Posts Tagged ‘ROCK’

Well … it’s July 1st once again and this is the day all us Canucks of the Great White North celebrate Canada Day (previous called Dominion Day) — the birthday of the founding of our great nation Canada!

Yes, I said ‘nation’ … no, we’re not the 51st state.

Now, I’ve been doing some thinking and it’s well known around the world that the United States of America celebrate their Independence Day on July 4th …

… so, here’s my idea —

I believe that our 2 great nations should join forces in our celebration efforts and, together, declare the dates July 1st – 4th (inclusive) as a new international federal holiday …

North America Independence-Dominion Week!

… and, as such, all 4 days should be a statutory holiday where we party all week and (taking inspiration from the Irish and their St. Patrick’s Day festivities) I think the whole week should be commemorated with Olympic style drinking games between our 2 fine nations! … oh, hell — let’s invite Mexico too (… those amigos make some damn good tequila!)

So … who’s with me?

Who shall throw back the first shot of Cuervo in an opening ceremony to bring our nations together in this fantastic new fun-fest? Rise up my fellow North Americans … take to the streets … it’s time to take the concept of Mardi Gras to a whole new level! Call out your politicians — demand this phenomenal new holiday be founded in your nation today … come together … party … drink … puke … wake up .. and, feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck, swear off alcohol forever and ever … or at least until next year.

It may take some pressure on each of our governments to enact my idea and pass it into legislation … so, in the meantime …

Party On CANADA! — YOU ROCK!

I’ve tried to ‘get’ the concept of this social media thing for several weeks (perhaps even months) so I decided it was time to get help from a social media coach (Jodie Gastel of In Jodie’s Brain) and with her help I think I’m finally really beginning to get a bit of a knack for it … or, at least, understand what’s happening … and what I need to do. 

For anybody who’s wondering about social media, and what it entails, I’ll give you a general idea of what it looks like for someone in my position:

Twitter Stuff

Keeping up with twittering means having a finger on the pulse of what’s happening now and responding to people and sharing my opinions and input … times 3 for me — because I’ve got 3 Twitter accounts that need to be kept up at least twice daily:

• @Scion_of_NLP
• @Verbal_Sensei
• @Dr_Dan_Says

Facebook Stuff

Facebook (or LinkedIn or whatever social networking sites you belong to) is all about connecting with people who share your interests. In my case that means I need to be involved with stuff happening on my profile page as well as my fan pages and my group discussions:

• My Facebook Profile
• Soaring Success Fan Page
• Verbal Defense Tactics Fan Page
• My Anti-Bullying Group

Website Updates

In this case I’m working on 5 websites (currently only 4 are ready and working) which need at least a new post/article per week … and yes, I am aware that of late I haven’t been keeping up on my social media responsibilities in this area — I’ve been working on getting my sites backend PHP coding cleaned up so that updates and website upkeep would be more manageable.

• Scion of NLP (my personal blog — this site)
• Soaring Success (the NLP side of business website)
• Verbal Self Defense Tactics (the Verbal Self Defense side of business website)
• Dr. Dan Says (my professional behaviorist site)
• The ‘Un-named’ Site (a website about defense against inappropriate uses of NLP)

Yep… a year ago I’d have said it was a tall order, however, today it’s becoming more and more within my level of skills and abilities. In no time I shall become a true Social Media Jedi (*add in sound effect of swinging light-saber here!*). 

If you have a small business of your own, and you have any hope of building it into a self-sustaining business these days, I strongly recommend finding yourself a social media coach like Jodie — she actually sat beside me and walked me through how to pick and choose what I respond to … what should (and should NOT) be said … all the lingo … everything!

Thank you Jodie! — you soooooo ROCK!

To All My Loved Ones,

It was really great to see a couple of you again. I know that when I was on leave from the front lines I wasn’t able to get in touch with everybody but please know that I wanted to — you are all in my heart, forever. Sarge says that if things stay quiet I’ll continue to get even more chances to come visit.

Lately the enemy has been putting less and less effort in fighting back, and when I utilize my NLP-Fu I can usually overpower them in one shot. Granted, this doesn’t mean that life is all better — I’m still back at work full-time does something other than my life’s passion (NLP), my business is still struggling (for the moment), the bank is still breathing down my neck, and I’m still behind on my rent (bless the kind people who have helped out on that one — YOU ROCK! — and I’ll be forever grateful) — but things have changed enough for me to see all those ‘negative’ things as just ‘temporary setbacks’ rather than signs of the impending death of all my life’s hopes and dreams. For the time, I remain in a constant state of numbness in order to stay in control of the rebellious habits that make up the faction of my mind commonly referred to by psychologists as ‘My Depression.’

In no time I expect my energy reserves will be up enough to get back to work on building my NLP career, catching up on paying some of the company’s debts with a second job and expanding my circle of business friends and relations… maybe soon I’ll be ready to even go out and see people again! Boo-ya!

Anyway, as it is, I probably won’t need to send any more letters from the front lines (at least for a while) because I’ll be able to stay in touch with everybody when I’m back home and being my true self (the happy, positive, patient, silly, can-do-anything Daniel that ya’all know and love). It’ll be good to get back to responding to emails, taking phone calls, get’n shit done, and making time to play with my son.

Oh crap! I gotta go everybody — Sarge just gave me a look to remind me I need to get some chow… one of the things all of us on the front lines of depression gotta do each and every day in order to stay in control of those unhealthy habits and negative filters is to eat and exercise — something a lot of the guys and gals out here forget to do — lucky for me that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and NLP gave me the ability to put a well trained Sargeant in charge of my unit, otherwise I’d never choose to do those kinds of things when I’m in the midst of battling anger and angst.

Coming home soon,
Daniel

P.S. Tell my little boy not to fear, he’ll see the real dad I can be again soon.

It’s videos like this that give the rest of the world the most amazing impressions of Canadians … perhaps not quite an accurate portrayal of all of us, but a really cool one anyway — (emphasis on COOL).

To the Canucks that made this video …

YOU ROCK!

  Boo-ya!

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!