An invitation to a course in being clear
A six-week online course starting Wednesday, 1 November 2017
(Hi. The first course sold out, but you can book your place on the next one here.)
The thing with starting something new is that you don’t really know what it will be. How it will work. What will happen. So it feels unpredictable or impossible or unwise to commit. But the other thing with something new is — it’s very alive.
There are certain risks I’m happy to take.
I’ll walk onto a stage with nothing — out of the faith that creating an empty space will let something that is true and alive appear. And the cost of the fear and the risk of obliteration feel like a small price to pay for the opportunity to create and to give that gift. Nothing sweeter.
And if you are lost and ask my help, I might lead you out to some unfamiliar place — no guarantee — out of the faith that out there we will meet an answer. Because I know — and have seen so many times — that sometimes it is only out there that we’ll find what’s needed.
Today, I’m committing to something new. And I don’t know exactly how it’ll go. But I’m beamingly, open-heartedly, joyfully excited about the prospect.
Welcome to the first course in being clear.
Here’s the plan:
- It’ll be an online course, so you can join wherever you live. (I live in Cornwall.)
- It’ll last six weeks. (Starting on Wednesday, 1st November 2017.)
- There’ll be a group call once a week. (90 mins, Wednesday evenings, recorded if you can’t make it).
- There’ll be a closed Facebook group for keeping in touch between calls.
- There’ll be emails and videos and other things to nudge and encourage along the way.
- It’ll cost £200 (you can pay upfront or in instalments). And there’ll be an option to ‘tip’ if you want to pay more.
And the plan is for it to be a very alive thing.
For me, this is a chance to give my whole-hearted dedication to supporting a small, committed group. Seeing what’s possible in six weeks together.
There are three things I’ll definitely teach as part of the course:
Very Clear Ideas — a systematic approach to making any idea clearer
Identity Yoga — a very quick way to clear creative blocks
Initiative Mapping — a simple way to keep track of how people work together
But what I’m most excited about is what becomes possible by bringing this group of people together in this way.
What happens if you’re part of a community that is devoted to clarity? Where the focus is on helping each other get clear and stay clear? Where we can bring anything we’re not clear on and work with it in a creative, supportive place?
I wrote about my vision for what that might look like earlier this week. And this feels like a way to make that vision real now.
Six weeks is long enough to build new habits.
A group of twelve is small enough that we can get to know each other along the way.
It feels to me like it might be the start of something kind of wonderful. And — if it’s not already abundantly clear — I am bursting with anticipation. Greyhound in the blocks. Springtime bulb. Pre-midnight champagne bottle. I have actually found a format that lets me bring everything I want to offer. So there’ll be things to read and watch. And the weekly classes. But maybe also readings, meditations, Facebook Live things, interviews, drawings, stories, special guests…
Learn how to be clear. And actually use it.
If you’ve never used Very Clear Ideas or the other tools, you can join this course as a way to learn them.
If you’ve already mastered them (or you’ve been on a retreat / come to a workshop / helped me develop them), then you can join this course to get some friendly support with whatever you want to get clear on this month.
And by the end of the course…
There’ll be a dozen masters of clarity. Who can call on each other for support. Who have a shared language and a shared understanding of what it means to be clear.
You’ll be able to sum up any idea in a sentence.
Able to dissolve any creative block.
Able to get and give the help that’s needed.
You’ll know what being clear means — and you’ll feel it. With a new practice that you can bring to your everyday life and get better and better at.
And, maybe most of all, it will have been all kinds of fun. And joyful and moving and simple and clear and hefty and effortless.
There are twelve places.
If you’d like to sign up, book your place here.
(If you need to pay by instalments, email me and we’ll make alternative arrangements.)
I’ll take bookings until this Thursday, 19th October.
Any questions — email me.
Thank you!
Charlie
hello@charlesdavies.com
On the process of getting clear
“I went through this process with Charlie some years back. To get clear about what I was here on earth to do. Whichever way we looked at it, the answer was Zen Master. Now I am a Zen Master. So that was a pretty Clear Idea.”
Kashyapi — Poet, Contemplative
“Charlie is the alarm cord I pull when my own head gets too confusing. He cuts through the babble to see what’s going on like no-one else can. Charlie should come with a health warning as this can be highly-disruptive (and much needed) work.”
Kathryn Sheridan — Founder and CEO, Sustainability Consult
“With an intense work schedule and a myriad of projects and tasks to manage it can be difficult to stay focused on what it is that makes the work meaningful and rewarding. I attended the workshop in the hope that I would find a better way to understand what is authentically motivating for me in work and how to connect my day to day activities to this source. I wasn’t disappointed!
The workshop structure and delivery were excellent. I came away from the day with a clear and easy to use process to explore and test what it is that motivates a person (be it myself or someone I am trying to help). In the interval since the workshop I have successfully used the process to understand myself and my motivations better. I have also shared the process with a number of other people, and without exception they have found it easy to use and insightful.’’
Professor John D. Kelleher — Dublin Institute of Technology
“A great experience that brought clarity to what I was trying to do with my start-up. I continue to use the output of our session to guide what I do…. highly valuable.”
Richard Eason — Founder, Cyclefox
“Coaching at its finest and most transformational.”
Karen Gartside — Reteam Ltd, Chicago
“An unforgettable talk. Short but so powerful. Very, VERY, insightful. It was a talk where almost every word made sense, was valuable. Even the silence.”
Titia Bruning — Knowmads Business School, Amsterdam
“I’m not even sure what Charles said or what I said, but what I do know is this. I messaged Charles later that night with the following: “All I know is that everything from here is going to be OK.”
Chris Drummond — Founder, Crafted Crate
The sign-up page is here — or scroll down for the reading list…
And some clear reading, to be getting on with…
“When I teach people to be clear, I teach the basics. And then we practice. And then we share the tips and tricks we learn along the way.”
“I believe there are three things… I don’t mean three handy tips for success — yadda, yadda, yadda — I mean there are three actual, fundamental, necessary components to any creative process.”
“We have to understand the creative processes of nature as a whole — rather than limiting ourselves to the specific culture of work in human society in our lifetime.”
“You change your life when you take the initiative. It’s like changing tracks. It’s opening up a brand new path. Plugging into something new… it’s important to end initiatives too. To notice when they’re done and wrap them up and close them down and let them go unambiguously.”
“…And it’s all very simple. But this little bit of structure — of helper and helped — is the underlying code for collaboration. Even with chains of hundreds of people. Even with hugely complicated projects. You can build an infinitely vast family tree of helpers just using this simple question of who is helping who…”
“In this very moment, there is a next step for me to take that is true… And if, having taken it, I can look back and say — in that moment I was true to myself and to the world I was in — then there is no space for regret. Because what more can we ask of ourselves than that — in one moment — we might manage to stay true to ourselves and the world we are in?”
“But the essence of work is this: as creative, alive, human beings we have the capacity to see things that don’t exist yet and then bring them into the world. Work is creation.”
And you can book here, if you haven’t already:
http://www.charlesdavies.com/shop/a-course-in-being-clear-november-2017
