Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Busy Days

I'm sleepy after a long day, which came after a really long night filled with dreams of bears. But I got to watch the sunrise, which was a nice gift.

I'm gearing up to start a really big leadership program in a couple of weeks. For those of you who don't know this about me, I'm a big fan of Landmark Education, which does these really amazing personal development workshops, where you realize all kinds of stuff about yourself that you didn't even know about yourself, which often have been subconsciously holding you back. The Landmark Forum is the first class they offer - it's three days and an evening, and I did it when I was 19 (my stepmom did it, and then my dad), and it changed my life. Before the LF I blamed my dad for my parents' crappy marriage and divorce, I blamed my stepmom for my parents never getting back together, and I blamed the world in general for lots of other interesting stuff. The thing I got from Landmark when I was 19, which has stuck with me is that nothing really means anything - we humans add all of that meaning ourselves, and let it hamper us in loads of ways we don't even realize.

The one negative thing about Landmark is how annoyingly evangelical people who have done it often become. I think it's just that they have seen things about themselves that have made such a difference to them and they want everyone to have that. This is most true with the people who have just done the Forum. They come off this amazing three day experience where their most pressing life questions get answered, and they can't understand why everyone wouldn't want that. I see the same thing in people who have recently found religion. They get all holier-than-thou on you because they have Jesus and you may be going to hell. So yeah, I call these people in Landmark Landroids and frankly, I think they give all us Landmark-folks a bad name.

Anyway, they offer this very intense six month leadership course which I have dropped out of six times in my life, because it gets too confrontational, but am committed to doing this year. It's ridiculously intense and demanding, but it forces you to push through all the stuff that has held you back in the past, and the results I've seen in friends who have done it are simply amazing. And my life just really works when I'm involved in Landmark - I have better relationships, I go to church more, I sing more, I travel more - I basically live a lot more of a bigger and fuller life when I am in a seminar or program. So I've got that coming up, and am starting to gear myself up for it. March 19 is the final date - I'm going to complete it this time for sure. I can't drop out of it seven times. That's just too annoying.

My other thing I've done lately is start a podcast on English Renaissance History - it's at http://englandcast.blogspot.com if you're interested. I hope to do it once a week. Next episode - cricket and other games in the 16th century.

So that's what's going on here. Life is good and getting fuller and I'm nervously excited.

1 comment:

Podcast Coach said...

Let me know if you have any questions about your podcast.