Transformation is an Inside Job

Here is an epic realization. It doesn’t take a lifetime or a seismic event to achieve transformation. It can happen in an instant. I see it often. For example, we have just finished our 10th Decade Game Master Class with 24 epic graduates. In our last session during a ceremony of honorable closure, we asked our graduates to name the transformation that has shifted their foundation in away that will supercharge the rest of their lives. Here are a few examples of their testimony.

· I can now think bigger and bigger.

· More confident about building a portfolio life

· Empowered Being ready to go to next level everyday

· My life is a portfolio of purpose not silos

· I have “It” in me. It was dormant and now it is awakened

· Clarity and conviction to claim who I am with love

· From figuring out to finding out

· Living with Audacity, believing in Alchemy, committed to Kindness

· Centerstage - Fully alive for myself and others

It is not that the Decade Game is some magical elixir. Instead, the seven-week process gives participants the space and grace to remember that they already have everything they need to design a life of meaning and purpose. It’s like a ?jigsaw puzzle. You buy a puzzle because you LOVE the picture on the cover. And, if you are like me, the harder the puzzle, the more pieces it has (I like the 1000-piece puzzles) the more fun it is to assemble.

But, if you are like me, you most likely have this experience. You open the puzzle, spill out all the pieces, turn them over to make sure the picture side is showing, start finding the edge pieces or ones of a certain color, and then…within 30 minutes, you are convinced that there is a piece missing. The manufacturer screwed up. You have a puzzle box with a fatal flaw. You will never complete the picture.

You soldier on anyway, resigned to the defects. ?And lo and behold, the missing piece miraculously appears.? It was there the whole time. That is the case with every person. We have everything we need right from the start to reach the stars.

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

EPIC Rule #24: Good enough is nice but not sufficient. Choose EPIC!

When we settle for good enough, we are most likely playing “not to lose” instead of“playing to win”. Our horizon is shortened by our fears of “what if”. ?We decide to play it safe. We end up compromising our gifts and downsizing our dreams.

In many religious traditions and secular stories, there is a narrative that only by leaving home and traveling far and wide in search of the meaning of life, do you realize that the hidden treasure was waiting for you at home – in you and yours. ?“Lose yourself and be found”. “Empty yourself to be filled”.“There is no place like home.”

We can spend our lifetime playing the “good enough” game where our dreams are always beyond our reach. Or we can turn the “what if” and “if only” mindset into the “imagine if” game. We can return home to ourselves and name what isl onging to happen. The Decade Game is anchored in becoming an EPIC! storyteller.You name the EPIC! quests in all areas of your life and let your imagination run wild. ?

Here is the key learning from this rule. ?EPIC! is a choice. ?It is a choice to inhabit a different story about possibilities. ?One that has been in you since your first game of make-believe. The ability to put aside a story that no longer serves you and enter a new fairy tale can happen in an instant. The characters change, the plot is reimagined, the companionship is grand, the journey more joyful,

It is a choice to live in the liminal space of “wouldn’t it be amazing if…”. The great mythologist Joseph Campbell said it well: “People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”

The original meaning of the word “epic”, from the ancient Greek “epos” (narrative),is a long form story of “derring-do” of the hero/heroine. My experience after working with hundreds of women (and men) over the last decade is that everyone is longing to be the hero of their own story. ? By realizing that they have everything they need inside them, including the power of the universe, they are able to write the next best chapter of their lives, as the leaders they long to be - at home, at work and in the world.

So don’t wait to be great. ?Choose EPIC!

With love and light

Carolyn

PS. Instead of settling for growing old together, why not grow EPIC! together! 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.

Learn more

PSS. 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