Tanzania Trek

It's that time of year again, at least in the United States, when every weekend brings a slew of graduations. Forgive me for boasting, but last weekend my son and daughter-in-law, Evan & Michelle Tschannen, graduated with Masters degrees from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. You can view a slide show of the school and the events of graduation weekend by going to www.virginia.edu/weekinphotos/class2008. You can watch official videos of the festivities by going to: www.youtube.com/user/uvawebmaster (scroll down on that page for additional clips).

In the case of my son, he got his degree in Systems Engineering. My daughter-in-law graduated in Special Education. That will open many doors for the two of them, but for now Evan is starting a summer internship with a company in Charlottesville while Michelle travels to Tanzania for two and a half months where she will be volunteering at an orphanage that serves more than 200 children and widows. The vision of the orphanage is:

1. To have a society where our children can grow physically, emotionally and spiritually, free from the threat of HIV / AIDS.
2. To have a society which cares for, and nurtures, the needs of the children, and strives to identify and provide resources that will benefit them.
3. To create an environment of equal opportunities; where vulnerable children and youth are holistically empowered.

You can read all about the orphanage by going to http://www.janesorphans.org/.

You can read about the motivation behind Michelle's adventure, together with her best friend from Butler University, by checking out these two blog posts:

http://lasting-peace.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-tanzania.html
http://lasting-peace.blogspot.com/2008/03/why-tanzania-part-2.html

You can keep an eye on her travels, as she posts updates to her blog, by visiting http://lasting-peace.blogspot.com/. We're proud of both Evan and Michelle (can you tell?), and we wish them both all the best this summer and beyond.

Coaching Inquiries: What concerns you most about the welfare of planet earth? How can you best express your concern? How would you write that in the form of a personal mission statement? Who could join you on the journey of making life more wonderful for one and all?

We invite you Email Us or to use our Contact Form to arrange for a complimentary coaching conversation with your own LifeTrek coach.

New Habits, New Brains

My LifeTrek Coaching colleague, Erika Jackson, sent along to me a link to a recent story in the New York Times titled "Can You Become a Creature of New Habits?". It's a fascinating story that you can read for yourself by going to www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/business/04unbox.html.

The key, the article reports, is not to try and kill off old habits; those are set and there to stay. The key is to find new things that we love to do and then repeat them until they become new habits. By changing our behavior in this way, the story reports that we not only make our lives more rich and interesting, we also develop new neural networks that eventually replace old patterns of habit with new pathways of awareness. That, it turns out, can make all the difference as we go through the aging process.

The article includes an interesting critique of our education system, as it seems to weed out the innovative and collaborative mental functions. Through awareness and intentional activity, we can reinvigorate those functions on the way to the life of our dreams. Sound intriguing? Read the article to learn more and then get started, perhaps with the help of a coach.

Erika went on to note that the article quotes Dawna Markova, author of "The Open Mind" and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners. Dawna happens to have written one of Erika's favorite poems, which I think you will enjoy:

Fully Alive

I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

Coaching Inquiries: What things do you love to do? How often do you actually do them? What's keeping you from a 21-day, lifestyle "detoxification program", where you focus on doing the things you love? Who could assist you to get on that path?

We invite you Email Us or to use our Contact Form to arrange for a complimentary coaching conversation with your own LifeTrek coach.

The Great Lecture Library

Longtime readers may remember that my wife and I make an annual trek to the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State. This year we'll be going at the end of July and early August. For those not familiar with Chautauqua, it is an experience unique beyond compare. You can find out more for yourself by visiting them on the web at www.ciweb.org. Here is a one paragraph from their website description:

"Many of the visitors who return to Chautauqua year after year describe it as an experience rather than a vacation -- a place for renewal. The Chautauqua Institution was founded on the belief that everyone 'has a right to be all that he or she can be -- to know all that he or she can know.' The experiences come in many forms. A dramatic lakeside setting and the beauty of its National Historic Landmark architecture (it was designated a National Historic Landmark June 30, 1989) make the Chautauqua Institution a thriving community where visitors come to find intellectual and spiritual growth and renewal."

The hallmark of Chautauqua are their lectures, sermons, and presentations. For those who are not able to attend the Institution in person, you can listen to the lectures online by going to www.thegreatlecturelibrary.com. Like the website I told you about last week, www.newdimensions.org, the Chautauqua site enables you to listen to some things for free. If you join the site, however, you can listen to everything for free and download your favorites to your MP3 player. With rates starting as low as $69 per year, this is yet another way to stay stimulated on the trek of life.

Coaching Inquiries: What stimulates your intellectual and spiritual growth? How could you develop yourself even more deeply? What input might represent the tipping point to a great life? We invite you Email Us or to use our Contact Form to arrange for a complimentary coaching conversation with your own LifeTrek coach.