How Many People Were There?

The question refers to the first Spiritual Workout class I facilitated here in New York the other night, roughly five or six weeks after my arrival. And it's a question I have been hearing for years with regard to any class or workshop I have ever done. Ever. How many people were there? It's a question that comes from virtually anyone - very close friends, strangers, students and clients, and everyone in between. I never ask any of them why they are asking the question, but I think I understand. It's a frame of quick reference that helps to categorize or judge in one way or another. The answer - 50, 25, none, a hundred - quickly matches up to a number in one's head about what "success" is and then the questioner make his or her judgment. We all do this.

When I presented a series of classes during the course of a week at a particular venue for the first time, everyone kept asking me, How many people were there yesterday? I'd give my response and, in this case, the responses were always some shade of joyful surprise. Really? That's fantastic! Or, Wow, that's a lot for that time of day. Or, my favorite, I heard there were a lot of people there! It was all the same to me because I had nothing to compare it to, but they did. They had a number in their heads for what success meant and attendance at my classes was greater than that number so in their minds, clearly, I was a success! In other situations I can feel the disappointment. How many people were there? Five or six. Oh. And on to the next subject we go! Apparently they were hoping for more and more would have meant success. On only the rarest of occasions do people ask much else like, for example, What was it like for you?

So before I answer "the question" about my class the other day, let me tell you this: I loved it! And I thought it was a huge success. Several of my intentions were fulfilled, as usual, the most important being along the lines of I am energized and excited. Every class is different and sometimes we stay on two or three concepts but the other night we touched on almost all of them and that is always exciting to me because I want people to see how frequently they show up in our life experiences. That is the point of the Spiritual Workout after all. Participants are thoughtful and engaged is another intention for my classes and workshops and that was certainly the case with everyone there the other night. My classes add value to people's experiences is also an intention and I received a note later that evening from someone who said his awareness had been heightened and that the Workout was quite valuable to him. That I was in New York doing a Spiritual Workout at all was, itself, another intention fulfilled, for crying out loud. We got to help someone identify a set of non-serving beliefs and learned a way to transmute them into serving ones. We had a robust conversation about the law of attraction and many of its intricacies as well as a conversation about how we are all connected and the commonalities we share in terms of our growth processes. And we even got to the we belong to the planet, not the planet to us concept and that doesn't happen every day!

So at the end of the evening I was most grateful for and to the three people who attended my first Spiritual Workout in New York. Without them there would not have been a class - and I have had that experience more times than I care to admit! And it's not like I don't understand the question. I used to measure my own success the exact same way. But now I refrain from making those judgments, I choose to be present by accepting everything just as it is, I've changed my belief about what success looks like, and while three people at a class used to freak me out in a not-so-great way, today I am a new man. I remain focused on my intention for classes and workshops that are always full even as I express gratitude for evidence that that is exactly what is manifesting. As I write!