Qucik response Monday! -the Wakefield Doctrine- (‘yeah, I do start every day with the Wakefield Doctrine on my mind’)

December 15, 2014 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Drexel

Two purposes for today’s brief Post:

to follow-up on an Item in Saturday’s Post that elicited several very good Comments
to see if writing a Post, (with a certain deliberate intent) can serve as a way to focus my outlook on the current day
because it’s fun and if I’m ever going to learn to do this writing thing as good as them folks I read, I guess I better practice, right?

The Item:

as a clark, I find that when I’m walking to the mailbox in the rain without a coat or in December without shoes, it helps me realize how important it is to appreciate what is. That I am not in a hospital bed, or in a wheel chair or in the house because I am not able to leave…. I find that I ‘enjoy’ the harsh feelings of the 30 degree morning in part when I can know that it is a very real possibility that someday I will be in a place where I look back on (these days) and wish to anything that I might again have the opportunity to do something as silly as walk to the mailbox without shoes or a coat in December.

The Comment:

Knowing cold does make one appreciate warm more. Maybe I need to walk to the mailbox in bare feet so I can appreciate the heat of the sidewalk in summer time? (Kristi)

It is an interesting way to remain grateful for what you do have and an interesting way to create memories to look back on. That walking in the cold to the mailbox. Maybe a little masochistic . (Fangboner)

It may seem odd for me to say that I agree with the first and (feel) the need to explain as to the second Comment.

This exercise (the walking, not the writing) is about leverage. In the world(view) of a clark there is a form of disconnect between the rational and the emotional. Not an absence of emotions and not a control of the rational. Both are quite there, simply not integrated…. wait, that’s getting too er clarklike.
Try this: clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel. yeah! that’s better.
The world that I woke up to this morning is a world in which the rational is the medium of expression for me. While for, say Kristi, the world is, among other things, a world in which emotions are the medium (and, possibly the message). Fine. Both equal, not being compared as which is better, they just are that way.

You know that thing about how there is one predominant worldview and we still have ‘the other two’ within? This is what the barefoot thing is really about. I know that I ‘live in my head’. I know that while that is the way it is, it is not necessarily the best way to live. So, while I might know this, I ask myself how do I alter it? no, learning more about how to live is not the answer! I’m already learning the shit out of things. Anyone? Dyanne? ‘Stop thinking and just live!!!’ yes, that is one answer. Kristi in her Comment actually gives us the answer, in her choice of words. no, not the ‘knowing’ part. the ‘appreciating’ part. the emotional aspect of the experience.

(For a clark) to do what we’re talking about, requires emotional leverage. To find a way to generate feelings(emotions) in concert with knowing something.
I get that I should appreciate the day I have today. I understand that I should not act like I’m immortal today*. I know that the littlest thing I do and say and encounter and share today, may very well be a thing of priceless value to me someday. I know that there will come a time, when I’m on my deathbed and I (may) have a moment to reflect on my life. A life spent inside my head is not a bad thing, but it is not as good as a life spent thinking and acting and feeling.

ya know?

Thanks to Kristi and Fangboner and the others what Commented at the Doctrine this weekend.

* a reference to something that Castanada had his character don Juan Mateus say about living in the present and making decisions not as if I would get a chance to do it again, rather to act as if it were my only chance to act. At least that’s how I read it.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, predicting human behavior, psychology of personality, self-development, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine- (“You know, sometimes all you can do is start typing…“)

December 13, 2014 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

1) grateful for being able to (continue) my morning walks to the mail box. We always walk up to the mailbox in the morning before we Phyllis and I leave for work and Una takes up her daytime position on the couch in the lower level family room.

2) I am grateful for the fun of having a dog in the family. Not an un-common characteristic in dogs, Una has a different ‘returning home’ greeting for each of us. On most weekdays, I’m able to get home to give Una her lunch. The fun part, (for me, and maybe her), is that I start talking before I open the door to the lower level, usually something topical like, “…oh man! look at the time!! a certain dog must be famished… (step into the Family Room) oh! I didn’t see you on the couch!!” (I laugh and Una, I assume, gets a kick out of it).

3) that morning walk in Grat Item #1? just in case anyone is thinking, ‘Well! that’s a relief! A walk with the family to the mailbox in the morning, how normal can that clark guy get!’ I am grateful that I have been able do this exactly as I did in the summer, no shoes or coat. (This is a clark thing. It should have little or no appeal to a scott because scotts, by worldview definition, tend to live pretty much all in the here and now . rogers… they would tend to see my little morning exercise as either a) a funny quirk or 2) an annoying affectation.)
Having said that, as a clark, I find that when I’m walking to the mailbox in the rain without a coat or in December without shoes, it helps me realize how important it is to appreciate what is. That I am not in a hospital bed, or in a wheel chair or in the house because I am not able to leave…. I find that I ‘enjoy’ the harsh feelings of the 30 degree morning in part when I can know that it is a very real possibility that someday I will be in a place where I look back on (these days) and wish to anything that I might again have the opportunity to do something as silly as walk to the mailbox without shoes or a coat in December.

4) Phyllis obviously, because she doesn’t refuse to go out to the mailbox because of that guy that’s insisting on making a simple family activity into some kind of ‘inside-your-head-metaphysical-adventure’

5) …grateful to the blogosphere for the opportunity to get to know Cynthia (tbfka Cyndi)…She writes the blog Pictimilitude which, among a whole bunch of things, was the sponsor for the short-lived ‘Wakefield Doctrine 30 Minute Hour’ on blogtalk radio! In any event, she is a pretty amazing person and she is graduating from Graduate School today! “Así se hace !!! Cyndacito!!

6) Vidchat… despite my best effort to the contrary, a Friday Night vidchat is fun and enlightening… last night with zoe and Lizzi (hey!! Joy sent FB invite but the vidchat app was acting up though, I heard that Kristi was also planning on stopping by, but I got elderly around 9:00 pm and had to go fall down in the room with softened floors. perhaps next Friday!)

7) I’ve been listening to this one song for the better part of the week, so I might as well invoke SBoR 87.3.1 [sec. 3] and post it as Grat Item #8. (an example of a cover being superior to the original)

9) The Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules)…. (motto: ‘well, don’t feel embarrassed, spend the time and take the chance finding a Rule that allows you to do what you want/need to/feel-you-must and go ahead and cite it!‘ ) The SBoR’s has been referred to as the ‘...rather nice tool that those odd folks who participate in the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop apparently have, it clearly makes a fairly common bloghop theme, i.e. gratitude lists, such a delightful exercise.‘

10) 1.3 y’all

Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Rewritten, Thankful Me, The Wakefield Doctrine

Join the Ten Things of Thankful Facebook Group

An InLinkz Link-up

* what, no Footnotes?

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, the Wakefield Doctrine

Post #1 of the Work Week -the Wakefield Doctrine- (well, because that’s where our personality is under the harshest light)

December 8, 2014 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

the Workplace and the Wakefield Doctrine

Rule 1: Know your predominant worldview

Rule 2: Accept your predominant worldview

Rule 3: Know the predominant worldview (aka personality type) of the people around you

Rule 4: Remember! ‘the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them’

Rule 5: don’t forget: ‘when the going gets tough, the cause of it is coming from within’

Rule 6: Don’t get aggravated or annoyed, belligerent or beatific, avoid becoming caustic or (overly) conciliatory and, for god’s sake, don’t let yourself believe that you would feel any different, if only ‘they wouldn’t be like that‘!!! No, I’m totally serious! The simple, unavoidable conclusion, when you take all that this here ‘personality theory’ here holds true and apply it to the life you lead, in the world around you, is that, when it comes to feelings and moods (and their illegitimate children, ‘attitude’), you are responsible for how you feel today. That’s the bad news. The good news is that, you’re responsible for how you feel! So, instead of letting your stomach twist itself into all sorts of interesting shapes, write a Comment here and let those of-a-like-worldview get aggravated for you!

The rest of this Post was to have been footnotes to the 6 Rules. They would have been fun and funny, insightful and aggravating. However, I’ve changed my mind and instead will instead try to keep it simple and under 500 words, all in the interest of my getting to my own workplace on time. The thing of it is, the personality type most likely to see that the Doctrine as applying to their world, is also the personality type (aka worldview) that will have the most difficulty ‘getting it to work’. At the same time, the ‘other two’ personality types will have less of a sense that any of this is necessary, paradoxically they will find the insights relatively easy to apply! go figure, huh?

Well, since you put it that way… we have. and, big surprise, the personality type to see the Doctrine as useful and difficult is/are those Outsiders (clarks). But, while it takes them a little longer, the benefit will be all the greater/more significant! Just so you scotts and rogers don’t go away empty handed, or feel that this Post favors clarks, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the most difficult part of using the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool for self-improving oneself is that the key lies in recognizing others of your own worldview, observing how they act and interact and accepting the fact that their actions (and interactions) are simply their best effort to deal with the world as they are experiencing it. (I just lied. the real ‘most difficult part’ is to see another person of your worldview and realize that you are living and acting in the world pretty much as they are… for better or worse, ya know?)

Ok! less than 500 words!

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, predicting human behavior, psychology of personality, relationships, self-development, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

Go!!!! Cynthia!* the Wakefield Doctrine ( “..uri, vinciri, verberari et interfecta est gladio Pharao et doctrina post scribere!”)

December 3, 2014 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

if you look closely, the label says (I’m not making this up) “Collectible Anniversary Edition’

..how cool is this Wakefield Doctrine? I was just in the kitchen to get coffee, and, as is my habit, I went through the cupboard to get a piece of bread and… (Wait! It occurs to me that this story won’t make any sense without a little context. Before I got to the kitchen this morning, I was thinking about writing a Post. Actually I was concerned that I didn’t have anything interesting to write about this morning, worse, I was worried that I had ‘lost’ whatever it was, that I thought that I used to believe that I had, when I wrote Doctrine blog Posts. OK! That’s the proper set up to appreciate what happened next… in the kitchen….. this morning…like 10 minutes ago.)

….anyway, I’m looking for bread and I notice a fresh, un-opened bag of hot dog rolls, way in the back and thought, ‘better get these up to the front, or else I’ll forget they’re there‘. As I re-positioned the bag I saw, printed on the bottom: Stop n Shop Official Supermarket of the Patriots and so naturally I said to Phyllis who was also in our small kitchen, preparing her morning coffee, ‘who the fuck cares that this is…. why??!…. what the hell?!’

‘Why’, I thought out loud, ‘should/would/could anyone get something out of knowing that their supermarket is the official supermarket of a football team? Do these benefits apply to the Players and their families? Are they required to shop only at Stop n Shop? Or maybe, they have special privileges when shopping, like the gladiators were supposed to have earned when victorious in the Coliseum?’
I calmed down and thought, ‘well, clark, you have a Wakefield Doctrine, what does it tell you about why people should care about hot dog rolls being associated with a professional sports team?‘

If we were having this discussion a couple of years ago, I would have gone immediately to the rogerian worldview and then the scottian worldview. (As a matter of fact, Phyllis said this morning, ‘you should ask glenn, he’s all into the sports and has clothing with team names in shirts and jackets and hats.’ glenn is a scott and a sports fan. I used to kid him. “holy shit! glenn! You never told me that you were a player for the Red Socks!! If it weren’t for that team jacket I never would have guessed!! damn!” and he would laugh and say, ‘fuck you’)

But today is the 3rd of December 2014, not July 27th 2007, so I didn’t follow that path to understand how the Wakefield Doctrine could add to my understanding of foodstore chains and affiliation marketing. Instead, I invoked ‘the everything Rule’ and asked myself: how would a scott experience seeing the label (photo above) and how would a roger and a clark. Because, as we all know, each of the three worldviews are, in fact, separate (personal) realities.
(That) our ‘personality types’ are simply our coping strategies for dealing with the kind of world we wake up in…. being it waking up:

as a clark (Outsider motto: ‘ok the world is out there waiting…try not to mess up‘) or
opening our eyes as a scott (Predator motto: ‘I’m hungry!!!!/I’m horny!!!!!/I’m thirsty!!!!!/I’m bored!!!!!/I’m tired!!!!!… oh, Good Morning dear!”) or
even if we wake up in bed as a roger (Herd Member motto: “perfect…if only I… as long as they, life is good!“)

Out of time, guys! I’ll leave to all of you to solve the, ‘Mystery of Why the Hell Anyone Would Base Their Foodstore Selection on the Basis of Affiliation with a Professional Sports Team’ on your own, tell us in the Comments below what you have concluded!

* Cyndi is doing something critical as a final step in earning her Master’s Degree today…. I believe she said it was defending her ‘Portfolio’ and, naturally, I offered to help.**

**(one of my favorite jokes! one that originated back in the 1990s when I was playing Death Orb at the campus of the University of Rhode Island on a hot July day. I was playing and a young man came out of the building to smoke a cigarette and I thought it was a good time to take a break myself. We got to talking and he explained that he was scheduled to do his ‘oral defense’ of his dissertation in a week. So, I said, ‘hey! I’ll give you $5.00 if you’ll promise that if you find you’re doing a bad job (of defense) and they (the Dissertation Committee) have you on the ropes, you answer your final question by saying, “oh yeah?!?!! well fuck you!!” and walk out’. The guy laughed, of course, but I never saw him again, so I suspect that he didn’t take me up on my dare.

so go to Cyndi’s blog Pictimilitude and contribute whatever positive energy you can!

the Wakefield Doctrine (what it is, how it works, what it can do) ….did I leave anything out?

December 2, 2014 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Over the course of the weekend, I had the pleasure of conversations with Lizzi and Denise and zoe. A recurrent theme/sub-topic was, of course, the Wakefield Doctrine. While the Doctrine is always a reference point for me, it helps to talk to people who, while having an excellent grasp of our little personality theory, help me get a perspective on the efforts being made here at the blog.

I came away from the weekend with the sense that I need to get back to the basics in these Posts. Not an earth-shaking realization, I’m aware that there is a cycle that manifests in the Posts over time, writing as if every Reader was here for the first time and, (eventually) moving to where nothing, (in a post), would make sense to anyone other than a die-hard fan. So, the pendulum will swing

what it is….

as a personality theory, the Wakefield Doctrine proposes that we all are born with the potential to experience the world in the context of one of three characteristic worldviews (personal realities); the reality of the Outsider (clarks), the world of the Predator (scotts) and the life of the Herd Member (rogers). The Doctrine maintains that, at a very early age, we find ourselves in one (of these three), and we grow up and develop our social and interpersonal skills and coping strategies that are best-suited to allow us to survive and thrive in this reality.

clarks being Outsiders become withdrawn and creative, imaginative and fearful, relating themselves to the world as if the world was ‘out there’.
scotts growing up in the world of the Predator (and Prey), acting and reacting, ever alert to threat or opportunity, mercurial in temperament, relating themselves to the world through their direct expression of instinct, experiencing life through action instead of reflection.
rogers are those who grow up in the world of principle and objective Value, the world is quantifiable, not so much predictable as reliable…relating themselves to the world around them as a part of the greater whole, a higher expression of (a) fundamental truth.

how it works…

the Doctrine is simple, or nearly impossible…depending on whether you have the desire and capacity to apply your imagination to the day-to-day reality around you. The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective. A way of looking at the world, and the people (in it) and the behavior (of these people). The goal, of this applying of a particular perspective, is to ‘understand the world as the other person is experiencing it’. All that is required is a willingness to imagine and the discipline to learn the character of the three worldviews. (Note: the examples of behavior provided for each the three personality types in this blog, are not the measure of a person’s worldview! They (these characteristic behaviors) are are just examples of typical (to each of the three) responses to everyday situations. What you are actually trying to do, (or should be trying to do) when you observe another through the perspective of the Wakefield Doctrine is: inferring how that person relates themselves to the world around them.

(hey! that bears repeating! The first step in using the Wakefield Doctrine is to: (correctly) infer how the other person is relating themselves to the world around them. Please note that I did not say, ‘how the other person is relating to the world around them‘, I said, ‘how they are relating themselves to the world around them‘.
With one you are considering only how a person chooses to act, in the other, you are, of necessity, attempting to infer the reality, the context, the situation that is required to make (their) choice of action most appropriate.)

what it can do…

with the proper use of the Wakefield Doctrine, as a perspective, you can:

know more about the other person than they know about themselves
predict their future choices in most any situation
change and improve your own life (by virtue of knowing yourself better through understanding the people around you)

you know, stuff like that.
Unlike most personality type systems and theories, the Wakefield Doctrine will not give you ‘the Answer’ and it totally will not let you change the other person.
the Wakefield Doctrine ‘is for you, not them’.

but it is fun. you can watch people, (we’re betting that you enjoy that anyway) and you will know more about the people in your life without having to ask awkward questions ( “er… honey, you know I love those Louboutins and what you’ve done with your hair, but it’s only going to be the kids teachers and some other parents.“).

of course, the self-inderstanding and self-improvement is a little more…. effort. But! if you’ve made it this far reading today’s Post I know that you have what it takes to enjoy our little Doctrine.