Having Fun in Bermuda
Erin and I are on the island of Bermuda this week for a leadership retreat with about 70 other teachers from the self-help field. This is technically a business trip, but there’s a lot of fun mixed in as well, so it’s hard to call it work. But hey… when you do what you love, work equals play anyway. ๐
This retreat is hosted by the Transformational Leadership Council. TLC is a non-profit group that was started several years ago by Jack Canfield and many of his friends, and it grew organically since then. I think there are around 200 TLC members now, but that’s just a guesstimate. TLC isn’t open to the public; you can only join by being sponsored by an existing member. I became a TLC member earlier this year, and this is my first retreat with them.
The purpose of TLC is basically for teachers/leaders in the personal growth field to hang out together, share their best ideas, have fun, and encourage the heck out of each other. You could call it a lightworker networking group.
If you’ve seen the movie The Secret, it was filmed at a previous TLC retreat in Aspen, so many of the teachers from that film are here for the Bermuda retreat as well. The Secret was an independent project though, not part of TLC itself. I think The Secret was filmed at TLC because it was a convenient way to gather all those teachers in the same place for filming.
Since this is an invite-only gathering, not a public event, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to blog about all the details. Consequently, I’m intentionally being a bit vague. I’m not here to cover TLC for my blog. I’m here to catch up with old friends, make new friends, learn, grow, and have fun. ๐
I will say that it’s been great to finally meet some people face to face that I’ve previously only connected with online or by phone. TLC has a very open, loving, family feel to it. Hugs are more common than handshakes as a standard greeting. Erin and I are feeling right at home here. It’s going to be hard to leave on Monday.
Bermuda itself has been amazing as well. We spent a lot of time at the beach yesterday, which was absolutely gorgeous. We have a busy few days ahead of us, but hopefully we can find time to take advantage of the local recreation as well — maybe explore the crystal caves, go jet skiing, or swim with the dolphins.
Although Bermuda is about 30 degrees cooler than Vegas, I felt more comfortable in the dry heat of the desert. You should see what the humidity does to Erin’s hair. ๐
The chefs at the resort where we’re staying have been wonderfully accommodating of our diets, so we’re actually eating better than we normally do at home. They even made us some delicious banana ice cream for dessert this evening. I could really get used to this. ๐
Henceforth we’ll be attending these week-long TLC retreats twice a year. The next one is in Puerto Rico in January, and after that we’ll be going to Santa Fe.
At least we finally made it outside the USA since Bermuda is technically part of the UK. It only took us about 20 minutes to go through customs and get our luggage. Pretty painless as far as airports go.
As a quick update on our October workshop, 24 people have registered for it so far, with about a third coming from outside the USA. Looks like we’re going to have a really awesome international group. ๐