Scion of NLP

Archive for the ‘Behaviors’ Category

So, there has been a lot happening in my own life recently, as well as in the lives of those people closest to me, and all the stress, chaos, & misfortune have taken a huge toll on my faith in any unending joy of life, in the belief of that our universe has unlimited abundance, and in the ‘love’ inherent within all of mankind — all of these things I have begun to believe in less and less every day. This ongoing constant barrage of problems, issues, attacks, and setbacks have done a lot to feed that part deep in the back of my mind where my depression lays sleeping and dormant … allowing it to grow stronger and stronger … stirring it to wake.

With all these external issues and incidents, combined with the strengthening of my own negative thought habits, it’s no surprise that discussions in my home have often turned to the ‘pointlessness of life.’ In several of the more recent conversations my girlfriend, Jodie, and I have talked extensively about the Depressing Mind and how it works … and I’ve learned a lot through trying to explain it to someone who can’t relate (and when I say can’t relate I mean totally-opposite-end-of-the-spectrum unable to understand — Jodie is the pollyanna to my jaded darkness).

After all of our talks one very simple explanation of what a Depressing Mindset looks like finally came to light in the form of a metaphor:

If you think of a person as having an internal balancing scale that weighs the good experiences of life against the bad ones, then you can think of human perception as being a type of sorting machine. As events enter a person’s awareness they are sorted to one side or the other — sorted into things that bring the person good feelings (ex. happy, joy, love, humor, excitement, compassion, etc.) and the things that create bad feelings (ex. anger, frustration, hate, fear, sadness, guilt, etc.).

Now, for a normal person that sorting machine is usually somewhat balanced. Occasionally it might be a bit sensitive — the spring would too tight or too loose — in certain contexts or with certain people, but for the most part of life it’s normally quite balanced. Overall, the majority of experiences in the person’s life will fall onto the positive side of the scale, making them feel their life is fairly good.

In a person who is afflicted with depression the whole process is exactly the same, except for one small difference … the sorting machine is broken. Whether it’s because of a chemical imbalance in the brain or simply unhealthy thinking patterns, the little metal sorting arm is twisted and bent out of shape. The result is that even when events ‘should’ be sorted as being positive/pleasurable experiences, some of them accidentally fall onto the negative side of the scale.

A good example of this kind of mistaken sorting in the mind of a depressed person would be the idea of Family and Loved Ones — where the average person might experience these people as being a positive part of their life that bring them joy because of the good feelings they bring (having a positive effect on their life), a person with the depressing mind will only see how they are unable to support and take care of their family and loved ones (having a negative effect on their personal identity and their ability to create a good life). In this way the depression is able to twist almost any life experience (no matter how great it might be) to be proof that life sucks and truly isn’t worth living!

Being a behavior modification coach who specializes in helping people change habits of depression I’ve become more and more aware that there are a lot of things I can offer people who are dealing with depression — I have learned dozens of skills and techniques that can help anyone combat the standard patterns of depression (both thoughts and behaviors) … and yet, those are not the things I want to share most! Those, I’ve discovered, aren’t the things people with depression need most.

As someone who’s faced the demons of depression, fought the battle against the beasts, and has come to terms with the fact that for the rest of my life I will have to work to keep them caged, I’ve learned a lot of things along the way. I know of something that can be more important than actually addressing all those causes of one’s depression — it’s the people who enable those unhealthy habits! In fact, it’s often the people closest to a depression sufferer who shackle them with expectations of negative thought patterns and perceptions.

Ironically, those are the same people who usually judge the person for their pessimistic attitude toward life. Their constant belittling of and accusations about the person’s ongoing lethargic behavior and melancholy comments can be that one extra weight on their already fragile psyche that simply pushes them into thoughts of suicide!

So, I’ve decided I need to do something about that issue! Yes! I’m letting people know that as of January/February (during my ‘winter blues’ period) I have started writing a new book focused on explaining depression to those people who just can’t seem to understand. Anyone who has lived with depression knows exactly what I’m talking about — those people who have at least told them once to just;

• … suck it up and quit whining! Everybody has problems.
• … cheer up — you’re such a downer all the time!
• … let it go — it’s not that big of a deal.
• … stop worrying so much.

– and, no matter how you’ve tried to explain it to them, they just can’t quite wrap their mind around the concept that it’s simply not quite that easy (even with proper help/training/medication). More or less the book will be about what a goes on in the mind of a person with depression and what they must deal with on a daily basis.

Here’s a depressing fact to think about:

As I’ve calculated from my own personal past experience (and have had a handful of my own coaching clients have agreed with) … it’s likely that, on average, when a person who has suffered with depression for a long time is in an up-beat and happy mood they will only have the thought, *I wish I were dead.* about 170 times per day.

In comparison, during a time when that same person is entrenched deep within a terrible bout of depression — i.e. in bed with the covers pulled over their head — the thought, *I wish I were dead.* can potentially run through their mind up to as much as 5 times every minute … which is about 300 times per hour … meaning that, if they lay in bed all day, it’s likely a person with sever depression could wish they were dead well over 2000 times in one day! (OMFG! Talk about a Law of Attraction Epic Fail!)

If you’d like to get a better idea of what the basic premise of the book will be about you can check out the post I did on www.drdansays.com ‘Why did daddy kill himself?’

As many of my readers know, one key difference with NLP is the acceptance that every person has his or her own Mental Map or Model of the World — we all have our own way of thinking how the world works. This is what makes NLPers so much more flexible when it comes to working with and communicating with other people — even if we don’t always agree with someone’s perspective we can acknowledge that it exists and work within that person’s beliefs and values.

One of the best stories I came across last year was about a German nursing home for seniors that had figured out a way to actually utilized a patient’s alzheimer’s in ensuring their own safety … to basically keep them from wandering too far off. Here’s the full story:

Fake Bus Stop Keeps Alzheimer’s Patients From Wandering Off

German nursing homes are using a novel strategy to stop Alzheimer’s patients from wandering off: phantom bus stops.

Written by Harry de Quetteville in Berlin, and Published Jun 3, 2008.
(CLICK HERE to go to the original news story)

The idea was first tried at Benrath Senior Centre in Düsseldorf, which pitched an exact replica of a standard stop outside, with one small difference: buses do not use it.

The centre had been forced to rely on police to retrieve patients who wanted to return to their often non-existent homes and families.

Then Benrath teamed up with a local care association called the “Old Lions”. They went to the Rheinbahn transport network which supplied the bus stop.

“It sounds funny but it helps,” said Franz-Josef Goebel, the chairman of the “Old Lions” association.

“Our members are 84 years old on average. Their short-term memory hardly works, but the long-term memory is still active.

“They know the green and yellow bus sign and remember that waiting there means they will go home.”

The result is that errant patients now wait for their trip home at the bus stop, before quickly forgetting why they were there in the first place.

“We will approach them and say that the bus is coming later and invite them in for a coffee,” said Richard Neureither, Benrath’s director. “Five minutes later they have completely forgotten they wanted to leave.”

The idea has proved so successful that it has now been adopted by several other homes across Germany.

Personally … I think it’s damn brilliant of an idea! It totally makes sense from an NLP stand point and it’s proven to work — what more can you ask for? I only hope that my nursing home is that smart when I get to be that age … although, some people say that dementia is just parent’s vengeance for all the trouble you cause during your teenage years.

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…

Movies can sometimes be a great escape from reality in the sense that it takes you away from the pressing anxieties and worries of your everyday life and submerses you into a whole different world… but it’s not real.

Some movies are even based on real life events and, although we can imagine it happening to the characters in the movie, that would never happen in your life… so it doesn’t actually feel real.

Some movies make us laugh … some make us cry … and others scare the living shit out of us — but they aren’t real!

… but they can be …

I was forced to think about something that left me chilled to the bone recently — forced to face the question we never want to consider … ‘what if it was my family?’

If you haven’t been following the news recently there is a guy who went missing back in February of this year and, even though his family had all reported him missing, he was never found … in fact, because he was over 25 years old he wasn’t even really a priority. Not until he was finally returned to his family several weeks ago …

His mother received that call we all dread … it was the hospital in a city 2 provinces away … and her son was no longer missing. He had been dropped off at the emergency room barely alive. After weeks in intensive care he was finally taken off life support and he was able to breath on his own … but it wasn’t all good news …

… he had been beaten, tortured, repeatedly suffocated, stabbed, cut, and mutilated repeatedly over several months.

This was real life…

These are people I know!

… and then it hit me! — My son turned 10 years old this year and I stopped to think for a moment … what if this ever happened to him? If he had been brutally disfigured and slowly tortured over and over and over … the fear he would feel … the pleading he would do for his life … the prayers he’d offer to be allowed to die … what if?

These are people just like you and me … living in free country where stuff like this doesn’t happen, right? This guy was once 10 years old too … filled with all the wonder and hopes that childhood offers … never once imagining a future so dark and terrifying …

I stopped to imagine if it was my own child … and it filled me with terror, anguish, fear, sadness and rage …

For some of you this is just some words written on some guys blog somewhere in far, far away — just another world event … for some of you this is something that you can imagine would quite horrific for the family that it happened to … but it’ll never happen to you, right?

For everyone else who actually feels what I felt, please visit:

www.DustinLaFortune.com

or click this link to join the Facebook group:

In Support of Dustin LaFortune

As many of my friends know, I read web comics daily — they are what make up a solid 5 minutes of pleasure in my day (no matter what kind of day I’m having) — and one of them is the online comic Sinfest by Tatsuya Ishida. Over the last 3 weeks he’s done a plot line that I believe really explains the process of depressing and I’ve decided to share … (please feel encouraged to click on any of the images to go directly to the actual web comic!)

WARNING!!! This post contains language & humor of an adult nature –
NSFW — reader discretion is advised!!!

To begin, the process of depressing starts with trying to stop caring … whether it’s because you’re too overwhelmed with life or you’ve just gotten sick and tired of constantly failing at things, everything starts with giving up on living (and not giving up on “giving up” as I explained in my post Abandon Hope All Ye Who Are Depressed) — depressors use depression as a way to protect themselves from being hurt by loss and failure, but the problem is it’s like emo kids who dress all goth in order to be different than everyone else — they all look the same! People with depression are just Buddhist posers — they give up trying but still feel bad for failing … the true goal is to give up feeling good or bad for success or failure and just keep doing.

… giving up in an unhealthy way, however, only leads to an ongoing downward spiral …

… into …

… which is where the depressing mind constantly tortures itself with memories of experiences filled with shame, guilt, anger, fear, hurt, sadness, loss, etc. …

… and the worst is that usually a person will face these inner demons alone — never telling their friends about what’s going on … the negative thoughts and feelings … never sharing the pain for fear of causing suffering for others — that’s why so many people with depression will sabotage relationships and push the people they love away … to protect those they love from the suffering which they believe they must face (and solve) on their own …

… and so, the ongoing despair will eventually take hold and become a way of life — always seeing the bad and never taking pleasure in anything positive …

… but! … there is occasionally that one person whom a depressed person hasn’t pushed away far enough … one person (or pet) who knows the kind of person they truly can be — filled with joy and love for life …

… that one person (or pet) who cares enough to search for them … to look beyond the fake smiles and lies about “just being a little tired” (all the time!) …

… however! … that one person (or pet) needs others that they can rely on … friends whom they can turn to for support … to give them the energy to keep fighting to help their friend and loved one who suffers in silence …

… and when they confront that dark and gloomy person it may not be pretty … and it may not be an easy fight …

… trying to remind them of all the things worth living for … to find that one true thing that matters enough to give them the will to keep trying …

… and it may not be just one thing either … it may be necessary for them to remember ALL those things in combination … wrapped up into one existence … although, sometimes it can be just one thing … something as simple as human contact … like a hug … a small gesture to show them that they matter to someone …

… even then, the fight isn’t over … in that stage of depression the person usually isn’t strong enough to stand alone yet … they may need someone with hope to guide them … to take their hand and lead them … tell them what to do … to get up … to eat … small steps … to keep fighting … to keep working toward their dreams … to give them a direction …

… only then will they be able to begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel … to start believing in hope once again … to start walking on their own in life … (at least until the next time they stumble).

It may not exactly like that for everyone who suffers from depression, but I think that’s a pretty good generalization to give you an idea of what the cycle looks like … with some really cute visual representations too. 

One of the most powerful components of NLP is it’s ability to influence and persuade others. This powerful skill is something that sets people trained in NLP out front of their competitors.

Since no person is an island by themselves, the fact is that you will require the assistance of others in order to achieve your goals in life. This makes the skills of persuasion very important because there will be situations where you will need to shift another person’s way of thinking in order to convince them to help you (do what you want).

If you’re looking to find the most advanced techniques for persuasion one of the best sources is books and webinars on the topic of sales and selling. The same tactics for better sales can be applied to persuading someone to do or agree to do what you want. In a couple days 3 authors trained in NLP will be putting out a special offer on their books that will include over a $1,000.00 worth of free books, videos, audio files and more, and theirwebsite SalesPersuasionMastery.com is a place to find some good information about persuasion:

• Free Webinar: How To Create A Sales Character Using Acting
• The Benefits of Adopting a Selling Persona
• How To Create Your Own Super Sales Character
• The Art of Building Desire by Asking Questions
• Showing Interest To Deepen rapport
• Improve Your Sales by 50% in 3 Days
• Sealing Commitment

Beyond these freebies their book are filled with even more powerful tools and techniques for building your skills of influence and persuasion. Plus, they will be offering a ton of special bonuses this coming Tuesday, March 30, 2010 — I’ll be posting a special link that morning where you will be able to get all the extras (over a $1,000.00 in free stuff) along with some of the most powerful books on the topic of persuasion that are available today.

Okay — this is simply IMHO — I think NLP is sometimes a little TOO accepting of other people’s model of the world…

First of all, to make certain we’re all on the same level — in NLP we have a set of presuppositions which allow all us NLPers to be more effective communicators… and one of them is about being more open to the realization that every person has their own way of understanding the world based upon their life’s experiences.

It seems simple enough — everyone learns to value different things growing up… if mom and dad were affectionate but poor it’s possible the son/daughter will value relationships more than money… if mom and dad were never around because they worked so much the son/daughter may value money over relationships.

The problem here is that some people do things in this world that seem beyond comprehensible — for example…

(the following is from the Not Always Right website: original post is Craz-E)

Coffee Shop | Baton Rouge, LA, USA

Me: *on the drive-thru intercom* “Welcome to [coffee company]. What can I get for you today?”

Customer: “I need an ‘E’.”

(The customer immediately pulls away from the intercom.)

Me: “What the heck’s an ‘E’?”

Coworker: “Oh, that’s for [famous lawyer]. I don’t remember exactly what it is, but he always expects us to know it. He won’t explain it if you ask. Try a [incredibly complicated drink].”

(The customer refuses to make small talk, and we notice him dump his coffee out his car window as he drives away.)

Coworker: “We must not have got it right. He’ll try the location down the street next.”

or even things like this…

Now, I know as an NLPer I do have the freedom and flexibility to communicate with people like these (because I have) so that I could understand them better… however, that doesn’t change the fact that in the moment — as a normal human being — all I can think is: WTF?

What could possibly be going on in that person’s head and how could they be perceiving the world to think that those behaviors are appropriate? What the hell would have to happen in my life to get me to a point that I’d actually believe that was the most useful way to act?

The Karate Kid has been remade for the new generation and is set to be released in June of 2010, starring Jackie Chan as Mr. Han — this new film’s “Mr. Miyagi.” Having viewed the trailers, however, it seems obvious that the basic premise remains the same.

For anyone unfamiliar with the original Karate Kid from 1984, Mr. Miyagi was the wise old master who taught the kid karate. Most notably, Mr. Miyagi was famous for giving the kid “chores” to do in return for teaching him to fight back against the local bullies. What wasn’t apparent at first was that the chores he was doing were actually techniques he would use in the act of self defense.

In the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming this is a very simplified (and direct) form of “Mapping.” The process of mapping in NLP is a way to transfer a skill or ability (along with the mental strategy/behavioral pattern) from one context to another. The key secret within using mapping in Mr. Miyagi’s style of teaching karate was to avoid the negative feelings one often feels in the process of learning — that sense of shame that comes with becoming consciously aware of one’s own incompetence.

As a person progresses through the learning cycle of Unconscious Incompetence to Conscious Incompetence to Conscious Competence to Unconscious Competence, many kids will experience feelings of embarrassment and low self-esteem when they first try something and find they are unable to do it as easily, as effortlessly, and as well as the teacher (or as well as other students). However, for everyone who has seen the original Karate Kid movie, you’ll remember that the kid did things like painting a fence, waxing cars, sanding a deck and painting Mr. Miyagi’s fence. The physical movements of these tasks were then mapped across to the context of martial arts in the form of karate blocks.

Now, if you broaden the definition of “behaviors” to include things such as mental and emotional states, beliefs, decision making, learning, understanding, creativity, etc. it becomes possible to map neuro linguistic patterns across almost any context. If you are unable to find creative solutions easily and effortlessly at work, but you can solve logic puzzles in internet flash games, then NLP allows you to map that mental strategy from games to work — without the need to go through the process of unconscious incompetence or conscious competence. The same applies to things like believing you can do something (i.e. confidence). Your trust and belief in your abilities can be mapped across to other situations where you know everything you need to know, but you suffer from fear of failure.

Mapping does have limits, however. The concern is that whatever you are mapping requires you to have ALL the pieces. Just because you can confidently operate a car doesn’t mean you can simply map those skills across and suddenly be able to fly a fighter jet. The key is to take something you know and apply it to things you already have the knowledge to do. In the case of Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi wasn’t teaching the kid to paint a fence; he was making sure he had the competence of painting a fence. Only then could he be certain it would map across to karate — all the movements, skills, and abilities used in working with the paint brush were identical to the movements, skills, and abilities to do that form of block in karate.

How many inherent skills do YOU have that you don’t even realize yet? What else do you think you could accomplish if you figured out the skills you already have, and applied them to something new? The process of figuring out HOW you do things, as well as how to use them in other situations, is a large part of any good NLP Practitioner training program.

Perhaps it’s possible… you may already know how to catch a fly with chopsticks.

Although they could be confused with driving an automobile with standard transmission, today the terms “Clutch” and “Choke” are commonly used in reference to sports; however, the phenomena they represent can be applied to anyone in almost any context.

The Terminology

Wikipedia defines “choke” as a failure to perform due to anxiety. This is a form of panic attack in which the person may literally experience breathing difficulty or otherwise lose physical composure. Successful champions do not choke but are “clutch” players — rising to the occasion under pressure rather than collapsing.

“Clutch” therefore refers to a competent and/or superior play during high pressure situations. Most often it is a successful action taken under high pressure during a game usually at the end that may result in a significant change on the game’s result.

Lawyers, doctors, police — anyone has the capacity to choke under pressure. In Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) we prefer to focus on modeling behavioral excellence, and in this case we want to modify the behavior of choking to be more clutch. To start any good NLPer will begin with the simple question: How do you do that?

Degrees of Competence

Unconsciously Incompetent: This refers to a situation when you do not know that you can’t do something. An example is someone who has never even thought about speaking on stage — never having tried it, or even considered it, a person doesn’t know they can’t do it.

Consciously Incompetent: When someone tries something and learns they are unable to do it easily and effortlessly, then they become aware that they can’t do it. This is referred to being consciously aware of their inability, and to overcome this it’s simply a matter of learning and practicing.

Consciously Competent: During the process of learning a new behavior we practice and try different things (ways of doing it, ways of thinking about it, etc.). We have to consciously think of each step as we do it; it doesn’t yet flow naturally as we go through each part of the new behavior.

Unconsciously Competent: When a person can finally do a behavior without thinking about it they have become unconsciously competent at it. This means that they allow their unconscious mind to naturally take control of the process that generates the final behavior.

How to Clutch It Up Under Pressure

Scientists have studied the phenomenon of “choking” phenomenon and found it’s directly related to how the brain learns new information. When you’re first learning a skill, you learn the technique of what you’re attempting to do in a methodical, mechanical way … often in a sequential, step-by-step manner. This is what develops the skill level of conscious competence; however, the issue remains that you must consciously focus on doing the skill in order to be able to do it.

Thinking about what you’re doing requires you to utilize the full capacity of the conscious mind. In NLP we know the study by Miller and Galanter back in the 1900’s proved the capacity of the conscious mind is 7, plus or minus 2, pieces of information/steps. As you learn to follow the steps over and over (creating a pattern) it will eventually become a single, fluid behavior … done without thought. At this point you take those 7, +/- 2, steps and combine them into 1 single step.

In order to “choke” under pressure it’s simply the sudden awareness that you have to get it right or there will be negative consequences. The fear of those consequences create a sudden desire to do everything you possibly can to ensure success — which cause the brain to revert back to the technical, deliberate, awkward movements it took to learn the behavior.

Suddenly, you’re thinking through the task as a step-by-step procedure instead of just doing them in one smooth, fluid motion. With the knowledge that the conscious mind only has room for about 7 steps at a time, it means that to do the entire process requires you to do 7 steps, clear your mind and think of the next 7, then do those steps, and repeat the process of clearing and loading sets of 7, +/- 2, steps into your conscious awareness until you complete the entire behavioral pattern.

In other words, your desire to take back conscious control in order to have the power to do everything possible in order to succeed is what leads to predictable failure. In order to avoid choking, like champion athletes, you must create an extra behavior apart and separate from the skill you’re learning. That behavior must involve state management whereby you maintain a useful state that includes a sense of trust in your unconscious skills and abilities — not unlike visualization techniques that Olympic athletes do just before an event.