Here's my articulation of what Landmark Education's Team, Management and Leadership Program at Landmark Education has to offer:
Team Management and Leadership Program, First Year
The Team, Management and Leadership Program, Team One is a year-long program that makes available the creation of games to play, and team members with whom to play them. It's really fun!
In our interactions with others in the program, as well as with people in the world, team members get practice and training in creating their world through living inside the distinctions of the Landmark Education Communication Curriculum. Life takes on a new shape as creativity in communication expands and creates the world, and breakthroughs in all areas of life become realized beyond our wildest dreams.
People who are attracted to releasing their inner leader have the opportunity to try themselves out with the full support of others attracted to the same opportunity, all in an empowering context of fun and development.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Team One Quarter One (meaningless).
One of the most recent things I've gotten out of being in The Landmark Team, Management and Leadership Program (TMLP) is that this afternoon I woke up from a nap and I said to myself, half asleep, "OH! That's right - I'm the president!" (I'm not, it's just a game I'm playing!)
I am get-get-getting that I can cause cause cause and be a clearing for communication, contribution and creativity like I never saw possible. Maybe there's something I brought in with me that has really accelerated my being and generating contribution, and that would be my withheld love for and acknowledgment of others.
I got to experience courage for others in the Landmark Forum, to experience being with others in the Advanced Course, and to experience being power, contribution and creativity in the Self-Expression and Leadership program. All possibilities that before were difficulties! There was something to give up, and it was an act - that I already knew what everyone thought of me...
Before Communication: Access to Power, and as a gay man in a world ruled by people who would hate me if they knew the "truth" about me, it looked like love was some kind of trap and wasn't really wanted - by me or by others - and that there was actually something wrong with someone who attempted to have it be something real. So I buried my love for people like a time capsule and pretended whatever I saw was there to be pretended.
Like a hummingbird, I'd go from flower to flower, and even when someone tried to show love to me, I refused to see it, my reason being it couldn't be real, because real love was only a concept for movies and books, or a living situation that was labeled love - not something that could be "achieved." I loved ice cream, paintings that were "good" and the movie "Brasil." I hated people, and was embarrassed to be one of them, and all my friends at least partially agreed that other people were the problem.
We all have "the past" and some of us have one where we were in total agreement with others that we were WRONG! In high school, when I realized everything I'd been teased and tortured about was true, and I indeed was a fag, I set out on an almost uninterrupted path of self-destruction which included booze and cigarettes, any drug that didn't require a needle, any man that was stupid enough to want me, and any excuse to make my life not working somebody else's fault.
I would let in others only if there was something obviously different than me about them, and that was what all my friends (and partners) had in common. It was actually preferred that they were not American, or at least not white, or if they were, not English speaking! That way, I got to be exotic. I otherwise had no choice but to stay an "outsider." I got by by being creative and clever, weird and funny - yet I was often bitchy, sarcastic and tragic, but mostly, withdrawn and safe.
To this day, I've rarely shared, especially in front of a group, that I was such a mess, because later on in life I figured blending in and looking good and being busy might have a certain quality of survival to it! I managed to bury the evidence of being such a mess so well that I pretty much forgot about it.
What I've distinguished this quarter is that I hated the way I turned out, secretly blamed others for their imagined hate for me as the reason things didn't work, and was living a life of hiding all the evidence - avoiding communication, disguising my voice, being too busy, and doing the same things to people over and over so that nobody could know me, and nobody could judge me for who I really was, but for the stereotype I was being.
The impact on my life has been that I wasn't there. I have been alone and was resigned to it, connected to others only by definition. I have questioned my judgment of almost everything, operating from a place of being false and defective.
This quarter in TMLP, while really cutting loose and practicing being for and being with others, and having it be all right to experience letting go of concerns and circumstances, I have finally let go of the significance of who I'd been! I was a hurt kid that didn't like the deal I was dealt, and I did what I did with it. Now it's complete!
The possibility I've invented for myself is the possibility of Now I get to Play. Now I get to create and share. I get to love all people. They're even allowed to love me, but if they don't it's okay... Now if they try shoot me down, I'm certain I won't die from it!
The funny thing about what I've just written - I always said jokingly that if I ever decided to run for public office, I would disclose all my "indiscretions" beforehand - and I wrote it after waking from a nap that had me saying, "OH! That's right - I'm the president!"
I am get-get-getting that I can cause cause cause and be a clearing for communication, contribution and creativity like I never saw possible. Maybe there's something I brought in with me that has really accelerated my being and generating contribution, and that would be my withheld love for and acknowledgment of others.
I got to experience courage for others in the Landmark Forum, to experience being with others in the Advanced Course, and to experience being power, contribution and creativity in the Self-Expression and Leadership program. All possibilities that before were difficulties! There was something to give up, and it was an act - that I already knew what everyone thought of me...
Before Communication: Access to Power, and as a gay man in a world ruled by people who would hate me if they knew the "truth" about me, it looked like love was some kind of trap and wasn't really wanted - by me or by others - and that there was actually something wrong with someone who attempted to have it be something real. So I buried my love for people like a time capsule and pretended whatever I saw was there to be pretended.
Like a hummingbird, I'd go from flower to flower, and even when someone tried to show love to me, I refused to see it, my reason being it couldn't be real, because real love was only a concept for movies and books, or a living situation that was labeled love - not something that could be "achieved." I loved ice cream, paintings that were "good" and the movie "Brasil." I hated people, and was embarrassed to be one of them, and all my friends at least partially agreed that other people were the problem.
We all have "the past" and some of us have one where we were in total agreement with others that we were WRONG! In high school, when I realized everything I'd been teased and tortured about was true, and I indeed was a fag, I set out on an almost uninterrupted path of self-destruction which included booze and cigarettes, any drug that didn't require a needle, any man that was stupid enough to want me, and any excuse to make my life not working somebody else's fault.
I would let in others only if there was something obviously different than me about them, and that was what all my friends (and partners) had in common. It was actually preferred that they were not American, or at least not white, or if they were, not English speaking! That way, I got to be exotic. I otherwise had no choice but to stay an "outsider." I got by by being creative and clever, weird and funny - yet I was often bitchy, sarcastic and tragic, but mostly, withdrawn and safe.
To this day, I've rarely shared, especially in front of a group, that I was such a mess, because later on in life I figured blending in and looking good and being busy might have a certain quality of survival to it! I managed to bury the evidence of being such a mess so well that I pretty much forgot about it.
What I've distinguished this quarter is that I hated the way I turned out, secretly blamed others for their imagined hate for me as the reason things didn't work, and was living a life of hiding all the evidence - avoiding communication, disguising my voice, being too busy, and doing the same things to people over and over so that nobody could know me, and nobody could judge me for who I really was, but for the stereotype I was being.
The impact on my life has been that I wasn't there. I have been alone and was resigned to it, connected to others only by definition. I have questioned my judgment of almost everything, operating from a place of being false and defective.
This quarter in TMLP, while really cutting loose and practicing being for and being with others, and having it be all right to experience letting go of concerns and circumstances, I have finally let go of the significance of who I'd been! I was a hurt kid that didn't like the deal I was dealt, and I did what I did with it. Now it's complete!
The possibility I've invented for myself is the possibility of Now I get to Play. Now I get to create and share. I get to love all people. They're even allowed to love me, but if they don't it's okay... Now if they try shoot me down, I'm certain I won't die from it!
The funny thing about what I've just written - I always said jokingly that if I ever decided to run for public office, I would disclose all my "indiscretions" beforehand - and I wrote it after waking from a nap that had me saying, "OH! That's right - I'm the president!"
Sunday, November 19, 2006
My TMLP Experience
Since joining the TMLP in August of 2006, I have more intimacy in my marriage. My wife and I can now be fully expressed with each other without the worry of "activating" each other. This freedom allows us to experience each other like never before!
My relationships with people in my life are incredibly rich and I savour the time I get to spend with them. I especially get to be totally present with my wife and daughter, which is truly a gift for me.
I have freedom and ease around everyday challenges with much less upset when I interact with others (much less annoyance with other drivers, co-workers, slow moving store clerks, and myriad other low-wage service industry workers).
I have higher confidence in my ability to handle all sorts of challenges, especially when dealing with people.
I find that I'm able to take on many more committments than I ever imagined possible and have it be stimulating with low stress. I am given far more opportunities to contribute than ever before. This results in a high level of satisfaction.
All of the above contribute to a general feeling of joy, contentment and "aliveness". The quality of interaction with others coupled with my higher confidence along with more freedom and ease all contribute to an experience of time expanding. This is quite the opposite of my first reaction to all of the committments associated with joining the TMLP, which looked like time was going to shrink into a tiny little ball!
My relationships with people in my life are incredibly rich and I savour the time I get to spend with them. I especially get to be totally present with my wife and daughter, which is truly a gift for me.
I have freedom and ease around everyday challenges with much less upset when I interact with others (much less annoyance with other drivers, co-workers, slow moving store clerks, and myriad other low-wage service industry workers).
I have higher confidence in my ability to handle all sorts of challenges, especially when dealing with people.
I find that I'm able to take on many more committments than I ever imagined possible and have it be stimulating with low stress. I am given far more opportunities to contribute than ever before. This results in a high level of satisfaction.
All of the above contribute to a general feeling of joy, contentment and "aliveness". The quality of interaction with others coupled with my higher confidence along with more freedom and ease all contribute to an experience of time expanding. This is quite the opposite of my first reaction to all of the committments associated with joining the TMLP, which looked like time was going to shrink into a tiny little ball!
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