mobius – Mobiusman

Buffering extremes

by David

The mobius is the most elegant example of equilibrium there is

The Equilibrium Equation

Capability = Challenge

Ability/Willingness = Danger/Opportunity

Positive Change Capability > Challenge

Negative Change Capability < Challenge

A friend of mine sent me an email the other day with this equation in it and, since they know I’m into human development, asked me my opinion of it.

Here is how I replied:

On the surface this looks like a serious scientific question. But in reality it has already been answered. It was answered in the shape of the mobius.

But let’s break it down to its component parts. There are two main parts to this:

Part one is the equilibrium argument. The important part here is the equal sign. I’ll be referencing this a little more in a minute.

Part two is the change segment. It is described by the (<) less than and the (>) greater than signs. This is about a movement from one condition to another. It’s about “change” and all change comes in two distinct polarities: Negative and Positive.

One type moves toward the challenge and the other shrinks from a challenge.

But let’s start with the “Equilibrium” argument first.

In the human body the immune system operates automatically to keep things close to a state of homeostasis. If the body gets too hot for example it tries to bring the temperature down by activating the sweat glands.

On a graph the process looks like a curve. It rises steadily upwards and forward until the system starts to respond. Then the curve starts downward and forward to arrive at the point of the mean temperature. That’s the ideal at which the system can operate at efficiency.

But in this equation it’s referring to the intrinsic attributes of a system (Capability, Ability/Willingness) as being equal to certain extrinsic values (Challenge, Danger/Opportunity).

I like this because it speaks about the duality that we see in so many things in us and around us. Now let me just address the actual components.

On the one side of the equation we have “Capability, Ability/Willingness”. This includes all our internal resources including our internal motivation.

On the other side we have “Challenge, Danger/Opportunity”. This includes all the extringent factors that make up our outside experience. In this equation these are equal because in a human system that is enervated by an internal ethereal energy, like the kind that is switched on by this, it expands to meet the level of the ongoing challenge.

When that happens the duality is balanced like a financial statement or a weigh scale. In the mobius strip the balance was the shape of the system itself. It’s an elegant reciprocal and continuous feedback loop. It’s totally equal in every dimension. That’s because the mobius is perfectly balanced in elegant dual harmony. No conflicts exist here.

Now let’s look at the second part of the question. The key word here is “change”. Positive or negative. This is the story of conflict and turmoil. Either one is not a secure state. It’s in flux. There are no guarantees. Not now, not ever.

Our best bet is to try to enervate the immune system that looks after the thinking (mindset immunity) because it’s usually far too slow acting in most people to do much good.

Once enervated from the gut drive, which by the way I believe is the same energy that’s behind the drive of persistence and determination, then it acts like a buffer against the extremes of over-hype on one side and depression on the other.

Hard to think straight when either one is taking over. Buffering of stress and worry, of the type that is offered via connection of the gut-brain with the head-brain, frees up energy resources and increases use of your natural capabilities and inherent talents.

More power to you.

Quotius #8

by David

Each week I intend to dispatch my pent-up creativity by creating a new version of something I call a “quotius”. (Learn about the genesis of it here.)

“When the going gets tough… the tough get going.”
This time I have blatantly broken the law (yet again) about proper palindrome-making. I did it this time because, well for one thing it’s my playground, and because I wanted to seriously underscore the huge differences that naturally arise between a circular system of thinking and a reciprocal system of thinking.

The first being the domain of the stuck and the latter being the domain of the actively creative. You know, those who may not have all the answers but are brave enough to power ahead anyway.

In the first half of the video you can’t help but notice how the missing information, which appears upside down on the inside of the circular band, really makes the whole message unreadable. You’d have to stand on your head to get the rest of it.

This not only creates confusion in the reader but it also frustrates her to no end. Why would anyone knowingly want to think this way?

Because it’s easy that’s why. Lead-ass easy.

Of course, there is only one solution the reader’s dilemma and we see it plainly when the second the strip is constructed with that magical half-twist in it before it’s joined together and becomes a qualified Quotius.

That ability to overcome difficulties, no matter how many there are, delineates between the tough and the not tough enough. It’s not always those with sheer strength that win in this battle. It’s those with the ability to adapt and to thereafter endure.

Could you use a half twist in your thinking? Try this on for size.

More power to you.

PS: Have you noticed that a lot of personal development methods no longer pack the punch they once did? Could be the times. I went ahead and invented this simple little brain tweak that makes a huge difference in leveraging your efforts for creating a better version of yourself. Want more? Check out my FREE webinar here.

The Annual New England Xylophone Symposium by DoKashiteru is licensed under a Attribution (3.0).

Seeing Things

by David

# 15 April 11 , 2011

I see things.

No I’m not saying that I “see” strange things. I don’t for example see a boogie-man hiding under my bed or anything like that. Nothing so weird or dramatic that it would be such that you might imagine streaming from the likes of Stephen King or Alfred Hitchcock.

Sorry to disappoint.

Please understand it’s just that my job demands that I see things. I was trained as a graphics guy you see. I studied as a visual artist and graduated from art college back when desk-top computers were still in short pants. I had a lot of catching up to do in that department but that’s another story.

What I’ve been working on for the last 30 years or so was trying to come up with a way to visually understand a phenomenon that we all experience at one time or another: The moment when a peculiar drive kicks in causing us to create a successful conclusion. We know it as persistence, determination, perseverance, or doggedness… take your pick.

Of course there is a more generalized word for it. One that describes the entire landscape that I wish to “see” more clearly in three dimensions. That term is the ever-familiar phrase “human potential”.

Know how I see it?

It’s an ocean. I say that because, like the five physical oceans on this planet, it’s huge (and even liquid-like) in its nature. In fact it’s incomprehensibly huge. It’s so huge a pattern that it won’t even fit into the boundaries of the human brain.

Not only is its sheer size problematic but it’s weirdness is troublesome as well. I mean, if you consider it, how can you describe something in words that does not lend itself very well to fitting into the terms of reference we might otherwise use in our daily lives?

That’s why I’m glad I found out about the mobius strip. It’s a shape that is the perfect metaphor of the impossible becoming possible. I figure that human potentiality must have been born in a shell with a shape like this. Just look at it. It’s got the weirdness thing down pat. A simple two-dimensional object that occupies three-dimensional space? I need to put a cold cloth on my noggin just to think about it for more than a few minutes.

But I’ll make it easier for you.

Just consider the video posted here.

A young violinist, who just happens to be deaf, is forced to make a choice and close her eyes to the notes she’s playing and see the beauty of the music in her soundless world through the realm of shapes and colors. In the greatest moment of need these are delivered to her quieted ears through the most gut-felt drive of persistence and determination. Working so fully-engaged with her potential she triumphs over all adversity.

Now that’s the best pair of ears I ever heard of wouldn’t you say?

More power to you.

Getting ready

by David

You know how to never get things done? Spend time getting ready for them.

Sounds deeply intuitive but it’s just plain old common sense. The beginning of a thing can be a real trap if you work on it too long. You lose momentum. The juices slow down then stop flowing and the temptation to jump to something else becomes too strong to fight. So you find yourself flipping from one thing to another. It’s murder on the mindset.

My problem is I have a perfectionist tendency. If it’s in the genes I probably got it from my father. He was an osteopath. As a trained doctor who was treating up to 30 patients a day making sure you are right before you snap someone’s neck back into alignment was probably a good plan.

But I’m in the creative end of things so it’s not a good fit here. I need to move fast and loose. Come up with good ideas and sometimes crappy ones too. It’s just a thinking stew pot so stir it.

Who cares? Keep moving.

When I’m not moving quickly I get tired. So tired I feel like I could sleep standing up. Then I just want to go in and have a nice snooze.

But in doing that I’ve wasted a lot of time over the years. It’s only occasionally useful if I wake up quickly with a start because I have an idea rumbling in my gut begging to reach my brain. It needs me to start to work writing about it. So that’s what I’m going to do.

From now on I’ll be adopting this as my modis operundi on this blog.

Every day for the next month.

I’ve now realized that every day and every night form a kind of template that look a lot like a mobius. They magically turn into the next day and there’s no obvious seam between them.

There’s no start point and there’s certainly no end point.

So what am I getting so ready for?