Scion of NLP

Archive for the ‘NLP Trainers’ Category

The best teachers in this world never truly answer questions with statements and the best students never ask questions without having a possible answer …

… aaaaaannd, your thinking: What the hell does that mean?

Well, the 2 most influential teachers in my life taught me those key concepts and, as much as possible, I use them in all the courses and seminars I teach. You see, one person who I learned a lot from never gave me a straight out answer — she always would answer my questions with a question that would help me to connect things in my own mind in order to better understand and relate to the lessons she was teaching. On the flip-side, the second person who taught me a great deal in life never allowed me to ask a question without at least having a guess as to what I thought the answer might be.

In both of these cases I learned the real essence of learning:

Honest Curiosity

Looking for the answer you want to find — deciding what you expect the answer to be and then only seeking information to support your beliefs — is not being honest to the true answer. In the same sense, asking random questions about things which you have no basic knowledge or understanding is useless (kinda like asking the someone to explain trigonometry without even a basic ability to do math) — it’s not being honest to your true level of curiosity.

… and IMHO, the best teachers in the world instill a sense of honest curiosity in their students! (which is part of my never ending quest as an NLP Trainer)

With those thoughts in mind I wanted to share a little inspirational story from a cool website, Zen Moments:

The post was titled My favorite Liar (click the title to go to the original article), and the basic story was as such …

A guy had a professor in college that added an interesting twist to his lectures — it was boring subject so on the first day of class he explained that during every class he would teach one lie and it was the students’ job to catch him in his lie.

At first the lies were easy to spot and students would immediately spot them and raise their hands to question the validity of his statements. When he was caught he’d cross that part out on the board and congratulate them on catching the lie.

As time went on the lies became more subtle and it would take students longer to find them and often it would be only a handful who would question something that was explained a bit earlier in the lecture … until, eventually the professor was able to get through the whole class and no one had caught the lie.

When that happened he would joyfully tell the students that he succeeded and that there was an error somewhere in their notes which they would need to discuss among themselves and present their arguments at the next class. Soon the students had begun to form study groups and had to really dig to determine what lie he had taught them in the previous class ..

… until one day when the students were presenting their thoughts and he simply kept proving them wrong. After the students had exhausted all their possible guesses … the professor said: Do you remember the first lecture – how I said that ‘every lecture has a lie?’ … well, that was a lie. My previous lecture was completely on the level. But I am glad you reviewed your notes rigorously this weekend – a lot of it will be on the final. Moving on …

So, what did that professor teach those students above and beyond the class material? … what was his real legacy as an instructor? — All those students learned:

• ‘Experts’ can be wrong, even when they say things that sound right – so build a habit of evaluating new information and check it against things you already accept as fact. (this goes for seemingly ‘Honest’ truth tellers who often keep confirming that ‘they are hiding nothing’ … are they trying to convince their readers or themselves?)
• If you see something wrong, take the initiative to flag it as misinformation … when things don’t add up, look for the pieces that are missing — having only 1 or 2 pieces of a puzzle will never show you the whole picture (this also applies to singular facts or statements that have been taken out of context)
• A sense of playfulness is the best defense against taking yourself too seriously — everyone makes mistakes and when we do or say something in error there will always be people who will jump on that fact as a way to drag you down and discredit you … don’t take yourself too seriously and you won’t take their comments too seriously either (… and if you don’t take those people who fixate only on mistakes seriously, then no one else will either — accept your errors but focus on your successes so others will do the same)

… something to make you go Hmmmmm…

I’ll be completely honest and say that Dean Hunt is the one who brought this video to my awareness (see the original post here) …

… however, I just needed to share it on my NLP blog, too. The reason being: I love being a Professional NLP Trainer because it not only fills me with a sense of personal accomplishment and pride, knowing that I’m passing on the wisdom, knowledge and experiences that made different in, not only my own life, in the lives of people around the world … doing this job fills me with passion …

… I’m lucky to have found my passion in life and made it into a career — and every time I’m going to teach an NLP class I get filled with excitement and anticipation … all the wonder and joy and amazing moments of personal growth … all the fantastic insights into the secrets of life and how each person can not only improve their own life, but go even further and help make this a world to which we all want to belong …

… it’s all these things that I see on the faces of my students, hear in their voices, feel as they fly out of class filled with excitement and a passion of their own … I’m an NLP Trainer (teacher) and I too can tell you — I make a difference.

  Boo-Ya!

Hey y’all … I just came across a blog post from Viv Craske (the King of Confidence) about Richard Bandler’s Xmas Message — something everyone should see if they’ve had a less than excellent year.

For those of you who don’t know who Richard Bandler is … well … he’s not that easy to describe, but I can tell you he’s one of the founders of NLP and he’s a really, really, really amazing and smart guy! — so I highly recommend that you should take a listen to his best wishes video about 2010!

If you had a crappy 2009 and want to go into 2010 with a better attitude …

CLICK HERE

… and watch the video.

(Trust me — it’s worth your time)

I’ve always believed that you can tell a lot about a person by the role models they choose. With that in mind I’d like to share a very unique source of inspiration of my own … a human beatbox artist from the UK by the name of Shlomo (Click here to check out his Wikipedia article). Now, many people don’t know this but when I’m working, although I do like to listen to Jazz & Blues music, I often listen to electronic & techno dance music from Europe ( Digitally Imported FM Radio) on my computer.

For anyone who doesn’t know what beatboxing is, it’s a form of vocal percussion which primarily involves the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one’s mouth, lips, tongue, voice, and more. Occasionally it may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beatboxing is mainly connected with hip hop culture although it is not limited to hip hop music — in fact, Shlomo (BTW, his full name is Simon Shlomo Kahn) has pushed the boundaries of beatboxing by using his vocal skills as a way to collaborate with a whole range of artists from different backgrounds.

Here’s a quick 2 minute example of Shlomo beatboxing …

So, you might wonder why I feel Shlomo is such an amazing role model — well, it comes from one of the most phenomenal experiences of my life. When I did my NLP Trainers Training at NLPU in Santa Cruz back in 2004, one of the events all 100+ students did was an enormous drumming circle. During the process we, as a group, each contributed played a small percussion instrument and together we created our very own unique song. It was so incredibly moving and spiritually awakening that I’ve never been the same since — before that I always thought of myself seperate and apart from other people in the world … and after that experience I have a whole new way of relating to everyone around me.

Shlomo does the same type of thing with his Vocal Orchestra. Individually they each add one small piece of beatboxing and together they make the most astounding music …

Although that is wonderful and I do hope that one day I too can bring people together like that, it’s not the main reason I aspire to be the Shlomo of the NLP community. You see, during my training at NLPU, Robert Dilts explained an idea to us which has always helped drive me towards improving myself and my abilities. He explained is in a metaphor about an expert guitarist — first you need to learn the basics about holding a guitar and playing the scales … you need to learn to read music and play different songs … in time you learn different ways of playing the same tunes … you experience mistakes that teach you how to play better and more unique … eventually you have so much knoweldge and experience with playing the guitar that you can simply pick up the instrament anywhere at any time and simply play … no song, no music … just play and the song will create itself — and that’s exactly how I want to be with my NLP!

Dilts showed us a video which demonstrated what happens when two people who are expert musicians — one with a guitar and one with a violin — and when they got together and just played they were able to naturally flow with one another and make a unique and powerful piece of music that simply “happened” … no plan … no rehersal … just an unspoken connection through the music. That’s the way Shlomo is with his beatboxing — he can collaborate with another musician or singer easily and effortlessly … (remember that ALL the music in this video is made only by the beatboxers — no actual instraments are used!)

Finally, this last video is what I consider the epitome of how I want to be able to teach with other instructors (NLPer and/or professional trainers in other fields) … so natural … so smooth … so elegant … and as the audience I was left astounded and speechless …

Shlomo — YOU ROCK!

In an email I received from Helen Oakwater (a wonderous NLP “Goddess” and dear friend), of www.helenoakwater.co.uk, she commented that her dictionary has three definitions for “miracle”;

1. an extraordinary and welcome event that manifests or is attributed to divine intervention in human affairs
2. an astonishing and wonderful event, thing or accomplishment
3. somebody or something that is a remarkable example or instance of the specified thing

This holiday season I received the greatest news anyone could wish for at Christmas time and I want to share it with you; my tale is about Trish, a phenomenally amazing NLP Trainer and Consultant colleague from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan who is and forever will remain incredibly entrenched deep within my heart and soul. She was once described as a blessing gifted to this world by the Universe – and now after hearing about her experience I say that is even truer today.

Trish was diagnosed with kidney failure a few months ago and I know without a doubt that she (after coming to terms with it) “sucked it up” like a true princess and steeled herself for battle…and well, if I could place bets on a prize fight between Trish and the Universe, I’d bet on Trish every time.

Although I don’t know all the details I’m certain that she utilized all her training in NLP, combined with a multitude of other healing arts she knows, to fight like a Gladiator Champion. Along with faith, love and the support of her entire NLP community she carved her way through the jungle of fears, uncertainty and limiting beliefs within Saskatchewan’s medical community to create her own unique path (like she did during the entire time I knew her) until eventually she reached her goal of complete health and wellness.

Finally, in the most recent email update I got last night, her kidneys have started working again and she has been taken off dialysis. Now, for anyone who still does not believe that Neuro Linguistic Programming is effective for helping heal physical illness, not just mental and emotional hurts, then you can consider this a “Miracle”. For the rest of us, we just consider it “Trish” – that’s simply the way she is…stubborn and free. ;-p

That’s right – you heard me y’all! Judy Wright, the amazing NLP trainer, counselor and guru has finally got her own website up and running! Boo-ya baby! (*you can’t see it but I’m doing the happy dance right now!*) She’s been soooooo busy with studying, teaching, counseling and making the world an all around better place that the website just took forever …but it’s finally up and operational.

That’s not even the best part …the best part is – she’s produced some CDs and if they’re half as phenomenal as she is, you gotta get’em! (Seriously. She really is that fantastic.)

Her website is… Gateways Counselling.

Her CDs are… “Serenity” & “Healing Moments”.

I love teaching NLP!! Last night all the people in my practitioner class totally stepped up and were AMAZING! It was so awesome…wish you could have seen it. For all you NLP trainers out there – it was that moment where they put down the scripts and just let their language flow (and of course discovered that it works and they can do it)! Woo-hoo! Way to go everybody.

I can’t wait to see all the wonders that today’s class brings.