A year ago I went along to a three day re-educational seminar called Turning Point, delivered by best selling author and international speaker Dr Rohan Weerasinghe. I was blissfully unaware at the time that my life was about to change for good.
Whilst the personal growth industry has long enjoyed popularity in the States, it is a relatively new field in the UK, and one that a lot of people are increasingly exploring, particularly in this uncertain financial climate.
At the Turning Point course, areas such as health, wealth and relationships are dissected during the 15 hour days, and you get the opportunity to really examine your core values and life purpose. Some people attend to address a particular area requiring improvement, whilst others are simply there to achieve peak performance in their lives.
One exercise for example looks at basic needs. Are you more security driven or do you instead value variety and freedom? Is love and connection most important to you, or are you driven by significance? It is important to look at not only how you want to show up in the world, but how you have been showing up until now, and whether there is a conflict there.
A childhood where one received very little recognition can result in a basic need for significance I discovered.
It hit me that having an overriding desire to feel significant is ultimately a pointless need, because realistically not everyone will recognise your worth, and even if they do, they may not communicate this to you. If that in turn has an impact on your state, then you are allowing your happiness or resourcefulness to rest on external factors, relinquishing a degree of control.
The reality is, a lot of people have a deep rooted need for recognition which can impact key life areas, and it's not about demonising or criticising this, but instead becoming aware and questioning whether it's really something that's serving you. Is it something that's true to who you are authentically, or simply the result of past circumstances?
As for health, it was a massive shock to the system discovering the full ugly truth about what actually goes into a lot of our food and the impact this has on the environment, let alone the body. Let's just say, the days of consuming at least three cigarettes before even getting to work in the morning and typically grabbing a portion of chips or a Subway sandwich for dinner on the way home are well and truly behind me!
Rohan Weerasinghe, or Dr Ro as he prefers to be known, has a gift for breaking things down in an engaging manner that resonates and really gets the listener thinking, whilst providing the tools they need to really implement changes fast. His style of speech is refreshingly humorous and often explicit, delivering serious messages in a sometimes light hearted, sometimes hard hitting fashion, but always from the heart. I have never met one person who possesses such a massive amount of knowledge in so many different areas.
A leading trainer for Tigrent, a company specialising in training property entrepreneurs, Dr Ro delivers their courses in countries as far flung as Malaysia and Singapore. He does the same for Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad brand, encouraging and educating people to approach wealth creation in innovative and creative ways.
Dr Ro's flagship Turning Point seminar and related advanced courses stem from many years of research, study, experience and a PhD in Civil Engineering.
He enlists the help of another powerful speaker, the charismatic Corey Donoghue. A former international professional footballer, Corey is also a cage fighter, martial arts champion and coach, and has developed his own cutting edge fitness system. His message and style, like Rohan's, is nothing short of extraordinary.
I have just found out that this is the last Turning Point for the time being, and it appears that while a lot of people out there intend to make changes, when it comes to actually taking the steps necessary to do so and learning the tools, it can be tricky to step out of that comfort zone. In a lot of ways, an event of this nature is rather revolutionary and ahead of its time.
While we are certainly experiencing a global shift in consciousness at the moment, it takes time for this to take full effect. As John C. Maxwell once said, "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional". As time goes on however, more and more people will see the true value of questioning their reality, and as a result seek new tools to evolve in this ever changing global arena.