In high school, I didn’t consider myself very smart.
I was average-smart with ok grades but mostly I aimed to simply get by with as little pain as possible.
For my final year of high school, I was thrilled to be able to choose most of my own classes. Of course, I chose those that would require the least amount of studying possible.
Even though I didn’t consider myself very smart, I wasn’t completely averse to school. In fact one of the classes I really enjoyed was history because the teacher, Mr. Carpenter. He was hilarious, super engaging with the subject, and somehow made studying feel like it wasn’t work at all.
One day I was sitting in class, not history, and Mr. Carpenter showed up at the door and kindly asked the teacher if he could have a word with me outside. She agreed and a little surprised and perplexed, I stepped outside of the room with him into the hallway.
He told me, “Hey, I took the liberty to see which classes you had registered for next year and while underwater origami class (or whatever) would be interesting and all, I was surprised to see that you hadn’t signed up for any advanced placement classes.”
I told him that he clearly had me mistaken with someone else because I wasn’t an “advanced placement” kind of guy. He continued, “Actually, you did well enough in my class that I think you’d really enjoy the AP European History class. The prof is excellent and I think he will make you work hard but I think you can do it. Plus if you pass, it will count as college credit.”
I stood there for a moment, speechless. I’d never considered myself to be very smart, let alone someone who could take and pass an advanced placement class and maybe even go onto college.
Then it dawned on me what was happening here. He didn’t have to be doing this. Even as he stood there with me in the hallway, he was using his personal break time, time he could be sitting in the teacher’s lounge eating his lunch. But instead, he took the initiative to go to the registration office, check out my next year’s schedule, found out wherever I was at school, pulled me out of class, all to invite me to reach higher, to stretch further, and work toward something which he believed I could become and then encouraged me that I could do it.
THAT is a great teacher.
His faith in me inspired me to rise to the occasion.
I took the class and passed.
Yes, the AP class was a metric $#it-ton of work, just like Mr. Carpenter said. Yes, the AP History prof was amazing. But what I hadn’t expected was how this new class class planted a seed inside of me which grew into a fascination and dare I say passion for European history—politics, art, architecture—a subject that changed my worldview forever, and which I still lean on even now as I live in Europe and even helps me as I’m leading walking tours around Paris and Florence as part of my European yoga retreats.
I’ll forever be grateful for Mr. Carpenter.
What teachers have changed your life?
Maybe YOU are that kind of teacher for someone else?
The example of Mr. Carpenter is a model I try to employ in my own teaching, both for my yoga and Yoga Nidra students, but also for those people whom I mentor to become better teachers and conscious entrepreneurs.
As teachers and leaders, we have a sacred responsibility to hold a vision for our students and clients and invite them to stretch and reach for what they may not even be able to see for themselves. We also encourage them that they can do it and help them to see that they already hold inside of them the seeds necessary for their own transformation.
The beautiful thing about being this kind of teacher is that it doesn’t only benefit the student. With this kind of work, both student and teacher grow and evolve in wisdom, experience, and of course, the greatest currency of all—love.
Many teachers hunger to have this kind of experience, to be able to make that kind of a difference in their students’ lives, and to receive the benefit of growing alongside their students. Many teachers simply don’t know where to find their students but sense that they are out in the world somewhere. Many teachers, like yoga and meditation teachers, offer wisdom and experience that is spiritual or nebulous, the product of several years of training and teaching but which is a little hard to substantiate. How do you teach something which is kind of like trying to harness the wind?
What I am aiming to do with my small-group business mentoring training, starting January 28th, is to teach you how to build a windmill, a simple mechanism that allows you to capture the sometimes subtle but powerful force of your teaching and to turn it into something that produces real-life benefits for your your students and clients. I’m teaching you how to honor who you are and what you know to help you to engage your students so that you can invite a greater number of people to rise up and become who they can be. I’m sharing with you the ways you can encourage them along their journey toward their own unfolding.
This is me inviting you to stretch. I’m inviting you to learn how to have the kind of reach that gives you the power to be the kind of teacher you are meant to be, the kind of teacher that will allow you to invite and encourage your existing and new students around the world to grow in beautiful ways.
Surely, we will all grow together in this process.
This training will be 20 hours split over 4 days, this weekend and next, live, online, and recorded so you can watch the replay even if you can’t make all of the sessions live.
I’m going to be sharing with you how to build what I call your Mechanism of Influence, the system that helps you illuminate your unique gifts, who your ideal client is, and how to create an organic, massive, and positive impact on the world in a way that makes both you and your clients evolve into your highest potential.
I’m going to share with you the precise system I’ve used to help me expand my reach around the world and helped me make a greater impact than I could have imagined. It’s not complicated but it is very organized. It will stretch you in all the best ways so that you can be the kind of teacher and leader you’re meant to be.
Please join me.