How To Switch to The Fast-Track From the Side Track

Work-In-ProgressWant to win the game?Until you cash-in your chips, consider yourself a Work-In-Progress (W-I-P), as if you were a Picasso unfinished painting which he returned to again and again.Your W-I-P attitude leads to active personal growth and self-improvement while you keep adding and subtracting from your knowledge and belief core, (your painting), and stay willing to change your mind.Those of us who believe we are a finished-product, stop learning and experiencing, leading to an extreme state of comfort-zone-itis. We inhibit our left and right brains, instead of exciting and firing our synapses of discovery.Our comfort-zone is where we make decisions about right-and-wrong, what's important, and what we are capable of doing. Have you recently attempted something for the first-time, using some new electronic gadget or using a special computer program, and heard your still-small-voice whisper in your ear, - You cannot learn that, it's too complicated! -Some of us feel a cold chill in the pit of our stomach warning us of impending doom when we face change and newness! Do you keep trying or get up and walk away?Those who kick-butte are willing to fail more than snailers, and continue to attempt new approaches. They maintain a belief system, an attitude of mind, to keep trying until they find a way, or make a way, to succeed. That's called grit.Comfort-ZoneThere are scientific-facts like gravity and electromagnetism, simply reality, based on personal experience, and beliefs, which come from our family, community and education. Repetition and conditioning create our comfort-zone, and after age 25 we stop revisiting our beliefs and submit to their dictatorship.How many beliefs do we hold that are plain wrong because times have changed, or our decision years ago about people, have not kept up with their personal growth?Scientists seem to lack the ego of the rest of society, who must protect and defend its unchanging beliefs. In any given year scientific journals will report new proofs that contradict what was once proven-truth, and inform us of a new reality. They are stronger because they welcome change in their beliefs.The rest of us, including the author, suffer from distortion-thinking, unrealistic expectations, and twisted self-perception, leading us to beliefs in fables, myths and outright lies. The media, government bureaucrats, and Washington lobbyists, in addition to Eisenhower's industrial-military complex, drug companies and oil producers, have a vested interest in not disturbing our dormant comfort-zone.DisruptionLearning only occurs when there is a disruption of our comfort-zone rituals. That's why we have to experience a disaster, even hit-bottom, before we can change a core belief we hold about ourselves and our gifts and talents.We don't -think- our way to changing beliefs; there must an emotional explosion that shakes up our brain and mind.Your CareerMost of us get comfortable in our career, like putting our feet into old shoes. We stop questioning if the job we do is right for us, permanent or where else we can best develop our genetic gifts and talents. The status quo becomes a core belief in our comfort-zone.Did you know that the average executive changes careers five-times in a lifetime?Not jobs or companies, but lifestyles and occupations. Will you be comfortable with the coming upheavals in your life? What's your competitive-advantage?A recent report by the National Academies, a hot-shot advisory group with no axe to grind, specializing in Science and Technology, warns that heavy-weight corporate changes are three (3) years away.Downsizing, outsourcing, bankruptcies, and mergers and acquisitions, lead to catastrophic changes in your life, ready-or-not. Are you really insulated from change? What's your unique competitive advantage over your peers?You are familiar with the expansion in China and India, but you might be interested in knowing that almost forty (40) percent of major U.S. corporation are moving some of their highest paying positions overseas. No, not yours, right?Not Just IndustrialIt began with cheaper labor costs, increased because of tax incentives by the foreign companies, and now is focused on science and technology. Domestic executives and professionals are rapidly being replaced with international staffers who are highly trained and fully competent. Yes, they are paid one-third of U.S. financial packages.Fortune 500 companies like Exxon and Dow have always operated internationally, but by 2009, small companies will market coast-to-coast, and continent-to-continent. Yes, it's the Internet, and global trading practices, and it will affect your life, and disturb your sense of status-quo.The TalentToday, talent is global; universities in China and India are producing world-class graduates, PhDs in science and technology, and training executives for international management. International companies are linked by scholarships they finance, with emerging markets schools, and their new graduates.Many of these students have proven fully capable of running departments and divisions, and producing impressive profits. Yes, they are fluent in English, thanks to their education and the Internet.The author of the Outsourcing Report, Professor Marie Thursby, of Georgia Tech College of Management, says the coming revolution is based on a working collaboration between companies and international universities that are already established and growing. She has examined fifteen industries and companies in the U.S. and Europe, and sees explosive change as a fait accompli, though existing executives and professionals seem unconcerned and unaware.Two ReasonsThe massive economic growth in China and India leads international companies to want a piece of their growing pie, and operating local is a necessity.The second reason is the increase in the foreign talent pool, their adaptability, and willingness to change, learn and travel, without argumentToday, based on the thousand of foreign students trained in the U.S., who return to become professors in their own country of origin, there is no exclusivity on brain power. The future Nobel Prizes will go to graduates of foreign universities.AndHiring by major companies for positions in the U.S. are being reduced not just for research and development, but including middle management. The highest paying jobs are easing out the harbor for foreign shores.The U.S. is becoming less competitive and in time - a generation - may be marginalized.Did you know that in 2006, Japan has experienced no population growth? The death statistics are look eye-to-eye to new births. Investments in Japan may soon reflect a stagnant domestic economy.Sure, you say, - but it cannot hurt me because my company is not science or technology oriented - . Set your sights on potential declining economic growth in the U.S., and consider the question of your children's future. Are we producing world-class executives, marketing experts and innovators?It is government statistics that U.S. students lag way behind the world in math and science acuity, starting in high school, and students never catch up to world competition. Do want to see your country as a backwater market?We train our kids to be masters of distraction, beginning with video games, TV, and personal-messaging on the Internet.We respectfully suggest our society consider the stranglehold the Educational Establishment has on our resources. Some of our best universities vie for the title of Best Party School, in order to attract paying students.Our experience is with the Reading Establishment, that is delighted with the status-quo, and their members, who are not required to confront their own comfort-zone.Would it make a difference if the average student would Triple their Reading Speed, Double their Memory - Guaranteed!See ya,copyright 2006 H. Bernard WechslerOriginal partner of Evelyn Wood, author: Speed Reading For Professionals (Barron's Publishing); helped market speed reading to 2,000,000, including the White House staff of four U.S. Presidents. Director of Education for Speedlearning Institute, international speed reading and memory training organization.http://www.speedlearning.org/home.php hbw@speedlearning.org