I don’t know if there is a name for that space of time between deciding to act and the actual action but there should be.  My best suggestion is the “post decision pre-action buffer” and though that is descriptive it surely isn’t concise.

Many of us, even if we can’t name it, know all about that space of time.  It is the deep breath before the plunge and the moment of silence before the battle.  But not everybody knows about it.  There are those who skip that moment altogether.

A few weeks ago I was watching Die Hard with Bruce Willis again.  I’ve seen it many times but the character played by Willis, John McClane, always intrigues me.  I think what intrigues me most is how uniquely qualified he is for the situation in which he finds himself.  A quick thumbnail of the plot shows he is the lone police officer in a high rise office building that is being taken over by terrorists.  Alone he takes on this small force and secures the release of their hostages though it wasn’t an easy task.  What made him uniquely qualified was the lack of time between his decisions to act and his actions.  It almost appears as if his decision to act was the trigger that initiated action.

One scene really brings this to mind for me.  McClane was being pinned down by automatic gunfire from two of the terrorists.  In the process, broken glass from the nearby offices was strewn all over the ground.  McClane knew he had to get out of that area if he was to survive.  One problem was that sometime earlier he had lost his shoes.  This meant that his run to safety would be in bare feet across a minefield of shattered shards of glass.  But, he didn’t pause.  He got up and ran.  In fact, a pause there might have meant his life even if the purpose for the pause was to try to preserve his feet.  Decision to act followed by immediate action.  That was John McClane.

I think this quality in somebody is succinctly stated by the Human Torch in the movie, The Fantastic Four.  As he was learning to use his new found powers he started to suspect that the ability to burst into flames would also give him the ability to fly.  To test this theory he went to a balcony dozens of stories above the ground and planned on jumping off.  His sister, wanting him to pause to reconsider his choice yelled out to him “Don’t even think about it!!”.  Over his shoulder, as he jumped from the balcony, the Human Torch answered back with a smile, “I never do!”.  Decision to act and then action.

The Gallup StrenthsFinder labels this talent Activator.  For those of us who decide to act, then pause to collect our thoughts, and then act this may not make much sense.  For us the learning is in the preparation and the thinking.  For Activators learning is in the doing.

This article is from the Super Powers Center Series on “Pop Culture Perspectives on Talent”. Be sure to listen to Alex McManus and Dale Swinburne on the Super Powers Center, Saturday evenings at 6PM (ET).

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Here’s the landscape.

1. This is the main site of the International M Network. I look forward to inviting some provocative contributors to add to the content here. Dale Swinburne has signed on to write a weekly thought in our Super Powers Center. Others will join soon. Stay tuned.
2. For an overview of the content developed here, check out the Table of Contents located in the left column as a “drop down menu”.
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4. And of course, there is Into the Mystic, the personal blog of Alex McManus. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

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Join Alex McManus and Dale Swinburne, Section Chief of the IMN’s Super Powers Center, every Saturday at 6PM (ET) for a live discussion on discovering and developing your super powers. Here’s a link: All Things M.

We’ve included below, for your convenience, some of the questions (and challenges) that came from my articles that we will talk about on today’s show. Just click on the “read more…” link below.

If you’re reading this on a Friday between 11 am and 12 noon ET, you can hear the show live via phone — Call-in Number: (347) 308-8021 — or via internet on All Things M.

** The Four Turnings **
QUESTION: You wrote a series of articles on your blog a while back around the theme of four turnings that people need to go through. Can you explain a little bit more what these are and how they work together in practice?

QUESTION: “I think turnings 2 (community) and 4 (mission) are the most needed and yet the most difficult to see happen in an established church. More often Christians and Churches turn in on themselves, their comfort, their preference etc. I wonder if however its turning number one which is in fact the crucial one? Until we accept and live out the Lordship of Christ we will have little incentive to embrace the other other turns he calls on us to make.” (From James)

QUOTE: “Instead, we should invite new believers to enlist in some form of Christ following community that is engaged in some form of Christ following activity. [Whether the form is apostolic, entrepreneurial, traditional, emerging organic, etc matters little. What matters is the missional heartbeat of the commuity]. Here they will “feed” others, be a steward of everything they have and are for the sake of the world, enter into a dialogue, and to engage and enjoy the world. This community will be defined by its deeds and actions rather than by its creeds alone.” Alex McManus

QUESTION: Why is this so important? How does a leader of a church that hasn’t operated this way move towards this way of being the church?

QUESTION: “mmmm…, this is both scary; yet…., sounds soooo right? As I embark on this church plant movement – what shapes it? What forms it? What income can I hope to make outside of the normal “paid clergy” areas as an aging 46+ yr old man? These are the kinds of thoughts and more that run through my head? Can you do both? Is it possilbe to have a “traditional” group who serves as the umbrella for what we think and know should be the norm?” (Rich, in response to turning to community)

** Conversion **
You wrote an article a while back that began with these questions: “How are women and men “saved”? Are we saved by cognitive acceptance of certain dogmas? Are we saved by the direction of our lives? Or both or neither.” You went on to focus on the story of Cornelius and also to talk about closed set and centered set thinking. Could you unpack these a little for us?

QUESTION: “Okay, so I get the wooing part from God. Once a Hindu, Muslim, or Pagan responds to that wooing and comes to Christ (the man standing on the horizon) what does he become?” You answered this by saying that he becomes human. This was followed up with another questions: “I am a bit fuzzy about what becoming “human again” really looks like if I am a Christ follower? If I understand you correctly are you saying that the process that is going to the same end is being human again? I thought being human was THE problem and not the GOAL?”

QUESTION: “I think that your observation about ‘Christianity’ and the west is an interesting one. i’ll have to find out more (and maybe try to find out first-hand) how well the term ‘Christ-following Muslim’ is accepted. if there is no lateral conversion (and i’m more than willing to agree to that), does the phrase ‘Christ-following Muslim’ really have integrity as a label? does it similarly work for ‘Christ-following Buddhist’ or ‘Christ-following Hindu’? the movement toward becoming human again i think probably causes us to rethink how quickly we want to identify ourselves using any religious membership tags.”

QUESTION: “Alex, I beg to differ on this blog. I think you are confusing labels (description) with who followers of Christ truly become (identity). Just because the term “Christian” didn’t come about until Acts 11 does not mean the concept of what a “Christian” is did not exist. Quite the contrary. It is because these Christ-followers’ behavior that eventually the name “Christian,” meaning follower of Christ in Greek and was originally a derogatory term, came about. So, what do Christ-followers become? By definition of original Greek, Christians.”

Welcome to the new iMN site.

Every week, we’ll have new content and important updates about All Things M. Take a look around and let us know what you think.

Enjoy.