Note: What Do You Want? is required. Goals, Habits & Intentions and GHI Mastery are recommended. The rest are optional and don’t need to be taken in a particular order.
What Do You Want?
When someone asks you what you want, do you draw a blank? Is it easier for you to identify what you don’t want? If so, you’re not alone.
If you don’t know what you want, you’ll end up with what System 1 (the unconscious part of your brain) wants for you, which is more of what you already have. Based on your mental model of the world, your unconscious will:
- keep “correcting” you back to the very well-worn path you’re trying to get off
- pacify you rather than satisfy you
- focus on helping you survive but not necessarily thrive
What Do You Want? will guide you through the process of identifying your Big Picture Wants (also called higher order wants)—the things that matter most to you and that make your life juicy, enlivening, and deeply satisfying.
Once you’re clear about what really matters, you can waste less time on what doesn’t.
Thank you for the work you facilitated in our What Do You Want? class. It was so thought provoking. It really made me examine my core beliefs and allowed me to see outmoded patterns that I’d grown too comfortable with. —M.M.
For the first time in my life I can clearly see what motivates me–what I truly want. I have a much better metric for making decisions. Knowing what I really want means I don’t have to muddle through what doesn’t really serve me. —A.C.
Goals, Habits & Intentions
GHI Mastery
Instead of allowing your brain’s tendencies to hold you back, use them to help you get what you want and to support your higher aspirations.
Goals: Find out what a goal really is, what separates a good one from a bad one, and how to set—and achieve—goals that connect with your Big Picture Wants.
Habits: Learn how the habit loop works so you can change the habits that don’t work for you and create new habits that move you in the direction you want to go.
Intentions: Stop trying to “make a different choice.” Master the I.A.P. (Intention/Attention/Perseverance) process so you can get ahead of System 1.
& More: Self-talk radio is always on the air. Discover how to tune into it and what to do (and not do) about it. Develop self-observation and mindfulness skills. Find out why affirmations aren’t effective. Learn focused writing exercises that help you gain clarity.
GHI Mastery offers you the opportunity to use the tools to engage in the deliberate practice that will train your brain to take the path you want to take.
I love the tools it’s given me to tackle some of my big goals. I’m doing things I probably would not have tackled before this. —J.S.
It has shifted how I view things like world events, things that my kids do, things that my husband does. And the internal shift—we’re talking 9.9 magnitude. —E.C.
Curiosity Lab
If we started over, curiosity would be the most vital part of both
demolition crew and reconstruction crew. —John Medina, Brain Rules
What is curiosity? Why was it considered to be Leonardo da Vinci’s defining trait? What message was the story of Pandora’s Box intended to convey—and why? What is the purpose of curiosity? How does it work? Is it a form of attention? Are you born curious? Can you develop or cultivate curiosity? Should you?
Curiosity Lab provides an opportunity to explore not only the nature of curiosity, but also one’s self and the world. Topics include:
- Pandora’s Box and other Warnings
- Leonardo da Vinci
- BEing Curious
- Questions
- Attention
- Beginner’s Mind
- Boredom: The Flip Side of Curiosity?
- What You Don’t Know
I’m looking at how does this relate to my days, how I respond to things, my relationship to people. It’s all fascinating. I’m going to get my notebook and start asking questions. —V.W.
I had never really thought about how curiosity killed the cat is a warning and Pandora’s Box is a cautionary tale. When society cautions everybody about something, that’s probably a good reason to look at it. —A.S.
Create Your Own Story
- Part One: The Universe Is Made of Stories, Not of Atoms
- Part Two: Trickster Makes the World
- Part Three: Architects Translate Desire into Reality
- Part Four: Harmonize
Part One: Learn how your Inner Narrator imposes narrative structure—complete with characters, conflicts, and plots—on the experiences you have. The purpose of this ongoing narrative is to maintain The Story of You, generating a sense of self and maintaining the status quo. Antonio Damasio described how our brains build our autobiographies in an interview.
Part Two: Meet your Inner Trickster, the part of you that resides at the crossroads and on the threshold–in the liminal space between where you are now and where you want to be. You may know Trickster as Coyote or Raven from Navajo tales, or as the Greek god Hermes, or as the Norse Loki. If you want to create something or undertake a daunting task, you need to access your Inner Trickster.
Part Three: Your Inner Architect is the planner and designer of your life, maintaining focus and direction. But the Architect does more than design standalone plans; it considers the impact of each individual element on all the other elements. It allocates resources. It maps the territory you want to travel. “You are, in a very real sense, an architect of your environment as well as your experience.” —Lisa Feldman Barrett
Part Four: You are more than the sum of these three inner aspects. You are the protagonist in the story your brain is narrating about you. Learn how to get all three parts of yourself to harmonize on your behalf. “Only notes that are different can harmonize.” —Steve Goodier
It’s so important to recognize our own story—and how to intervene. —S.M.
It’s exciting and interesting! I’m going through my day and all of a sudden, I get insights. —V.S.
[Identifying the story] was empowering. I was surprised at the things that came up and that there was a theme. —A.C.
Note: No writing skills required.
9 Models of the World
We see things not as they are but as we are because each of us is looking out from within our own model of the world. Our model of the world influences what we pay attention to, how we interpret and react to events, the meaning we assign to them, and much of what we think, feel, do, and say.
The Enneagram offers a window into your particular model of the world. It can help increase self-awareness shed light on how you get in your own way (and what to do about it). It can also help you understand others and communicate with them more deeply and effectively. In addition to the nine types, topics include:
- Stances: Aggressive, Withdrawing, and Compliant
- Centers: Doing, Thinking, and Feeling
- Triads: 2/5/8, 1/4/7, and 3/6/9
- Coping Styles: Competency, Positive Outlook, and Reactive
- Wings
- Levels of Development: Healthy, Average, and Unhealthy
- Balance Points: Stress and Security
- Getting Along with Others
- Relationship with Community
I think understanding this is expansive and really healing to a person’s psyche. —M.H.
It’s really been helpful to me to learn more about myself and accept things about myself. It’s great information! —J.H.
Personal Impact!
The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you,
or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived. —Ann Patchett
What is the difference YOU want to make in the world? Personal Impact will help you clarify what you are up to at this point in your life, what you want to accomplish, the steps you will need to take to make that happen, and how those goals connect with your Big Picture Wants.
You will be guided through the process of creating a Personal Impact Declaration and completing a Personal Impact Master Plan. You can develop a context in which to determine not only what actions to take (or not take), but also how to respond to feedback and adjust course.
Move up to the next level in mastering the art and science of change and creating a consistently satisfying and meaningful life by empowering yourself to make the difference you want to make in the world.
You finally reach a point in your life when you realize you don’t have a whole lot of time left, probably. Can I use my life’s experience to make this a better place before the final curtain falls? —J.S.
[In my writing] things always keep coming back to the same place in terms of what I’m looking for and what’s important to me. I understand that’s how the process works. All the work we’ve done and that we’ve brought to this is meant to do that. Otherwise I wouldn’t be thinking about these things—or at least not in the same way. So that’s really compelling. —J.M.