LIFESCOPE AND YOUR PI SCORE

The difference between those who excel in any human activity and the rest of us is enormous.

For example, Lance Armstrong and other world class cyclists can bike over 2,000 miles up and down mountains at high speeds...the rest of us, maybe, can do 1 or 2 miles at slow speeds up and down the street in front of our homes.

Jascha Heifetz and other master violinists can remember and play the more than 5,000 notes of a Pagnini Caprice...the rest of us sometimes can't remember the 10 digits of a phone number.

Albert Einstein unraveled mysteries of the Universe...the rest of us generally can't unravel the mystery of opening a box of cereal without spilling a handful.

And on and on. If we sense that these and other high achievers give us a glimpse of what all members of the homo sapien species are potentially capable of, and realize that even those axhievers probably did not reach their maximum potential, the spread between what homo sapiens can achieve and what most often is achieved is humongous. Why? Why do most of us function at such a low level on the Potential Index? Are we built any different than the high PI scorers noted above? Do we have less grey matter, fewer muscles, than they have? Not to my knowledge.

What explains the spread, I believe, begins with what I call "LIFESCOPE"...a vision, literally, of the size of your life, the width and breadth and grandeur of it. Do you see yourself as owning a clothing store in your local hometwon, or a chain of clothing stores around the country, around the world? Do you envision being president of the PTA, or President of the United States? Do you look forward to a comfortable, secure, normal life, or one filled with excitement, adventure and daring?

The answers to these and related questions compose your LIFESCOPE, developed by you gradually, imperceptibly, as you mature. It develops by observation of life about you and as it is portrayed in works of art, and is influenced by many factors, including the LIFESCOPES of your parents and others you respect, your very personal psychology, and your sense of the meaning, purpose and value of life.

It is said that achievement stems from and requires determi- nation. Determination begins with vision...seeing what is possible, seeing yourself achieving it. Do not say No to yourself. Your life can be as large as you choose it to be...or as small. In The Fountainhead, when the young architecture student is told the public will not let him build his buildings the way he envisions building them, he answers, "It is not a question of who will me, but who will stop me." Good way to think. Who is there to stop you. Without that vision and attitude, little but the ordinary is possible.

High achievers do have one thing most do not: sweeping panoramic vision.