Chapter 2
The Times in which We Live
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." [1]
Charles Dickens
We live in wonderfully troubled times—wonderful as they are troubled and troubled as they are wonderful. In the midst of unprecedented communication, creative, medical, scientific, and technological wonderments, we face deep character, moral, relational, organizational, and systemic problems, which abound all around us. And as the famous opening lines of Dickens' timeless Tale of Two Cities suggest, this is not the first time in human history we have faced such a dichotomistic dilemma. Indeed, a careful study of the past demonstrates that many different periods throughout history—including our own—can qualify as being the best of times and the worst of times. As an old adage states: the more things change, the more things stay the same. Thus, we are not as singular or special a people and era as we are sometimes apt to classify ourselves.
The biggest problem of all, however, is not the problems themselves, but our collective misunderstanding of what the problems really are, and where real solutions lie. Ever searching for short-term, externally based solutions to human challenges and difficulties, we, as a collective society too often invest our energies hacking at the leaves of problems rather than recognizing and focusing on their roots—which almost always originate on some level inside our own minds, hearts, and souls. As the American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, so eloquently put it nearly two centuries ago: There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root. [2]
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| Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 |
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil
—Thoreau
This comprehensive work champions an inside-out approach to personal and collective problem solving. It acknowledges that macro problems on a global, national, community, organizational, or familial level can only be addressed by confronting the micro issues of character and competence that plague individuals—namely you, me, and everyone else on the planet. This book aims to focus your attention and concentration on the only things YOU can actually control, which is your own thoughts, speech, actions, attitudes, and beliefs.
The message of Self-Action Leadership, or just SAL for short, is that simple in basic theory.
And it is that difficult in actual practice.
One of the most challenging phrases for most people to utter is: "I have a problem." An even more difficult admission is: "It is my responsibility to fix my problem by consciously and proactively changing the way I think, speak, and act."
Unfortunately, the habit of blaming external forces and variables for personal and professional problems is a worldwide pandemic whose negative consequences dwarf those incurred by the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19 or the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021. This troubling trend must end if we ever hope to get a handle on the menacing menagerie of problems we face, both individually and collectively as a global society.
Throughout the ages, individuals—like YOU and ME—have always been either part of the problem or part of the solution to everyone and everything around us. Today is no different. As the old adage states: "the more things change, the more things stay the same." No one is perfect, but ultimately, we each end up either starting and compounding problems, or contributing to and creating solutions to personal problems, family problems, organizational problems, community problems, national problems, and global problems.
This textbook was written to educate and inspire individuals—like YOU and ME—to develop the self-awareness, desire, and willpower to become part of the solution to the many, varied, and deeply entrenched problems we all face, be it individually or collectively throughout our incredibly complex and diverse world.
Thirty-six (36) years ago, Dr. Stephen R. Covey introduced his now-famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a book that has since sold tens of millions of copies in dozens of different languages all over the world. In this landmark self-help guide, Covey's first three habits focus on PERSONAL LEADERSHIP—the same general theme of this comprehensive work on Self-Action Leadership.
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| Cover Page of my first Franklin Day Planner (1988) |
There is no other way.
Covey taught us the Law of the Farm to emphasize that natural laws cannot be cheated; they must be respected and obeyed if real results are to be realized. He further taught that Private Victories precede Public Victories, and reminded us that there are no quick fixes to authentic growth and real success—that in the end, such things must always be earned.
When Covey first published the 7 Habits in 1989, I was only 10 years old. My own Self-Action Leadership (SAL) journey had begun a few years earlier when I attended a time management seminar taught by my uncle, Hyrum W. Smith, who was an originator of the famous Franklin Day Planning system and, along with Covey, co-founded FranklinCovey Company, a time-management and organizational development training company that still exists today.
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| What does your "Tree of Life" look like? |
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| A Mighty English Oak |
These roots are no respecters of persons; if recognized and reverenced, they can enrich the "Trunk" and "Branches" of YOUR life and career just as surely as they have mine. Indeed, I have learned through experience that there is nothing inherently special about me; but everything is special about SAL principles and practices. Thus, my own trunk and branches will continue to grow bigger and stronger as long as I am willing to humbly align my thoughts, speech, and behavior with the straightforward, common-sense edicts of their roots. And this same beautiful and prosperous process can play out in your life and career if you are willing to pay the price over time.
Speaking of beauty and prosperity, we then have the "Fruit" of this "Tree of Life, which has proven to be perennially palatable and exceedingly nourishing to my mind, heart, and spirit. Such delectable fruit tastes like achievement, satisfaction, success, joy, fulfilment, enriching relationships, and inner peace.
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| Acorns from the mighty English oak pictured above to the right |
We all begin our lives as tiny little oak trees in embryo; in other words, we all start out as acorns. Unfortunately, not all acorns become majestic oak trees; but never forget that all human beings have the potential to become such. Whether or not we rise to the full measure of our creation depends in large measure upon the choices we make in our lives.
Since the publication of the 7 Habits in 1989, nothing has changed about the world's need for enlightened instruction on personal leadership and character development, except the need is greater now than it was then, and for two specific reasons.
Second, twenty-first century families, schools, and organizations generally misunderstand what actually needs to be taught—and how often—for children, students, and employees to become fully actualized individuals—people who consistently add value and otherwise make the world a better place by virtue of their brief habitation thereon. This is not to say that people in general don't value education; they do! In fact, education has perhaps never been more universally valued and accessible than it is in our postmodern twenty-first century world.
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| 1858-1919 |
—Theodore Roosevelt
Families, schools, and organizations actually do a decent job teaching their children, students, and employees the basic knowledge and skills they need to get a job or otherwise survive in a basic sense of the word. What they mostly neglect is the emotional, social, character, and moral quotients that will largely determine one's success after they begin a job. Getting a job and thriving in a career are two very different things and it is no secret that many of the so-called "smartest" people among us often flounder and fail upon leaving school and entering the real world. This failure is not the result of bad grades or a low IQ, but a result of inexperience, diffidence, and a low EQ, SQ, or CQ (emotional, social, or character quotient).
The "weightier matters" of emotional intelligence and resiliency, social finesse, courage, character, and conscience are only peripherally addressed, if they are addressed at all. Worse still, many leaders and persons of influence set a poor example for their colleagues and subordinates through their own atrophied moral compass, bad habits, and poor conduct. Indeed, many power-hungry, money-grubbing leaders live rapacious lives of opulent profligacy and duplicity and then wonder why their folds are folding right before their eyes!
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| Geoffrey Chaucer and his famous Canterbury Tales |
"This fine example to his flock he gave,
That first he wrought and afterwards he taught;
Out of the gospel then that text he caught,
And this figure he added thereunto—
That, if gold rust, what shall poor iron do?
For if the priest be foul, in whom we trust,
What wonder if a layman yield to lust?
And shame it is, if priest take thought for keep,
A shitty shepherd, shepherding clean sheep.
Well ought a priest example good to give,
By his own cleanness, how his flock should live.
He never let his benefice for hire,
Leaving his flock to flounder in the mire... [4]
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| 1858-1919 |
"The quality of the individual citizen is supreme."
—Theodore Roosevelt
SAL exists to teach, coach, develop, mentor, inspire, and multiply QUALITY CITIZENS!
Talk to any effective and successful executive and they will tell you their single most valuable organizational asset is not tools, technology, or cash, but rather human capital—the PEOPLE. If you have great people, you can eventually overcome any ancillary issue regarding money or things. But no surplus of cash and no surfeit of holdings or resources or real estate can compensate for a dearth of character, competence, social and emotional intelligence and resiliency, and integrity. You simply cannot put a price on the value of someone who is honest, trustworthy, dependable, capable, kind, teachable, cooperative, punctual, loyal, intrinsically motivated, hardworking, and socially and emotionally mature and secure.
Such persons are worth their weight in GOLD; and like gold, they are relatively rare.
This book aims to make such persons less rare. We call these people SELF-ACTION LEADERS, and we aim to build a peaceful army of them and then send them out into the world to positively infect everyone they meet with the kind of character that they themselves possess and exhibit, and which all of us ought to be striving to develop and exemplify throughout our lives.
While knowledge, skills, and techniques are important and valuable, their long-term utility depends on the character holism and SAL-capacity of individuals. This fact is true in the same sense that paper currency is only as valuable as the precious metals and/or economy that backs it up. Without such backing, it's worth no more than the paper and ink with which it is printed.
The good news is that no matter where a person currently finds oneself, SAL can be learned and developed. Moreover, it is not only for those labeled with "Type A" or "Red" personalities. In the words of Dr. Charles C. Manz—the father of self-leadership in academe: "Effective self-leadership can be learned ... [it] is not restricted to people we describe as 'self-starters,' 'self-directed,' 'self-motivated,' etc. ... Self-leadership approach[es] are relevant to managers and nonmanagers—that is, to anyone who works." [8]
Parents, leaders, and educators throughout the West have largely failed their charges by putting the proverbial "cart before the horse" in the contemporary classroom. Endless training on facts, skills, techniques, and/or cultural and political ideology cannot replace the teaching and modeling of character, emotional intelligence, integrity, and prudential judgment. Even worse than these educational omissions, many educators and leaders fail to exemplify such attributes themselves. World renowned leadership expert James G.S. Clawson, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Leadership at the prestigious Darden School of Business Management at the University of Virginia underscored this point when he humbly acknowledged the following in an academic paper.
"I remember when [Charles] Manz (1983) first came out with his work on self-leadership. At the time it seemed odd to me. I will admit I am a slow learner on some things. I have come to believe that one of the biggest leadership issues [throughout the world today] is the inability of people—even and especially managers and executives—to lead themselves." [9]
That's quite a statement when you really start thinking about it.
In Clawson's lucid line of thinking, SAL is, or at least should be, as important a topic to presidents and principals as it is to kindergarteners and new hires. We, of course, agree with him! Moreover, since trickle-down character is inevitable in organizations—as Chaucer so eloquently pointed out—the responsibility for modeling good character should weigh even more heavily on authority figures; and the higher up the command structure, the greater one's personal responsibility should be to exercise oneself circumspectly in all matters both public and private.
Organizations obviously need to teach facts, skills, and techniques in the same way that schools need to teach reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and history, and parents need to teach children how to get dressed, tie one's shoes, and help with family chores. But if that is all they focus on, they are building mansions upon the sand. [10]
If all parents and teachers developed SAL and good character and then passed that legacy on to their children, thereby sending them into the world with excellent work ethics and strong ethical and moral foundations, we wouldn't have such a pressing problem. But, of course, not all parents and teachers do so, and not all children hearken to their teachers and parents.
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| 1874-1936 |
—G.K. Chesterton
This is especially true of adult learners, which includes all of us eventually. But you must be taught something initially before you can be reminded of it, so leaders, educators, and parents must put "First Things First" [11] with regards to what they are teaching their subordinates, students, and children.
This textbook is designed to serve as comprehensive REMINDER of what we all should be striving to think about, do, and most importantly, become over the course of our lives and careers.
Some might argue that while these points hold theoretical merit, they are practically untenable and naïve . "Sure" one might surmise: "teaching character and integrity would be nice in a perfect world where we were not bound by constant deadlines, fierce competition, and finite amounts of time, energy, and training capital and resources; but in the real world, we simply cannot afford the luxury of such training."
At Freedom Focused, our response to this rejoinder is simple, straightforward, and will never change. If a leader, educator, or parent is serious about the long-term success and viability of their employees, students, or children, they cannot afford not to provide this training, modeling, and mentoring. The greatest myth lies in the notion that you can achieve anything of lasting value while neglecting the only foundation capable of properly supporting it.
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| REPETITION is the key to RECEPTION |
The truth is that any principle (good or bad, useful or ineffectual) that is taught repeatedly will influence an employee, student, or child in significant ways. Fascist propaganda machines proved this point for evil throughout the 1930s and 40s, but the same principle can be used for good. For example, my wife used to work for a Fortune 100 company that prided itself on its stellar safety record. Why was their safety record so sterling? The answer was safety training and modeling repeated over-and-over-and-over again in all sorts of different ways and means. With an almost religious fervor, her immediate supervisors and other corporate leaders would continually drill the principles and practices of safe work practices into the minds and hearts of their employees. The result was both predictable and desirable: their tens of thousands of workers spread all over the world rarely reported an accident at work. Moreover, the influence of all this training seeped into my wife's personal life as well. This is particular true when it comes to safe driving practices. I know this in part because my own wayward lead foot has received many a loving rebuke from my better half over the years!
Such rote and rigor may sound like brainwashing, and if you are teaching incorrect, nefarious, or self-serving principles, it is brainwashing. But when you are teaching correct principles while maintaining the absolute sanctity of others' agency or freedom to choose, then rote learning is simply an indispensable part of the pedagogical process. If we are to educate individuals to create scholastic and cultural mores and organizational cultures that reflect conscience-imbued SAL in action, we must teach, model, and champion these things early, often, and always.
There is no other way!
It is that easy in theory.
And it is that difficult in practice.
In the long run, character always trumps personality and technique in the same way that actions speak louder than words and gold outlasts paper currency. While technique and personality are important, their magnification or diminution depend on the foundational strength of the weightier matters of character, integrity, and truth-seeking and speaking.
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| Mohandas Gandhi 1869-1948 |
—Gandhi
In other words, all real lasting success requires the harmonious integration of all parts of your nature (spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, social, and moral).
Though many external forces influence your life's journey beyond your control, your own freely chosen thoughts, words, and actions are the driving force that shapes your life's story. These three vital variables—over which YOU have control—are the key building blocks of your future. Directing your destiny ultimately boils down to disciplining and focusing these forces in the directions you most desire to travel.
It is that simple...
And it is that difficult and complex, all at the same time.
It is simple because it is easy to intellectually conceptualize the point. It is hard because truly gaining control over one's thoughts, speech, actions, attitudes, and beliefs is one of the most difficult challenges any of us will ever undertake. In the words of a great religious leader: The greatest battle of life is fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.
—David Oman McKay
Despite any and all difficulty involved, the time has come to end the blame game and begin to take complete personal responsibility for everything in your life—whether your present circumstances are your fault, or not. It is time to stop abdicating your self-sovereignty to the whims of fickle fads, fashions, and facsimiles, the grievances of history, or to the mercurial desires of your own innate carnality. It is time to start reigning nobly as the ruling monarch of your own life and destiny—for your personal advantage and the benefit of those fellow beings whose lives your life will touch.
It is my sincere hope that you will allow the principles and practices contained in this textbook to transform your life and the lives of those you lead, mentor, and teach, just as they have transformed my life. Because at the end of the day, despite any differences that may contrast our individual experiences or past lives, we are all members of the same, great, human family in possession of intrinsic worth that is not only equal, but equally great in terms of our unlimited existential potential.
Of this I am certain.
What will YOU choose to do with yours?
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 357th Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 171st consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
Click HERE for a compete listing of the other 356 FF Blog Articles
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL QUOTES
Click HERE for a complete listing of Freedom Focused SAL POEMS
Click HERE to access the FULL TEXT of Dr. JJ's Psalms of Life: A Poetry Collection
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Tune in NEXT Wednesday for another article on a Self-Action Leadership related topic.
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