Competitive age
We do live in an era of extreme competition. In business competition is almost everywhere.
Several concepts are behind this kind of pattern attitude – to compete.
We may accept them and mold ourselves to live within this world in basically two possible ways.
One is acting as a “shark” with a killer and competitive instinct.
The other way is acting as a “dolphin”, sharing the same ocean as the sharks, co-existing with them but with a completely different perspective.
With the ocean is the same; the external conditions are the same. The difference is on the way we spend our energy within this world.
The “dolphin” way is a more harmonious way. They hunt, they fight when they have to, they protect themselves and their equals and they create a protection shield around them. They show their weapons when they are required to.
The main difference is that they remain in harmony most time, enjoying their day to day life, going through different challenges having fun.

The Separateness Sense
There is this attractive way as well an appealing third way, that is: the temptation to ignore the sharks as if they didn’t exist.
This way is usually attempted through an illusionary creation of our minds, stating that the storms or the dark side don’t exist.
This is a much appealing way to well meaning people. That attitude – of ignoring the bad side – does not mean that they don’t get affected by it.

The strength of a feeling of “separateness”. The construction of a “paper castle” world. The problem surfaces when it falls down and all the illusion vanishes.

The “sense of separateness” is a huge illusion. To live inside the shells and never open to the sunshine is a sad choice. Living in that way gives a poor perspective of life itself. Trying to run away from darkness and shadows, this is everything one will have inside their shells.
In our process of development we do have our moments of darkness and our shadows. To deny them won’t help to get rid of them.
To accept it does not mean to accept what we do not enjoy.

To deny the weak points is the easiest way of falling down for any organization.

A winner must recognize his own weaknesses. That is a point. From such recognition the difference between the winner and the loser is that the winner will establish his own way to overtake the weaknesses level. The loser will tend to remain battling – thinking like a shark, trying to fight those elected as enemies.

Neither to remain in constant battles with oneself nor with others is part of a winning strategy.
That is quite a subtle point – knowing the weaknesses but not remaining attached to them.

Possible Slip Ups
To think too much about something. Mainly about the weaknesses. That leads one to remain attached to them and increase the tendency of encouraging them. This may create the habit of magnifying the real range of influences of the weaknesses.

Re-directing the focus
As one thinks about weaknesses, one adds value to them. That means giving power to the weaknesses. The energy exists, in a good or bad way, in a bright or dark way; the point is to replace what is not desired with its opposite energy. To each weakness there is its opposite tool. The easiest way to deal with these weaknesses is to let them perish by themselves. A good way to do that is doing what the old eastern martial laws specialists do. They don’t go against the opposite force. They just re-direct that force away, in a subtle and fast way (Matrix / Crouching tiger). It may be a quality, power or talent. It may be an attitude based on values. Not a fight “against” the negative, but an alternative reinforcement of some qualities in a subtle way. This may neutralize and overtake the range of actions of any weakness.

One important aspect that must be clear is: each weakness is linked to another. They are linked to each other. One feeds another, and so on. It’s naive to consider that a weakness exists by itself.

For instance, there is no anger without some kind of fear, no arrogance without some feeling of selfishness, and so on.

The same process exists with the positive qualities. There is no love without a peaceful feeling, no enthusiasm without happiness, no courage without confidence, no simplicity without self-acceptance, and so on.

Personalizing the strategy
It’s decisive to work out the right tools. To get used to them is part of a winning strategy.
That is why it’s relevant to consider all the tools as interlinked.

As mentioned before, a weakness may be understood as the absence of a quality. As much as the qualities are strengthened, the power of the weaknesses tends to decrease.

The winning strategy is a choice to be taken by those who wish to enjoy life as well as bring their best into their lives. Be it person, a team or a whole company.

To personalize the strategy is the way a winner usually takes in his way to reach his higher goals. To build up a strategy – for personal purposes, for the team or for the organization, requires knowledge about one self, about the team or about the organization. To come to know the spirit of the organization requires some qualities. Among them, transparency, for sure.

Surprising Positively

A different way of thinking leads to different ways of viewing the future, and that leads to different ways of building the future.
The positive surprise is a key which opens the door to many new areas, bringing a healthy breeze inside. There is the need of creating ways to present the unexpected to the persons.
Surprises are a quite efficient way of penetrating other dimensions and getting access to some levels we couldn’t think of in a formal or conventional way. In the world, like it is today, we must always surprise, positively!

SP is a double way of acting. In a macro way there is the Subtle Planning approach, involving several dimensions and working in several levels simultaneously. Under this view there is an integrating dynamic, being governed by a living spirit, nourished by values, commitment and living participation.

In a micro way we may see SP as a consistent initiative of Surprising Positively all those involved in the process – personnel, clients and customers, as well as the environment, spaces and all the policies related to the organization. From this standpoint, it works as an always-present creative and pro-active attitude.

Creativity itself and natural perception will help to bring ideas, feelings, emotions, feelings and other ways of integrating and improving forms of communication.

Nobody knows everything nor will ever know. Probably the only one holding the whole knowledge is God. And I have this feeling that He loves to surprise, loves jokes. The higher the spirituality level, the more there will be simplicity, joy, wisdom and less trouble.

Questions that help
The key of surprising positively is to perceive how to bring more benefits to the person or situation with whom you are in contact.
How to improve, how to inspire or how to facilitate are questions which will lead us to always create positive surprises.
Imagine the scientists, the artists, the attendants, teachers, and, imagine the whole humanity thinking on how to help and inspire others.
What would be the result of this?

There is always a way of bringing benefits to those who are together with you or to the situation in which you are. People are so afraid nowadays that the simple fact of receiving benefits will be a surprise to them.

Effect:
The fruition of environments based on such dynamic and organic spirit leads to higher levels of satisfaction, development and performance.
All that uplifts the energetic levels of all dimensions surrounding the services, operating approaches and attitudes, interfaces (clients, customers, contacts, stakeholders, etc.) and also inspires cooperation and respect among competitive proposals.