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The LifeDesign Workshop

A 2-day investment in yourself that
will pay dividends for years to come.
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Program Outline
Who should attend?
Workshop Leaders
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Dates and places to be announced.

Managing your life well is the ultimate balancing act.

Most of us will never walk a real high wire, but all of us have the task of balancing our priorities every day—and sometimes it feels like walking a high wire with no safety net.

The first step in balancing your priorities is to know what they are.
Can you list your top 5 right now?

Do you know where you want to be a year from now?
...5 years from now? ...10 years from now?

LifeDesign leads you through a review of everything that matters in your life. It doesn't tell you what your priorities ought to be or what goals you ought to be working toward.

It does help you get very clear about the direction your life is taking and the choices you can make to continue in that direction or change course.

Clarity about where you are and where you want to go is the first step toward creating the life of your dreams.

LifeDesign puts you in the driver's seat by helping you gain this clarity.

In two short days, you'll learn powerful LifeDesign principles and practices that will serve you for the rest of your life.

Are you up for it?

Program Outline:

Part 1—Where You've Been

In Part 1 you'll gain new insight into how you came to be the way you are. You are not your past, but you are a product of it. The goal here is to come to an easy acceptance of who you are so that you can use the strenths from your past and let go of the parts that get in your way.

Part 2—Where You Are

In Part 2 you'll do an extensive review of what's happening in your life right now in order to determine what matters most to you. You'll have a chance to do a reality check—comparing what you say you value with how you actually spend your time.

Part 3—Where You Want To Go

In Part 3 you'll take time to reflect on the perspective you've gained and decide where you want to go with your life. Using the principles of good thinking will increase your ability to make good choices.

Part 4—How You Plan To Get There

In Part 4 you'll make detailed plans with specific action steps in a realistic time frame to move in the direction you've chosen. You'll confront the ways you've blocked yourself in the past and make new commitments to the life of your choosing.

Who should attend?

Since no one ever realizes their full potential, virtually everyone can benefit from the LifeDesign Workshop. Here are some circumstances that make it particularly timely.

—Are you in a major life transition?

—Are you dissatisfied with your use of time?

—Would you like to discover your true passion?

—Do you know your passion, but can't find the time to pursue it?

—Are you looking for the next step towards achieving your dreams?

—Would you like to clarify your vision of an ideal life?

—Are you currently working but not feeling fulfilled in your job?

—Are you between jobs—searching for the right opportunity?

—Are you worried about your financial future?

—Would you like to put your past in perspective so it works for you instead of against you?

—Would you like to learn how to make decisions so you can live life to the fullest?

The LifeDesign Process helps you address all these issues and more. It can be a life altering experience!

Take charge of your life and start creating the life of your dreams right now!

Workshop Leaders
I'm James Vaughan, co-author of the LifeDesign Workbook and co-founder of the LifeDesign Company.

I have an abiding interest in how people learn, make decisions and manage their lives.

The seeds of my interest in LifeDesign go back to my own decision-making process in choosing a career. I have made at least 5 distinct career changes.

I began college with the idea of becoming an accountant. Math was an easy subject for me, but after only two semesters, I felt it wasn't a field that was going to hold my interest. I decided to study for the ministry and pursued a degree in philosophy and religion. During my senior year, I took my first course in Psychology and was captivated by the possibility of learning more about why we do the things we do.

I had already accepted a fellowship at Yale Divinity School so I went to Yale for a semester before deciding to leave the ministerial track and pursue an advanced degree in Psychology. That was a hard decision for me to make, and I was very fortunate to have an excellent faculty advisor who helped me think it through and make the right decision for me. I then took a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.

I taught Organizational Psychology for 8 years in the Graduate Schools of Business at the Univ. of Pittsburgh and the Univ. of Rochester. I was an Associate Professor with tenure in 1970 when I decided to leave the Univ. of Rochester and go into consulting fulltime. I still remember the shocked reaction I got from friends and colleagues. They couldn't believe I would leave such a secure position to enter a profession where I would be on my own with no guaranteed income. This event and the reactions of others crystallized my interest in life planning and how we make significant life decisions.

Peggy (my wife) and I began immediately to create and run LifeDesign workshops. In 1972, while running a LifeDesign workshop for couples, we got clear on our desire to live in a warm climate near the water and decided to move to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. In the ensuing years, Peggy and I have run LifeDesign workshops for groups as diverse as the National Council of Churches and the National Defense University. We have counseled hundreds of people in the LifeDesign process and used it consistently in our own lives.

After working with this process for over 35 years, I am more energized than ever about the prospects of using LifeDesign to help people live full lives of their own choosing. Most people never come close to realizing their full potential. This is partly due to the almost unlimited capability that every person possesses, but it's also partly caused by the reluctance of many to pursue their dreams. Too many people accept limits put on them by others.

We are living in challenging times. The information age has created many new opportunities, but it has not simplified the task of choosing among them. In fact, the task of choosing is probably far more complex today because of the increase in options. Despite the serious conflicts that rage around the world, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to enrich our individual lives and to build our communities. LifeDesign can be a powerful tool toward this end in the hands of motivated people.

I hope you'll add your energy to ours and help us make the world a better place to live.

James Vaughan, Founder, LifeDesign Company

I'm Amy Jaffe Barzach, Founder/President of Powerful Inspiration, a company dedicated to helping people find their passion, use their unique strengths to achieve success and make a difference, and discover their own power to make positive change in the world.

I discovered the power of following one's passion when I led a passionate team of parents and professionals to found Boundless Playgrounds in 1997.

I've known both tragedy and triumph. When my baby Jonathan was still healthy, my three-year-old son Daniel and I had seen a beautiful little girl in a wheelchair sadly watching the other children play on a playground she couldn't get to or on. This prompted me to ask "Shouldn't playgrounds be for everyone?" Jonathan died when he was nine months old from spinal muscular atrophy. To channel our grief, my husband, Peter, and I marshaled an army of more than 1,000 volunteers to create Jonathan's Dream, one of the first universally accessible playgrounds in the country. If Jonathan had lived, he would have needed a wheelchair, and the creation of a playground for children with and without disabilities and their families became a meaningful way for our family to honor Jonathan's memory.

Jonathan's Dream opened in 1996 on the campus of the Mandell JCC in West Hartford, CT. After one of the volunteers contacted Time magazine, an article about Jonathan's Dream was published later that year. Immediately people from across America called wanting to know how they could create playgrounds like it for the children in their communities. Boundless Playgrounds was created in response.

I was privileged to lead Boundless Playgrounds for 10 years, during which time we raised awareness of the need for and benefits of inclusive playgrounds generating interest from people in every state, helped communities develop 135 inclusive playgrounds in 25 states, successfully implemented three state initiatives, and raised millions of dollars for this cause including $10,000,000 in challenge grants that directly helped more than 50 communities develop their own inclusive playgrounds.

As I traveled throughout the country over the last decade, sharing my dreams for Boundless Playgrounds with people and hearing theirs, I learned that there was an enormous opportunity to help people bring about—in their own way and for what matters to them—the kind of impact we were able to achieve with the creation of Boundless Playgrounds. People from all walks of life are hungry to know how they can use their personal energy and passion to positively impact their communities and society as a whole. In today's challenging times, this is more important than ever. When people hear my story, some of which is chronicled in my book, Accidental Courage, Boundless Dreams, they realize that they too have the power within themselves to spark the changes they want to see in the world.

Prior to founding Boundless Playgrounds, I enjoyed a successful fifteen year career in corporate marketing and community relations. After earning my Bachelor of Science in economics from the Univ. of Albany and my MBA with a concentration in marketing from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), I served as marketing managers for the Rouse Company and the Pyramid Companies—then V.P. marketing for The Hutensky Group (formerly Bronson & Hutensky), where I implemented community relations programs, orchestrated trade shows and developed special events.

As I embark on my third distinct career, my dream continues to be to inspire people to work towards a world where everyone matters and everyone can make a difference. I make my home in West Hartford, Connecticut, with my husband, Peter, and three of our children, Daniel, Alyssa and Michael. Jonathan, our second son, would have been fifteen on April 1, 2009.

Amy Jaffe Barzach, President, Powerful Inspiration

I'm Kelly Castor, Partner in the LifeDesign Company and Founder of my own company, Practical Lessons.

I'm passionate about this work because of my own personal experience with the LifeDesign Workbook and because of my observations of those who are closest to me, my parents, grandparents and a multitude of other friends and family.

With over 25 years of business experience, I studied my trade from the inside out, focusing on what did and didn't work for me and others. My philosophies, principles and practices are all derived from personal experience. My first-hand observations and involvement in managing and leading people in many successful enterprises shaped my belief that how you perform is, in large measure, a function of who you are as a person and the environment within which you live and work.

I owned and operated several small businesses in the service industry, property management and educational development and training sectors. I honed my leadership and management skills in the telecommunications industry running a region for a leading telecommunications company in the Southwest.

In 1998, I co-founded NII Communications, a CLEC in San Antonio, TX with two other partners. Bringing to bear all of the lessons learned in my other ventures, in 3 short years, I successfully led the company from $0 to $20 million dollars in revenue. The company was later sold to Clear-Tel communications.

In 2002, I founded Practical Lessons as a means to bring my wealth of experience to the core issues of starting, growing and sustaining a successful business venture. My clients often refer to me as their "business therapist," but my common sense approach to achieving results doesn't resemble the soft approach associated with most therapists.

I have a knack for quickly grasping the issues my clients face and developing practical strategies for addressing them. My goal as a consultant is to always leave my clients stronger and better prepared for the inevitable challenges of running a business.

Have a great life! It's yours for the taking.

Kelly Castor, Founder, Practical Lessons

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What participants say:

"When I experienced the LifeDesign Program working on a Westinghouse Corporation project, I was so impressed with the concrete usable concepts I got from it that I wanted everyone in my company to go through the experience with you. Their comments ranged from what a wonderful team experience it was, to how much it clarified their thinking about their own purposes."

George M. Prince, President
Synectics, Inc.
Boston, MA

"The LifeDesign program was excellent and generated a great deal of discussion. I must admit that a new world has been opening up for me. On the job I feel as though I am becoming more effective in dealing with people problems."

Kenneth R. Privette
Manager, Employee Relations
Allied Bendix

"The LifeDesign workshop was a structured, yet comfortable way to really allow time...to re-evaluate some of my life's decisions, and to see how the real 'big picture' of my life can come into focus."

Maureen Orey, President
San Diego Chapter
American Society of Training & Development

"I've participated in many workshops over the years and I truly felt that I got more from your LifeDesign workshop than any other that I've attended."

Patricia Studer
Human Development Services
YMCA of San Diego County

"I have found your LifeDesign program very empowering. It gives me a sense, in a deep-down way, that I do have some control over my future."

Kristen Wainwright
Cambridge, MA

"The group was great and inspirational in getting our thinking moving along the choice lines rather than the chance route. Your program provides the tools needed to make it work. I hope you plan to continue both your individual programs along with programs oriented toward community groups."

Christopher Stokes
Promote La Jolla, Inc.
La Jolla, CA

"It was one of the best-organized sessions I've attended. It reflected years of in-depth experience and provided comprehensive coverage of matters to be considered in reorganizing one's life."

Dale Parker
Financial Development Consultant
Carlsbad, CA

"People really were pleased, not only with the topic, but with your genuineness, openness and down-to-earth approach. It helped to bolster our faith that we are people of integrity."

Ernestine Smith
Health Services Department
San Diego City Schools

What you learn when you make LifeDesign a practice.

You have the power to create the life of your choosing.

It is not necessarily simple and it will not always be easy—
it will always be possible.

You have the capacity
to think clearly—
to put your life in perspective—
to act on sound values—
to live responsibly and well.

You are a worthy person
with the right and the ability
to choose your own course.

You can probably have anything you want, but not everything you want.

You are not your past,
but you are a product of it.

Who you are may be your parents' fault, but if you stay that way,
it's your own fault.

No parents are perfect;
most do the best they can; in the process they do some things well
and some things poorly.

The truth is, many people have shaped you into the person you are today, but you have the opportunity and responsibility of determining the person you will become.

If you ever hope to take full responsibility for your life,
you must come to an easy acceptance of your past and
the way it has shaped you.

You are a potent person with a rich set of experiences.

You are a survivor. You are a learner.

You are unique.

No one looks at the world exactly the same way you do.

The way you view the world and what's possible is a function of what you've learned and experienced—and the way you put it all together.

In a few important respects,
we are all the same.

We share the same basic needs.

We all have the same amount of time— 24 hours a day—
to pursue our goals.

The way you focus your attention makes all the difference.

You energize yourself with good choosing and depress yourself with poor choosing.

Awareness is crucial to good choosing, but movement is the key
to effective living—knowing
which awareness to act on
and when to move on.

We all change—choosing and changing are inevitable.

Not to choose is a choice.
Not to change is impossible.

The choices you make every day—big ones and little ones— determine the quality of your life today and your possibilities for the future.

Work is as natural to human beings as play. You need both all your life.

Find the work you can be
passionate about.

Find the play that enables you to be a good animal— fit and supple.

The roles you play are one way you think of your self-image,
but they do not define your essence.

We all suffer loss—the only question is how you will deal with it when it comes your way.

You can learn and grow from it or
you can feel sorry for yourself and diminish yourself.

Nietzsche was right on this one:
"That which does not kill me, strengthens me."

Values do matter—they are at the heart of everything we do.

Your values ultimately determine who you are and who you will become.

We are all social creatures—
we define ourselves in and through our relationships with others.

Energy and inner joy come from focusing your time on people, things, and activities that you care about.

You create meaning
in your life by living according
to your deepest values.

Things take time.

There are no short-cuts to most worthwhile goals and no quick fixes to many of our problems.

Realistic planning is one
of the keys to solving problems
and achieving goals.

Life is tenuous.

The wise course is to pursue your highest priorities now.

Happiness comes to those who pursue meaningful goals of their own choosing and assume full responsibility for the journey.

Life presents us with many obstacles and opportunities.

Sustaining focus and balance
in the face of all the demands
on your time and energy is
an awesome challenge.

Potential is not your problem; you have more than enough potential to do what you want.

What you need is to get great
clarity about what's important
and organize your life to pursue
those things effectively.

Goals are important
to purposeful living, but they
need not be written in stone.

Remember the proverb, no matter how far you've gone down the wrong path, turn back.

You will get off course—and that's OK; imitate a modern jetliner—stay focused and make many small course corrections.

There's less likelihood of overcorrecting and
the ride will be smoother.

Acknowledge your ability to block yourself from reaching your goals—then don't do it.

Be kind to yourself.

You are not alone—others will help you pursue your dreams.

You sometimes need to ask them clearly for the help you want.

Go for it; dare to live life to the fullest.

Everyone experiences some good things and some bad.

The challenge for each of us is to put it all in perspective— to be nurtured by the good—to learn from the bad— to let it go—to go ahead.

Everything is connected.

Keep learning and remember rule #6—Don't take yourself too seriously.