We win the game of the Advanced Course

As of this post, the fourth Advanced Course is heading to its completion an evening from now. Having assisted yesterday towards the end of the course proper, I was awed anew at the power of the course, the technology, and the education itself. Hands down, I think the Advanced Course is the single best program of its kind money can pay for.

As I've shared many times before, I got my leadership in the Advanced Course. Yesterday I witnessed different people getting theirs - and not only in the course. The assisting program for the Advanced Course is a powerful experience and I'm so moved by the wisdom and courage and risk these people have taken on. I will mention them by name: Christine Garcia, Trish Bote, Meyan Mendoza, Marose Perreira... I am SURE there are more, only that these are the people I've had the privilege to work with up-close yesterday (and tomorrow is another opportunity).

I say to all of you, in you I can distinguish leadership. I know when I am being powerful as a leader when I see in myself the being of Christine, of Trish, of Meyan, of Marose. I got my Advanced Course all over again - and I think you get how great that is.

I remember my own Advanced Course, Christine and Marose are my batchmates. We came to an agreement in our self-expression as a batch - to distinguish the game of our Advanced Course. And here it is:

When everyone wins the game of the Advanced Course, we are a group that is an unstoppable source of enrollment, possibility, and transformation wherever we are.

Winning is an inspiring word to me. Possibility is distinguished as a triumph over the Act. The possibility that I am and that inspires me the most is the possibility of Victory. And my participation in the Assisting Program of the Advanced Course gave me every opportunity to give that possibility time, space and form.

I want to share an account of a great victory written by the cartoonist Scott Adams about Roger Federer (arguably the greates tennis player of all time) winning at the Indian Wells tournament. Read it here.

How to create a breakdown :-p

First of all let me make it clear that I am neither an Introduction Leader, a Seminar Leader much less a Forum Leader. I discuss the work and the technology as a participant and a graduate of the Curriculum for Living. Having said that, let me share about breakdowns.

Breakdowns need to be distinguished, and then declared. A lot of times when something happens and I don't take what I get (I resist what's so), I don't experience it as a breakdown. For example: I woke up late this morning and procrastinate going to work. Two hours later I procrastinate some more (I have a very flexible schedule today). I end up leaving for work much later in the afternoon and although I can be at work and work on things I planned to work on, I missed my opportunity to meet people that my work has an impact on, as well as people who can and do have an impact on my work. And that's just what happened.

What I make it mean is there's something wrong with me: "I'm lazy. I procrastinate and graduates of the Curriculum for Living don't procrastinate. And I'm making myself wrong for this which means I'm running a racket against myself. Better myself than against others because that's worse. Now my workday is screwed. I should have just called in sick and not have gone to work. Wait, that would be inauthentic. I'd just hate to be a veritable buffet table of inauthenticity heading into the weekend. I suck. Life sucks."

Against the background of my possibility (Victory! Freedom! Love!) that internal conversation I just had disempowers me tremendously.

Wax On/Wax Off

What is my intention? Create results aligned with my possibility of Victory (get some work done, align my schedule for next week). Arriving at the office at 6:00PM is not consistent with that intention. The probable almost certain future is that those results are not going to happen. What happened is that I was late and the work is incomplete. Let me just take what I got.

Now I can declare a breakdown.

The 4th Advanced Course in the Manila

I completed the Advanced Course in November, 2004. At the time it cost Php 22,500.00 which was way over my income then. I remember being in a registration conversation with my dear friend Nico who - bless his heart inspired me with this golden liner:

"Be a clearing for miracles and allow the universe to occur for you."

So I registered. At the time I was working as a writer for a congressman; doing house bills, research, and motions. I learned a great deal about policymaking on the job but, being a government employee did not afford me an income that can accomodate the tuition for the Advanced Course.

Having been "in the conversation" since the first Landmark Forum in May 2002, I had access to the power of declaration and the committment behind it. I got that being powerful is not deciding on a course of action determined by the favorable circumstances surrounding it. Being powerful is making a committment to a result in the face of disagreeable circumstances and contingencies.

I had no idea where I was to generate the money for the rest of the tuition. What happened within a week of my registering is that I actually got a job interview in a growing locally-owned contact center and miracle of miracles: I was hired on the spot!

What was more astonishing is that the company gave me a contract that offered 30% more money than what I asked, and with it a position in management. I couldn't believe my excellent fortune! Imagine, I invented my career in Training and Organization Development during my Landmark Forum, and I was reaping the benefits at the onset of my Advanced Course!

Just over a year after my Advanced Course, I am now a manager in human resources and the chief organization development resource in my company. Aligned with the possibility and committment I declared with my batchmates in the course, I have registered 13 people from the company to the Landmark Forum and 4 of them are participating in the Advanced Course next month.

As I share this with you, I got what "being a stand" is all over again. Nico did not give in to my reasonableness in his registration conversation and I got how committed he is to my life. A lot of times we get stopped in our registration conversations in the face of strong reasons fed to us by the people we are committed to contribute to.

Had Nico been stopped by my reasons and did not let me fill out the blue registration card anymore, then the possibility that I am, and the self-expression in the world that I am - now living in the lives of others, would be dead.

To the Advanced Course registration team, be unstoppable in the face of no agreement. We are speaking to people who get what possibility is and it's our blessed work to engage them in this joyful conversation.

The12th Landmark Forum in Manila

Last night we completed the 12th Landmark Forum in Manila! This Forum is noteworthy for several things - to me at least. First off it was wildly successful. A specific measurable result of the transformation of a group of people (participating in a Landmark course) is the number of registrations generated into the Forum and other courses. This is consistent with the way the Landmark Forum works:

"Anything you want for yourself and for your life you get out of your participation in the Landmark Forum.

You can get any result for yourself and for your life by inventing a possibility and enrolling others in your having gotten."

The possibility that the participants, the people who assist, even the guests, and the Forum Leader only exist in reality as a result of other people being enrolled in that possibility. This result exists in time, distance and form of registrations in the Landmark Forum - as people who are touched, moved and inspired by the possibility of the participants that they are committed to invent possibility for themselves and their own lives. This too, is how we distinguish making a difference in others.

With the 89 graduates of the Landmark Forum are 201 guests, leading to 51 registrations to the Landmark Forum and 26 registrations to the Advanced Course. Oh yes, we rocked!

Another consideration for last night's noteworthiness is the power and quality of the Assisting Program. The group of assistants fortified by participants and graduates of both the Introduction Leaders Program and the Self Expression and Leadership Program, displayed power and mastery in enrollment and registration - being unreasonable and unstoppable in the face of no agreement that lead to the aforementioned results, as well as inspiring levels of impeccability.

It does feel that the community has grown a long way - with veterans coming into their power and leadership as well as being infused with new and exciting members displaying inspiring committment and action. It's been over a year since we invented the possibility of being Warrior Crabs - Filipinos being complete and authentic about their crab-mentality, making a difference by leading the other crabs out of the basket and jumping into new ones to find others to transform.

Now, looking forward to the 4th Advanced Course here in the Philippines, the future that is coming to us in the present is exciting indeed.

An Opening for Action, Calling You Powerfully into Action

It's been almost four years since the first Landmark Forum in Manila. For some of us, it was the beginning of a completely new life - a life that was completely ours to create and not the effect of the circumstances that occur in it. Visit the link above to read Forum Leader Jerome Downes acknowledgment of what we created then.

In the intervening years we have experienced the growth of the community of Forum graduates which led to the creation and delivery of other Landmark Education courses, a highpoint being the delivery of the Self Expression and Leadership Program in 2005 - resulting in the first batch of graduates of the entire Curriculum for Living - the core of Landmark Education's programs.

I am one of those graduates, living a life powerfully and living a life that I love.

A great access to this life is my participation in the Assisting Program of Landmark Education. The whole enterprise is created with the work of thousands of people who freely assist in the production of the Landmark Education courses. If only for providing a venue for graduates of the Forum to be in the conversation of Possibility, the Assisting Program has made a tremendous difference to our work - as it has in my life.

In support of the community of graduates and participants of the programs of Landmark Education, we created this journal, with the intention of providing members of the community a forum (pun intended) wherein to share our breakthroughs, conversations and even breakdowns.

Let this be then an opening for sharing, calling you powerfully.