The Manifesto: 5 Strategic Imperatives

6 min read

Creating a blog is a lot of work, but I think it’s a pretty cool hobby. 

I’ve been reading blogs for years. My favorite blogs to read are from the F.I.R.E. community. F.I.R.E. is an acronym for financial independence retire early. I dreamt about buying the perfect portfolio of stocks and withdrawing the magical 4%. The only hiccup is that it would take 10-15 years for me to execute the plan. How do you stay motivated to perform between now and early retirement? I never thought it made sense to slog into work every day, squirrel away all your resources, and hope that things get better. 

I noticed that very few blogs documented the writer’s journey before they retired early. Everyone seemed to skip to the magical payoff, retirement. This was a gap I could close, but who wants to read a blog about a guy that works a regular job? How could I create a personal brand?

Brainstorming The Brand

I started brainstorming my personal brand after I watched a YouTube video called “How to Start Multiple Side Hustles” by Jeff Rose. This video pulled me into an email challenge called “Make $1K Blogging”. It required me to purchase a domain of my own to start a successful blogging business. I had no idea what my domain should be. So, I did what any good engineer would do. I started a OneNote file and listed every iteration I could think of. This didn’t get me anywhere. Later that month, I started a discussion with my wife about the golden handcuffs of corporate America. I mentioned that it takes years to get vested in the compensation plans and I was fortunate to be almost vested with my current company. That was it. The two words that described everything I felt. 

I hurried and bought the domain, registered the Instagram page, and signed up the Twitter account. Unfortunately, this was not enough. I encountered another problem. How could I create enough content? I needed a brand guideline that would give purpose to the blog and communicate the intent of the posts.  I needed 5 strategic imperatives. 

II. The 5 Strategic Imperatives

The five strategic imperatives summarize the lessons I’ve learned. Together they create a mindset that will allow the practitioner to accomplish any goal set before them. Note that these imperatives are a practice, not a challenge.

1. Find Happiness in Meaningful Work. 

Work used to a simple thing. You go to college, get a job, work for 30 years and retire with a gold watch. I was on that path and felt completely secure in it. 

Then, layoffs happened.

My plans seemed fragile. The Ebenezer Scrooge in my brain was alert. I made spreadsheets, saved money, and brainstormed side hustles. I did this for months. In the process, I learned you can’t save your way to peace and happiness. You have to connect with others and find work that has personal meaning.

Meaningful work is the key to all the imperatives. Looking for rest during times of stress is a fool’s errand. Life keeps coming. The key is changing your perspective on those little tests that happen every day.

The Journey to Happiness

I have always been a goal-oriented person. My game plan starts with abandoning everything and going whole hog into achieving my objective. The problem with this strategy is that you miss out on living, and you miss out on all the little things that make you a person and not a robot. I justified this by saying, “One day I won’t be so busy. One day things will slow down.” Thing is. Things never slow down. They speed up. 

As I neglected myself in pursuit of arbitrary goals, resentment started to creep in. Resentment for all the goals and everything I worked for. 

That’s when it hit me. I wasn’t living in the present moment. I wasn’t happy with my daily habits. I wasn’t happy with my work. I just wasn’t happy. 

At this point, the tide started to turn. I asked myself, “What is my day is missing? What would I do with my time, if I retired tomorrow?” I realized that I had the time to do the work I wanted to do. I just wasn’t taking advantage of it. So, now I focus on the work I enjoy, and I am grateful that I can be productive doing things I don’t enjoy. I appreciate those people that are laboring with me and their skills. I choose to see the potential for good. I can find happiness and meaning in any task. So, can you.

2. Identify the Game You Are In.

Games? Aren’t they for children? They are, but adults play games too. Anytime you have an interaction with two or more people. A game is at play. As a child it’s fun, but as an adult, things change. The problem is the players in the game don’t always agree on the rules. 

What can you do about this? The first thing to do is to get control of yourself. Notice your thoughts and feelings in different environments. Notice the routine of your interactions with others. Notice the results of your interactions. Did you get the results you wanted? Keep trying. You will learn to control your responses while being your authentic self. 

Once you have control of yourself and understand the habits of others. You can begin to play the game consciously. The outcome of the game will be limited by the players involved. However, outcomes don’t matter as much as enjoying the game and maintaining your will to play. 

This is life. New players will enter and exit the game for eternity. The rules of engagement will evolve, but you’ll be successful because you have control of yourself. 

3. Prioritize Your Goal.

There’s never enough time to accomplish everything on your to-do list. Especially, when you are not in control of adding new items to the list. What you will find by communicating (yes. communicate) with your team, is some items are more important than others. Don’t put 110% of your energy into working 1000 tasks. Communicate and assign priorities. Focus on high-value objectives. You will be successful.

4. Love the Process. Not the Outcome. 

Remember loving the game and keeping the will to play? That’s imperative 4. My favorite imperative. I remember being an engineering student working on a project for hours, and only minutes passing in my brain. How did I enter this flow state?

I realized the key is to see the world as working for you, not against you. You have to train yourself to love the process of being a work in progress. We may never quite achieve our idealized image of ourselves or our workplace. However, we need that idealized image to keep moving forward. If you do happen to achieve your ideals, be ready for a higher set of ideals to be placed upon you. Learn to love the process. The cycle doesn’t stop.

5. See Adversity as an Opportunity. 

There will be roadblocks in pursuit of any objective. I have yet to execute the perfect plan. However, I have accomplished my end goal many times. The gap between a plan and reality is where adversity lies and skill development happens. The gap is what separates amateurs and professionals. Each risk that you mitigate, and detour you navigate, provides another tool. More tools lead to more options. More options lead to more opportunities to accomplish your goals.

Next time someone brings you a problem. Get ready to add another tool to your utility belt.

III. Conclusion

I’m excited about the opportunity to document the young professional’s journey through my own experiences. The blog will evolve and discuss a range of topics. The 5 strategic imperatives will hold it all together. Stay Tuned.

The website is open. See you in the comments.

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Icons on “5 Strategic Imperatives” image made by Vector’s Market from www.flaticon.com