Unleash Your Unstoppable Life!

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries, who have the laws in their favor; and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had the actual experience of it.”                                        Niccolo Machiavelli

In 1519, Don Hernán Cortés arrived in the New World with a crew of 600 men determined to invade and overthrow the Aztec Empire. To succeed in his venture he destroyed or burned his ships as a declaration to his crew that there was no turning back.  He destroyed the lukewarmness of the adversaries of the new order of things. By “Burning the Ships” Cortes removed the obstacles of the past, pushed his crew out of their comfort zones, committed himself and his crew to a new destiny, and solely focused on succeeding towards the new reality in the New World.

Fast forward to 2020! – A new year, a new decade, and a maybe for you a new beginning or order of things!  A fresh start or a new beginning is a great way to start a new decade. A chance to be a Pioneer in a new decade. But to move into the new decade the new beginning requires you to “Burn the Ships” from last year or the last decade. By “Burning the Ships” you remove the obstacles of the past, commit yourself to a new future, and are become focused on succeeding towards your new reality.

A good example or picture of this “Burn the Ship” mentality can be seen in the music video by For King and Country. The concept for the song came from singer Luke wife’s addiction to pills prescribed to her for nausea and her struggle. The pills were an obstacle to her new beginnings. The song describes the struggle but also the solution. Burn the Ships, Cut the Ties, and step into a New Day.

A new beginning starts with a clear picture for your life and a 2020 vision. Your vision describes your future state and is idealistic and ambitious. Your vision should drive you to a higher standard of personal excellence, challenge you to a higher level of life performance, and motivate you to move beyond the status quo. Your vision should stretch your life from the “as-is” to the “to-be.”

Your vision clarifies your purpose and mission in life. Your vision should clarify your life purpose and make clear how you want to fulfill your purpose. Your vision also provides the motivation for your mission statement and the goals you want to achieve. The vision provides context to your life.

Your vision encourages, inspires, and energizes you to act. Your vision should inspire you, fill you with enthusiasm, encourage your full commitment to achieve the vision, and energize you to take action to fulfill your vision. Your vision should make an impact on how you live your life and what you need to do to live your life to the fullest.

Your vision for your life will either hold you back or unleash your potential. A clear vision reduces the uncertainty and ambiguity that you will face in life and provides direction, order and purpose to your life. A clear and bold vision also creates action. It is the impetus to achieve your purpose and life’s goals. Without a vision you are driving blind in life. Worse yet, without a vision, you’ll waste valuable time and energy trying to achieve your purpose.

What do you see yourself doing or becoming over the next 3, 5, 15, 30 years?

How do you plan to get there?

Do you see yourself as a victor or a victim?

How does your vision fulfill your life purpose?

What is your vision for your life?

The question you need to ask yourself is what ships do you need to burn down to get to the new life?

Be bold in defining your life’s vision for 2020!

The power of the positive is a mindset and a way of life. It is your choice to see the positive that life has for you, or you have a choice to remain negative and miserable. Think about Ebenezer Scrooge and the choices he made in his life. He chose the negative versus the positive and lost out on three-quarters of his life. Think about the joy and the life he missed out on by focusing on the negative of life versus the positive.

You need to believe that life is about positive opportunities and possibilities and be optimistic about who and what you can become. Take the time to see the possibilities that lie before you. When you take the time to see the possibilities that the future can hold for you it creates a momentum in your life to succeed and achieve your dreams. Seeing the future possibilities is a powerful positive motivator.
The first step in making the impossible the possible is faith in your talents, gifts, and mostly, faith in yourself. By focusing on mindfulness, you can see the possibilities in your life. Take time to see the possibilities in your life.

The true power of the Positive Mind is more than positive thinking or a positive attitude; it is a way of life. It is a continuous state of mind. It is a mindset that no matter what life challenges you with, the good and the bad, you keep your life on the positive aspects of life and a positive belief in yourself and your abilities.
You will handle life differently if you shape your focus toward the positive versus allowing yourself to focus on the negative. A positive outlook will tell you that there is a light at the end of every tunnel and it is called Hope. Hope gives you the determination and willpower to overcome the challenges. A negative outlook would convince you that the light at the end of the tunnel is a train heading your way. By focusing on the positives in your life, you create an optimistic outlook in your life and begin to see a life full of possibilities.
You cannot change what happens to you, but you can always choose how you respond. A positive mindset is viewing yourself, your purpose, your talents, and your capabilities in a positive way.

It is a mindset of optimism!

Source: 8Ps, 4 Stars, and 1 Doctorate Program

Since starting my Doctorate program, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the 8P concept I proposed in my book “The First Principles” and apply each of the 8Ps. Each concept is important in a program that taxes your time, patience, and thinking. One way a researcher understands how concepts or constructs go from theory to application is by researching, observation, and testing. I had the great opportunity to observe the 8Ps in Action.

The 8Ps and the 4 Stars

During my career, I had the honor and privilege to be the Command Senior Enlisted Leader for four great leaders; two were 4-Star Generals, and two became
4-Star Generals. Each of them displayed certain characteristics of the 8P Focus.

General C. Robert Kehler = Preparation and Planning

            General Kehler’s focus was on planning and preparation; his strengths were foresight and global awareness. I first met General Kehler when he assumed command of Air Force Space Command in October 2007. At the time, I was serving as the 14th Air Force and Joint Functional Component Command for Space Command Chief.

During his briefing to the Commanders and Senior Enlisted Leaders, he detailed his concern about the uncertainty and complexity of today’s battle space and the future challenges for the Space environment. He challenged the Commanders and Senior Enlisted to begin thinking, planning and preparing how the command could meet the uncertainties of a challenging future.

In January 2011, General Kehler assumed command of USSTRATCOM where I had the opportunity to be his Command Senior Enlisted Leader. As he did at Air Force Space Command, he held a briefing for the Commanders and Senior Enlisted Leaders after he assumed command. One of his key focus areas, and eventually a command priority, was to prepare for the uncertainty and complexity of the national security landscape. He challenged those present to think how USSTRATCOM and its Unified Command Plan missions would operate in an environment of persistent conflict, complexity, and uncertainty that stretched across all warfighting domains of air, sea, land, space, and cyberspace.

General Kehler’s focus was on planning and preparing the Command by developing our people, processes, and programs to meet unexpected challenges of the future. We needed to be flexible, adaptive, and collaborative in our thinking and operations to deal with surprise and to meet the uncertainties of tomorrow’s unforeseen problems.

General Kevin P. Chilton = Priorities and People

            General Chilton’s focus was on mission priority and people, and his strengths were alliance and relationship building, character authenticity, and critical thinking. General Chilton’s leadership strategy was through mission prioritization. His focus was on prioritization of USSTRATCOM Unified Command Plan missions to ensure every person assigned knew their importance and priority. He established his mission priorities based on the importance of the assigned mission to National Security.

Throughout his time as the commander, he would state, “If everything is important, then nothing is important.” By setting priorities for the command, everyone knew what was important and the order of precedence. When briefing others about his priorities, he would talk about how in his role as the Commander of USSTRATCOM he had to juggle several missions daily, but only one mission, the nuclear mission, would have grave damage upon the National Security of the Nation. The nuclear mission was the #1 priority for USSTRATCOM.

Another key priority for General Chilton was people. General Chilton was an “enlisted persons general”. From January through December of 2009, United States Strategic Command celebrated the “Year of the Enlisted Global Warfighter” and the “Global Warrior” enlisted force development program to focus on the history, heritage, and mission of Strategic Air Command and United States Strategic Command and the contributions of the enlisted force in its missions. It was an important initiative for recognizing the enlisted force and the contributions they provided United States Strategic Command.

In his letter recognizing the year, he stated: “Every enlisted Soldier, Sailor, Marine, and Airman is critical to mission success. It is imperative that our enlisted warriors continue to be the capable, credible, and faithful men and women America has come to expect. I expect leaders at all levels to embrace these two programs and encourage participation by the enlisted personnel in your work areas.”

General Carlton “Dewey” Everhart = Passion and Performance

            General Everhart was a leader full of passion for life and people, and his strengths were an inspiration, encouragement, and developing leaders.

I had the opportunity to work for, then Colonel Everhart, at Altus Air Force Base when he assumed command in September of 2005. Under his leadership, two unique talent development programs–Airmen’s Time and Enlisted Force Development–were highly successful and were emulated by the Air Force.

Airmen’s Time produced a new focus on total force professional and leadership development of the officer and civilian workforce resulting in a consolidated Warrior Professional Development Center. The leadership philosophy change produced outcomes that validated the Airmen’s Time development process. It changed from an individual leadership development focus to a collective leadership development focus.

In the end, Airmen’s Time: The Altus Concept was a highly successful journey. It developed a strong organizational culture based on core values, teamwork, diversity, respect, leadership development, and transformational change.

It built a culture of innovation, teamwork, and growth that spread throughout the wing and developed leaders for the future. It developed a strong outcomes-focused performance culture within all organizations and fostered a leadership culture that crossed group boundaries and established a strong team culture.

General William Shelton = Persistence and Perseverance

            General Shelton was a leader of persistence and perseverance, and his strengths were the focused purpose and strategic vision. General Shelton hired me as the 14th Air Force Command Chief as I was returning to the United States from my year assignment to the Middle East.

I had the unique opportunity to see his vision become a reality as he built the Joint Space Operations Center (JSPOC) into a consolidated operational space command and control and space situational awareness center.

I arrived after the JSPOC had relocated to a new facility, but just in time for the move of the 1st Space Control Squadron and Unified Space Vault from Cheyenne Mountain to the JSPOC. As General Shelton’s vison took shape, it provided an integrated space capability for the Nation and the Warfighter.

Despite some obstacles, he championed the strengths of the net-centric and space tracking capabilities of the JSPOC to operate in the space domain. Under his leadership, dogged determination, and drive, he built a first-rate space operations center that is vital to understanding the space environment, critical to the warfighter and is a National asset.

SUMMARY

            Leadership is complex and demanding, so you must prepare yourself mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally to be an Unstoppable Leader.

To lead with focus, clarity, and intentionality means you need to remove ambiguity and uncertainty by establishing clear goals, clear objectives, a clear strategy, and clear tactics. Clarity and focus provide you the decision-making ability to make critical and timely decisions in times of chaos and crisis.

A synergy, or Sweet Spot, develops when your inner core and your Character, Competence, Courage, Commitment, Communication, Connections, and Choices are used together to lead and influence others.

Leading from the Sweet Spot means your inner core is aligned with the 7Cs and drives how you live your life. This convergence of your inner core and the 7Cs allows you to lead by be design and not by chance.

Why is leading from the Sweet Spot important? When you have learned to lead your own life, then you have a solid foundation from which you can effectively lead others. If you have not mastered leading yourself, then your words, actions, behaviors, and decisions will not be congruent with your inner core.

Leading from the Sweet Spot means your actions and behavior must align with one another in order for you to make an impact on your team and organization. Through your words and actions, you lead by example and live out the culture you want your team and organization to follow.

Leading from the Sweet Spot means you have mastered the art of self-insight and self-mastery and truly know who you are as a leader. You must be able to lead your life through Personal Insight and Personal Mastery in order to achieve your desired end state and life goals.

Leading from the Sweet Spot means your leadership drivers, your character, your attitude, and your thinking are in tune with each other and you have inner core synergy.

Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est

(Knowledge is power)

Sir Francis Bacon

The first real mark of becoming an Unstoppable Leader is Self-Awareness. Leadership begins from within, and who you are as a leader comes from who you are at your inner core.

Self-awareness means you understand your inner core. Before you can lead others, you have to recognize your true self. Unfortunately, too many leaders refuse to discover who they truly are before they begin to lead and then struggle when adversity comes their way.

Becoming an Unstoppable Leader requires that you are well grounded in your character and that your core values, beliefs, and worldview are integrated into your leadership.

Self-awareness means you have clarity of your passions, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Without personal clarity it is impossible to have professional clarity and therefore impossible to lead congruently with your inner core.

You need to have a deep understanding of who you really are before you lead. You need to know and understand your strengths, weaknesses, capabilities, abilities, and your emotions. Nothing is more important to your success of becoming an Unstoppable Leader than your self-awareness.

Self-awareness is believing in yourself with conviction and commitment. It is an awareness of your strengths and your challenges. Nosce Te Ipsum is Latin for Know Thyself. The saying is attributed to many Greek and Roman philosophers to include Socrates, Aristotle, Heraclitus, and Cicero.

Self-awareness gives a leader a greater understanding of his or her values, beliefs, and worldview. It provides insight on the how and why they make decisions. Self-awareness is about understanding your self-efficacy, self-leadership, and intentional clarity.

            Knowing yourself improves your self-discipline and self-control in different situations, allowing you to work with others during challenging and demanding problems more skillfully and diplomatically. It allows you to use the right capabilities at the right time and in the right situational context.

Finally, knowing yourself likewise provides you more confidence in developing yourself for the present operations and future challenges.