SYNERGIZE YOUR MEANING AND ACTION

It has been said, “Action alone is blind, reflection alone is impotent.” This refers to the Response Style meta-program: reflective/ active. Either one is inadquate for living a high quality life. Some people are doers, always doing, doing before acting. Yet they act blindly. By itself it leads to burn out, exhaustion, spinning one’s wheels, and not achieving goals that are worthwhile. So before investing great amounts of energy in a goal for this new year, it always pays to raise and reflect on the fundamental questions behind the activity.

Does this activity fit with and is aligned with my highest values and meanings?

Is this something I really want to do? Does it fit with my talents?

Is it something I enjoy doing, could enjoy, am I likely to enjoy in the foreseeable future?

How will this activity be affected by my identity and how will it affect my person?

Other people are thinkers. They reflect, they consider, they weigh possibilities against the cost. They think things through. They get opinions from others. They read and research. But reflecting is impotent by itself, it leads to nothing without action. It ends in disillusionment and disappointment. So before wasting days, weeks, months, even years reflecting, it pays to raise some fundamental questions about reflecting.

How much reflection is needed on this issue? How much information do I need?

How much information do I already have? How much more is required before acting?

What’s the quality of my reflecting? Is it of high quality or am I going round in circles?

What cognitive biases and distortions may be infecting my reflective thinking?

Obviously, you and I need both. We need a synergy of reflective meanings and consistent actions. This refers to an integration of the meanings, values, and visions that you create in your semantics with the behavioral actions that you take as energized in your neurology and manifested in your physiology. The synergy gives you your personal neuro-semantics— your highest meanings in your best performances.

This has been our focus in Neuro-Semantics from the beginning— unifying what we know with what we do. In that way we close the knowing—doing gap and live a life that continues to make real (actualize) our highest potentials into our best actualities. When we put meaning and neurology together we have neuro-semantics. When we pull them apart we have the meaning— performance axes and quadrants.

On the vertical Semantic Axis— you move from low level meanings to high level meanings. Things make sense, have meaning, and are ultimately meaningful. Along this axis we also have all sorts of semantics forms from representations, to linguistics, to frames, to patterns, etc. Along the horizontal Performance Axis — you begin at the far left with unconscious incompetence, slowly moving to conscious incompetence, then to competence, next comes expertise (give it ten years) and finally to mastery.

From the Meaning–Performance axes, we developed the Meaning—Performance Quadrants. Each of the quadrants indicate where you live your life— each one defines an experiential dimension.

Quadrant I: Undeveloped. This is where we all begin because we are born undeveloped. We don’t know what anything means and we are unable to do anything! We’re completely ignorant and incompetent. From here you can develop mind and body for cognitive and behavioral development. This is where you live if you are not continuing to learn and develop, to challenge yourself and to get out of your comfort zone.

Quadrant II: Performers. Move to this place by acting, speaking, taking action, reacting, etc. In these ways you learn the behaviors and strategies that succeed in various domains. As you develop, you increasingly become a skilled performer. You finds ways to increase your competency. If you live here then when you over-do acting, you become reactive, even compulsive. Do this long enough and you will burn-out; you will fall into a pit of disillusionment. In stress, you will play to this strength which makes things even worse.

Quadrant III: Dreamers. Move to this place by dreaming, imagining, and going off on flights of fantasy. You invent or have a zillion ideas! You spend your time using your mind as your primary style. As you become a dreamer, you come up with all kinds of ideas and schemes as you are forever imagining and talking. If you live here, when you over-do this, you become addicted to the rush of dreams, options, alternatives, ideas, creativity, etc. Yet you spend little time acting on your ideas. Eventually you become frustrated that your great ideas never amount to anything. You fall into a pit of disillusionment.

Quadrant IV: Self-Actualizers. If you live here you create a synergy by balancing meaning with activity, idea generation with implementation. Here you synthesize meaning and performance as you mix dreaming with pragmatically doing, with testing and experimenting. Here dreaming and daring come together in a synthesis allowing a new emergence. Here you have meaningful activity.

Since action and reflection alone are inadequate, the solution is to create a synergy of the two. In the diagram the diagonal line from quadrant 1 to quadrant 4 is the synergy line. It reveals the synergy zone. Live in that zone and you operate in a dimension of integration and ongoing development. It is the place for actualizing, for self-actualizing, and for high quality living