Keith Kegley
USA

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My already successful life became inspired

I work out my perspective, my commitments, and what stops me at Landmark just like I work out my muscles and stretch at the gym.

Prior to participating in Landmark, I worked for Microsoft and had a very successful career with a lot of fun projects, businesses, and technologies already under my belt. I was responsible for managing the team that was designing the next generation of MSN and was well regarded by my employees, peers, and managers. I loved figuring things out, debating ideas, competing, and cajoling my team to perform. I was feisty about my point of view and felt I could hold my own in a very competitive culture. That's how I thought of myself, my role, and my abilities at the time.

During The Landmark Forum, I spent three days really examining what I was doing, who I was really being, and what I was avoiding, putting off, and even the things that I was resigned and cynical about. I also got to see what I was truly committed to, what mattered to me, and how I really wanted to be known and alive in the world.

The course was a fabulously rewarding personal journey. But more than that it was the kind of journey that I couldn't get over. Once I had seen all that, I couldn't go back to the same job, the same challenges, or the same way of acting and being that I now viscerally experienced as limiting me. What was clear was that I had designed my life to be successful but not inspiring. I was good at winning, but not at making a difference in the world. After The Forum, I knew that I would no longer be satisfied and fulfilled being the way I had been. I could see that the competition would never end. I understood that always trying to win and be the hero was seductive, but not satisfying for me.

The day after The Landmark Forum I got into action by changing my job, volunteering for a non-profit, stepping up to take on new responsibilities in my neighborhood, at work, and with groups that I wanted to be part of. I also saw how I wanted to redesign the relationships in my life with my wife, my sister, my parents, and my coworkers. During the course of the next couple of weeks I apologized for being a jerk to some, for being out of touch with others, and for being unavailable. I also started acknowledging the people in my life for what they contributed to me, how they made a difference for me, and what inspired me about them. In The Landmark Forum, I had seen a whole new possible way of being. I could be generous. I also saw how afraid I was to be authentic, intimate, and even vulnerable. So, I took on the possibility of being courageous, which created more exhilarating and joyous moments in my life than I could have ever imagined.

The results and shifts that happened in just a couple months were astounding to me. I had no idea that I could so easily step up to larger accountability at Microsoft, in my community, and in my relationships. Somehow I had thought I had to earn it, step by step, victory by victory. All of a sudden, I began living exactly the life I thought I might get to in 10 years.

I succeeded at more things and at even bigger projects than I thought possible a couple months before. Even my coworkers, friends, and family noticed the change in me. During the next two years, I received a series of promotions. Eventually, I found myself recruited to be the CEO of a new company. I also saw that my passion was to make a difference for the environment and for social justice causes. As geeked out as I was by technology, I was even more geeked out by politics and social change.

Today, I sit on the board of directors of local and national nonprofits. I am regarded as a successful fundraiser and campaigner for the causes I champion. I can point to thousands of acres of habitat that I helped to preserve. I work to contribute to the lives of real men and women in a meaningful and direct way - I can see the possibility of contributing more.

All this in just the last four years. Landmark provides an exceptional and unusual resource for me. One that I utilize every day to grow and expand. I continually enjoy the amazing conversations I get to share with people before and after they've taken a Landmark course. I also often take time to look into the future and plan where I want to be next. The hardest challenge, for me, is to appreciate how fast things have changed in the past four years and to imagine that pace continuing or accelerating in the future.