Due Diligence and Personal Power
Between our due diligence work and our awareness mentoring, we get a lot of questions about whether or not people truly can avoid disasters. The latest incidents seem to involve scared and disgruntled people seeking revenge. Of course, nationally the news about Christopher Dorner had folks asking if he gave any indication of homicidal tendencies before lashing out (CNN article). And on a smaller scale from the Phoenix area we received calls from small businesses afraid they might suffer from the next Harmon-type incident (Yahoo! News article). The answer to the simple question above is an emphatic YES…and no. The former response is because we’ve seen firsthand the benefit of preparedness and a bit of assessment. The latter is because we’ve also seen what can happen despite our genuine attempts and most attuned awareness. Regardless, if we always choose to fault on the side of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” we tend to suffer fewer headaches, dramas and repercussions.
Let us, in no way, be misunderstood as saying that anyone who dies at the hands of someone else seeking revenge, restitution or anything else could have/should have prevented it. Again, we’ve seen what can happen despite our best efforts. In the intelligence realm, it’s the one reason governments dread human intelligence (HUMINT) more than any other INT out there. HUMINT historically causes the most damage with the fewest predictable warning signs. The human element provides both our greatest possibilities and our greatest detriments. Any time people are involved in a situation, they bring with them baggage, filters, perceptions, histories, interpretations, moods, emotions, egos, etc. It’s never simple and it’s always multi-faceted.
The work we do at The Recla Group and here addresses these issues from different angles, but the underlying message is the same. Unless we make a conscious choice to address our fears, our uncertainties, and the areas of our lives and businesses that suck personal POWER from us (in the form of money, time, emotional stability, personal safety, wellness, etc.) then we truly leave ourselves open to the whims of other people.
About the Author: From the corporate world to the spy world and from rape victim to motherhood, Tonya Dawn Recla embodies the definition of personal power. She holds a B.A. in intercultural communication and M.A. in education/critical theory from Arizona State University. Her current projects include finishing her second book, The Dragon Queen, and providing intuitive consulting to her decision-making, change-agent clients (TonyaDawn.com). She and her husband currently travel the world with their 3 year-old daughter.
