Which lights rule your world?

Bert Decker wrote a short little piece today on the leaders' communication style.  It was sort of interesting, but the underlying idea he mentions is far more interesting...and provocative.

Most human performance, whether it's sports, music or speaking has a physical "ready" position.  I'm not really an athlete, but I wrestled in high school and studied Tai Kwon Do and fencing in my youth.  I took years of piano and cello lessons as a child.  I took a number of public speaking courses as an adult.  Each one of these activities involved a "ready" position.  In wrestling it was standing facing your opponent, shoulders and hips squared, arms up and forward, weight over your toes.  In fencing it was shoulders perpendicular to your opponent, one arm forward, foil up, other arm behind, curved up.  Okay, you get the picture.

The question of the day, however, is what is your default life position?  Decker quotes a friend of his in describing a Green Light Approach to life.  He says we all operate under one of three traffic lights.

• Those who are ruled by the red light stop themselves - or never get started.
• Those who always see yellow are very cautious about making a move.
• But those who go for the green light are staunch advocates of their positions and DO move forward. While they certainly slow down if they see yellow - and stop at the red signals - they see life as a green light. Moving forward unless directed otherwise.

I want to learn to live on the tips of my toes, in the "ready" position.  I want to be a "green light guy."  I want to have a posture that is leaning forward into each new day.