to the shoot component of shoot, move, communicate. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects that go into squeezing that trigger and ensuring that the bullet finds its intended target are critical, but so are the internal and external awareness that the shooter must have to ensure his bullet finds the right home. Believe it or not, sending a one-inch projectile across three hundred yards is no easy feat, let alone eight hundred yards or one thousand. There are significant steps one must take to get and stay “in the zone,” and that’s what the performance section will cover.
There are many points of performance when it comes to shooting, which is why performance is the foundation upon which PAL© is built. The physical positioning of the shooter is key as his (or her) body is the foundation that affords the greater certainty that serves as the foundation of a solid shot. The mental aspect of focus and concentration supersedes all else because without mental focus all else—the discomforts of life—pour into the mind and overwhelm it. Every distraction in nature wants to throw your bullet off its intended path, and the amount of mental focus it takes to ignore those seemingly tiny disturbances is significant—but no more significant than what it takes to perform optimally in business.
Next is the emotional piece, which is the feeling of comfort, control and acceptance that one must have before and after taking the shot. There can be no second-guessing, no hesitancy, only the willingness to look (and move) forward to the next objective.
Finally, the spiritual piece is where purpose and passion play in, as they are what provide fulfillment and meaning to your actions. Being spiritually content enables you to continue taking more shots and never doubt or second-guess yourself. The convergence of these four elements is where certainty lies. The key, obviously, is learning how to balance the four amongst a world of constant change and disruption.
The “A” in PAL: Adaptability
The need to adapt comes from the uncertainty of a situation that is both a challenge and an opportunity. The uncertainty that springs up out of nowhere acts as a defining moment to test your skill and will, your spirit and motivation. What separates those who stay relevant from those who don’t is their willingness to adapt.
Adaptability allows you to respond immediately and intelligently to constant change so as to seize opportunity where others might see obstruction. Adaptive capacity also facilitates forward momentum because it lessens the need to have to stop what you’re doing to review what happened. Instead, you’re in a fluid, dynamic state that continually “reads and reacts” to problems as they arise.
The late Warren Bennis, widely considered a pioneer of the study of leadership, once described people with adaptive capacity as individuals who:
…may struggle in the crucibles they encounter, but they don’t become stuck in or defined by them. They learn important lessons, including new skills that allow them to move on to new levels of achievement and new levels of learning. This ongoing process of challenge, adaptation, and learning prepares the individual for the next crucible, where the process is repeated. Whenever significant new problems are encountered and dealt with adaptively, new levels of competence are achieved, better preparing the individual for the next challenge.
Adaptability refers to an organism’s ability to stay relevant amidst change; to adjust to new conditions based on a compelling impetus to do so. To stay current—to do away with the old and adapt to the new—requires the skill and will to do so, and this change stems from performance-based criteria mentioned above. In the scientific world, adaptability depends on two things: self-renewal and self-organization.
Self-renewal refers to your skill and will to reexamine and ultimately reset any emotional “hiccups” that may have caused your values and subsequent behavior to derail. It is your ability to both learn and unlearn.
Self-organization refers to individual and/or group behavior without direction from external authorities. For instance, when an eighth grade teacher leaves her classroom, the students have two choices: they can incite chaos and behave poorly, or they can maintain their composure and align their behavior to the teacher’s objectives. In either instance, the students guide their behavior based on the understanding and mutual agreement they all share. The students’ abilities to self organize, then, isn’t dependent upon an external force to guide them along.
What this means is that if an organism or system can self-organize, then, by definition it can also adapt. If the hypothetical students above lacked self-organization, then they would’ve needed guidance from an external authority figure. But they didn’t. Instead, they moved from a setting under which their teacher measured their performance, to one where their performance was measured by their own willingness to perform—they unlearned and relearned.
Furthermore, if such a self-organized group of students can create “something from nothing,” then such an act also speaks to the emergence of leadership.
The “L” in PAL: Leadership
Contrary to common belief, leadership is not indicative of one’s position, status, or authority. Just because you are defined as a “leader” through semantics, doesn’t mean you know how to lead. Leadership does not fall upon the shoulders of the person with the loudest voice, but rather the individual who possesses both the character and competence that inspires others. To lead is to express oneself authentically through a display of decisions and actions that inspire others to think or act in a certain way.
Here’s a quick way to test your leadership effectiveness. Ask yourself, “Will people follow me because of my position, or despite it?” If the answer is the former, sorry, but you still have work to do.
Here’s how leadership unravels under the PAL Model©:
Every individual possesses the four pillars. The degree to which his or her physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual capacities are filled, however, differs as some people are more emotionally charged while others stem from a long line mental meatheads. There are two pathways here that lead to adaptability. The first is person A, whose four pillars of performance are completely satiated such that he doesn’t need time to rest and renew; he’s ready for greater self-actualization. Self-actualization is the practice of realizing one’s potential. To the extent that his four pillars are already maxed out, however, the only possible next step is to push himself further; to change his current state and adapt to a new one.
Conversely, person B lacks mental fortitude and is emotionally unstable. His four pillars are not maximized which, by simple definition, indicates that adaptability is inherent given a person’s intrinsic need to self-actualize.
The very act of adapting personifies leadership, as leadership is defined as a behavior of self-expression that creates value for oneself and/or for others.
Key Takeaways
The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual capacities require fulfillment based on any motivational theory
Whether you lack fulfillment in one capacity or are satiated across all four, the only possible next step is to change something in one way, shape, or form, and change entails adaptability.
“He Fucking Shot Me!”
A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object that he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to
