NLP Feeds

The LXD (the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) electrify the TED2010 stage with an emerging global street-dance culture, revved up by the Internet. In a preview of Jon Chu’s upcoming Web series, this astonishing troupe show off their superpowers.

Online Hypnosummit. March 27-28

Steve will introduce a videotaped segment from last August’s Advanced Mastery Training, “Transforming Troublesome Voices” and then discuss it. Since Hypnosummit is an online conference, you can join it no matter where you are—and view it when it is convenient for you.  Steve’s presentation will be about an hour in length. He will be one of many presenters. For full information, and to register:
http://www.hypnosummit.com/

Psychotherapy Networker Symposium, Washington DC. March 27-28

On the morning of March 27, Steve will be presenting on “Altering Your Inner Trash Talker,” offering a variety of ways to make very rapid changes in troublesome internal voices.  He will be drawing from his e-book, Help for Negative Self-Talk, vol 1 which offers a wealth of material on this subject: http://www.realpeoplepress.com/pages.php?page=selftalkebook

On March 28, Steve will be presenting “Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) the Current State of the Art” both morning and afternoon: For full information, click below:

For additional trainings, see Steve Andreas’ training schedule:
http://www.steveandreas.com/workshopsched.html

James Cameron's big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. In this personal talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic -- from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving -- and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits "Aliens," "The Terminator," "Titanic" and "Avatar."

Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing.

The tale of a major global cultural phenomenon: Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle describes the spectacular arrival of fast-paced 20-20 cricket as it parallels the rise of modern India. He traces the game from its sleepy English roots to the current world of celebrity owners and million-dollar player contracts.

Because last year’s Advanced Mastery Training was so successful, both we and many of our participant group have been eager for more of the fun, inspiring, and innovative learning experiences we shared last year.

Registration has just opened for the second Advanced Mastery Training—August 1-7, 2010 in Boulder, Colorado. Specially designed for NLP Master Practitioners who want to go beyond their current level of mastery, this training offers a unique opportunity to learn leading-edge models and methods as part of a wonderful community of fellow learners and explorers.

For years I’ve had a vision of a training which would gather some of NLP’s most creative and innovative trainers into the same training room at the same time, to provide multiple perspectives on advanced topics in a room of skilled participants. With the help of 47 colleagues, 3 Trainers, and our Coordinator Team, we began to unfold this possibility last year. This year we plan to build on the foundation laid—amplifying those aspects that worked well last year to bring you an even more dynamic and enriching learning experience.

This year’s training highlights…

• All-New Content.
• 3 New Trainers and a 5-trainer team. We are pleased to have international trainers Nick Kemp (UK), Danie Beaulieu (Canada), and Lucas Derks (Holland), along with returning trainers Andy Austin (UK), and Steve Andreas (US).
• 7 Full Days (one day longer than last year).
• Each Trainer will be sharing in-depth knowledge of the gems of his/her recent work. Plus we’ll be continuing the practice of live client-session demonstrations with people who have no background in NLP.

…all at less than half the price of some “7-day NLP Practitioner” courses!

Click Here to learn more about this event
and to Register:

www.toolsfortransforming.com/2010-advanced-mastery-training

Last year’s training was inspiring, rejuvenating, and deepening.  Here’s what some of our community had to say about it…

“I really loved this training. (And I’ve done lots of trainings!) Fantastic content. Good challenges for us advanced students.”
—Suzanne Scott, California

“Thank you for one of the most inspiring, educational, well organized, amazing trainings in my life. This training had definite WOW factor due to excellent presentations of new material and new angles on familiar processes. It made a difference that only experienced participants attended. This meant there was not only food for thought from the trainers, but the other participants as well. … I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. This was a big investment for me, and I have reaped rewards already. I look forward to working with Tools For Transforming again.”
—Hariata Hema, New Zealand

“I had a fabulous time—I deepened both my knowledge and skills. I learned some new material and ways of working. I watched/observed some masters. I met some new friends. I also experienced a significant personal change. Yes indeed, I had a ball. Worth every single cent and two 23 hour plane journeys. I’d go back tomorrow.”
—Paul Tracey, Ireland

Although this is an advanced training, last year we greatly appreciated the “beginner’s mind” with which our community of learners came together to explore and learn with ample fun and laughter. To see video excerpts from last year’s training, watch this:

Click Here to learn more about this event
and to Register:

www.toolsfortransforming.com/2010-advanced-mastery-training

Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy -- and our own self-awareness.

“You’ve got to ac-cen-tuate the positive,
E-lim-inate the negative,
Latch on to the affirmative,
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between.”
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer (1944)

From time to time we need to sort through an accumulation of things in order to make space for what we want to keep. However, many people have great difficulty doing this. Would you like to learn a ridiculously simple trick to make this easier?

When most people do this, they look through their closet full of clothes, the drawer full of socks, or the shelf full of books, and try to decide what they don’t want. While this seems very logical and straightforward, there are several reasons why it’s not the best way to accomplish the task.

Imagine that you went to a grocery store to buy some food, and you were focused on what you don’t want. Pause for a moment to imagine actually doing this in your mind, to find out what this way of shopping would be like for you. . . .

Doesn’t that seem a little backward? Now imagine shopping the way you usually do it, by focusing on what you do want. . . .

Whether you have a list of things that you have already decided that you want, or whether you look around to see what appeals to you (or both), focusing on what you do want is much simpler and more direct.

There are probably only a few things that you do want, and an immense number of things that you don’t want. If you were focused on eliminating what you don’t want, it would take you much longer, because there is so much more of it that you would have to process.

You have only a certain amount of attention; if you are focused on what you don’t want, you have much less attention for what you do want, and you might even lose track of it altogether, which is what happens in paranoia.

Perhaps most important, if you are focused on what you don’t want, you will be having the feelings that go along with thinking of those things. Those feelings are likely to be much less pleasant than the ones you have when you think of what you do want. Try this in you imagination. First think of a food that you don’t want, . . . and then think of a food that you do want. . . .

Which feels better? If you think of what you do want, you will feel better, and you are likely to keep on shopping. But if you are having the feelings that go with thinking of all those things that you don’t want, you are likely to stop soon, so that you can feel better!

So far I have written about what you do want and what you don’t want. But there is another category of stuff that is even larger than both of these put together; stuff that you don’t much care about one way or another—“Mister In-Between.” When you focus your attention on what you do want, all this is ignored along with all the stuff that you don’t want.

To summarize, if you are deciding what to buy in a store, it makes a lot more sense to focus on what you do want than what you don’t want. It is also much simpler to do, because it is harder for us to process negations like “don’t” (“do not”).

Now let’s go back to the task of sorting through an accumulation to decide what you want to keep. All the factors I have discussed above are equally true when you want to sort through stuff. If you focus on what you don’t want, it will be more difficult, less direct, it will take longer, and it feels unpleasant, so you will probably soon give up and do something else—perhaps berating yourself for your sloppiness and “lack of willpower” or “lack of persistence.”

How can we apply the way that we naturally and efficiently acquire stuff to the task of discarding stuff?

It’s absurdly simple: empty out that closet, drawer, or bookshelf completely and put everything that was in it somewhere else. Now imagine that this is stuff in a store, and you can select what you want from it—absolutely free! Now look through it to decide what you want to keep, and discard the rest of it.

There is an additional advantage to this way of sorting through stuff in order to simplify and streamline your surroundings. If you were successful in doing what most people do—focusing on what you don’t want, and discarding that, you would still have all the stuff that is meaningless to you—“Mister In-Between.” But by selecting what you do want from that pile of stuff, all the “Mister In-Between” stuff remains in the pile to be discarded.

If you are someone who likes to keep “in between” stuff around for a while in case it might become useful, put it in a box, and date it. If you haven’t looked at it after a given length of time—perhaps six months or a year—look through it quickly to be sure there is nothing you want to keep, and then dispose of it.

Another little trick I use is to think of who would be happy to have the stuff that I’m discarding. Even though I don’t have a use for it, it might be important to someone else; the thought that someone else might appreciate it gives me additional pleasure at the thought of passing it on to someone else, making it even easier to let go of it.

This is only one specific application of the importance of focusing your attention on positive outcomes—what you do want, rather than what you don’t want—a key element of NLP, and of living a life that works for you.

Do you have other strategies or “tricks” that make it easier for you to clean stuff out? If so, I welcome you to add them to this discussion.

We are continuing our series of conversations on Positive Deviance (the first episode is podcast #118). In today’s episode we cover the following topics:

• Shaping Environment
• Nature & Nurture Together
• Spiral Dynamics
• Recommendations
• Closing Thoughts