Leaders Have Conviction?

Leaders have conviction?

This article is in response to Dr. Bradberry’s article, available here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-best-leaders-have-conviction-dr-travis-bradberry

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Dr. Bradberry, unfortunately, your premise is flawed. "[ conviction is ] in short supply because our brains are wired to overreact to uncertainty with fear. As uncertainty increases, the brain shifts control over to the limbic system, the place where emotions, such as anxiety and panic, are generated."  As both a student and an instructor of Carley Gracie Jujitsu No-Gi Grappling, and the one who found the Definition of Leadership, "Guiding Intent with Integrity", I have first hand knowledge of the at least one data point your article is missing.

While leaders may seem to have conviction, this conviction was built over a long period of time, standing on a solid foundation of, "Predictable activities [ that ] satisfy our craving for certainty." ie, confidence in their abilities, skills, techniques, strategies, and flow.  

When a leader has this level of confidence, there is no need to have conviction. They can clearly and concisely elaborate on various aspects of their plan with their subordinates. This same technique holds true in grappling, where "No strategy survives contact with the enemy", and thus demonstrates the need to be flexible and update one's strategy constantly, as well as accepting failure.  

What makes great leaders is: a constant learning process, a space where they can fail gracefully, internal and external reflection, and support from others. So, when my students get stuck in a grappling position, I walk them back through their moves, ask them what they could have done differently, and show several options.  

Conviction, will only get a grappler and a leader so far. Confidence in their understanding of the basic techniques used, a strategy that works towards the goal, and a willingness to be open and malleable about their strategy will go a long way to achieving success and growing future leaders.  Or put more succinctly, "There are many ways to get an arm bar. Learn them all, and choose that that work best for you!"

Monday - Grappling

On Monday night, a student wanted to roll for an hour. He has a lot of upper body strength and energy, so I didn't quite wear him out, but he did enjoy being rolling around.

Politics

Politics, Religion, and ____ are usually the 3 subjects that you don’t discuss in RAPP groups.  I’ve never understood why, but I think it has to do with peoples understand of what a discussion vs a debate is.  Or, it’s their understanding of what the concepts are.  Thus, I’d like to share my definition of what “Politics” is.

Politics is about insuring that your personal point of view is taking into account during a discussion.

Politicians aggregate their constituents personal points of view, as they represent them at gatherings where decisions are made to resolve a problems.

Politicians are leaders, in the sense that they have followers who align with the politician’s point of view.  

There is more to say here concerning politics and leadership ... As Emperor Palpatine definitely displayed during his run in Star Wars.  

Body Transformation for Heavy Set People

Transforming your body requires time and effort.  It is accomplished through building lean muscle, tightening stomach and back muscles, and shrinking fat cells through consuming the fuel they store.  This article will focus on calorie burning, by combining a series of trans-formative programs together.

#1. BEING MINDFUL

Pay Attention! Reflect!  Celebrate!

There are four aspects to track when executing a transformational program: Self Image, Effort, Reflection and Celebration.

Transformations requires an understanding of the motivations behind the need to transform, the resistance to transformation, and why YOU don't want to transform.  Keeping a journal about this subject helps practitioners understand self doubts and judgments, work ethics and efforts, and things that encourage or discourage training.  

Study and reflect your journal and articles on transformational programs.  If one system doesn't work, try another, and then another. Figure out what works for YOU!  Maybe you need to do a combination of things that build muscle, build stamina, and maintain flexibility.

The ultimate progress journal will be how the body responds to training. With that said, tracking effort helps to determine what is working and not working.  When tracking program change effects, insure  changes are given a reasonable time frame.  In human body terms, changes range from 2 weeks to 3 months to a full year.

Journaling also helps identify when milestones have been reached.  Unlike SMART Goals, body transformation work requires Simple Manageable Achievable and Realistic goals.  Time is not a factor in transformation, since recognition of the achievement won't be realized till well after having achieved it.  It will be a realization, “I'm there and maintaining it!” Celebrate these moments with people who have helped you achieve this transformation.  

#2. CONSISTENCY / ROUTINE

The easiest way to be consistent is by building a daily routine and committing to it. It seems easy at first; then harder due to competition, boredom or both; and eventually becomes a natural part of who you are. Journaling thoughts demonstrates the individual struggle and progress being made to achieve your targeted transformation.  

There are cell phone apps that prompt individuals to do things during their day:  Take supplements. Eat a meal.  Work out.  Journal.  And so on.  They will also help you reflect on the progress to achieve this routine's consistency.  

#3. WEIGHT TRAINING

The theory is, the more muscle you have, the more energy you burn.  There are many programs that build muscle:  Body Building, Power Lifting, Olympic Lifting, Resistance Training, and Yoga .. just to name a few.  

Lean muscle burns more calories to maintain its activity. The best way of increasing lean muscle is, of course, weight training. Training that contains compound movements, vs isolation exercises, consume more energy, since more muscles are active during the exercise. An example is, heavy lifting with low rep ranges - six reps for presses and pulls. Higher rep ranges can be done when training calves, abs and arms.

There are many sites, sources, and books on the subject of weight training. It is recommend that a personal trainer be involved to demonstrate the techniques, and insure that they are being performed properly to receive the greatest benefit from the exercise and avoid injury.

As mentioned, a strong stomach and back (core) are an essential part in any body transformation, since this is the primary place the body stores extra energy.  A weak core will prevent compound exercises from being executed.  And, while situps are the main stay to a 6 pack stomach, planks and squats are the path to a strong core.

#4. INTERVAL TRAINING

Preparing for weight training requires a good warm up routine using a series of intervals. Interval routines are short burst of intense activity, like sprints. Initially light to warm up, then heavier and harder as the body responds positively to the exertion.  These routines should resemble the exercises to be performed.  Thus, slowly warm up the muscles and prepare them to manage heavy loads or work for longer durations.  

At the time of this writing, there is no good reference site that identify 1000's of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) routines.  Therefore, create a search worm to find find these routines through various synonyms: HIIT, Aerobics, FITT,

When combined with your heavy lifting the body sweats for 1 to 2 hours after the work out.  In achieving this milestone, the transformation process will begin to show results.

#5. DIETING

In examining diet, there are four things to consider:  tracking what you eat, discovering what you like to eat, how often you eat and portion size.

Instead of tracking calorie intake, take pictures of the food you are eating.  This builds an immediate feedback loop through journaling that encourages healthier choices.  

Identify the things that you like to eat. To build a healthy diet plan, use several picture cook books to identify dishes you like to eat.  

Americans are accustom to eating 3 meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner.  This routine works against those trying to transform their body.  One reason why the body maintains a lot of energy stored in fat cells is due to inconsistent eating habits that make it hard for the body to know when needed nutrients will be available.  Thus, when sugars and nutrients are consumed, they are moved to fat cells almost immediately.

A better diet plan is a mix of the Adkin's diet and Hypoglycemic's diet plan.  In this plan, there is a reduction in sugar, an increase in protean, and it is served through a series of small meals.  The plan calls for 7 to 11 meals a day spaced every 2 hours:  breakfast, salad, protean, pasta, fruits & nuts, desert, salad, protean, pasta, fruits & nuts, and desert.  This plan substitutes simple sugars from starches for fruits and veggies and complex carbohydrates in pastas. Thus, as Dr. Adkins stated, “You are are loosing weight due to deficit in carbohydrates.”

Review the full list of supplements from a vitamin shop. Some diet plans call for supplements.  Some bodies are unable to produce them.  For example, if doing heavy lifting, DOMS – Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness – is a disabling / debilitating pain that is experienced after a workout and can last up to 2 weeks.  The causes and cures are varied. However, one supplement that seems to help is Glutamine.

When considering portion size, consider that the average person's stomach is the size of their fist.  The average meal (in a 3 meal a day plan) eaten, is 3 to 4 times that size.  This affects the how large a salad, a protean dish or fruit bowl will be.  The suggestion is, find a bowl that is the size of your fist, and use that to measure your meals.  

If you choose to eat every 2 hours, then adjust the daily routine to prepare the meals every morning.  This way, the meals are ready to go, and require fewer interruptions throughout the day to consume.

#6 WATER

There are many different things to consider when consuming water.  Should it be room temperature or ice cold vs boiling hot.  Should it be bottled or tap water.  Should it be run through a purifier or pulled from a mountain stream?  Or should it just be bottled from fresh snow?

On average, every human should drink at least 1 gallon of water to help their liver and kidneys function properly.  The easiest way to do this, is to sip water all day long.  Depending on the types of water you like, there are USB devices that keep the water at the temperature preference of your choice: Hot, Warm, or Cold.

What helps flush waste material from the cells as they worked and rebuilt.  Remember, when the body sweats it is expelling water that must be replaced. Drinking fresh water during this period helps. Keeping the body hydrated, will help muscles respond positively to exercise at all levels of intensity.

#7. INDICATORS

Many transformation plans suggest recording numbers.  As mentioned above, pay attention to how your body responds. It is a better indicator to how added time, exertion and weight are affecting your body.  Recording numbers can lead to a disheartening effect that SMART goals are not being achieved.  And, as mentioned above, SMART is not the goal, SMAR – Simple, Manageable, Attainable, and Realistic goals are the focus. Time is not a factor in transformation.

Weight measurements are accurate after 6 to 8 hours of fasting and purging. Expect daily measurements will go up and down.  However, when doing body transformations, the goal is to replace stored energy with muscle tissue, so weight changes may not be relevant in comparison to Body Mass Index and Muscle Mass.

While many obese people have to resort to liposuction and plastic surgery, it should be noted that the body maintains a consistent number of fat cells. Thus if they are sucked away through liposuction, they will return. Keeping them small is the goal.

Another indicator used is waistline.  This size is affect by eating late at night, which causes intestinal gas production that presses against the stomach walls, and causes the stomach muscles to lengthen in response.  Working the core, will reduce this effect. As will restricting food intake 6 hours prior to sleeping.

There are many more indicators: Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Sugar Levels, Energy Levels, Stamina, Boredom to name a few.  Find indicators that will that determine how the body is reacting to the level of effort being exerted.

Difference in Political Opinion

It is possible to have a difference of political opinion when discussing how to solve a social problem. However, when a politician believes that the best way to solve a problem is to blame someone else, and take away their rights, thats no longer a debate or a discussion, thats a label and an attack.

Labels are the opposite of understanding problems. They create unnecessary fear and hate at groups who are .. as you probably are .. trying to live your life.

This behavior is not considered proper social behavior, and thus why many people are upset with 45. He examplifies everything that is wrong with social debate and discourse. And, instead chooses to label groups of people, attack those that dont support him, and create as much fear and panic as he can over nothing.

And, while this causes the general populus to engage in a discussion about the issue he is attacking, it doesnt equate to a debate or a difference in political opinion. Because, no one is talking about how the issue affects them, their friends, their loved ones. Instead, they are using the labels and sound bites fed to them to fight each other with.

Again, a real debate discusses how to solve a social problem.

Guiding the Process

A leader is able to bring a diverse group of people affected by a similar problem and with different motivations together, and guide them through the process of crafting a solution that, while not perfect, helps 90% of the affected find a resolution. The process the group is guided through is debate. A leaders ability to do this is hampered by people who choose to label others. True debate is perceived as taking their precious time and energy. Instead, people use labels that allow them to quickly and easily digest their opponents point of view, instead of examine it. And, thus, most have equated the need to defend themselves during a debate, which isn't the purpose of debate. Most won't understand this problem, until they are forced to debate the issue from a stance that is totally contrary to their opinions. Through this process, individuals are forced to gather information about the problems their opponents face, to make a case based on evidence that supports a position. Once all sides understand the problem and the subproblems involved, the crafting of a solution becomes easier, as many new perspectives, experiences and ideas can be merged to craft the solution.