Scion of NLP

Archive for October 9th, 2008

Last night I taught a quick little workshop on the Art of Persuasion and there was only one thing on my mind as I went there last night …a woman.

A few weeks ago I did a short presentation on the Secrets of Changing Behavior and afterwards several people came up to speak with me about different things. One of them was a woman names Peggy, and since she was sitting just to my right she was the first to get a chance to talk with me. As I was speaking with her I soon realized that she had attended one of my Verbal Self Defense workshops and I hadn’t recognized her. During the course of her explanation she began to tell me how some of the Verbal Self Defense Tactics she learned had really impacted her life for the better. As I became engrossed in her story I suddenly noticed there were other people standing near by waiting to ask me for my business card …but …but …but I was really interested in the feedback Peggy was giving me, so…

…I gently interrupted this wonderfully sweet woman standing in front of me and quickly turned to hand out the business cards. When I turned back to give my full attention to Peggy she had already excused herself and whisked away, out the door and was gone.

That night I drove all the way home in a slump, thinking, “It’s nice to get positive feedback sometimes. Yes, my mentor and NLP trainer Judy Wright from Regina always taught me to ‘Pray for Failure’ because there is no failure, only feedback. And yes, feedback is what helps us improve, grow and get better every day …blah, blah, blah. Sometimes it’s just nice to get some positive feedback too.”

Skip forward to last night – as I stood setting up the room all I could think about was Peggy and I hoped and prayed she’d come to the workshop so I could finally find out how I helped someone. finally the time came for the presentation to begin and as I looked at the faces around the table I realized she wasn’t there. (*sigh*) “Oh well, best get started I thought.” With a smile and a flourish I started to introduce myself and the night’s topic of discussion, and then …viola! She came in and my spirit soared! I was so happy I even stopped the workshop to tell her I wanted to speak with her after the presentation.

Once we were finished and everyone had begun to pack up to go, I made my way around the room to Peggy. As we got into discussion I learned how the tools and techniques she learned in my Verbal Self Defense class had helped her take the next few steps on her path to a happier, healthier and more rewarding life. My heart almost burst in my chest as she told me about how she found the words to tell the people where she worked what she was feeling …how it gave her the confidence to go after and get the management job she really wanted …how she is able today to make sure she takes care of herself and how she’s teaching that to her children. We talked for over 30 minutes and all I could think was “This is why I love my job!”

When people find the ability inside themselves to make their lives joyous and wonderful I feel great knowing that I did all I could do – NLP has given me the ability to light a lantern inside myself so I could see what was happening within my own mind & body …and that light allowed me to discover things about myself that give me the power to have the best life I can imagine …and now, as an NLP counselor, coach and trainer, all I do is offer people the choice to take a little of the flame from my lantern of learnings to help them light their own inner lantern so the path of self discovery and life improvement is a little more clear.

Thank you Peggy for letting me know that what I’m doing does help people.