Leverage Your Values, Evolve Faster
“If you don’t know where you are, a map won’t help.” ~ Watts Humphrey
“Likewise, if you don’t know where you’re going.” ~ Evans Mehew, shamelessly and poorly riffing off of Lewis Carroll
Maps are useful tools. So are inventories.
Map (noun) — olde school definition: One of those primitive, foldy, papery things that don’t tell you in real-time where you are in relation to where you want to be. Often found in the — misnomer alert — automobile glovebox. Also: doesn’t talk to you. [If a paper-based map does talk to you, seek professional help. Like, immediately.]
Inventory (noun): A stack of [presumably sorted & organized by someone far more ‘with it’ than I] things you have at your disposal. You’ve already forgotten you have most of them. [That’s OK … it happens.]
A map will help you find your way. An inventory will help you know what you have.
Hide and watch this: you need both to survive in these crazy-scary times.
From my time spent in cybersecurity, I’ve learned one thing [well … slightly more than one thing, but we’ll focus on this single, smackerel of knowledge for now.]
That thing is: if you don’t know what you have and where it is — you can’t possibly defend it. Not gonna happen.
Simple, right?
M’kay … let’s put another buttery-awesome concept on that steaming short stack.
We all need a map and inventory of our respective values.
Not in a navel-gazey, figure-out-your-values-and-then-go-back-to-zombie-autopilot-mode way. No. In a figure-your-shit-out-from-the-quantum-level-up-and-then-weaponize-it way.
The second way is infinitely better, and desperately required. Here’s why.
Values as Assets
From my years working in competitive intelligence, I figured out that the quickest way to determine what another player/party was going to do next is to discover what they truly value.
How come?
Because regardless of whatever lip-static people spew, they will rarely act out of alignment with that which they truly value.
In the sage and sound words of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what’s in your portfolio.”
If you have line-of-sight into what actually matters to a person, you can probably figure out their next play. Cut through the white noise of what they say, discern what they actually value and you’ll have a solid idea of what’s coming up next.
This is hella-useful, especially when you flip the script and direct this approach/lens inward.
Bringing Maps, Inventories & Values Together
If you can get a true, authentic heat lock on what really matters to you, you’ve identified a path of least resistance.
I cannot overstate this: when I say, “what really matters to you”, I don’t mean what you tell other people you care about, for whatever reason. I’m talking about what’s in your “portfolio” — the elements in your life about which you actually give a flipping rip. [To add a little extra throw weight to this practice, it’s also good to figure out why it matters to you … but that’s ground to be covered at another time.]
You need to inventory, map and understand what you truly value, powerfully embrace that information and get it into your guts … because time is of the essence. Tick-tock, Clarice.
The Need for Speed
How does speed relate to values?
In the age of automation, speed is kind of a big deal. As more and more tasks/jobs are automated [a dynamic that’s been accelerated due to coronavirus], the workforce — that’s you & me — will have to develop a skill that we don’t often get in school: the ability to shift, pivot and evolve very, very quickly. I’ve never even seen a 101-level course in that subject.
The ability to evolve quickly is to leverage our map and inventory of values — again, as with everyone else, you aren’t very likely to act out of alignment with what you value. If you can authentically identify what you value and focus your paths of development accordingly, there’ll be little to no resistance there — you’ll be able to evolve much more quickly. Go, go against the gadget.
The terrain is going to change more and more, faster and faster, right before our eyes and under our feet. We have to be capable of surviving in such an environment. Taking this step is where we begin.
Take stock of where you’ve been, what you’ve done, what you’ve learned and what you’ve become in the process. [Are you at your utmost? If so, wow … kick back and celebrate with an Awesome Blossom or somesuch shit and relax. But beware … the entropy vampires are coming for you.]
For the rest of us, there is nought but the map, the inventory, the climb and the grind.
Determine your values and get moving. Time’s a-wastin’.
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