Hello ,

Recently I passed on to several personal friends an e mail written by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author of Dances with Wolves – and yes, I know that was a “chick book” however I thought it was marvelously well written.

In this e mail Ms. Estes was addressing people who felt “bewildered” by recent events. I shared in my cover note to my friends that while I didn't share in the “bewilderment” experience, I know several people who did. I also said that no matter what the state of the reader's consciousness, Ms. Estes counsel was wise and lovingly offered.

(if you'd like a copy of her essay, just hit reply, ask for it and I'll be happy to send it along.)

The dialogue that followed was positive and rewarding for me. What it included was a reminder about my life experience – with myself and with hundreds of thousands of seminar participants – around sometimes feeling lost, bewildered, inadequate, hurt, rejected ... all those feelings and more that we don't want yet cannot deny the pain when they're present.

My experience over the past 30 years has pointed the way to some solutions and those solutions are the subject of this month's feature – serving and getting into action.

As always I'll share some favorite quotes, some Balance Point news and a rave recommendation.

Be extraordinary!

Robert White

A Balance Point monthly eZine dedicated to assisting people in living extraordinary lives and creating extraordinary organizations.

We encourage you to forward this message to friends or colleagues who want to be more effective in working with people. They can subscribe to future issues and receive our free 23 page report “ Simple Truths and Enduring Values – The Eight Elements of Personal and Organizational Effectiveness,” at http://www.extraordinarypeople.com/ezine/subscribe.htm.

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In this issue:

• Feature: Serve – and Do Something!
• Extraordinary Wisdom Quotes of the Month
• A New Balance Point Training for Denver and Seattle
• Rave Recommendation from Balance Point
• Extraordinary Living Action Steps

Over many years Balance Point's approach to powerfully supporting meaningful and lasting personal growth for individuals has been a series of four distinct high-impact seminars. The second program, now named “The Breakthrough Experience” has as its purpose and objectives

• clearing our past of blame, shame, regret and guilt
• telling the truth about our current reality
• creating a future of our own choosing

Being “in the room” with thousands of people and working with our trainers over the years, I've learned that what gets in the way for many people in accomplishing those three purposes could perhaps be best described as their petty neuroses.

Remember – these are emotionally healthy people who have made a choice to live lives filled with more joy and fulfillment. Yet what “stops them” often borders on narcissism – their obsessive focus on their fears, insecurities, judgments of self and others – their STUFF.

Who I'm NOT talking about here are people who have real mental problems – the kind for which only professional therapeutic intervention is needed. I'm talking about ME and perhaps a good number of YOU.

Here's the perhaps more challenging part of this essay: how about ME and YOU? I know that when I'm “stuck,” in addition to the embarrassment of realizing that after all these years studying and living this material I still get “stuck,” I get incredibly creative at making myself right about my unhappiness. I whine, get sick, disappear, make someone else wrong...The list goes on and on.

And I know you have your list. The more successful and enlightened among us are often distinguished only by our cleverness in expressing these dysfunctional patterns.

Soooooooooo...if you kind of, maybe, perhaps, sometimes, not always but when you're tired or distracted, see just a little, just a smidge, a slight odor of yourself in the above description...(Did I qualify that enough for your ego protection?)...Then what's a girl or guy to do?

There are two quick and simple and very effective solutions:

1. find someone else who you can unreservedly SERVE; and
2. get into action – DO SOMETHING with the intent to serve

Again and again in our seminars we've found that the most “stuck” participants, the ones most resistant and most righteous, were totally freed up when we tricked them into simply being “in service” to someone else struggling with THEIR petty neuroses.

And yes, I said “tricked.” It works most times and we do it unashamedly with love and commitment to the participant's higher self, their vision and their mission in life.

Those of us resident in the USA just experienced Halloween when the goblins at our doors sing out “Trick or Treat.” In the case of my solution to dealing with our “stuff,” the correct label might be “Trick AND Treat.” You don't need our seminar to follow the simple practice – when you notice that you're hangin' out in your stuff – of simply looking for someone or something to SERVE and then getting into action about that.

There are closets to clean, shoes to shine, neighbors that could use a hand, communities (and parks!) that could use your loving attention, blood banks to fill (I'm typing this with my brightly colored Bonfils Blood Bank bandage on my arm) and, most of all, people to hold, to feed, to love.

Most importantly – DO IT. Make that call. Get into action. You'll be amazed at how good it makes you feel to just ignore, transcend, blow by your own stuff. Or, in the immortal words of Don Henley, “get over it.”

Learn more below in our Extraordinary Living Action Steps.

Our theme this month is serving and action so...

The news is so great I'm repeating it!
(and coming soon to a city near you!)

Balance Point's new President and partner Ron Tate has spent the last 12 years developing and delivering a powerful leadership and management training program “Value 2 Management.” The publicly available version of this program is now available in Seattle and Denver and “in-house” programs for selective companies are available worldwide.

The most neglected training and development market is the middle manager in small and medium sized businesses. Most people become managers the way we become parents: “it just happens.” There is tremendous pressure to perform yet many are unprepared for optimum performance. A trained manager produces better bottom line results, makes fewer errors (often expensive ones including the threat of legal action) and generates excellence within the total team.

You can learn more about this powerful, affordable approach to improving management performance and results on the Balance Point website:

http://www.BalancePointInternational.com/about/whatwedo/v2m.htm

Or call Robert or Ron at 425-803-0303. We'll do a quick evaluation whether the program might work for you and your goals and if that answer is a “possibly yes,” we'll schedule a no obligation demonstration meeting for your team.

Here's what one satisfied customer said about the program:

There are lots more rave reviews on the Balance Point website. Call now to explore how V2M might help you create better managers...and better results!

These are simple and not always easy:

1. Wake up. Your “stuff” often gets in the way of living the life you want to live … your extraordinary life.
    
2. Spend no time analyzing your “stuff.” It's most often a waste of time and energy and remember, the primary purpose (some say only purpose) of the mind is to insure the survival of the ego. Your thinking will only encourage you to get more right about your “stuff.”
    
3. FIND SOMEONE OR SOMETHING TO SERVE. Without thinking of what's in it for you, give to your friends, your family, your colleagues, your community.
    
4. DO IT NOW.

And, e-mail me anything you learn about you and others in this process – your experiences inspire and motivate me.

Wishing you an Extraordinary Life and Extraordinary Organizations,

Robert

Robert White
Balance Point

P. O. Box 40405
Denver , CO 80204
Phone: 1-425-803-0303
E-mail: Robert@BalancePointInternational.com

http://www.BalancePointInternational.com

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