{"id":707,"date":"2011-03-12T13:06:52","date_gmt":"2011-03-12T13:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saasoft.com\/blog\/?p=707"},"modified":"2011-03-12T13:06:52","modified_gmt":"2011-03-12T13:06:52","slug":"passion-persistence-and-patience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/?p=707","title":{"rendered":"Passion, Persistence and Patience."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One\u00a0goal\u00a0of Improvement Science is self-sustaining<\/strong> improvement. This\u00a0does not mean\u00a0fixing the same problem day-after-day:\u00a0it means solving new challenges first-time and\u00a0and for-ever.\u00a0Patching the same problem\u00a0over-and-over is called fire-fighting and is an\u00a0emotionally and financially expensive strategy. We all get a\u00a0buzz out of solving problems;\u00a0and that is a good thing because when we free ourselves from\u00a0the miserable world of the “can’t\/won’t do mindset”\u00a0\u00a0we gain\u00a0the confidence to take action, to solve problems and to gain access to\u00a0an endless supply of feel-good-fuel.<\/p>\n

Be warned though:\u00a0there\u00a0is a danger lurking here\u00a0in\u00a0the form of the unconscious\u00a0assumption that\u00a0if we\u00a0solve all the problems then we will run out of\u00a0things to do\u00a0and our supply of feel-good-fuel will dry up too.\u00a0 This misconception and our unconscious fear of ego-starvation conspires to undermine our efforts and we can unintentionally drift into\u00a0reactive fire-fighting behaviour – which sustains our egos\u00a0but maintains the mediocre status quo.\u00a0We may also unconsciously collude with others who supply their egos with feel-good-fuel from the same\u00a0source – and by doing that condemn us all to perpetual mediocrity.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0root cause of\u00a0our behaviour is our natural tendancy to see challenges as\u00a0problems – the negative stuff –\u00a0\u00a0the niggles – what we see that is getting the the way and must be\u00a0removed. We are not as good at seeing challenges as opportunities – the positive stuff – the nice ifs – because we do not see what is not there.\u00a0 The reason for our distorted perception is because\u00a0the “caveman wetware between our ears” hasn’t evolved to give us a balanced perspective.\u00a0\u00a0Fortunately, we have\u00a0evolved the ability to see with our mind’s eye:\u00a0to dream, to imagine and to conduct\u00a0“thought experiments”.\u00a0When\u00a0we apply that capability\u00a0we start to ask “What if?” questions.<\/p>\n

What if …\u00a0\u00a0I were to see challenges\u00a0as either niggles (to be lost)\u00a0or\u00a0nice-ifs (to be gained)?\u00a0
\nWhat if … there is a limited or manageable number of niggles to be removed?
\nWhat if … I\u00a0believe there is an unlimited supply\u00a0of nice-ifs?
\nWhat if … I do not get the nice-ifs because I spend all my life fighting the same old niggles?
\nWhat if … I nailed some niggles once and for all?
\nWhat if …\u00a0I had time\u00a0and energy to focus on some nice-ifs?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

None of us enjoy disappointment.\u00a0We do not like\u00a0the feeling that follows from\u00a0reality failing to meet our expectation – we see it as\u00a0\u00a0failure and we often take it personally or accuse others.\u00a0 As children we can dream freely because have not yet been disappointed enough not to;\u00a0as adults we appear to lower our expectations to avoid the feeling of disappointment. We\u00a0learn to settle for smaller dreams or no dreams at all.\u00a0 I believe the reason we do\u00a0this is simply because we are\u00a0not taught\u00a0any other way – we are not taught how to\u00a0deliberately and actively access the inexhaustible supply of feel-good-fuel that is the locked-up in\u00a0our dreams – our nice-ifs.\u00a0We are not taught\u00a0how to nail niggles once and forever and how to re-invest our lifetime into make some of our dreams a\u00a0reality.\u00a0 To learn those skills we need passion, persistence and patience – and a process. That process is called Improvement Science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One\u00a0goal\u00a0of Improvement Science is self-sustaining improvement. This\u00a0does not mean\u00a0fixing the same problem day-after-day:\u00a0it means solving new challenges first-time and\u00a0and for-ever.\u00a0Patching the same problem\u00a0over-and-over is called fire-fighting and is an\u00a0emotionally and financially expensive strategy. We all get a\u00a0buzz out of solving problems;\u00a0and that is a good thing because when we free ourselves from\u00a0the miserable world of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Passion, Persistence and Patience.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,43,45],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","category-why","category-what","tag-dream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hcse.blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}