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How to Realize
Your Dreams and Improve Your Life - Page 2
WB: Tell
us about the seminars: how do they work?
John Hanley:
We get anywhere from 150 to 250 people at each seminar, which
would run on a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evening and
all-day Saturday and Sunday. Each course has one instructor.
We also have a fantastic volunteer group made up of specially-trained
Lifespring graduates. The most potent part of the program
is transformational training.
Our notion is
that each individual has his own philosophy or understanding
of what life is and that it's our interaction with that philosophy
that ultimately determines our effectiveness in the world.
In the Lifespring training course, we ask people to look at
how they see themselves and other people and what their attitude
is. We're asking them to look at the bag that the groceries
come in rather than the groceries themselves. You see, most
of us are very busy. We have a lot of existing commitments.
We don't spend much time reflecting on what we're up to. The
Lifespring training offers people opportunity to reflect on
the direction they're headed and to see if what's important
to them is supported by their daily actions.
WB: Give
us an example of one of the exercises in the course.
John Hanley:
One of our exercises is to focus on the distinction between
being a victim and being accountable. We ask people in the
training, and in the book, to think about situations where
they felt as if something were done to them where they really
felt put upon or wronged or victimized. We ask them to interact
with another person and share every detail of this victim
situation. A person might say, "I've been working really
hard at my job and for the third time my boss has overlooked
me for a promotion. The person in the next office is making
20% more than I make, and I'm here late every night. It doesn't
seem fair." The person will really get into the victim
situation for a good 10 or 15 minutes. Then we'll talk about
accountability and ask people to look at the same situation
as if they had something to do with the way it turned out.
The same person
might say, "The boss has always said he had an open-door
policy about raises but I really haven't taken the time to
set up an appointment to go in and plead my case. And there
was an assignment that the boss asked all the employees to
do for extra credit, but I chose not to do it." At this
point, the person begins to see how, in fact, he is accountable
for how things have turned out. We're asking people in Lifespring,
"Who are you in the matter of how your life turned out?"
Once people see that they do have something to do with how
their life turns out, in almost every situation, they're immediately
more powerful.
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