Hello ,

My change in role to Chief Learning Officer of Balance Point International has brought many changes – some expected, some not – and some welcome excitement. Thanks to all who offered congratulations and questions and extraordinary ideas for future success!

Filtering through all the feedback and doing some re-writing for our web site content, brought one conclusion – there's a lot of interest in the work I've done on “Simple Truths and Enduring Values,” an e booklet about the “Eight Elements of Personal and Organizational Effectiveness.

This month's issue will include an introduction to the Eight Elements and then we'll publish excerpts over the coming months along with our Extraordinary Living Action Steps, interesting quotes and current news from Balance Point International.

Be extraordinary!

Robert White

A 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 at:

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In this issue:

• Feature: Introduction and Self-Evaluation - The Eight Elements
• Extraordinary Wisdom Quotes of the Month
• Exciting News for Chicagoland!!!
• Rave Recommendation from Robert
• Extraordinary Living Action Steps

500,000 graduates worldwide over a 25 year period . I'm not sure whether my first reaction to that reality is pride at having created a company that trained that many people, or depression resulting from the reminder of my steadily advancing age. Another realization – and a more significant one – is that along with whatever contributions we've made to people, we've learned a few things along the way from our participants.

We noticed early-on that some people created more value for themselves than others. People with similar backgrounds in education, success in life, ages and genders reported vastly different value gained from their experience. Given they were in the same room with the same learning design and the same Seminar Leader, what was it that created such widely varying results?

Observation and interviews revealed that how people “showed up” and participated in the seminar made the difference . We began a process of identifying those positive “show up” qualities present in participants who grabbed the gold ring, the ones who created amazing value personally and professionally.

We identified an initial “Five Elements for Success” which eventually grew to “Eight” and became part of every seminar's introductory remarks: “You're here, you've paid your tuition and we assume you want the best possible result. Our experience with thousands of people demonstrates that these ‘ways of being', when practiced and lived in the moment, will lead to the best possible experience for you.”

All of our personal and organizational improvement seminars have in common a commitment to increase awareness, build personal responsibility and generate a breakthrough in communication; thus a breakthrough in relationship with self, with others, with your work and in your community. Graduates consistently report that doing this kind of work within oneself is often challenging, and the temptation to revert to old, entrenched behaviors is strong. Thousands of times in seminars held in Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Dallas, New York and many other locations, a Seminar Leader has held up a mirror for a participant who has become “stuck” by saying, “Which one of the eight elements are not present for you right now? Which one are you not living in the moment?”

The dialogues that followed these moments of discomfort often produced amazing insight, especially for already successful people who wondered why they would repeat certain patterns that led them away from what they really wanted to create in their lives, families, friendships, work and communities.

The next breakthrough was noticing that really successful people were practicing these “Eight Elements” not just in our seminar, but in every aspect of their lives . We've since recommended the Elements as a life practice, built various programs around them and they also serve as the core material for the Nightingale Conant home study program, “Living an Extraordinary Life.”

Of course, we should mention that this amazing program is available in CD or audio tape versions at:

http://www.balancepointinternational.com/store/index.htm

The purpose of capturing these Eight Elements is to share with a wider audience what we've learned about generating a truly successful life. In today's Extraordinary Living Action Steps below, there's a personal evaluation for you to complete. I recommend you print it out, score yourself on each of the elements and look at areas where you might want to become more effective. It is, of course, your choice and your opportunity.

I appreciate your interest and over the coming months as we look at each of the Eight Elements, I welcome the chance to be your guide for the journey and encourage you to interact. E-mail me with your thoughts and questions.

One of my pleasures this past month was speaking in San Francisco before the participants in “The Presidio Dialogues.” A delightful part of that trip was spending some quality time with dear friends Gordon Tucker, David Bennett, David Sibbett and John Renesch...who, I'm delighted to report...just successfully completed heart-bypass surgery.

John gifted me with a beautifully designed and framed portion of one of my favorite quotes so to celebrate his good health, our friendship and a great thought, I repeat the entire passage here:

Balance Point International's powerful and effective program for leadership and management development, Value 2 Management, is now available in the greater Chicago area. We've partnered with our friends at Wright Institute to launch V2M in the Midwest so we're now offering this proven, professional training approach in Seattle , Denver and Chicago.

If you'd like to learn more about Value 2 Management and how it can improve your personal or organizational results, click here:

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

You can also arrange a personal meeting with a Balance Point Consultant where you get any questions answered and find out if you'd like to take advantage of our “no obligation” introductory meeting with your managers by calling

(800) 659-1659.

Do it now and thank me later!

I've attended many personal and professional growth seminars over the years -- some because "it's my business" and most because I believe my continued growth and development are really important in creating the extraordinary life I'm committed to living.  My experiences of some of those seminars were great and inform my daily choices years later.  Some experiences were, frankly, so-so and the value, if any, was fleeting or difficult to apply in my daily life.

I'd not done anything personally impactful for almost five years so when the opportunity to attend Wright Learning's “Men's Basic Weekend” presented itself last year, my partner Ron Tate and I jumped in.

It was an amazing, positive and powerful experience that Ron and I recommend without reservation.  The human developmental model taught -- and modeled by the staff -- is clear, coherent and a brilliant breakthrough in understanding how to be more fully alive every day.

The next Men's Basic Weekend is April 29 – May 1 and the next Women's Essential Experience is April 8-10 in Southern Wisconsin (near Chicago)  If you're thinking of a personal tune-up or an acceleration of your growth or getting past a pattern that isn't working for you or for any other reason you might invent ..... get your questions answered and be there. 

You can learn more about the men's program at:

http://www.wrightlearning.com/moreformen/moreformen.html

and about the women's program at:

http://www.wrightlearning.com/moreforwomen/moreforwomen.html

In addition to opportunity to attend the Men's Basic Weekend, my gay readers will also be interested in the Wright Institute's active program for gay men.

http://www.wrightlearning.com/moreforgaymen/moreforgaymen.html

The words on the site that really resonates with me are:

• Speak MORE positively
• Act MORE decisively
• Live MORE joyfully ...
• every day for the rest of your life

I believe Bob and Judith Wright's work delivers on those promises. If you'd like to talk directly to a Wright Learning trainer, call Mike Zwell at 312-446-9205 or Christina Canright at 773-248-8935 – both are "good people" and great resources to learn about these powerful experiences.

Balance Point executive seminars often include the following simple self-appraisal and participants tell us there's real value in this opportunity for some reflection and action.

Here's a list of the Eight Elements along with a rating scale from zero (I'm terrible at this quality) to ten (interview me for your next book – I'm perfect at this one!). Rate yourself on each element, write down your score and then I'll make some suggestions on what you can do as a next step.

First, take a look at those qualities where you scored yourself fairly high. This will be the most challenging part of the exercise because your assignment is to take responsibility for living consistently with qualities of being that are practiced by winners. Acknowledge yourself for this and be willing to consider that whatever your accomplishments, personally and professionally, they are probably directly linked with your scores in these areas.

Said most simply...Celebrate your greatness.

Now look at those qualities where there is room for improvement and select one or two at the most. Keep those in mind over the coming months as we role out the Eight Elements. Develop your own plan of action, your personal “next steps.” Just some very small adjustments to your day-to-day behavior can result in some very big improvements in both the quality of your life and in the quantity of your results.

Again, said simply...Give yourself permission to get better.

Wishing you an Extraordinary Life and Extraordinary Organizations ,

Robert White
Balance Point International
P. O. Box 40405
Denver , CO 80204

Phone: 1-303-632-7744

E-mail: Robert@BalancePointInternational.com

http://www.BalancePointInternational.com

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