THE POWER OF EXECUTION

If you think that discipline is powerful, which it is (the last article in this series), then get ready to be awed at the power of execution! For more than fifteen years, we have made this one of our central themes in Neuro-Semantics. We call it by many different things: Apply to self: self-application. Closing the Knowing–Doing gap. Mind-to-Muscling, using the Mind-to-Muscle Pattern. Implementing. Innovation. The Axes of Performance: from incompetence to competence, expertise, mastery. Actualization, to make the potential actual. Walking your talk, doing what you say. Embodying, incorporation.

Because mind-body-and-emotion are all part of the same system, it not execute is to fail to work in a holistic and systemic way. It is to fail to bring something to completion. It is to dichotomize and work only partially. And as Maslow said, “To dichotomize is to pathologize.”

When you execute you are bringing your thoughts, beliefs, values, hopes, dreams, etc. into your body to embody it and incorporate it so that you fully prepare yourself to act on what you know. This is the meaning of “actualization.” We actualize what is potential, we actualize what we are potentially so that the meanings and inspirations and dreams within can be made real in the outside world. Self-actualization is making real what you are capable of which then enables you to make a difference in the world, contribute your unique gifts, and leave a significant legacy. And that’s why, as noted earlier, self-actualization is not about you, it is through you!

The opposite of execution is a problem —a personal problem, a psychological problem, and a big problem in life. After all, if you are all talk and no action, people will see you as full of hot air but no substance! If you are big talk and even if you can do it elegantly and inspirationally, it is still talk but not walk. And so you will be incongruent. Inconsistent. Untrustworthy. Undependable. Even hypocritical.

So getting yourself to actually do what you say is the purpose of discipline (consistency of actions), of integration, integrity, and congruency. Actually, this is as much a problem for high potential people, high achievers as it is for the unmotivated and the traumatized, and for those who think of themselves as lazy, entitled, and/or victims of other people’s actions. Why? Because if you only learn and learn and read more, attend more trainings, get more coaching, get

more therapy, etc. and don’t take action, your knowing—doing gap will grow bigger and bigger.

A few years ago I wrote the book, Achieving Peak Performance (2005) which formally was a smaller booklet, Make It So! Inside that book, I put pattern after pattern, and process after process to enable the process of execution— so that people can learn the how of translating knowledge in the head into muscle-memory so that it is so incorporated and installed in neurology that it becomes intuitive in you, your way of being in the world. Do that and it will change your sense-of-self. You will become an Implementer. You could put that on your business card: Implementer par excellent.

All of this equally applies to organizations, groups, companies, families, and communities. After all, in some business cultures, school cultures, government cultures, etc., it is all talk and no walk. Great ideas! Inspirational ideas! But no actuality. No execution of the great ideas into practical activities, rituals, or structures. It looks and sounds great on paper, but it is not in the fiber or soul of the organization. It is just talk.

There’s no innovation of the principles, the vision, the values, or the mission of the organization in people’s everyday lives. They do not operate by the principles they affirm. We then experience this form of hypocrisy as a disconnect and so in spite of the P.R. brand, the real brand is the reputation of that business in our mind. We know it is just P.R. So companies as much as individuals need the power of execution to implement and innovate the dreams of the business.

So what do we need to activate the power of execution? Mostly to get the interferences out of the way— excuses, fears, misunderstandings, myths, mis-beliefs, perfectionism, procrastination, etc. Execution is natural and normal within any system. So if a system is not implementing, mind-to-muscling, or actualizing, then something is interfering.

In APG workshops, Neuro-Semantic Trainers deal with the power of execution by teaching the Mind-to-Muscle Pattern, by running the Excuse Blow-Out Pattern, by running two integration patterns, Spinning Icons and Meta-Alignment, and by running the Dancing with Dragons pattern. Isn’t that amazing? Obviously, a big part of accessing your personal genius (APG) is activating your natural and innate ability to execute what you know. You can find this information in Secrets of Personal Mastery (1997) and of course in the APG workshops (see www.neurosemantics.com for the list of APG courses around the world).