Grab Some Friends

 

           Choose a Goal

 

                Do Something that Matters…

 

         

                         …One Tiny Step at a Time

You’ve got some goals, right? Maybe even a dream or two kicking around?

What if, instead of struggling alone, you had a team of people to  cheer you on, brainstorm with you, provide some accountability?

Would it make a difference?

You bet it does.

 

Wayfinders  works because it uses the most overlooked resource on the planet:  each other.

 

wayfinders

I’m Darreby Ambler, procrastinator and  perfectionist in recovery. I created Wayfinders to give people like me  support for getting good, hard things done. 

 

 

 

 

wayfinders

THE STORY

It was 2008 and I’d been trying to finish a children’s book for years; the perfectionist in me just couldn’t stop fooling with it.  Desperate, I gathered some good  friends into my living room for an experiment: what if we each brought a goal we were having trouble with,  and helped each other?  To our delight and astonishment, it worked!  Read the whole story here

 

Finishing my book was great, but what inspired me even more  was watching how just a few kind people could help each other get hard stuff done right in the middle of their busy lives.  15 years and 47 teams later I have refined a program that has helped hundreds of  regular people and their friends do more than they ever thought possible.

Join a Wayfinders team, and you’ll learn a technique you can use for the rest of your life, especially  when it is time to tackle something  big, complicated, or so ambitious it scares the pants off you. (We call that a B.H.A.G.: A Big Hairy Audacious Goal). It all starts with support, and some small steps to get you started.

 

HOW  IT WORKS

Wayfinders  is an  in-person program that 5-6 people do together over 2 or 3  months, in company with a trained Wayfinders facilitator. (You can also try it on your own with some friends) 

It’s in two parts:

— a weekend retreat where you and your teammates will take a good look at your own gifts and dreams, sort through possibilities, and choose  a great goal, one that excites you. 

—8 tightly-structured action meetings where you’ll bring that goal to life with all the  support, brainstorming, humor, and accountability it takes.

 

Every Wayfinder has a different goal, depending on their gifts and where they are in life. See some goals people have chosen.
    • Live in Tanzania part-time
    • Have a gallery showing of my photographs
    • Go on stage for the first time at age 80.
    • Trade in teaching to become a camp director

    Create a prayer labyrinth in my backyard for the community

  • Take a Sabbath from work each week
  • Market my medical device to keep the elderly from falling
  • Develop and establish an early morning prayer routine
  • Create a non-profit to combat human trafficking
  • Write a blog for diabetics who are strugglin
  • Learn how to say “no” gracefully
  • Write a book of historical fiction
  • Start a mobile food truck for the hungry in my town
  • Become a police chaplain

 

  • Learn to sew clothing that fit my body.
  • Become a certified Hand Therapist
  • Write and deliver a sermon on generosity
  • Write a book about the first year of my grandson’s illness
  • Launch a Kindness Day in Bath
  • Launch a Kindness Day in Gardiner
  • Conquer my dreaded financial paperwork
  • Finish what I started 40 years ago, and get my college degree
  • Become a hospice chaplain
  • Clear out a spare room and start writing stories
  • Walk the Camino.
  • Record my own “Good News” – the miracles in my life
    • Re-kindle my love of singing and join a madrigal group
    • Find more joy in everyday moments
    • Train for a 5K to feel endorphins once again
    • Go on silent retreat
    • Find a way to pace myself and thrive while living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
    • Develop a morning prayer practice
    • Find 2 hours for myself each week not to be taking care of others
    • Find a good home for my late husband’s belongings
    • Track my expenses and live within my means
    • Learn how to sew a skirt for my body type
    • Walk regularly and eat well so I can get in shape to travel again
    • Find a way to earn 300 dollars so I can attend my daughter’s college graduation out of state
    • Get up the courage to host people in my imperfect, messy home and share love and food with them.
How did unself-disciplined procrastinators – normal, busy people –  accomplish all this? With the help of their teammates!
Some Goals Wayfinders have achieved:
    • Live in Tanzania part-time
    • Have a gallery showing of my photographs
    • Go on stage for the first time at age 80.
    • Trade in teaching to become a camp director

    Create a prayer labyrinth in my backyard for the community

  • Take a Sabbath from work each week
  • Market my medical device to keep the elderly from falling
  • Develop and establish an early morning prayer routine
  • Create a non-profit to combat human trafficking
  • Write a blog for diabetics who are strugglin
  • Learn how to say “no” gracefully
  • Write a book of historical fiction
  • Start a mobile food truck for the hungry in my town
  • Become a police chaplain

 

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IT STARTED IN MY LIVING ROOM

But most of us are trying this alone! 

 

I created Wayfinders to give regular people  practical guidance and support for how to good, hard things done  with your own real and beautiful gifts.

And like almost all important things in my life, I stumbled onto it by mistake.

THE WAYFINDERS STORY

image 1: 12 years ago I hit a wall with book I’d been fiddling with for years. I asked some friends if they would try an experiment: everyone would bring something hard they wanted to get done, and we’d help each other get unstuck. I promised bronwies

Image 2

One wanted to find a way to travel for a year with her family. Another wanted to start a homemade chili ministry. Another wanted to take an instrument she’d been given, a lap dulcimer, out of the closet and learn to play it. Another, like me, was a writer looking for accountability.

 

We each figure out some next step – even just a tiny one,  and committed to do it in the coming week.

 

 

 

Image 3  A week later we pour through the door full of news. Abbie has phoned one piano teacher. Barb has floated the idea of a sabbatical to her husband. Linda had opened the closet and peeked at the dulcimer (and then closed the door again). We realize how fun it was to have other people celebrate with us when we made progress. We choose new steps for the next week, and keep going.

 

Image 4 Over the next couple of months, our goals come to life. Deb preaches a sermon.  Linda plays us “Silent Night.” I finish 1/2 my book.

I ask myself, is this a one-off?

Image 5  I try a second team. with all new goals. By the end of our time together, One of us flies to India, another conquers her dreaded box of paperwork. Emily sings in public for the first time. I finish my book.

A fire is lit under me.

Image 6 I experiment. I launch teams in public housing. In churches. In people’s living rooms.  Time after time, people do more than they ever thought possible. My housebound friend Judith launches Diabetic Redemption.com.

 

Image 7 I launch a team at the local high school. Out of it, Kindness Day Bath

 

Image 8 My work in the Episcopal Church takes off. Wayfinders becomes a discernment program for lay people in parishes across Maine.

 

Image 9 I get advice from my teammates – how can I expand? Build a Website.

 

Image 10 I meet leslie and write the Wayfinders book

 

Image 11 Elizabeth joins me to train and launch new teams.

 

Image 12 45 teams later, I can’t believe what we can do with just a little help from others.

12 years ago I had hit a wall with book I’d been fiddling with for years. Being a procrastinator AND a perfectionist, I was going around in circles. I was so  desperate, that I admitted I needed help. (This doesn’t come naturally to me(. I asked some friends if they would try an experiment: everyone would bring something hard they wanted to get done, and we’d help each other get unstuck.

I promised brownies, and every single one of them showed up.

The first night, we shared our goals, goals some of us had been chasing for years. One wanted to find a way to travel for a year with her family. Another wanted to start a homemade chili ministry. Another wanted to take an instrument she’d been given, a lap dulcimer, out of the closet and learn to play it. Another, like me, was a writer looking for accountability.

 

 

 

How it works:
How it works:
Wayfinders has two parts: a retreat weekend + 8 follow-up action meetings.

1) I will gather you and your teammates for a weekend retreat.

There we will look for clues to where God is calling you at this particular moment in your life. There are so many!

You’ll be taking a careful look at your gifts, at any dreams you have kicking around, and at your circumstances – what can you take on right now?

I’ll be asking you the kind of BIG questions that open you up to new possibilities.
What might God’s dream for YOU be?

What gifts give you the greatest joy to use?

What breaks your heart in the world?

Is there something important you need to get done,  but  feel stuck?

What are you waiting for “permission” to do?

Sometimes you are at a big moment in life. Sometimes you are in a quieter one.

Your goal will arise from your particular circumstances RIGHT NOW.

3) Your team will meet for 8 meetings, scheduled every week or two, to bring your goals to life.  

Some weeks you’ll get a lot done, others you’ll just take a small step or two. But your teammates will keep you on track with all the support, good humor, gentle nudging, and creativity it takes – and you’ll do the same for them.

This is a lot of fun – and it works! 

Wayfinders works because it uses the best resource God has given us.

Each other.