Bringing real life to education

“Thank you for giving me the privilege to learn from you this quarter. Our Leading Your Life class was the most impactful class I have ever taken. I have learned new ways to reflect on my life, the decisions I make, the values I hold most dear, the goals I have, the excuses I make, and the negative theories I have about myself and my world. I have learned to take more control of my life, despite the anxieties I experience… I have learned to draw strength from those closest to me who love me and support me, by finally being (somewhat) comfortable asking for and accepting help. I have learned to set practical and impactful goals for myself in the 12 areas of my life, as well as discipline myself (a lot, but not yet fully) to adhere to my predetermined consequences if I have set for myself if I fail. And so I want to thank you. So very, very much. This class DID change my life and I DO feel like I am far better and stronger at leading my life. Sounds clichéd, I know, but it’s so true. So I just want to thank you.”

“I think “Design Your Life” put me on a path to not just surviving, but building a meaningful life again. My first 6 months at Stanford Graduate School of Business were marked by some true lows: great family loss, the end of a meaningful relationship, the suicide of a dear friend, and of course the challenges that come with the GSB. It was the lowest point of my life. While dear friends and therapy helped weather the immediate onslaught of severe depression, my dreams remained somewhat muted by the losses. “Design Your Life” has put me on a fundamentally different path and brought so much hope to my life. . . I find it hard to fathom just how much change this course has brought in the last 12 weeks. I look like a more whole, happy individual than I have since high school…If it can touch only one person in the ways it has touched me, it is worth the entire cost of tuition. It’s put me on a path to being able to change lives, organizations and the world for the best, and this after all was my hope for my time at the GSB.”

“The Handel Method® helped me rebalance, refocus and improve my life. It works!”

“Nothing is more important for college students than figuring out what kind of lives they want to lead. Sadly, many students rarely devote serious effort to this problem. And when they do give it a try, they often do not know how to do it right. They fail to realize that developing a great life requires skill. Fortunately, skills can be taught. Handel Group offers training in this area that can prove invaluable for many students as they look forward to the future. On a personal level, working with a coach has helped me to take seriously the possibility of achieving great things in my life. It has also forced me to confront facts about my life and myself that stand in the way of achieving great things. This has not been an easy process, but it has certainly been well worth it.”

“My work with Handel Group for the past 3 years has changed every aspect of my life for the better. They have helped me understand that I can do what I dream of doing, that no mistake is too serious that it can’t be rectified and that my success will always be connected to actions that demonstrate my integrity for what I believe and my commitment for caring about and nurturing the people in my life.”

“Few things are more important in any organization today than integrity and candor. These also figure amongst the hardest things to nurture; many great firms have gone down the drain because their dysfunctional work practices precluded them from facing the hard facts. Handel Group does an amazing job at putting these issues in the spotlight and getting individuals to own up to the responsibility of authoring their future, empowering them not only to achieve a successful career but also a more rewarding life.”

“Over the last 25 years, I have worked with dozens of the world’s most successful, skilled, and well-known consultants, coaches, and clinicians. These professionals span the fields of leadership, organizational development, clinical psychology, strategic management, personal development, and the human potential movement. Handel Group founder Lauren Zander is one of the most insightful, compelling, and transformative interventionists I have ever encountered in any domain. The ideas and principles underlying The Handel Method® have fundamentally changed the way I see and experience the world.”

“When I first started the class, I was a wreck. I was wasting my life away online. I was struggling to complete my thesis. I was on autopilot with my girlfriend. I had no job prospects. Through the structure and the encouragement that our course leaders provided, I was able to pick myself up out of that mess. Within a span of about a year, I was able to graduate, start a new career way more interesting than the one I left, and most importantly, get engaged to my girlfriend of four years. The class for me really boiled down to 1) helping me to realize that it is normal to hate yourself when you’re doing something counterproductive, and that the only way out of that cycle is to stop the self-loathing, 2) deciphering the lies that I told myself and others about things, and becoming more truthful in my everyday life, leading to happiness, and 3) creating a structure to help me implement these changes in my everyday life. I’m truly thankful for everything that HG Edu has done for me. They’ve given me tools for happiness that I can bring with me.”

“Before taking Living An Extraordinary Life (Design Your Life), I always considered myself to tell the truth. I hated lying to people, and prided myself in my ability to be honest. What this class did for me was show me that it is just as important to be honest with *yourself* as it is to other people. This may seem like a relatively simple concept, but for me it was really a breakthrough. I have been struggling with an eating disorder for 4 years, and this idea of personal integrity, and holding myself to the same standards I hold other people, has helped me break that vicious cycle. Being able to form a really inspiring vision of what I would like to have happen in my life, and then make promises to myself that will help me towards that goal, have allowed me to gain back control of my life. I now feel like I am steering the ship, instead of just being along for the ride. The feeling is incredibly empowering, and makes me know that I truly can be active in planning out my life.”

“I wanted to write you a brief note to let you know that I found the Handel Group Design Your Life class offered at Edgerton House fantastic! It is SUCH a good and important course. Where else does one learn to live a constructive, self-disciplined life of playing big rather than living the mundane small version of oneself?”

“My participation in Designing an Extraordinary Career could not have come at a better time (unless it had been much earlier in my life!). At the time of the first session, I was working on a grant proposal for submission to the NIH. That first day, we considered ways in which we limited ourselves — and I realized that one of my limitations was in the “safe” questions I addressed in my research program. After this single session, I felt empowered to ask much larger questions, and added a new specific aim to my proposal. That aim was the best received of the three in that project, and helped it receive an excellent score. I also recently headed a multi-PI project grant, which I would not have had the confidence to tackle, had I not had the experience of the course. Overall, the well-structured process not only raised my awareness of limitations and obstacles to success, but provided practical exercises to help tackle and overcome these one by one.”