Many of you have experienced working with Michael Stratford, MCC who is my business partner, my amazing supporter and most importantly my life partner of over two decades (so far).
Michael is passionate, authentic, talented, fun, funny, and transformational in his approach as a coach, trainer, teacher and speaker. Many of you wanted to be informed when Michael had a training available and here it is! A huge amount of work has already been undertaken by Michael and his Team.
MillionQuest™ 7 Realms of Self-Mastery, is a very well developed program, and some events online are already underway. If you are interested in Self-Mastery as a coach, or are always developing yourself to be the next best version of yourself, I can recommend no one better to be your Adventure Leader than Michael.
For more, read on…
Carly Anderson, MCC
MillionQuest™ 7 Realms of Self-Mastery
By Michael Stratford, MCC
Those of you who know me know I have long been dedicated in the coaching world to three things;
- The first is the ongoing honoring of people’s uniqueness; For me this is central to our profession.
- The second is my Quest for Self-Mastery.
- The third is the commitment to supporting others in their Self Mastery both clients and coaches. It’s at the core of what clients bring to us regardless of what the presenting situation appears to be on the surface.
One of our messages in the coaching world is that you can pursue your dreams; that they are possible for us, even if we don’t always know if, how or when that will happen.
Well, as one of those who fit in the category of ‘people’, and in the role of coach, it is essential to be congruent with that message. I must also reach for my dreams, no matter how impossible or improbable they may seem. To do otherwise is to be a false prophet of the message.
Full disclosure here, I have had a dream / vision for a loooooong time and it’s taken an even longer time for it to come to a place where I can begin to see its realization into a concrete from.
So here it is. This project is the culmination of decades in the making, facing ups, downs and sideways and continuing on. It first appeared in early iterations in Toronto, 2002, as ‘The Game of Your Life’ and later in my book, The Game of Coaching. It has certainly evolved over time as more and more of what was wanted in the vision was revealed to me.
Hopefully what I share will inspire or support some of you in going for your bigger dreams as well.
Self-Mastery in 7 Seven Realms
In the role of Coach for over the last 30 years, this phrase ‘Self-Mastery’ has been at the heart of every challenge a client faced. Self-Mastery to me is not about controlling circumstances. It’s about being able to relate well, with whatever circumstances come one’s way.
This is why so many coaches work on their Coaching Presence. They do so in order to relate well with whatever scenarios and situations their client brings them without getting ‘hooked’ by them.
As mentioned, I’ve spent three decades observing client’s challenges. I’ve spent an equally long-time engaging in my own self work. Over all that time, my observations have distilled these challenges into seven categories which I’ve title “Realms.”
So, my answer, my vision, my dream was to create an experience. I wanted to bring to the world an Adventure that would pave the way for people to uplevel their Self-Mastery in all Seven Realms. I say Adventure because just putting together one more program filled primarily with intellectual content was not in my vision.
This is an experiential Adventure steeped in personal and professional development, fraught with Perils to challenge one, and rife with Magical Arts to counter them.
It’s called MillionQuest™ 7 Realms of Self-Mastery.
The 7 Realms are: Self / Creation / Vitality / Relationship / Participation / Wealth / CoExistence
I’m sure you recognize those from your work with your clients or your own Self Growth.
Now it has finally come together. After many, many, frickin many years and many stops-starts-delays moments where I felt like I’d fallen into one of my own “Perils” – the Well of Quit or the Icefield of Inertia. Now, it’s finally ready to reveal to people.
My Dream, My Promises
Often, when people present things to the world, the world tends to want to know what the benefits are and what can I learn? This is the way of marketing; “What are you promising?” is what is asked.
We hear the promises all the time. “You can make a gazillion figure business with my 3 simple steps” or “You can get thousands of clients overnight just using this ‘secret’.”
However, since this is my dream and therefore a unique expression of me, I have come up with my own deliverables.
I start with the recognition that one can’t always guarantee what a person will learn. “You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make them drink,” comes to mind.
However, one can promise what they will present. The MillionQuest™ presents an environment of Adventure and these are what this experience promises:
Adventure / Belonging / Challenge / Connection / Fun / Imagination / Mystery
Because for me, in truth, these are things I can provide with both hands tied behind my back on any given day.
“From our earliest days we are taught that it is our ‘doing’ that matters, our accomplishments. What really matters is who we become in the attempt to achieve, that lasts long after the goal is completed. That’s what lives on, and that’s what people remember of us.”
What people will actually learn and take away I don’t know… that’s part of the Mystery. It is traversing through this experience and through the actual environments created, that people will gain what is there for them to gain. But it will be useful whatever it is, and more than that, it is an experience unlike any ever before presented in the personal/ professional development world.
Here though is a question that banged around in my head from every training I ever took…
“How do you really know you’ve upleveled your Self-Mastery?”
Until you come across a circumstance that requires its full power, you don’t know whether or not you’ve truly gained it. Being aware of this phenomenon, in addition to presenting the journey through the 7 Realms, I also wanted to present a ‘game worth playing’ that would test people so they’d truly know what they’ve gotten from our experience.
What is MillionQuest™
Enter the term MillionQuest™. And no, it’s not about making a Million dollars although who knows, some people might. Nope, for our intents and purposes, MillionQuest™ is defined as:
“To positively affect the lives of one million sentient beings.”
The challenge MUST match the potential for someone’s greatness, otherwise it is one more ordinary challenge on an ordinary day; one more sale, one more client, one more contract, are not challenges worthy of your greatness being summoned forth.
For those who watched the U.S. Tennis Open this past few weeks, how does Carlos Alcaraz truly know what he is capable of unless his challenge, his vision, is large? Or Iga Swiatek too? (Carlos won the Men’s Final, Iga the Women’s Final; both are World #1 at this moment). The lower level tennis ‘Challenger’ matches do not do that. Yes, they do challenge, and yes, they do stretch and so they help grow the player but the upper levels require more.
The MillionQuest™ Adventure calls for that ‘more’.
As part of the 7-month Adventure, we put people into 7 circles of 7.
Each Circle must come up with AND pursue a real life MillionQuest™ of their creation or choice. (And yup if you’re doing math there, you’ll see there are only 49 Adventurers at a time).
There are 7 Sages to support the Adventurers. That’s one for each Realm, all of whom are masterful in their Realm.
There are three Gamified live Quest events in different environments, one outdoors and the other two inside. Not just in conference rooms, but in created worlds replete with Dwellings of the Sages, Perils, Magical Arts and a hunt for pieces of an artifact.
The other events are a series of support and mini-quests presented in online courses, 1-1, Circle of 7, and the entire seven Circles all at once.
The MillionQuest Prime 7-month Adventure gives imaginative versions of the kinds of Perils one will face in trying to implement a real life MillionQuest, such as an “Avalanche of Naysayers” or “The Demons of Doubt.” It’s a risk free, practical training ground designed to position people to succeed.
What Next?
So, now I’ve shared the tip of the iceberg. You may or may not be interested in heeding the call of this MillionQuest, but that’s not the main point.
Whether you elect to join us or not, I would hope that you are inspired to pursue your own dreams with the same level of commitment this venture has tested me. I hope you are presenting yourself with challenges that summon out of you the fullness of your potential, beyond what you have already experienced for yourself. I would hope you are testing your own Self-Mastery. Therein, lies the congruence between coaches… and our message of ‘possibility’ for our clients.
As part of Carly’s personal group, I’m inviting you to “Choose Your Adventure” by clicking below:
https://www.millionquest.com/3-portals
However, if you just want to poke about the site, it’s…
The first online events commence in October 2022, and first Gamified Live Quest Events commence in June 2023, within the United States.
Whatever you choose, I wish ‘good journey to you’.
Sincerely,
Michael Stratford, MCC, Founder
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