This is the second piece of an interview of Landmark Forum leader David Cunningham by Nigel Pierce, of a Cape Town, South Africa radio station.

Nigel Pierce:     This is Good Hope FM with Nigel Pierce. David Cunningham, communications expert, leader for Landmark Education. How do human beings overcome fear, fear that often holds us back?

Cunningham:   It’s one thing to have fear, and it’s another thing to be stopped by it. So, when people get that their fear is a natural part of being human – in other words, I don’t know the human being that doesn’t have fear. I don't know courageous people. So, what courage is isn’t the absence of fear. What courage is is when people are in action while they’re afraid.

So again, I don’t know a lot of fearless people, but I do now a lot of courageous people, people who are willing to be in action while they’re afraid. And that takes just acknowledging that fear is a natural part of being human. It’s not something to be ashamed of, and it’s not something you have to overcome. It’s something that you acknowledge – “Yeah, I’m afraid” – and take action.

Nigel Pierce:     How do we clear the path to receive abundance? Lots of people want the fancy house, the fancy car, the fancy university. Is it a good thing to be chasing all the time?

Cunningham:   It’s a good thing to have big goals and have a vision for one’s life – something that one is up to. If you don’t have a future that you are causing for yourself, then you’re not called into action. It really is the future we see for ourselves that literally pulls us up or pulls us down. If you love the future you see for yourself, it gives you life right now. If you don’t love the future you see for yourself, it pulls you down right now. So, to be able to create a vision for one’s future is very, very important.

Nigel Pierce:     And where do you write that? Where do you put that? Do you store it in your head? Do you write it in your diary? Do you tell people about it?

Cunningham:   Oh. Very important is to tell people about it, share about it. The more you share about it with others, the more real it becomes, and besides, you’ll find that other people get behind you on it so that the more you share it with people, other people will want it for you. You’ll find that people will make connections for you. You’ll find that other people have ideas that you didn’t have.

So, a lot of times when we come up with something that we’re committed to, we’re either afraid to share about it, or we’re embarrassed to share about it for fear of what people will think. It’s really important that we share about it with other people so (a) they can get behind us, and (b) they’ll have resources we never even thought of.

Nigel Pierce:     A lot of people have a vision with the Cape Town context and probably the world over, David, where their vision is to do drugs, to become a gangster, to land up in prison. That’s for some people, actually an achievement. It’s a goal.

Cunningham:   There’s got to be something for people to see some opportunity for themselves to be productive, to make a contribution. It’s when we can see we can make a contribution to others, Nigel, in some way – there’s nothing that’s more empowering than knowing we can make a difference – we can contribute. So I think the predicament there and what there is for all of us to get behind is to somehow provide every person some opportunity that they see for themselves to make a difference, to contribute.

Nigel Pierce:     David Cunningham, thanks for your time. Really appreciate it.

Cunningham:   You’re welcome. Wonderful to be with you.

Read the first piece of the interview here.

The following article is from a recent interview of Landmark Forum leader David Cunningham conducted by Nigel Pierce for a Cape Town, South Africa radio station.

Nigel Pierce:     This is Good Hope FM with Nigel Pierce, Monday morning. We're talking to David Cunningham, communications expert and leader for Landmark Education. David, good morning and welcome to the show.

Cunningham:   Thank you very much, Nigel. Good morning.

Nigel Pierce:     How do kids or adults realize their potential in a world tha's riddled with a lot of negativity?

Cunningham:   The first thing that's very important, Nigel, is for people to be able to separate out what actually has happened in their life from what they've made up about what happens – what they've added to what happened in their life – because the one thing that holds people back is what they've added to it. So, for instance, if somebody fails in school, that's one thing, but then, they add that they're stupid. That's a whole other matter. To be able to really separate out what literally happened from what you've added to it and get that what you added to it just isn't true. That takes away the primary barrier to people's effectiveness in life.

Nigel Pierce:     There are a lot of people who've failed at school, failed at university, and they've failed to pick themselves up. How do they do that?

Cunningham:   The first thing that people have to do is be willing to say that no matter what the past, the past does not determine the future so that anything and everything is possible, and it takes courage for somebody to keep saying anything's possible. You know, Nigel, sometimes it's easier to say, "Oh, that's impossible." If I go, "Okay. Starting my own business, that's impossible," then nobody expects us to do anything about it. But the courage to simple go "Okay. Starting my own business, possible," or "Getting along with my parents, possible," that very first act of being willing to say it's possible opens the door and starts somebody being in action.

Nigel Pierce:     This is Good Hope FM with Nigel Pierce. David Cunningham, communcations expert and leader for Landmark Education. How do people get past the blame game for their lack of progress in life? We blame our parents. We blame our teachers. We blame our wives, our husbands, partners.

Cunningham:   The most important thing is for people to ask a question that's a very new question, which is "Who have I been being," or, "Who have I become as a human being," and you'll see that , literally, 99 percent of what we are able to do in our lives and our performance in life is impacted by who we actually are being. There's ways of being, like geing generous, being creative, being outgoing, being forgiving, and its' the ways that we're being as human beings that set the stage for all of our performance. So, it's an improtant thing to examine. Who have I been being? When you examine that question, blame of another person just literally isn't relevant. It just doesn't make sense.

Nigel Pierce:     Why do some people always land on their feet?

Cunningham:   I don't know, Nigel. If anybody always lands on their feet, I think what happens, in my experience with people in our Landmark programs, for instance, I think what happens for people is there's a capacity to not get dragged down by the circumstances of life. If the circumstances can be the circumstances, and you know that the circumstances don't dtermine who you are and what's possible for you, then the circumstances don't get you no matter what.

I've got a good example of that if you want one with my own mom. My mom and my step dad, Nigel, were married for 30 years. They had a beautiful marriage, and in the last six years of my step dad's life he forgot who my mom was. He had dementia and forgot who my mom was, and in those six years, if you watched my mom, while those were terrible circumstances, my mom, the quality of her life wasn't given by those circumstances because she was clear about one thing – who she was going to be as a human being. And given she was so clear about that, the circumstances aren't what governed her, and she was able to have love and joy in her marriage even after her husband forgot who she was.

Nigel Pierce:     So, you have got to tell yourself as a human being, "I'm going to be a doctor." "I'm going to open up my own business." "I'm going to make this marriage work." "I am going to be a better person, a more loving person."

Cunningham:   Nigel, it's not quite positive thinking like that. It is more in the domain of possibility. It's one thing is to say that it's possible and another thing to really be able to get a view of situations where the circumstances don't weigh you down. And again, it's for people to get that literally 1 percent of the quality of our life is given by what happends, and 99 percent of the quality of our life and what impacts us is given by what we add to what happens. And for people to do that very simple but straight forward exercise. Sometimes I haev people take out a piece of paper. What literally happened to you? Good. And that's usually one or two things. What did you add to that? "I'm a failure." "I'm not successful enough." "People don't like me." "People won't give me a chance." And what people add is usually much longer than what actually happened, and when pepole can separate that out and deal with simply what's happened in their life, they're very effective.

Nigel Pierce:     So, in other words, once you've failed or you've landed in prison, end it there, and move on.

Cunningham:   Yes. I know it sounds a little bit oversimplified, but it actually is very accurate. It's called being complete with the past. When a human being is complete with the past, their future's free. So, it's important always to be complete with the past. What happened, happened. What didn't, didn't. It's complete, and then, you still have your freedom and your choice and your power as a human being for the future.

Stay tuned for the next part of Nigel Pierce's interview with David Cunningham, where they discuss overcoming fear, having abundance, and the opportunity of making a difference.

Out of her Participation in Landmark Education’s Team Management Leadership Program (TMLP), London native Jo Lawrence has formed a project to assist AIDS orphans in the Sweetwaters community in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Titled ‘Sponsor a Mother’, the project works with Love is All You Need, a London based charity that impacts poverty and social conditions in South Africa and other countries in a wide variety of ways, to fund local “mothers” who go the Sweetwaters community and provide food, medicine, help with the washing and schoolwork, and whatever else is appropriate.

The need is dire–There are more than 600 parentless kids in the Sweetwaters community, being raised by siblings as young as 8 years old. Most children lack food and water, cooking facilities and electricity. They live in crumbling, ill-maintained homes and are vulnerable to robbery and rape from outsiders. Sponsor a Mother seeks to immediately increase number of and income of these foster “mothers” who visit the children, while planning long term solutions for the rebuilding of the community.

To get involved or get more information, check out the Love is All You Need website.

Eileen MacEochiadh has been a guide at Florence Court House for 6 years. On a recent visit to South Africa to see her son, she was moved by the work being done at the Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa. Currently participating in the Landmark Self-Expression and Leadership Program, she got permission from the Irish National Trust and created as her project a dog walk at Florence Court House as a way of raising funds for the Sisulu Center

Here is an article from the Sligo Champion

By Maria Tracey

Emotionally moved following her visit to Johannesburg, Eileen MacEochaidh is now spearheading a dog walk next week to raise funds for children in Africa.

The Glenfarne woman, who recently visited her son Cian in Johannesburg, was touched by the lifesaving operations at the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa, which was officially opened by former President Nelson Mandela and Mrs Albertina Sisulu in 2003.

Following her visit, Eileen invited her colleagues to join her in organising a fundraising effort in the grounds of Florence Court House, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, where she has been a guide for the past six years, on Saturday, September 8.

Eileen outlined that only 1% of all children in Africa who need heart operations ever receive them although 95% of heart defects in babies and children can be successfully treated.

Brothers

“The Walter Sisulu Paediatric Centre in Johannesburg operates on children who have heart problems from all over Africa,” she said.

“I wanted to raise money for the hospital and because of the connection between Florence Court House and Africa, as the three Cole brothers fought in the Boer War and the two younger brothers stayed in Africa and made their lives there. Andrew, the present seventh Earl of Enniskillen, lives in Kenya. So there already is a connection between Florence Court and Africa.

“I love Florence Court House and grounds and I am very happy inviting people here to raise funds for the hospital in Johannesburg and build on that connection. I was delighted the National Trust gave their permission for the event to take place.”

Money raised through the dog walk will go directly to the Walter Sisulu Paediatric Centre to offer the possibility of life to children who need treatment.

The walk, which came into being as a community project on the course in Leadership and Self-Expression offered by Landmark Education, takes an hour and a quarter from start to finish and will pass by the famous Florence Court Yew and along the edge of the woods, giving a wonderful view of Florence Court House across the fields.

Registration for the dog walk is at 11am on the morning of September 8 at the Forest Park Car Park and all dogs must be on leads.

A voluntary donation of €15 is requested and all dog owners will receive a certificate with their dog’s name.