Are You a Nail or a Bullet?

 A successful nail is one that does it's job by staying in one place for a very long time.

A successful bullet is one that does it's job and then gets out of the way for the next bullet to get in there and do it's job.

A bullet makes a lousy nail. A nail makes a lousy bullet.

Using a bullet when you need a nail is bad. Using a nail when you need a bullet is bad.

Trying to be a nail in the chamber of a rifle is not good. Trying to be a bullet stuck in the wall is not good.

Bullets are useful. Nails are useful. Figure out which one you are, or what your situation requires. Don't get the two mixed up.

Ironic, Isn't It? Part Three...

From Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader:

 "At the head offices of the National Association of Telemarketers in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a sign is posted on the front door that reads "Absolutely NO SOLICITING"

Anyone that has ever had dinner interrupted by a telemarketer not only sees the irony here, but the glaring hypocrisy. They represent a group that regularly intrude into our homes and workplace via the ringing of a telephone; but they themselves do not want to bothered.

A few years back we dropped our home phone. The wife & I both had cell phones and that's how most of our friends & family would contact us. The only calls we got on our land line phone were telemarketers.

I work in an office of a company that does the testing, adjusting & balancing on commercial HVAC systems. During the course of any one day at least 30% of the calls are telemarketers. It's incredibly annoying.

I'm sure there's some clever lesson I could draw out of the irony here, but just talking about gets me all riled up... Grrrr....

Ironic, Isn't It? Part Two...

From Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader:

"After actress Brittany Murphy, 32, died of a heart attack while taking a shower in December 2009, First Look Pictures immediately recalled and replaced the DVD cover art for her recently released film, Deadline. The reason: It depicted Murphy as a lifeless corpse lying in a bathtub."

The lesson we can take from this: Sometimes things just happen. Now, I deeply believe there are times when things happen for a reason. Sometimes what we want to call a "coincidence"  is God orchestrating His divine plan for our lives.

But, sometimes things do "just happen." Some people would read this story and say: "Well, she cursed herself by letting herself be depicted dying in a shower." The truth is people die in the shower every day. In fact, my grandfather passed away in 1995 after having a heart attack in the shower. And to come at it from the other side, every day actors in film, theater & TV regularly "die" without dying.

If every actor who died in real life died the same way they died while acting, then we could say Brittany Murphy's death was not a coincidence. An example of this is the "Madden Curse." Almost every NFL star who has appeared on the cover of the Madden NFL video game box art has experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury.

 David McRaney at the "You Are Not So Smart" blog talks about the Texas Sharp-Shooter Fallacy. (David is a genius. It would be well worth your time to read this post...)

The basic premise is that with hindsight being 20/20, we take what are really random events and force them into an picture that makes sense to us. We don't like randomness.

The hard part is discerning when something is a random coincidence and when it's not. And if you figure out how to do that, let me know so you can teach me...

Ironic, Isn't It? Part One.

I"m a huge fan of Uncle John's Bathroom Readers. They are full of articles on history, science, pop culture and other assorted stuff. All pure brain candy...
This will be the first of a series of short posts from an article in the "Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader."

"A 2010 Indiana University study found that anti-drinking commercials that use scare tactics tend to bring out "feelings so unpleasant that alcoholics are compelled to eliminate them by whatever means possible." According to the study's respondents, they cope by drinking. Result: "Alcoholics actually drink more that if they hadn't been exposed to the ads in the first place." "


Anyone that has ever inhaled a gallon of Rocky Road ice cream while watching the Biggest Loser finds this as no surprise.

The lesson for leaders/teachers/preachers: Guilt & scare tactics are not effective motivators.

The lesson for the rest of us: Know what triggers your bad behaviors and be prepared to react differently.

Is it a Puzzle or a Mystery?

Dave says that if you want to be rich, you have to do rich people stuff. If you want to be skinny, you have to do skinny people stuff. So I've been reading smart people stuff, hoping to become a smart person. (Side note... It doesn't appear to be working. I'm still pretty stupid...)

My current read is "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell. It's a collection of 19 essays he had previously released. So it's smart stuff broken up into little bite size stories. The only way it could be better is if he threw in some Archie comics.

So, onto the point of this whole thing. When looking at questions, problems, or hashing out life's issues; you have to be able to discern between puzzles & mysteries. If it's a puzzle, then it means you are still missing pieces of information that you must track down before you can make a decision. If it's a mystery, then you have all the information you need; you just need to do a correct analysis of it.

When investigating the Watergate Scandal, journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward were looking for missing pieces of information in their investigation. They found that information in the details provided by "Deep Throat." They were dealing with a puzzle.

When it came to the Enron Scandal, all the information was there in Enron's financial statements. Nothing was hidden. It just took someone to correctly analyze the data to realize the energy giant was in serious trouble. They were dealing with a mystery.

It's important to know what you are dealing with. If you treat a puzzle like it's a mystery, then you'll make a decision based on incomplete information. If you treat a mystery like it's a puzzle, then you'll fail to make a decision because you are still looking for answers that are not there. Misreading the situation will either lead to a bad decision, or being frozen.

So the first step will always be to decide if you are dealing with a puzzle and you need more data OR if you are dealing with a mystery and you need to analyze the data you've collected.

Parenting: Should a license of some sort be required?

Think about it... If you want to drive a car, you are required to get a license. Fly a plane. License. Get paid to give someone a bad haircut. Yep, you need a license.

But... want to make new human beings? All you need is the basic equipment God gave ya and you're good to go. Procreate away! Churn out new humans like a Xerox machine on crack.

Now, I'm as "Anti-Big Government" as the next guy. I'm down with "Don't Tread On Me." So I'm not saying we need DBM (Division of Baby Makin') offices with long lines and grumpy employees. Still, it seems like there should be some sort of screening process...

Full Disclosure: I don't have kids. Which means I can freely judge your parenting skills without fear of it coming back to bite me on the rump...

DON'T Act Your Wage...

Earlier I had a post entitled "Act Your Wage." The basic premise is to live according to your means.

In discussing this post with Pastor Scott, he threw a twist in for me. His thought was "don't act your wage." But he wasn't referring to spending habits; he was referring to your work ethic.

What do I mean? If you are flipping burgers at minimum wage and you work like you are getting paid to flip burgers at minimum wage, then you may be flipping burgers at minimum wage for quite a while. And typically you'll do so while whining and complaining about how your are underpaid and unappreciated.

But if you'll flip burgers like they are paying you $15, $20 dollars an hour, training you for a management position, you'll work differently. You'll work harder with a better attitude.

Maybe you are already a mid level person making $15 or $20 an hour. Work like you are making double that. Have an attitude that reflects that you are making double that.

Now some people would push back from that and say: "Well, I'm not going to be a 'Company Man'. If my boss wants more out of me, he needs to pay me better." Alright there, Bubba. You keep going with that attitude and see how far it gets you.

John Miller in his great book "QBQ!" says that we ask the wrong questions. Instead of asking "why aren't I getting paid more?" how about you ask "what can I do to show that I'm worth more?" (And if you are going to order the QBQ! you also need to get "Flipping the Switch"")

This isn't a new concept. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:41 to do double what is expected or required of us. I know, it's probably not fair for me to Jesus Juke you like that... But hey, it's in red letters, so it must be right. You could probably throw the whole concept of sowing & reaping in there too... The old saying is plant what you want to harvest.

So, in your spending, act your wage. In your earning, don't act your wage. See how far this takes you. You'll like where you wind up.