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Continuing in our 25th year of service to the
spirit
of Clear and Compassionate
Communication and Skill Building for Business and
Personal
Growth.
Greetings and hello again! I hope this note finds you
well...
I'm heading to Colorado on March 1 to celebrate my 50th Birthday with my brothers. What a long strange and wonderful
trip it has been.
The very nature of my being is of course in the family shapings that have trained me to be both controlling and compassionate.
In
celebrating my 50th year on the planet, I realize I
have so much to be grateful for. From my Dad, (may he rest in peace) I learned how to
view and approach life with a positive and creative outlook: "It's
YOUR life," he would tell my brothers and me with a keenness and a
knowing that we would make it so.
Lately I've been
dreaming of a party where I can express my
gratitude to my friends, family and teachers. I want
you all to join me, or if not, then at least humor me. So now, here comes the ramble in my head and the rumble in my belly from months of anticipation.
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Upcoming Events
Where in the world...? Rob will be in Glenwood Springs Colorado in celebration of his 50th birthday from March 1-4. If you happen to find yourself in or about town, please feel free to email
Rob or call (617)-491-8939 to meet with him for coaching, conversation, coffee, or just to see how good the skiing can be after 50. And keep your ears on Kadoink KDNK Community Public Radio 88.1 FM, or streaming on the web, for a possible Rob spot.
March 10-April 14, 2006
Rob will present a
spectacular series of Compassionate Communication workshops entitled The Six
Domains of Interpersonal Human Dynamics at
the NH
Community Technical College on 320 Corporate
Drive at the Pease International Tradeport in
Portsmouth, NH from 6-9 pm. Call NHCTC at (603)-
559-1569 to register. You can register for any one, two, three, four, or all six of the workshops. Do five and get the sixth one free! And please feel free to email
Rob or call (207)-363-9666 for further inquiries into this exciting series.
The Zing Foundation Job Opportunity My friends at the Zing Foundation, practitioners of the social healing arts and progressive philanthropy and evoking the best in human creativity and intention through compassionate improvisational theater, have a job opportunity for a forward-thinking someone like you perhaps? Check out the
job description here.
Where in the WWW is RobKanzer.com? To help celebrate Rob's 50th year as a human being and his 25th as a teacher of
Compassionate Communication, RobKanzer.com will unveil a new look in Mid-March. You're seeing his new picture here for the first time in our newsletter, taken by Amy Bowler as part of Portsmouth Magazine's feature article on Rob in March 2004. You can read the article here and stay close to the website in the next two weeks to see Rob's new face on the world wild web...
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This Month's $50 Free
Tip:
Talking the Tango
As I sat in a meeting listening to a new acquaintance speak of the conflict in his life, I was amazed how easily I came to be, through listening, so actively engaged in the man's struggles. There was a palpable intention in his speaking that captured my attention almost immediately.
In response to his talking, I sat and listened. I did not interrupt. I was aware that I was hearing the meaning of his words and that was more valuable than anything I could say at the moment. He was leading in this very delicate dance we call communication. I was following in every step.
I remembered my good friend Steve telling me of the intricacies of dancers as
they engage one another in the first moments of the tango. Before you begin to
dance, he says, you must take hold of the tension between you and your partner -
get a sense of each other. In doing so you are more likely to acquire the
feeling for your place in the present moment.
In communication, whether it is conversational or confrontational, you are like
a dancer, actively engaged in the intention of shared movement with your
partner. As a listener, do not sit there passively just waiting for the talking
to stop. Be actively engaged in listening and paying attention to the speaker's
cadence, use of language, and tone of voice, and develop an awareness to when
any of these aspects begin to change. There is a flow, as we like to call it, and a shifting current in conversation, when a person has said his piece.
As an active listener, you must practice your awareness of the other person's needs by becoming engaged in our common moment. While being attentive to
your conversational partner, you have held the tension of your own needs in abeyance.
When you are granted the lead, you are ready to speak. In the talking,
as in the tango lead, the tension is released. But it is through
your listening as the tango partner that tension is resolved.
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Rob Kanzer,
in the previous decade
The Pay it Forward, Play it Around Birthday List:
What do YOU want for YOUR Birthday?
I'm collecting explicit and implicit wishful thinkings, dreamings and schemings and in no particular order sharing and circulating them to imagine that incredible connections will be made.
Remember my wish to have a happy place to be in Florida? (last newsletter) - I now have what feels like Friends for Life - Craig and Bronwyn Jones and their loved ones welcomed me with open arms as the result of my thinking (wishing? for my "birth to go right"? journey.
Would you like a Rent-A-Wife? Someone to handle all the minutia and grocery shopping and cleaning so you can paint or practice yoga?
Would you like a Personal Trainer to show up at your home, workplace or in front of your televsion set - turn it off - grab the popcorn bowl off your lap and say " put on your sneakers - we're going for a run?"
Let's have fun with this - send me YOUR birthday wish. Mine is for us to connect somehow under this broad sweep of community we call the world. I want the gift of joining you in conversation.
The Portsmouth and Cambridge
Coaching
Collaboratives are not-for-profit learning groups,
communities of open
minded and encouraging people who support each
other
through skill building, education, and knowledge
sharing.We are informal, providing
opportunities for you to interact with new and
experienced coaches to foster new ideas, form
strategic alliances, enhance coaching skills and
develop new friendships.
information here.
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