On October 30, 2006 I received this email:

    From:       [Bob Raynor]
    Subject:     STRS2006 Evaluation results
    Date:     October 30, 2006 4:53:24 PM EST
    To:       [email protected]

Tom - On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Southeast Therapeutic Recreation Symposium, I wanted to pass on to you some feedback from the Wilmington symposium. I don't know if you looked at the evals from your session. I wanted you to know that your concurrent session received the
highest average score of any session - a whopping 4.97 (out of 5). This certainly validates even further your award of the best presentation from the previous year.
   We do not give repeat awards of the Ann James award, and several other presenters in the past would also have been repeat winners. However, I do not recall a score higher than yours.
    Again, we appreciate your involvement with our symposium the past two years, and hopefully we will have you on our program in the near future.
-- Bob Raynor
---------------------------------------------------------------------

I share this email not to impress you.  Rather I share it to impress upon you what happens when you train (teach, educate, etc.) from the heart and do it with passion.

When I travel to deliver a workshop my entire focus is on being of service.  My mantra during the training event is "How may I serve? How may I serve?"  This helps me keep focused on the participants and not on my fear, or logistics, or my hunger, etc. 

The trainers I work with want to know how to make their workshop meaningful and memorable.  Teaching through experiential exercises is part of the equation.  But the real power comes when you connect with your great passion and share your passion with the group. 

For me, it all comes down to getting clear.  When I'm free of "monkey-mind" and I focus on being of service then the end result is -- naturally -- a workshop rating of 4.97 out of 5.

What is your mantra?