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NEWSLETTER VOLUME 4, #3

Ideas for people pursuing an empowered life,


CONTENT

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A "LESSON FROM THE JUNGLE..."(Top) 

Getting Whatever You Want

Back from Costa Rica, Suzy and I were invited into the Quebec heartland, to a beautiful lodge on a pristine lake, to tell the story of the Jaguar-kings to a management team. Driving home, we remarked on how we've stayed at some of the finest resorts in every one Quebec's magnificent regions in the course of our work and, in fact, we've enjoyed so many beautiful places around the world.

We talked about how we like to travel and, as professional circumstances have it, we've been paid to stay at these fine places, many times a year, for many years. I remembered being young and deciding that I wanted to travel to exotic places. I focused on that dream because I was amazed by a Boa skin my father had, and by the stories my aunt told me of the goings-on in South America's jungles. I joined the Canadian Navy after high school, haven't stopped moving since and have even been involved in tourism for many years.

With one of our multimedia presentations, we told our hosts a story about the ancient Olmec rulers and how their « forest of kings » was organized around Nature's management principles.m 3000 years ago in America, citizens were encouraged to contribute to a tribe's greater good in ´altruistic self-interest' and those who took the idea to heart were initiated to kingship (queendom?).

Initiate Jaguar-kings climbed a hierarchy of leadership where they learned how the laws of the jungle are indeed the secrets of success. Give and you shall receive: Apprenticeship involved 10 years of training for which initiates traded 10 years of service. They could enter into three such cycles and become very powerful rulers. Understanding must follow experience so real learning is largely trial and error. In order to succeed, initiates mastered Nature “art of creative cognition" => i.e. Trial, Error, Learn and Adjust.

I translated my Jaguar-king story into modern business jargon and we taught the group how to provoke creative breakthroughs. Our client told us how much they appreciated the couple of day's we spent together and, driving home, I realized that I tell stories in exchange for getting what I want, and what a royal way of life that is.

The 5 steps to getting whatever you want
  1. Know exactly what it is that you do want! It's very important to write it down - describing it as your "Most Ardent Desire". This MAD idea can be what ever will get you to act.
  2. Also, write down what you have to offer that merits your MAD.
  3. Determine potential partners who might benefit from your offer, or contribute to it, and plan a strategy that connects you to them.
  4. Prepare a win-win-win scenario, offer it to a potential partner and see if your negotiating strategy gets your MAD - or not. If you do not get the result you intend, learn from it and adjust - by changing your strategy, your partner or your MAD.
  5. Keep trying and adjusting - with unbending intent - until you are aligned with your Most Ardent Desire.
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AN EMPOWERING TECHNIQUE, TOOL OR EXERCISE (Top) 

Looking for an idea for a product or a service that is a guaranteed hit? Well if HIT stands for "heuristic ideation technique" you can quickly prosper from the following observations:

1. New ideas are often composed of ideas that already exist.

2. The nucleus of many new ideas often has two separate elements... now seen as a unified whole.

3. Combinations of dissimilar elements (like 'chalk and cheese') work better to provoke creative breakthroughs than combinations of similar elements (chalk-limestone).

Want to know more? Click here for the instructions found in our TOOL BOX .

 

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OUR FEATURED COSTA RICA TOUR (Top) 

Our very best offer and your very best 14-day vacation is "The Way Of Jaguar-kings" so check out the daily itinerary and curriculum -> http://www.consult-IIDC.com/english/themetours/jaguardaily.htm.

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WEB LINKS TO HELP YOU WORK AND PLAY (Top) 

Chatting to a friend of mine, I became aware that he didn't really know how to conduct a web search.  Questioning him a bit, I realized he didn't understand the concept very well - so I thought others might not.

The following links can fix that: For example if you want to know how a search engine works, click http://www.howstuffworks.com/search-engine.htm. For an online tutorial on locating specific information, UC Berkeley has the ticket - click and see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html.

If you're an old hand at this, you might still appreciate the ultimate guide to searching the Internet -> http://www.completeplanet.com/Tutorial/Search/ which covers 48 topics. How about the ultimate Guide to Search Engines, Web Portals and Internet Directories? It's here -> http://www.searchengineguide.com/.

If you're a MAC-user, here's FREE software to let you access any or all search engines with one click.Download Huevos @ http://ranchero.com/huevos/help/huevos11.php.

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SOME INSPIRING QUOTATIONS (Top) 

"There is little difference in people... but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative." W. Clement Stone

"Those who are quite satisfied sit still and do nothing; those who are not quite satisfied are the sole benefactors of the world." Walter Savage Landor

"A ship in harbor is safe but that is not what ships are made for." John A. Shedd

"No one has success until he has abounding life. This is made up of the many-fold activity - with energy, enthusiasm and gladness." Lillian Whiting

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Happiness is a form of courage." Holbrook Jackson

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A BIT OF A GIGGLE (Top) 

One day, on a leaf on a branch on a tree in a jungle, a clever caterpillar, unaware of the deep wisdom behind its newly felt feelings, answered an inner urge - to spin itself into a chrysalis

An ant, new to the jungle's survival game, was nimbly and deftly running about the same branch on that same tree, in search of food for its queen, when it came upon the chrysalis, now near its time of change.

In the sunshine, the chrysalis moved its stem to and fro - which at first greatly surprised, then intrigued and finally attracted the complete attention of the ant who - in a sudden shock - realized that the thing was alive.

"Poor, pitiful creature!" cried the ant with sham care as it quickly surveyed the scene and then, suddenly saw where the chrysalis was fixed to the branch and, just as suddenly, felt safe.

"What a sad fate is yours my friend!" - it shouted, barely containing its glee. "I - the tiniest of creatures - am free to run hither and yon at my complete pleasure and so grow evermore intelligent, while you - a rather big old lug I must say - stays here locked in a shell, imprisoned, with barely the power to move your scaly butt. Why I can climb the highest branches of this tree and see far while you are limited to whatever interesting thing happens by this place."

The arrogant ant almost sneered that last bit, but the near-transformed chrysalis - in spite of hearing it all managed its energy well and made not even an attempt to reply.

Tired of talking to itself, the ant soon wandered away but passed by there again a few hours later. This time it found nothing but the caterpillar's empty shell. As it was standing there wondering what became of that large and immobile lug, it became shaded from the sun above. Looking up reactively for a predator, the tiny ant was awed by very large wings of a magnificent, exotic, flying insect.

Arrogant Ant froze solid and almost soiled itself in its fright.

"Behold the power I have!" - said the beautiful butterfly. "Am I still your to-be-pitied friend!  Boast to me about your own power to run freely and climb like you did before. Tell me about the vast territory you've seen... that is - boast as long as you hold me here and force me to listen to your drivel."

As he said this, the butterfly hovered majestically above the ant who was cowering in fear. It continued: "You would profit to lose your arrogant opinions. Realize that things are never merely as they appear. Don't be so quick to judge others. Have you not yet figured out that everything in existence is in the process of becoming. 'What are you becoming?' - that's the only question worth wondering when you meet someone new."

Then, with graceful stroke of its powerful wings, that butterfly was aloft and gone on the summer breeze, to adventures unimagined by the arrogant ants.This particular one though, was humbled when it realized it was limited to walking, and it never did stop wondering what became of that big old lug.  It remained eager to learn and did become more intelligent, almost figuring it out too.

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