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

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.