My mission is to Illuminate.
I do that by teaching what I know, or at least sharing my experiences with others - both successes and failures.
Sometimes I want to create a whole curriculum, with formal outlines and all that fun stuff. Then I realize if I can simplify amplify the example I am setting, that can be enough for those who are ready to learn what I'm laying down.
This is an example of a conversation I initiated with Michael Strong. A man who I would consider one of my top candidates for mentoring, if he were so inclined, based on his experience developing Socratic Montessori schools in Alaska, and his current work with John Mackey - founder of Whole Foods.
These are the types of people I want to get around if I am going to really serve the world with the vision I carry in my heart.
I invited Michael's input around my interest in finding a Grad program to deepen my confidence in how I present my vision to the world, and how I develop a community of inquiry around it.
He responded in true Socratic fashion with this clarifying questions:
"Do you know what role you would like to play in the world of education?"
My response, while involved, is the best I've been able to articulate both what I am doing, and how I aim to get there. I post it here both for anyone interested in the Enlightened Child vision, and also for Michael, since I will reply to him with a much truncated version of this stream of consciousness draft.
If you're looking for mentors of this caliber, there are a lot of lessons contained in every part of this blog post.
There are also a lot of suggestions I'd love to hear from anyone who has more experience with this than me.
Below begins my response...
~~~~~
Michael - such wonderful questions. Thank you.
This response is long - I won't be offended if you skip to the bottom where I do finally boil it down to one, tripartite sentence explaining what I am after.
~~~~~
From the hip: I want to foster a Community of Inquiry that spreads globally (via social media networks) like a mycelium network, attracting the brightest minds and deepest hearts and helping them launch a life of True Purpose according to their individual nature.
My methodology is to start with Truth, express it through Beauty, and simply invite those who are interested (find this Good) into a dialogue, into a community of inquiry where we explore the truth and get it working for us, get our lives on track because lord knows the current administration and schooling system all but insidiously intends to knock us off track, knock us senseless. Grrrrr...
So, my vision is to enter the educational process at any age - pre-birth to maturity - with a series of principles that quite frankly "Make Sense!"
I create Montessori-inspired toys and games and books that model core principles every child must come to know to be successful in life. They begin learning about Art, Morals and Science... Compass, Mentors, Maps... Health, Compassion, Wealth... from a very early age because I provide a format for discussing the big questions in life using the symbols for truth that have been refined over millenia - the Oroborous, Yin-Yang, Chakras, Enneagram, Kabbalah, Zodiac. "Graduation" from my "school" means a student is financially self-sufficient, well-connected and able to obtain new mentors, radiating health & has a clear compass in hand at all times.
My materials are patterned after Montessori materials because I attended 2 years of Primary. My daughter is in her 6th year now, and her mother just completed her 3 summer Primary certification. They are very simple - a coloring book that represents numbers 1-12 in a multi-cultural expose of principles. Oroboros, Yin-Yang, Triquestra, Zia, 5 Chinese Elements, Hexagram, Chakras, Ba-Gua, Enneagram, Kabbalah, Planetary Archetypes, Zodiac. I also create games - like painting a Mancala board with the chakras, using it to teach about cause & effect, relationship dynamics and how to create a windfall of success.
Imagine if the Tri-nomial Cube was a popular toy made by Mattel for the mass-market. You and I know Pythagorean mysteries are contained in the concrete operational artifact, and its purpose is to hardwire the child's brain for the abstract understanding to be overlayed several years later (assuming the child is able to stay with the Montessori curriculum!) My materials invite deeper mysteries - the deepest, most relevant ideas for the greatest number of humans. Who am I? What do I want? How will I get it? In a Good Way?
As a Dead Head, I developed my materials to "get around" and operate like a modular, supplemental education system. Since they are primarily tools for pattern recognition, it doesn't matter what "else" the child has learned to that point, interacting with the materials spontaneously organizes the accumulated data in the child's mind. A formal schooling environment is welcome to incorporate them as well as any homeschooler, as well as any curious child who happens upon these in a Dead parking lot ;-)
People of all ages can be attracted to the beauty, and allow the deeper meaning to seep in over time - like a young child or a thick adult ;-p, or for young adults, even teens, I want to create a series of coaching nad information products that invite them to dive into the deeper meaning and explore the principles I present them through coaching, group calls, events and workshops, and yes, perhaps physical schools... though this is not where I intend to focus. Too slow for me, though I respect the value of a well run institution when I see one ;-)
My own daughter has proven to me that children can understand the rudimentary principles as young as 3, probably younger if I knew how to test for this. I've developed a handful of proto-type toys and games and books over the years. People LOVE them. It's my passion to create them, delving deep into the mystery schools from which they have been passed into the world.
What has held me back from living this mission wide open to this point is critical deficiencies in my development. Ken Wilber's AQAL map has been the most helpful in pin-pointing the deficiencies, and now after a 5 year jaunt through the world of slash and burn economics, I have "graduated" back to a more Integral worldview, with the lessons of Marketing and Business Development seared into my heart like a cattle brand.
I'm ready to launch, to teach what I've learned to my entrepreneurial interns, and work out the organization of this "school" that also serves to administer my business (a social media marketing firm based on Authenticity). I have 12-15 young men paying $100/mo and doing these weekly and monthly coaching calls. That money accumulates until it is enough to scholarship one of these young men who is really showing earnest desire to teach and master through mentoring his cohort - send him to a national workshop or seminar that will completely alter his map of reality and transform his character. Integrate his energy across the rest of the cohort, and strengthen the frame of consciousness I am intent on fostering.
Come spring, I want to be enrolled in a program that will give me the CONFIDENCE (not just credentials) to really step things up to a national and international level. I want to fast-track my Authority positioning by writing some profound papers, possibly a book, that will explain this unique educational framework - the mentoring pyramid informed by inquiry into the principles of deep presence... Living Embodied Enlightenment if you will.
My hunch is, with enough exposure to enlightening ideas, the developing soul will spontaneously burst into a full blown Enlightenment experience. Even if only for a moment. And THAT is what I believe the world needs - more of us informed by a True vision of our Soul's Purpose. Along with the influence and resources to do something profound with that Vision.
And, like Ghandi says, I gotta be the change I wanna see. I have to model this and entrain the DNA of my "lineage" by aligning myself with mentors of strong character and penetrating insight - both into the world, and into me.
There is so much I know I'm capable of... I'm ready to start experiencing life with the guidance of worthy mentors who SEE me, Feel me, and draw me into the world in an extremely skillful way - much as you have done with your question today. Heheh - an Educator. One who 'draws forth from within.'
Michael - I'm open to creating this scenario for myself through some college that facilitates independent study. Or a program that is already in place (Fielding's MA in Educational Leadership & Change with an Integral Certificate caught my eye). Or even just diving in with some steady guidance by a man like yourself, and perhaps others you recommend to round out the experience and guidance.
What I mostly need is a focused course with a clear outcome - develop and publish an educational manifesto per above outline, secure mentoring relationships with a stellium of exceptional mentors, and grow this "school" that is really a business that pays the bills while paying interns to learn and stay close to me. Yep. That's it, in a nutshell.
Apologies for building you a clock when you asked for the Time. First opportunity anyone's ever given me to truly un-pack all that I've been carrying in my soul the past decade.
Thanks again,
Craig
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To Your Enlightenment Experience!
Craig
Want a free print of the 'Realized' Buddha collage I made in 1998? Enter your email here: www.enlightenedchild.com
be sure to join our Facebook Fan Page as well!
Showing posts with label Maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maps. Show all posts
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!
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!
Is Masculine Initiation Really Necessary?
For millions of years men have initiated boys into manhood in their early teens.
Women have a built-in initiation - menstruation is a clear demarcation of that life transition. For men, it requires a trial, a challenge that forces a young man to face something within himself and claim that sacred masculine force within. Then he can return to his village, his tribe, his mother with a new sense of identity. He has individuated, or begun the process.
We've lost that sacred ritual in our culture... I mean, what mother do you know that would willingly let her son go off in the woods to have his tooth knocked out or his face tattooed, or go alone for a week with no food or water in the wilderness... zero.
Initiation is dangerous, and it must be for it to have the psychological impact a young man requires in order to understand the sacred masculine within. It's also crucial, and the African proverb says it best, "If we don't initiate the boys, they will burn the village down.
Today, the Mankind Project initiates men who have sought out that ritual in every which way but a healthy, mature one. Prison, armed forces, gangs, drugs, and all sorts of other rights of passage have sprung up in the shadows to accommodate this genetic need in our DNA.
But there's a problem. Frederick Douglas said it best, "It's easier to raise healthy boys than to repair broken men." So, the Boys to Men initiation experience has arisen to meet that need.
If you have a son, or are an uninitiated man who is called to the sacred masculine, these organizations offer some of the most profound, modern initiation weekend trainings on the planet. They are both international organizations and well worth the investment.
If you have any interest in either of these weekends I would be more than happy to answer any questions for you.
I was initiated in MKP at age 18. Boys to Men did not exist then, though it would have been a better experience for where I was at around that age. That's why I am so stoked that we are finally giving young men their birthright and initiating them at the appropriate age, before they spend decades seeking the experience in every place but the right one - with healthy, initiated men who can guide and mentor them to their true power.
Contact me with any questions - you'll be glad you did.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Women have a built-in initiation - menstruation is a clear demarcation of that life transition. For men, it requires a trial, a challenge that forces a young man to face something within himself and claim that sacred masculine force within. Then he can return to his village, his tribe, his mother with a new sense of identity. He has individuated, or begun the process.
We've lost that sacred ritual in our culture... I mean, what mother do you know that would willingly let her son go off in the woods to have his tooth knocked out or his face tattooed, or go alone for a week with no food or water in the wilderness... zero.
Initiation is dangerous, and it must be for it to have the psychological impact a young man requires in order to understand the sacred masculine within. It's also crucial, and the African proverb says it best, "If we don't initiate the boys, they will burn the village down.
Today, the Mankind Project initiates men who have sought out that ritual in every which way but a healthy, mature one. Prison, armed forces, gangs, drugs, and all sorts of other rights of passage have sprung up in the shadows to accommodate this genetic need in our DNA.
But there's a problem. Frederick Douglas said it best, "It's easier to raise healthy boys than to repair broken men." So, the Boys to Men initiation experience has arisen to meet that need.
If you have a son, or are an uninitiated man who is called to the sacred masculine, these organizations offer some of the most profound, modern initiation weekend trainings on the planet. They are both international organizations and well worth the investment.
If you have any interest in either of these weekends I would be more than happy to answer any questions for you.
I was initiated in MKP at age 18. Boys to Men did not exist then, though it would have been a better experience for where I was at around that age. That's why I am so stoked that we are finally giving young men their birthright and initiating them at the appropriate age, before they spend decades seeking the experience in every place but the right one - with healthy, initiated men who can guide and mentor them to their true power.
Contact me with any questions - you'll be glad you did.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
What's the Worst That Can Happen?
I won't deal in cut-throat business environments. There's nothing I want bad enough to tolerate that type of back-stabbing behavior. I can't imagine any good would come of it anyway even if I got what I thought I wanted... seems like it would come back at me with some price far in excess of any joy I felt.
That's not to say I haven't been double-crossed before. In business. In love. Not nearly as bad as it could have been. Sort of like the way I feel about my car accidents - just enough to rattle me and hopefully drive home the lesson.
Robert Ringer says there are three types of ways people will screw you:
1.) Tell you right to your face they're gonna grab all your chips
2.) Tell you they wouldn't dream of taking all your chips then doing it anyway
3.) Tell you they wouldn't dream of taking all your chips then, when it happens anyway, really telling you how bad they feel it worked out that way.
I guess the reason this is on my mind is because I'm contemplating some Joint Ventures (JVs) for my new business with people I have only met on Facebook.
As I approach the possibility of working with people who could easily swipe my idea and run with it, I steel myself with the conviction that the Enlightened Child mentoring component of the new business will make it immune to being ripped off 100 times by marketing sharks. What I aim for instead is a collaborative platform that brings social media experts together and creates a dynamic learning environment between them, their clients, and the mentees.
The mentees are learning marketing through implementing the social media profiles for the clients of my various Social Media Experts.
This way, the Social Media Experts can all offer a personally branded Done-For-You package and the mentees can get a world-class education that is relevant, and actually pays them to learn and achieve according to their interests.
That's the concept for the business that I'm creating to help me transition from a 9-5'er and free up time to write my Enlightened Child book and teach kids all about the wonders of the universe at concerts and other places I travel to.
Maybe there are still people out there who will habitually screw me over. Maybe I still have a lot naivete to get burned out of me. Whatever happens, I feel the Enlightened Child mission will keep marching my feet, keep creating with my hands, keep speaking with my tongue.
Looking at everything in life as a learning experience, I feel very little fear anymore.
What's the worst that can happen?
I'll learn.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
That's not to say I haven't been double-crossed before. In business. In love. Not nearly as bad as it could have been. Sort of like the way I feel about my car accidents - just enough to rattle me and hopefully drive home the lesson.
Robert Ringer says there are three types of ways people will screw you:
1.) Tell you right to your face they're gonna grab all your chips
2.) Tell you they wouldn't dream of taking all your chips then doing it anyway
3.) Tell you they wouldn't dream of taking all your chips then, when it happens anyway, really telling you how bad they feel it worked out that way.
I guess the reason this is on my mind is because I'm contemplating some Joint Ventures (JVs) for my new business with people I have only met on Facebook.
As I approach the possibility of working with people who could easily swipe my idea and run with it, I steel myself with the conviction that the Enlightened Child mentoring component of the new business will make it immune to being ripped off 100 times by marketing sharks. What I aim for instead is a collaborative platform that brings social media experts together and creates a dynamic learning environment between them, their clients, and the mentees.
The mentees are learning marketing through implementing the social media profiles for the clients of my various Social Media Experts.
This way, the Social Media Experts can all offer a personally branded Done-For-You package and the mentees can get a world-class education that is relevant, and actually pays them to learn and achieve according to their interests.
That's the concept for the business that I'm creating to help me transition from a 9-5'er and free up time to write my Enlightened Child book and teach kids all about the wonders of the universe at concerts and other places I travel to.
Maybe there are still people out there who will habitually screw me over. Maybe I still have a lot naivete to get burned out of me. Whatever happens, I feel the Enlightened Child mission will keep marching my feet, keep creating with my hands, keep speaking with my tongue.
Looking at everything in life as a learning experience, I feel very little fear anymore.
What's the worst that can happen?
I'll learn.
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
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
SHOULD Your Child Be Working From a Checklist?
Making the "checklist" process conscious has a lot of value. It's a life-skill that is never really taught, unless by a mentor who either discovered it or learned it from his own mentor. Most people are not proficient at it, and it's like playing an instrument, learning a language - you have to practice for years.
So, here's this insight:
Teach your child to consciously develop mental checklists so they know how to make and improve checklists in their minds. (Hint: put the steps on paper and run through them while revising, then memorize/habituate the new routine.)
I like to use my hand as a counting tool. I think 3 things are manageable for a young child, so I'll put up my fist and stick out my pinky and call that the step where we do what Corrina wants to do. Then I'll stick out my thumb and have that be the next step I want her to take. Usually it's something simple just to get her on track and feeling accomplished. So, when she was 4-5 it was taking our shoes off when we get in the house and putting them away properly. Something consistent that she could rely on. Something familiar to reduce anxiety and build good habits around the house or whatever teaching environment. (Which I learned from Montessori Primary - Practical Life skills.)
So the conversation would go something like this:
Corrina: Dad can we wrestle when we get home?
Dad: Absolutely. What has to happen before we can wrestle?
Corrina: Ummmm...
Dad: Okay when we get home what's the first thing we always do?
Corrina: Put away shoes!??
Dad: okay and what has to happen after we put away our shoes, before we can wrestle?
Corrina: eat dinner!
Dad: What else?
Corrina: what else?
Dad: Do the dishes...
Corrina: Brush Teeth!
Dad: Bingo!
So, then whenever she gets off track, I just hold up my hand and reiterate the process. Oftentimes, simply holding up the fingers of the items we've completed will jar her memory of the next thing we gotta check off the checklist.
As she got older and was excited to learn how to write we would make checklists on notecards. Now, I was experimenting with notecards in my business, and she saw me using them on a daily basis. It intrigued her, so we made lists for ourselves during Daddy-Daughter time.
She now knows how to use them. Even though we've gone back to the ever-convenient hand for tracking what we gotta do, she has worked with the process on paper and it is like the rings of a tree as she develops that patterning will resonate out and shape her future experience. When she is older, I expect we will revisit this, and it will not be totally foreign. Something inside her will resonate with the principles, and respond to another lesson around upgrading her checklists - both mentally and on paper.
Making checklists is something we all do anyway. They are powerful scripts running in our lives that we would do well to master. Helping our children master these scripts by teaching them how to write and improve them in their own minds feels almost like a moral obligation to me.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
So, here's this insight:
Teach your child to consciously develop mental checklists so they know how to make and improve checklists in their minds. (Hint: put the steps on paper and run through them while revising, then memorize/habituate the new routine.)
I like to use my hand as a counting tool. I think 3 things are manageable for a young child, so I'll put up my fist and stick out my pinky and call that the step where we do what Corrina wants to do. Then I'll stick out my thumb and have that be the next step I want her to take. Usually it's something simple just to get her on track and feeling accomplished. So, when she was 4-5 it was taking our shoes off when we get in the house and putting them away properly. Something consistent that she could rely on. Something familiar to reduce anxiety and build good habits around the house or whatever teaching environment. (Which I learned from Montessori Primary - Practical Life skills.)
So the conversation would go something like this:
Corrina: Dad can we wrestle when we get home?
Dad: Absolutely. What has to happen before we can wrestle?
Corrina: Ummmm...
Dad: Okay when we get home what's the first thing we always do?
Corrina: Put away shoes!??
Dad: okay and what has to happen after we put away our shoes, before we can wrestle?
Corrina: eat dinner!
Dad: What else?
Corrina: what else?
Dad: Do the dishes...
Corrina: Brush Teeth!
Dad: Bingo!
So, then whenever she gets off track, I just hold up my hand and reiterate the process. Oftentimes, simply holding up the fingers of the items we've completed will jar her memory of the next thing we gotta check off the checklist.
As she got older and was excited to learn how to write we would make checklists on notecards. Now, I was experimenting with notecards in my business, and she saw me using them on a daily basis. It intrigued her, so we made lists for ourselves during Daddy-Daughter time.
She now knows how to use them. Even though we've gone back to the ever-convenient hand for tracking what we gotta do, she has worked with the process on paper and it is like the rings of a tree as she develops that patterning will resonate out and shape her future experience. When she is older, I expect we will revisit this, and it will not be totally foreign. Something inside her will resonate with the principles, and respond to another lesson around upgrading her checklists - both mentally and on paper.
Making checklists is something we all do anyway. They are powerful scripts running in our lives that we would do well to master. Helping our children master these scripts by teaching them how to write and improve them in their own minds feels almost like a moral obligation to me.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Oh Baby, That's the Ticket!
You can't ride without ticket... You can't see the show without a ticket... You can't get where you're goin without a ticket!
So, what's your ticket?
Maybe you're a teacher or a CPA or sales person. Whatever it is, the thing you do well, that gets you paid, gets you through doors that others can't pass through... that's your ticket.
Everyone needs at least one ticket. Life is about taking yourself where you wanna go. It's about having a compass and a direction. It's about overcoming obstacles and challenges to realizing your true nature. It's about exploring and experiencing and expressing all that life has to offer within, without and through you.
So, what's your ticket?
I didn't have a ticket for a long time. I had pieces of a ticket. I had a little of this and little of that... but I didn't have a TICKET. I didn't have something I could use to get me around in this world.
With a Philosophy Degree, minor in Art and another in Religion... that didn't really open a lot of doors, or get me where I was doing. I had no interest in the corporate world, or college for that matter. So, to the best of my ability I set myself up to NOT be admitted into the long, grey line of American manhood.
After Corrina was born, I realized I needed a ticket. I needed something to give me access to the world where people make money and take care of themselves and their families. I was substitute teaching - I was hanging around, but I didn't have a ticket. Teaching is my thing, but institutionalized schooling is not. So I bailed on that path.
Sales welcomed me with open arms. The world can always use another hack salesman. After a while of monkeying with that I realized it wasn't a ticket unless I could ACTUALLY sell something. Starting a business seemed like a ticket, but it took so long to figure it out. Finally, after moving to Chicago and getting involved in the Real Estate boom, I found my ticket.
I'm a serial entrepreneur with a sales and marketing bent. If there's a market, and I can live with the product, I can sell it.
That's my ticket.
It gets me the money I need to get where and what I want in my life. It gets me backstage into some pretty cool meetings and businesses that I would never have access to otherwise. It takes me to cool seminars and conferences where I meet incredibly powerful and intelligent people who also have a Sales/Marketing ticket... I couldn't be happier.
Here's the moral... it took me nearly 30 years to find my ticket. That's a long time. That's a long time being a scared, naive kid with no ticket. That's a lot of missed shows, a lot of missed trains... not the way I want my kid to grow up.
Most of what I've learned about sales and marketing could be taught to a 3rd or a 6th grader fairly easily. Especially when we get talking about information marketing and online businesses. Teens could acquire a lifetime ticket to ride by simply laying off the XBox 360 a few hours per day and learning the principles of marketing and internet sales.
Getting that ticket means your child will be able to go see shows, take rides, meet cool people, get an education, travel and explore... Whether it's sales or anything else, make sure your child knows that they will need a ticket, and help them start figuring out what that may be for them. It takes years to get a handle on it - no point in waiting to figure it out until after school and all the pressure that brings.
Better to get it handled early, so that the 20's are a time of radical self-exploration with a base of financial freedom that affords educational experiences impossible to obtain through school.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
So, what's your ticket?
Maybe you're a teacher or a CPA or sales person. Whatever it is, the thing you do well, that gets you paid, gets you through doors that others can't pass through... that's your ticket.
Everyone needs at least one ticket. Life is about taking yourself where you wanna go. It's about having a compass and a direction. It's about overcoming obstacles and challenges to realizing your true nature. It's about exploring and experiencing and expressing all that life has to offer within, without and through you.
So, what's your ticket?
I didn't have a ticket for a long time. I had pieces of a ticket. I had a little of this and little of that... but I didn't have a TICKET. I didn't have something I could use to get me around in this world.
With a Philosophy Degree, minor in Art and another in Religion... that didn't really open a lot of doors, or get me where I was doing. I had no interest in the corporate world, or college for that matter. So, to the best of my ability I set myself up to NOT be admitted into the long, grey line of American manhood.
After Corrina was born, I realized I needed a ticket. I needed something to give me access to the world where people make money and take care of themselves and their families. I was substitute teaching - I was hanging around, but I didn't have a ticket. Teaching is my thing, but institutionalized schooling is not. So I bailed on that path.
Sales welcomed me with open arms. The world can always use another hack salesman. After a while of monkeying with that I realized it wasn't a ticket unless I could ACTUALLY sell something. Starting a business seemed like a ticket, but it took so long to figure it out. Finally, after moving to Chicago and getting involved in the Real Estate boom, I found my ticket.
I'm a serial entrepreneur with a sales and marketing bent. If there's a market, and I can live with the product, I can sell it.
That's my ticket.
It gets me the money I need to get where and what I want in my life. It gets me backstage into some pretty cool meetings and businesses that I would never have access to otherwise. It takes me to cool seminars and conferences where I meet incredibly powerful and intelligent people who also have a Sales/Marketing ticket... I couldn't be happier.
Here's the moral... it took me nearly 30 years to find my ticket. That's a long time. That's a long time being a scared, naive kid with no ticket. That's a lot of missed shows, a lot of missed trains... not the way I want my kid to grow up.
Most of what I've learned about sales and marketing could be taught to a 3rd or a 6th grader fairly easily. Especially when we get talking about information marketing and online businesses. Teens could acquire a lifetime ticket to ride by simply laying off the XBox 360 a few hours per day and learning the principles of marketing and internet sales.
Getting that ticket means your child will be able to go see shows, take rides, meet cool people, get an education, travel and explore... Whether it's sales or anything else, make sure your child knows that they will need a ticket, and help them start figuring out what that may be for them. It takes years to get a handle on it - no point in waiting to figure it out until after school and all the pressure that brings.
Better to get it handled early, so that the 20's are a time of radical self-exploration with a base of financial freedom that affords educational experiences impossible to obtain through school.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Hey Baby... What's Your Enneagram Number?
It's a lot like Astrology, or what we'd call a Type system where you can lookup all the aspects of your personality according to some cookbook recipe correlated with your birthday or name or something...
Except the Enneagram is more than that. The Enneagram is a total mystery. I've never heard the straight story on where it comes from, though I heard a rumor it's Sufi, another that it came out of Chile in the last 50-60 years or so, and the one I like to retell - Jesuits were using it to secretly decode the temperaments of their parishoners in things like marriage counseling sessions.
Since the Enneagram also tells you what your path of growth is, as well as healthy and unhealthy manifestations, you can pretty much pinpoint how you're doing on a soul level.
My men's group is currently running their profiles. Here are some of the resources they've posted on our forum. I'm revisiting mine and teetering on a 4 with a 3 wing or a 3 with a 4 wing.
If you don't know what that means, here's the standard rundown on the Enneagram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneagram_of_Personality
Here are some tests:
$10 - http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/dis_sample_36.asp
$0 - http://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test.php
Facebook even has an app! Just search Enneagram on Facebook and click on the Applications tab.
But ultimately, your best resource will be this book: The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types
Coincidentally, I just completed the Enneagram on the new Enlightened Child Mandala.
I gotta go back and review my notes from years ago. I wonder if you can change types! Maybe I'm just coming to know my true self...
Take the Enneagram test - - let me know what you think!
And try to complete one for your child. It will do wonders for your communication and understanding to put words on what you already intuit. Let me know!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Except the Enneagram is more than that. The Enneagram is a total mystery. I've never heard the straight story on where it comes from, though I heard a rumor it's Sufi, another that it came out of Chile in the last 50-60 years or so, and the one I like to retell - Jesuits were using it to secretly decode the temperaments of their parishoners in things like marriage counseling sessions.
Since the Enneagram also tells you what your path of growth is, as well as healthy and unhealthy manifestations, you can pretty much pinpoint how you're doing on a soul level.
My men's group is currently running their profiles. Here are some of the resources they've posted on our forum. I'm revisiting mine and teetering on a 4 with a 3 wing or a 3 with a 4 wing.
If you don't know what that means, here's the standard rundown on the Enneagram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneagram_of_Personality
Here are some tests:
$10 - http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/dis_sample_36.asp
$0 - http://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test.php
Facebook even has an app! Just search Enneagram on Facebook and click on the Applications tab.
But ultimately, your best resource will be this book: The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types
Coincidentally, I just completed the Enneagram on the new Enlightened Child Mandala.
I gotta go back and review my notes from years ago. I wonder if you can change types! Maybe I'm just coming to know my true self...
Take the Enneagram test - - let me know what you think!
And try to complete one for your child. It will do wonders for your communication and understanding to put words on what you already intuit. Let me know!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
What Do 21st Century Knowledge Workers Need To Know if They Are Only 13 Still...
First of all, MOST of the fundamentals still apply. Gravity will get ya, and so will a lot of other truisms about life. so stay keen for them and collect them like jewels.
Secondly, a lot of what you hear floating around that passes for advice or common sense is DEAD NUTS WRONG. You gotta be prepared to make up your own mind on EVERY SINGLE ITEM of Information or Emotion that crosses your radar field. That means you have to have a well-tuned mind and an ability to recognize patterns.
Pattern recognition is huge. The sooner you learn to generalize with pattern recognition, the more time you save yourself figuring out that if you keep doing what you have always done you will keep getting what you've been getting all along.
So learn to recognize patterns and think in constructs. You have to actively build your philosophy of life, and that's why I recommend starting with the fundamentals - Jim Rohn is a good place to start.
Then finally, make sure you are in touch with your genius. Know the answer to or be asking these three questions at all times until you have a lock on the place they all overlap. Then DIG DEEP! Life is short and you gotta take your chances when you see them line up in your sites!
Here are the 3 questions:
1.) What can I be the best in the world at (hint: there's Riches in Niches)
2.) What do I LOVE doing so much I'd do it for no pay at all. (or, if you had a $100MM inheritance...)
3.) How can I monetize what I know and deliver it in a way that supports my purpose and lifestyle?
When you have an answer to those questions, then you'll be free like Neo in the Matrix!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Secondly, a lot of what you hear floating around that passes for advice or common sense is DEAD NUTS WRONG. You gotta be prepared to make up your own mind on EVERY SINGLE ITEM of Information or Emotion that crosses your radar field. That means you have to have a well-tuned mind and an ability to recognize patterns.
Pattern recognition is huge. The sooner you learn to generalize with pattern recognition, the more time you save yourself figuring out that if you keep doing what you have always done you will keep getting what you've been getting all along.
So learn to recognize patterns and think in constructs. You have to actively build your philosophy of life, and that's why I recommend starting with the fundamentals - Jim Rohn is a good place to start.
Then finally, make sure you are in touch with your genius. Know the answer to or be asking these three questions at all times until you have a lock on the place they all overlap. Then DIG DEEP! Life is short and you gotta take your chances when you see them line up in your sites!
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."
~Goethe
Here are the 3 questions:
1.) What can I be the best in the world at (hint: there's Riches in Niches)
2.) What do I LOVE doing so much I'd do it for no pay at all. (or, if you had a $100MM inheritance...)
3.) How can I monetize what I know and deliver it in a way that supports my purpose and lifestyle?
When you have an answer to those questions, then you'll be free like Neo in the Matrix!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Have You Seen the Enlightened Child Mandala?
When Corrina was born Jen's uncle gave us a family ToyBox, which I promptly turned into a canvas, adding the elements of astrology, the yin-yang and other esoteric symbols. Four years later, it looked like this:
Corrina just turned 8 and I am preparing to launch the whole "Enlightened Child Philosophy of Education" this year.
A big part of launching the philosophy is reacquainting myself with the tools and elements of the curriculum that I compiled in the original birthing of the ToyBox Mandala.
If you can't see it, the Mandala showcases esoteric representations for each number 1 through 12.
Recently, after cleaning the Yoga studio at the Zen Center, I found some old display panels that I thought to myself, "These would make a great canvas!"
To follow the saga of the Enlightened Child Mandala, check out my flickr site.
I'll post pics here from time to time as well. Or check back: flickr site.
Looking forward to hearing from you about what you're learning, or what you can teach about each aspect of the Mandala!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Corrina just turned 8 and I am preparing to launch the whole "Enlightened Child Philosophy of Education" this year.
A big part of launching the philosophy is reacquainting myself with the tools and elements of the curriculum that I compiled in the original birthing of the ToyBox Mandala.
If you can't see it, the Mandala showcases esoteric representations for each number 1 through 12.
Recently, after cleaning the Yoga studio at the Zen Center, I found some old display panels that I thought to myself, "These would make a great canvas!"
To follow the saga of the Enlightened Child Mandala, check out my flickr site.
I'll post pics here from time to time as well. Or check back: flickr site.
Looking forward to hearing from you about what you're learning, or what you can teach about each aspect of the Mandala!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Are You a Government-Issue Parent?
What are the attributes of an exceptional parent?
A few big obvious areas to begin our exploration would be:
1.) Moral and heart-connected relations.
2.) Insightful about the child's development needs.
3.) Grounded in the present socio-economic realities affecting freedom and success.
Most parents, the standard, government-issue type, will abdicate the majority of these functions to the State and Schooling system, the Church, or the kids on the corner and whoever they are influenced by.
The State is so far out of touch with your child's individual developmental needs that to trust the schooling system with the soul of your child is like trusting your lamb to a pack of hyenas. That's not to say lessons can't be learned in schooling systems. Just relative to what your child is capable of, it seems a tragedy to allow a brilliant mind to be dumbed down by an insidious process of socialization that itself is no longer grounded in present socio-economic reality.
In the 21st Century, assembly line work is no longer the primary occupation of school graduates. The modern schooling system is a muddled adaptation of an outmoded industrial revolution era system that taught reading, writing, 'rithmetic. What our kids need is a way to clearly translate ideas and connections into profits.
An exceptional parent is going to do what it takes to get their child the true education required to thrive in the world ahead.
So how do we give our kids a 21st Century Education?
Or are you one of those "government-issue parents" too?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
A few big obvious areas to begin our exploration would be:
1.) Moral and heart-connected relations.
2.) Insightful about the child's development needs.
3.) Grounded in the present socio-economic realities affecting freedom and success.
Most parents, the standard, government-issue type, will abdicate the majority of these functions to the State and Schooling system, the Church, or the kids on the corner and whoever they are influenced by.
The State is so far out of touch with your child's individual developmental needs that to trust the schooling system with the soul of your child is like trusting your lamb to a pack of hyenas. That's not to say lessons can't be learned in schooling systems. Just relative to what your child is capable of, it seems a tragedy to allow a brilliant mind to be dumbed down by an insidious process of socialization that itself is no longer grounded in present socio-economic reality.
In the 21st Century, assembly line work is no longer the primary occupation of school graduates. The modern schooling system is a muddled adaptation of an outmoded industrial revolution era system that taught reading, writing, 'rithmetic. What our kids need is a way to clearly translate ideas and connections into profits.
An exceptional parent is going to do what it takes to get their child the true education required to thrive in the world ahead.
"...your old road is rapidly aging. Get out of the new one if you can't lend a hand, for the times they are a changing."
So how do we give our kids a 21st Century Education?
Or are you one of those "government-issue parents" too?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
How To Give Your Teenager the Best Secondary Education for FREE!
We all want our kids to have better than we did.
My parents grew up financially strained. They were the first to go to college. They wanted me to have the best education I could get because, in their world, that was the key to a fulfilling life.
In the 21st Century, technology is accelerating so rapidly that information and communication technology is burgeoning on "psychic" (just think of Google) and the iPhone.
Social Media sites are not some novelty or a past-time any more. I rarely email anymore. The bulk of my communication is managed on Facebook and Text Messaging (SMS).
If Markets Are Conversations, then social media is bringing authenticity back to the marketplace. Companies and Professionals will thrive as they reveal their inner workings. How will they do this?
The clients and markets they serve will call B.S. on their social media profiles and they will lose business. Children have terrific B.S. detectors and access to social media as they enter the marketplace will give them a decided advantage when it comes to making major life choices.
For instance: Should I buy this product? Should I work with this business? Should I trust this person? What does my tribe suggest when it comes to...?
These questions are about authenticity and how we represent ourselves in the marketplace. No more anonymous companies, no more faceless internet marketers. The 21st Century market will require an entirely different set of skills for your children to thrive.
In fact, embracing and demonstrating authenticity on social media will be crucial for any professional who wants to thrive in the 21st Century. That includes Boomers and even reluctant or non-marketing oriented Gen-x'ers who have a vision for a business and could really use the inexpensive exposure for their business that social media provides.
To that end, a subset of the Enlightened Child Curriculum is a teen module I coined the Entrepreneurial Academy. It's a program designed to mentor teens with a vision. If they have a vision, they have a sense of what they wanna do, and a reason why they want to do it. This, combined with dependability and competence, is a model student for this program.
What a mentee will learn is:
1.) Timeless Principles of marketing and entrepreneurship
2.) 21st Century knowledge-work systems for getting thing done
3.) Social Media development and cutting edge techniques for improving sales
4.) How to schmooze with clients (who are Experts in their fields) and build a network
5.) How to absorb as much wisdom from each client while helping share the Expertise with the world in a way that is mutually lucrative
6.) Lifestyle Design strategies that create time and financial freedom (to do Good)
7.) The Basic Moral Intuition - Giving Back by Leveraging Freedom to Do Good & Marketing talent to create a Social Media Buzz around real issues and real solutions that ARE working
Basically, the Internship (as my Facebook pal Kevin Munro called it) would consist of me training the mentee how to set up various social media sites and then integrate them together to create a marketing funnel. This frees up my time to do more R&D on the Enlightened Child Philosophy, write, travel, teach... We all earn a handsome salary, and design our lifestyles to help us life our Purpose in life.
Beats hanging around playing xBox all day.
Once a child reaches late teens they should be financially liberated to the point where any educational experience they desire - from college semesters with specific teachers to $5,000 seminars, workshops or coaching periods they don't need to worry about money to live on or invest in the education. They should be flush from relatively passive cashflow.
By that age, they will have Internet businesses, promoted via social media very inexpensively, based on the training and experience they got interning with me at Social Media Maverick.
To read more about the Social Media Maverick Marketing Philosophy and how you can get your teen involved go to my Blog, or enter your name and email on the right of this blog.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
My parents grew up financially strained. They were the first to go to college. They wanted me to have the best education I could get because, in their world, that was the key to a fulfilling life.
In the 21st Century, technology is accelerating so rapidly that information and communication technology is burgeoning on "psychic" (just think of Google) and the iPhone.
Social Media sites are not some novelty or a past-time any more. I rarely email anymore. The bulk of my communication is managed on Facebook and Text Messaging (SMS).
If Markets Are Conversations, then social media is bringing authenticity back to the marketplace. Companies and Professionals will thrive as they reveal their inner workings. How will they do this?
The clients and markets they serve will call B.S. on their social media profiles and they will lose business. Children have terrific B.S. detectors and access to social media as they enter the marketplace will give them a decided advantage when it comes to making major life choices.
For instance: Should I buy this product? Should I work with this business? Should I trust this person? What does my tribe suggest when it comes to...?
These questions are about authenticity and how we represent ourselves in the marketplace. No more anonymous companies, no more faceless internet marketers. The 21st Century market will require an entirely different set of skills for your children to thrive.
In fact, embracing and demonstrating authenticity on social media will be crucial for any professional who wants to thrive in the 21st Century. That includes Boomers and even reluctant or non-marketing oriented Gen-x'ers who have a vision for a business and could really use the inexpensive exposure for their business that social media provides.
To that end, a subset of the Enlightened Child Curriculum is a teen module I coined the Entrepreneurial Academy. It's a program designed to mentor teens with a vision. If they have a vision, they have a sense of what they wanna do, and a reason why they want to do it. This, combined with dependability and competence, is a model student for this program.
What a mentee will learn is:
1.) Timeless Principles of marketing and entrepreneurship
2.) 21st Century knowledge-work systems for getting thing done
3.) Social Media development and cutting edge techniques for improving sales
4.) How to schmooze with clients (who are Experts in their fields) and build a network
5.) How to absorb as much wisdom from each client while helping share the Expertise with the world in a way that is mutually lucrative
6.) Lifestyle Design strategies that create time and financial freedom (to do Good)
7.) The Basic Moral Intuition - Giving Back by Leveraging Freedom to Do Good & Marketing talent to create a Social Media Buzz around real issues and real solutions that ARE working
Basically, the Internship (as my Facebook pal Kevin Munro called it) would consist of me training the mentee how to set up various social media sites and then integrate them together to create a marketing funnel. This frees up my time to do more R&D on the Enlightened Child Philosophy, write, travel, teach... We all earn a handsome salary, and design our lifestyles to help us life our Purpose in life.
Beats hanging around playing xBox all day.
Once a child reaches late teens they should be financially liberated to the point where any educational experience they desire - from college semesters with specific teachers to $5,000 seminars, workshops or coaching periods they don't need to worry about money to live on or invest in the education. They should be flush from relatively passive cashflow.
By that age, they will have Internet businesses, promoted via social media very inexpensively, based on the training and experience they got interning with me at Social Media Maverick.
To read more about the Social Media Maverick Marketing Philosophy and how you can get your teen involved go to my Blog, or enter your name and email on the right of this blog.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Is Astrology Worth Examining or Not?
Ever since college when my friend did my astrological birth chart, I have been totally intrigued by the idea that I could learn about myself and others, and our relationships through this ancient system.
A funny story: Back in college at the UW - Madison, my good friend Adam shot me down when I attempted to learn about his chart. He gave me a false birthday. When I read his sign to him he asked me if I thought that sounded like him. I could see how it fit. Then he told me, with a Scorpionic sneer, that he had lied about his birthday and therefore astrology was a load of garbage. Ironically, he is now a professional astrologer: www.theskyisyou.com
This week I'm staying with him in Denver. Not surprisingly, he will read and explain a whole bunch of astrological jargon and then look me dead in the eye and say something like, "Astrolgy is such BS." And it is... yet it's also eerily true in more cases than not - especially when you get under the covers and really explore the deep intricacies of your chart.
Or your child's chart!
(You can get a free Chart for yourself and your child at Astro.com. I highly recommend it. What you learn will help you understand yourself, your child, and the dynamics of your relationship. It's not hard science, true. But the insights will blow your mind.)
Adam's been studying Uranus quite a bit, and gave me a book that details some of the finer points of how this planet can affect.
What I read fit very much with the experiences I've been having the past week. Especially since my Boulder experiences.
The upshot of the book relative to my chart (I have a Uranus/Moon conjuction - which means they are very close together) helped me understand the "Soul DNA" that inspires me to develop the Enlightened Child Philosophy of Education.
Uranus energy has to do with profound insight, brilliance, talent and enlightenment.
Moon energy is associated with emotions, home, nurturing and childhood.
Uranus = Enlightened
Moon = Child
How could I possible make something like that up? There's no way. It's just uncanny.
How does this help me? Well, not only does it validate my own path, it affirms that by helping parents, teachers and children to understand themselves through deep exploration with systems like Astrology (among others - I believe in a "triangulated verification") they can come to know themselves much more intimately and navigate their lives and relationships much more gracefully than just winging it while flying blind. Learning only through trial and error, with no objective reference for personal typology or tendency.
(Being adopted, this method has been my best means of self-understanding. I sincerely wish my parents had taken an interest in how we can know one another more intimately using this tool.)
Another great book Adam showed me is called An Astrological Mandala by Dane Rudhyar. Here's the quote that blew me away today and inspired me to write about what I learned in this post:
I'm gonna stop there because it's already dense enough for this light-hearted blog, but as you can see, the passion I feel for creating a system of educational enlightenment by teaching children the wisdom contained in simple esoteric symbols like the yin-yang and... ironically, astrology, is well founded in my "Soul DNA."
The rest of the passage goes on to talk about how the most characteristic of human natures is to "bind time" or transfer to others yet unborn the hard-won insights and knowledge of those who have come before. It's trans-generational mentoring. It's conscious participation in cosmic evolution.
It's so COOL!
If you've learned anything profound about yourself from a system like Astrology, the Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, etc... I'd love to hear your story. Feel free to share in the comments.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
A funny story: Back in college at the UW - Madison, my good friend Adam shot me down when I attempted to learn about his chart. He gave me a false birthday. When I read his sign to him he asked me if I thought that sounded like him. I could see how it fit. Then he told me, with a Scorpionic sneer, that he had lied about his birthday and therefore astrology was a load of garbage. Ironically, he is now a professional astrologer: www.theskyisyou.com
This week I'm staying with him in Denver. Not surprisingly, he will read and explain a whole bunch of astrological jargon and then look me dead in the eye and say something like, "Astrolgy is such BS." And it is... yet it's also eerily true in more cases than not - especially when you get under the covers and really explore the deep intricacies of your chart.
Or your child's chart!
(You can get a free Chart for yourself and your child at Astro.com. I highly recommend it. What you learn will help you understand yourself, your child, and the dynamics of your relationship. It's not hard science, true. But the insights will blow your mind.)
Adam's been studying Uranus quite a bit, and gave me a book that details some of the finer points of how this planet can affect.
What I read fit very much with the experiences I've been having the past week. Especially since my Boulder experiences.
The upshot of the book relative to my chart (I have a Uranus/Moon conjuction - which means they are very close together) helped me understand the "Soul DNA" that inspires me to develop the Enlightened Child Philosophy of Education.
Uranus energy has to do with profound insight, brilliance, talent and enlightenment.
Moon energy is associated with emotions, home, nurturing and childhood.
Uranus = Enlightened
Moon = Child
How could I possible make something like that up? There's no way. It's just uncanny.
How does this help me? Well, not only does it validate my own path, it affirms that by helping parents, teachers and children to understand themselves through deep exploration with systems like Astrology (among others - I believe in a "triangulated verification") they can come to know themselves much more intimately and navigate their lives and relationships much more gracefully than just winging it while flying blind. Learning only through trial and error, with no objective reference for personal typology or tendency.
(Being adopted, this method has been my best means of self-understanding. I sincerely wish my parents had taken an interest in how we can know one another more intimately using this tool.)
Another great book Adam showed me is called An Astrological Mandala by Dane Rudhyar. Here's the quote that blew me away today and inspired me to write about what I learned in this post:
Phase 209 - Libra 29 degree (my moon): Mankind's vast and enduring effort to reach for knowledge transferable from generation to generation.
Keynote: A deep sense of participation in, and commitment to, social processes which seek to bring all men Truth and greater Life.
I'm gonna stop there because it's already dense enough for this light-hearted blog, but as you can see, the passion I feel for creating a system of educational enlightenment by teaching children the wisdom contained in simple esoteric symbols like the yin-yang and... ironically, astrology, is well founded in my "Soul DNA."
The rest of the passage goes on to talk about how the most characteristic of human natures is to "bind time" or transfer to others yet unborn the hard-won insights and knowledge of those who have come before. It's trans-generational mentoring. It's conscious participation in cosmic evolution.
It's so COOL!
If you've learned anything profound about yourself from a system like Astrology, the Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, etc... I'd love to hear your story. Feel free to share in the comments.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Wanna Know What I Got from My Weekend in Boulder?
This weekend I met 9 other men at the Boulder Integral Center for an intense 2 days of men's work.
The biggest thing I got from the other men was feedback about how I show up in the world and how I'm received.
Suffice to say, the second day I laid off the caffeine and was able to really drop into my feeling-sense rather than going a million-miles-a-minute with my mind.
The feedback I got on the second day was so consistent and direct. It was challenging to hear, sure, but better than not hearing it... and through the process of asking each man what he needed from me in order to feel connected with me and to trust me, I heard reverberations of a lot of other feedback I've received in my life, though far less directly than these 9 other men were able to offer it to me.
What I'm faced with now is a life-challenge. How can I live in my authentic, emotionally grounded self?
Living in my mind is so comfortable (as it is for the majority of men I've met over the years I've been involved in men's work). Feeling into my heart, my gut, my 'nads... it's a real challenge and requires a tremendous amount of conscious awareness to not only catch myself escaping into my rationality, but to release the need to "know" something and just be in my fear, my grief, my uncertainty.
While this is a major piece of work that I will continuously revisit over my lifetime, I want to offer a question more related to the Enlightened Child theme of this blog...
How can we raise our boys into powerful, heart-connected men with the courage to step into (and through) fear, grief, anger, shame... even joy (yes, it's easy to avoid or become attached to feeling anything, including joy) so that the world is served by their mature leadership, rather than the tyranny of adolescent manipulations we all develop in our youth to keep our self-sense "safe"?
One such organization I know of that is taking on the work of initiating young men into sacred masculine consciousness is Boys to Men. Here's the trailer of a great movie that relates the power of the modern initiation experience: Journeyman. I hope you'll check it out - and share this with others you know who are raising or responsible for boys (and girls).
If you know of any other resources, please feel free to share them!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
The biggest thing I got from the other men was feedback about how I show up in the world and how I'm received.
Suffice to say, the second day I laid off the caffeine and was able to really drop into my feeling-sense rather than going a million-miles-a-minute with my mind.
The feedback I got on the second day was so consistent and direct. It was challenging to hear, sure, but better than not hearing it... and through the process of asking each man what he needed from me in order to feel connected with me and to trust me, I heard reverberations of a lot of other feedback I've received in my life, though far less directly than these 9 other men were able to offer it to me.
What I'm faced with now is a life-challenge. How can I live in my authentic, emotionally grounded self?
Living in my mind is so comfortable (as it is for the majority of men I've met over the years I've been involved in men's work). Feeling into my heart, my gut, my 'nads... it's a real challenge and requires a tremendous amount of conscious awareness to not only catch myself escaping into my rationality, but to release the need to "know" something and just be in my fear, my grief, my uncertainty.
While this is a major piece of work that I will continuously revisit over my lifetime, I want to offer a question more related to the Enlightened Child theme of this blog...
How can we raise our boys into powerful, heart-connected men with the courage to step into (and through) fear, grief, anger, shame... even joy (yes, it's easy to avoid or become attached to feeling anything, including joy) so that the world is served by their mature leadership, rather than the tyranny of adolescent manipulations we all develop in our youth to keep our self-sense "safe"?
One such organization I know of that is taking on the work of initiating young men into sacred masculine consciousness is Boys to Men. Here's the trailer of a great movie that relates the power of the modern initiation experience: Journeyman. I hope you'll check it out - and share this with others you know who are raising or responsible for boys (and girls).
If you know of any other resources, please feel free to share them!
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
What I'm Learning in Boulder, CO
This weekend I'm in Boulder, CO for the kickoff of the 108 Day Revolutionary Man's Challenge.
It's a great group - I'm learning a lot about myself and seeing a lot of myself in other men.
Since it's nearly 2am EST and I'm bushed, I'm gonna paste some info about the program from Jayson's website/blog:
One of the biggest things I learned today was how my energy is perceived by others. We did 5 minute presentations and, I swear it's not just the caffeine, I was rambling through my Enlightened Child presentation (100% extemporaneous - which added to the flurry) and not really connecting with the audience.
When they gave me some feedback half-way through I found I was totally able to connect and deliver my content in a way that really moved them.
This alone was worth the price of the program.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow and then a week in Denver with my best bro from college - Adam Galblum. He's a great musician and astrologer - check him out: www.myspace.com/adamgalblum and www.theskyisyou.com
Before I sign off for the night... I see in these men a real passion for life and it makes me happy to be around such inspiring individuals who are not willing to settle for what life offers - they want more. What do you do to keep your edge? To push your limits? To grow as a person?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
It's a great group - I'm learning a lot about myself and seeing a lot of myself in other men.
Since it's nearly 2am EST and I'm bushed, I'm gonna paste some info about the program from Jayson's website/blog:
The purpose of this 108-day rite of passage is five-fold:
1. This training will address the 5 Pillars of Being a Revolutionary Man (Chances are within these areas, you are holding back in some way. I will tailor the course to address your strengths and weaknesses. )
* 1. Self Mastery/ Self Knowledge
* 2. Service
* 3. Leadership
* 4. Fun/Play
* 5. Community (relationships)
2. To nudge you to your edge. When a man is at his “edge” he’s alive and growing.
3. To challenge you to step up in your life and take specific action to be bolder, badder and burlier as a leader, father, son, husband, boyfriend and as a man. I am challenging you to change your life in a big way.
4. Having received the training, you will be a Man who will make a massive difference in others lives.
5. Help you find the personal freedom that some of you are looking for.
One of the biggest things I learned today was how my energy is perceived by others. We did 5 minute presentations and, I swear it's not just the caffeine, I was rambling through my Enlightened Child presentation (100% extemporaneous - which added to the flurry) and not really connecting with the audience.
When they gave me some feedback half-way through I found I was totally able to connect and deliver my content in a way that really moved them.
This alone was worth the price of the program.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow and then a week in Denver with my best bro from college - Adam Galblum. He's a great musician and astrologer - check him out: www.myspace.com/adamgalblum and www.theskyisyou.com
Before I sign off for the night... I see in these men a real passion for life and it makes me happy to be around such inspiring individuals who are not willing to settle for what life offers - they want more. What do you do to keep your edge? To push your limits? To grow as a person?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Don't Miss!!!
There's a lot of wisdom in this advice I learned from Jim Rohn.
He says, "Don't Miss! ...don't miss the show, don't miss the party, don't miss the game"
So much of my younger life I spent in a bit of a shell. Not sure of myself or what I wanted from life, I played it safe. I stayed home. I kept my need for adventure under wraps.
Now that I've spread my wings once or twice, I have a sense of who I am and what I want. I know what I like because I've tried a lot of things. They haven't all been that greatest of experiences, but I've corrected course based on the feedback I got.
Monday night I had an opportunity to see a band rolling through town. I wanted to go. I met the band, they seemed cool... my friend has been raving about them for weeks... and I missed the show. I fell asleep and didn't wake up in time to go.
So last night we drove 2 hours to Ithaca and saw them (and another really cool band) and I didn't miss the show. I felt great about simply not missing the show. I was there. I saw that band. Those memories are mine. Those pictures, those are genuine article. And the band was INCREDIBLE!!! Check them out - http://www.myspace.com/theseunited
What made the difference between me now and me 10 years ago?
Somewhere along the way I reached some philosophical point where I was somehow different.
Maybe I discovered who I am. Maybe I decided what I want. Maybe I delved into life because it became more painful to stand on the sidelines watching than to go out and play a few hands of my own.
I wonder if you've had any kind of shift like that... where you looked back and said, "Wow, how did that happen?"
Seriously, let me know...
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
He says, "Don't Miss! ...don't miss the show, don't miss the party, don't miss the game"
So much of my younger life I spent in a bit of a shell. Not sure of myself or what I wanted from life, I played it safe. I stayed home. I kept my need for adventure under wraps.
Now that I've spread my wings once or twice, I have a sense of who I am and what I want. I know what I like because I've tried a lot of things. They haven't all been that greatest of experiences, but I've corrected course based on the feedback I got.
Monday night I had an opportunity to see a band rolling through town. I wanted to go. I met the band, they seemed cool... my friend has been raving about them for weeks... and I missed the show. I fell asleep and didn't wake up in time to go.
So last night we drove 2 hours to Ithaca and saw them (and another really cool band) and I didn't miss the show. I felt great about simply not missing the show. I was there. I saw that band. Those memories are mine. Those pictures, those are genuine article. And the band was INCREDIBLE!!! Check them out - http://www.myspace.com/theseunited
What made the difference between me now and me 10 years ago?
Somewhere along the way I reached some philosophical point where I was somehow different.
Maybe I discovered who I am. Maybe I decided what I want. Maybe I delved into life because it became more painful to stand on the sidelines watching than to go out and play a few hands of my own.
I wonder if you've had any kind of shift like that... where you looked back and said, "Wow, how did that happen?"
Seriously, let me know...
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
3 Types of Freedom
There are 3 Types of Freedom I have explored in my life.
Much of my mental energy in adult life has been exhausted seeking personal development material that works for me so I can experience more freedom in these 3 areas.
It has seemed to me for some time that the material that works best is very simple and could easily be taught to children from an early age.
Yet it's not.
So it has become my life passion to teach and mentor children of any age into the 3 freedoms of a great life.
What are the 3 freedoms?
1.) Physical & Health Freedom - Are you free to move about as you please? Are you free from ailments and illness that constricts your freedoms?
2.) Social Freedom - Do you feel confident in any social situation, able to lead and persuade toward a greater benefit for all participants you touch?
3.) Abundance - Wealth is its own unique kind of freedom. Money doesn't set you free - what you DO with it does.
These, to me, are the 3 cores of curriculum.
That said, I'm open to your feedback and suggestions.
As I always like to quote: None of us is as smart as all of us.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Much of my mental energy in adult life has been exhausted seeking personal development material that works for me so I can experience more freedom in these 3 areas.
It has seemed to me for some time that the material that works best is very simple and could easily be taught to children from an early age.
Yet it's not.
So it has become my life passion to teach and mentor children of any age into the 3 freedoms of a great life.
What are the 3 freedoms?
1.) Physical & Health Freedom - Are you free to move about as you please? Are you free from ailments and illness that constricts your freedoms?
2.) Social Freedom - Do you feel confident in any social situation, able to lead and persuade toward a greater benefit for all participants you touch?
3.) Abundance - Wealth is its own unique kind of freedom. Money doesn't set you free - what you DO with it does.
These, to me, are the 3 cores of curriculum.
That said, I'm open to your feedback and suggestions.
As I always like to quote: None of us is as smart as all of us.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
3 Steps to Helping Your Child Find the Answers to their Heart's Desire
The simplest thing we can teach our children is how to learn.
Children are innately curious about everything. If we just did our best to help them get answers to their questions they would grow up in the 21st Century better prepared than any of their generation to meet the challenges we've posed to ourselves as a species.
What are the 3 Steps to Helping Your Child Find the Answers to their Heart's Desire?
1.) Clarity - help clarify the question they want to know the answer to
2.) Territory - locating or constructing a map of the territory they will explore
3.) Guidance - help your child source up an expert in the field to be a mentor/teacher
For the rest of your child's life, if they can get clear on their objective, get a feel for the territory in which they are exploring, and seek guidance from qualified experts... they can accomplish anything they desire in their heart.
What better gift could you give your child than this amount of freedom?
We'll talk more about the 3 Types of Freedom in the next post.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
Children are innately curious about everything. If we just did our best to help them get answers to their questions they would grow up in the 21st Century better prepared than any of their generation to meet the challenges we've posed to ourselves as a species.
What are the 3 Steps to Helping Your Child Find the Answers to their Heart's Desire?
1.) Clarity - help clarify the question they want to know the answer to
2.) Territory - locating or constructing a map of the territory they will explore
3.) Guidance - help your child source up an expert in the field to be a mentor/teacher
For the rest of your child's life, if they can get clear on their objective, get a feel for the territory in which they are exploring, and seek guidance from qualified experts... they can accomplish anything they desire in their heart.
What better gift could you give your child than this amount of freedom?
We'll talk more about the 3 Types of Freedom in the next post.
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
What is Strengths-Based Learning?
Don't look at me like I'm supposed to know.
I just think it's interesting how our schooling system prepares kids for neither the skills they need to survive as an organism, nor the skills they need to survive in the 21st Century.
The schooling system is an antiquated relic of what our economy used to be based on. With a knowledge-, trust- or integrity-based economy, the rules are all different. Kids are gonna need a different set of skills than the ones they are being taught in school.
Marcus Buckingham worked with the Gallup Poll surveying achievement based on strengths assessments that revealed the most successful people focus on what they are best at, and essentially outsource or delegate the rest. This, in contrast, to struggling with shortcomings and working on improving areas of weakness. It's the simple understanding that your best salespeople shouldn't be doing admin work, or anything else but selling. Most suck at admin work. Everyone is served better if the salesman can just do what he's best at, and someone else who rocks out the admin can support the sales process. The salesman will get a lot farther investing time and money improving his sales ability than investing the same time and money improving his administrative abilities.
What Buckingham determined is that, to be our best selves in this life time, we need to determine (as Jim Collins would say in Good to Great) what can we each be the best in the world at? What are we passionate about? What adds value to the marketplace?
The confluence of these three things is what makes a person or an enterprise successful. It would make sense that we begin with this end in mind, since, afterall, we say we want the best for our kids. We want them to be viable in the marketplace so they can have things in their lives that make them comfortable and happy. A good income doing something they enjoy, abundant health for them and their family, great connections and a sense of compassion for the suffering we are fortunate enough to transcend as a result of our education.
So, Strengths-Based Learning would be something along the lines of:
Drawing forth the latent talents and interests the child carries within his DNA. Mentoring those abilities, and aligning the learners with each other based on strengths and needs compatibilities. Sending the team on a mission to fulfill their souls' purposes.
Or something to that effect.
Got anything to add or amend?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
I just think it's interesting how our schooling system prepares kids for neither the skills they need to survive as an organism, nor the skills they need to survive in the 21st Century.
The schooling system is an antiquated relic of what our economy used to be based on. With a knowledge-, trust- or integrity-based economy, the rules are all different. Kids are gonna need a different set of skills than the ones they are being taught in school.
Marcus Buckingham worked with the Gallup Poll surveying achievement based on strengths assessments that revealed the most successful people focus on what they are best at, and essentially outsource or delegate the rest. This, in contrast, to struggling with shortcomings and working on improving areas of weakness. It's the simple understanding that your best salespeople shouldn't be doing admin work, or anything else but selling. Most suck at admin work. Everyone is served better if the salesman can just do what he's best at, and someone else who rocks out the admin can support the sales process. The salesman will get a lot farther investing time and money improving his sales ability than investing the same time and money improving his administrative abilities.
What Buckingham determined is that, to be our best selves in this life time, we need to determine (as Jim Collins would say in Good to Great) what can we each be the best in the world at? What are we passionate about? What adds value to the marketplace?
The confluence of these three things is what makes a person or an enterprise successful. It would make sense that we begin with this end in mind, since, afterall, we say we want the best for our kids. We want them to be viable in the marketplace so they can have things in their lives that make them comfortable and happy. A good income doing something they enjoy, abundant health for them and their family, great connections and a sense of compassion for the suffering we are fortunate enough to transcend as a result of our education.
So, Strengths-Based Learning would be something along the lines of:
Drawing forth the latent talents and interests the child carries within his DNA. Mentoring those abilities, and aligning the learners with each other based on strengths and needs compatibilities. Sending the team on a mission to fulfill their souls' purposes.
Or something to that effect.
Got anything to add or amend?
Cheers,
Craig
to see original post and all my social media links, visit: www.enlightenedchild.com
What Do Kids Need from Education in the 21st Century?
Communication.
It's no surprise that the internet is changing the lives of millions of people around the world.
Social Media sites like Twitter & Facebook (and the even faster, even funner applications they will no doubt become the great-grandparents of) connect people in organic webs by values and affinities. Marketing has taken a turn towards authenticity. Kids have great bullshit detectors, and within a decade I expect they will have torn down a great portion of the veil that shields companies from accountability in the global village.
Politics and health-care will no-doubt be affected as millions of Millenials rise up in a democratic vote with each post they make. Someone is gonna listen. Someone will meet the need. And it just might make our government a little more honest.
But what do these kids need to be empowered to stand up to the powers that be?
They need communication skills. They need to know how to get along with and influence others. They need a strong moral compass that considers the greatest good for the greatest number, and a spiritual connection to the source of truth.
They need resources and the ability to both garner and steward the resources and relationships necessary to carry out their vision.
Kids need an education that helps them become an apple tree if they are an apple seed, an oak tree if they are an acorn, a watermelon if they are a watermelon seed. And not a system of socialization that only recognizes and nurtures one type of seed.
Kids come with all the instructions already programmed inside them. It's just a matter of taking the time to ask. To give the child some orienting maps and a sense that what they want to do in their heart is a good place to start from, and to hold that passion out in front like a compass.
They need an education system that teaches them how to be free, sovereign individuals.
What do you think kids need?
Cheers,
Craig
It's no surprise that the internet is changing the lives of millions of people around the world.
Social Media sites like Twitter & Facebook (and the even faster, even funner applications they will no doubt become the great-grandparents of) connect people in organic webs by values and affinities. Marketing has taken a turn towards authenticity. Kids have great bullshit detectors, and within a decade I expect they will have torn down a great portion of the veil that shields companies from accountability in the global village.
Politics and health-care will no-doubt be affected as millions of Millenials rise up in a democratic vote with each post they make. Someone is gonna listen. Someone will meet the need. And it just might make our government a little more honest.
But what do these kids need to be empowered to stand up to the powers that be?
They need communication skills. They need to know how to get along with and influence others. They need a strong moral compass that considers the greatest good for the greatest number, and a spiritual connection to the source of truth.
They need resources and the ability to both garner and steward the resources and relationships necessary to carry out their vision.
Kids need an education that helps them become an apple tree if they are an apple seed, an oak tree if they are an acorn, a watermelon if they are a watermelon seed. And not a system of socialization that only recognizes and nurtures one type of seed.
Kids come with all the instructions already programmed inside them. It's just a matter of taking the time to ask. To give the child some orienting maps and a sense that what they want to do in their heart is a good place to start from, and to hold that passion out in front like a compass.
They need an education system that teaches them how to be free, sovereign individuals.
What do you think kids need?
Cheers,
Craig
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