is morally right or wrong, only that you need to understand “your” right and wrong to have a stable map for your life to follow.

These are my principles:

Honesty:

Being honest, especially when you believe that others either will not, or cannot find out the truth, is a measure of your character.  I don’t know too many people who want to be known as really good liars.  The truth of the matter is that when you are dishonest, people know.  Typically, the first person fooled by your dishonesty is you.

On the other hand, being known as an honest person will open doors for you.  As Stephen Covey put it, to be trusted, you must first be trustworthy.  It also provides a low stress, positive feeling in your core when you know you are being honest.

I am the first person to know it when I lie and I don’t like the feeling.  I am better that that.  These are important questions for me.  What do I know about my honesty? What would the people in the wake of my life say about my honesty?  What do I want them to say?

Integrity:

Integrity is related to honesty, but runs deeper, getting into your morality, character, and sincerity.  Unfortunately, we currently live in a culture were telling half-truths (half lies) and cheating is not only accepted, it is expected.  We rationalize our behavior from a win/lose perspective.  As long as I win, it’s OK, right?  Have you ever met a person who wants to win the argument, even when they know they are wrong or misleading?

Seeing an opportunity to cheat or undermine others, but not taking advantage of it, is a characteristic of a high integrity person. Trust me, people know more about your integrity than you think.

Life is a marathon not a short sprint.  It is more important that I finish the race well, not that I won a sprint today that cost me the race in my life.  I like the feeling of doing the right things for the right reasons.  I also want others in the wake of my life to see me as a person with integrity.

Potential:

See the potential in yourself, others and situations. This involves seeing past the obvious.  Bear in mind that this involves seeing both the potential upside and downside.  Many times, potential is evident in the contextual information surrounding people and situations.

What this really involves is taking the long view on things, instead of being short sited.  Life is an evolution not an event.  Everything and everyone is moving toward a destiny. Were we are today, no matter what we do or say, is not where we will eventually wind up.

Dignity:

Did you know that when you trample on someone’s dignity, you trample on your own at the same time?  If you have ever watched someone attack someone else’s dignity, you know what I mean.  What did you think about the aggressor?

This is the root of the bullying dilemma. The bully is actually the one with the low self-esteem and they need to tear down someone else to feel better about themselves.  Seeking a win/lose victory is hollow when a win/win victory is possible.

On the other hand, how do you feel when you preserve someone else’s dignity?  I recently witnessed an elderly lady wondering a grocery store parking lot looking for her car.  A young man came up to her and said “Are you having trouble finding your car, sweet heart”.  She replied that this was so and the young man helped her find the vehicle and gave her a hug.  I asked him if he knew her and he said that he didn’t. He also said that he had a grandmother that age and hoped that someone would help her if she were in a similar situation.  I told him I was proud of him.

Like the young man in the story above, I hope that paying it forward is a real possibility some day for me.  What would the people in the wake of your life say about your concern for the dignity of others?  What do you want them to say about you?

Connectivity:

This is the difference between being independent or interdependent.  We are better when we walk together than when we walk alone. We are meant to connect with others. Interdependent people are nearly always happier and more effective than independent people.

It is easy to connect with those who agree with us on current issues, but we must also connect with those with whom we disagree.  We are all in this together.  Look up “The Pale Blue Dot” on the internet.  This is an enlightening perspective on our collective humanity.

Purpose:

Are you driftwood, simply floating along with the currents of life?  Or, are you a person of purpose, who is moving toward something.  It is important to know where you want to go in life.  I have heard it said, and I have experienced it, that when you are exposed to purpose, nothing will be the same in your life.

Purpose also drives your approach to every criterion listed here. People with purpose are driven to compliance with their values.  When you have purpose, decisions are easier to make because you have a map to follow.

You might call this “keeping the main thing, the main thing”.  For example, if you intend to save money for your children’s education or your retirement.  If that is a purpose for you, then it makes it easier to answer the question of whether I need a new car, or just want one.  That decision can make a $30,000 – $50,000 difference in your finances over a 5-7 year period, at today’s car prices.

A purpose driven life is where effort is valued.  It is about the journey.  How to live intentionally, with purpose, requires you to know what you value and what you want to be the result of your life.  These are difficult questions to answer with honesty and certainty, which is why so many are blindly pushed and pulled along with the masses. Having no purpose of your own, allows others to use you for their purposes.

Belief:

Know what you believe in and understand why you believe it. If you cannot explain your beliefs, you may be vulnerable to drifting away from your purpose.  Try talking directly to the person in your mirror.  If that person has difficulty understanding your beliefs, or is doubtful, you have some growing to do.

Relevant questions might be: Are your religious beliefs yours or your parent’s?  Is your political party affiliation yours or what others have told you to believe?  Are your beliefs in alignment with your purpose?  What is the most important role in your life?  There is no clear right or wrong set of beliefs.  Only that your beliefs are in alignment with your purpose and what you value.

Try creating a 30 second elevator speech that tells who you are and where you are going in life.  Be honest. Remember you are the only one who will be fooled if you don’t.  Your beliefs and your embracement to them become the lubrication that helps you through difficult situations in your life.  I want my belief system to stand the test of time and trouble.  My beliefs will not evaporate like a fair-weather friend when the going gets tough.

The above is a picture of my personal philosophy.  It is my sincere hope that it defines my actions when I am measured against who I want to be.

Being Fearless

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Being Fearless by Walter McIntyre

The lens we view the world through can lead us to incorrect and destructive decisions. Perspective is everything when we face difficult problems. It is the difference between being fearful or being fearless. This is true in our personal lives and in our professional lives.

If you are going to tackle the most difficult problems and opportunities at work, or face down Iife’s most trying events, you must move quickly from asking why the problem exists to what you are going to do about it. Not that the “why” is not important, just that it is only the beginning, not the end of successful resolution. Asking why is only a lens to see that the problem exists. Asking what we are going to do about it is a different lens that leads to action.

Making this change in lens, or perspective, allows you to be fearless in the face of tough problems. I am not the wisest or smartest person in the world, but I am fearless in the face of difficulties. It allows me to surround myself with people smarter than me, without feeling threatened. It allows me to give credit where it is due and to call out poor performance when needed. It doesn’t make you safe. It may do just the opposite.

You can’t always control what comes your way in life, or its seeming unfairness. What you can control is your response to these challenges. It is simple, when you don’t fear failure, you can dare to succeed.

Myopic Thoughts

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Myopic life Can't see the forest for the trees

Myopic life Can’t see the forest for the trees

Myopic Thoughts by Walter McIntyre

Myopic vision: Near sited. Eye fails to resolve distant objects.

Prescription: Corrective glasses or surgery to focus images on the retina instead of in front of it.

Myopic life: Can’t see the forest for the trees. Impatience and failure to see the big picture.

Prescription: Look for balance in your perspective. Long term success is built on short term success. You can’t master a musical instrument in a day, nor can you accomplish great things over night. The best things in life come after hard work and long waits.

 

Walter McIntyre’s Incomplete Success Thoughts

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Walter McIntyre Incomplete Success Thoughts

Can you remember when you graduated from high school or college? The feeling that you could change the world and that you could be and do anything you choose? Can you also remember the day you realized that maybe you were not going to change the world and that you were limited to what you could be?

I can. I can also remember feeling disappointed in myself when my dreams for success did not immediately come true. Fortunately, I had a wise adviser in my life that helped me put things into perspective.

My dad would always tell me to keep the faith and keep moving forward in my life. Dreams are what they are because they are not easy to achieve. They require hard work. He was right.

He told me a story once about his first job out of high school. It was a manufacturer with seven assembly steps.  When hired, he was trained to work one of the assembly steps. What he did next was the difference maker. On his breaks and weekends he would have the other operators train him to operate every piece of machinery and every assembly step. His goal was to become the most knowledgeable and most valuable employee at the plant.

The result was that two years later he was the highest paid non-management employee in the facility. This was due to the fact that he out worked everyone. He became the MVP to plant management by paying a higher personal price than others in the facility.

I have had to re-invent myself three times during my career. One was by choice and two were forced on me. In all three cases I had to take a step back in pay and prestige in order to keep forward momentum in my career. Also in all three cases, I worked to learn and grow in the new field and eventually found myself with better pay and position than the earlier jobs.

Challenge is not to be feared and neither is change.  These “C” words should be embraced because they are opportunity in disguise. If you are not facing challenge or change in your life, you are not moving forward. Consider them blessings.

Here are Walter McIntyre’s Incomplete Guidelines to Success in Life:

  • Do not seek money as a goal. It has no staying power. When you spend it, it’s gone and so is its value.
  • Set goals around things that have lasting value no matter what happens to you or the economy. Knowledge, reputation, and character are good choices.
  • If you don’t ask for it you won’t get it. Not asking for help when you need it is one of the biggest failures you can have. We always stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. If you don’t know something, ask.
  • Seek to be the “go to” person in your organization.
  • You will reap what you sow. Invest in your growth.  Learn everything you can, seek opportunity and challenge, become the person you dreamed of being.
  • If success is where preparation meets opportunity, then you better focus on being prepared. You cannot always control opportunity, but you are totally in control of being prepared. Don’t be the person who just saw the best opportunity flash by them, but were not prepared to seize it.
  • Big successes are made up of small successes. Pay attention to detail and the “small stuff” so that the “big” stuff is cut down to size.
  • Know your tools and use them. When I exercise on my treadmill, I will watch YouTube videos to expand my knowledge.  Recently I needed to help a client with a software development problem.  I found several videos that specifically covered how others had dealt with the same issue. The following week, when talking with my client, he stated that he didn’t know I had that level expertise in software development.
  • You cannot claim greatness. Greatness is attained by accepting the challenges life gives you.

There is more to this discussion, but I will leave to the reader to continue the discussion.  The list is incomplete because your life is different than mine. What we have in common are the true north principles of life. These are the things that do not change with the ebb and flow of our lives.

Don’t be discouraged with where you are now. Instead have a vision of what you want to be and what you want to do. Then set out to make it happen.

Some Thoughts

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Some Thoughts by Walter McIntyre

Some thoughts from my day.

The universe is big and I’m not the center of it.

Who knows more about this than I do about me?

Find out who’s on my team and link arms with them.  Form a personal advisory group.

Does life happen to you or do you happen to life?

Surround yourself with the best in class.  You can’t soar with the eagles if you are hanging with the turkeys.

What question do you not want someone to ask you?  Answer it and own it.

“I don’t need any help” is a huge lie.

“Will you help me?” Only takes 20 seconds of courage.

The Magic of Numbers

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The Magic of Numbers by Walter McIntyre

Contrary to how you may have learned math, the story of numbers is one of magic. Numbers fill our lives in ways we never think of. From IP addresses to the television channel you watch, numbers allow us to differentiate between categories and events.

To see the real magic behind our numbers, try this experiment. Solve this equation (4+15)/(29*16). Now solve this equation without converting it to our modern numbering system, (IV+XIV)/(XXIX*XVI). The Roman numerals were for documentation and it was not possible to perform operations with them. The Romans used Arabic numbers, similar to what we use today for commerce, where operations were needed. Aren’t you glad you were taught math in our modern numbering system rather that Roman numerals? Imagine how much harder long division would have been.

Here is another piece of number magic. The constant pi is equal to 3.14 (plus an infinite number of places after the decimal point). But what is pi and where did it come from? Performing this next experiment in number magic back in Jr. Hi. would have made your journey through geometry a lot easier.

Get a dinner plate and a sewing measuring tape. Measure the circumference of the plate as exactly as you can. Also, do an exact measurement of the plate’s diameter. If you multiple the diameter by 3.14 (pi), you will get the exact same number as the circumference. If you do the same experiment with any round object, no matter how big or small, you will always get the same result. Isn’t is comforting to know that some things in the universe are constant?

I know this sounds crazy, but a few years back I had a vehicle that calculated instantaneous and trip miles per gallon. I noticed an increase in my vehicle’s fuel economy that did not agree with what I was seeing at the pump. It was 3.5 miles to the gallon better than reality (my fuel economy was worse than calculated by the vehicle’s computer).

I measured the diameter of my tires, ground to top of the tire, put the appropriate air pressure in them and measured their diameter again. The difference was 0.38 inches. I used pi and to determine the distance covered by one revolution of my tires before and after increasing the air pressure. The calculated difference in fuel economy was 3.48 miles to the gallon.

Basically, my vehicle’s computer assumed a specific diameter of the tires and was not programmed to adjust to changes in diameter. I know that you are thinking this was a waste of time and effort, but if the engineer who programmed your vehicle’s computer had not know how to use pi, or if pi were not a constant as in the experiment above, the fuel economy display on your dashboard would not be possible.

Who says there isn’t magic in the world?

Pursue Your Dreams

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My mentor told me that I should pursue my dreams.  Find the people who are the best in class in the talents I need, and learn from them by adding value to their dreams. By making a positive exchange in value with people, everyone is a winner.  Sounds like something Zig Zigler would have said.

He also told me to avoid those who would gold brick off of my talents and success. People who would create a negative exchange of value with me. There is no upside to this scenario.  Helping people is great.  Being a doormat is not.

The first point requires hard work.  The second can happen with no effort on your part.

When swimming the deep water of hard work and sacrifice, partner with a life vest, not a concrete block.

 

Great Teams

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Getting the most out of yourself and others.

Perspective is nearly everything when it comes to accelerating your performance, or someone else’s.  Human motivation is more art than science.  No matter what I believe or expect about the natural laws, for example, my opinion has no impact. Gravity does what gravity does, no matter what I think.

Human motivation is different. What you believe about yourself, or others, has an impact on your behavior or someone else’s behavior. The self-fulfilling prophecy does not apply to natural laws, but does apply to us lowly humans.  This is both good and bad.

We are unfinished beings.  We are deflected and controlled, to some degree, by self-talk and the opinion of others.  We evolve, or de-evolve, every day according to circumstances and conditions. This is why negative self-talk and overly critical communication with others is so destructive.

The difference in effect between leadership and supervision is so profound in this dimension. Leadership instills value in others, and their work, thereby increasing their motivation to follow. Great leaders focus this value, not on themselves, but on the individual and the business or project. Leadership starts with a commonly accepted value proposition and “leads” others to fulfillment.

Great teams have three creative qualities:

Creative Abrasion:  Different experiences lead to different points of view.  None may be completely correct, none are completely wrong.  Folks need to listen to others and to have others listen to them, in a safe environment.  In other words, agree to disagree.  Not being able to listen to others leads to the “emperor in his new clothes” syndrome.  Look this up if you don’t know what I am talking about.

Creative Agility:  The ability to test and refine our processes and ideas.  To align our creative effort toward the ultimate objective.  For us, this is fulfilling customer expectations, which leads to customer retention and profit.  It simply is not about us.  We are not at the center of things, the customer is.

Creative Resolution:  Making a decision.  In most cases the best solution winds up being a combination of several solution ideas.  When done right, we hear the word “we” a lot more often than the word “I”.

All of this boils down to a relatively simple concept.  Successful innovation requires a sense of community.  Working together nearly always leads to success.  Working as individuals nearly always leads to failure (or at best, limited success).

What does this mean to you?  See the operation of the business and its functions as a dance that requires partners. Find ways to work together. Focus on how we are doing with satisfying internal and external customers. Quit focusing on other people’s performance and think on how to improve yours.

Great teams are made up of a group of individuals who have a shared vision, an expectation of success, an understanding of their role, and are focused on execution.

The Origin Of Things

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Engineering begins with the axiom that there is nothing we can’t figure out.  I used to call this roof top engineering because it requires a shift in the way we view challenges.  Viewing a challenge from different perspective gives us a 3D perspective of it.
Here is an example of this shift in thinking:
When we see the numbers below, we intuitively understand what they mean, but why these shapes? I believe that it is important to know the origins of things.
Our number shapes come from the Hindu-Arabic number characters.  Remember that these characters were used as a universal way to count for commerce.  One need not intuitively know the name of the character, just how it represented a quantity.
Can you figure it out? (Hint: Count the angles on each character)
Numbers