From 2000 through 2012, I served as the publisher for PERFORMANCE/P360 Magazine (www.ProfessionalPerformanceMagazine.com). We showcased articles on achievement, success, and performance by the leading experts, celebrities, professional athletes, political leaders, best-selling self-help and business authors, original thought-leaders, entertainers, entrepreneurs, and business leaders from across the globe. We found a common thread to all editorial contributions and interviews – namely, that leaders are achievers and achievers have solutions. Losers make excuses, point fingers, lay blame, and deflect attention away from their inability to take responsibility.
So, how can you calibrate away from implosion destinations and make meaningful contributions and meaningful lives? It's as simple as A-B-C: The process by which you visualize your Trajectory Code (see Figure I.1).
1. Point A is always the Activating Event – the starting point that determines how your TC shapes your every action. From here, there are only two trajectories to track.
2. Point B represents the Line, where your actual behaviors, learned habits, personal standard operating procedures (SOPs), and emotional influences may direct your path. It is how you have trained yourself to think and act and typically represents your current reality – not your future goals.
3. Point C represents Consequence. Your Line is always the desired and intended consequence, the course to your intended goal, target, and trajectory for success. It is only by understanding the influences, alignments, and your Trajectory Code (the 1 percent factors, which we'll explain in greater detail later) that you attain Point C and ensure your Line is most efficiently executed. It is influenced and calibrated by your mission, vision, and values. Your Point C is calibrated and your momentum is maintained by very specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that allow you to sequentially measure the immediate, intermediate, and long-term time spans as you progress forward to Point C.
Figure I.1 Your Trajectory Calibration
A more profound question is whether the trajectory represented as Point B is taking you off track. If you were to extrapolate outward at the time of an action, could you recognize where it would take you in the end? Making trajectory recalibrations is exceedingly easy at the base line, represented by the circle at the base represented by Point A – as opposed to where most people wake up and recognize they are off trajectory!
Acknowledge, assume ownership, and rewrite (recalibrate) your Trajectory Code by focusing on the Line that matters. Remove or limit the influence of negative imprinting upon your Trajectory Code and ensure that your Trajectory Code is exercised (calibrated), to help you achieve your desired direction.
This book discusses in detail those factors that have influenced your trajectory thus far. We'll talk about how to harness those factors and leverage them for your advantage and for the future. We'll hone in on the influences to which you should willingly expose yourself for greater Trajectory Code enhancement.
Your trajectory calibration directly dictates your path. Understanding the marked space directly above Point A as those immediate actions after launching from Point A – and recognizing the examination of any action extrapolated into the future – will reveal whether you are heading towards Point B or Point C. This will then determine your ability to make a calculated adjustment, which is a mere 1 percent recalibration at that moment. These 1 percent recalibrations are typically easy to undertake, met with minimal internal or external resistance, and can yield significantly different outcomes.
Let's say you're trying to lose weight. Some examples of common 1 percent recalibrations are drinking water before you eat in order to eat less, or taking the stairs instead of taking an elevator. In terms of professional growth, small things like asking someone to review a critical e-mail before you send it would be a 1 percent recalibration.
Every decision and action you undertake impacts your trajectory and the Line you are on. Veering off course – even by the slightest degree – impedes your ability to arrive at your ultimate destination. Imagine a pilot attempting to circumnavigate the globe – if the pilot's trajectory is off by as little as one degree, he would not end up back at the same longitude where he started but would be off by more than 500 miles!
Most individuals and organizations miss these 1 percent opportunities and fail to realize that they are moving off their desired Line – until they awaken at Point B and see Point C off in the distance. They must then undertake a significant amount of work – often painful and wrought with resistance, blame, anger, and resentment – to get back onto trajectory track C. But even at this point, a true performer will accept the off-track trajectory and undergo the work necessary to reestablish themselves on the correct path. They do so by building a better code, eliminating the losers from their life, and drawing upon the champions. You can respond – which is an act of logic when you have the facts– and can take the appropriate action. However, you react – an act of emotion– when you engage in this process in reverse; that is, take action and then get the facts. This book will empower you to regain control of your trajectory and destiny, regardless of the situation or circumstances that you find yourself in.
At the end of each chapter, I have provided three simple questions for you to consider in reflection for that chapter and how to apply these ideas into your life for trajectory implementation and success.
Chapter 1
Understanding Your Mental TC-DNA Imprint
How Your FIST Factor™ Influences the Lines You Follow
Imagine you are in a time machine. The space your machine currently occupies is the present. Behind you is the past, and directly in front is the future. As you look outward, you see in front of you a massive windshield of life, representing the future opportunities, abundance mentality, possibilities, success, achievement, solutions, collaborations, partnerships, constructive imprints, and influences. Upward to the right of the windshield would be a small rearview-mirror representing your past – experiences, pity, blame, jealousy, revenge, cynicism, what was or could have been, challenges encountered, and negative imprints, influences, and people.
Most people's rearview-mirror images are overwhelmingly negative, and continuously stimulate a defeating internal conversation. Even more amazing is that the rearview mirror represents only about 3 percent of the windshield space – yet it's the area upon which most of us fixate!
Do you find yourself engaging in conversations of disparity or negativity as you view your past? Do you ever think about how that conversation just gains emotional momentum? Chances are that, during these times, you already have or are pushing away positive imprints – people, choices, opportunities, and so on. This is when the detrimental rearview-mirror talk consumes you. To make matters even worse, this is also a place where misery loves company – you typically attract others like you, until you have an army of bitterness. Now reflect on how this imprints your Trajectory Code. How has it influenced – and how will it continue to influence – your trajectory directions?
You may maintain your outside rearview mirror for perspective and benchmarking purposes. However, you must get a firm grasp on the negativity, rip it off and throw it away. Only when you are ready to live in the windshield of positive imprints will you be able to develop a more purposeful you.
One of my earliest code imprints that I carry consciously with me today – and one that had a large part in framing my windshield – was set into motion in a small rural farming community, where I was raised. My first-grade teacher, a woman named Ms. Murphy, calibrated my Trajectory Code for success by holding me back one year. I wasn't aware of it at the time, of course; I was very young, and mostly frustrated that it took me two years to get through first grade. Many years later, I recognized the powerful gift that Ms. Murphy and my parents gave me by holding me back. To be pushed forward when my brain was not ready would have damaged my TC for life. I would have been lost as my second-grade classmates easily