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SCARE Yourself (and Your City) into Magnificence: Unleashing Your Genius!
By Mark Towers
We are living in times that do not lend themselves to complacency. This article will provide an easy-to-use model for "breaking the chains of the comfort zone"
and making radical leaps forward. The five simple steps of the SCARE acronym are meant to be used by you as well as your team/organization.
Consult them often as you shed old habits, set new goals and consistently embrace the all-important process of re-invention.
Here's the powerful SCARE acronym in a nutshell: Start, Courageousness, Action, Resilience and Elevate.
"S" is for Start.
Perhaps you want to run a marathon, publish an article, or take your team to a much higher performance level. There is awesome power in getting started. To get
started on anything you must be somewhat clear (don't get paralyzed by perfectionism) about your purpose/intentions and what you want to be, do of feel when you
have completed the Transformative ProcessTM. The Transformative Process is the human journey of what happens in the animal kingdom. It is about
moving from a caterpillar to a cocoon (getting through the resistance) and emerging as a butterfly.
A fantastic lady once shared with me, "Look back at your life and identify at least two times that you chose to get started on an important project,
challenge, etc. Feel the pride well up in your soul as you remember these key turning points in your life. The ability to overcome inertia, move forward and
accomplish terrific things is of paramount importance in your life. Life is about hellos and goodbyes, and you can't say hello to anything new without saying
goodbye first. That is the joy and the uniquely human exhilaration in getting started ... taking the first step."
As Goethe said, "Whatever you do can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." Keep this quotation close at
hand and use it as needed.
"C" is for Courageousness.
Study history. It is peppered with great men and women who conducted themselves with courageousness. As Sir Winston Churchill once noted, "Courage is rightly
esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others." Over the past few years, I have been interviewing highly effective
and ethical people. It occurred to me that each of them succeeded at making magnificence (both personally and organizationally) by using the FBO
FormulaTM. This formula breaks down the concept of courage into three foundational concepts ... Faith, Belief and
Optimism. Let's look deeper at each of these.
Faith. Behave and act on what you know and feel ... Make decisions out of faith and not out of
fear.
Belief. Manage change with unchanging values. Have a set of core values and use them to navigate the
future.
Optimism. It's possible to be both a realist and an optimist. Simply look for the highest good and learning in
every situation.
Stop, think, choose and use the FBO Formula. It is the essence of courageousness.
"A" is for Action.
There are three kinds of people. The kind you forget. The kind you forgive. And the kind you remember. Terrific folks live lives of directed, meaningful and
concerted action.
When my late father was sixty years of age, he chose to quit a comfortable job, move to another city and start a new business! He lived in a not-so-nice
motel and created a solid business within a year. I will always respect him for that. He believed that making his reality magnificent was about adopting a
Ready-Fire-Aim mentality. I wish the same for you.
I saw a person wearing a button once that said, "Grow for it!" Be memorable by unleashing your genius with a bias for action and a Compulsion for
CompletionTM ... even if it means finding a partial solution.
"R" is for Resilience.
I was a high school teacher and counselor for sixteen years. I learned a lot by studying highly resilient teen-agers.
Jason was a sixteen-year old who was cut from the football and basketball teams. He could not sing well enough to be in the high school show choir. He could
not get elected to the student council. Yet, he kept searching for ways to express himself. Finally, he joined the cross country team. Even though he was not a
very gifted runner and almost always finished last, he relished every opportunity to compete and be part of his team. One Saturday morning, I met his parents
at a cross country meet. I complimented his parents and asked them how they instilled resilience in Jason.
They told me that they have a saying in their family and they used it a lot around the supper table. It was this: "What? So what? Now what?" They raised
their three children with this simple concept and it truly paid high dividends. All three went on to be highly successful and well-adjusted adults.
I never forgot the simplicity of those three questions and how they instilled resilience. I still use them often.
"E" is for Elevate.
Life is about elevating others. The best way to do that is with an attitude of servanthood and humility.
Elisabeth Kubler Ross, a Swiss researcher, dedicated her life to studying the process of death and dying. After forty years of research, she noted that all
people ask a rendition of the same three questions as they approach the end of their lives:
- Did I become all that I could be?
- Did I leave the planet a little better off than I found it?
- Did I give and receive love?
Those three questions are about elevating others with your servanthood and humility via your personal effectiveness. Use them as guideposts for your
life.
In summary, it is my invitation and request that you use the SCARE (Start, Courageousness, Action, Resilience and Elevate) acronym in your
personal and working life. As Oscar Wilde once said, "Be who you are. Everyone else is taken." Don't follow any guru. Remember that success dies. Significance
never dies. Your life and your efforts are never to be discounted ... they are significant. Unleash your genius!
© Mark "Tenacious" Towers
Phone: 817-421-4744 • E-mail: mark@speakoutseminars.com
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League of Arizona Cities and Towns
1820 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
Phone: 602-258-5786
Fax: 602-253-3874
http://www.azleague.org
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