CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

• External imperatives
• Gain control
• Advancement
• Solve problems

Conventional views of impact: WHAT THE WORLD WANTS

When we think of having an impact, we usualy think of doing something to satisfy the needs and requirements of the places where we live and work. We seek impacts that solve problems, remove threats, and advance the current status of what we know and know how to do. Asset-Based Thinkning builds on this conventional wisdom by showing you how to connect what you want to make happen to what the wider world needs from you.

ABT INSIGHTS

• Internal imperatives
• Lose control
• Fulfillment
• Seize opportunities

ABT perspectives on impact: WHAT I WANT TO MAKE HAPPEN

ABT impact starts with setting your sights on the results you want to make happen – on the visions that inspire and motivate you most. Generating personally meaningful visions to pursue helps you prioritize external demands and determine how you will respond to them. With ABT you also connect each of your personal visions to the mighty cause you feel born to serve. This dual focus creates momentum and a whole host of unexpected, beneficial outcomes.

THIS IS YOUR TIME. CLAIM IT!

Making an impact is rooted in what you were born to do. Your impact comes to life at the intersection of your present actions and the furture you want to create. Impact comes in all shapes and sizes. Your impact may be starting a business, changing a law, raising teenagers, or reducing crime or illiteracy. Many people have multiple agendas. Most of us are attracted to more than one mighty cause in the course of a life time.

Regardless of how broad or narrow your agenda, how many or how few your desires, the Asset-Based Thinking approach to making an impact is the same. The impact you seek in your outer world must be fueled by the assets of passion and purpose from your inner world. When the imperatives of your outer world and inner world intersect, you know that it it “your time.” You are ready, willing and able to “claim it,” own it, and run with it.

Your Signature Impact

Two key ABT Impact Perspectives will help you achieve the future you deserve and increase the odds that your Signature Impact will make a difference. Reflect on each – then move forward with purpose and passion.

ABT Impact Perspective #1: People Trump Process and Procedures

Impact means moving from the current reality to the future reality you desire. Being clear and specific about the future you seek and how it is better than the present is essential. When you think “impact” think “change.”

Describe the changes in beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors required of you and those you intend to impact. This mind’s eye comparison creates a magnetic pull mechanism that propels you and others forward. You reach your destination in less time with energy to spare.

ABT Impact Perspective #2: Your Enthusiasm Inspires Others to Passionate Action

The bigger the impact you seek, the bigger the shared effort that is required. Your ultimate impact is in direct proportion to the magnetic pull of your enthusiasm and passion for your mighty cause.

Enthusiasm sustains you (and others) during the ups and downs. Enthusiasm fuels determination and creativity and sparks hope and resilience. Best of all, it’s contagious.

Don’t make the mistake of going it alone. Build an enthusiastic core of positive conspirators from the very beginning. You can’t miss.

MAKE DESIRE MORE IMPORTANT THAN FEAR

Recent findings in health care research show that fear of death does not motivate human beings to sustain healthier lifestyles. Even hear attack survivors will not change their lifestyle (e.g., stop smoking, start exercising, lose weight) when told they will die if they don’t. Attention-getting scare tactics and fear of dying motivate only for a while – on the order of 90 days. Why? it turns out that the fear of death becomes so overwhelming that we put it out of our minds. And when we keep waking up in the morning, even when we didn’t exercise the day before, the motivating power of fear diminishes.

Research confirms that when it comes to forming healthier lifestyle habits people respond to the potential rewards. The promise of achieving more energy, a better sex life, and increased happiness is what fuels sustainable changes in behaviors.

ABT AXIOM: Focus on what you want (not avoididng what you don’t want). Desire-driven goals stimulate motivation, build enthusiasm, and ignite the passion you need to define and achieve the future you most desire.

BE COMMITTED

Your skin in the Game

When you pursue your mighty cause and peronal visions it’s natural to want to be in charge. After all, it’s your vision! Instinctively you want to hold yourself 100% responsible and accountable. With that much skin in the game, it is tempting to want control over all the variables.

Control V.S Commitment

Striving for control is tempting, yet ultimately defeating. Instead of being in constant control, concentrate on being steadfast committed. Then you gain ground either by being in the driver’s seat or by giving someone else the wheel.

Positive Paradox

Think of the path to your future as a dance between who and what is in charge. Sometimes you take the lead over opposing forces – sometimes those opposing forces lead you. On your adventure, you can be sure that you will encounter opposing forces… ABT prepares you to make the most of them. And don’t forget that you will meet positive forces along the way. ABT helps you let go so those forces propel you forward.

BEAT THE ODDS… CHANGE THE GAME

Bigger Challenge = Bigger Impact

Beating the odds means succeeding despite the fact that the probability of winning is low. When this happens, you change the rules of the game.

Being powerful and influential enough to “change the game” in any arena of life is intoxicating and exciting. Especially if your aims connect to wider-world benefits. It just doesn’t get any better than that:

• Your confidence and courage grow
• Your gratitude expands
• Your know-how moves to the next levels

Role Models

Lance Armstrong beat the odds by triumphing over cancer and used that as his driving force to change the sport of cycling forever. “Live Strong” is a mantra and a movement. Seven consecutive Tour de France yellow jerseys form an amazing record that provides others with hope and inspiration. 

Starbucks beat the odds that people would actually pay $3.00 for a cup of coffee and changed the game in the coffee business. A neighborhood gathering place with a premium coffee experience is now the standard for the industry. 

 In 2005, Australian physicians Robin Warren and Barry Marshal were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering that stomach ulcers are caused by a strain of bacteria. Warren and Marshal fought for years to override the prevailing theory that ulcers were caused by excess stomach acids. Thanks to their game-changing beliefs, antibiotics have replaced unnecessary surgery in the treatment of ulcers.

TRADE ENRAGED FOR ENGAGED

The devastation of 9/11 will long be remembered. What also lives on in our memories are the remarkable acts of leadership and recovery aftermath. Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided us with a prime example of Asset-Based Thinking. He made heroism more important that terrorism. He biased his attention (and the attention of the entire world) in favor of the heroic acts of courage and compassion displayed by firefighters, police, civil servants, and the general public.

Like Giuliani, people everywhere found wats to let their feelings of hope, compassion, and gratitude override their more negative emotions.

By paying more attention to what inspires you and heartens you, you make better decisions and have a bigger positive impact than when you are at the mercy of anxiety or rage.

Let Emotion Reign

Emotions govern our thoughts, decisions, and actions more than we imagine. New findings in the field of neuroscience refute the conventional wisdom that emotions are subservient to rational thought. We’ve all heard the admonition, “Don’t let your decision be clouded by your emotion.” In practical terms this just isn’t possible. Emotions do influence our thoughts. Here’s how the process works.

Negative Emotions -> Set off alarms -> Trigger Deficit-Based Thinking

Positive Emotions -> Release Incentive Indicators -> Trigger Asset-Based Thinking

During 9/11, both sides of the emotional spectrum were at work. Fears and anger provoked DBT scrutiny about what went wrong. Simultaneously, the emotions of compassion, hope, and pride promoted recognition of what went right. We celebrated those who rose to the occasion, and recognized and praised the good in people.

Both emotion channel provide important inputs. When you emphasize positive ABT emotions over negative DBT emotions, your impact come faster and goes deeper.

Remember… emotions reign. Be aware of how you feel. Stack the deck in favour of positive emotions with Asset-Based Thinking, no matter how challenging the circumstances.

LIVE LEGACIES NOW

In his commencement address at Stanford University, Steve Jobs (founder of apple) revealed that he looks in the mirror every morning and asks himself:

“If I die tonight, will I be glad that I did what I am planning to do today? If the answer is ‘No’, I change the plan.”

This questions keeps him on track, clear, and on purpose. It’s not a morbid filter; just the opposite. It is a filter that enriches and inspires him to live his legacy now – before it’s too late.

Leaving a legacy makes your life more meaningful. Living you legacy changes the game. Imagine how invigorating and reassuring it would be to know that what you are doing right now is contributing to your legacy. Imagine how inspired others would be if they saw you building your legacy in the present.

There’s something I know about you that you may or may not know about yourself. You have within you more resources of energy that have been tapped, more talent than has ever been exploted, more strength than has ever been tested, more to give than you have ever given.

JOHN GARDNER