Dear ones;

This week I was selected as a “Driver of the Month” at work, recognized for a job I had been co-creating for several weeks. I believe this wouldn’t have been possible before hanging out with Ariel & Shya and being encouraged to really go for excellence whether or not I agreed with the directions I got from “management.” So thanks!  This feels great!

This is how the story appeared to all 700+ members of my division, my picture included:

DRIVER OF THE MONTH: FRANNIE RUTHERFORD

Frannie was given the task to migrate our previous email and online sponsorship inventory reports from static word documents sent once per week to dynamic, real-time reports visible across the business unit.  Frannie worked with an IT intern to spec out and refine a new real-time inventory system.  The new reports, created in QuickBase, provide transparency into not only inventory availability for all digital programs, but performance metrics for all our email newsletters.  These new services aid the sales team in quickly and easily finding, sorting and exporting client performance results.  Overall, Frannie’s work is a great example of an important project flawlessly executed.

CONGRATULATIONS, FRANNIE

Hi all,

I just had the privilege to participate in the Freedom to Breathe/ Art of Being a Healer. It was truly magical and I feel great.  I feel so alive and centered.  Cool story, I am in the airport waiting to board a plane.  When I got here, I wanted to work on a strategic presentation that I will be presenting on January 5th and 6th. I knew that I could channel this energy into completing a project that is really important to me. I felt so clearheaded that I knew the words and ideas should come to me.

I spent maybe 35 minutes and I have the basis of my presentation complete.  For one part of this presentation, I thought I didn’t have anything to say.  But when I looked at the questions my CEO posed, answers and ideas flowed!

Plus, I had a magical morning with my husband!  Life is good.

So cool!  I love transformation!  I encourage everyone to sign up for the next workshop.  This community is amazing and Ariel and Shya have created something so special that we need to seize the opportunity and take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself!

All my love,

Corinne

Caitlin is a world-renowned Costume Designer whose work in film, opera and theater has appeared in venues including feature films,  the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Metropolitan Opera. Rod is a wildly talented actor whose work has been described by the New York Times as “dynamite,” “Physically precise and emotionally surprising,” and “kaleidoscopic”.

From Oct 18, 2011:

Hey Everyone;
Several months ago, we sent out an email entitled ‘Transformation (and Handel) Rocks’  – explaining our upcoming project and including some pictures – well…

We are very excited to now announce the launch of our music video!
(Click on the photos below to view larger versions.)

This is a music video featuring the work of the great Baroque composer George Frideric Handel (Georg Friedrich Händel- in German)  and 19th Century Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen – and largely inspired by the fact that in the 1960’s Jimi Hendrix randomly discovered he was actually living in the house that had been Handel’s home 210 years earlier.  Working with young classical musicians whose world is deeply informed by the modern music of hip-hop and rock, yet equally informed by the music of the 18th and 19th centuries that they practice and perform everyday, we set out to make an MTV style video that addressed the juxtaposition of a great composer, the ghost of a 19th Century adapter, and a modern world where young musicians (and rock legends) keep Handel alive and relevant today.

It’s called ‘The Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia’ and is a duet for cello and violin. It can be viewed in high definition (which on this project is really best):

Please click ‘Like’ if you like it and forward the link to your friends!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxO3CAAuh8k

We also just want to reiterate what we said before: In the Transformational Time and Project Management Workshop in May 2011, the Kanes posed the essential point that ‘passion’ – what inspires you, what moves you, what stops you in your tracks with awe – is often what we shove aside, in favor of the more reasonable items on our ‘to do’ list.

This video for us is a very real example of what can happen when you give your passions a chance, even when they are absolutely absurdly unreasonable, and, instead of operating from what you know, allow the universe to support you.

Thank you, again, Ariel and Shya for your amazing insight and completely unique perspective on life, and to everyone in this community.

Thanks!

Rod and Caitlin

Thank you for your kind words from my last e-mail about my trip to Bangladesh. Well, I have now finished my training here in Dhaka at the Room To Read Organization. It was awesome! I’ve made friends with a group of terrific, passionate, dedicated and inspiring group of people. On my first day, I met with each of the senior managers and asked what they do, and what they were struggling with and what they were interested in learning. I just listened to them and was interested and I got great stuff. And just by my listening, I was able to allow their own passions to bubble up to the surface. I knew after that first day what topics to cover.

The next 3 days afterwards, I lectured from my slides, showed them software, and conducted discussions. They were thirsty for not merely academic knowledge but practical applications of concepts. How do you use this project management stuff?! Well, that is one place I am damn good at (if I say so myself!). I showed them tons of examples, from over my years at work. From different ways I use Excel, or Outlook (the e-mail tool), and MS Word. Even a simple change in the way I phrase an email that is sure to elicit feedback from someone who is impossible to get a hold of.

All the little tricks in my bag, & also (& especially!) the stuff I took long for granted, I pulled out to show them. I was a tireless servant ; I’d wake up at 4AM inspired by some idea (and the jetlag helped) and start tweaking my slides & creating examples to be ready for the next day.

But I was actually inspired by them; they wanted to learn to do their own jobs better. Here were people who would work long hours, go out into the field multiple times a month, many hours away in rural areas and conduct field evaluations; and who would combat 2 or 3 hours of Dhaka gridlock (15 million people!) to get back and forth to work. One woman in the group, Ruksana was particularly endearing; she worked in the “Girls Education Program” where they educated girls who were in danger of being married too early (if you’re unmarried at age 16 in rural areas in Bangladesh, you’re over the hill). She had lost 2 girls to early marriage last year (the girls dropped out). I was enraptured listening to her stories about her work and her courage.

In various ways, I saw much of myself in them. They all were different but as I listened to each person in our one-on-ones, I saw kindred spirits in them; and recognized myself in what they were saying. I really appreciated them confiding to me what they felt they needed help with. I personally sometimes feel that I am not very good at opening up but their opening up to me was a thing of beauty and I was touched that they really felt I could help them.

Cheers!
Madhu

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to update you about some cool things that have been happening in our collective worlds : )

1) Fun is Not a Four Letter Word,” an excerpt from our book How to Create a Magical Relationship is featured on the Pittsburgh Better Times home page: http://www.pittsburghbettertimes.com/fun-is-not-a-four-letter-word/

Feel free to post a comment, share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc…

2) Ed has been rockin’ on his mountain bike! There is a big jump that had been pretty daunting for him on the mountain where he rides lately. Recently, he soared over it seamlessly and someone caught it on video. For an exciting 11 seconds, check out Ed’s Facebook page (Edward Lahm) or click here (he’s the 2nd one in the video): http://vimeo.com/27847065

3) I am the proud author of a post on Good.Food.Stories, a great blog run by my friend Casey, who is a food writer. It is all about Fermented Salsa and references our friend Alex Jamieson’s Fermented Food post (what a coincidence!):
http://www.goodfoodstories.com/2011/08/18/fermented-salsa/

The Step Into Your Brilliance workshop was awesome. And I’m looking forward to Transformation in the Workplace, too.  Will you be joining us??  If you haven’t yet responded on Facebook, please RSVP there and share it with your friends:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=270880659604052

Thanks & Love,

Val

Humor, passion, fun…what does this all have  to do with the projects on your to do list?  A whole lot more than we all thought.  Here are a few things we discovered:

1. If you stop expressing your passion for the things you love, your whole life gets smaller. AND all of the things you’re doing become mundane.  Life becomes about your laundry, rather than the colors and fabrics that inspired you about that clothing in the first place.

   Example: Ed is passionate about mountain biking. Mountain bikes can be expensive, it can be dangerous, time is precious…but by “unreasonably” going for his passion, he becomes more productive, effective & satisfied.

2. When you invest in yourself, the people around you get to share in your brilliance, and so do you!

   Example: Sandy got passionate about her business plan for the new shop she’s going to open in Germany.  Not only was she able to outline every detail of this idea that had only been a fantasy for the last 8 years, she was able to connect with people in the process and share this passion. This engaged their excitement and passions, as well.  She was able to explore the possibilities for her life, community and future.

3. Discovering your passion allows you to connect with a purpose in life that is bigger than yourself.  It pulls you out of your daily complaints, worries, fears and takes your attention off of yourself.  The shift from self-conscious to self-aware can happen in an instant.

   Example:  For Joe, working on cars is not only his profession, but a life-long passion.  Lenore, Joe’s wife, shared about how wonderful it is when he comes home after a long night of working in his garage.  She experiences his passion for how intimate he is with every detail of his work and what a thrill that connection is.  That transfers to how he interacts with her and, needless to say, she loves it.Passion is passion and it always creates intimacy if you share it.

DISCLAIMER: This is just a brief, spontaneous list of some of the things we are thrilled to have discovered.  But, like reading the menu in a restaurant, eating the dish is a whole other experience. Sooo….

We invite you to join us for the next workshop:

Intimacy
Dates: Friday – Sunday, June 10th, 11th & 12th, 2011
Time: Friday, 7pm-10pm, Saturday & Sunday: 9:45am-6pm
Fee: $425
Location: 630 Second Avenue at 35th Street, NYC
Register

Looking forward to meeting you,
Val, Ed, Sandy, Lenore, Stefanie, Joe & Karen

I have just spent 2 amazing days in London with my work mates who are based up in Scotland and who came down to London for our “team cultural away days”. The trip was paid by our 2 bosses who said it was a reward for the great work we’ve been doing. We stayed at the famous 5 star hotel “The Ritz” and had amazing lunch there, then our company hired a professional choreographer only for us and we learned to dance to Rihanna’s “I’m the only girl in the world” song. In the evening we went to a comedy store and watched stand up comedy. The following day we hired a studio and a private drum instructor who showed us how to drum to samba tunes and we finished our trip by having “traditional afternoon tea” which is very british at the famous Savoy hotel in London. Here’s some videos of our trip and our team from the dancing and the drum sessions:
Dancing at Pineapple Studios
Samba Drumming Session

The reason I’m sharing this is not to show off but just to say that I would have never found this amazing company and job if I wouldn’t have learned from Ariel & Shya Kane, how to be “in the moment” and be a “yes” to life. I still remember that before Costa Rica 2010, I was not happy with the job I was in and thought “this wasn’t it” and a future job will be better! In Costa Rica I learned to be in the moment and to be a “yes” to life and that whereever I am and whatever I do is important. When I landed in NY on my way back to London from the Costa Rica trip in 2010, I had a text from a recruitment agency that was offering me a job for a gift voucher company. My first thought was “no” I don’t really want to work for a gift voucher company, it didn’t fit my agenda and didn’t “sound” good in my ears! However having learned to be in the moment in Costa Rica, I said yes and just showed up to the interview! The moment I met my Manager and I had the interview with her, I knew that this was an inspirational lady with an amazing job to offer and I wanted to work with her! It wasn’t about gift vouchers ie the product, it was all about this person (my manager) and what I could learn from her as she was so inspirational and she’s also into personal development and really cares about us employees and our personal development. I never had such an amazing feeling before where I just knew that this is the right job for me, it was as if my intuition said YES YES YES!!!

It’s now more than a year that I’m working for my company (I’m saying “my company” as it feels like it’s our company since we’re so involved and part of it) and I still love working for it! If I would have listened to my voice back then, I would have never found this amazing job and I’m very grateful that Transformation exists and to be part of such a wonderful community.

I am now saving up for my first and second payment for Costa Rica before registering in August and would encourage you to come too! Menna and I are also in the progress of creating a UK Meet up group and organising a book talk for the UK to inspire more people from the UK to come to the Creativity & Intution workshop in July in Cambridge and to increase our UK community. It’s so much fun to share Transformation in the UK and it’s amazing how receptive people are when you share transformation with them. My mind always thinks I should only share transformation with certain people, however that’s so not true, it’s about sharing it with everyone and then the people who relate to what you say, will ask you more questions, show interest and these are the ones you want to continue to talk to and about moving on from the others that aren’t interested. (It’s like dating – lol)

So if you in your heart feel you would like to come to Cambridge this summer, we would love to have you join us! Here’s the link to find out more about the workshop and to register: http://www.transformationmadeeasy.com/cambridge/ Should you need help with accomodation, let us know and we can help you organise your trip. Should you come a few days before the workshop like some people do, we are planning on getting together to watch a musical in London the days before. Once I have more details, I will let you all know again.

Lots of love from London
Dani
xxx

I’m a teacher at a secondary school covering grades 5 to 12. I love my job, but I often find it quite exhausting and I’m stressed out a lot. In class, there are usually about a thousand things that you have to keep in mind, so mentally I often juggle several things simultaneously. A lot of the weekend, however, was about listening. Real listening. And on Monday I noticed how little actual listening there is at school. We all talk all day, every day – but listen? Hmmm.

So on Monday morning I listened to what my students had to say. Wow! A completely new experience that is hard to express, but I’ll give it shot: I was so much more relaxed and present in the moment. I didn’t do a thousand things at once, but instead I was there. No more, no less. And it felt like all of a sudden, I could breathe and let go and be there for my students. The atmosphere was much calmer and we ended up having so much fun together. I realized that finally, I get to pay attention to what really matters, i.e. my students. They also blossomed in a way. Up to that point, I had only experienced that effect in reverse, like when I brought my bad mood with me into class because the students in the class right before drove me up the wall and I didn’t manage to get rid of it, so the students of the next class were on the receiving end of something that wasn’t their fault at all. Yet this week it became clear that that’s not the only way it works; my calmness radiates in a way that changes everything. No, not changes – transforms (I still have to get used to the terminology).

This transformation is not limited to my job. Monday night I talked to my sister on the phone. We are very close, even though she lives close to Frankfurt, so we phone a lot. She is a teacher too, and a sizeable chunk of our conversations used to be taken up by a certain dynamic where she vents all the things that are annoying about her school/students/principal and then I join her by supplying examples from my own school (and believe me, there’s plenty of ground to cover – teachers are experts at complaining, after all). So Monday night, she complained about lots of things and I listened and realized that apparently, she needed to vent. And then – I realized that I didn’t have to join her in complaining. There wasn’t anything to complain about. Amazing!

All of this feels sooooo good. Relaxed and exciting at the same time. I’m itching to find out what else is happening in my life if I let it. This is thanks to the Kanes (as everybody who reads this will know and appreciate), but also thanks to the people at the workshop creating such an intense weekend full of profound conversations with wonderful people that still resonates with me in many ways.

Thanks!
A Teacher from Hamburg, Germany

Ich habe am vergangenen Wochenende meinen ersten Wochenend-workshop mit den Kanes erlebt. Es war eine unglaublich tolle Erfahrung, die in die verschiedensten Bereiche meines Lebens strahlt und da Dinge bewegt, von denen ich einige mit euch teilen möchte.

Ich bin Lehrerin an einem Gymnasium. Ich liebe meinen Beruf, aber ich nehme ihn oft auch als extrem anstrengend wahr und bin meistens ziemlich gestresst. Im Unterricht sind ja oft tausend Dinge gleichzeitig zu regeln und im Blick zu behalten, so dass ich mental oft mehrere Dinge jongliere. Am Wochenende ging es ganz viel um Zuhören. Wirklich zuhören. Und am Montag ist mir aufgefallen, wie wenig wir in der Schule eigentlich zuhören. Wir reden den ganzen Tag, alle, aber zuhören? Hmmm.
Also hab ich am Montag früh mal zugehört, was meine Schüler zu sagen haben. Wahnsinn! Eine völlig neue Erfahrung, die ich schwer in Worte fassen kann, aber ich versuch’s mal: ich war so viel entspannter und einfach in dem Moment präsent und habe nicht mehr tausend Dinge auf einmal gemacht, sondern war da. Mehr nicht. Und es war auf einmal, als könnte ich durchatmen und loslassen und auf meine Schüler eingehen. Die Atmosphäre hat sich so entzerrt und wir hatten so viel Spaß zusammen ­ und ich hatte das Gefühl, dass ich endlich das in den Blick bekomme, was eigentlich wichtig ist: meine Schüler.

Die sind irgendwie auch aufgeblüht. Bisher kannte ich den Effekt so deutlich nur in der anderen Richtung, nämlich wenn ich schlechte Stimmung mit in die Klasse schleppe, weil mich der Kurs direkt vorher auf die Palme getrieben hat und ich das nicht in der Pause ablegen konnte, sondern es dann auch noch die nächste Klasse abgekriegt hat. Aber diese Woche wurde deutlich, dass es auch anders geht ­ dass meine eigene Gelassenheit so ausstrahlt, dass sich alles verändert. Nein, nicht verändert ­ transformiert (ich muss mich an die Begriffe noch gewöhnen).

Das ist auch nicht beschränkt auf den beruflichen Sektor. Am Montagabend habe ich mit meiner Schwester telefoniert. Wir haben sehr engen Kontakt, auch wenn sie bei Frankfurt wohnt, und telefonieren sehr häufig. Sie ist auch Lehrerin, und ein erklecklicher Teil unserer Telefonate bestand aus so einer Dynamik, dass sie sich bei mir auskotzt, was der Schulalltag ihr schon wieder alles an Arbeit beschert hat und wie unmöglich ihre Schulleitung ist, und ich dann beisteuere, was bei mir alles nervig war (und da gibt es im Schulalltag eine ganze Menge, schließlich sind wir Lehrer Weltmeister im Nörgeln). Am Montag hat sie sich also beschwert, über alles Mögliche, und ich habe ihr zugehört. Und gemerkt, dass sie das offensichtlich gerade alles mal loswerden muss. Und dann ­ habe ich gespürt, dass ich aber gar nicht darauf einsteigen muss. Es gab nichts zu nörgeln. Unglaublich!

All das fühlt sich so gut an. Entspannt und spannend gleichzeitig. Es juckt mich total in den Fingern, herauszufinden, was noch alles Magisches in meinem Leben passiert, wenn ich mich dafür öffne. Das verdanke ich den Kanes (wie allen klar ist, die das hier lesen), aber auch den anderen Leuten, die an dem Wochenende dabei waren, denn das intensive Wochenende mit so vielen tiefgehenden Kontakten zu wunderbaren Menschen klingt immer noch nach.

Danke!
Ein Lehrer von Hamburg

We had such an easy workshop this weekend. It was so cool for me to see how much I was habituated to working on myself that my mind kept wanting to come up with some problems, so that I could get up in front of the group and create some drama. With a room full of 91 participants you really have to get into action if you want to speak, but none of my “problems” were real enough to act on.  So I just kept pulling myself back into the moment, getting used to the fact that I don’t need fixing and I didn’t need to create a drama to get something out of the weekend.

Before the weekend I was very upset and thought everything was going wrong. I was having a hard time finding a shop (I am planning on opening a shop and haven’t found a suitable place for it yet), my teenage daughter wasn’t liking me, I wasn’t making money and everything felt heavy. Well, when I got home my daughter was fun and sweet, new possibilities showed up for shops, I got a job offer for doing a translation for the next day and things were sooo much more fun.

As I am part of the team that sells books at the workshop, I found myself near all the flyers.  I noticed that I kept looking at the flyer for the “Transformational Time and Project Management” workshop in New York. I also kept putting it back thinking “Nah, I can’t allow myself that.”  But I’ve been wanting to do it for years.  Then my friend Menna spoke about her first workshop and how she knew right away that she wanted to go to Costa Rica and that’s what she did. There was something in the way her eyes were sparkling and the strength she and her husband Arthur have from going for what they want – be it a workshop in Cambridge, a book contract, anything – that I just knew “I can do that too!” And now another friend Stefanie is inspired by me – Wow!

And one more thing inspired me: My boyfriend’s parents Henning and his wife Brigitte came to the weekend and are now both signing up for Costa Rica. They said they had discovered that THEY create their circumstances – not the other way around.

I would love for you all to be inspired to come and join us, especially if you live as close as New York!!! If we can have 91 people at the workshop in a city as small as Hamburg I wonder how many people we could be in such a BIG city like New York!

Love to you all!
Sandy