Looking back on the house one last time before driving away, I told myself I would NEVER forget the lessons I learned from basking in the “Brookeness” of Brooke Castillo. Recording them would help me treasure them. These stories are my way of cherishing a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Dress the part – We’re at a beautiful, three-house, western-inspired homestead nestled among tall trees and open meadows in the small town of Wilson, Wyoming. The unpaved drive to the home winds through horse properties filled with signs of fall. The air is crisp and cool. Powerful storm clouds are forming above the nearby Grand Teton mountain range. We’re basically alone. The nine of us and Tom, our private chef. No one else comes in or out of the homestead. We’re miles from the closest city, Jackson Hole. Almost completely isolated. Yet every morning Brooke is dressed to impress. Not really to “impress”, but dressed as Brooke dresses…with style and class. From a long-sleeved gray knit dress, black tights, and matching flowery necklace to a white fluffy sweater, black skirt, tights, and ornate blue-green, sparkly necklace. Every morning Brooke looks like a million bucks. Her positioning is on point. She wakes and dresses knowing she’s spending the day with eight coaches who love and adore her. There are no cameras and no possibility of visitors. And still, she’s dressed as if she could walk onto a stage and captivate an audience for hours.
The lesson I learned from Brooke: Be who you are. Dress who you are. Own it. No matter where you are. No matter what.
Back Row – Judith, Lisa, Brooke, Dave, Lara, Becky
Front Row – Erin, Katrina, Me
Thinking Time – Sunday morning Brooke told us “thinking time” was next on the agenda. This thinking time would last for twenty minutes. We were to think about one thing. One focus. One specific question we were trying to figure out for our writing project. Nothing else. If our minds drifted away, we were to bring our minds back to the one question. We were not allowed to write “notes”, only brief words that would later remind us of our idea. She asked us to continually bring ourselves back to the point, to the thing, to the question. Brooke then impressed upon us the importance of having confidence in our answers and our brain’s ability to figure out the answer. If we always looked to others for the answer (ok, let’s be real…if we always looked to Brooke for the answer), we’d constantly be relying on outside sources, sources that will not be there when we need an answer. She further asked us to be willing to argue against ourselves, to question it all, if new ideas came along…to gently let them go, remain focused on the one point.
Notifications off, silence in the house…it was thinking time. The moments went slowly at first, my brain resisted being redirected back to the point. Redirect, redirect, redirect, and then my brain did what I didn’t think it could do. It filled the page with simple words and phrases. Words that answered the question I was asking. Phrases tied to more knowledge on the subject than I even knew I had inside of me. And then it was done. Brooke called time. “No!”, my mind shouted. I didn’t want it to end, I was in it and it was so good. Twenty simple minutes. The power of thinking time was more than evident to me. In the past, my brain had repeatedly told me that spending time thinking was a waste of time and that I should be writing instead of thinking. My brain was wrong. Thinking time gave me insights I otherwise would not have had.
The lesson I learned from Brooke: Time spent thinking is time well spent. Thinking is what your brain does best. Use it to solve your problems. YOU have the answers.
Embrace Everyone – Dave and I were exploring the main house on the property when Brooke suddenly walked in from the garage down a long hall where we were standing near the kitchen. Stocking footed and shopping bags dangling from her arms, Brooke came and greeted us with the warmth of a long-lost friend. She was quick to embrace us both (embrace meaning hug with affection), welcome us, call us by name, and look us directly in the eyes. It was everything I’d wanted meeting Brooke in-person to be and MORE. As my heart melted with appreciation, my mind was awestricken. How could it be that Brooke Castillo had just hugged me like she was genuinely invested in me, genuinely cared for me? And yet, I knew that’s exactly what it was. I was NOT dreaming or visualizing it as I had for several weeks prior. It WAS real. I watched as Brooke greeted Lara later that evening and other coaches the next morning. We were ALL embraced by Brooke. Truly embraced. There was no judgment, just love. What Brooke had taught me through countless hours of webinars, coaching calls, certification hours, and live events, she was living herself. No doubt about it. She loved us. She allowed herself to fully embrace us. Just as we were.
The lesson I learned from Brooke: Choose to embrace everyone. Love is always the best answer.
Live By Your Schedule – Remember our remote location. We’re in a house in a small Wyoming town. Just eight coaches, Brooke, and our chef. There were no bosses, no meetings, no alarms, no bells, no phones ringing. No one outside of the house had any interest in what we’d get done or what we wouldn’t get done. And yet, we lived those days on a schedule. A schedule prepared and set by Brooke. Each day she had plans for us: thinking time, writing time, sharing time, eating time, relaxing time, sleeping time. It was all laid out in her mind, which meant it was all laid out in her calendar. Every morning we met at 9:00 a.m. in the living room and Brooke told us the schedule for the day. We lived by it. We obeyed it. We followed it. It didn’t feel restrictive, it felt freeing. Brooke lived by the schedule too. If we wrote, she wrote. If we ate, she ate. If we were thinking, she was thinking. By the end of the writing retreat, I had written almost 9,000 words. I’d completely outlined and almost completely finished writing my entire project. I was amazed. There had been plenty of time for work AND plenty of time for FUN, including hot tub fun ;-).
The lesson I learned from Brooke: Living by a schedule matters…to YOU. Do it for you. Because you matter to you. You work when it’s time to work and you play when it’s time to play. It’s the only way.
These are just a few of the lessons I gleaned from spending an extended weekend with Brooke Castillo at the first-ever Writer’s Retreat. Be sure to join me next week for Part 2 of this special feature so you don’t miss learning my absolute FAVORITE thing about spending time with Brooke. 🙂
