The Invitation

December 4, 2009

Uncategorized

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what
you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s
longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will
risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure
of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to
know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have
been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain,
mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can
dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic,
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want
to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you
can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; If
you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty, every
day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still
stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full
moon, “Yes!”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you
have. I want to know if you can get up, after a night of grief and
despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want
to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not
shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I
want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls
away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like
the company you keep in the empty moments.

———————
The Invitation
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

The Superior Man (The David Deida Workshop – Part 1)

November 10, 2009

Personal Exploration ,Uncategorized

If you’re a man, and you haven’t read Way of the Superior Man, pick it up immediately.  It will either save your current relationship or your next one. (If you’re a woman, do not tell a man to read it.  Simply leave it around somewhere for him to check out on his own).  I first read the book about 4 years ago.

The book is about the tragic loss of masculinity within our culture, and the triumphant rise of men who dare to claim it back.  If I can share one story, it would be a simple parable of a man coming home on the day he won his million dollar contract.  He’s so happy and overjoyed, but when he gets home, his woman smiles briefly and quickly asks, “Did you remember to bring the milk?”…  So how does the man react?

The man is severely disappointed.  He just accomplished a major goal, and all his woman can think of is the milk (which he did forget).  Now I could identify with this man.  How could this woman be so insensitive?  I would have felt thoroughly deflated in this situation…  Little did I know, I was identifying with the weaker man.

David re-tells the story, only this time the man hears the question and instead picks her up his arms, kisses her and says, “Baby, I’ll buy you all the milk you could ever want!”  And she melts in his arms.   What’s the major difference here?  In the second story, the man is unperturbed.  He doesn’t need her validation.  He’s so secure in who he is and his own purpose, that any question or complaint from his woman can’t shake his resolve.   Wow. I had totally missed the boat.

Cut to 4 years later, and I’m sitting in a room with the superior man himself, and 300 men and women, in the hills of San Diego.  Each person clearly committed to their own growth, to their partner, or their future partner.

Next… Part II – The Source of All Pain

Zappos Insights – The Studio

October 28, 2009

Uncategorized

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Having fun with the video team and the Zappos talent. It's Corporate Training meets Wayne's World .

Climbing with the team

October 23, 2009

Uncategorized

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"Rock Climbing" with Donavon and Jon.

Embrace the dollar’s downfall?

October 20, 2009

Uncategorized

In the Guardian, Dean Baker claims banks might suffer if China stopped buying US debt, but the US economy as a whole would be much better off.   But the comment below is what I found most interesting:

You overlook the reserve currency status. If the USA loses that (and it will) it will cease to be able to sustain the debt that it issues(it already can’t). It will be catastrophic. The Mountains of debt of the USA are only barely serviceable due to the dollar reserve status ie everyone requires dollars to trade, and that is currently and very tenuously underpinned by the oil trade being forced to be in dollars. This is the crux of the present perpetual war for perpetual peace that the USA/UK is currently waging all over the world. They are desperately trying to cobble and hold together an unravelling currency regime. If you control the source of energy you control the currency that they trade it in , and EVERYONE requires energy.

The UK benefits from this petrodollar as these are recycled via London banks to New York. The main reason that I can discern that is keeping us out of the Euro is this petrodollar dependency. The Euro is a competing currency vying for reserve status. This is also the reason why NATO insists on dominance in Europe, they dont want a Europe military to rival them. To keep a reserve currency you require a big stick to dissuade dissidents, you require a big military. The caspian area and the middle east are the two regions that HAVE to be controlled if you want to exert control over energy under any reserve currency.

Alas, the rucktions we see all over the world are the death throes of the dollar reserve currency. I fear they will plunge the ENTIRE world into war before they let it go.

Though assuming it would fall, and assuming we must embrace it, we’ll have to embrace local and micro-currencies (for more info, read “The Future of Money“). 

Also, it would be safer to invest in gold and commodities than stocks. For more on this, read “Crash Proof 2.0

 

Long-distance Life Coaching

October 6, 2009

Uncategorized

Virtual_coaching

 

For three years I worked with my life and business coach, Doc Barham, in person. I found him on Amazon where he had commented on almost every book on NLP.  But now that I work in Vegas, I wanted to try out virtual coaching.  So we’ve created a way to do that (see image).

 

Long-distance coaching with a Mac:

  • I use Skype for the call.
  • Recording the call I use Call recorder.
  • For notes I use the Mac Stickies program.
  • I eventually put all the notes into Evernote.