ghosts in the machine

Yvon Chouinard–the founder of Patagonia and the very successful environmental designer, climber, fly fisherman and outdoor clothing entrepreneur–earned his MBA early in his business career. "MBA", in his case, stands for "management by absence". YC spends much of his time surfing, fishing, travelling and supporting environmental causes while a competent team takes care of business while he is away.

While he may not be physically present all that much, people ask themselves frequently: "what would YC do?" His spirit is very much present, and still felt, almost like a ghost. This will likely be true, perhaps literally so, long after his death.

Ghosts are everywhere and are sometimes a help and sometimes a hinderance.

Today I just played my worst round of golf in some time, taking no less than 17 penalty strokes, mostly for lost balls. I played a course I've played often but inconsistently and wildly. I have bad memories of most of the holes there–times I'd hook the ball into the water or slice it into the trees–and I repeated most of those errors today. The same was also true of a few holes I've always played well on; I played well on those today as well.

Bad memories of past failures often lead to anxiety and fear which undermines the confidence we need to perform any skill well, just as good memories support our rise in confidence. Breaking the pattern of "residual misery", by even accidentally reversing the usual action and result, gives us a chance to overwrite previous actions and results and start new patterns.

For help with shifting out of bad patterns into new good patterns go to http://www.stepup.net/.