Background

If you’ve read my very first post, you know that I was promoted 9 times in 12 years. I worked at 4 different employers and had a number of managers.

How did I achieve that level of career success?

Types of Models

There are many models that I learned, assimilated, and regularly practiced. These models included new concepts, new behaviors, and knowledge of cause-effect dependencies leading to preferred outcomes.

My career success totally depended on these 3 types of models: conceptual models, behavioral models, and cause-effect models.

Cornerstone Principles

In this post, I’ll share with you the cornerstone principles, at the foundation of my success. It is these cornerstone principles that enabled me to rapidly achieve excellence, not only, in my career, but also in business, and other life areas.

The cornerstone principles encompass concepts and processes that led me to rapidly learn, retain, and practice various models of excellence.

By first learning and practicing the cornerstone principles, you can position yourself to also achieve excellence, in less time.

In other posts, I’ll share some of these various models that positively impacted my career, my business, and my life in general.

Principle #1

We are each individually responsible for identifying which actions lead to the results we seek. The results we seek are governed by cause-effect relationships.

The faster we execute actions, which actually lead to our desired results, the sooner we can experience those results.

There are three factors that can impact whether a result occurs.

1. Timing – when an action is initiated

2. Speed – how fast an action is executed

3. Quality of Execution – excellent execution, leads to excellent results.

Principle #2

Desired behaviors need to be encoded within our brains. Each behavior may be comprised of one or more actions. By encoding actions, I experience two benefits.

1. My brain automatically prompts my mind, on when, to execute actions or behaviors

2. I can allow my brain to rapidly and effectively execute actions and behaviors, without too much conscious thought getting in the way

When done properly, my general stress is low and my self-trust is high.

Imagine not having to worry about constantly scanning your environment, to find and respond to opportunities. Instead, your mind automatically scans it for you. It alerts you to opportunities. And, if you allow it, your mind can automatically respond in the most effective and efficient way possible.

It is this principle of encoding behavior, into my brain, that allows me to naturally and effectively respond to opportunities.

So how do you encode behaviors or actions?

Encoding

Encoding happens automatically. It occurs while we sleep. When we sleep, our brains physically consolidate and encode our daily experiences. Our brains can encode and change because of neuro-plasticity. Neuro-plasticity is the brain’s capability of physically encoding stimuli and changing itself.

Although encoding occurs automatically, not all experiences are encoded in a way that is easily available for recall or execution.

Principle #3

We can increase the likelihood of encoding, by creating anchors. We create anchors whenever we practice perfect execution or recall.

Anchor = Perfect Execution or Recall

Through my adult life, I have created anchors nearly every day.

I have found that there is a minimum number of anchors required. Failing to meet the minimum, leads to variable results. The minimum-number-of-daily-anchors required seems to depend on (1) the activity or (2) type of knowledge to be encoded.

I have also discovered that varying the time, in between practice, accelerated the encoding process. You can evaluate your encoding efficiency by measuring your recall or execution accuracy; and making comparisons against that accuracy when there is no variation-in-time vs. introducing variation-in-time, between practice sessions.

Because of the effort and discipline required to create anchors, I have had to prioritize which models to encode. You may want to do the same, if you too are super busy!

My last thought to share with you is that, at least for me, I need somewhere between 20 and 30 days of anchoring to realize the benefits of encoding new actions, new behaviors, and new conceptual models.

Summary

If you anchor every day and sleep well, then over time you’ll be able to rapidly respond at the right time, in the right way, when opportunities are presented. Do this often enough and you’ll begin to achieve excellence!