فصل پنجم بخش اول

Chapter 5

EXPRESS YOUR VOICE—VISION, DISCIPLINE, PASSION AND CONSCIENCE

WHEN YOU STUDY the lives of all great achievers those who have had the greatest influence on others, those who have made significant contributions, those who have simply made things happen you will find a pattern. Through their persistent efforts and inner struggle, they have greatly expanded their four native human intelligence or capacities. The highest manifestations of these four intelligences are: for the mental, vision; for the physical, discipline; for the emotional, passion; for the spiritual, conscience. These manifestations also represent our highest means of expressing our voice.

Vision is seeing with the mind’s eye what is possible in people, in projects, in causes and in enterprises. Vision results when our mind joins need with possibility. As William Blake once said, “What is now proved was once only imagined.” When people have no vision, when they neglect the development of the mind’s capacity to create, they fall prey to the human tendency toward victimism.

Discipline is paying the price to bring that vision into reality. It’s dealing with the hard, pragmatic, brutal facts of reality and doing what it takes to make things happen. Discipline arises when vision joins with commitment. The opposite of discipline and the commitment that inspires sacrifice is indulgence sacrificing what matters most in life for the pleasure or thrill of the moment.

Passion is the fire, the desire, the strength of conviction and the drive that sustains the discipline to achieve the vision. Passion arises when human need overlaps unique human talent. When one does not have the passion that flows from finding and using one’s voice to serve great purposes, the void is filled with insecurity and the empty chatter of a thousand voices that drive the social mirror. In relationship and organizational settings, passion includes compassion.

Conscience is the inward moral sense of what is right and what is wrong, the drive toward meaning and contribution. It is the guiding force to vision, discipline and passion. It stands in stark contrast to the life dominated by ego.

These four words vision, discipline, passion and conscience essentially embody many, many other characteristics used to describe those traits we associate with people whose influence is great, whether known to many or few.

Most differences in the words we use to describe people we admire, whether in the home, in the community, in a business or in government, are simply a matter of semantics. See in figure 5.3 many such traits listed on the underwater mass of the icebergs labeled vision, discipline, passion and conscience.

VISION, DISCIPLINE AND PASSION RULE THE WORLD

Any individual who has had profound influence on others, on institutions or on society, any parents whose influence has been intergenerational, anyone who has really made a difference for good or ill, possessed three common attributes: vision, discipline and passion. I suggest that these three attributes have ruled the world from its beginning. They represent leadership that works.

Consider just a few notable leaders from modern history:

George Washington had the vision of building a new nation, united and free from foreign interference. He disciplined himself to learn how to recruit, supply and keep people from deserting the Revolutionary Army. Angered by discrimination against colonial military officers, British land policies, and restriction on U.S. expansion, Washington was passionate about the cause of liberty.

Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, worked her entire adult life to improve the quality of nursing in military hospitals. Her vision and passion overcame her personal reticence.

Mohandas K. Gandhi was instrumental in establishing India as an independent state though he never held an elected or appointed office. He had no formal position from which to lead people. Gandhi’s moral authority created such strong social and cultural norms that it ultimately shaped political will. He governed his life by an awareness of a universal conscience that resided within the people, the international community, and the British themselves.

Margaret Thatcher was the first female leader of a major industrial nation. She served three terms as prime minister of Great Britain, the longest continuous premiership in the twentieth century. Her critics are not few, but she was passionate about urging people to assume the discipline of personal responsibility and to build self-reliance, and she was passionate about bolstering free enterprise in her country. During her tenure in British politics, she helped lift Britain out of economic recession.

Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, spent almost twenty-seven years in prison for fighting against the apartheid regime. Mandela was impelled by his imagination rather than by his memory. He could envision a world far beyond the confines of his experience and memory, which included imprisonment, injustice, tribal warfare and disunity. Deep within his soul resonated a belief in the worth of every South African citizen.

Mother Teresa dedicated herself wholeheartedly, freely and unconditionally to the service of the poor. She bequeathed her highly disciplined upholding of the vows of poverty, purity and obedience upon her organization, which has both grown and strengthened even since her passing.

You’ll remember that I mentioned that anyone who has really made a difference for good or ill in the world possessed three common attributes: vision, discipline and passion. Now consider another leader who possessed all three but produced shockingly different results. Adolf Hitler passionately communicated his vision of a thousand-year reign of the Third Reich and of a superior Aryan race. He built one of the most disciplined military-industrial machines that the world has ever seen. And he evidenced brilliant emotional intelligence in his impassioned oratory, inspiring in the masses almost fanatical dedication and fear, which he channeled into hate and destruction.

There is, however, a huge difference between leadership that works and leadership that endures; every one of the aforementioned leaders laid a foundation and provided a contribution that endured, except for one the last.

When conscience governs vision, discipline and passion, leadership endures and changes the world for good. In other words, moral authority makes formal authority work. When conscience does not govern vision, discipline and passion, leadership does not endure, nor do the institutions created by that leadership endure. In other words, formal authority without moral authority fails.

The words “for good” means that it “lifts” and also that it “lasts.” Hitler had vision, discipline and passion but was driven by ego. Lack of conscience was his downfall. Gandhi’s vision, discipline and passion were driven by conscience, and he became a servant to the cause and the people. Again, he had only moral authority, no formal authority, and he was the father and founder of the second largest country in the world.

When vision, discipline and passion are governed by formal authority void of conscience or moral authority, it also changes the world, but not for good, rather for evil. Instead of lifting, it destroys; rather than lasting, it is eventually extinguished.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these four attributes: vision, discipline, passion and conscience.

VISION

Vision is seeing a future state with the mind’s eye. Vision is applied imagination. All things are created twice: first, a mental creation; second, a physical creation. The first creation, vision, is the beginning of the process of reinventing oneself or of an organization reinventing itself. It represents desire, dreams, hopes, goals and plans. But these dreams or visions are not just fantasies. They are reality not yet brought into the physical sphere, like the blueprint of a house before it’s built or musical notes in a score just waiting to be played.

Most of us don’t envision or realize our own potential. William James said, “Most people live in a very restricted circle of their potential being. We all have reservoirs of energy and genius to draw upon of which we do not dream.” Each of us has immeasurable power and capacity to reinvent our lives. In the following story, notice how one grief-stricken woman was able to create a new vision of her life:

I was forty-six years old when my husband, Gordon, was diagnosed with cancer. Without hesitation, I took early retirement to be with him. Although his death eighteen months later was expected, my grief consumed me. I sorrowed over our dreams unfulfilled. I was only forty-eight and had no reason to live.

My overarching question through my sorrow was, Why did God take Gordon and not me? I felt Gordon had so much more to offer the world than I had. With my body, mind and spirit fatigued beyond measure, I was motivated to find new meaning in my life.

I grabbed on to the idea that all things are created twice, first mentally and then physically. I had to ask myself what talents I had. An aptitude assessment test clarified for me what my strongest abilities were. To create a sense of balance in my life, I focused on the four parts of my nature. On an intellectual level, I realized that I loved to teach; spiritually and socially, I wanted to continue to support the racial harmony we had endeavored to create in our biracial marriage; emotionally, I knew I needed to give love. When my mother was alive she would rock critically ill babies in the hospital. I wanted to give comfort as she had and continue her legacy of unconditional love.

I was afraid to fail, but I told myself it would be okay to try different things, like trying on hats. If I didn’t like teaching after a semester, I didn’t have to go back. I began by going to graduate school so I could teach on the college level. Graduate school is hard, but at age forty-eight, it was especially tough! I was so used to passing documents off to my secretary to type, it took me a semester just to learn how to type my own papers. Turning off the TV and returning the cable box were acts of sheer will.

I completed graduate school and began teaching at a historically black college in Little Rock, Arkansas. I was appointed by the governor to serve on the Martin Luther King Commission to improve racial relations. I rock crack babies and AIDS infants who are hooked up to ventilators, for however short a period of time they have. I know I’m giving comfort, and that gives me a sense of peace.

Now my life is good. I can feel Gordon smiling at me. He told me time and time again before he died that he wanted me to have a life full of laughter, happy memories and good things. How could I waste my life, with that directive on my conscience? I don’t think I could. I have an obligation to live my life the best I can for the people I love the most whether they are here or on the other side.

Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Memory is past. It is finite. Vision is future. It is infinite. Vision is greater than history, greater than baggage, greater than the emotional scars of the past.

When somebody asked Einstein what question he would ask God if he could ask one, he replied, “How did the universe start? Because everything after that is just math.” And after thinking for a while, he changed his mind. He said, “Instead I would ask, ‘Why was the universe created?’ Because then I would know the meaning of my own life.” Perhaps the most important vision of all is to develop a sense of self, a sense of your own destiny, a sense of your unique mission and role in life, a sense of purpose and meaning. When testing your own personal vision first ask yourself: Does the vision tap into my voice, my energy, my unique talent? Does it give me a sense of “calling,” a cause worthy of my commitment? Acquiring such meaning requires profound personal reflection, asking deep questions and envisioning.

The author, filmmaker and world-renowned storyteller Sir Laurens van der Post said, “Without vision we all suffer from an insufficiency of data. We look at life myopically, that is, through our own lens, our own world. Vision enables us to transcend our autobiography, our past to rise above our memory. This is particularly practical in human relationships and creates a magnanimity of spirit toward others.” When we talk about vision, it’s important to consider not only the vision of what’s possible “out there” but also the vision of what we see in other people, their unseen potential. Vision is about more than just getting things done, accomplishing some task, achieving something; it is about discovering and expanding our view of others, affirming them, believing in them, and helping them discover and realize the potential within them helping them find their own voice.

In many Eastern cultures, people greet others by putting their arms in an inverted V shape at their chest and bowing to the other person. In so doing they are saying, “I salute the greatness in you,” or “I salute the divinity within you.” I know another person who, when she encounters a person, says audibly or in her heart, “I love you. What is your name?” Seeing people through the lens of their potential and their best actions, rather than through the lens of their current behavior or weaknesses, generates positive energy and reaches out and embraces others. This affirming action is also one of the keys to rebuilding broken relationships. It is also the key to successful parenting.

There is great power in viewing people separately from their behavior, for as we do, we affirm their fundamental, unconditional worth. When we perceive and acknowledge the potential of others, it is as if we hold up a mirror to them reflecting the best within them. This affirming vision not only frees them to become their best but we too are freed from reacting to unwanted behavior. When people behave far below their potential, our affirming attitude and words become “that’s not like you.” While on an international trip many years ago I remember being introduced to a young man about eighteen years old. He had had some great challenges in his youth, including drug and alcohol abuse. Though he was turning his life around, as the two of us visited alone I could tell that he was struggling for a sense of direction and doubted himself. I also discerned that he was a special young man, full of greatness and real potential. It beamed from his countenance and spirit. Before we parted, I looked him right in the eye and told him that I believed he would be a person of great influence in the world throughout his life, and that he had unusual gifts and potential.

Almost twenty years later, he has become one of the most promising, able young men I know. He has a beautiful family and is a professional of real accomplishment. A friend of mine was recently visiting with him. During their conversation, this young man spontaneously recounted the experience I described above. Of it, he said, “You have no idea how that one hour impacted my life. I was told I was someone with potential that far surpassed what I had ever imagined. That thought caught hold inside me. It has made all the difference in the world.” Cultivating the habit of affirming people, of frequently and sincerely communicating your belief in them particularly teenagers who are going through their second identity crisis is supremely important. It’s a relatively small investment with incalculable, unbelievable results. Again, remember the incredible effect it has upon us when someone communicates his or her belief in us (our potential) when we don’t believe in ourselves (our history).

DISCIPLINE

Discipline is just as important as vision, though it is second in the chain. Discipline represents the second creation. It’s the executing, the making it happen, the sacrifice entailed in doing whatever it takes to realize that vision. Discipline is willpower embodied. Peter Drucker once observed that the first duty of a manager is to define reality. Discipline defines reality and accepts it; it is the willingness to get totally immersed in it, rather than deny it. It acknowledges the stubborn, brute facts of things as they are.

Without vision and a sense of hope, accepting reality may be depressing or discouraging. Happiness is sometimes defined as the ability to subordinate what you want now for what you want eventually. This personal sacrifice, the process of subordinating today’s pleasure for a greater longer-term good, is exactly what discipline is all about.

Most people equate discipline with an absence of freedom. “Shoulds kill spontaneity.” “There’s no freedom in ‘have to.’ ” “I want to do what I want to do. That’s freedom, not duty.”

In fact, the opposite is true. Only the disciplined are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions.

Can you play the piano? I can’t. I don’t have the freedom to play the piano. I never disciplined myself. I preferred playing with my friends to practicing, as my parents and piano teacher wanted me to do. I don’t think I ever envisioned myself as a piano player. I never had a sense of what it might mean, a kind of freedom to create magnificent art that might be valuable to myself and to others throughout my entire life.

What about the freedom to forgive, to ask forgiveness? What about the freedom to love unconditionally, to be a light, not a judge a model, not a critic? Think of the discipline involved in these. Discipline comes from being “discipled” to a person or a cause.

The great educator Horace Mann once said, “In vain do they talk of happiness who never subdue an impulse in obedience to a principle. He who never sacrificed a present for future good, or a personal to a general one, can speak of happiness only as the blind speak of color.” I remember the internal struggle I faced as a fifty-year-old university professor in deciding to leave the safe haven and comfort zone of university professorship to set up my own business. If it weren’t for the vision of the greater good I might do, we never would have had the discipline to make the sacrifice and begin the self-denying processes of establishing a new business, taking out a second mortgage, and going deeply into debt. We even acquired a new tongue-in-cheek motto, “Happiness is a positive cash flow,” and sweated through each payroll for years. We could never have endured this difficult period if we hadn’t had the vision of what was possible and the discipline to hang in there.

I truly believe that discipline is the trait common to all successful people. I admire the work of insurance executive Albert E. N. Gray, who spent a lifetime trying to discover the common denominator of success. Finally, he came to the simple but profound realization that although hard work, good luck and astute human relations are all important the successful person has “formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.”7 Successful people don’t like doing them either, necessarily. But their dislike is subordinated by the strength of their purpose.

People who lack discipline and are unable to subordinate and sacrifice simply play at working. In a sense, every workday becomes like a long masked ball. They spend the day creating smoke screens, emails detailing what they’re working on, phone messages reporting on the status of projects, long meetings to discuss how to do things. Generally, people who spend their time making excuses are those who lack focus and discipline. Setbacks are inevitable; misery is a choice. There are always reasons, never an excuse.

PASSION

Passion comes from the heart and is manifest as optimism, excitement, emotional connection, determination. It fires unrelenting drive. Enthusiasm is deeply rooted in the power of choice rather than circumstance. Enthusiasts believe that the best way to predict the future is to create it. In fact, enthusiasm becomes a moral imperative, making the person part of the solution rather than part of the problem of feeling essentially hopeless and helpless.

Aristotle said, “Where talents and the needs of the world cross, therein lies your vocation.” We could say, “Therein lies your passion, your voice” that which energizes your life and gives you your drive. It is the fuel at the heart of vision and discipline. It keeps you at it when everything else may say quit. When asked by his doctor how many hours a week he spent working, one man replied, “I don’t know. How many hours a week do you breathe?” When life, work, play and love all revolve around the same thing, you’ve got passion!

The key to creating passion in your life is to find your unique talents and your special role and purpose in the world. It is essential to know yourself before you decide what work you want to do.* The Greek philosophy, “Know yourself, control yourself, give yourself” is exquisitely sequenced and wise. One’s talent, one’s mission or role in life is usually detected more than it is invented. Author, filmmaker and world-renowned storyteller Sir Laurens van der Post wrote: We have to look inwards to look into ourselves, look into this container, which is our soul; look and listen to it. Until you have listened in to that thing which is dreaming through you, in other words answered the knock on the door in the dark, you will not be able to lift this moment in time in which we are imprisoned, back again into the level where the great act of creation is going on.

The great contributors in life are those who, though afraid of the knock at the door, still answer it. Courage is the essence of passion, and is, as Harold B. Lee once said, “the quality of every virtue acting at its highest testing point.”8 There’s a common misconception that a person’s skill is their talent. Skills, however, are not talents. Talents, on the other hand, require skills. People can have skills and knowledge in areas where their talents do not lie. If they have a job that requires their skills but not their talents, organizations will never tap into their passion or voice. They’ll go through the motions, but this will only make them appear to need external supervision and motivation.

If you can hire people whose passion intersects with the job, they won’t require any supervision at all. They will manage themselves better than anyone could ever manage them. Their fire comes from within, not from without. Their motivation is internal, not external. Just think about the times when you were passionate about a project, something that was so compelling and absorbing that you could hardly think of anything else. Did you need to be managed or supervised? Of course not; the thought of being told when and how to do it would have been insulting.

WHEN YOU CAN give yourself to work that brings together a need, your talent, and your passion, power will be unlocked.

CONSCIENCE

GEORGE WASHINGTON said Labour to keep alive that little spark of celestial fire, conscience.

Much has been said from the outset of this book about the singular importance of conscience. There is a mass of evidence that shows that conscience, this moral sense, this inner light, is a universal phenomenon. The spiritual or moral nature of people is also independent of religion or of any particular religious approach, culture, geography, nationality or race. Yet all of the enduring major religious traditions of the world are unified when it comes to certain basic underlying principles or values.

Immanuel Kant said, “I am constantly amazed by two things; the starry heavens above and the moral law within.” Conscience is the moral law within. It is the overlapping of moral law and behavior. Many believe, as do I, that it is the voice of God to his children. Others may not share this belief but recognize that there is an innate sense of fairness and justice, an innate sense of right and wrong, of what is kind and what is unkind, of what contributes and what detracts, of what beautifies and what destroys, of what is true and what is false. Admittedly, culture translates this basic moral sense into different kinds of practices and words, but this translation does not negate the underlying sense of right and wrong.

As I work in nations of different religions and different cultures, I have seen this universal conscience revealed time and again. There really is a set of values, a sense of fairness, honesty, respect and contribution that transcends culture—something that is timeless, which transcends the ages and is also self-evident. Again, it is as self-evident as the fact that trust requires trustworthiness.

Conscience and Ego

Conscience is the still, small voice within. It is quiet. It is peaceful. Ego is tyrannical, despotic and dictatorial.

Ego focuses on one’s own survival, pleasure and enhancement to the exclusion of others and is selfishly ambitious. It sees relationships in terms of threat or no threat, like little children who classify all people as “He’s nice” or “He’s mean.” Conscience, on the other hand, both democratizes and elevates ego to a larger sense of the group, the whole, the community, the greater good. It sees life in terms of service and contribution, in terms of others’ security and fulfillment.

Ego works in the face of genuine crisis but has no discernment in deciding how severe a crisis or threat is. Conscience is filled with discernment and senses the degree of threat. It has a large repertoire of responses. It has the patience and wisdom to decide what to do when. Conscience sees life on a continuum. It’s capable of complex adaptation.

Ego can’t sleep. It micromanages. It disempowers. It reduces one’s capacity. It excels in control. Conscience deeply reveres people and sees their potential for self-control. Conscience empowers. It reflects the worth and value of all people and affirms their power and freedom to choose. Then natural self-control emerges, imposed neither from above nor from the outside.

Ego is threatened by negative feedback and punishes the messenger. It interprets all data in terms of self-preservation. It constantly censors information. It denies much of reality. Conscience values feedback and attempts to discern whatever truth it contains. It isn’t afraid of information and can accurately interpret what’s going on. It has no need to censor information and is open to an awareness of reality from every direction.

Ego is myopic and interprets all of life through its own agenda. Conscience is a social ecologist listening to and sensing the entire system and environment. It fills the body with light, is able to democratize ego to reflect more accurately the entire world.

Further Insights into Conscience

Conscience is sacrifice the subordinating of one’s self or one’s ego to a higher purpose, cause or principle. Again, sacrifice really means giving up something good for something better. But in the mind of the person sacrificing, there really is no sacrifice only to the observer is it sacrifice.

Sacrifice can take many forms as it manifests itself in the four dimensions of our lives: making physical and economic sacrifices (the body); cultivating an open, inquisitive mind and purging oneself of prejudices (the mind); showing deep respect and love to others (the heart); and subordinating one’s own will to a higher will for the greater good (the spirit).

Conscience teaches us that ends and means are inseparable, that ends actually preexist in the means. Immanuel Kant taught that the means used to accomplish the ends are as important as those ends. Machiavelli taught the opposite, that the ends justify the means.

Consider the seven things that, according to Gandhi’s teaching, will destroy us. If you study them slowly and carefully, you will see in a powerful way how each represents an end being accomplished through an unprincipled or unworthy means:

• Wealth without work

• Pleasure without conscience

• Knowledge without character

• Commerce without morality

• Science without humanity

• Worship without sacrifice

• Politics without principle

Isn’t it interesting how each one of these admirable ends can be falsely attained? But if you reach an admirable end through the wrong means, the ends ultimately turn to dust in your hands.

In your business dealings, you know those who are honest with you and who keep their promises and commitments. You also know exactly those who are duplicitous, deceitful and dishonest. Even when you reach a legal contract agreement with those who are dishonest, do you really trust they’ll come through and keep their word?

It’s conscience that constantly tells us the value of both ends and means and how they are inseparable. But it’s ego that tells us that the end justifies the means, unaware that a worthy end can never be accomplished with an unworthy means. It may appear that you can, but there are unintended consequences that are not seen or evident at first that will eventually destroy the end. For instance, you can yell at your kids to clean their rooms, and if your end is to have a clean room, you’ll accomplish just that. But I guarantee you that not only will the means negatively affect the relationships but the room won’t stay clean when you leave town for a few days.

Conscience profoundly alters vision, discipline and passion by introducing us into the world of relationships. It moves us from an independent to an interdependent state. When this happens, everything is altered. You realize that vision and values must be shared before people will be willing to accept the institutionalized discipline of structures and systems that embody those shared values. Such shared vision creates discipline and order without demanding them. Conscience often provides the why, vision identifies what you’re trying to accomplish, discipline represents how you’re going to accomplish it, and passion represents the strength of feelings behind the why, the what, and the how.

CONSCIENCE TRANSFORMS passion into compassion. It engenders sincere caring for others, a combination of both sympathy and empathy, where one’s pain is shared and received. Compassion is the interdependent expression of passion. Guideposts contributor JoAnn C. Jones related an experience in which her university professor taught her to live and learn by the guidance of her conscience: During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her fifties, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank.

Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. “Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.” I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.11

When people strive to live by their conscience, it produces integrity and peace of mind. German-born Presbyterian minister and motivational speaker/ author William J. H. Boetcker said earlier in the twentieth century, “That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.” This self-respect and integrity, in turn, produce in those who possess them the ability to be both kind and courageous with other people: kind in that they show a great respect and reverence for other people, their view, feelings, experiences and convictions; courageous in that they express their own convictions without personal threat. The interplay between differing opinions can produce those third alternatives that are better than what either person had initially proposed. This is true synergy, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

People who do not live by their conscience will not experience this internal integrity and peace of mind. They will find their ego attempting to control relationships. Even though they might pretend or feign kindness and empathy from time to time, they will use subtle forms of manipulation and will even go so far as to engage in kind but dictatorial behavior.

The private victory of integrity is the foundation for the public victories of establishing a common vision, discipline and passion. Leadership becomes an interdependent work rather than an immature interplay between strong, independent, ego-driven rulers and compliant, dependent followers.

FILM: Stone

There is a man in Uganda who beautifully illustrates the power of allowing conscience to wisely direct our vision, discipline and passion. His name is Stone, and he was a great soccer player. The dream of every kid in Uganda is to become good enough at soccer that the European clubs will sign him or her as a player. The big, serious money from Europe was looking at Stone, when, during a game, somebody purposely hit him in a way that “blew out” his knee. His professional career was over.

Stone could have become vindictive or revengeful. He could have wallowed in self-pity or lived in his celebrity for the rest of his life. But he didn’t. Instead he chose his response. He used his imagination (vision) and his conscience to inspire and influence young “problem” Ugandan boys and teenagers who would otherwise be lost in life with no marketable skills, no role models, and no hope.

I would like to invite you to see Stone in action. I want you to feel his spirit, and to sense his heart and vision. You can see Stone’s story in a short, powerful, award-winning film at www.The8thHabit.com/offers. Select Stone from the Films menu. I know you will enjoy the experience.

As you watch the film, notice how Stone overcame his cultural overlay toward revenge by tapping into his birth-gifts. Notice how he personally paid the price in sacrifice and discipline. Notice also how, with unrelenting passion, he reached out to the young men in his country so that they, too, could learn to govern their own lives by their conscience, as well as gain a vision of becoming first a good soccer player, then economically self-reliant, and then responsible adults, fathers and contributing citizens. Notice how they gradually became more and more independent of Stone so that they themselves were governed by the principles (conscience) of self-mastery, training and contribution. Notice, finally, how Stone communicated the worth and potential of these young men so clearly that they were inspired to see it in themselves.

You might be interested to know that a long-time colleague of mine visited Stone in Uganda several years after this film was made. He offered this update on Stone: “I was so impressed with his balance of body, mind, heart and spirit. He is very physically active, relentlessly teaching his boys soccer—six different teams a day! His mind is alert—always looking for new ways to achieve his mission of guiding the youth to new horizons. He is a Christian but lives in a Muslim neighborhood, with a Muslim landlord. His daily actions engender peace and harmony in his neighborhood. Socially he cares for each child, parent and person he meets. His character and deep integrity moved me well beyond even what is portrayed in this film.” PART 1: FIND YOUR VOICE—SUMMARY AND A FINAL CHALLENGE

As we approach the end of this section on Finding Your Voice, let’s go back and reconnect with our main purposes.

We know there is a painful gap between possessing great potential and actually realizing a life of greatness and contribution between being aware of tremendous problems and challenges in the workplace and developing the internal power and moral authority to break out of those problems and become a significant force in solving them.

I commend to you again this simple way of thinking about life: a whole person (body, mind, heart and spirit) with four basic needs (to live, to learn, to love, to leave a legacy), and four intelligences or capacities (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) and their highest manifestations (discipline, vision, passion, conscience), all of which represent the four dimensions of voice (need, talent, passion and conscience).

As we respect, develop, integrate and balance these intelligences and their highest manifestations, the synergy between them lights the fire within us and we find our voice. You may be interested to know that I first introduced the idea and language of “The Fire Within” in the book First Things First, coauthored with Roger and Rebecca Merrill. Years later, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics called me requesting permission to use as the central theme of the 2002 Games “Light the Fire Within.” Without hesitation I said, “Of course we would be honored.” I was inspired and thrilled to see how they used the “Light the Fire Within” theme to portray the magnificent potential of the human spirit. Several weeks after the Games, SLOC president Mitt Romney told me that it’s the first time he knows of in the history of the Olympic Games that the organizers were successfully able to create a lasting, identifying theme that actually “took hold” in the hearts and minds of the athletes, volunteers and worldwide viewers.

In chapter 1, I suggested that voice (see figure 5.4) lies at the nexus of talent (your natural gifts and strengths), passion (those things that naturally energize, excite, motivate and inspire you), need (including what the world needs enough to pay you for), and conscience (that still, small voice within that assures you of what is right and that prompts you to actually do it). I also said that when you engage in work (professional, community, family) that taps your talent and fuels your passion that rises out of a great need in the world that you feel drawn by conscience to meet—therein lies your voice, your calling, your soul’s code.

Perhaps you have noticed the similarity between these four dimensions of voice and the four personal leadership attributes of vision, discipline, passion and conscience (see Figure 5.5). Two of the terms, passion and conscience, are identical. The other two, talent and need, are parallels to discipline and vision. In fact, if you were to move the “conscience” circle (shaded to indicate its central, preeminent rate) on Figure 5.4 up to the center, you would essentially have the same model.

These four dimensions of voice are beautifully illustrated in the story of Muhammad Yunus. How did he find his voice? First he sensed a need. The voice of conscience inspired him to take action. Since his talent matched the need, he disciplined his talent to provide a solution. The work involved in the solution not only drew upon his talent but it also tapped his passion. Out of need grew vision—vision to multiply the capacity of people and institutions to meet similar needs around the world, and thereby inspire them to find their voice.

With the end to Part 1: Find Your Voice I extend to you a promise and a challenge. My promise: if you will apply these four capacities—talent (discipline), need (vision), passion and conscience—to any role of your life, you can find your voice in that role. My simple challenge: Take two or three of the primary roles in your life, and in each role, ask yourself the following four questions: 1. What need do I sense (in my family, in my community, in the organization I work for)?

1. Do I possess a true talent that, if disciplined and applied, can meet the need?

2. Does the opportunity to meet the need tap into my passion?

3. Does my conscience inspire me to take action and become involved?

If you can answer all four questions in the affirmative and will make a habit of developing a plan of action and then going to work on it, I guarantee you will begin to find your true voice in life, a life of deep meaning, satisfaction and greatness.

Let’s move now to Part 2: Inspire Others to Find Their Voice.

QUESTION & ANSWER

Q: Could this approach to personal leadership help me solve one of my lifelong challenges losing weight and staying in shape?

A: If you’re like most people, you’ve resolved from time to time to get into shape, and, in most cases, this usually involves losing some weight. Oftentimes, getting into shape merely means replacing fat with muscle, which may actually increase your weight since muscle weighs about twice as much as fat. Nevertheless, our fundamental task is to get into shape and become physically healthy, strong and fit. That is the vision. What is the discipline? Usually it involves a strict regimen of exercise, proper nutrition, rest and stress management. Passion represents the depth of feeling, the emotional commitment, and the drive. Conscience provides the why, the reason, the worthy causes of being healthier so that you can live longer, provide for your family properly, help raise your grandchildren, or simply feel better. You’ll also find that if the motivation is only external looking better, vanity, a change of season, New Year’s resolution time, etc. such motivation will often lose its power and fail to sustain itself because the cause is not worthy of such total commitment. Before making a bad food choice, train yourself to inwardly say: “My temptation is emotional, and resisting will further my needed weight loss and strengthen my character. Furthermore, nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” It is very common to become discouraged by the cycle of setting a goal to lose weight, and then abandoning it within days or even hours. Many complain, “I’m just not disciplined.” My experience is that the biggest problem is not the discipline; it’s that we have not yet paid the price with vision we’re also not yet connected with our deepest values and motivations (conscience), with those things most important to us. Let me illustrate with the experience of a friend of mine: I had been working very hard on my career. By the time I turned forty-five, I was quite successful. I was also about sixty pounds overweight, a compulsive eater during times of stress, and one who didn’t have time to exercise regularly because of work. On his fifth birthday, my son, Logan, gave me a book on healthy living. Inside, his mother had helped him write the following words: “Daddy, for my birthday this year, I want you to be healthy. I want you to be around a while.” Talk about a punch in the gut. Ouch.

That plea from my son changed my perspective on my lifestyle completely. The eating and the lack of regular physical exercise weren’t just my individual choice anymore. I saw suddenly that I was creating a very unhealthy legacy for my children. I was modeling for them that one’s body was unimportant, that self-control was unimportant, that the only thing worth working hard for in this life was money and prestige. I realized that my stewardship to my children involved more than just providing for their physical, financial and emotional needs. It also involved providing healthy role models on which they could pattern their lives. I had not been doing that.

So I committed myself to being healthy for my children. Not to losing weight, but to being healthy. That’s the key for me. My commitment had to be to something that held real value for me. I had tried so many diets and exercise programs before. Normally I would be fine until stresses happened in my life. To have losing weight as my inspiring motivation was simply not enough. But my children are significant enough. I care enough about them that I can choose to make healthy decisions. I established as a goal for myself that I wanted to be healthy. I wanted to be vital, to have energy to play with my kids after work, to be able to play in the company softball tournament without getting winded on the way to first base. As a way to reach that goal, I implemented a diet and exercise program. The key here is that the diet and exercise program was not the goal. Being healthy for my children was. I decided to share my goal with somebody else who wanted to be healthy. We now work together on an exercise program. I made sure I set aside time for me to accomplish my goals. I learned to know when to stop working and to pay attention to the needs of my body.

It’s been two years since I changed my way of thinking. I don’t struggle anymore to get out of bed. Exercising has almost become second nature. I don’t talk myself out of my exercise program like I did at the beginning. Sure, there are still days that I don’t do too well. I think I’m tired, I think my hamstring is strained, I have a headache, it’s too hot. Some days, I plain talk myself out of running. But it’s so much easier now for me to get back on track. Because I have this larger goal, this greater commitment to somebody I love more than myself, I can get right back on track.

Q: What about getting a job?

A: Getting into shape is primarily an independent effort. Getting the job you want is clearly a highly interdependent one and relies on effective development of influence with other people.

Now, let’s think through how to get the job you want by looking at the same four attributes of personal influence: vision, discipline, passion and conscience. The key is all four. Neglect any one of them and you’ll find it much more difficult to get the job you want, and if you do get it, you will likely not be able to sustain what you committed to and what it requires of you.

Let’s assume there’s a very soft job market and that most employers are letting people go, not hiring—particularly in the industry and city where you want to live and work. How do you get the job that you want?

First of all, to even get a vision, you need to know what this job is. Use discipline to figure out what the job actually entails. Use discipline to understand the job, to understand the organization you want to be employed by, to understand the unique requirements of the job, and to understand the marketplace so that you understand the forces that are in place, including competition, customers’ wants and needs, and the characteristics and trends in that industry. In other words, pay the price to understand the challenges and problems faced by the organization you want to join.

Next, identify where your passion is, e.g., does this job uniquely reflect your talent, gifts, interests, capacities and skills? If so, does your conscience tell you this is a job worthy of being committed to? If so, can you envision yourself working in this manner?

After you’ve done all this preliminary work you are ready to go to the job interview—not as another problem for the interviewer to deal with but as a solution to the problems decision-makers are facing.

Show an understanding of their most significant problems better than most of the people in their present employ. Show a level of passion and commitment to meet their situation better than most of the people in their employ. Suggest, if necessary, a trial period, even at your expense, until they become convinced that you are a better solution to their problem than anyone else they’re looking at or than many they may already employ, simply because you’re a leader. You take initiative to make good things happen. You don’t wait to be told. You’re not always being acted upon. You act, but you’re not foolish in your action. You are very aware. You’re very sensitive. You’re very empathic and respectful.

You also engage in this job-finding process in a principled way. There is no exaggeration for effect, no deceit, no manipulation, no lying, no cheating, no duplicity or putting other people down. You become very focused on the organization’s needs, their concerns, their problems, and on their customers’ needs, concerns and problems. You talk that language.

Anyone that will take such an approach with a decision-maker will get attention, and in most cases, will blow them away with the depth of their preparation and discipline and willingness to pay the price and sacrifice.

I have given this counsel over and over and over again to many people through the years. A small percentage took it, and in almost every case, they succeeded in getting the job they wanted. I also usually recommend that they study the latest edition of the book What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles, to help them better understand this process.