ROCK CLIMBING!!! What about it? There are many lessons we can glean from the rock climbing metaphor of life. I have many heros and mentors in the climbing world and Arno Ilgner ranks up there in the highest peaks. WHY is that? Because of many of his bold first ascents? While the first ascent and bold climbing feats are impressive, that is not why I choose to focus on the strategies that Arno emodies. What Arno has done is created a way for us to understand the power of the psychology behind climbing. In his book, The Rock Warriors Way: Mental Training for Climbers – he enlightens us to many aspects about awareness and action.
My personal Connection
I can say that I have been in a variety of life-threatening situations and many of which I can directly attribute a particular factor that saved my life. One of these situations was during the crux of a first ascent in the remote jungles of Cambodia. And I can also say that the words of Arno Ilgner were deeply ingrained into my subconscious mind – and that the action that came forth was my unconscious reaction to the situation at hand. Before I go on too long, I’d like to suggest that you check out this webinar interview. This piece of work focuses on the exporation of Arno’s latest mental strategies for climbers, particularly in the areas of Process Goals, Stress and Learning. These important concepts can be applied to our lives in many ways.
Take a look by clicking the link below and then come back and post a comment!
WOW – am I excited! On Friday afternoon, September 25, 2009 we will be joined by my good friend and Investment Strategy Master Phil Town. Those of you in Jackson may know Phil or have seen him around town (ha, ha). But then again, maybe not because he has a wild travel schedule, speaking to 20,000 people at a time! (No kidding!) You might have heard about his NY Times # 1 Best Seller, Rule # 1. You probably haven’t heard about his new book, Payback Time. He told me that he had a 5 day window between Singapore and travel all over the US this fall, and he’s coming to Jackson to be with us! Why? Because he not only BELIEVES in the Seeking True North message, but has LIVED IT. Phil is an expert a knowing when to hold em, and when to fold em, so to speak. He puts on his pants just like we do, except when he does he makes gold records. (ha! Obscure More Cowbell joke)
Seriously, If you are going to be learning about financial success, why not go to an EXPERT?
I want you to learn all about investing in your most important assets while Seeking true North in your own life, regardless of whether or not you can make it to our seminar. So here is a post for you that has success strategies about your relationships, peer groups, and strategies that are cross contextual. Yes, this is all part of the Grand Dynamics strategy to offer our perspective and empower individuals, teams and organizations – whether that comes across in a dialogue, email or our team building events, seminars or speakers.
So get this, part of Seeking True North is about surrounding yourself with a peer group that raises your standards. One principle I have known to be true is that our lives are a direct reflection of the EXPECTATIONS of our peers. Do your peers truly raise you up? Do you raise to the expectations of those around you? Do your relationships serve you to evolve into your highest self? If your relationships do not serve you, consider the reframe of the relationship that empowers you to your highest self.
You may find this concept similar to the STN tool known as the Prax Factor, which in essence says that if you want more of a certain thing in your life, then seek out people that have those qualities! Want more happiness and laughter in your life? Then surround yourself with people that are happy and laugh a lot! What qualities might you want more of in your life? Who might be someone that has those qualities? The same principle applies for anything you want more of.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that we all would like to make smart investment decisions, whether that is investing your energy, your time or your money. Which leads me to another point, and that is that many success strategies are cross-contextual. This means that what you learn in one situation can be applied to another. Where have you already been successful in your life? What strategies have worked for you already? I can certainly vouch for this principle in my own life. The first thing that comes to mind for me is Rock Climbing. That’s another post, another story, but my point is that when I apply those concepts that have brought me success in the mountains, I immediately begin to experience results in other parts of my life. And as I continue to continue to seek out those people who have been VERY successful in many contexts, I begin to discover their patterns that I can apply in my life.
Yet another STN Principle is that SUCCESS LEAVES CLUES. If you want to achieve a certain thing, there is a pretty good chance that there is someone out there that has already achieved it. A personal motto I like to say a lot is that success is reserved for those that search it out! Thus the Seeking part of the True North equation! Who might be a role models who has already achieved or is currently achieving the success you with to have? Generate your own list and find out what they are doing! And don’t forget the implementation part of it. Choose the action and begin to MODEL their success. Develop your sensory acquity along the way and notice what it working. Learn, adapt and continue on with power and confidence. Soon the results will be coming your way.
I personally desire to continuously learn more about financial success. Phil Town has and continues to experience that. And What I love about Phil Town is that he started off, well, very similar to many of us in Jackson Hole who moved here to ski, climb or guide rivers. And he took a borrowed $1000 and 5 years later had turned it into a million. Now he is one of the most sought after speakers on investment anywhere.
I’ll spare you the details of his rags to riches story (which is awesome by the way) and skip to the present. Phil town will be at Spring Creek Ranch on Friday afternoon from about 3-5 PM sharing his Seeking True North story and success strategies for investing. Yes, Phil will be talking about investing. He’ll share secrets about how you can begin to capitalize on the current market, even if you have never traded a stock in your life. And for those that have, or do regularly, you’ll gain insight that could make all the difference. Yes, Phil will share secrets that could make you millions. And yes, the strategies that Phil will share will be concepts that you can APPLY to many aspects of your life. Remember, Success Strategies are cross-contextual!
Now you may or may not be a stock trader. You probably at the very least have a 401 K or an IRA or something of the sort. Maybe you do have a bunch of stock and maybe you have lost a lot of it. Here’s what Phil has to say about his new book, Payback Time. “PAYBACK TIMEis about just that – how to get it back if you’ve lost it. If you’ve been following my advice you should be in pretty good shape and now starting to get back into the market. But millions are not. Most of these people are not people who are interested in investing, nor do they want to trade. They are buy and hold mutual fund investors. And they’ve been killed financially. Now all they are doing is praying the market will go back up. In a recent email exchange with Phil he told me this: ”This market is the opportunity of a lifetime for true north investors who understand the basics of great investing: buy only wonderful businesses. Buy them only when they are on sale. Knowing how much to pay for a business is all about knowing Payback Time.”
WAIT! What if I can’t make it to the ENTIRE Seeking True North Weekend?
Well, I want to make this presentation accessible for anyone interested. Of course, there is only so much room at Spring Creek, so we’ll have to cap the numbers, so if you are interested in attending this portion of the weekend, then contact us immediately at info@granddynamics.com to reserve your spot. However, I want to reinforce that this weekend is about immersion into the MANY success strategies that apply to our lives personally and professionally. The weekend is designed to take your life to new heights and to breakthrough anything in your way. I look forward to seeing you there. http://www.seekingtruenorth.com/a-personal-invitation/
Here are a few posts of Phil’s that I personally like. You might enjoy them:
About Phil Town: His story, information, links, etc:
Yep – It’s true. I spoke with my good friend Phil Town and he is joining us in Jackson Hole to share insights that will blow you away. Multi-Million Dollar Secrets coming your way!
Hi Everyone!
I have an incredible gift I want to give to you. It’s about understanding, managing and leveraging our emotions to maximize our personal and professional impact. And it’s about that word we always here about, but often find difficult to explain: Leadership. Leadership on the new frontier of human and organizational potential is about optimizing people for success.
This Thursday evening, AUGUST 20th, as part of my Success Strategies Interview Series, I will have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Rich Handley, Dean of EQ University, about Leadership, Emotions and Executive Presence. I first met Rich about five years ago during my EQ Certification and have been utilizing the model of Emotional Intelligence for training, coaching and experiential leadership applications ever since. Dr. Handley is one of my personal mentors and I am excited to share his wisdom and insight with you! When it comes to understanding, managing and leveraging our emotions, Dr. Handley is THE MAN! I have included a little more information about Dr. Rich Handley below the registration for the Webinar.
Please forward this information to anyone you think could benefit!
Success Strategies with Dr. Rich Handley: Leadership, Emotions and Executive Presence
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM PDT
Join us for a Webinar on August 20th
Tim Walther, President of Grand Dynamics International and co-author of Seeking True North: The Pathway to Freedom, Beauty and Success, will hold a Success Strategies Interview with Dr. Rich Handley, a leading expert in the field of leadership development and Emotional Intelligence. The feature topic of this interview will be Executive Presence, which Dr. Handley refers to as the Leadership “X” Factor. Attendees will learn how to maximize their impact through understanding emotions and applying the four primary components of Presence: Vision, Projection, Control and Connection. This Webinar will include action steps for how to manage and “put your emotions to work” as well as the “silver bullet” of self-actualization. As a part of the Seeking True North Action Seminar, September 24-27 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, participants will receive a Leadership Executive Presence report and personal feedback with Dr. Rich Handley. This is a free webinar brought to you by Grand Dynamics International in collaboration with EQ University.
As a reminder, each Seeking True North Action Seminar Participant that registers by September 7th will receive their own Executive Presence report with your personal analysis of your leadership vision, projection, control and connection. You’ll also receive the BarOn EQ-I developmental report, which provides insight into fifteen major competencies for optimizing your performance. We’ll also be integrating the components of Leadership Presence with the Seeking True North model through an experiential framework throughout the weekend so you can fully assimilate these concepts into your personal and professional life.
If you are ready to join us for the Seeking True North Action Seminar, click on the personal invitation to the left of this post!
Here’s a little information about Rich Handley:
Dr. Rich Handley is the foremost expert on optimizing people for success by understanding and applying concepts of Emotional Intelligence. He is a leading business strategist in leveraged, high-performance human capital solutions and has worked extensively with Fortune 500 firms world-wide in areas such as employee selection, organizational and leadership development, employee development, and sales training. He also conducts the EQ-i® and the EQ360® certifications for EQ University, having certified more individuals world-wide than anyone.
Rich is the co-author of the book, Optimizing People, the EQ360 Assessment, the EQ Interview, the Behavioral Health Survey, and the Benchmark for Organizational Emotional Intelligence. His work has been featured in Fast Company Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Harvard Business Update, Training Magazine, H.R. Magazine, Controller Magazine, Selling Power, the Dallas Morning News, MSN, ABC and Fox News.
The Leaders job on the high performance frontier is about Influencing, training and developing people. In Rich’s new book, Leadership Presence, he explains the Leadership X Factor and how Emotionally Intelligent leaders have higher impact through stronger Vision, Projection, Control and Connection.
Have an incredible day, stay positive and powerful, and LIVE YOUR ADVENTURE!
I am SO excited about STN in Jackson and our registration release! Psyched to see you here! Here’s a brief update.
I’m back in Jackson Hole. After a couple hours sleep yesterday, went into the mountains to climb the Grand Teton. We started at 1 AM from the Lupine Meadows Parking Lot in Grand Teton National Park. By the time we were 2 hours in (at Garnet Meadows) we were walking through a blanket of snow! The night before we took off (which was the same afternoon I arrived from the drive from California) there was a storm came through between 7 pm and 11 pm and completely changed the conditions on the mountain. In other words, when I went to sleep for a few hours that night, the mountain was in one condition, when I woke up, it was in another entirely, but I didn’t know it! Therefore, we planned on one set of gear, including lighter weight shoes, which wasn’t appropriate for the climb…
The hike was so beautiful and eveything was flowing, so we continued on our approach optimisitically and by the time we made it to the Lower Saddle our feet were just about frozen. After a few minutes of reality testing, we decided to rest a few minutes and head back down. It was a beautiful walk in the mountains.
Here are some links to posts you might find interesting!
We brought a flip cam to Salt Lake for Meeting Planners International conference. Stephanie and I interviewed several experts and put together a series of video – tips for meeting planners. You should know that Stephanie did all the editing – great job!
Erick Erickson is the founder of Erickson International. Erick and his team of professionals specialize in keynote inspirational speaking, corporate retreats, coaching, and leadership development for individuals and for teams around the world.
Tim Walther is the president of Grand Dynamics, Inc., an international training and development company based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Applied Business Psychology and a Master of Science in Experiential Education focused on Leadership Studies and Organizational Development.
