In 1941 Major General Hugh ‘Pat’ Casey designed Pentagon in only three days. Construction began thirty days later and sixteen months after that on January 15, 1943 this now world famous office building was completed. The Pentagon is headquarters for United States Department of Defense and nerve center for command and control dedicated to protecting US national interests. You have your own Pentagon of sorts within yourself. This Pentagon, or Penta’tude as I have come to call it, has direct impact on your protection, growth and success and is made up of these five ‘tudes: Multitude, Magnitude, Latitude, Attitude and Gratitude.

Let’s take a look at each of these supporting walls to your own personal Penta’tude.

Multitude As we go through our daily lives a multitude of opportunities present themselves. However, a multitude of challenges also come along for ride. If you spend you time fretting about challenges you will end up blotting out those opportunities. To give you an example of what I’m talking about – take a dime and look at it at arms length. Small, thin not to ominous. But if you put all your focus on it and bring it in close to your eye then it will blot out world as you see it. Worse yet closer it gets more you loose focus and more edges blur. Now you don’t really know where challenge ends and opportunities begin. Focusing on opportunities instead of challenges increases your chances at success, not to mention increasing level of success you can and will attain.

Magnitude This works closely with Multitude. As you go through your opportunities and challenges in life and business, you need to magnify important things. Focus on magnitude and impact of your core values, desires and major definite purpose. Reduce magnitude of challenges that seem insurmountable. “Don’t make mountains out of molehills” apply strategic thinking and brainstorming techniques to breakdown those seemingly impassable obstacles. (I have an article on using brainstorming to solve problems. If you are interested send me an email at mailto:tracy@tracybrinkmann.bizhosting.com?subject=brainstorming_article). On other side of this coin, do not let one major win in your success make you think your set for life. Every good businessperson knows that if your not growing your business then it is dieing. Because if your sitting still while everyone else is moving forward then respectively your are falling behind. Enjoy that major success; bask in glow and pride it gives you. Then sit down and plan for next big win.

At work or at home, it is easy to point finger at other people and say that they are our problem. However, blaming others just leads to a dead end. We cannot control other people, and we will waste a lot of energy and give ourselves a lot of grief when we try.

If Sherry wanted things to be different at home, she had to find a way within her control to create change. Knowing that demanding rarely works, and that begging is too demeaning to use on a regular basis, I suggested that Sherry try acknowledging her husband and her son. Every day, she was to find one thing to acknowledge about her husband and one thing to acknowledge about her teenage son. She thought idea was ridiculous.

I pointed out that usually she is focused on what is missing, that her current communication consisted mainly of statements such as "You never help with dinner," "You forgot to take out trash," or "Whose socks are these on floor?" Desperate for more harmony at home, she decided to try experiment.

Every day, she looked for one thing for which to acknowledge her family members. At first, she said, it was hard. Soon it became easier, and soon after that, she noticed more interest in helping from her teenage son, and more closeness and connection from her spouse.