One particular surfer caught my eye. He paddled out on his board, cutting through the oncoming waves, to the spot where he’d chosen to wait for the Big One he was looking to ride to shore. Waves broke continuously over him, but he shook them off and continued to paddle forward. Arriving at his spot, he used his arms to hover and maintain his position. He was patient, checking over his shoulder to decide whether the next swell would be the right one. He clearly had confidence – even just to be in the lake during this winter storm!

Calibrate is about taking a moment before you even begin that meeting to really tune in and see how are you doing before you get into the room. When you are calibrated, it really gives you a much better chance to make sure that your intention and the impact that your words and your demeanor has with people are in perfect alignment.

In the stress of the moment, sometimes people’s focus gets too narrow. This is just the way our brain works. When our amygdala gets fired up and we get under that stress, we literally develop tunnel vision.
What that can look like in a meeting or in a conversation with people is what we’re focusing on the wrong things. We’re trying to figure out and address these symptoms, and not really stepping back and taking that time to figure out, “Well, why are these problems occurring in the first place?” We can get that kind of fixated perspective, and that’s not helpful when you really want to find a sustainable and effective solution.