Government_Leadership-5

=**Plan and Do**=
 * Resolved: To Develop and Implement a Game Plan in Each Area of My Life**

To achieve in life, we have to plan because failure to plan is a plan for failure.

__Success Never Goes on Sale__: The price for success is high, but so is the price for failure. There are 3 simple (not easy) steps for those who want success. (1) What do you want? (2) What does it cost? (3) Pay it. It's that simple, just not that easy. Success is difficult because each step gets progressively harder. Most people have a good idea about what they want and many will look at the cost (not just money), but only a select few will apply the first two steps consistently in order to pay the FULL price. It's not a lack of talent, time, or opportunity that denies a person success in our nation, it's a lack of willingness to sacrifice what is necessary. Most people expect to pay one lump sum then see the prize. That's not how success works, though. It takes much time and effort.

__Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust (PDCA)__: Albert Einstein said "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results." That is why those who consistently study the results of their actions will move ahead and succeed. Planning is more than just thinking about something. It's reviewing areas where there is potential for improvement. When a person looks honestly at himself or herself, this person is planning on making a positive change towards success. However, the best plans in the world are worthless unless people do them. Mistakes might be made, but a person can't learn from a mistake if they don't do what is planned. A person who is unwilling to look bad will never become good. Many people have a fear of failure. PDCA almost requires failure in order to improve and achieve success.

__PDCA and Ten Thousand Hours__: With the PDCA process, the more one does, the more one earns. Samuel Goldwyn wrote, "The harder I work, the luckier I get." People like Goldwyn aren't really lucky as much as they are learners. Successful people appear lucky because most people cannot comprehend the 10,000 hours of painful effort already paid by the time anyone notices that they are successful. Luck is a loser's excuse not to make a winner's commitment.

The number that reappears consistently when researchers study top achievers is 10,000 hours of study, practice time, actions, improvements, and adjustments to develop the skills that make success look and feel natural. Work ethic separates the haves from the have-nots. Simply logging in hours, though, isn't enough. One must endure the paid on "teachable moments" over and over in PDCA. It's only PDCA hours that count in the 10,000 hours. For most people, 25 years of experience is actually one year's experience 25 times.

We should also ask which areas a person is willing to invest 10,000 PDCA hours to develop mastery. The Beatles are often viewed as just having talent. Not many are aware of their 18 months of performances in Hamburg, Germany that were bad, but they kept learning and improving. They performed 270 times in that period, so it's not shocking that their skills improved. Michael Jordan wasn't Michael Jordan when he first ever shot a basketball. Peyton Manning wasn't Peyton Manning when he first picked up a football. In any field, where one sees success, you won't have seen the PDCA necessary to achieve the success.

__Deliberate Practice__: Another way of saying PDCA is deliberately practicing what you want to master. Successful people don't just practice what they're comfortable with. Only through pushing past one's comfort zone will a person improve his level of skills. One of the criticisms of Michael Jordan was that he didn't have an outside jump shot. So, guess what he worked on? He took that criticism and turned it into motivation and mastered an outside jump shot. Just practicing what you're good at doesn't make you better.

__Success - the Pain of Greatness__: Success isn't for the weak of heart because when the going gets tough, only the tough will get going. Winners will choose to get better, while whiners will choose to get bitter. PDCA is designed to reveal shortcomings in a person's thinking, but can be a painful experience. Ones who try to avoid this pain, won't enjoy success. Nonachievers settle for less than excellence, valuing security while achievers strive for nothing less than excellence, valuing learning even if it comes with pain. Achievers are also willing to drive through criticism.

__Work as a Game__: When work becomes a game, work tasks become plays in the game. A person doesn't realize he/she is working, because the tasks are enjoyed as part of advancing in the game. Take the examples of playing basketball and raking leaves. Both require effort, discipline, and are exhausting yet one is viewed as a game and the other is viewed as miserable work. When work is viewed as a game, he no longer does tasks; he plays the game to win. All top performers have learned to do this in their field of mastery. Weekend warriors give 100% of their effort for no pay. Why? Love of the game. Imagine the productivity if everyone worked as hard at their professions as their hobbies. Better still, imagine if everyone's professions were their passions leading to living on purpose.

Ozzie Smith is a baseball Hall of Famer and is an excellent example of a person who turned his passion into his profession by playing baseball. He grew up in poverty and didn't have the best equipment. He wanted to develop his fielding skills, so he used his imagination. He created a game where he bounced a tennis ball off his cement porch. He challenged himself daily, moving closer and closer to the porch, testing his ability to field the tennis ball cleanly. He made practice into a game. No coach would ever ask the same level of discipline to a Little League team, but since it was a game, it hardly felt like discipline at all. In the Major Leagues, he made the tough plays look easy. He creates his skills from the game he created.

__Quitters, Campers, and Climbers__: When a person develops mastery today, he must expect the paid of criticisms from the anti-heroes. Success is open to all, but only a few make it, so the rest have to either admit that they didn't do what it takes or attack the person who did do what it takes to make themselves feel better.

Dr. Paul Stoltz described three types of people - quitters, campers, and climbers. Life's quitters see the obstacles and decide to pass on the climb avoiding the PDCA process rather than risk failure. They keep themselves busy with mindless activities in order to avoid the mountain. The worst quitters are the ones who try to get others to join them in their quitting. Campers start climbing and are excited about opportunities, but somewhere along the line through a combination of some success and the pain associated with further climbing, they settle for the comfort of the camp. Climbers refuse to compromise their calling and press on with the PDCA process. These are the people who see success. Those who press on despite the pain of the climb are the climbers. They are the ones living a purpose-filled life.

How does a young man from a broken home with no wealth become one of the all-time greats in his field, especially with a lisp, undersized physique, and a low self-esteem? Lou Holtz's story is inspiring.
 * Lou Holts - Planning and Doing:**

Holtz learned from his challenges to persevere and succeed through hard work. No one in Lou's family ever went to college. His high school coach suggested that he go and become a coach. He didn't have the grades or money. Therefore, his mom took a night job to help Lou sign up for ROTC, which enabled him to enroll at Kent State.

The turning point for him came at a grocery store shortly before he left for college. He overheard his mom's friends saying it was a waste to pay for Lou to go to college. He turned this negative criticism into a positive energy source.

He graduated and became an assistant coach. At South Carolina, he was fired with the entire staff when the head coach left. His wife bought him a book - //The Magic of Thinking Big//." He set goals and made plans to achieve those goals. He achieved his goals through PDCA. This process doesn't guarantee success easily. Certainly, Lou's life was full of ups and downs. One doesn't fail in life until the blame is pushed onto someone else for results. Lou refused to make excuses and built his life around personal responsibility and teaching that life is a series of choices. When you acknowledge that you and only you are responsible and accountable for your own choices you make, and when you refuse to blame others for the choices you made, you have in your hands the blueprint for success.

Lou Holtz combined personal responsibility, hard work, and a positive attitude to achieve uncommon results. He went on to be a great coach at Notre Dame and is still involved in football. Lou shared his thoughts on critics saying "The only people who aren't going to be criticized are those who do absolutely nothing. And the critics, the people who just observe, are never on the inside, never really had to make decisions that effect people's lives." Holtz learned that the easiest thing for people to do is tear down the successes of others and that succeeding is much more difficult for them to do.

Lou also said "Every athlete who has ever played for me has heard me preach against the pitfalls of entering anything halfway. In my mind, a half-hearted commitment is worse than no commitment at all...If you're on a team, you owe your coaches and teammates your total commitment. If you don't - if you're unhappy because the coach doesn't start you, or because you aren't getting as many touches as you think you should - you are hurting yourself and the entire organization. You and the team would be better off if you played somewhere else...Commitment is the most critical component in any relationship. A marriage based on the premise 'Well, let's give it a shot, and if it doesn't work out, or if we grow apart, we can always get a divorce,' is doomed before the vows are complete."

Goal setting works when one commits to the PDCA process. When a person makes a 100% commitment, backing it up with 100% effort to achieve the goal, and persevere over the long haul, greatness is developed within, just as it was developed inside a fired assistant coach named Lou Holtz.

__Thinking Questions __:
 * 1) Which part of the Plan and Do process are you best at and/or which step do you need to work on most? Explain.
 * 2) Explain a time in your life when you used deliberate practice to get better at something.
 * 3) “There is no substitute for hard work.” Do you think the majority of people believe this statement? Why or why not?
 * 4) Plans in sand and goals in stone. What does this statement mean and why is it such an important principle by which one should live?
 * 5) What role does immediate gratification play in interrupting the Plan and Do process?
 * 6) What will you take from this lesson and begin applying into your life?

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