Self Calibration & Adjustment

So where did I get the concept of Self Calibration & Adjustment Checks? So glad that I could ask this question for you because I was thinking the whole time I was working on this section of this book that you would really not have much of an idea at all of where the concept would have come from. I have read quite a handful of personal and professional development books and have never run across this topic as a development tool. For a good chunk of time before actually writing and authoring books I was working for a company as an Automation Systems Technician and Metrology & Calibration Specialist. It is not a job that was easy by any means, but once you learn it, ther is so much you can do with it, the options are seemingly limitless. Automation is built into nearly every aspect of our lives. Our homes are automated, our cell phones, our computers, our vehicles, our workplaces, schools, hospitals, and so much more. Traffic lights are an incredibly important part of our lives that are automated for several purposes: 1) 4-Way Stops are far too slow for the population of the world and cities that we live in; 2) Safety – without traffic lights, people would be getting into vehicle accidents left and right due to our natural built in ability to be selfish and wanting to go through a 4-Way Stop intersection first (I stopped first, I’m going first; I’m late, I’m just going to chance it, they’ll stop, and more).

Automation, however, without Calibration & Adjustment Checks is only as good and accurate as the system itself allows it to be, though accuracy and quality with anything over time slowly drifts away from the optimal and nominal place we want things to be at.  When you perform a calibration on a piece of equipment or of an electrical system, you are checking and testing certain parameters to ensure the stability and reliability and accuracy of that device or system.  If any critical parameter is outside of its calibration tolerance, outside of its specified and stated limits, an adjustment must be made, or, if worst comes to worst, device replacement is performed if an adjustment is not possible or it does not fix and solve the problem.  We are trying to prevent problems or fix them when we perform calibration and adjustment checks.

Some examples of Calibration Parameters as it pertains to physical or electrical calibration are as follows: Temperature, Relative Humidity, Pressure, Voltage, Watts, Length, Weight, Time, etc. Most systems and devices that are calibrated can be adjusted in sometimes relatively simple manners, however, at other times it is a relatively difficult process. At times, just a slight twist of a screwdriver on a tolerance adjustment potentiometer or set screw can have an immense input influence and impact over a system device and complete the adjustment and calibration process. There are times though where you may have to take a device apart and it becomes quite hands on and involved and difficult. For example, at times I had to take apart certain airconditioning and heating duct damper actuators to replace a motor drive adapter that connected the drive motor to the actuating gear drive train internally. This one little piece of hardware to fix a device that was nearly one thousand dollars. However, if you are not sure on what to do, what part to replace, there is no other way to perform a calibration and function test on this device.

With new technology to top it all off, some equipment requires computer interfacing alongside physical adjustments and inputs to be made to complete the calibration and adjustment process.  As you can hopefully picture in your mind after reading this descriptive introduction to Calibration & Adjustment Checks, you realize that calibration is a continuous process, whether you perform checks daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or otherwise.  Sometimes these are physical, sometimes they can be automated.  Keep in mind though that the interval is one of the most important aspects of performing Calibration & Adjustment Checks.  If you wait too long and far between calibraitons, your equipment may be beyond the capability of an adjustment to solve and fix its issue and will require device replacement.  Again, this happens when you let things go too long unchecked, things eventually drift too far from the optimal and nominal reference point where we want them to be at and start to break down and break apart.  We, as people, want to prevent things from breaking within ourselves and those around us that we lead and influence daily.

When you and I apply the principles of [equipment] calibration to ourself, being proactive is of the utmost importance. Remember, calibration is just the process of checking the current status of a piece of equipment: is the voltage correct, is the length in tolerance, does the sensor indicate at the appropriate moment? What’s the temperature of the room you are sitting in right now? Is it comfortable, too warm, too cold? Depending upon how you assess the room temperature depends upon your next move, rather, your next decision, to keep it as is or to perform an adjustment of the temperature controller.

Now, assess your current situation and status; how are you feeling in this moment? How is your attitude towards your current situation? How is your mood towards your current situation? Are you good, positive? Are you heated beyond your comfort level? Are you too cold and going negative? Do you need to perform a Self-Adjustment to bring yourself back to your Optimal and Nominal state of being where you want to be at all times? Or, do you need to remove yourself from your current environment and replace yourself into a new and different healthier environment than where you are currently?

If an Environmental Change is what you believe you require to fix yourself, then do not hesitate to make that move.  If you have made that move already, then perform another self-calibration check, you may just find yourself back at a state of being good, optimal, and nominal.  At this point no further actions are necessary or required except to keep a regular self- calibration process in motion, checking yourself daily to ensure the highest possible level of quality of life.

If changing your environment did not bring about the complete change you desire[d] to see, then you must perform a self-adjustment.  You need to dig a little bit deeper than what the surface is revealing to you.  This will require the use of some tools that we call “Calibration Standards.”  These tools are essential for checks and adjustments to be made, otherwise, you will never be able to inject any kind of positive input signal[s] into the system.  So, what kind of self-adjustment tools exist and are available for myself, you, and others to use to perform these self-adjustments?  As I mentioned, these tools are called standards.  This is appropriate to mention because when we talk about life and how to live we tend to say that we live by certain “standards.”  These “Standards” are the basis of where we can find these tools and what kinds of tools we should be using.

Being a strong Christian, here are a few tools that I have used over the years, and I am still continuing to add to this list of standards as I walk through more life’s experiences.

1. The Bible – God’s word. God Himself is available to us all the time, whenever we need Him and wherever we are. Remember that His Holy Spirit is in us and all around us eternally as true and faithful believers of God.
2. People – friends, family, pastors, mentors, etc… People who can really help us solve problems are all around us all the time. If we do not tap into and take advantage of the people who are in our life, we are losing out on one of the greatest resources in this world and life that God has given to us in abundance. And the greatest thing about reaching out to others for their help and input, is that not only do we receive the help that we desire and need and long for, but it also helps the person helping you. You both grow from the xperience, you both benefit from the experience, and hopefully in the end, a great and lasting friendship, mentorship, can develop because you were willing to humble yourself and reach out to a person that you may have or may not have known well at the moment.
3. Books – again, the Bible, as well as other personal and professional development books that look enticing and like they can help you solve the problem that you are struggling with are good tools. I’m a reader at heart, I love learning from books and applying the different insights and inputs that stick out to me in my own life. Those who are writing books usually know quite a bit about the topics that they are writing about, so if an author is not the highest level of expert in their desired writing topic of choice and field of study, they can still offer great insights as they continue learning nonetheless.
4. Journaling – writing out my thoughts in a notebook and on paper helps me to really think things through and process what I have going on in my mind, and then to clear my mind afterwards. I can clearly dump my mind after getting it out on paper because now I have a hard copy of what I was wrestling with in my mind. Writing for me is like hitting the power button and performing a restart of my system in a manner of speaking. Journaling can definitely be a great way to clear out and refresh your mind.

To make good accurate adjustments with lasting effect, we must know exactly where to make our adjustments, small and or minor tweaks and adjustments, otherwise, unintended and adverse responses could come about in return.