CONNECTION + COMMUNICATION Page 12 of 21

10 Schools that are changing the way that we see education

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This is a guest post by Ben Keene. You can find out more about Ben here.

My first experience of a ‘school for life’ was as a volunteer gap year student in 1999 at Glengarry — a spectacular outdoor campus set in the sumptuous Kangaroo Valley, Australia. Yes, there were a lot of kangaroos.

Since then I’ve followed and been involved with a number of innovative education projects. It is interesting how strong the sense of ‘mission’ the leaders of such projects are. I admire them hugely. So, here are my ten favourite ‘schools for life’.

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New Year Happier You. Begin today.

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A new year brings a sense of new beginnings, of possibility, of the chance to start afresh. So what kind of a year will you make it this year?

What if 2015 was the year that you became a happier version of yourself? What would that look like, and what would be different? What would have to change to become that version of yourself?

In our community of tens of thousands of people spread across the world, this is a question that has been asked many, many times. Often the answer lies in a few small but important decisions.

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New Year, New You. Begin today.

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‘New year, new you’ must be the most over-used phrase in the world of magazine headlines, but there is a very good reason for that. The beginning of a new year can be a watershed. ‘Next year’ becomes ‘this year’. The time is now. If you had a bad year, that is now in the past. If you had a great year, you can step it up a level and make this one even better.

A new year is like a gift. It’s a chance to start again, and to tell yourself you have the power to decide how this year pans out. What will you do? Where will you go? Who will you spend time with? Who will you avoid? How will you behave differently so things work out differently? What different choices will you make? What will you tell yourself about what could be possible for you? And what steps will you take to make that happen?

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Curl up this winter with our FREE Winter Writing Workshop!

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Do you have a secret dream to write a book? Or publish a blog? Or pitch to write for a magazine? Or do you simply want to get into regular writing in your journal, or create poetry, for fun? Then join our FREE Winter Writing Workshop with seven days of prompts and inspiration to help you to discover your inner writer!

Here in England the time between Christmas and New Year is often quiet, after the hustle and bustle of preparations and the chaos of the festivities. It is also cold and dark, so we thought this would be the perfect time to get cosy next to a roaring fire, journal in hand, to write. We invite you to join us, whether you are a seasoned writer or just starting out. (And if you live somewhere hot then of course you are still welcome – perhaps you will sit out in the sun writing?)

We have teamed up with Frances Booth, author of The Distraction Trap, to bring you seven days’ worth of writing exercises, so by the end of the week you will have made real progress on whatever piece of writing you choose to commit to.

Each day you will be emailed a short note from professional writer Frances, along with those daily writing prompts, writer development exercises and some special tips from well known writers. At the end of the series you will also receive a PDF of 100 writing prompts to keep you writing all year long.

The workshop runs over the New Year period, from December 29 – Jan 4 and is the perfect way to kick start your writing for 2015.

It is completely free, and is our Christmas gift to you!

See https://dowhatyouloveforlife.com/www for more details and to book your place. Please tell all your friends too!

Beth and team

What can you do to witness more happiness today?

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This fantastic commercial prompts some important questions, not least “What can you do to witness more happiness today?”

[youtube width=”550″ height=”445″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU[/youtube]

Back by popular demand: The Do What You Love e-course is open for registration!

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The Do What You Love e-course is open for registration! This acclaimed transformational online course is for people like you who want to find financial and personal freedom, living a full and happy life.

Do What You Love is about re-opening doors that you thought were locked shut… re-opening possibilities that you thought were long gone… and illuminating possibilities you never knew existed.

It’s about discovering what you really want to do, and giving you practical exercises and tools to do more of it, get paid to do it (if that’s what you want) and generally have a more balanced and fulfilling life.

Sounds like something you need?

Learn more and register here.

Class begins on Monday October 13 and runs for five weeks. Hurry and register now. Don’t miss this chance – it could change everything.

I hope you will choose to be a part of this adventure with us!

Beth

If you can do it, or dream you can, begin it…

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This is one of my favourite ever quotes, because it puts the power in your hands. It reminds us that if we have the capacity to dream of something, we have the capability to make it happen, if only we begin…

“If you can do it or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” – Goethe

Back in 2010 I went on my first art retreat, and when I was there I distinctly remember picking up a copy of ‘Somerset Studio’, one of the beautiful magazines from American publishing house Stampington, and thinking “Just imagine getting published in a magazine like that.” Four years on and I am now a columnist for Stampington’s brilliant magazine ‘Where Women Create Business‘, and have been featured in several of their other titles in between.

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If I think about how it happened, it was a combination of…

  • Dreaming of what it would feel like to make it happen (Vision/Imagination)
  • Thinking “Someone has to do it, why not me?” (Boldness/Naiveity)
  • Deciding to go for it, because the worst that can happen is that an article proposal will be turned down, or ignored (Thick skin)
  • Getting out of my door to network, meeting people, and getting introduced to people who know people (Deep breaths/Connecting)
  • Getting clear on what I have to say, and then choosing to share that with the world (Authenticity/Belief that we each have something to offer)
  • Taking steps to make it happen, and keeping at it (Persistence)

However big or small the dream, it can often be made a reality through a combination of the things above.

What steps do you find help you make your ideas happen?

PS: The column in Where Women Create Business is jointly-authored with Kelly Rae Roberts. In this third of four articles we talk about the importance of choosing to deliver products and services which serve your audience and support your purpose. It is a fab magazine – you can get a copy in all major US bookshops or via the Stampington site here.

 

Festive favourites (A Christmas poem from Louise)

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Love Christmas

This post is written by Louise Gale, a valuable member of the DWYL team who assists with our e-courses and project manages the beautiful Moyo magazine. Louise is a mixed media artist with a passion for colour, nature and energy. She lives in Spain overlooking the ocean with a view of Gibraltar rock, tiny fishing boats and the north African coastline in the distance. Feel free to pop by her website and say hi.

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Festive greetings everyone! Paul and Beth kindly invited me to guest post on “What Christmas means to me”, so I thought I would write and share a little festive poem with you.

What does Christmas mean to me?
Family, friends and a beautiful tree

Frosty mornings, hear the robin red breast sing
Here are a few of my festive favourite things

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Making Mince pies with little stars on top
Toasting good health with champagne until I might just pop

Twinkle lights and exchanging smiles
Sending heartfelt greetings across the miles

Living in the moment of festive joy
Faces full of excitement on little girls and boys

Christmas crackers and mistletoe
Holly and ivy tied with a big red bow

Reindeers called Rudolph, Prancer and Dancer
Watching Christmas movies in my snowflake pyjamas

Handmade ornaments that tell a story
Neighbourhood decorations in all their glory

Decorating the tree and sipping mulled wine
Being thankful, loving and kind

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To those less fortunate than ourselves
Take time to help out to stack their shelves

The wish I bestow upon one and all
Be healthy, happy and stand up tall

To love one another, give thanks and spread peace
Let go of fear, so any anger can cease

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No matter where on earth I roam
Christmas isn’t Christmas without being home

Home is where the heart lives, so precious and true
so, take some time to reflect on….

What does this festive season mean to you?

Unwrapped: Can we celebrate Christmas differently? (A Christmas Message from Susie)

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This post is written by Susannah Keene who is lending a helping hand at DWYL whilst Beth prepares herself for motherhood. Susie met Beth when they worked together at UNICEF in London and they then spent a couple of years working together in Ghana before moving back to the UK to get married. She is expecting her first baby in the New Year and in the meantime she’s enjoying exploring new opportunities for DWYL’s development and sharing growth ideas with Paul for 2014…

Susie Keene

If you ask someone to describe to you what Christmas means to them, I bet a lot of people would say that it is a time of celebration, a time to spend with your family, to share presents and indulge in copious amounts of food and treats. Year after year, we follow the same routine and, whilst the majority of us enjoy it, Christmas can just be an event in our annual calendars that we switch into auto-pilot for.

I vividly remember during my teenage years that every Christmas Day afternoon I would burst out crying; a release of the feeling that had built during the day brought on by the sheer number of presents that were exchanged amongst our privileged family. Did we really need all of this stuff? What about all of those people in the world who weren’t as fortunate as us? Why was so much money being wasted on things that were only going to be put at the back of a cupboard?

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And yet, I find myself today falling into this cultural trap of giving presents for birthdays, Christmas, weddings and christenings because it is expected of you.  So why do I do it?  Is it because I want them to do the same for me? Definitely not. The pleasure for me lies in thinking carefully about something that someone special might enjoy, in wrapping the present to make it look beautiful and in watching the joy of the individual receive the present. If this is the case, why do all of these things have to be achieved through giving a physical present?

One of the main reasons we have the custom of giving and receiving presents at Christmas is to remind us of the presents of Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh given to Jesus by the Three Wise Men. In our consumer driven society, our senses are attacked at this time of year by brands persuading us that we need to buy their product. But what if we looked at the gift of giving in a different way?  What if each year we decided to give something of ourselves at Christmas time instead of another bar of soap or pair of socks?

We all have individual talents that others would love to learn from us, own things that we can share and have time to spend with others so why don’t we give those valuable things at Christmas instead? I personally can’t think of anything better than opening a gift this Christmas from someone offering to spend a morning with me teaching me a new skill or spending an afternoon to go to my favourite museum.  Yes of course I enjoy receiving lovely new things for our house or new clothes to wear but they aren’t really the things that make me happy. This Christmas I’m looking forward to teaching my Mum how to read sheet music so that she can enjoy, and participate more easily, in her new choir.

But perhaps most importantly, or relevantly, you could spend some time with a loved one this Christmas to help them discover what it is that they truly love doing. If you’ve taken one of our courses, could you share some of the things that you have learnt with them? Could you spend some time to talk through and encourage them to find their passion and participate in a life doing what they love? The gift of giving doesn’t have to be the exchange of a physical item. I feel sure that if you helped someone find their passion this Christmas it would be the best gift they ever received.

For further inspiration around giving actions visit The Do Nation.