by Dr. Ed Brenegar | Oct 6, 2020 | Book, Circle of Impact, Ideas, Impact, Relationships, Structure, Transition
In September 2018, after Circle of Impact was published, I hit the road to promote sales of the book. I spent the next year talking to people standing in bookstores, sitting at bars, in laundromats, parking lots, and hotel lobbies. These conversations went something like this.
“Oh, so you are the author of this book?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your book about?”
“It is a book for people and organizations that are in transition.”
Then they would give me a surprised look and say, “Oh. … Well. … That describes me.”
Then a conversation would happen where they would tell me a story about who they are, their life experience, and why they felt they were in transition.
I found that people first feel that they are in transition. But they lack a way to talk about it. This feeling rises deep from within themselves. This is especially true if they have either worked in an environment described above where they are simply hired to perform specific tasks or have been out of the workforce for a while taking care of family needs, whether children or elderly parents.
Of all the ways that I could describe the book, speaking about transition resonated most significantly with people. This isn’t just personal. It is also something happening to our society, our communities, and every organization within it. It is a global reality felt at the most intimate level of our lives. It is also clear that some people are better suited or prepared to make transitions in their lives, while for others it is a very tough, hard experience.
by Dr. Ed Brenegar | Sep 24, 2020 | Circle of Impact, Community, Impact, Transition, Uncategorized
Background to All Crises Are Local At the beginning of April 2020, I sat down and began to write about what I was observing as the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic were unfolding. What began then became the first of five short books published at the end of August....
by Dr. Ed Brenegar | Aug 26, 2020 | Circle of Impact, Community, Ideas, Impact, Relationships, Structure, The Pressing Issues, Transition
We all live in a time of transition. It is different than just recognizing that change is happening. It is seeing that transition is a process along a path of change. The more we embrace the transitions that we are in, the more we can thrive in a time of uncertainty. The Transition Chronicles is an ongoing series of short books (5,000 to 12,000 words in length) that focus on various aspects of the transitions that we experience through the three dimensions of the Circle of Impact.
by Dr. Ed Brenegar | Jun 16, 2020 | Book, Circle of Impact, Community, Impact, Transition
All intentional change must begin with what we know. The line between what we know and what we do not know is a broad one. In that former is information, experience, and knowledge. On the other side of that dividing line is conjecture, opinion and the spectacle of the real*. Social media straddles those two ways of understanding. It presents the perspectives that suggests that because we have read a blog post or watched a video that we now have some definitive knowledge about something. Coming to know what you know is not a passive experience of absorbing other people’s knowledge or opinion. Instead, it is an active search for understanding on many levels. I want to show you the practice that I use to understand the world that surrounds me. In doing this, I hope to show you the difference between genuine knowledge and mere opinion. Why does this matter? When you know what you need to know, you are less susceptible to being manipulated by people who use ideologies as a wedge to divide people and communities.
by Dr. Ed Brenegar | May 5, 2020 | Book, Circle of Impact
We need to understand, “What do I have to offer to the world?”
Say that to yourself.
What do I have to offer the world?
Say it out loud if you want, emphasizing the “doing” of the offer.
What do I have to offer the world?
Write the sentence down. Look at it again.
Open up your hands palms up. Extend them out in front of you as if you are giving something to someone. In your hands is what you have to offer. It is the gift that you give to people, organizations, and places that makes a difference that matters.
Now imagine that every day you climb out of bed to offer the world all the unrealized potential that rests in your hands right now.
We are now beginning to see that our unrealized potential is not some abstract value, but something real that we have to offer. Something tangible that can make a real difference in the world. We are recognizing that we have within ourselves is a capacity for making a difference that maybe we’ve never thought about before.
In your hands is the power to bring change that creates goodness wherever you are, even at work, even in the midst of a global pandemic.
To learn what we have to offer is a process of self-discovery. We realize all we have been storing away, out of sight, out of mind, down deep in inside all these years. It is all we’ve learned, gained, and developed in the way of knowledge and experience throughout our lifetime.
