Living in Peace and Wisdom on our Planet

Getting a personal well-being plan and how it was all set up

The story so far:

Reporter Max Wahlter has been visiting the sustainable city of Porena (see earlier journeys).  He has been so successful that a company has paid him to visualize an area offering a sustainable approach to well-being and recreation. After arriving and getting an overview he was given a pager to contact his personal trainer.

Preamble 

My use of the methods continues to develop. I am now taking on assignments. I received an assignment to describe what a 'Well-being Location' would look like. The area offers a wide range of activities inviting and enticing well-being in terms of food, exercise, recreation, relaxation, cultural interest etc so that visitors come away refreshed, having improved physical and mental condition with knowledge & stimulus to continue.

Tapescript

I page my personal trainer.   When he turns up I ask the big question: 'So how is this all related? You have all these activities and you have the file with your profile in it. We have the map and the routes. Where does the personal trainer fit in?'

He smiles; 'I relate it to what you want to do. I can help you put the profile together with all the activities. Come with me - we can do it'.

We sit in what looks like a café but I get the idea coffee is not encouraged. We go through the profile.   'You have to work with measurable factors – or at least we say it is better to work with measurables. You cannot lose a lot of weight in a week, but you can establish eating and exercise habits that will help you do that.'

'We say the best exercise is walking and the whole region's health plan is based on walking.'
'If you wanted to lose weight you would have to do high intensity walking, at least 10 km a day. Walk fast. You can work out how to walk in a circle from the map.'

All tracks work in a circular way. The secret to this is the map, the classification, the centering of activities that you have to go to activities, so they are specialised. And it is based on what you want to do. If you are serious you can be given a program you can carry on later.

'And if I just want to relax?' I ask.  'There are plenty of places to do that - they are classified as retreats.'  And it all starts at the centre here with good connections via airport, motorway and train.

My last question to the trainer: 'what have I forgotten to pick up?'  'Simplicity my friend. You have to understand the simplicity - it has to be so simple to work properly. Complexity creates stress - it all has to be easy and simple; nice, good, human service.'
  
Setting up

I ask the personal trainer to explain how the centre got to be where it is today.  'You need to talk to the development office,' he says and carts me off through the doors opposite the open market.

'I would like to know how all this came about,' I say as we are introduced to people in the office. We sit down on green sofas in reception.

'We started by inviting individuals, organisations, groups and companies in to participate in the scheme. They put themselves on the map. Each of them made their own brochures and put them in the Bank. Our role was to set this centre up, setting the map system up.'

'And marketing?' I ask.  'We do a basic amount of marketing by marketing the Centre and the area together. The idea is that all participants market the Centre and the Centre markets all participants.'

The Centre insisted on doing the colour coding system ourselves, and they are still developing it. The shops then took on the colour system. The initial project set the building up. The Centre owners act as landlords and administrators.
Thinking about the human side of setting up I ask; 'were there any seminars?'  'We ran a lot of seminars and workshops to get people on board and involved.'

'What about finance?' I ask.  'We were locally financed by the government. You cannot expect people to finance this themselves, the initiative and initial financing has to come from a central place.'

'What about creating standards of service?'  'We ask every 'scheme participant' to state the standards their operation will reach. If they do not keep these standards they will not be marketed by us. Once you get it right it is very simple, once you know what you are doing.'

'What were your main problems in setting this up?'  'The main challenge was convincing people to join the scheme and that the opportunities were real. We went round showing the map from the beginning. We showed what we had and what as needed. Then we got all potential scheme participants together and told them what we wanted in terms of nodes or intersections.''We wanted someone to provide accommodation, a few to look after the trails on a voluntary basis etc.  We went around to these areas, ran workshops locally. Then we said to people 'what courses can you run using the schools we will market it.  The hardest thing was getting people to believe that it would really give them any income. Once it started it was no problem.'

'Because we took the lead, came with the concept from the beginning, and because we started the centre and were clear about what we wanted it was easier for participants to see where they fitted in.'

'The threshold for getting involved was low as well, which contributed to the scheme's success.'  'To get started you made your own brochure according to our standards of what the contents should be. The food had to be regional and healthy.'

I thank everyone, they thank me for coming and I leave, back past the fountain to the departure lounge.

Reflections: The Centre of Well-being

I am actually surprised by the simplicity of the solution – basing everything around a map! And simplicity is also a necessity.    The other thing is that there is no new technology in this. Like many others involved in making a sustainable future we see that existing technology is sufficient.

I am also struck by the repeated theme 'what do you want to do?'  It could almost be a cornerstone of the marketing  for the area. Your wellbeing …what do you want to do?

The other strong association coming out of this is how important the local authority is. Without a set-up project being run centrally I cannot see it working.  I was personally struck by how I as a visitor was 'pulled in'. By arranging the information around 'what do you want to do' instead of 'what is there' and by having a personal trainer just available to chat to without it costing … I realised I myself would like a program like this and have never ever thought about it before.  (I wonder if you could use the visualising techniques to meet your own personal trainer!  That would be the cheapest….)

Questions for verification and further investigation: Centre of well-being

How big should the area be? It seems to me it should be the size you can get on a map and how big is that? At the same time it should be big enough to be able to offer enough variety.

How would this WORK exactly. I am a visitor, I come to the area. I stay at the hotel in the central part. How do I get to these retreats, places offering exercise, schools taken over for adult courses? If I walk what about my luggage? If I take the car it seems it is an economic barrier and not open to all?

Business model … who pays whom for what in terms of marketing, booking services etc? What is public sector financed and what is private (and voluntary)?

Next week Max continues to offer the bonus on well-being. Be here next week! To order the entire book in paperback or as a downloaded pdf, go to http://stephenhinton.avbp.net.