Live your passion

Not my normal type of post this - and one which I nevertheless hope will help a lot of people, including you.

Click on this link to get details of a free e book (over 200 pages - haven't read beyond the first few yet, so can't vouch for its quality) about living and making a living from your passion. It IS free, And the author, hopes you;ll feel moved to make a donation to one of his passions - supporting homeless children and young people in the States. Get your copy here

Never too old to learn

I've been surprised by quite a few people's reactions when I tell them about my visit to Dans Le Noir (see August 26^th - Kept in the Dark). Quite a number have asked , 'what would you want to do that for?'

Now, while in some ways I'm not always the most adventurous of souls, I do - or so a colleague told me recently (and I think she's spot on) - have what she described as an 'indefatigable capacity to see everything as an opportunity to learn'. And, more than a week later, I am still discovering and processing my learnings from that trip - and indeed from others' responses. (This  capacity has, incidentally, been stretched to its limits this week with my phone/alarm saga - but more on that another time...)

Actually, I think it's a pretty useful quality - consistent with  the NLP presupposition of there being no failure only feedback (and Edison is reputed to have said, of his many unsuccessful attempts to make what we now know as a light bulb, 'I haven't failed, I've found 10,000 ways that don't work')- though recognise that it can be counterproductive to be too gung ho or Pollyanna-ish about it.

Years ago when I assisted on occasional outdoor based training courses for young, high potential ICI recruits, I came across a quote on someone's wall that said 'to know and not to do is not yet to do'. (If you know the provenance of the quote-  please do tell). It's stayed with me all these years because , I think, it goes to the very heart of learning  and draws a distinction between 'head' or theoretical learning and 'embodied' or utilised learning.

So, for me - and I hope for you, a useful question to star tthe day with is 'what did I learn yesterday and what am I going to do as a result?' Note - not what am I going to do differently (although it may be useful to consider that) but simply 'what am I going to do?' This allows for me doing more or less of something. Or the same (because I've learned it works). Or stopping (because I've learned it doesn’t ). The 'anchor music' for my NLP Master Practitioner course was 'What have you done today to make yourself feel proud'. It could equally have been 'What have you learned today to make yourself  feel proud'.

~ Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Not enough hours in the day?

Sound familiar? then have a look at my latest article on ezine- Get more done: 5 quick and easy ways to achieve more. Click here to access.

Oh, and driving home tonight I heard an ad for Christmas party venues - and it's only the 1st September ?!?!? So maybe I need help getting more done in less, time, too !

Hot off the press

September’s newsletter will be available to subscribers (it’s free, you just need to sign up) from tomorrow - 1st September. It’s packed with interesting snippets including

• how to choose a therapist or coach – a sneak preview of our free information sheet about this
• questions – powerful communication tools
• questions – powerful self discovery tools

It also previews an exciting new product launch (due October 2010) and offers you a cool 15% off your purchase. To sign up for your copy click here.

The question is - are your prepared for the answer?

Someone, I can't quite remember who - though there are several suspects - once remarked to me

'If you don't want the answer, don't ask the question'

And years later it still strikes me as pretty sound advice.

And advice that could be made even better by making it

'If you don't want to deal with the answer, don't ask the question.'

This has really been brought home to me recently by some lacklustre customer service.

'Did you,' asked the man on duty at a hotel reception desk recently, 'enjoy your stay, madam?'
' The bed was very comfortable and the room was fine, 'I said - before continuing - without pause and in the same, even, tone 'but I was very disappointed both by the lack of provision for vegetarians on the menu and of chef's reaction when I asked him what might be possible'.

The man suddenly seemed to have a very interesting message written on his shoes that mean he felt the need to study them intently. I think it said ' say nothing and she might go away'. Because that's what he - and I, did. And I won't be back!

Sadly, this is but one of several examples in recent days.

But it applies in other areas of life, too.

I happened to mention to someone that I offered hypnotherapy and she said 'oh, could you help me stop smoking?' I agreed that indeed I could and would be happy to help. When I followed up, however#, she realised that she didn't really want to give up smoking - which is to say, she wasn't yet ready to deal with the answer to her question. And that's fine - at least she realised before we got stuck in and she'd invested time, energy and money on something she doesn't currently want.

Questions - as my series of articles in my newsletter is exploring - are powerful communication tools. Just so long as you're prepared for the answer!

Get on with it !!

My top 10 tips to beat procrastination are now available as an ezine article. Similar to my March post - but I've added a couple of new tips and, for those of you short of time, reduced the word count slightly. So, go on- what are you waiting for ?!

Dans le noir.....

Some of you have asked for a photo of me having lunch at Dans le Noir (see yesterday's post) So, here it is - I'm sitting third from the left.