Rocketship: Malcolm Cohan launches Vision Statements

Rocketman

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
– Elton John

Rocket Man I spent a fascinating day at the Fort Mason Center on Saturday in the company of 30 others and an irrepressible Australian, Malcolm Cohan.

Malcolm, an ex-TV producer and video editor, who is an expert applied kinesiologist, has developed tools for people to create and deliver a video ‘Vision Statement’.

What’s a Vision Statement? According to his website:

A VISION Statement Video is a movie about your goals, your Quest, your bold idea or endeavor – use it to get clear about who you are and what you wish to achieve – and then have the world share your Vision.

Mal’s day-long workshop, humorously termed the ‘Rocketship’, uses simple exercises to bring people into balance; defuse our tendency to negativity and doubt; then walk us through a set of fundamental questions to arrive at a place where we could write a first draft of our own Vision Statement. Underneath the negativity is truth.

YouTube: a 21st Century mirror to the soul.

Malcolm calls us to write out our life’s Quest — where every aspect of our experience counts. If we then add music and images to this text and capture it on video it will feel profoundly right when we play it back. If we fail to capture it, the results will be uncomfortable. And we will then have an opportunity grow into a deeper and more profound vision. This feedback is the gift we reap from what would otherwise simply be a Narcissistic exercise. And it can be used to help others work through their issues. There are plans to use the process with the homeless, those recovering from addictions and so on.

Out of the mouths of babes

Key to a vision statement is it’s simplicity as a heartfelt appeal. Too many fancy words or jargon get in the way. A 5-year-old should be able to understand it. I found this out when Malcolm, literally, called his own 5-year-old daughter back in Sydney on SKYPE and had her critique some of the words I’d written in the first draft of my statement. She understood “I feel happy”. She did not understand “Where social and political forms of cooperative community evolve”. Oops. Back to the drawing board. This time with less mind and more awareness of what it is to communicate from the heart.

Once we were clear on our intentions, the creation of the video was a delight. The software we trained on, while not totally simple, is fascinating. With it we created the music, text and image collages which make up the finished piece. I realize I have work to do before I can deliver something as profound as this:

At the end of the day the group who came together left Ft. Mason with more awareness of the possibilities of creating a Vision Statement and seeing how true this is to our essence.

Rocketship Class Jan 25 2008

1 Comment so far
Leave a comment

I call him a “divining rod of the soul.” I look forward to seeing your creation!



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)