Curriculum
NOTE: Every course varies both in terms of sequence and emphasis, depending on the needs of each group.
EVENING 1: Setting Out On the Path
Welcome & Introductions
Purpose: To welcome you to the course and enroll you in participating fully. You will:
- Experience a sense of certainty and the presence of a safe space.
- Experience being welcomed and acknowledged.
- Experience a sense of relationship with each other and the course leaders.
A holistic view of the true nature of success
Purpose: To introduce an extraordinarily fulfilling way of seeing success. You will:
- Gain a definition of success: Doing what you said you would do, with clarity, focus, ease, and grace.
- Understand each of the components of success: clarity, focus, ease, and grace.
- Begin to see where in your own life and work these components are both present and absent.
The key to moving past doubts and concerns
Purpose: To provide a principle and tool that creates the foundation for the rest of the course: Being willing. You will:
- Gain an empowering definition of being willing: The capacity to say “yes” to your authentic path, no matter what your voice of worry and doubt is saying.
- See the difference between “willing” vs. “wanting,” and the power that being willing gives you.
- See clearly whether you are willing to be in the course, and proceed fully of your own volition.
DAY 1: Our Blueprint for Success
Spotting and going beyond self-limiting internal conversations
Purpose: To introduce “Monkey Mind,” the aspect of the mind that seeks to protect us through worry, doubt, and fear. You will:
- Understand the nature, context, and operating principles of Monkey Mind.
- See clearly for yourself the quality and tone of your own Monkey Mind thoughts.
- Learn to observe Monkey Mind rather than arguing with it, analyzing it, or repressing it.
- Gain skill in plainly describing the facts of any situation, without adding meaning and drama to it.
The essential principles for executing any project
Purpose: To teach the fundamental “rules of engagement” for bringing any idea into reality. You will:
- See the two aspects of reality in which we operate: visionary and physical reality.
- See the important elements of and distinctions between visionary and physical reality.
- See the “rules of the game” of physical reality upon which success depends.
- Learn the key principles and tools for bringing an idea from visionary to physical reality.
- Gain a tool for seeing and remembering what is most important to you in any goal or project.
Consistently and skillfully harnessing our energy
Purpose: To describe the six major forms of energy we have at our disposal, and how to use them skillfully. You will:
- Learn the six major forms of energy we have at our disposal: money, time, vitality, creativity, enjoyment, and support.
- See what it looks like to use each form of energy consciously versus unconsciously.
- Learn to see yourself as a “conduit” in which this energy can either flow effectively or be “leaked” or “blocked” due to your actions.
Shifting from disempowering personal paradigms
Purpose: To provide a simple yet powerful way to understand how our thinking shapes our own and others’ behavior. You will:
- Learn the Four-Box Model, in which our conclusions shape evidence, evidence shapes our behavior, and our behavior shapes others’ behavior, which then re-enforces our pre-existing conclusion.
- See that the key to shifting our entire experience of life is in focusing on empowering conclusions, rather than trying to just alter our behavior.
The key to creating an empowering context for others
Purpose: To provide a tool for creating an environment in which others are consistently empowered. You will:
- See that support lies not in what we do or say to others, but how we see them as we interact with them.
- Discover how we see others when we are under stress or listening to Monkey Mind.
- Gain a tool for seeing the best of who people truly are, regardless their behavior.
- See a new possibility for yourself: Being a member of a team that supports each other 100% with no one left out.
DAY 2: Clearing Our Inner Obstacles
Shifting from our concerns to our contributions
Purpose: To build skill in shifting attention from disempowering conclusions and actions to empowering conclusions and actions. You will:
- Discover the conclusions, metaphors, thoughts, and beliefs that have stopped you in the past.
- See clearly a set of empowering conclusions at your disposal at all times
Seeing your personal internal “show-stopper” … and what to do about it
Purpose: To give the opportunity to discover participants’ “Basic Assumption,” the fundamental self-limiting conversation that has been invisible yet profoundly hindering to us since a very young age. You will:
- See that we each have a natural predisposition toward fight, flight, or freeze, which we linguistically construct into a “Basic Assumption” at a very young age.
- Discover your personal Basic Assumption, and see who you truly are at an entirely new level.
- Gain the capacity to observe and move past your Basic Assumption, rather than struggling with or operating out of it.
DAY 3: Who We Are & Why We Are Here
Shifting from our concerns to our contributions
Purpose: To provide a tool for discovering and consistently demonstrating the qualities that describe the heart of who we truly are. You will:
- Discover that the qualities you admire in others form your own personal blueprint for excellence.
- Gain skill in using this blueprint for excellence to inform your daily actions.
Receiving feedback, regardless the source
Purpose: To cultivate the capacity to be “exquisitely coachable” by all of our daily interactions. You will:
- Learn to become extraordinarily receptive and open to feedback in all its forms.
- Learn to unconditionally seek learning and derive benefit from every interaction.
- Learn to make small course corrections proactively, rather than reactively scramble from crisis to crisis.
The four key questions to “lift the fog” daily
Purpose: To provide a powerful tool for bringing clarity, resilience, creativity, and authenticity to even the most challenging of circumstances. You will:
- Discover how to call forth and contribute the timeless qualities that capture what it is to be a human being: compassion, spaciousness, and generosity of spirit.
- Gain a step-by-step process for examining and setting aside the thoughts, beliefs, opinions, and conclusions that are no longer serving you.
- Learn a method for taking authentic action consistently, even when things don’t go as planned.
Accessing your personal “voice of wisdom”
Purpose: To give a way of discerning and acting from our “voice of wisdom” rather than our Monkey Mind. You will:
- Learn to distinguish between your “voice of wisdom” and your Monkey Mind.
- See how to clear away Monkey Mind so you can act from your voice of wisdom.
Designing goals worth playing for
Purpose: To create a small, sweet, and fun goal that is meaningful to you, and that will give you a tangible chance to practice what you learned in the course. You will:
- Learn how to design powerful and meaningful personal and professional goals.
- See what a true goal is and is not.
- Set a small, sweet goal to play for in the next six months.
DAY 4: Letting Go & Going Forth
Setting aside characterizations of others
Purpose: To free us from the weight of our lingering judgments and resentments of others, so we can travel more lightly. You will:
- See that forgiveness has nothing to do with other people, but what we say about who they are because of what they did in the past.
- See the crucial role of forgiveness in our capacity to live lives of fulfillment and contribution.
- Gain a process for forgiving people easily, sweetly, and without drama or emotional processing.
Clearing incomplete business
Purpose: To free up energy to play toward meaningful, relevant goals and dreams. You will:
- See the ways in which your incomplete business is hindering your ability to focus your energy on what’s important to you.
- Discover the incomplete business you are willing to take care of, upon leaving the course.
Curing frustration, resignation, & burnout
Purpose: To provide a concept and a tool for staying true to our own “inner compass” of intentions and values. You will:
- See that frustration, resignation, and cynicism are simply the result of incoherence — the misalignment between our actions and who we really are.
- See that the key to coherence — meaning, satisfaction, harmony, and fulfillment — is realigning our actions with who we really are.
- Learn to discern and quickly address incoherence.