Compartmentalization is the Key

Imagine being inundated with issues coming at you day after day after day. Furthermore, you get no rest from those issues as you're dealing with them on top of the regular day-to-day, which is life. Beyond simple fight or flight, what would you do? How would you handle the extracurricular issues? Rod suggests compartmentalization.

TMP Business Principle #5:

5. Ultimately, his abilities to compartmentalize extremely stressful personal situations in order to maintain successful business operations at a high level, enabled him to succeed in achieving goals on both fronts.

Initially Rod attempted to deal with everything he faced head on. Immediately. His mindset was: he didn't want anything to snowball. Dealing with his case daily matured him to the point he was forced to compartmentalize. By compartmentalizing things, he was able to operate on multiple planes. Basically, he was able to manage a successful business while managing to move his case forward in the direction it needed to go. Had he not compartmentalized things, he would have succumbed to overwhelm in one of those planes of existence. Compartmentalization allowed him to maintain his relationship with his daughter, his job, his ability to fight his case, and most importantly, his sanity.

It was the hardest thing he had to do, but he became fully aware it was what was needed for him to succeed. His success on his case relied on his income from his job. His success on his job relied on his ability to compartmentalize his thoughts about his case. Compartmentalization became the key to his overall success in business and in life.

Difficult as it was to block thoughts of his daughter in harm's way for 40-80 hours a week, he did. It was about survival. Both his and his daughter's. It was the long-term view. It took him years before he was able to realize that was needed for his success on the case.

At first, he was looking to solve everything he faced as it occurred. When the solution he came up with didn't provide the "quick fix" he was looking for, he continued to spin his wheels looking for the right outcome. The more he spun his wheels, the less he got accomplished. The spinning of the wheels pacified him in the immediate, though, because it made him feel like he was doing something.

In reflecting on what he had accomplished over the years, he realized his approach netted him a BIG FAT ZERO! His daughter wasn't free. He knew he needed to do something different otherwise he'd never obtain victory. He'd never free his daughter. That's when it became apparent freeing his daughter required him to free himself. Free himself of the constant distractions which weren't providing positive results in his case.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.-Stephen Covey

Rod was trying to meet each conflict with more action to resolve the conflict. The more action he took the less conflict he faced. But then the conflicts always seemed to return-IN FORCE! He couldn’t understand. Until he met Mr. Robert Fritz. Through words, that is. The explanation Mr. Fritz provided through an email newsletter was spot-on:

“Many important causes are burdened by attempting to foster productive action through conflict manipulation. The founders of these causes don’t realize that they are up against a structure that will first lead to support, but then lead to indifference. Conflict cannot be the driver for long-term change. If you are in an oscillating structure, once movement in one direction is achieved, the structural tendency for behavior is to move in the opposite direction.

So, even if you spent your life in a constant state of reaction to world events, whatever productive action you took on behalf of a better world would eventually be neutralized. This structure is self-defeating. That’s the physics of it.”

That explained why the efforts seemed to work at first then more conflict returned to fill the space cleared out. Like Spring Cleaning every year. Why do we have to do it every year if we’ve already done it the previous year? Because of what’s described above. If we don’t make efforts to ensure it doesn’t have to be done again, we grow accustomed to doing it and the cycle continues.

Rod developed a yearning to find a solution to the biggest issue before him: Freeing his daughter. That became a cause he pulled out all the stops to fight for and against. He would not let it go until he succeeded. Compartmentalization became his main tool for surviving the strain of this everyday battle. It’s what granted him the ability to take what was being thrown at him and live to fight another day. Because, ultimately, he was doing what was right for his daughter.

Mr. Fritz was able to encapsulate the reasoning behind that as well:

“Many people join the great causes, not out of reaction, but out of aspiration for a better world and a better chance for others. These people have a vastly different motivation than simply reaction to conflict. They are for the outcomes they envision rather than against the dangers they fear.

For these people to be effective, they must compartmentalize. They must not let the sadness of the world’s condition overwhelm them, for if that happened, they would not be able to act effectively. There are many cases of well-meaning people who have failed to understand the wisdom of compartmentalizing their interests, only to burn out after a few years. Intent, even good intent, never can survive a faulty structure. 

If everything is taken as a whole, all at once, without the ability to make distinction, we would not be able to cope with the cacophony of input. We could not understand relationship, difference, uniqueness, or range. We could not appreciate the smallest moments of quiet joys, or the largest moments of ringing triumphs.

How deep is the instinct toward life, even when to go on we must put parts of our lives in compartments. Yes, everything has its place, but we must not let anything dominate to the point of distraction. Because we are aware, sensitive and caring, we must learn to compartmentalize so we can live in the best of all of our worlds.”

Rod drew much inspiration from Robert Fritz's book, "The Path of Least Resistance," while he was going through his ordeal. He devoured the information within and applied it to his life at the moment. The implementation of what he learned from Mr. Fritz aided him in developing his process for overcoming the main issue before him. Those implementations eventually led to success. It was only fitting after Rod's success that the email newsletter he signed up for during his ordeal, would provide some explanation and confirmation for his application of Mr. Fritz's teachings.

Compartmentalization is the key to unlocking successes kept out of one's reach. If all else seems to be failing your processes, try it. You've heard it many times before, "sometimes we have to take one step back to take two steps forward." Compartmentalization aids in launching one forward. Definitely a key to have on your key chain of life.

Based on a true story, The Mirror’s Puppet is applicable in both the personal and business realms. Meant to inspire, expose, and hold accountable on a personal level, the book also inspires, teaches, and delivers results on the business level.