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Barbara Sher's Newsletter

Hi All!

The first part of this newsletter is about going places. The second is about coming home. Not about me coming home. Maybe about you coming home.

GOING PLACES

I'm getting ready to head out for the French Pyrenees, to meet my son and his family for Christmas and New Year's. While still jetlagged, I fully expect to be dodging my very dangerous 6 year-old, snowball-shooting grandson's missiles. (You'd think my son would protect me since it's his kid and all, but he just keeps laughing and taking movies.)

When I finally haul my carcass off the battlefield I'll grab a nap and then pick up my ongoing project of shifting a whole lot of my work to Europe. I'm setting up even more speaking gigs for myself -- I'm thinking Sweden, maybe Estonia, you know?

You can see the ones I'm already doing. I'm doing that partly for my 'half-the-year in the E.U.' plan for 2010, and partly, as always, to stay one step ahead of my WriteSpeak students (more about that in COMING HOME, below).

What started as a good excuse to spend more time with my overseas family has turned into something much bigger.

TWITTER GLOBAL NEW YEAR'S IDEA PARTY

The more I see my mission as saving as many geniuses as I can in my lifetime and making the world a better place by freeing up all that genius, the more I realize that none of it would be possible without the internet.

The Twitter Idea Party we started last March has become a launching pad for the dreams of people all over the world (who are almost always a mere two pieces of information from getting exactly what they want). That's a source of people power I just have to keep sharing.

So, when I get to my hotel and dust off the snow, as New Year's Eve approaches, I'm going to do another round of the Global Idea Party, like we did last March. I don't know who'll be joining me, but I'll be there (and I'll need you to join me, at least part of the time) and together we'll be heading through every time zone to ring in the new year by helping people make their dreams come true.

It won't combine with conference calling this time, because I won't have the crew working with me as I did last time. (They kind of threatened my life if I made them stay up all night again.) You can see the story at the Wishcraft 30th birthday celebration site. (Remind me to put a clip up on YouTube from my 'Idea Party Pledge Special' before December 31st, just to get you warmed up.)

SINCE I'LL BE IN FRANCE ANYWAY...

Whilst in France, we're also visiting the site for my next Scanner Retreat in April. It's an immaculate inn set in a medieval stone village that overlooks the Languedoc countryside. We found the place quite by accident, (here's that jolly story: ) but we knew this was the right place as soon as we saw it. It can't be very well known yet because we've gotten a great group rate in fabulous rooms with breakfasts and gourmet dinners. It's kind of like a wonderful dream. And you'll be surrounded by Scanners, possibly the first time you'll be among people who understand who you are (read: who don't think you're flaky).

So, here's to the world. See as much of it as you can, because you never know which dreams you'll uncover. And make sure you get all the help you need to make them come true. I'll be here, so join the party, come to a Scanner Retreat and find your tribe! When you win, it's good for all of us!

And now...
COMING HOME

When I get back to New York I won't be lounging about either. January 16 will be the next (and only, for a long while) Part I Telephone Workshop for the WriteSpeak program. That's where you find out what your message is - or you begin to. Read on and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The teleworkshop is the prerequisite for WriteSpeak Part II, which is the Retreat on Feb 12-17, so if you haven't already taken it, you'd best sign up. If you want to come to the WriteSpeak retreat in New York in February, that is.

I know I ran a WriteSpeak retreat less than a month ago. I didn't plan to have another for a year or so. But there's a story here, too.

A few days before last November's retreat began, three of the nicest, smartest attendees had to drop out. They were very unhappy about that, but one had pneumonia (she was going to come anyway, but I swore I'd do everything in my power to hold a February retreat for her, so she stayed in bed. She is now fully recovered and holding me to my promise!). Two others were told subtly by their bosses that if they missed that particular Monday or Tuesday (whatever), they might not need to come back to work at all, ever. Choke. Naturally, I promised them I'd have a retreat in February, too.

So don't make a liar out of me. Help me find some wonderful people who know they should be writing and speaking but didn't know they could. Just show them the letters I got tonight from the grads of November's retreat. I can hardly read them without beaming and getting a tear in my eye, and that's not a figure of speech. I guess I'll just let them write the rest of this newsletter.

Barbara Sher's WriteSpeak Retreat was incredible. I'm not a coach, or a writer, and I thought I would be out of place. But this was just the place for me, because I want to be a speaker. I've always known that someday, some way, I would be a speaker - but I had no idea where or how to start. Barbara's retreat gave me exactly what I needed to get started. In addition to Barbara's help and inspiration, the support and camaraderie of all the wonderful people who participated is an amazing and powerful thing. Whatever you have to do to get there, do it! It is the best thing you can do for yourself.

And another:

Attending Barbara Sher's WriteSpeak retreat was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was completely unclear about what my message was before attending - and completely clear and energized about it afterwards. It was fun, casual (I wore my pajamas) and extremely informative. I made new friends - and after 5 years of procrastinating, I finally started blogging. This was unlike any other workshop I've ever attended. Nothing held back, all questions answered and no upsells. It's chatting with Barbara in a living room. We drank coffee, we ate home-made biscuits and we laughed like crazy. If you're thinking about attending, don't hesitate. Sign up now. You'll love it.

and her man, Joe (I love the way that sounds) said:

It's OK for boys to come, too.

They're both hot as pistols and oh-so-ready for me to begin Part III. Take a look at their wonderful blogs and you'll see what I mean:

Patty's blog

Joe's blog

Here's the only other 'testimonial' I'll ask you to read. It's not short, but I don't want to cut a word of it. You'll see why:
Barbara, and the retreat she made, handed me my life's work. I seriously do not know how to thank her.

Coming to the WS retreat had no less a result than leading me nose-first right to my Thing. The Thing I have been looking for practically my entire adult life. My Thing, my Mission From God, you get the idea. And now that I've figured out the Thing, it answers so many questions I've always had about my whole reason for being.

I think it was two things that clinched it: first, the exercise of speaking to my Orphan. This pointed me right at what I would say to someone who reminded me of me. And me saying to Barbara after the exercise that there was something I was avoiding telling my orphan, because I didn't want to freak her out. And Barbara saying "That thing you didn't want to tell her? That was your message." At the time I didn't get it, but over the course of the retreat I came to see how exactly right this was.

The other was Barbara saying that there's something that every one of us has already spent the 'Malcolm Gladwell Required 10,000 hours' becoming an expert on. I understood, in the intellect, that my mission was somehow about helping my orphan, in all her guises. But I didn't really get this until lying in bed one night at the retreat, trying to stay awake and do my homework, and realizing: THIS is what I'm an expert on. This stuff is what I think about, what I write about, what I'm obsessed with. This is the mission. What I never got before was that my obsession with constructing my self would be the basis of my vocation. That my mission could be the result and the healing of this formative wound, made manifest. And that healing myself would be a natural by-product of helping others who remind me of me.

To sum up: the retreat helped me discover my Mission, which I knew was somewhere, but which I had struggled long and hard to find. I didn't know this would happen. I thought I was coming to learn about writing and speaking as a career, and that I would figure out what sort of thing I might be writing and speaking about later. I did not expect that I would leave the retreat having found my life's purpose. What I ended up with is the biggest, most valuable gift I have ever gotten from any kind of education in my whole life.

All this "mission" business aside - I would go anywhere to sit at Barbara's feet and soak up her smartness and laugh at her jokes. Because she is so funny and so real and so perceptive about what people need that just being in her presence is an education. I love her, and kind of want to marry her (Barbara, you should know that I make the best, most protein-y breakfasts in the world). But since she is unlikely to agree to this, I am happy to have her as the chairperson of my High Council of Jedi Knights, and unreservedly, strongly recommend that anyone who has a chance to study with her do it!

THAT'S WHAT I MEANT BY 'COMING HOME.' I DIDN'T MEAN ME, I MEANT YOU.

Nothing more to say. That's all you need to know to make up your mind to be there, or to uncork the mission of some stuck genius you value, who ought to be telling the world what he worked so hard to learn in life. That's an obligation you/they have. It's my most welcome obligation to show you how to do it.

With warmest, highest regard,

Barbara Sher

PS: here's your audio tip.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

WRITESPEAK PART I - TELEWORKSHOP JANUARY 16, 2010

WRITESPEAK PART II - 6-DAY RETREAT IN NEW YORK CITY, FEBRUARY 12 - 17

SCANNER 6-DAY RETREAT IN FRANCE, APRIL 6 - 11, 2010