The EC Sampler Booklet - Phase 1: Design

My original Enlightened Child kids book cost me $66 to produce six. What I wanted was something that cost 25 cents... something I could just as easily give away.

With Rusted Root coming up, and all the fun I had at RatDog & Michael Franti, I decided to invest some of the money from a local patron and print up some promotional coloring books for kids who come play my Mancala game at concerts.

At one point I had an idea for a coloring book, but I didn't have line-drawings of all 12 signs. To save myself the time and effort, and just "get er done" I decided to make a sampler book with the first 4 signs and an explanation the parents can appreciate.

So I made up a little model of how it would work, and what it would say...

Then I folded it up to test it and see if I was on the right track...

Everything looked good, so I made transfered the model to Publisher and printed a shell version...

With a solid base to build on, I roughed in the content...

What I ended up with made enough sense to move forward with the plan. In the next post, I'll show what steps I took to bring it all together.

Would you like a copy?

Cool...

There's two ways you can get one. Just refresh this page and sign up for the newsletter, or join us at www.facebook.com/EnlightenedChild.

Everyone who joins will receive a free copy of this coloring book and a license to print them and share them with your friends.

Cheers,

Craig

want a free postcard print of the 'Realized' Buddha collage I made in 1998? Enter your email here: http://www.enlightenedchild.com/

be sure to join our Facebook Fan Page as well!

Does Your Child Know Her Purpose Yet?

It's no joke - we are all born with a purpose, and the schooling system couldn't care less.

Most teachers are just grown up products of the same system and are so deep into it that most teachers either have no idea what their own true purpose in life is (I hardly believe that a teacher would tell you "my purpose is to brainwash hundreds of kids into consumer society drones") or they have no tools for consistently liberating children from this cycle of consumer socialization to a true realization of their inborn purpose. So, the cycle perpetuates itself in mass-unconsciousness.

(pardon me while I go puke out the window...)

One of the most important exercises I've ever done (and I have worked through it dozens and dozens of times over the last decade) is discovering and defining and deciding what my purpose is.

I learned it first from Michael Gerber in the E-Myth Mastery Academy - which is an entrepreneurial coaching program. He understands that, in order for a business to serve the entrepreneur's life, we must begin with what's in our heart first, then build the business around that clarity.

Michael Losier's book on the Law of Attraction walks us through a nearly identical exercise. Tony Robbins, and all the classic success gurus say pretty much the same thing. Seems there's a pattern here:

1.) Write down everything you DON'T want in your life

2.) Use that list to come up with clarity about what you DO want in your life

3.) Boil that down to the essence of who you are and what your life is all about

Why were you born?

10 words or less!

Hold this mantra as a compass. Something you never forget. If I come to your house at 3am and shake you awake and say, "WHAT'S YOUR PURPOSE?!!" you should spit it right out.

Do you have this clarity?

Well, I walked my 8 year old through this same exercise last fall and she came up with a list that's just as legit as anything an adult could conjure up. After all, it doesn't take a PhD to know what you want in life, and if you look a little deeper, to see where those wants are coming from.

Look closely at this picture, you can see her two separate columns...




What did she come up with?

"To love and take care of animals"

Simple.

What's better than that!




So, here's where it comes into play, and the reason I'm inspired to post about this. Last week she demonstrated this on a handful of occasions:

1.) She rescued a baby bird from the playground at school

2.) She rescued a guinea pig that was to be "given a shot that would make him sleep until it was time for him to die"

3.) She rescued a baby chipmunk from the clutches of her cat Stella

4.) She captured a moth and brought it home, set it free in my bedroom and pet it good night by the lamp

5.) She gingerly carried around the snails she captured by the trainyard where we find em

6.) She does research on koalas and other animals at school...

And that's just ONE WEEK!!!

I applaud her for living her purpose and it settles into her psyche that she is fundamentally good and rooted in a core purpose that serves the world and makes her feel whole and complete.

It's an incredible thing.

I highly recommend it.

If you're a teacher or a parent who would like more information on how you can help kids discover their own Purpose in life, please contact me.

After all, my purpose is: To Enlighten the World!

Cheers,

Craig

to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com

Montessori is NOT Self-Help...

Back in college I read a lot of Spiritual and Self-Help type books. I was interested in growing and becoming a better person... or stopping the gnawing existential pain I kicked up in the process.

When I got into Sales I was pleased to discover a culture of personal and professional development. Guys like Zig Ziglar and Jim Rohn were instrumental in helping me ground my mind in this worldly reality and get a grip on who I am becoming as a man. Mentors and friends helped as well. But ultimately it all comes down to experience.

Since I never took a marketing or finance class... EVER... I had to teach myself these things through experience (aka repeated failure). I started businesses and made sales calls and did all the things the gurus said. And I've gotten much better. But something still nags at me... about the potential I have within me that I fear may never see the light of day.

Reading some Maria Montessori this morning (founder of the Montessori schools - AMI) I thought back to my two years as a Montessori kid. They made sense. I grew and understood how I was growing. I engaged in playful mastery of the material and I was recognized as a young, developing soul. It was joyous times.

The chapter I read this morning talked about how to really mess up a child for life. Luckily I spent the rest of my schooling in institutions that read THAT manual and my jaw dropped in astonishment at the aftermath and how it has played out in my life.

When I say Montessori is NOT Self-Help, what I mean is that as I read the chapter and thought about the impact these negative schooling experiences have had on my life, I realized that the next page would not be some treatise or meditation exercise designed to free my soul from the bondage of psychological anguish these naughty naughty institutions have inflicted upon me.

No. There would be no Self-Help epiphany today.

What I see very clearly, though, is a need to assist parents and teachers in honoring the soul of the child and not foisting the habituated traumas we acquired in our own schooling and socialization on our children, but truly "Following the Child" and learning something of our own humanity in their innocence and joy.

Montessori is a recipe for a child who will not need much, if any, self-help work. There will always been an edge to grow to, but the negative feelings that we were saddled with in childhood need not hinder that growth or create mind-boggling challenges that make us say things like, "I'm afraid of success." Something is wrong with a culture that instills fear of completion and the joy of accomplishment in its populous.

What can we do to help our children grow up free from the weeds of the antiquated schooling and socialization process?

Cheers,

Craig

to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com

How to Get a Mentor?

It seems counter-intuitive... "Take a Millionaire to Lunch! but HE'S the one with all the money and I'm broke!"

What about the offering of gifts is so irresistible to Mentors?

Narcissism. The Mentoring relationship is more than merely training or teaching. It's probably got roots in some Freudian complex, which none-the-less means there's great power in the relationship.

Mentors are on a path. They have conquered the mountain, or are well on their way to it. They don't have time for nambi-pambi bologna. They want results because the results they are known for is what qualifies them as a potential mentor for you (or your child) in the first place.

WARNING: It's a common fallacy, and a sure set up for disappointment, to project guru status on someone who is expert in their field. This shows up most often in the way they are seen as expert in an omni-potent sense - they know it all... about everything - when really they may be woefully unqualified to mentor you(r child) in any other area. Think starving artist or pervert guru. They have one field of competence nailed - clearly to the detriment of other areas like sustenance and morality. So, just be careful of this.

So, mentors see themselves in the mentee. They won't work with someone in a TRUE mentoring capacity unless they can see the inner nature of the protege as clearly as they see their own hand. Everything else is just passing advice and well-wishing one another on your way. True mentoring is a durable, ongoing relationship that can last decades or lifetimes.

How do you find these potential mentors and then get them to mentor you(r child)?

Good question - because Mentors save you so much time and heartache it's not even funny. Taking a millionaire to lunch could change your life. So, don't hesitate when you see an opportunity to obtain even passing advice. And when you find someone you really feel is right for you - I mean, you've checked each other out in person, learned about what you each want in life, where you're going and how your mentor can help you get there... then you can follow these steps:

The steps for obtaining a mentor, as given to me by a mentor I'm courting:

1.) Identify a burning desire in your heart.

2.) Learn as much as you can about this on your own.

3.) Identify individuals who have gone and done what you envision going and doing.

4.) Approach them and interview them. It's always a mutual interview.

5.) Suggest a mentoring relationship - they may be experienced in this or not.

6.) Tell them you'd like to make a formal offering for them to consider.

7.) Prepare and deliver a package of some sort the represents something meaningful to the atmosphere or relationship dynamic that you are entering in to. Something that the Mentor can consider in the gestalt of his life and how much he is willing and able to commit to this process.

8.) Be on time for meetings, be professional with communications, keep all commitments in a timely fashion, and be generally grateful for all instruction and reflection.

9.) Watch for pathologies that may disrupt or interfere with a True Mentoring Relationship - never abdicate responsibility for your mental and emotional safety to ANYONE. You are your own best protector. Keep your eyes open.

10. Continually obtain new mentors on your journey of life. This will provide a blend of perspectives, and give you a roundtable of reference points to call on when advancing through life's choppy waters. Collect Mentors and keep in touch with them. They truly care about you and want to share your journey. The more you keep in touch, the easier you will find it to call on them even years down the road.

So, this is my run-down on Getting Mentors.

I'm sending a wooden box of natural tobacco to my chosen mentor. If he accepts, I will be heading to Vermont, near Burlington, to be Mentored as a Water Pourer for sweat lodges several times a year - Solstice and Equinox sweats.

Today I found the box I will send. So, this was on my mind.

Hope you find it helpful and certainly hope you're share it with your teens and their friends!

Cheers,

Craig

to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com