The Power Lines are the “Horizontal Segments” that enable us to divide and analyze what is needed as to the infra-structure of our goals. This enables us to sort out what we know and what we don’t know, verify strengths and determine weaknesses that must be transformed for situations to evolve successfully and bring our goals into reality.
They help us fully understand the needs of our goal by constructing a winning infrastructure to support its achievement. They allow us to figure out what we are doing right and what we will be required to do differently in the arena of action items and perspectives for creating change and promoting progress.
By isolating our needs we are better able to…
- Identify Problem Areas
- Better tap our Memory and Imagination for Ideas
- Discover Opportunities
- Design Solutions
- Improve Decision Making
- Balance Objectives
- Track Progress
- Divide and Conquer Obstacles
Each component of our goal needs to be independently identified and constructed but it “interdependently” needs to operate and function as part of the total support of the system.
We need to divide and conquer the obstacles that may be preventing us from achieving greater levels of success and personal reward. It’s vital to identify the weaknesses that are keeping us from breaking through to our next level of growth or progress.
This process helps us to better prioritize which are our most important objectives and greatly improves our decision-making abilities. Knowing that we’re making the right choices brings confidence and greater determination into our activities.
The highest priority “Power Gaps” are the criteria for setting our goals and outlining the paths we will follow in achieving them.
It takes courage to make the commitment to overcome our obstacles or weaknesses. To challenge ourselves to become more effective than we currently are.
Each weakness is an indicator of where you can expect the biggest breakthroughs and the greatest improvements if they were corrected and conquered. Behind every problem is a gift, but only if you choose to solve it. Choose to make the necessary commitments for change.
The principles of progress lie in the capacity to track and correct weaknesses standing in the way of achieving what we want. Know that you have deep within you the ability to close that gap between obstacles and solutions.
Identifying and modifying weaknesses is an essential ingredient to success. Remember, no problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. So it works to our advantage in life is if we master the art of problem solving.
The power comes from knowing where to begin or what is specifically needed to make the quickest and most significant impact on a goal. Without Power Lines, the planning and action needed to achieve a goal can be a cluttered maze of uncertainty and confusion. It can become so overwhelming it may generate enough doubt, fear or frustration to derail our good intentions or completely stop us in our tracks.
Sometimes out of desperation to improve our situation we may just throw ourselves into additional activities that cost us time, effort and money; only to realize that the return on our investments is negligible at best.
We sometimes lose focus on our true mission and start wasting valuable resources chasing down lesser priority objectives.
It’s been explained in many well used metaphors…
- Busy battling alligators, when we should be draining the swamp.
- Strategically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!
- Climbing a success ladder that’s leaning on the wrong wall.
The battles can all be won but we need to choose wisely. We first need to realize we can’t fix or create everything at once. To move into higher levels of success, we need to divide, decide and conquer the highest priority objectives then work from there.
A prevailing truth is that we empower whatever we focus on. Dividing a goal into horizontal components called Focus Areas, gives us the high level view of what is needed. We need to assail the greatest weaknesses that are standing in our way. It’s more powerful to “strike true” then to just strike hard and often.
Power Lines offer the opportunity to divide our needs into sections and strategize them one at a time. We need to isolate our needs during the designing stage (The Power Lines) and integrate our action steps and develop more powerful perspectives in the transformation process (The PAC System).
Power Lines consist of rating or evaluating three vital elements;
- The Priority of Importance – The importance of succeeding in that specific Focus Area.
- The Current Effectiveness Level – How well you are succeeding at that Focus Area
- The Power Gap – This shows lost power and occurs when our Priority of Importance is much higher than our Current Effectiveness Level
The highest priority “Power Gaps” are the criteria that sets the stage for directing needs where progress, growth and constructive change turns dreams into reality.