GREAT BOOK TO START YOUR WEEK

I'm a big fan of Robin Sharma. I love his books and his easy, relaxed style. His first book "The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari" was wonderful and last week I read his most recent one - "The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari." I was not disappointed.

As in the earlier one, this book takes the form of a modern fable featuring a character who learns many lessons and makes many personal changes during the course of the book. The story is of a journey, not just a physical A to B one but a spiritual, insightful personal growth one too.

You can't help but absorb Sharma's messages along the way. The book can be read at so many different levels and is a treat for both your conscious and unconscious mind. Like all my favourite books it'll be one I'll come back to again and again. If you're looking for an easily readable story to lift and inspire you, I'd urge you to read it.

To cap it all off, after finishing it I tweeted how much I had enjoyed it and got a direct message back from the author himself. Nice one Robin!
Michelle

PASSION AND BELIEF

What are you really passionate about in your life?
Today's new video features Suzanne sharing her passion for her allotment. She looks at how being passionate about one area of your life can be used to extend the success it brings to other areas too.
Here's the link to the video and to the other videos on our You Tube channel.

I'm a big fan of Anthony Robbins. I love his upbeat "Go get 'em!" style.
Live with passion is one of his favourite phrases - you'll find it throughout his books and audio programmes. I love this concept. Find what you're good at, find what you're passionate about, know how this makes you feel and transfer that to other areas of your life.

People are invariably best at doing the things they are passionate about........ so what's stopping you?
Michelle

BLOCK OR BLANK?

Much of the way that we feel about a situation is determined by the way that we think about it. Remember the story about the man borrowing the lawnmower from last week? Today's post was inspired by the fact that when I first opened up my laptop to write this piece, I hadn't known what I was going to write about.

Now I could have seen that as a problem. If it had gone on for any length of time I could have labelled it as writer's block and got myself worked up about it. Instead, I chose to see it as liberating. I chose to think along the lines of - here I go with this and I'm not sure where its going to lead me.

I chose to come at it from a place of inspiration, not one of worry. Seeing this page as a blank canvas on which to create something unique really helps me. Sometimes I find it easier to get out of my own way and just let things flow. Why not try it? You never know where it could take you!
Michelle

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

I'm facing a few decisions in my life right now, as I'm sure are many of you. What I'm asking you to think about today is not so much what decisions you have to make but how you are going to make them. In true NLP style I'd urge you to think about what has happened before and learn from it. Think about a good decision that you made in the past, it needn't have been a major one, just one that you can look back on now and know that you made a good call. How did you make the decision itself? What was it based on? Did you base it on weeks of research or on a gut instinct. Do you like things to look right, sound right or feel good when you are deciding? It's true that most of us will make many of our decisions in the same way, regardless of the content of the matter itself, so it really does help to tune in to what works best for you. Let's say that like me you're a gut instinct person who makes their choice on something feeling right, it's about becoming to recognise just what that right feeling is for you. This will be different for everyone but importantly it will be the same for you each time. Learn to recognise this and know when you've got it. Once you can trust your own subconscious yes signal it really helps take the pressure off deciding. Michelle

FLEXIBILITY

In NLP one of the fundamental or core principles, the so-called presuppositions, is that the most successful person in any team is the one with the most flexibility.

This is the subject of today's new video. In the video Suzanne talks about flexibility and about adapting what you are doing to different situations. It's crucial to be aware of what is working well and to know how to change it to work even better in different situations. If you keep on doing something that isn't working, you'll keep getting the same bad results. As Henry Ford said, "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

We release new videos every 10 days. Be sure never to miss one by subscribing to our You Tube channel.
Michelle

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU THINK

Do you ever think about a situation before it happens? Of course you do, that's natural, but have you ever given thought to the way you think about it?

I think this is well illustrated by a story that Michael Neill tells in his book "Effortless Success". A man goes over to his neighbour's house to borrow her lawnmower. On the way he thinks about arguments they've had in the past about things that he's borrowed and returned late. He thinks about the time she borrowed his pruning shears and broke them and how she lost his best ladder, yet he didn't even say anything. By the time he gets to her front door he is steaming. She opens the door and smiles warmly at him - "hello there, great to see you, what can I do for you?" to which he simply barks, "and you can keep your damn lawnmower!"

So much of the time when we dread things or when things go badly it's because we have anticipated that this will be so by our negative thinking. NLP is about controlling your brain and that begins with accepting your brain as something separate from you, something that you can control. This small step can be a fundamental leap as it empowers you to do something about your situation, not just passively sit back and accept the hand you've been dealt.

Think about your day ahead, how do you feel about it? Ask yourself how much of this is due to fact and how much is down to the negative thoughts you have about it. It's all too easy to allow ourselves to be wound up before we meet with certain people, all because things maybe didn't go well when we met them last time and we are projecting the negative thoughts about that forward into today's meeting.

So take a bit of time today to notice what you are thinking......... More soon.
Michelle

CHILLING OUT

When you read this I will be far from home. I've headed off for a couple of days to rest and recharge my batteries. I love travelling and driving long distances gives me a great opportunity to relax. When I'm driving I love listening to CDs or to my iPod. I sometimes listen to music but more often listen to audiobooks. On this trip I'm planning to listen again to Napoleons Hill's "Think and Grow Rich." If you haven't read or heard it, I'd urge you to do so. It's an absolute classic and full of some really thought-provoking ideas. When you're away it's a wonderful opportunity to do something different, to break from your normal routine. Much as I love my jobs, I also very much love not doing them sometimes. I'll be away on my own and that gives me a great chance to relax and take stock, to think about where I'm going and about where I want my life to go next.

Some of my very best ideas have come to me when I've been out of my usual routine. I find I'm often most creative when I'm not trying to create anything at all. Just switching off and letting my life flow ......... Sometimes that works much better than struggling and trying to force ideas to come when they're just not ready to.

Sometimes we do better when we try less hard .....
Michelle

SEIZE THE DAY

This blog was inspired by two sporting events from this weekend - one you'll know all about and the other a very personal one.

I'm sure you'll all have heard by now of the collapse of Fabrice Muamba, the Bolton footballer during Saturday's FA Cup match against Spurs. My partner and our younger son were at the game and were part of the shocked crowd who saw the fit 23 year old athlete collapse without warning. After on pitch resuscitation and the efforts of medical staff he was taken to intensive care and at the time of writing remains in a critical condition in hospital.

On Sunday our 16 year old son was playing rugby for his club. Halfway through the second half he was knocked backwards in a tackle, striking his head hard against the ground and injuring his neck. As the team medic I was responsible for immobilising his neck until the ambulance arrived. We then spent the afternoon in our local casualty department. Thank God his Xrays were all fine and he was able to be discharged. He is very stiff and sore but no serious harm has been done. It could so easily have been different. The NHS did a wonderful job to give Fabrice a fighting chance and to look after my son so well - thank you.

Both incidents have really serve to illustrate how our lives really do hang by a thread. One moment things are going along just fine and the next........

All the more reason to seize the day - carpe diem. Living in the here and now and truly appreciating all the wonderful gifts that we have seems all the more important when things like this happen. There are so many other things to appreciate and be thankful for too. Fabrice Muamba's tragedy has unified fans across the country and indeed the world. Sometimes it takes something to go wrong for people to show their true colours but I truly believe there is so much goodness out there in the world if only we know where to look for it.
Michelle

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

"No man is an island," - at least so said John Donne, but do we behave like that? Does modern life encourage us to be inter-connected in the way that we once were.

As a GP I see lots of people for advice about very minor things. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind, it's my job, but not too long ago these weren't things that people would have asked their GP. They would simply have asked a parent, grand-parent or other family elder who would probably have been living with or near them. Families separate from each other more frequently now and have to cope on their own. Maybe this will change again as young people can't afford to buy or rent a house and are forced to remain in the nest for longer.

I was inspired to write this piece when I noticed that my number of followers on Linkedin is just about to top 400 and my Twitter followers reached 150. What does connectedness really mean to us? Do we really use the connections that we have? More importantly, do we really nurture them?

Obviously we interact with them in different ways. On my personal Twitter account @michellebuist you'll likely find me analysing the latest episodes of Casualty or EastEnders and singing the praises of favourite characters with fellow fans. On our business account @NLP4MEDICS we'll keep you up to date with what we're up to and share stuff of interest in the world of NLP and medicine. On Linkedin I'll post interesting and thought provoking comments in the groups I belong to and have made lots of contacts through doing so. I like to read what others have written and respond to that too. Again I've "met" many like-minded people through doing so. We then share ideas and get inspiration from each other. A real win-win scenario. It's not about what you get from connecting, it's about what you contribute and how you add value to the other person's world.

In the real world, do we really take enough time to nurture our connections? When did you last tell someone how much they meant to you? I'm not suggesting you do this in a creepy stalkerish way to everyone you know, that would be weird...... but we all take lots of people we know for granted and maybe it's time for a change.

So today, make a point of telling someone how much you appreciate them. See what happens. I think you'll be glad you did. Just think how much it would mean if someone did that to you.......
Have a great week. See you Monday.
Michelle

WHAT THE DOG SAW

I'm currently reading "What the Dog Saw" by Malcolm Gladwell. He is probably best known for his classic books "Blink" and more recently "Outliers". This latest one is proving to be equally fascinating. Gladwell is a fabulous writer. A quote on the back of the book suggests he "makes the world fresh and exciting again" and he does.

I love the way Gladwell looks at the world. He frequently sees a situation from a wholly original perspective and not only asks questions that I haven't even thought of, but goes on to answer them too. For me he gets under the skin of his subjects. He gets inside their minds and wants to understand why people do what they do. NLP is all about understanding this too. Remember the blog about modelling a couple of weeks ago? This is modelling in action.

It is a collection of his articles all originally published in The New Yorker magazine. The piece that gives the book it's name is a profile of Cesar Millan, also known as the dog whisperer. Millan can calm the angriest and most troubled of animals with the touch of his hand. Gladwell was inspired to write the piece to answer his own questions, what is going on in Millan's mind when he does this, what does he see? It was only later that he says he was inspired to answer an altogether more fundamental question - what is going on for the dog when Millan does this? In attempting to discover "What the Dog Saw" he manages to turn the problem on it's head in his quest for new solutions.

Curiosity is what drives him. A sense of curiosity and a sense of playfulness is also what is behind NLP. It is encapsulated by the quote at the start of the book - to a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish. Don't settle for a knowledge of just your immediate little piece of the world. Be interested in more than just the obvious. Begin to ask new questions in familiar situations. Always look to stretch yourself and to go beyond. The possibilities are truly endless.
Michelle

NLP WITH COLLEAGUES

During our teaching sessions with trainee GPs we talk about applying NLP in practical situations with colleagues. The one situation they always come up with is practice meetings. These are situations that they often find difficult or in which conflict arises and they want tips as to how to handle the situation. Well I am facing just that situation myself today. Our regular weekly practice meetings are on a Friday lunchtime but today we have a special one (no nothing to do with Jose Mourinho..... will he or won't he go back to Chelsea? Or even to Spurs if Harry takes the England job?) I digress - today's special meeting is about re-vamping our appointment system and it will be a wonderful opportunity to put my NLP skills into practice.

What upcoming situations do you face in which it would be useful to have some extra skills? Maybe to further hone your ability to get into rapport or to be able to understand the situation from a number of different perspectives as we discussed in last week's blog about conflict resolution. Listening skills are possibly the most important of all - not only what is being said but how it being said. What tonality is being used? Another technique called the Meta Model delves behind the words that are actually being spoken (called the surface structure) to what is really being meant (the deep structure).

NLP fascinates me. A few people we teach initially ask if the techniques aren't just common sense.
No - they are much more than that. Certainly some of the skills we teach on our introductory trainings are things that we sometimes do already, but it's about being aware that you do them. By bringing them into conscious awareness you can fine tune those skills and use them deliberately when the situation calls for it. Later we teach techniques that you certainly won't have used before, but once you know them they'll form an essential part of your everyday interactions with everyone you meet.

But it's not all work for me today as tonight we have our annual practice quiz night. I've set a round of questions on two topics I have an in-depth knowledge of .............. EastEnders and Casualty!
Sad but true, I'm a big fan of both programmes - should be a good night. See you next week.
Michelle

FRAMING & REFRAMING

I wrote this yesterday whilst waiting for the start of the Six Nations Rugby match France v Ireland. I've just seen Declan Kidney, the Irish coach interviewed and asked how he feels about Ireland's very poor record against the French in Paris. Instead of being intimidated, he saw it as a challenge - "Irish wins here are rare but what's rare is highly-prized." That's a great example of a reframe. Despite that, being an England fan I couldn't show anything other than an English ball now could I?

Framing in NLP terms really means setting the scene. Putting a frame around something means outlining what's going to happen so that your unconscious mind knows what's going on. It also sets the tone of what's coming next. Sometimes it's helpful to change this tone - that's what is called a re-frame.

This week's video is about framing & reframing and you can view it here.
To ensure that you don't miss any of our upcoming videos you can subscribe to our You Tube channel here.

In it I discuss and example of using a reframe in a consultation situation. I do that a lot, it's a really helpful technique to use. There is nearly always a positive way that you can turn a situation around by suggesting a different way to look at it - by giving it a different frame. Maybe someone is coming back to see you to talk about weight loss. Perhaps they intended to lose half a stone in the month since their last visit and they've only lost 4lbs. Rather than see this as a failure, stressing that they have done well and that if they keep doing what they are doing they are going to get to their goal will be much more likely to keep them motivated.

Look for the positives in every situation - there is almost always something to find. Have fun noticing them and thinking about how to use them to motivate yourself and others.
Michelle

NLP & CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Nice as it might be if everything in life ran smoothly, things sometimes go wrong and there are conflicts. What does NLP have to offer when it comes to conflict resolution?

Interestingly we taught a group of trainee GPs last week and conflict resolution was one of the areas that many of them wanted to know more about. What does that say about the modern NHS you may ask? Don't even start me off on the government's Health Bill.......

Conflict often arises as the result of misunderstanding, so techniques designed to help prevent misunderstandings are likely to be effective here. Rapport building is always so important, I can't stress that enough; if you've got great rapport with someone it's hard to be in conflict with them. It doesn't mean you'll necessarily agree with each other but it will make it a lot easier to understand the other's point of view. When gaining rapport you need to be aware of the other person's physiology, breathing, predicates, tonality and gestures.

The NLP technique which deals specifically with appreciating how another person experiences a situation is called Perceptual Positions. It involves deliberately experiencing a situation from a number of different perspectives - your own, the other person's, that of a dispassionate observer and sometimes from an even further removed viewpoint outside the system altogether. One moves through these in turn, gaining insight and deepening your understanding of the situation as a whole.

The use of chunking in language and the concept of the Hierarchy of Ideas - both of which we'll be discussing in later blogs, are very useful tools here too. So stay with us. We love to get your feedback, on the blog and our videos so feel free to get in touch.
Michelle

IS THIS REALLY GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?

Now it is said that there is a mountain resort in the Swiss Alps that caters for businesses seeking to give their team a bonding experience. Although it's a moderately hard climb, most people in reasonable physical shape would be able to make it to the top.

At the start, teams gather excitedly, taking group photos and eagerly anticipating the challenge ahead. They hike for several hours before taking a break at a conveniently situated mountain lodge. They peel off their boots and settle by the roaring fires to enjoy a well-deserved mug of steaming hot chocolate or coffee before lunch. The setting is idyllic and they have time to savour it as they eat.

Interestingly, despite having been so eager to reach the summit when they set out, less than half of the hikers continue on to the top in the afternoon. It's not because they're not able to, nor because it suddenly seems too difficult. Their reluctance to push themselves on is simply because they have become satisfied with where they are and have lost their drive to excel. They're now content not to reach greater heights than they ever thought possible. Having tasted a bit of success, they decide that, for them, that is good enough.

How often do you approach your life like those hikers? How many times have you settled for less than you set out to achieve? It's time to step out of your comfort zone and push yourself. Be one of the few who goes the extra mile and achieves what you really set out to achieve. Be able to look back and know that you've given it everything you've got.

Our latest video is out today. It features Suzanne answering some FAQ's about metaphors. You can view it here or subscribe to our You Tube channel. We'd love your feedback on our blog and videos - feel free to get in touch.
Start your week the way you mean to go on and we'll see you on Wednesday.
Michelle

MODELLING - HOW DO THEY DO THAT?

No, not the catwalk type of modelling. I think I've a bit too much meat on my bones for that........

When you were born did you know how to walk? How to ride a bike? How to speak English? Of course you didn't ........ but almost certainly you know how to do all those things now. So how has that happened? Somewhere along the line you have learned the skills involved in performing those tasks.

Can you ride a unicycle, speak Japanese or play the bagpipes? Maybe you can but for most of us it will be a no to all of these questions. For some people it'll be a yes because they have chosen to learn the skills involved. My point is this, if someone can do it, they must have learned to do it. If they can learn to do it, then you can too. Now I'm not saying you can decide to learn to sprint this week and be beating Usain Bolt the next but you could certainly get a whole lot faster if you learned to do what he does by modelling him - by studying how he does it.

In NLP terms, understanding that a skill is made up of a series of steps is one of the first steps to modelling that skill and being able to do it yourself. It's about more than just the physical movements though, it's about the attitude. What is going on in someone's head when they reach peak performance? How can you learn to get yourself into the same state?

The NLP presupposition that encompasses this best is, Possible in the world and possible for me is only a matter of how. I love this because it opens up a whole lifetime of possibilities. It lets me look at my laptop keyboard and see every book that's ever been written; or at a piano keyboard and understand that every piece of music that exists in the world could come from the notes on there.
To me that's mind-blowing. It's also hugely empowering ......... and I don't think I'm alone in that.
Michelle

OUR BIGGEST WEEK SO FAR

This week is perhaps our biggest so far and is one that we are eagerly anticipating.

Tomorrow we are off to Reading GP Vocational Training Scheme to deliver a whole day's training to their ST3 group. In addition to giving them an understanding of what NLP is and teaching them lots of techniques, there will be plenty of time in the afternoon to work on the clinical cases that they will be bringing. This is a great chance for them to see their new NLP skills in action. They'll learn plenty of tips and tricks and discover new ways to solve what might once have seemed like insoluble problems.

On Wednesday we are facing our biggest challenge so far; delivering a Masterclass in NLP to 140 members of the Leadership Development Programme at NHS London. Some of the previous speakers on this programme have been world leaders in their field - like Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It's a hugely exciting opportunity for us to get up in front of so many influential people and share our passion and enthusiasm for NLP. We've spent a long time preparing for this, making sure that we give each and every one of them an experience to remember. We both know from personal experience what a huge difference NLP can make. We also know from our years in the NHS what an important chance this is to get out there and show them just what NLP has to offer in the healthcare sector.

It's going to be great ........ we're excited and we're ready...... Bring it on!
Michelle

ARE YOU SITTING COMFORTABLY? .....

We all love stories don't we? I reckon anyone who says they don't is lying!
Whether because they remind us of our childhood or just take us away from our everyday lives, we all have our own reasons for enjoying them.

Stories are wonderful - from the very simple to the very complex. The simplest story often has more depth to it than is at first apparent whilst the most complex can also be enjoyed at a simple level.

Our unconscious minds love stories too. They love to try and make sense of them. When we hear or read a story, our unconscious mind goes into overdrive, working on deriving meaning that is relevant to us. Maybe that's why stories are so great - because we can all take out of them exactly what we need for ourselves.

When my brother and I were little, our grandad used to tell us a lot of stories. He made up his own characters, a family of bears called the Brewin Boys and told us brilliant stories about their adventures. Thinking back, they were really moral tales; each time the bears managed to get themselves into a situation and faced a choice between right and wrong. They always made the right choice and learned something along the way ........... and of course........ subtly, so did we. Now if grandad had sat us down and lectured us about doing this or not doing that, we might not have listened, but this way, it was fun. Not only that but memorable - 40 odd years later.

In today's new video, Suzanne talks about the power of using stories and metaphors when communicating. You can view it here and subscribe to our You Tube channel here, so you never miss another video.
Michelle

THE RAZOR'S EDGE

What separates the great from the excellent? How big is the difference between the winner and the also rans? Often it's tiny, no more than the thickness of a razor's edge......

I love this concept. I love the idea that the difference between mediocrity and excellence is definable and frequently not as wide as we think. But how come some people have it and others don't? What gives some that certain something that puts them above everyone else - be it at work, rest or play?

Anthony Robbins explores this concept and concludes that what makes the difference is time - quite simply the hours you put in. He talks about the concept of 10,000 hours to mastery, claiming that if you want to master any skill - be it a new sport or a foreign language, then that's the time commitment you're going to need to put in if you want to excel at it. Although that might sound daunting, think of it the other way around - if you put a lot of hours into something you will get very very good at it - no question.

Now how often do you say or hear others say that they don't have time? On a daily basis I'd say. Certainly in my surgeries I hear it at least ten times a day - but is it true? Do we really not have time, or could we use the time that we do have more effectively?

What really helps me is the thought that however great anyone is, they only ever have 24 hours in their day, the same as I do. I have the same time available as everyone else - what makes the difference is how I use it. How committed am I to really make something of my life? Committed enough to really look at how I use my time? Of course. Even the busiest people could use their time better - we can all do more with what we have by being smarter with our time.

Personally I'm a real morning person. I like to get into work very early and get things done in the quiet time before everyone else arrives and the soap opera that is my practice kicks off again! Maybe you spend a lot of time driving to and from work? Could you use that time more profitably - listening to self-development DVDs or podcasts? Maybe when you're in the gym - try giving Jeremy Kyle or Coronation Street a miss for once and listening to a bit of Wayne Dyer or Michael Neill?

If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting the same results. I don't know about you but I'm thinking maybe it's time for a change.
Michelle

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY TO US!

NLP4MEDICS is one year old today! Happy Birthday to us!
After meeting late in 2009, Suzanne and I incorporated our company on 8th February 2011.
Since then we've gone from strength to strength and overcome lots of challenges along the way.

We celebrated last week, as we said in the last post, by doing something completely different. As we'd got the company off the ground, we thought we'd get ourselves off the ground too. We went indoor skydiving at Airkix in Milton Keynes and then had lunch at Paris House in Woburn Park. It was great fun and harder than it looked. (Skydiving I mean - the eating was very easy!) Any slight change of position leads to you banging into the side of the tunnel or shooting up in the air. Pictured above is me. I look OK here I reckon, but seconds later I managed to land in a very undignified heap as our trainer Fred helped me exit from the tunnel. In retrospect it always helps to put your legs down when you want to stand!

Rather like life itself, the skydiving was easiest when you just relaxed and enjoyed it and didn't try too hard. I'm liking that metaphor if I say so myself. Talking of metaphors - that is the subject of our next video, to be released on 15th February. Why not subscribe to our You Tube channel, that way you'll never miss another video.

Michelle

MIND - BODY CONNECTION

Our mind and our body are intimately connected. At one level we all know that but it's easy to forget it when it suits us to do so. In today's new video I give a simple demonstration of the mind-body connection and you can view it here. Play along with me and you'll see what I mean.

NLP is not just about recognising things such as the mind-body connection, it's about using it to your advantage. If you want your body to do anything, you need to get your mind in the right state first. Once you "get your head right" then things flow much more easily.

If you're struggling to follow an exercise programme because you're seeing yourself as fat and unfit, it'll be hard to make changes physically before you make them mentally. Concentrate on how you want to be. Give your unconscious mind something positive to work on, then it will work for you, not against you, to help you create what you are aiming for. If you see or feel yourself as on the way to becoming slim and healthy it'll be much easier to keep going in the right direction than if you see yourself in a more negative way.

It's said that we only use somewhere around 10% of the total power of our brains. Can you just imagine what we could achieve if we could harness our full potential and channel it? How wonderful would that be?
Michelle

RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES

In the last post, we talked about Steve Jobs' Nine Guidelines for Life, one of which was "break free from routine." This is so important and is something that we often forget to do or make excuses not to do, in our busy lives. Not doing this takes it's toll though as your level of creativity certainly goes down when you plod through the same old routine day after day.

With this in mind, Suzanne and I decided to do something different today - very different indeed. In fact neither of us has ever done it before. What prompted it was the upcoming first anniversary of the incorporation of our company. OK it was a good excuse for a day out too, but who cares!

The fun in doing something different isn't just in the doing, it's in the planning and the anticipation of it too. We've been looking forward to this for weeks. Not only is it something new to us but something that, shall we say, will give us a very different perspective on life!

So, what are we up to? Well you'll have to wait until our next blog on Monday to find out...........

Michelle

STEVE JOBS - 9 GUIDELINES OF LIFE

Steve Jobs was a genius. He was also an entrepreneur, an innovator, a philanthropist and much more besides.

His life was cut short by a rare form of pancreatic cancer but there can be few of us on the planet who haven't been touched in some way by his inventions. I'm writing this on a Mac, I have two ipods and an ipad2. Suzanne has an iphone (I'm a BlackBerry woman myself).

His ideas are all around us. At one time, they were just that - ideas. Consider this - every single thing you see around you began as an idea inside someone's head. That person's drive and persistence is what made them into reality.

Steve had no shortage of drive and persistence and he also had a great philosophy. He crystallised this philosophy into what he called his 9 guidelines of life. I'd read these before and loved them. I was reminded of them recently by a friend who mentioned them in his business coaching newsletter.

So whether you've seen them before or whether they are new to you, it's well worth taking a minute to read through and think about these.


9 Guidelines of Life


1) Do what you love
2) Develop a beginner's mind (be open to new possibilities)
3) Never fear failure
4) Break free from routine
5) Say no 1000 times
6) Believe in yourself
7) Persist
8) Give back
9) Live with purpose

I have these on the wall of my surgery - somewhere only I can see them.
I love reminders like this, reminders from one who achieved so much in such a short time.
Thank you Steve.
Michelle

NLP SKILLS FOR THE CONSULTATION

Our fifth video -  NLP Skills for the Consultation, is launched toady. You can view it here.

I often get asked about this when we are training. People want to know which NLP skills are most useful in real-life situations with patients. The video refers to some skills that we'll be learning more about later on - like matching and mirroring. It also talks about the fact that when you become better at using NLP you'll use the skills without knowing that you are doing it - remember Unconscious Competence from an earlier blog?

NLP is all about choice. It's about sharpening you awareness and observation skills, becoming more tuned in to what's going on around you and then using appropriate tools to optimise your communications. I talk about using the skills in the setting of a medical consultation because as a GP that's what I know, what I do everyday. They are equally applicable for use in many other settings. Whether you work in an office, manage a team, are involved in sales or in looking after teenagers, there is something in there to help you do it even better.

The essence of great communication is being in rapport and the basic premise of rapport is that people like people like them. When you are in rapport with someone your unconscious minds are picking up the signal that there is something about the other person that is like yourself. This gives you that comfortable feeling, that sense of "have I met them before?" I'm sure you know what I mean. There are some people who you've not known for long and it feels like you've known them for ages. Something just seems to "click"between you.

Of course this often happens naturally. Many times things will just seem to flow. What we are talking about here is what to do when that doesn't happen and how to make what's happening already even better, easier and more enjoyable. I'm all for making life easier and more enjoyable!

So enjoy this video and let us know what you think. Either leave us a comment below or on our You Tube channel. While you're there why not subscribe? You'll never miss another video again. We've got some great stuff coming up for you - including a real "high-flying" treat. Watch this space!

ON LEARNING FROM SUGGS

On Saturday I went to see "Suggs - My Life in Words and Music" in Aylesbury. It was wonderful and if you haven't seen it yet I'd suggest you try and catch it as it tours around the country.

Now I'm old enough to have grown up loving Madness, The Specials and all the other Two Tone bands. Ska revival music was a big part of my teens so for me this was a real treat. But it was about so much more than just the music.

For almost two hours Suggs held the audience in the palm of his hand. The stage contained just an armchair and another guy who played piano/guitar. As he walked and talked he interwove excerpts from his songs and other music of the time. He skillfully moved backwards and forwards in time, always carrying us along with him. He painted vivid pictures and wove rich tapestries of sound. We were taken on a rollercoaster of emotions - sadness, loneliness, excitement, frustration. We felt it all. It was a show that you could enjoy on so many levels. Whether you loved the music, loved the great stories or loved the sensitivity of the man behind them both - there was plenty to hold you spellbound.

He told of his quest to find out about his father who he thought had died when he was very young. How his hopes were built up and dashed. He told how he came to understand the importance of those around him and to appreciate them for all that they are. He realised that his fellow band members - although irritating and chaotic in many ways were really the family he'd never had. "Our House" was not how his life was in reality. "Always something happening and it's usually quite loud". No - he was an only child brought up by a working mum and spent lots of his early life alone.

From an NLP perspective the show was a fascinating demonstration of several techniques. He made extensive use of anchoring - both using the music of course and his physical positioning on the stage. He told the stories in nested loops, carefully interweaving and overlapping them, breaking them off before the end...........before picking them up later and closing the loop.

But you don't need to know any NLP to love it. You just need to have a heart.

Look out for our next video. It's being released on You Tube on 25th January. 
Why not subscribe to NLP4MEDICS's You Tube channel and never miss another episode?

Michelle

ENJOY THE JOURNEY NOT JUST THE DESTINATION

We've looked at some issues around goal setting in the last couple of blogs. This time I'm going to encourage you to really enjoy the journey to your goal, not simply focus on getting there.

For many of us, exercising more is part of what we want to achieve this year. For me one of the main the keys to continuing with any exercise programme is to really enjoy it while you are doing it. Now some of you will be reading this thinking "how can anyone enjoy going on the treadmill?" Am I right? If you fall into this category and the sheer joy of exercising for it's own sake doesn't do it for you, then take this simple step......combine it with something that you do enjoy. That way you can create great habits, habits that will help and support you to reach your goals.

I've got to be honest here. I love going to the gym, I particularly love doing weights. My least favourite part of my routine is the cardio - at least the start of the cardio. Once I'm into it it's great, it's just those first few minutes. I've learned to get around this by distracting myself by doing something else at the same time. Sunday afternoon was a great example. During the week I do either 30 or 40 minutes on the treadmill or cross trainer but had more time available on the Sunday so promised myself I would do an hour. I have to confess here that I'm a bit of an Eastenders fan. Yes I know but sadly I have watched it since it started.......Now you may laugh at that but I'll tell you, the hour I spent on the cross-trainer whilst watching the omnibus edition went by in a flash. I watched the TV whilst I trained and suddenly 63 minutes had gone by and so had 625 calories! Shame about the ending though........ surely David and Carol are destined to be together!

So not only did I get that wonderful endorphin rush that comes after exercise but I really got to enjoy it whilst it was happening too. And it felt easy and as if I could do it again. Sounds like it's becoming a habit to me........
Michelle

SETBACKS ARE A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY

So we're now into the third week of the New Year, said to be the time when many people give up on their resolutions. Why does this happen and how can you stop yourself from falling into that trap?

Say for example you've resolved to stop eating chocolate. What if one day temptation gets the better of you and you eat a few squares? Does that mean you need to give up on the whole thing and go back to being the way you were before? It doesn't have to........ it depends on how you view what happened, in NLP terms, it depends on how you frame it.

You could regard eating the chocolate as a failure - label yourself as having failed, give up and start eating it again full-time. But what would that achieve? You'd feel awful and you'd be back on the chocolate. Not a great outcome!

How about if you were to redefine what just happened. OK you ate a bit of chocolate. In the grand scheme of things that's not such a dreadful thing. Think about why you did it. Maybe you were bored? Maybe you were with others who were doing the same? Why not think about replacing the chocolate habit with something more useful and keeping different company for a bit? It's all about being kind to yourself and making it easier. Why beat yourself up about it?

One of the presuppostions of NLP is that There is no Failure, only Feedback. It's about redefining what happens to you in a more positive sense and using situations when things don't go your way as learning opportunities. It's more than this though. It's also about the fact that if you adopt this belief, if you adopt the mindset that There is no Failure only Feedback - you will not be afraid to try anything. You will just know that if the worst happens and you don't succeed the first time, you will learn something to better inform your next attempt. How liberating is that? NLP is all about attitude. I discuss this more in today's new video on our You Tube channel - come and watch it here now.

TAKING ACTION FEELS GREAT!

Goal setting is a big part of what I do, in all three of my jobs. As a GP, as a success coach and and as an NLP trainer, working with others to realise their goals is a really satisfying part of my work. But what about when things don't go so well, when things slip a bit? How can you get yourself back on track? I thought I'd share a personal example to illustrate the importance of just taking action.

Towards the end of last year I lost a stone in weight. No rocket science involved - I just ate less, ate more sensibly and exercised regularly. Last autumn I was in the gym about 6 days a week and playing tennis once or twice a week on top of that. But then I hurt my knee, nothing major but a niggling thing that stopped me working out and threw me off track. Then with Christmas and all that entails, I managed to regain about 6lbs of the weight loss.

Last year I started to learn welsh. I love learning stuff, pushing myself to find out new things and I am particularly keen on languages - I'm also a reasonable french-speaker. I found a fantastic website called www.saysomethinginwelsh.com and followed their programme. I completed the beginner's course and got about two-thirds of the way through the intermediate course - and then I stopped. For no better reason than I lost my headphones. Not having the headphones to hand meant I didn't just listen when I had a few minutes free and next thing I was out of the habit. About two months passed and I learned no new welsh.

New Year is often a time that we stop and take stock. We look ahead to what we want to achieve. I thought about how well I had done with my weight loss and my welsh in the latter part of 2011 but at first getting back to where I had been seemed a very long way to go.

Until I did one simple thing -  I decided to take action! 

I could have sat around feeling sorry for myself remembering that I used to be fitter and a better linguist but the moment arrived when I simply decided enough is enough! Armed with new headphones and renewed enthusiasm I simply took the action that was needed to start me back on the path again. There's still some way to go of course - I'm not quite back where I was yet with either the weight loss or the welsh. But do you know what? I'm really happy because now I am on my way!

Michelle

ELEMENTARY MY DEAR WATSON

Those of you who watched Sherlock Holmes last night would have seen him use a memory technique that is closely linked with NLP. Whilst trying to remember the significance of two clues he put himself into a trance and went to what he called his "mind palace". Whilst he wrestled with a string of seemingly random associations, his partner Dr.Watson explained to another character what he was up to.

Essentially what he did was to return to a place in his memory - somewhere that he had deliberately visited before. When there in his mind previously he had deposited certain memories. As he returned there, he associated that place with the memories and they returned to him. What he had done was to set up what in NLP terms is called an anchor. This is an association between two things and can occur naturally or as in this case be set up deliberately. All he had to do was remember how to journey to the place and the memories stored along the way would return to him as associations as he passed them.

Many of he world's memory experts use this technique for things such as remembering a pack of cards in order. They follow a familiar journey in their mind and as they do so mentally place the cards along the route. The cards then become associated with something about the route at that point and an anchor is set up. When they mentally return to that same point, the same association occurs and they remember the card.

It's a great technique to teach kids to help them remember things like vocabulary lists. They are often surprisingly good at it and making it into a game makes it more fun too.

The female character in Sherlock Holmes seemed more intrigued by the name Holmes gave to the technique. She asked Watson, "why does he call it his mind palace." The answer - "he would, wouldn't he!"

VIDEOS NOW RELEASED - SEE US IN ACTION!

Well we've been promising these to you for a little while now and here they are at last.
Today we are releasing the first three in our new series of blog videos.

Now everyone is different, everyone likes to learn about things and experience things in a different way.
Some people like to read about something, other prefer to hear about it, some like to see it for themselves or join it and learn by doing.

With this in mind we've put ourselves in front (and at times behind) the camera to bring this short series of videos to you. Each one is very short, under 90 seconds and will give you a taste of what we are about.
We'll be talking about many aspects of NLP, how it is used in medicine and sharing some tips and inside secrets with you........

They will all be available on You Tube and here are the links to the first three:

Introduction to NLP4MEDICS blog

Using NLP with integrity

Models of the world using NLP

Enjoy them and let us know what you think.
Watch this space, there are plenty more to come.

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

Today will have been the first day back at work for many of you, the first day back into the normal routine after the Christmas break. Before you know it you'll be back on the treadmill.......or will you?

There will be pressure from all around. Pressure to do this, do that, speed up, do it now - am I right?
What I am urging you to do is to slow down, yes slow down and take the time to be grateful for all the wonderful things and people in your life and most importantly to say thank you for them.

Now you're probably thinking, how am I going to find the time to do this? The truth is, it hardly takes any time at all and if we're really honest with ourselves, we know that this is true. I've already started to do this in my own small way, with companies or individuals who have given me good service. We are trying to expand our use of social media so what better way to thank others than using this. I've so far done this more on my personal account than our business one to be honest but I've been making a point to actively thank those on Twitter who have served me well.
For example:

@TMLewin1898 - great shirts and great customer service (sorted out lost password query very quickly)
@Two_Fresh - really helpful with advice about our blog videos even on Christmas eve.
@collectivedairy - great new Christmas pudding flavour yoghurt
@jamieoliver - excellent recipe for chestnut pumpkin soup

You see I'm not talking about huge stuff here. None of this is going to change the world, but you know what, that doesn't matter. It's an attitude. Take a few seconds out of your day to say thank you for a job well done. I'll tell you this, if they reply and say thank you for your comments you'll feel like a million dollars. Maybe that's a lesson for your business too?

"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all other virtues."  Cicero

So take a little time out to develop an attitude of gratitude. There's not much in this life that is certain - just look at this week's Premiership results - but time taken appreciating others will come back to you many times over.
Michelle