In November, 1996 I was in Kathmandu, sitting cross-legged amongst an assembly of multinationals, listening to an Australian monk lecture us on the meaning of compassion in Tibetan Buddhism. He held up high an orange sheet of paper for us all to see, then turned it around - we could now see it was white on the back.

Then he turned the orange side to face us all again and asked: “Who can imagine what the back colour of this orange sheet is?”

“White!” we all yelled back.

Quiet (for me) this month as I took a self-imposed holiday from producing content. Back in Tokyo now, about to start the annual residential of all our students, teachers and friends. Busy times ahead. ATSuccess is now gearing up for an extended period of focused attention on how to grow your AT biz. If you are thinking of joining, now's a great time for that…

Click here now to find out more.

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My Personal Facebook Group

My feeling within ATSuccess this week is that we can do away with Alexander Technique thank you very much, but NOT the work. The old man said it had to evolve, but into what? There's the rub - when it stops looking like what he did, the traditionalists worry. It's right that they worry, but not helpful to them, helpful to me. Why? I know I am doing something different when the feeling all around is "No - that is wrong." Hang on - isn't that exactly a indicator of change? (But not a good one I hear them yelling!)

Sometimes the hardest time to stay awake is when there are no dramas; when the work of keeping your biz fed, well-exercised and healthy is a smattering of small tasks, a consistency of focus and a remembrance of why you are doing it all in the first place. ATSuccess was like this the last week - many people thinking of leaving, taking a break. I think that's the dumbest decision you could make. And I respect your right to make it. I am not here to make you feel good, I am here to share what I have learnt: when the light is dimming, you don't turn it off. You turn it up.

"How many weeks in your year?" he asked me.

(Huh? What's he talking about?) "Well… 52 of course."

"So your biz is open over Christmas and New Year?"

"Um. No. We close"

"So your year is not 52 weeks is it?"

Welcome to my first session on how to run my business.

We are sitting at a cramped table in the noisy Sailors Café, just outside Ebisu station in Tokyo. It is 2006. Grace was two, Angelica five. My method of running my biz up to this point had been rushing to the ATM to see if I had any spare cash. It wasn't working real well…

These are the results of vigorous discussion in our ATSuccess Facebook group, with threads that sometimes reach epic proportions! Fabulous and pertinant information. Of course, not everyone follows all threads, but if a topic has an interest for you, you will read from actual AT teachers how they are implementing these new ideas in their practice. Of course even more exciting than that, is reading about the steady results that are flowing from this focused attention. If you are a regular of my blog and not in my coaching group, consider trying it out this a month...

Most Alexander Technique teachers will not use Facebook to find students, or if they do, they won't use the facilities of paid advertising to do it. The more advanced teachers will open a business page, post some things, hope to create some engagement. This is good. But not enough.

The Purpose of a Facebook Page

Think of your biz as a mobile, hanging from the roof so that every part influences the whole. This is a principled way of holistic thinking that applies as naturally to your business as it does to your co-ordination. The name of your biz of one of those moving parts that influences the whole.

In my comprehensive 12-part system for building a niched Alexander Technique business, your name is a critical: a name that communicates instantly the identity you are crafting within your niche. Think of some famous biz names…

Here's a sentence worthy of Alexander longest and most circuitous: As the newly named Invitation Letters into the niched work of each teacher took shape, following an immensely detailed psychological tapestry built over decades of experience creating these things, word starting coming back from students and contacts of many of the teachers participating in this process, that demonstrated the inert power available from participating. Here's a better way of putting all that:

Clarity is Power.

Two narratives. One full of stress. The other full of generosity and peace.

Which world would you rather live in?

But this is a story repeated every day, in hundreds of different matters, at a consequence of great suffering. Whenever my mind is saying "You should…" or "He has to…" I know that I am in a narrative of poverty, not generosity.