The Secret of an EPIC Partnership

Getting remarried at age 60 in 2012 was not for the faint of heart.?Set in our ways, armored to confront and survive the unexpected, tending and blending families – these were some of the realities we were bringing to the altar.? It is one of the reasons we decided to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro on our honeymoon.

In the local language, Kilimanjaro means difficult journey, and so it was. The ascent was a rigorous seven-day climb, thirty-seven miles,19,000 feet in elevation, ten to twelve hours a day, through many different climate zones—tropical, savanna, rain forest, and winter (think glacier!). We were not climbers. My husband had previously trekked in Nepal, so he knew you can’t gut you way to the top.? An internal journey of getting to your center is required.??To that end, Rob, ever the wise teacher, gave us a mantra that was essential to our ascent:

“Every step our hearts get stronger, every step our lungs get stronger, every step our legs get stronger, every step our love gets stronger.”

We keep practicing that mantra, 13 years later, and it infused our recent time in Botswana in the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari desert.

EPIC partnerships don’t just happen. ?The word itself “partner” derives from Latin to mean “a part or a portion”. ?In essence, whether we are talking about a partner at work or at home, any one individual can’t make up the whole. ?EPIC partnerships are the work of designing and creating group genius. ?Instead of being “a part from”, partners are “a part of” something bigger than themselves. ?This holds true at home as well as at work or in community endeavors.

In the professional arena, as a diplomat, international banker, or managment consultant, I have always sought out partners who are willing to swing for the fences with me. ?These days, I teach the Decade Game Master Class with two Decade Game and Remarkable Womens Journey Graduates - Tina Staley and Lisa Decarlo . ?Rob and I also created a professional partnership by creating Imaginal Labs LLC . Our collective mission for the company is the same as our personal missions: To help courageous leaders find their magic and use it to mobilize others to achieve their dreams.

This brings us to our next EPIC! Rule of the Game

EPIC Rule #23: Don’t grow old together; grow EPIC together.

EPIC partners, be it personal or professional, thrive on an aligned vision, shared values and go-forward strategy that needs to be dynamically revisited and refined. ?Great strategies are not predicated on predicting the future. ?Rather epic strategies are derived from bold visions for an epic future and executed by being equipped to embrace the unpredictable. ?

How do you embrace the unpredictable? ?That is the essence of the Decade Game. Inspired by purpose and grounded in a decade destination of your dreams, the game is played in the here and now, one move at a time. ?And there are no wrong moves. ?Only the next move that is totally possible today, but holds a hint of the future dream. ?A “tiny mighty” move. From that new step, the next set of possibilities emerge.

Here is more good news. ?The Decade Game is a multiplayer game. My husband Rob and I have one for our partnership. ?It builds on our individual games - but finds the harmonics in key areas of family, philanthropy, adventures, learning, and , in our case, our professional work. It also gives us a framework to be able to deeply understand the ambitions, challenges, hopes and dreams that we each have in our journey of being the best versions of ourselves, for the benefit of the people we love and serve. ?

To that end, after years of requests, Rob and I are teaching a Decade Game Workshop for Couples at the amazing Modern Elder Academy in Santa Fe Nov 11 - 16. Enrollment is limited to 12 couples in order to create the intimacy and opportunity for life long friendships to emerge.

If you and your partner want to learn more and have a chat with Rob and me, ?please email me at [email protected] and we will set up a time.

With love and light

Carolyn

PS. Since the beginning of 2023, I have been sharing my EPIC! Rules to play the game of life, your way. I have them ?posted on the website if you have missed a newsletter or would like to review them. Click below and scroll down to the Rules. (And you can always buy the book )

EPIC! Rules of the Game