In countries and continents across the world, Landmark Education offers its programs and services, including its flagship program, The Landmark Forum. Ireland is one of the places where The Landmark Forum is offered. All told, these programs are offered in approximately 125 cities out of 53 offices worldwide.
One of the things that people get out of Landmark’s programs regardless of where they take them is a greater connection to what matters to them, regardless of what that is. A priest who took part in a program from Landmark in Ireland writes that he has a greater connection with his religion after taking part, saying he was fully present to the joy and the opportunity to offer the Eucharistic prayer to god on behalf of his congregation.
Another person, a scientist, writes about how she was bored with career and with life, and was headed to a predictable retirement and winding down of her life, and discovered a new zest for life after taking part in The Landmark Forum, seeing everyday so-called mundane tasks with a sense of wonder and newness – she no longer took her life for granted.
There are a number of websites on the internet which tell about what graduates of Landmark’s programs have accomplished in Ireland; one of these is Landmark Education Ireland. This website also tells about upcoming events and programs that are being offered by Landmark in Ireland.
One example of the kind of projects being undertaken by graduates of these programs outlined on this website include ‘Javelins for Dara’. This project was started in memory of a woman who was a javelin champion who died of cancer. A golf/dinner charity event was created by the woman’s friend and siblings, with over fifty people golfing and almost a hundred sitting down to a charity dinner that raised approximately €4800 for St. Lukes and the Cancer Society. This is one example of many where a community project was created by a graduate of Landmark. Ireland is the home of other programs as well, such as the Advanced Course and the Self-Expression and Leadership Program.
Another example of a community project created in Ireland out of one of Landmark’s courses comes in the form of a social networking site for food lovers, created as one person’s ‘community project’ out of taking part in The Self-Expression and Leadership Program. Another woman created a huge fundraising operation for Ireland’s largest children’s charity as her project in the same program — she took on a sponsored climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, and raised money for months in her church and through community groups, with over €5,025 eventually being raised for the Barnardos charity. She had to train for many months, using stair machines to simulate the climb (given that her part of Ireland didn’t have any hills to practice on), and speak to thousands of people she hadn’t spoken to before to raise the money. She was able to go beyond what she thought was possible both in being passionate with people about a great cause, and her own physical fitness.
Another graduate of Landmark’s programs has been actively involved in the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland. This man, who is also a social networking pioneer, also started a website designed to allow people to share their vision for the future of the planet, and to be able to network with each other to support each other. This website eventually evolved into an international organization dedicated to sustainable reforestation.
Another woman writes of taking part in a Landmark program in Ireland, and after overcoming her initial suspicions about the program, saw during the course how she was ready to start fully engaging with and enjoying life instead of waiting until she got it together. She went on a vacation afterwards and enjoyed herself more than she ever had, because she was free from concerns about her weight and how she looked, and everything she needed to do back home.
Landmark’s Ireland operation is for the first time ever offering a weekend of a program titled the Wisdom Unlimited course. This course is for people with an ongoing interest in growth and development throughout their lives, and with an interest in community, both in making a difference in community, and in noticing the power that communities and conversations have in shaping the course of our lives. The Wisdom Unlimited Course also features small coursework gatherings where people come together to discuss their ongoing growth and development in a fun, friendly atmosphere.
One thing that is universal to graduates of Landmark’s programs, from Ireland for from anywhere else in the world, is that they tend to experience this kind of freedom to fully follow their dreams and what’s important to them, right now. While we all intellectually know that life is short and that we should seize the moment and follow our dreams, many of us are gripped by a certain caution, a voice telling us to wait to take bold actions until we have it all together, until we know more, or have more money, or have more time, or are in a better frame of mind, to do what we would be doing if life was truly urgent and brief.
In The Landmark Forum, people see that life is short not as an intellectual concept, but as an urgent call to action in their lives, right now. One of the things that tends to be important to almost all human beings is the desire to make a difference for others, which is one reason why Landmark’s programs, in Ireland and elsewhere, offer opportunities for people to create community projects that make the difference in the world that they really want to make. While it is easy to go through life working on one’s self and one’s own life forever, when one steps back and takes a look at life, we often see that we’d rather be contributing and making a difference, whether we are ‘ready’ or not.
Landmark Education in Ireland