Early last week, we held our second of the new monthly dinner series event in Vancouver, to share struggles and grow a trusted circle to inspire, connect, and support one another in what can sometimes be a socially isolated city. This time around, in lieu of ticket prices, I wanted to add in another element to elevate the purpose of our gathering – to #achieveitforward, by celebrating everything that we have, and use that to donate to a local charity that would then continue to help others have the opportunity to reach their potential.  

Our topic this month was “Other’s Expectations,” be it friends, family, or that of society as a whole. We gathered together over a few hours on a Tuesday evening at Cibo Trattoria in their private Madonna room.

For this dinner, I wanted to ensure first and foremost that we were able to create magic together once again, while also improving upon my facilitation of the evening compared to the first dinner. I added in a simple ice-breaker to help us all check-in a few times throughout the meal (using a single word to describe our mood). We also used a cute and fun talking piece, and I attempted to time each person a bit more, so that we weren’t going off on too many tangents, but then let that slide after awhile, in favour of allowing conversation to flow more organically. Beyond that, I felt that having an actual round table (versus oval or rectangular) really helped to focus the conversation, and leave everyone on a level playing field in the conversation, with everyone being the same distance apart.

During this dinner, a few key themes came up around the topic of “Other’s Expectations” – mainly, the impact of our childhoods and our families to how we have lived and continue to live, moving to being more “selfish with our kindness” to check in and give to ourselves to ensure that we have the energy then to support others, and how the most difficult expectations tend to be those that we put on ourselves. We did also focus a bit on friendships and how they change over time, along with the different types of friendships. Mostly that they do ebb and flow and sometimes you lose them, and yet it’s ok – they are not meant to always be there, and it’s almost better to know that sooner and really see how friendships change through life events (weddings, children, little things like invites to parties, etc) and learn from them and their part in our journeys.

What was most beautiful for me during this evening was watching a few people around the table have “a ha” moments and little epiphanies as we shared our stories, become more focused and present with one another, and come out of the meal both inspired and feeling more connected and empowered, even after a few short hours surrounded by almost complete strangers.

Donations for this dinner were paid forward to A Better Life Foundation. #achieveitforward

Photo credit: Benny Jackson on Unsplash