Imagine having a clear sense of what you believe about yourself, being able to say with conviction, “This is who I am and what my purpose for impact is.” From this perspective, we have something to offer an employer or a clear direction for the future. This is not simply a picture of our usefulness in life. It goes deeper than that. It is a picture of what motivates us to be at our best. It helps us to see ourselves functioning with impact in the social and work situations that we encounter every day. It helps us to know where we do not want to be.
For many of us, we have never thought of our lives or the work that we do in such terms. We have been led to think that we are parts of a system of production, just obediently or begrudgingly doing our job, until the whistle blows, and then we go home to do what we truly love doing. This separation of our personal life from our work life affects our perception of who we are. We don’t see ourselves as whole persons. It is the same fragmented state experienced when the three dimensions of leadership are out of alignment. We find life confusing, our relationships conflicted, and the work we do unfulfilling.
Just as we want to create alignment of the three dimensions of leadership within our organizations, we also want this for our personal lives. We desire for our lives to be whole, complete in all that we do. We sort of see it, yet don’t have the words to describe it. If we could put it to words, then we could do something about it. Until then, we are not sure how to cross over the threshold from self-doubt and fear, realizing that we are in the midst of a transition that we do not understand.
If you are at a point in your life and work where you sense a need for a change, then decide now to let reading this book become an opportunity to ask questions that can take you to a place where you find how your life matters. Do not settle just for an emotional belief that you have something to offer to the work. Instead, believe that what you have to offer matters in ways that you have never imagined. It is one thing to know why your life matters, which is your purpose for impact. It is a very different thing to know how your life matters. For when you bring the
why of your life together with the how, you then can venture into those situations of transition with a confidence that you have something to offer and a way to bring change that makes a difference.
from Circle of Impact: Taking Personal Initiative To Ignite Change, Dr. Ed Brenegar, Savio Republic, 2018, pp 14-16.
Dr. Ed Brenegar
Dr. Ed Brenegar is a Leader for Leaders working with individuals, their teams, organizations and communities who find themselves at a point of transition. Ed has developed an innovative leadership model called, Circle of Impact, that clarifies what the impact of their life or the work of their organization can be. From this perspective, impact is the change that makes a difference that matters. Ed. for over 30 years, has inspired and equipped people and organizations to practice this fresh understanding of leadership. All leadership begins with personal initiative to create impact that makes a difference that matters. Everyone within an organization or a community can, therefore, practice leadership initiative. In so doing, they turn what were once leadership-starved organizations into leader-rich cultures that make a difference that matters.
