Strategics Ezine, May 2014

Hi everyone. 

As many of you know I have started a website "The Edge on Strategy". Part of this website is the Ezine "Strategics" where I put together a monthly article related to how we can use Strategy to become more effective in reaching our professional and personal goals. Below I am providing a link to the May article of Strategics for those of you who are subscribers to my Blog but not my other site. 

To be sure you don't miss anything I recommend you joining both the Ezine and Blog. Either one will get you my free eBook on Strategic Planning.

Enjoy the article and have a great June!!

May 2014 Strategics

Here is the link to join Strategics and get the article directly to your inbox.

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Best Sam.

Tegan and Abigail

The Magic of Strategy: Manifesting Abundance

If you commit to the simple principles of strategy, you can find yourself effortlessly manifesting abundance in your life. I know that’s a bold statement - but time and time again, I have met and exceeded my personal, and professional, goals through the simple and powerful magic of strategy.

At it’s most basic, strategy is a decision to take deliberate actions to affect a desired outcome. This is the Holy Trinity of Strategy: Decision, Action and Outcome. 

Every single human-made thing in this world started out as a thought. The chair you’re sitting on, the computer in front of you, the words you’re reading – even the person writing them – started as a thought.

A thought, plus an action, equals an outcome. This is strategy - simple, elegant, magic. I have succeeded at almost everything I have put my attention to simply because failure doesn’t occur to me. I lock onto a goal, I visualize the outcome and I don’t quit until I succeed. Sometimes I adjust my goals along the way if something better presents itself, but I don’t give up.

This is the key to strategy and ultimately - success.

Long before I fully understood strategy, I was manifesting abundance. I first became aware of its magical powers working on business development with Indigenous communities in rural British Columbia. As a community planner, I was responsible for guiding the emerging economies in communities that had little business experience. 

After generations of poverty, as a result of the restrictive, and even punitive legislature, these communities had become accustomed to failure. Their governing bodies and businesses had learned to work in reactionary conditions. Understaffed, and underfunded, failure was embedded in their collective memory. 

However, without fail, when we took strategic control of our decisions, actions and outcomes, we were able to turn community aspirations into realities. We used this basic toolset to create new businesses, own source revenues and employment.

We transformed thoughts into things – like magic.

We don't merely overcome adversity, we find value in our obstacles. They became our greatest learning opportunities - important plot points in a story we author. Through the power of choice and action we influence outcomes. If we approach a bump in the road as an exciting learning opportunity it becomes fuel for success. We turn a deficit into an asset. If, on the other hand, we approach that same bump as a reason to quit - failure is inevitable.

The world is full of people who are quick to point out why something won’t work and we shouldn’t do something. These are toxic people. We pull them from our lives like weeds competing for our sunlight. We surround ourselves with positive people and thoughts of accomplishment. We visualize our goals and aspirations as reality and manifesting abundance becomes inevitable.

Strategy is about taking control of your own destiny. You are the author of your destiny. As the author you cannot fail. If you let circumstances beyond your control, or toxic people and negative thinking dictate your choices, actions and outcomes then success is all but impossible. 

Lock on to the outcomes that you want to create in your personal and business lives. Check yourself. Are the choices you make moving you towards or away from these outcomes? If they move you away – stop doing that. Make choices and take actions only when they advance you towards your goals.

If you look back at your successes you may find that you’ve been using these simple principles of strategy intuitively to realize your goals and manifest abundance in your life. With this awareness you can marshal choices, actions and outcomes at will and truly live your life on purpose. 

That’s the magic of strategy.

For more on strategy, strategic planning and manifesting abundance check out my website the Edge On Strategy or my eBooks series Strategies for Success.

Best Sam Edge

The Edge on Parenting: Advise for Fathers with Daughters

Of all my life's experiences, it is my family, and specifically my daughters, that have given me the most to write about. According to my family's mythology surrounding parenting, sons teach mothers and daughters teach fathers. So it follows that a father who has a lot to learn will be blessed with more daughters.

I'm on the fence as to how true this is; however, this family folklore has survived a few generations. The fact that I have three daughters clearly supports the notion that a father in need of learning will receive daughters. I can also confirm, without a doubt, that my girls are, by far, my greatest teachers.

Each of my daughters has their own specific talent that is clearly designed to drive me bat-crap-crazy. It is my oldest (thirteen going on thirty) that has taught me the most. She is the product of a previous relationship that fell apart shortly after she was born. The responsibility of parenting was too much for her mother at the time. As a result, I took on most of the parenting responsibility for the first ten years. She was my "starter child", teaching me to parent through trial by fire.

My parenting philosophy was, and is, to ensure the child grows up feeling safe and loved at all times and above all else. As a result we now have a strong and healthy relationship that can weather life's obstacles. Also, despite the fractured family life she had growing up she is as well adjusted and happy a teen as you would hope to find.

In 2012, I lost a bitter custody dispute and she went to live with her mother. In a matter of hours my family was chopped by twenty-five percent. Working through this challenge has been the most difficult and most rewarding experience of my life. This confirms one of my core beliefs, that difficult times are opportunities to become better, stronger and faster than before.

As a direct result of this dispute, we have a co-parenting agreement where my daughter is able to rebuild the relationship with her mother while maintaining her connection to my wife, her sisters and me. Although, the role I will play in her teenage years is not what I had expected, or wanted, things have turned out just fine, if not even better, for her (don't tell my ex I said that).

It is a crushing blow to my male pride and ego to have to take a back seat to her mother in the parenting for the next few years; however, it is my daughters happiness, not mine, that matters. In the end, she will have a balanced upbringing with the benefit of a close tie to both parents.

It was the family mythology of daughters teaching fathers that helped me through the dark times of conflict and dispute. It gave me faith that everything would work out. I was able to looks for the hidden lessons and be grateful for them as they manifested.

I found that in times of crisis we lean on our stories, our family mythologies and traditions, to overcome the fear of the unknown. We are even willing to suspend logic for a justifiable diversion to help us make sense of our lives during times of crisis.

My daughter was just home for a visit. It's been a tough eighteen months for the poor kid. She's a little shell-shocked from it all. I have years, decades even, of practice working through the tough times - she doesn't. For the first few days of her visit she was stand-offish. The bitter conflict between me and her mother had taken its toll.

There's no instruction manual for this stuff (not that I'd read it anyways). So I sat her down and spoke to her from the heart. I explained that we were both grieving. Our relationship had been changed and it was going to take time getting used to the idea that life is going to unfold differently than we'd expected. I told her "different" could be hard and scary but it was up to us how it turned out. I assured her things could be better than ever if we worked together.

I told her I was just figuring things out as I went along and if something I did made her feel uncomfortable or sad she should speak up. I told her it was okay for her to grieve in her own way and if she had any questions she should ask. Most of all I told her we should take it easy on each other and remember deep down that we love each other and we're on the same side. I even found some words of praise for her mother to ease the tension around that rocky relationship.I ended our little caucus by sharing the family story about daughters teaching fathers. Then I thanked her for all she'd done for me and gave her a hug. The seed of the family mythology of fathers and daughters was planted in the unlimited pure potential of a new generation. It was now free to grow and flourish in the context of her life.

You could see her change physically from low to high frequency. The fear and anxiety melted away and that familiar feeling of love and safety flowed into place. From then on the tension was gone. Our connection became even stronger than before. And thanks to her I became a better man and a better father.

These are the lessons that stick. They are even better when we can share them. It is in moments like these when I know being a father is the hardest, best and most important thing I will ever do. The value of this experience is immeasurable as are lessons learned from it.

So, that's my advice for fathers with daughters. I hope you found something useful.

Best Sam Edge,

www.edgeonstrategy.com

The Edge of Compassion: A Manifesto

Humans are inherently connected to this system called Planet Earth. Every race and religion can trace their roots back to tribal cultures and economies based on the principles of interdependence and connectivity to their environment.  

Over the last two millennia, science and religion have disrupted this connection creating conflict and apathy that now threatens to collapse our Planet. More damage has been done to the in the last fifty years than the previous two thousand years combined. This is the ‘Echo’ we have inherited from the ‘Baby Boomers’ - the hollow echo of plastic, pavement and barren forests.

There is Hope!

A Global movement towards to ‘New Age’ beliefs that reflects our ancestral, tribal values of connection to the environment is growing up around us. This Global movement initiated independently in every corner of the world. It thrives on compassion and integrity. From the Maori and Aborigine to Tibetan Monks and Zen Masters. From the Cree and Inuit to the Celtic story tellers and Viking Gods. They’re all interconnected by the heartbeat of our planet and the law of pure potentiality.

These independent silos of connectivity to the environment are converging. They’re gathering mass and momentum in the Global Village emerging from the information revolution lead by the democracy of the World Wide Web. The culture of reconnection is becoming, and will once again be, the dominant belief worldwide. Ultimately this movement will be the force that saves us from consuming ourselves.

The time is now - the answer is yes.

*******

There is no easy way out of this complex situation - this impasse between those who are destroying our communities and those of us who continue to thrive and raise families in those same dying communities. There is no easy way - but there is a way.

This is the good news.

Living to our potential requires hard work and perseverance. There are drops of blood on the foundation of all great things. Blood stains the streets of our community. We are peaceful and powerful - sustained by walking upright with integrity. Protected from tyranny by action and good purpose we soldier on.

We bleed together. We bleed from circumstances beyond our control. We bleed for doing the next right thing regardless of its popularity and oblivious to the consequences. We bleed for those who have no blood to give. We are physically and emotionally weakened but spiritually we grow peaceful and more powerful. We have tasted the absence of suffering. We are grateful.

We have found a power so great, so overwhelming it overshadows suffering. This power begins with the pure potential of the individual and ends with the manifestation of our life’s purpose. This power cannot be procured or inherited. It must be earned through experience. It rejects the use of sacrificial lambs and throwaway people for individual pride and prestige.  It rejects those unable to find compassion. It demands accountability.

Our power is rooted in faith. Faith in our ability to overcome the tyrannical and oppressive minority that governs. Faith that fear, jealousy, and greed will never rise above love, honesty and compassion. Faith that the honest and hard working will always triumph over the weak and dishonest - those who claim power positions under the cloak of entitlement and secrecy and not by their virtue or ability. They who are neither virtuous nor able.

They are unremarkable and live in fear of the discovery. They do not possess the qualities of true greatness. They are a cancer that attacks the tissue of compassion. We are vigilant against their clever attacks. Our integrity is intact. Our struggle is long, our losses are great and our resolution is firm.  We pray for the safety of our oppressors. But we don’t waste our precious energy on those unable to listen. Those lost souls who have forgotten compassion.

We stand proudly against the tyranny of the weak.

Those of us who have bled for our beliefs see the Great Change coming. It is inevitable. We are empowered. We are no longer blinded by trickery or intimidated by those who see kindness as weakness, as we were when we were encumbered by the gift of innocence. We sacrificed our innocence for the greater good and in its place we gained wisdom and confidence.

We protect the innocent and bully the bullies.

Our silent movement has grown in living rooms, coffee shops, war rooms and chat rooms. Self-knowledge, ability and virtue sustain us. Connected by the ancient cardinal truths: love, compassion, honesty and integrity, we are powerful beyond the greatest fear of our oppressors. We stand with conviction against tyrants and bullies even when we are weak and bleeding. Our power is rooted in love and compassion and cannot be matched by fear and maliciousness no matter how underhanded and vicious their tactics are.

We do not waste our strength toppling corrupt corporate structures and outdated patriarchs that smother free will and creativity. They will topple themselves. We are unshakeable in our belief. We lead by example. We watch as they crumble under the weight of their own hypocrisy.

We show compassion that we have never been shown ourselves. This is integrity - the road to true greatness. We pray for, and give shelter to. peaceful warriors who have sacrificed for the greater good. We use our strength wisely - supporting the rehabilitation of our youth recovering from centuries of oppression and abuse.  As a collective, we do not punish abusers. We watch as they punish themselves.

We are the evolutionary bridge between the antiquated failing economy of combustion and self-interest to the new sustainable economy of compassion and connectivity. We make decisions based on manifesting perpetual abundance for all people. We do not expend energy when we can avoid it - but we do not hesitate to act for the greater good.

Fear cannot survive in us - it is a cancer that diverts us from our purpose. We transcend the lower frequency emotions driven by fear - revenge, resentment and self-pity. We show love and compassion for those who are stuck in the past. We live on purpose, at high frequencies where fear withers and dies of starvation. Love always conquers fear.

The end of the morbid addiction to fossils fuels is near. The antiquated and benign systems created in the last millennium serve as life-support – sustaining bloated CEOs and corrupt warlords. Powered by fear, greed and cowardice, these systems are resuscitated past their natural life span. Their time is over but they have not yet lied down to die. They do not accept the end of their hollow, empty existence. We will watch them implode from the pressure of their own dishonesty and callousness. We will be there to pick up the pieces after The Fall.

The time is now.

It is time for the just and hard working - the righteous and compassionate who support innocence - to stand tall. Good people can no longer bury their heads in the sand and hope for miracles. We are the miracle – the miracle of hard work, common sense and appropriate action. We are committed to leaving more than a legacy of famine and overconsumption to our children and grandchildren. We acknowledge they deserve more than an empty fridge and a bankrupt planet. We are making the world a better place.

You are the answer and the time is now.

Best Sam Edge

http://www.edgeonstrategy.com