Prioritizing Your Life
What are you most committed to?
“If you don’t know where you are going, any path will take you there.
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Retreat Overview
Most of us would say that achieving happiness and fulfillment are the most important goals of our lives. Who amongst us would choose to be unhappy and unfulfilled?
In business, we know how to go about achieving our most important objectives. First, we set clear priorities because we know how easy it is for the urgent to crowd out the important. Then, we establish clear goals and monitor our progress against those goals. But do we apply the same disciplined approach to our lives? If not, why not?
“I wanted only to try to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?
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There are many reasons why assessing our life priorities and then acting on them with consistent discipline is not easy to do. One of the inherent problems is that doing this work requires us to use very different parts of our brain. We must use a combination of our deepest ‘right brain’ intuition and ‘left brain’ executive functioning and planning skills – and use them in concert.
To overcome these natural tendencies, this retreat combines left and right brain techniques to help you clearly articulate your life priorities and develop a plan for achieving them.
Left Brain
- You will take a Life Priorities Survey©, where your answers will help you establish a foundation to work with. It is natural for your priorities to change over time, depending on circumstances, your stage of life and your evolving needs and desires. This survey identifies how your current state compares to your desired state in the most important aspects of your life.
- You will develop a ‘Life Priorities Plan,’ where you identify the specific behavioral changes you will make to achieve your goals.
- You will select, should you desire, an ‘accountability partner’ who can help you keep yourself accountable to the changes you have identified.
- You will establish a series of ‘check-in points’, including taking the Life Priorities Survey© again three months after the retreat to formally assess your progress.
Right Brain
- The Life Priorities Survey© provides a starting point, but the key to creating true change is to engage the subconscious mind where so much of our behavior originates. To do that, we will be spending much of our time engaged in mindfulness-based reflection and inquiry on the subjects at hand. Guiding us will be mindfulness expert Kevin Jones, who has worked extensively with YPO and WPO groups in the past.
- Mindfulness practice. We will have experiential mindfulness sessions that provide a mix of teaching, hands-on practice, and silent reflection to help find focused time to think, to create, and to slow down our reaction to stimuli. Mindfulness training can help us make better decisions about what is happening in the present, so we can make better choices for the future.
- Outdoor activity. Being in a spectacular outdoor setting helps to put all things in perspective. We will use the silence and solitude of the wilderness to help deepen our experience through mindful walking, hikes, and other outdoor activity.
- Yoga. We will start each day with a relaxing restorative yoga session suitable for all levels of practice, including rank beginner, with the goal of clearing the mind each day.
- Minimizing distractions. There will be no electronic device usage or alcohol during the retreat, though devices may be used during free time periods. There will also be periods of silent reflection through the retreat.
Retreat Details
Location
The location is a private facility in The Yellowstone Club, an exclusive resort community in a spectacular setting in the Yellowstone Mountains in Montana.
Dates
Arrive any time on Wednesday September 7th (the program starts with a welcome dinner at 7:00pm). Departure is any time on Sunday, September 11th (the last event will be the closing dinner on September 10th at 7:00pm).
Resources
Cost
Because this is the first event of its kind, only direct costs will be passed on to you. I am not charging anything for my services during this event. You are responsible only for transportation and your share of the cost of the resources (The minimum number of attendees will be four, not including Kevin and Steve. The maximum will be eight). Total costs, excluding transportation, will be roughly $2,800 per person, though that may change by a few hundred dollars, depending on the number of participants.
Agenda
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact Steve Hills at steve@hillsscape.com or 202-365-0769.
