Boulders, Renewal and Passion

We started a very full day in the Life Launch seminar with an exercise called "bouldering" that is designed to address resistance and help overcome resistance.  We worked on the beach in small groups.  One of us shared a goal, and then shared the voices and messages that inhibit pursuit of the goal....things like "You don't have the talent."  or "You'll never be successful at that."  Each member of the group took one of those messages and repeated it, while the group worked to block the goal-seeker's progress.  We were enacting the process of resistance.  Eventually, the goal-seeker broke through the resistance or told us it was time to let her go.  Then we shifted gears and the goal-seeker came up with messages of encouragement.  The rest of the group repeated the encouraging messages and helped the goal-seeker to move forward.  After we left the beach, we talked about how to take the process of boldering forward into real life (e.g., through writing about the voices).

The next segment focused on deepening our work on the Cycle of Renewal.  I settled on Quadrant Four "Getting Ready" as my current status, although I continue to feel that my life experience today is divided among all four quadrants.  I am already doing many activities that are appropriate for this phase.  One of my challenges is that I'm impatient with this phase.  I want to be done with getting ready and move into Quadrant One!  Meanwhile, I do need to continue the networking and learning and exploration that I've got underway.

After lunch we worked on passion and core values.  I've had the same passions and core values for many years:  achievement, relationship intimacy and creativity.  It was useful to revisit how these passions have shown up in my life, how they motivate me today, an dhow they inspire me for the future.  I gained a few insights about concrete things I will do to advance my values and passions.  We're referring to these as experiments.  The purpose of experiments is to gather data to prove or disprove a hypothesis...which means that experiments can't fail as long as you learn something.

The last exercise of the day involved creating a personal symbol.  I did an intricate drawing of a coil pot brimming with what's important to me:  My family, yarn, good food, flipcharts, etc.  I really like the way this drawing turned out.  This may need to end up in a frame on the wall of my office where I can look at it often.

Most of the group had happy hour and dinner together.  It was an enjoyable evening.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow.