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NEWSLETTER VOLUME 3, #1

Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,


CONTENT

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A "LESSON FROM THE JUNGLE..."(Top) 

Organizing for greatness

The biologist pointed to a rather unusual occurrence. The tour-group pointed their cameras and videos high into the treetops at the Manuel Antonio National Park on Costa Rica's Pacific coast. Quite a number of Capuchin monkeys - contrary to habit - were huddled together in one tree.

Capuchins are the small white-faced monkeys and usually males are roaming the edges of a their large territory in small clusters, while single females travel solo and mothers stay with their offspring, protected at the center of the area. Now a large mixed group were sitting together, their excited chatter focused on a certain bit of foliage.

Someone with a zoom lens pointed to a large male, a slightly smaller one and two juveniles cautiously moving through the trees to a place above the focus of attention. There, they started to jump around from branch to branch in a very aggressive way. Suddenly, a large branch broke under the weight of the two larger males and fell to the ground. There was silence as they struggled to regain their balance. Steady, they waited for about 5 minutes and then the biggest one cautiously headed down.

Aground, he grabbed a piece of the fallen branch - a club over three feet long - stood up and smashed it down with such force that it jarred from his hands when it hit. He grabbed it again and smashed down another 55 times, losing the stick every time. The frenzied young monkeys jumped up and down cheering him with every blow and the other male grabbed a large twig and smashed it down in tempo. When they all calmed, the attack had lasted over 20 minutes.

The alpha-male wandered away, the others followed and the gathering in the tree broke apart. Amazed. the biologist rushed to show the visitors why that old monkey had organized his team so. for greatness. He found the six-and-half foot long body of a fer-de-lance - the deadliest snake in that jungle. While not every blow had landed, its skull was fractured, sections of its skeleton were exposed and it had many lacerations. The old Capuchin had led his team to safety and to greatness.

If you want to move your own team to great heights, just structure a project that is large enough to get everybody excited, committed and connected. Here are 8 tips on leading great projects:

* Solicit help by listening to what other people want. Creative listening is the key to enrollment because it'll let you connect other people's needs to your own.

* Define an agreement that binds you and the other participants with goals, tasks, timelines and rules.

* Bring all of yourself to the agreement; think of it as something that must be done.

* Expect breakdowns.

* Expects breakthroughs.

* Take responsibility for every detail - i.e. for the success of each relationship.

* Seek feedback for constant adjustment.

* Pace yourself as everything takes more time than you plan.

And if your team rids the jungle of a deadly snake or accomplishes anything great... well the rest of us will truly appreciate it.

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AN EMPOWERING TECHNIQUE, TOOL OR EXERCISE (Top) 

See your life as an epic story and decide its dramatic unfolding as if a screenplay. Give it the interesting twists and turns that make for the happiest endings.

Be the star of your life. A screenplay is an outline, diagram or map of a story that is told in pictures. As such it has a linear structure - a beginning (Act 1), a middle (Act 11) and an end (Act 111). It also has a theme, characters, situations. action and more... just like a real life. Check out the details here.

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OUR FEATURED COSTA RICA TOUR (Top) 

This time you're invited to learn everything you need to know about "Building a High Performance Team".

The focus of this 1-week tour curriculum is seeing the team as an intelligence chain - it's as strong as its weakest link. This exciting week will benefit people responsible for leading groups, innovative projects, services or products.

Following this weeklong heuristic workshop, you will have gained an important understanding of yourself and powerful insights into the brain/mind and group dynamics. You will also have explored the concept of transactional energy, "synergetic relationships" and self-organizing teams. You'll have learned how individuals attain higher levels of intelligence and performance. Click here http://www.consult-IIDC.com/english/themetours/teamintro.htm.

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WEB LINKS TO HELP YOU WORK AND PLAY (Top) 

We're off into the jungles of Costa Rica for a few weeks. Beside working at Mayamü - the "sylvantherapy park" we are building in the Southern zone - we'll be leading a corporate group on a "vision quest". They want to flesh their strategic plan for their next growth period and we'll provide adventures and tools conducive to seeing ahead.

Our most important tools when guiding people are "our maps". I believe in the power of maps. We have maps to wondrous power spots. There we'll perform magic rituals to stimulate the mind - so we also have maps of rituals and of the mind. You'll find a good map of the mind on our web site by clicking here.

Here are other maps to help you get places: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps is filled with links to all kinds of maps of the world and http://www.mapquest.com will get you to any street corner in the USA. Try http://www.maps.com to buy maps and map-related products and http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Maps/ for a link to many map links. Vaya con Dios.

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SOME INSPIRING QUOTATIONS (Top) 

"The greater the artist the greater the doubt; perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." - Robert Hughes

"Strong minded, resolutely willed, you can create out of nothing a great business, a huge empire, a new world . Others have and they have no monopoly. " - Claude Bristol

"I am not discouraged because every attempt discarded is another step forward." - Thomas Edison

"Don't find fault - find a remedy." - Henry Ford

"You can have everything in life you want if you'll just help enough other people to get what they want!" - Zig Ziglar

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A BIT OF A GIGGLE (Top) 

Once upon a time, a field-mouse, snug in its hollow, had a thought: "This is a rather predictable and boring life I lead. I must go to the big city and learn about the world."

Then, packing some food for the journey, he carefully locked his door and set off for the unknown. And what a wonderful world he saw! Tall trees, rolling countryside, flowers and butterflies - different from the ones he knew - gave way to scenes he had never set eyes on before but had learned about from travelers. He saw the large, very long, very hard, black trails and the monstrous forms that moved too fast to be identified, and he saw many strange buildings and creatures.

He hiked on until, quite tired and now at the edge of the city, he stopped by a small cottage on the road. After eating the last of his packed lunch, he thought he'd inspect what seemed like a peculiar smelling sort of place.

He ran onto the property, skirted around the cottage and entered a farmyard where his eyes immediately grew round as saucers. There in front of him were two of the strangest animals he had ever seen. One was large and handsome, with four legs, covered over with soft, black fur and sporting splendid set of white whiskers that gave it a wise and respectable air. It dozed in the sun, on a ledge on the wall of a very large building indeed.

In that building's doorway, the other animal was a two-legged creature with red, yellow and white feathers and a fierce, bad-tempered look. A pair of cruel eyes in a red-crested head glared at the little mouse.

"Who the hell are you?" that nasty bird crowed, taking a step toward the field-mouse.

"How do you do, sir! How do you do..." stammered the mouse, feeling foolish for not knowing the ferocious-looking stranger's name.

But the fowl-feathered fiend simply puffed out its chest, screeched a loud: "Well cocka-doodle-you!" and strutted towards the little mouse, now paralyzed with fear.

The field-mouse saw the big yellow beak coming at him and, in great panic, turned to the white-whiskered and wise animal for help but saw it was still asleep and - in spite of the attacker's blood-curdling scream - the mouse decided: "Run!"

It turned its tail and fled for the road as fast as his little legs would carry him. On his way he spied a hole in the wall of the cottage and dived into it. Safe.

There, inside, three stunned faces stared at him and, with amazement in their voices, they cried in unison: "Where did you come from?"

The field-mouse blinked and gasped: "I'm from..." - he was breathless but he continued - "... from far away! I wanted to go to the big city to learn about the world. Where am I now?"

"This is our home. We are house-mice. What happened to you?" - the tallest replied.

And the field-mouse told them about his trip and the animals he'd met in the yard: one dark, handsome and harmless, the other brightly colored and quite ferocious. The three field mice listened to his tale and then laughed 'till doubled over.

"Rube", one said at last. "Have a glass of beer and we'll clue you in. Don't you realize the real nature of the danger you were in? The creature that frightened you is only a dirt-pecking and boastful rooster, a bird so vain as to be an easy ploy in our strategies but thank the Gods that the other was asleep in the sun. The one you thought wise and harmless is our deadliest enemy, the cat! If he had seen you, you wouldn't be here to tell us the tale."

And the runt of trio added: "Don't you see... this the lesson that you needed to learn from the world - and before you ever reach the big city - that you can't judge creatures by their appearance!"


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