They Lived Happily Ever After?

If all you had to give was your total energy, you could accomplish historic things.

What gets you to focus with the highest level of commitment, of reverence for the moment? Is there something or someone in your life so sacred that nothing and no one – not ringing phones, not errands, not games in progress, not thoughts always running through your head, not money or business concerns, not insignificant noises or images whizzing by – could possibly break your concentration?

When I write about the Hero’s Journey or talk about the Hero’s Journey somewhere in the world as a travel guide, I mean listening, seeing and feeling with full force, experiencing with full force. Yet that is a kind of focus we so rarely give to things now.  Why is that? What is the story we tell ourselves that prevents this from happening? Is our lack of full engagement just a stage in our life that will pass someday? Or has it always been like this? Is our story that multitasking is necessary as never before? Hey, time is money. Time is shipping away. We are not getting any younger. Anyway, is our somewhat dilluted attention really all that big a deal. Are we really losing that much by nog engaging fully?

Absolutely. Because it is not about time. It never was and never is.

It is about passion.

Every year I see entrepreneurs buy into this story – that it is about passion, not time – in the hope that it will increase performance, productivity and happiness.

Here is the dirty secret, though: The difference in depth between full engagement and multi- tasking is not incremental. It is binary. Either you are fully engaged. Or you are not. It is really that simple, yet we tell ourselves it is otherwise to keep the painful truth at bay.  If a tennis pro preparing to return a 140-mph serve has two thoughts going and one of them does not have to do with returning that serve, do you know what his chances are of returning it well? I do. ZERO. Not 10%, not 5%. The same goes for writing a great story, hitting a golf ball, or doing push – ups the right way or enjoying a glass of wine, or reading a good book.

A distracted hero or heroine will not produce anything of real worth. An entrepreneur with scattered thoughts will not come up with new solutions superior to the competition’s. Indeed, multi-taskers are fortunate even to rise to a modicum of competence. Can’t you always tell when you are on the phone with someone who is simultaneously watching TV or answering e-mail? Does your interaction with that person ever come within a thousand miles of what you would call a satisfying conversation?

Multi-tasking is the enemy of extraordinariness. Human beings can focus fully on only one thing at a time. When entrepreneurs multi task, they are not fully engaged in anything, and partially disengaged in everything. The potential for profoundly positive impact is compromised. Multi – tasking would be okay – is okay – at certain times – but very few people seem to know when that time is. If you must, then multi task when it does not matter. Fully engage when it does.

The Hero’s Journey

  • Start Date:  You can start at any date
  • Duration:  Five weeks
  • Time:  1 hour/week Zoom/Skype meeting
  • Form: online personal coaching with Peter de Kuster
  • Price:  Euro 599 excluding VAT

Reserve your ticket at theherojourneyquestionnaires@gmail.com or 00-31-6-33661772

In this groundbreaking new hero’s journey in Michelangelo’s Florence and Rome we examine the way we tell stories about ourselves to ourselves — and, most important, the way we can change those stories to transform our business and personal lives.

Your story is your life. As human beings, we continually tell ourselves stories — of success or failure; of power or victimhood; stories that endure for an hour, or a day, or an entire lifetime. We have stories about our work, our families and relationships, our health; about what we want and what we’re capable of achieving. Yet, while our stories profoundly affect how others see us and we see ourselves, too few of us even recognize that we’re telling stories, or what they are, or that we can change them — and, in turn, transform our very destinies.

Telling ourselves stories provides structure and direction as we navigate life’s challenges and opportunities, and helps us interpret our goals and skills. Stories make sense of chaos; they organize our many divergent experiences into a coherent thread; they shape our entire reality. And far too many of our stories are dysfunctional, in need of serious editing. First, we ask you to answer the question, “In which areas of my life is it clear that I cannot achieve my goals with the story I’ve got?” We then show you how to create new, reality-based stories that inspire you to action, and take you where you want to go both in your work and personal life.

For decades, at the Hero’s Journey has been examining the power of story to increase passion and performance. Thousands of individuals from every walk of life have sought out and benefited from our life-altering stories.

Our capacity to tell stories is one of our profoundest gifts. The Hero’s Journey approach to creating deeply engaging stories will give you the tools to wield the power of storytelling and forever change your business and personal life.

What Can I Expect?

Here’s an outline of the THE HERO’S JOURNEY

Journey Outline

DAY ONE:  OLD STORIES

DAY TWO: YOUR NEW STORY

  • A Quest is Never Forgettable
  • The Premise of your Story.
  • The words on your tombstone
  • You ultimate mission, out loud
  • Questioning the Premise
  • Lining up
  • Flawed Alignment, Tragic Ending
  • Write Your New Story

DAY THREE: TURNING STORY INTO ACTION

  • Turning your story into action
  • The Story Effect
  • Story Ritualizing
  • The Storyteller and the art of story
  • The Power of Your Story
  • Storyboarding your creative process
  • They Created and Lived Happily Ever After

About Peter de Kuster

Peter de Kuster is the founder of The Heroine’s Journey & Hero’s Journey project,  a storytelling firm which helps creative professionals to create careers and lives based on whatever story is most integral to their lives and careers (values, traits, skills and experiences). Peter’s approach combines in-depth storytelling and marketing expertise, and for over 20 years clients have found it effective with a wide range of creative business issues.

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Peter is writer of the series The Heroine’s Journey and Hero’s Journey books, he has an MBA in Marketing,  MBA in Financial Economics and graduated at university in Sociology and Communication Sciences.