Jorge Munoz arrived in America as an illegal immigrant in the early '80s. He became a citizen in 1987. One evening as he left a bar he noticed all the destitute and illegal day laborers and the flame in his heart was lit. He found out that most of the men sleep under a bridge or in the Elmhurst Hospital's emergency room and skimped on meals in order to send money to their loved ones at home. Since then, he has been cooking enough food to feed dozens of day laborers in Queens, which he delivers at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 73rd Street in Jackson Heights every evening at 11:30. Jorge delivers the warm, cooked meals in rain, snow, thunder and lightning. He estimates that he has served food to more than 70,000 people since 2004. The whole operation is financed from the $600 he receives weekly for driving a school bus and whatever he secures in donations. On August 4, 2010, Jorge was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Barack Obama.

—Gerber (2013)

We believe Jorge Munoz is a great man. He may not be the wealthiest man on earth nor someone about whom a biography will be written. But his life is amazingly satisfying and rewarding. He sees life differently than do ordinary people. Even though he is not by any means a rich man, he doesn't obsess about his need for more money. He sees his money as a “trust,” a resource given to him to invest in the world around him. He is not surviving his life. He is thriving. He is not spending his time just hanging out, getting by or vegetating in front of the television. Every day is filled with meaning and purpose. He sees himself as a rich man with an abundance to share. He doesn't see himself as better than others. The homeless men he feeds are his brothers, his friends. His life is good and strong. He has a big and balanced life Circle.

Not everyone has done as good a job with their life Circle as has Jorge. Many people's life Circles are quite small and imbalanced.

This quote by Marianne Williamson provides guidance as to where we lose our balance. Let's take a closer look at her words.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us…. Your playing small does not serve the world…. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking.

Williamson suggests that many of us are “playing small.” We are surviving our lives. Our big vision for our lives is to get the next paycheck, pay off the next bill, avoid getting fired. We haven't dared to imagine that we are amazingly talented. We haven't been willing to consider our light and what we might bring to the world. Is she not right? Is it not true that you have many more moments when you live in fear than in dreams of doing great things? Do you not focus more on your weaknesses than on your strengths? Is this not playing small? It is only when we are willing to come out of the darkness and to dream a big dream that we will create a big and balanced life Circle.

Williamson writes, “We are all meant to shine, as children do.” We agree. We all shined as children. We believed we could be and do anything. We had big dreams. We had hope. We thought we were amazing and invincible. But, somewhere along the way, we lost some of our innocence and faith in ourselves and in life. Perhaps you got bad grades in some subject you didn't like. Or, you were given feedback that you were stupid or not able to achieve. And you believed what you were told and forgot how amazing you truly are. You began to lower your expectations and to settle for a life that was simply okay.

Now, as an adult, you find your life is just that: okay. It isn't great. It isn't powerful. It isn't extraordinary. And, you make it acceptable by reminding yourself that you are like most of the people you know. But, until now, you did not know about Jorge. If he can live an extraordinary life, why can't you? Recognizing the need for balancing seems clear. The question is what do we balance?

The Problem of an Unbalanced Circle

While there is clearly a developmental movement through the four key elements of the Circle Blueprint, it is also critically important that they be brought into a proper balance. When one or more are developed at the expense of the others, a potentially wonderful life will be distorted and will fall short of reaching its potential. An unbalanced Circle becomes another shape all together—imagine an oval when two positions of the Circle take precedent or a crescent moon where full sections are not developed. The Circle might even become a shape possessing a series of indents as if we were drawing a cloud, or it could have a large protrusion as if we were drawing a dialog box from a comic strip. The lack of balance can come in many forms, and so it is important that we balance all aspects.

Power without humility results in hubris. Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with stories of seemingly very successful executives in some of the biggest corporations in our country (e.g., Kenneth Lay of Enron) who became so attached to their success that they bent the rules, only to find their companies destroyed and themselves behind bars.

Purpose without an understanding of power leads to grand dreams and plans without any effective ability to bring them to life. Being a dreamer is a wonderful thing. But, it only becomes useful when it is harnessed to our unique gifts.

Humility without power and purpose leads to the false conclusion that you are ordinary and have nothing special to contribute to the world. You may be a decent person, but you will miss the reason you have been put on the earth. You won't begin to understand how to shine.

Without independence, it is impossible to find or to grow power, humility, and purpose. Your Circle will be so constricted as to severely limit any further development. This is often the source of bitterness and pettiness in people. They are too afraid of displeasing others to be themselves and they bitterly envy those whose independence has provided them with the opportunity for real power and significance.

As you can see in Figure 4.1, the independence and power elements of the Circle Blueprint are more fully developed while the humility and purpose elements are underdeveloped. An individual with such a Circle—let's call her Nancy—will have given up pleasing and learned and mastered her power. We imagine she comes across as skilled, self‐confident, and driven to succeed. She might be striving to rise through the ranks of the company and to be included on the executive team. Or, she might be an aspiring writer who plans to write the next best‐selling novel. But, she has not mastered humility. In fact, it is the least well‐developed of her four key Circle elements. Hence, when you are around this young and talented woman you will find that she talks almost exclusively about herself. She loves telling you (and everyone she knows) about her dreams for her success and how she will use the money she makes as she reaches her goals. You might find that all of her dreams for the future are self‐indulgent. She plans to buy a home at the beach and a new sports car. She plans to leverage her notoriety and break into a new (and she thinks better) social circles. As she drones on and on, you may find yourself wishing for a way to end the conversation and get away from this woman. She isn't connecting with you. In fact, she shows no interest in you whatsoever. This is the telling sign of someone who has not yet mastered humility. People like Nancy don't see anyone but themselves. And you might notice from her dreams that her purpose element is lacking as well. She has no higher purpose in which she wants to invest. Her success is for her alone to enjoy. She doesn't begin to understand that her gifts are meant to be invested for the good of the world and not just for her own pleasure. Over time, she may become aware of a shallowness and emptiness in her life. These are the symptoms of her imbalanced Circle. Many of us have Circles that are either too small or too out of balance to do justice to the life we were meant to have. As a result, we either have given up dreaming for our lives or have dreams that are woefully inadequate. We spend our lives worried about pleasing our boss, our spouse, our neighbors and friends; we change our behavior and conversations to fit our changing contexts just as a chameleon changes colors to fit its surroundings. We either don't have any idea what our power might be or are too fearful of making a change to invest in that gift that would bring our full power and potential to the world. Or we think either too little of ourselves to be of any use to others or far too much of ourselves to even notice those around us.

To be sure, Jorge Munoz is not the only person who has built a truly meaningful life. It is for all of us. It is for you. Regardless of your current situation, you have the chance to open your eyes to new potential, new opportunities to be a bigger person, someone whose life is tuned in, aware, alive, and vibrant. Jorge drew his Circle around the hungry and homeless day laborers in Queens. He saw an opportunity and wanted to make a difference.

What did Jorge find that so many people seem to miss? There are hundreds of thousands of great men and women around the world who know the answer. Many of their names we will never know. Every night they are off to their second job in order to send their children to college. Every day after school they are tutoring those who need help. They are manning food kitchens, serving in the armed forces, running businesses, and raising crops but in ways that are unbelievably rich. They are happy and satisfied people. They have discovered the true meaning of life. They have mastered the Circle Blueprint.

The good news is that you are never finished drawing your Circle. It does not matter what it was yesterday or 15 minutes ago. You can change it at any time. You might not like how much you weigh and decide right now to put your body in your Circle. You might be bored in your work and decide to put your giftedness in your Circle. Your marriage might be languishing in mediocrity and you decide to put your love and passion in your Circle. You might choose to make a difference in your community. Or, you might simply choose to help a single person or animal in need. Every day you can change the impact and quality of your life. Every great person is simply an ordinary person who drew a Circle around something big. Every person who is thriving is doing so because he was able to become intentional about what was truly important to him by balancing his Circle. Your Circle not only changes the world around you but it profoundly changes you—the person who draws it. There is nothing to keep you from having a great life, and we mean that in every sense of the word.

Our intent is to help you understand the size, elements, and balance of your Circle. And, with appropriate understanding and balance to allow you to master your purpose in life and ultimately achieve personal greatness. While there are many common lessons, it is also true that we each have a unique path. What will be clear as you progress through the book is that you can expand and balance your own Circle to become your greatest self.

Balance is not only key to having a Circle that is not distorted, it is also the key to endurance. Your mechanic will tell you that if your car's tires are out of balance they will wear out sooner than they were designed to last. Similarly, if your life is out of balance in any way you will eventually show signs of wear and tear. One of your responsibilities in life is to understand, find, and maintain your balance.

Balance is different for each of us. Some people thrive working 60‐hour weeks. For others, that is simply too much. Some people need a lot of time by themselves to recharge their batteries, while some need hardly any. The important thing is to assess your personal balance in every key area of life.

The Circle Blueprint is your way to create a rich and amazing life. It is your opportunity to assess where you are and where you want to go. It is a plan for thoughtfully expanding your impact and the quality of your life.

But, there is more. Some people seem to be more effective at expanding their Circle than do others. In fact, many people seem to get stuck along the way and their lives hardly change at all. Perhaps you have had the experience of going back to where you grew up for a high school reunion and being startled by the group of people whose lives haven't seemed to have changed much from when you graduated. They still hang out with many of the same people from high school and do the same things you used to do so many years ago. It is almost as if their lives have stood still. How does this happen to people?

We encourage you to take ownership of your life Circle Blueprint. The difference between the wise and the foolish is amazingly simple. The wise put to use every good idea they encounter and learn from their own mistakes. Fools, on the other hand, quickly forget the good ideas they learn and go on unchanged, even repeating their own mistakes. We are asking you to be wise today. If you encounter any good ideas in this book, put them to use today. Take one step in the direction of making your life Circle Blueprint bigger or stronger. Then take another. We believe you can change the world by expanding your Circle, even if only a little. And, we know that if each of us commits to expanding his or her Circle each day, there is no end to the goodness we will create together.