A leadership award for true gentlemen
Josh Zabar is one of the winners of the 2013 Leaders Award presented by the popular men’s magazine GQ, or Gentlemen’s Quarterly. The annual award is meant to raise awareness for the issues essential to modern men.
On top of the honour and glamour that goes with it, the award entitles the winners to a hefty sum of prize money. However, with the generosity of all true gentlemen, the winners will not keep the money to themselves but pay it forward to their favourite charities. Since the launch of the initiative in 2007, the Award has thus generated over $3.5 million for nearly 40 charities.
And the donation goes to…
This year, Josh Zabar won the award for his dedicated work in running the Summit, an events- and community-focused organization. Summit’s mission is to ‘address global issues, support artistic achievement, and build community in an effort to make our world a more joyful place.’ In an intriguing move this April, the Summit purchased Utah’s Powder Mountain, North America’s largest ski resort, with the intention of setting up a permanent community of innovation called Summit Eden. An audacious project worthy of the most dauntless agents of change. 
And Josh’s winner’s choice, as one of the leaders of 2013? It was most clear cut and simple:
“My donation as a winner of the 2013 Leaders Award is being made to the David Lynch Foundation, to support their efforts teaching veterans and at-risk youth Transcendental Meditation – the gift that keeps on giving.“
Josh Zabar has endorsed Transcendental Meditation on his blog, describing the effects of the practice as follows:
“Calming the mind is a very challenging this to do, but when you begin to grasp just how to do it…even for just a few minutes a day, your life can change dramatically.”
“TM has already made a substantial impact in my life. I’ve noticed significant differences in the way I think, act, and treat others. The annoyances of life seem to disappear as I’ve realized that they don’t or shouldn’t really matter at all.
I’ve gained acceptance of others who I’ve often begrudged, and I’ve become far more likeable to a number of people who were irritated by the “my way or the highway” attitude I once held dear and was proud of. My ego has died a little, which is probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me, because the more the ego dies, the more one really begins to live.
TM has enabled me to create a space between my thoughts and my actions. Read that again: TM has enabled me to create a space between my thoughts and my actions. It’s wild. So before I started meditating, I may have been in a situation where I reacted harshly and abruptly due to something that I felt was affecting me negatively. Now, if that same situation happens, there is a calm space, a serene environment that lasts maybe a few milliseconds but feels like an eternity before I act where I can actually “choose” the reaction that I want to have. Now that’s true power.”
Read also this wildly popular article on Transcendental Meditation published in GQ in September 2013, titled “The Totally Stressed-Out Man’s Guide to Meditation”
