One of their lead co-ordinators, Sam, had attended a two day course I delivered around 5 years ago in Blackburn, for the Careers service. In this, we spent 2 days exploring NLP, (Neurolinguistic Programming), self awareness and communication. Sam had not only remembered the session, but also said it had been a pivotal point for him in moving forwards with this own life and was keen to offer the same kind of opportunity to his teams.

He explained his teams were going through a challenging time, and although their company was experiencing huge growth and success, this was not without its challenges. This huge growth meant that the company was having to adapt its working practices at the same time as delivering them, which meant the systems to support them also having to adapt and change, and through this transition, lots of challenges were being faced.

Sam wanted to give his teams some tools to help them manage their expertise in what they do that recognised these challenges and gave them some practical approaches that can help them manage  in the most resourceful ways possible. Sam explained that their most precious resource was time, and that although he recognised he couldn’t give up two full days of his teams time, he could manage 4 hours within a planned team day he had coming up. With this in mind, we discussed what outcomes would be most important and realistically achievable, within a four hour time slot.

Challenging my usual working habits, I put together an electronic presentation and abandoned my trusty flip charts and pens. I wanted to be a able to begin with a clear context that put how important our perceptions and interactions really are in the context of organisations and organisational frameworks. It just so happened, thanks to Chris Grimsley’s MA in organisational studies, (thanks Chris, NLP in the Northwest :-)) I knew a model that could help me do just the thing.

Task‘s usually get the attention, the copy and the limelight. Most organisational identities produce mission, vision and values statements, policies, procedures, hierarchical structures, job descriptions, financial statements and strategies. These things aim to describe the ‘what’ and sometimes the ‘why’ of ‘what’ organisations do. However, as important as these things are they are not the whole story. In fact it’s very rare that these documents alone can describe the experience of working with or for an organisation. That’s because these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to organisations. The fact is, it’s the very human processes underneath these tasks that keeps it moving, set’s direction and directly experiences the daily grind of the wheels of the organisation in motion.

That’s where I come in, recognising I don’t know anything about the job, the expertise or the experiences of any of the teams, I do know a fair bit about human interaction, perception and difference, and seem to have developed a ‘knack’ in sharing this with people over the years. To challenge ‘stuck thinking’, increase choice and opportunities and promote win/win outcomes.

Very few people aim to learn more about their psychology, and the way in which they make sense of the world around them. Yet it affects everything we do, your own experiences and the experiences of everyone you meet. One of the biggest challenges we all face in the world, workplace and at home is dealing with people, (non more so than dealing with ourselves!).

Imagine the possibilities of being able to manage yourself and others better more of the time, to make more sense to more people more of the time and to communicate with each other in ways that avoids drama and conflict. How would that improve the processes of your organisation? Your teams? Your Outcomes? Your Tasks?… For me, it’s not only important, it’s fundamental.

A Big ask in a small session, I know. If all I can do in four hours is give people a model of understanding themselves and others that promotes understanding rather than judgement, openness rather than defensiveness, and tools to promote self empowerment and understanding. I think there’s huge value in that.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is never underestimate the potential of planting a seed. In four hours, lots can be learned that challenge the fundamental basis of what we think we are, and what we’re capable of. A small change in perception can create a huge change in opportunity.

Love my job.

You’ve got to believe in yourself, or do you?

So many people place huge importance on holding onto positive beliefs about ourselves and the world in general. For me however, I can’t help feeling this not only misses the point of self-awareness, but also severely limits it.

Whilst on the surface it may appear obvious that believing ‘I can’ puts me in a better state than believing ‘I can’t’, it still fixes and limits my awareness. In some cases this can blind me to important feedback that lets me know I might need to reconsider my position. Isn’t this a part of the problems we all face today? Holding onto distorted, generalised and incomplete versions of the world?

Even if you find you’re holding onto limiting beliefs, changing them from a negative to a positive continues to limit the level of awareness you operate from. In some cases can leave us dependent on having to believe something to feel ‘enabled’, ‘ok’ or ‘good’ rather than simply just ‘being’ or ‘doing’ the thing we’re busy thinking (or procrastinating) about. This utilises precious energy and cognitive resources I could be employing in just getting stuff done. For me, the fact that I might need to ‘believe’ something in order for me to ‘feel good, complete, take part or have a go’ at something is an insight into a deeper strategy I am employing, which may not be the most useful thing i could be doing.

Where do beliefs come from?

Beliefs are not ‘things’ in themselves but internal processes.
In order to believe something, I employ a strategy of conviction about the possibility of something happening and even generate a degree of dependence and rules around it. Whilst in some cases this can be useful, this can also become a dogma of habitual self delusion. Even stopping us accessing parts of our awareness that could help create real and lasting change. Namely, our strategies for ‘doing’ and ‘being’, rather than just thinking about doing or being!

If I find i have to continually believe positively in a ‘self’ or an ‘ability’ to take part in things or feel good, I might begin to question where my attention is and if the strategy I’m employing in that moment is in fact the most useful and appropriate. “Am I in the moment? Am I engaging with what I’m actually or about to do? Or am I lost in my thoughts rather than here right now?” or “do I really want to do it?”Sometimes a reluctance to do or be something is an important message in itself, not just a limiting belief.

The point is, beliefs are a part of the doors of perception, our deletions, generalisations and distortions about our experiences, not the reality we share with each other. Maybe if we were all a bit more present with each other and the world in general, beliefs wouldn’t cause as much hassle as they do!Awareness on a level above beliefs requires an open mind, an openness to possibility and an active and associative attention, within the thing I am ‘doing’ or ‘being’.For me, if I’m busy believing, I’m not fully present to what I need to do or open to the infinite possibilities right in front of me.

Do I believe I can do something? I don’t know, let’s have a go and start learning…

Mindset for Strength and Performance

Last weekend saw Eddie at Strength and Performance Oldham, delivering a 3 hour ‘taster’ session to their members on understanding our Mindset.

I’d like to say a special thanks to Lynsey & Mark for making this happen and for taking the initiative to offer their members an opportunity to discover the power of learning more about what makes us human beings tick. #NLP

Chatting to the members of the Gym it’s clear that Lynsey and Mark are creating something special here. The commitment to supporting  their members with the whole journey of becoming healthier, fitter, stronger and happier is clear and the environment they’ve created at Adelaide Mill in Oldham is a warm, welcoming and supportive one.

It’s definitely #notjustagym

If your looking for a place to start to challenge yourself physically, learn more about diet and nutrition and meet up with supportive, friendly like minded people you won’t find much better than Strength & Performance Oldham. Connect with them on Facebook here or get in touch on 07477 677529. They’re based at Adelaide Mill in Oldham.

The Session – What is a ‘Mindset’ and Why is it important?

The session started with the usual introductions and to begin to explore what were the challenges people faced in terms of reaching their goals, both inside and outside the Gym and what they wanted from the session.

After a brief introduction to what Neuro Linguistic Programming is we then explored just how we make sense of the world around us. In terms of Perception, Thinking and Behaviour. This practical understanding of “How” we do what we do begins to lay the foundations of understanding what makes us tick, what makes us all unique and how our experience has a structure.

All Performance is State dependent

We explored our ‘State’. And began to understand how our state of mind effects everything we do in life. Developing our awareness of ‘how’ we do it means we can begin to have more choice and control in the kind of ‘states’ we want to be in. This included practical tips of how we can change influence and change our state at will.

After some reflections and exercises, we then went on to explore the power of mental rehearsal. Most people are really good at mental rehearsal, the only difference is we tend to use it for things like worry.

The sounds of ‘wow’ in the room never get old, as people realised and understood the power of mental rehearsal in the practical demonstration, and then went on to witness someone achieve a personal best after a short demonstration and then have a go themselves.

and then time beat us… for now

I’d like to say a big thanks to everyone who came and made the session really easy to deliver. I hope you all found the session as enjoyable as I did and more importantly, useful and relevant to what you hoped to get from it.

Please do feel free to connect with us on facebook here. We’re always happy to hear from people and about how they’ve used what they’ve learned. That’s when the magic starts to happen.

So what now?

You never know how far a change will go.

Lynsey and Mark are keen to introduce part 2 of this to the members at some point in the near future. Lynsey herself has recently completed the INLPTA NLP Foundation Diploma with us.  I know Lynsey has more plans to integrate what she’s learned into the Gym to benefit the members. It’s great to see the ripple effect of this kind of learning, and imagine the possibilities it can create.

If you’re interested in learning more about NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) or would like to book a course or taster session please do get in touch with us. We can offer a range of bespoke Applied and Accredited training and development experiences.

Check our our Events page for upcoming courses or get in touch to have a chat about what you may need.

We also offer 1-1 sessions designed to help you develop more choice and control in your life through Psycho-education, Hypnosis and NLP. It’s not all about problems and it can help Stress & Anxiety, Depression and low mood and Personal Change & Development – for more information click here

Thanks again and we hope to see you again soon