This past weekend I attended a seminar given by Landmark Education called the Power to Create, which is their advanced communication course. In a previous post, I mentioned the work I’ve done with Landmark in the past year. At the heart of their teaching core is transformation. Transformation occurs in a person’s life by putting the past behind and living powerfully in the present and future by individual responsibility, integrity and personal choices.
The Power to Create is a 2-day seminar that a single posting will not do justice. However, I will attempt to describe it in the broadest terms and give you a flavor of the impact it had on me. To describe simply, the Power to Create is an advanced communication seminar, and at the heart of the teaching is language. One’s life is created by the spoken words we communicate daily. The life we’ve lived to date has been created by our language. And the life you will live in the future will be generated by the language you use in spoken communication with others. The words that come from your mouth are the foundation for the reality you create for yourself and others.
In 1952, Norman Vincent Peale penned the book, The Power of Positive Thinking. The idea of Peale’s writing was that positive thoughts lead to positive action. The Power to Create could possibly be called The Power of Positive Speaking. This overly simplistic analogy is used since it’s the spoken word that creates your world, thus to speak positively is to create a positive world for yourself. This analogy is admittedly incomplete because just thinking or uttering positive phrases is not enough. The positive words need to be formulated from personal responsibility, supported by your integrity and congruent with your values and choices.
If all of this sound like gibberish, I’m with you. So let’s look at some real world examples.
In my own life, I’ve recognized that I’ve been saying things like, I’m in the process of … and I’m going to … for some time. So where am I today? I’m in the process of and I’m terribly busy going to. I’ve mastered the process and the busy part. So I’ve succeeded wildly at what I’ve been speaking. But have I actually accomplished what I want? Do you recognize the limits that have been placed by the spoken words?
Gaining an awareness of the words and thoughts we communicate is the key to living a powerful, fulfilled life where we get what we want. When we get what we want regularly and often, we have real freedom: Freedom to choose.
Of course there is much, much more. Learning to listen is probably the most important thing that needs further explaining. If you think it’s more important to be interesting than to be interested … you’ll want to read Thursday’s blog.
Next Blog Title: Are you Interesting or Interested?
Next Blog Date: Thursday, January 14, 2010