This is information on the course mentioned on the SOS thread. It is free from Barnes & Noble University.

Several of us have already signed up to take it.

Title: The Best Year of Your Life with Debbie Ford
Course Type: Online Instructor-led Course
Estimated Completion Time: 8 hour(s)
Session Length: 4 week(s)

Upcoming Sessions
January 9, 2006 - OPEN


Description
Led by New York Times best-selling author Debbie Ford, this course is for those who are ready to stop fantasizing about the life they will create "someday, when...", and have a burning desire to live a deeply fulfilling life right now. Some of us are good at setting goals and drawing up plans but find that our energy and motivation drops off before we get lift off. And then there are those of us who can't decide on which goals to reach for or how to go about the business of achieving them.
So what is the solution? What will bring about the clarity and vitality to set and attain goals? What will propel you forward even when blockages or difficulties arise? The answer lies in having a vision for your life that is more than the sum total of your goals and action steps. Step more fully into the greatest expression of yourself and make a new commitment to living the best year, month, week, day, and moment of your life. Making this commitment is not just a gift that you give to yourself. It is a gift that you give to every one around you - to your friends, your neighbors, your parents, your children, your partner, your community and, ultimately, to the world.



Objectives
To provide a support structure and plan of action for creating 2006 as your best year yet.
To create a powerful intent for bringing your dreams to fruition.
To step more fully into your greatness and out of limiting beliefs and behaviors.
To begin making peace with your past and open to a greater vision for your life right now.
To cultivate impeccable integrity and find alignment with your deepest truth.
To discover the possibilities that are available to you when you nourish your interior life and feed your inner flame each and every day, no matter what - leaving your old excuses behind.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BrenauMom,

I had to go back a page in this thread to even remember what my primary goal of the course had been! It was improving in regard to keeping my home cleaner and less cluttered. I am absolutely still a mess in that regard--however, I did improve for several months and my kitchen looked the best it had in years during that time. I just haven't been able to sustain it over the long haul.

Reading back over a few posts, it really comes back to me how stressful that course was. Too many people, too much work, too little time. I had hoped it would be a refreshing and invigorating experience and it ended up being more of a burden and a stressor. But I still feel like I got something out of it. I am really glad that I read The Right Questions.

I went back through and there's some good insights for myself that I posted almost a year ago. Fun to read the posts!

Peg

What a surprise to have this pop up again.

quote:

Originally posted by BrenauMom:
January 21, 2006
Which area(s) of your life, if transformed, would most contribute to making the next 12 months the best of your life, so far?

[...] the answer I posted in the classroom was that having my health totally restored and moving back into a home of my own (sweet privacy) would make the next 12 months the Best Year of My Life. [...]

Unfortunately it didn't happen and it looks like it will be several more years before I can get back into my own house again.

I'm just bumping this up to ask how those of you that started out the year with this wound up doing on any of the goals you originally set.

I didn't really follow through on the BYOYL stuff in much of a meaningful way but I did follow through on the one goal that I had determined would make this year the best. My goal was surrounding financial stuff and I wanted to pay off consumer debt and just generally get my financial act together. I am going to miss the first goal by a bit but I've paid off my car and will be within about $2k of paying off my credit cards and should have that done by early next year. I have kept my checkbook in order for the first year of my post-college life and I have added no interest bearing debt all year. I didn't get my will/estate stuff handled but will try to do that early next year too. I did get the name of an attorney from my cousin so now I just need to follow through.

I'm really proud of myself both for the progress I made and more importantly, I didn't throw in the towel on that when I found the actual BYOYL course and stuff too much to keep up with. Another occasion where I resisted the temptation to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

How'd you guys do?

Peg

Here's an assignment from my weekly email from Debbie Ford. Thought everyone might like an opportunity to give it a shot.

quote:

This week, identify one place in your life where you are not getting the results you desire. Maybe it's in your career, with your family, with your health or in your intimate relationships. Allow yourself to see the approaches you've used to try to achieve your desired result.

Now, write down three actions you could take that would be outside your usual comfort zone that would produce quantum results. For example, could you ask someone for help? Do you need to hire a coach or put a structure of accountability in place?

Lastly, approach three people this week whose opinions you respect and ask them how they would go about achieving your goal. Remember, breakthrough results occur when we are willing to give up the old and embrace the new. This week, exercise your muscle of taking risks.

Just a reminder...class ends tomorrow if you need to print or copy anything before then.

If you (or anybody else) want them I have them in Word and can e-mail them to you.

I got an email Sunday or Monday that said "Thank you for participating in this online course at BNU." and it got me all panicky because I thought they were closing the classroom a week early. But then I remembered the course materials said something about the fact that, for the last week, the classroom will still be open but the instructor will no longer be available to answer questions and such.

I need to get back on there and print off my last few lessons!!

quote:

Originally posted by SheriaVa:
I have really forgotten about the course entirely this past week or so, so I haven't gotten anything else done on my "homework."

I haven't done anything since last monday either. One part that struck me as being really relevant to our goal of a healthy lifestyle starts on page 110.

She is talking about structure but she says "Like a goal, a structure needs..." so as I was reading it I used the term "goal" instead of "structure".

"...a "goal" needs to be clealy defined, realistic, and usable, and it also needs to have room for flexibility and unexpected occurrences, like days when we're just feeling down. All of us will have days when we feel lazy or uninspired or just too tired to think about having our best year of our lives. [or reaching our goal weight] Resignation will seep in and destroy our best-laid plans if we don't make room for disappointment, frustration, laziness, and resistance. These states of reality exist, and it's unlikely we will be able to avoid them.
So my suggestion is that you plan for these down days. Include them as part of your "goal", and work them into your schedule. [. . .] Make a commitment to enjoy, or at least relax into, these unwelcome days. Just imagine how good it might feel to claim a "misery" day for yourself. If you don't want misery, you could claim a depressed day, a grumpy day, an ungrateful day, or an unproductive day. How much easier will it be to survive these down days if instead of beating yourself up for them you actually welcome them and give yourself complete and total permission to experience them? [...] When you surrender and welcome any emotion that is present within you, something magical happens and suddenly it has the ability to pass through you. It is only when you resist and fight against a moor or emotion, [or a food craving?] or think it shouldn't be there, that it gains power and the feelings intesify."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BrenauMom,

Just a reminder...the BNU course ends in a week (Sunday, Feb. 12th) so whatever you want to print or download needs to be done before then. I still need to get back and get 3 last chapters that I haven't printed yet.

I have really forgotten about the course entirely this past week or so, so I haven't gotten anything else done on my "homework."

I have copied all the lessons into a new document at home. I have fallen behind there seems to not be enough time for me to stay on top of it. I am enjoying reading your homework assignments. I will post my homework as soon as I am done. I have barely finished lesson 1. I am up to date on my reading though. I need to focus and sit down to get to Lesson 2.

Lesson # - Self Assessment Activity:

Make a comprehensive list of the incomplete tasks and unfinished business in your life. What needs to be done, said, let go of, or resolved?

I am afraid there is just too much in this department mentally for me to deal with right now so it will have to wait for another time.

Physically I am working on going thru things and getting rid of "stuff". I can actually see the wood of my desk showing thru in places and the piles are much shorter.

OK, Lesson Three, Lecture 2 Discussion:

What is the first area of your life that comes to mind when you think of the word "clutter"?

My home. I am a consumate clutterbug.


Currently, is there some place in your life where you haven't fulfilled a promise or kept your word?

I am sure there were many times when I told my daughter we would do something or other and then we didn't but I don't remember any particular incident. I have not repaid my father for money borrowed in the past. Still working on that one.


What is the biggest regret in your life? And can you see how that regret has served as an internal roadblock to creating your best year?

I regret that I droppedout of college back in the 60's. My father was paying the tuition and I wasn't making very good grades (I never was very good in school) so when my sister graduated high school and started to college I quit. She always had an easy time getting A's and my father was paying that tuition also. After two years she got pregnant, dropped out of college and got married.
I don't know how this regret would have created an internal roadblock.

quote:

Originally posted by BrenauMom:
I haven't read the "Questions" book yet but I do have it. I didn't have the money to get the kit when this started. Do you think it would be helpful to get it later when I can afford it?

As much as I enjoyed the Best Year book, I liked Right Questions even more...and it's a shorter book and an easy read. I think you'll like it.

As for the kit, maybe it's because I'm not far enough along in the course yet, but I don't the kit coming in to play as much. I have listened to 1 visualization on the CD, have picked 2 cards out of the deck and did the actions they said to do, and have done a little writing in the journal. If I had the "stickwithiveness" to pick a card each week throughout the year and perform the action on the back, I think it might be quite illuminating...but I'm not keeping up so far and I don't see myself doing so throughout the year.

The journal would have been SOOOOOO much more helpful if it had been larger. It is tiny, and doesn't even allow me the space I would want to journal the things she's telling me to journal, much less the things *I* want to journal over and above that. I found it very disappointing.

The CD is fine...I do like visualization so I will probably use it again sometime.

All in all, if money is tight, I don't think the kit is going to add that much to your process.

quote:

Originally posted by SheriaVa:
Doesn't look like we're continuing to post homework here. Anyone still interested in continuing the coursework here whether or not the course on BNU has ended?
[QUOTE]


I still plan to post here but I just haven't had time this week to do Lesson 3. Now that the car crisis seems to be about over I should have more time. I won't be spending 3 hours a day driving back & forth between the house and the apartment.



[QUOTE]
It seems too valuable an experience to waste and, knowing myself, if I don't finish it now, chances are I will never pick it back up again. If no one else is up for continuing, that's cool. I'll try to keep going on my own.

Me too. If I stop now it will never get done. I haven't read the "Questions" book yet but I do have it. I didn't have the money to get the kit when this started. Do you think it would be helpful to get it later when I can afford it?

I printed out Lessons 6, 7 and 8 from the BNU site last night. Already have Lessons 1 and 2 printed out from last week, so I've got a bit more to do and then I'll have it all captured. Doesn't look like we're continuing to post homework here. Anyone still interested in continuing the coursework here whether or not the course on BNU has ended?

It seems too valuable an experience to waste and, knowing myself, if I don't finish it now, chances are I will never pick it back up again. If no one else is up for continuing, that's cool. I'll try to keep going on my own.

While I finished reading the Best Year book about 2 weeks ago, I just today finally finished The Right Questions. Wow. I'm really impressed. I liked Best Year quite a lot but liked Right Questions even more. Maybe it's because I read it last? hehe Who knows. It's a very quick and simple book to read (written in short, manageable chapters, which I love) but yet there is a LOT of food for thought in it.

NOW the trick is to implement it in my life and in my thinking. Easier said than done! Has anyone started working on incorporating these questions into their life every time they make a decision?

I don't pay any attention to their posted times for completion. I will get it done when I get it done. A little at a time.
I don't spend much time reading the posts. I guess I look at it ever other day or so and then I just scan down thru them and see if a topic title catches my attention or if I recognize a name I will stop and read it.
So many of the posts leave the subject line as "Re:Reading Assignment" or "Re:Lecture 1" that unless it is a name I recognize I just skip over it unless I see one with lots of replies under it. Then I might read the original post just to see what's going on.
I read her lectures off line when I have the time and sometimes I will post something on one of the discussion question and sometimes not. Sort of like with our "homework".
I have all of them saved in Word so if the class closes before I finish, so be it.

I found the parts about the "No Cookie Zones" quite interesting and thought provoking.

quote:

Originally posted by p7eggyc:
I'm really struggling with the course still. I feel like it is 'too big' or 'too high level' or something. I feel like I know the micro of what I want my focus to be this year: get out of consumer debt. I even think I have a pretty good initial plan of action that I want to take. I am really identifying with things she says like "Pick an area or 2 and the benefits will ripple through your life". My struggle is that the course seems to be pulling me out to look beyond that to some sort of 'bigger' place where I find all these characteristics or qualities in myself. While that is all well and good, it feels like sort of a distraction.

I also feel like I can't do the 'work' of heading for that goal while doing the 'work' of the class. Too many balls in the air.Peg

I'm feeling lost in a sea of posts and too many participants, so I've pretty much stopped doing the class online and am just using the reading materials. I still feel that they are useful on their own. I don't get a lot of internet time and I'd rather spend what I have in a closer group like this one.