Engineering Management Institute

self mastery

Vision, Vista, and Volume: A Better Approach to Thinking About Success

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Discussions about achieving success are typically approached in one dimension.  We talk about vision, breadth of experience and work/life balance in stovepipe segments as if one doesn’t influence the other.  Much of the blogging and books on success I’ve read follow this track.  They touch on the three dimensions, but only on that dimension.   The truth is, however, that success we realize in any undertaking comes about only through our actions in three dimensions.  A better approach to thinking about success takes into account our own vision, our vista (breadth of experience) and volume (depth we give to each undertaking).

Working on any one dimension is good but it leaves value on the table.  We don’t get the benefit of identifying the interrelations, or lack of them, between, the dimensions.  For example, let’s say your vision for success in life includes ‘providing guidance to others and using my engineering skills to help my community’.  If your breadth of experience includes prior leadership roles and the knowledge of the engineering challenges and opportunities at the community level, then your vision and vista align.  On the other hand, if you’ve never been in a leadership role and therefore lack experience on how to guide others, then your vision and vista are out of alignment.  You’ll need to identify an opportunity where you can fill the gap on leadership to develop your skill in guiding others. [Read more…] about Vision, Vista, and Volume: A Better Approach to Thinking About Success

Ambition is Good

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Lay to rest the debate on whether ambition is good or bad.  It’s good.  If it take’s a motive force such as ambition to develop new technologies, advance science, or explore new forms of art or music then I say “bring it”.

It’s very possible you were raised in an environment that shunned ambition or viewed it as an evil virtue. If for you it entails subjugating others and acting without high moral standard in a greedy manner then, yes, it is evil.  For others, like I, it stands for achieving one’s highest potential with the highest moral standard.

If you’re reading this blog, then you already have high moral standards and you’re interested in achieving your highest potential.

Reaching your highest potential requires ambition.  Otherwise your journey will be short lived and your highest potential a mere desire.

Long live ambition.

“Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.”  Salvador Dali

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Onward,

Christian J. Knutson, P.E., PMP
Engineering Management Institute

If you like this post, you may also enjoy:

Ambition and Advancement: Enhancing Yourself Without Alienation
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Overcoming Friction

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Friction is the natural worlds way of holding back movement of an object or wearing that object down.   Whether it’s the viscous effects of oil in an engine or the drag over an aircraft’s wing, this natural force exists all around us to keep things from working effortlessly.   Sometimes it’s a force for good, for example when you apply the brakes in your car and the tires keep you from rear-ending the car in front of you.  But most often it simply wreaks havoc.

So to does friction create havoc in the mind.  I like to call it “friction of mind”, because it gives it a name.   For me it shows up often times just when the work towards a goal is at its hardest point or when I’m faced with a multitude of tasks.  My mind-friction begins dragging me towards less important tasks or rationalizing reasons why the work isn’t really worth doing.  It simply wreaks havoc.

Designing A Way Around Friction

Engineers spend a lot of time designing means to reduce, or even overcome, the effects of friction.   Thanks to this work, we get 10,000 miles between oil changes and the ability to fly non-stop between Denver and Munich.  Designing a way to reduce, or overcome, friction in the mind requires just as much R&D and effort. [Read more…] about Overcoming Friction

A Good Attitude is Everything

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There are a lot of variables that go into determining whether we’ll successfully bring our goals and aspirations into existence.   However, I count one of them as the quintessential element that must be present to ensure success:  a good attitude.   Definitely having ideas, making plans, and taking action are important elements in the art of creating a fulfilling life and career.  But without a good attitude, the likelihood of manifesting what you want takes a serious hit.

The attitude we operate with daily is our programmed way of responding to our environment and it’s derived from the generalizations we make about other people and the system in which we live.  It evolves over time and is the result of two specific belief structures:

Outcome-to-Expectation Belief.  The beliefs built over time from the differences between what we achieve and what our expectations were at the beginning.

Efficacy Belief.  Our belief about our capabilities to organize and execute courses that produce the results we want.

If we predominantly see outcomes matching expectations and/or have a high-order of confidence that we can deliver the goods and produce what we want, our attitude is generally positive.

Why A Good Attitude Is Important.

There are a multitude of reasons why a good attitude is über-important.  In general, our attitude is who we are.  Try as we might to hide it, our attitude shows up in every conversation we have, the quality of our work and relationships, and strongly affects whether we’ll take certain courses in life.  In leaders, a good attitude is essential for building teams, influencing others, and achieving objectives.   The good attitude is also important because:

It’s contagious

It’s something that everyone around us can see or perceive

It affects our health

It affects our relationships

It determines how far we’ll advance in any endeavor

It’s your trademark…it’s who you are to others



Final Thoughts About Attitude.

As stated, I believe that attitude is the most important element to success in any endeavor.  When combined with planning and action, you have a trifecta for success that is hard to beat.  However, sometimes the environment in which we operate throws our attitude out of alignment.  When this happens you should:

Take Responsibility For The Attitude You Have.  Whatever caused your attitude to darken was outside you, an external stimulus, and you chose a bad attitude as a response.  The bad attitude wasn’t given to you…you chose it.   In Viktor Fankl’s book, A Search for Meaning, he states:  “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. 
In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.”  Take-away:  chose a good attitude.

You Pick Your Attitude, It Isn’t Given To You.  As conveyed in Frankl’s quote above, you have the right to chose which attitude you share with the world.  You are not given one to use.



If Your Attitude’s Bad, Figure Out Why.  Then Fix The Why.  There are many reasons why our attitude might be bad.  The environment in which we work or live; low self-esteem; poor choices (and hence results); our daily actions/routine; lack of goals, etc.  Figure out what it is, then build a plan to eliminate or alter the cause of your negative attitude.  Remember, you took responsibility for the attitude you have, so do not rely on someone else to change in order for you to change your attitude.

Operating with a good attitude isn’t Pollyanna and isn’t unrealistic.  Maintaining a good attitude allows you to stay aligned with your goals and bring about success in every project you undertake.  Understanding that you have the responsibility and capability to change/chose your attitude, can give you the confidence necessary to embark on any task, regardless of how daunting it might be.

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you thing about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.”  Norman Vincent Peale

  • If you enjoyed this post, please consider downloading our free list of 33 Productivity Routines of Top Engineering Executives. Click the button below to download.

    Download the Productivity Routines

Onward,

Christian J. Knutson, P.E., PMP
Engineering Management Institute

If you like this post, you may also enjoy:

Doing Your Responsibility
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