New Gold Dream

Recently we spoke about how beliefs and values were important in modelling success and saw Michael Flatley from Lord of the Dance talking about what it means for him to prepare for and deliver excellent performance. Here is another interesting video where he talks about how he started dreaming up his success at the age of six.

Some men see things as they are and say, "Why?" I dream of things that never were and say, "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw

A man's dreams are an index to his greatness
Zadok Rabinowitz

To dream anything that you want to dream. That's the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.
Bernard Edmonds

Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.
Oprah Winfrey

The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.
Anonymous

Up On The Catwalk

Somebody who can copy can do. Leonardo de Vinci.

Modelling is the process of observing and mapping the successful behaviours of other people in order to apply them to ourselves and others. It is a very effective way to achieve your goals and it allows you to copy or 'model' the people who can do what you would like to do or those who have the skills, strategies and tactics that you would like to have. There are endless things that you can model and if you want to be a great parent, a better golfer, more confident at presentations, stay in good health etc., find out exactly what it is that the best people and the experts do. Once you know that, you can imitate or model them to help you get similar results.

There are a number of key elements involved in modelling. The first element is physiology. This focuses on the typical behaviours that a person engages in when they do what they do well. The second area to consider is the person's beliefs and values. The final area are the strategies that people have for doing things. These refer to the order and sequence of what each person does inside their head when they do something and they usually consist of making internal pictures, hearing internal sounds or voices (oftentimes talking to yourself) and checking how they feel in some regular sequence. Some of these strategies are conscious but many of them are non-conscious. If you want to model the rugby kicking skills of a Johnny Wilkinson or Ronan O' Gara, then you will obviously pay more attention to the area of physiology. On the other hand, if your goal is to model the great sales people, you will probably concentrate more on the strategies that they use when they are in the process. Modelling therefore, will first of all mean paying close attention to what is happening.

So what kinds of things will you want to focus on when you are observing a person's typical behaviours or physiology? Here is an example of some questions that you can ask yourself if, let's say for example, you want to observe a person's presentation skills.

• How are they standing, sitting or moving?
• How do they carry themselves?
  
• How close are they to their audience?
  
• What facial expressions do they use?
• How do they make eye contact?
• How do they use gestures?
  
• What kind of gestures do they make?
  
• How big are they?
  
• Do they move their hands a lot?
  
• How often do they move them?
  
• In what way do they speak?
  
• How fast/loudly do they speak?
  
• Do you notice anything about the rhythm of their speech?
  
• What do you notice about their intonation?
• How are they breathing?
  
• Do they make any noises that are not actually words?
  
• Do they touch anything?
  
• What?
  
• How?
  
• Where?
• How are they using their visual aids?
• Is there any language that they typically use that helps them to be effective?
  
• How are they dressed?
• How do they deal with questions?
  
• What other things do you notice?

On the other hand, you will also want to take into consideration a person's beliefs and values. Here is a short video of Michael Flatley from Lord of the Dance talking about what it means for him to prepare for and deliver excellent performance.

One of the pioneers of NLP, Robert Dilts, did a study of the healing patterns of Jesus Christ and with the information that was available from the Biblical sources, saw a pattern of strategies that Jesus would typically use. It appears that when Jesus was doing his healing, there were certain consistencies that happened in the order and sequence of things that he stepped through. Jesus would first of all touch the person (something that the other healers of the day did not do), he would then look up and finally he would sigh and the person would be healed. When you look at successful people in business such as Richard Branson you will also find that they tend to have quite clearly defined strategies that they use to get their consistent results.

So now it's your turn to get up on the catwalk!

Make it a great week, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus

A Very Convenient Truth

Rediscovering the Greatest Source of Renewable Energy

Richard Bandler and John Grinder based their discovery of NLP on the process of modelling. They studied excellent communicators and looked to find what those people did that made them outstanding in their field. At the very heart of NLP is the idea that if one person can do something, then so too can anyone else. It’s just a question of working out exactly what it is that the person does and applying the strategies and skills to ourselves. It is useful at this point, to make the important distinction between resources and skills. We don’t necessarily immediately have the skills to run a marathon in under two and a half hours or pilot a commercial airplane but we do know that we have the ability to learn. Of course, we will need to acquire the practical skills first and work on them until we can do it too.

Furthermore, one of NLP’s basic presuppositions is that we all have the resources that we need within us. We don’t always realise this or make good use of these resources, but they are there.

• So what are some of the practical implications of this?


• How can we begin to quantify the renewable resources that we have within us?


• What can we do with these resources in the times of challenge and climate change in our daily lives?

Well here goes, so how ready are you for a roller-coaster ride?

• Start by making a ‘Strengths Inventory’

• Make a list of all of the things that you are good at. Keep going until you have filled three pages with bullet points. You have to be honest and some exaggeration is only to be expected! Include the things that are really easy for you and that you take for granted. Maybe you always remember people’s birthdays or you are great at recycling or you can always get the video or DVD working, or you are good at always going to see your favourite football team, no matter what the weather.
  
  
• When you get stuck for ideas towards the end of the third page, think back to all the things that you have learnt to do over the years. Add those to your list.
  
  
• Look at your list again and add what you think your Mum or Dad, your partner, your kids or your best friend would say about you.
  
  
• Think about your work situation. What value do you bring to your workplace?
  
  
• Again make a list and keep going until you get enough. Yes of course, it is all too easy to be aware of your weaknesses, so try something different. Decide to focus on your strengths for a change.
  
  
• Now think about exactly how you do what you do well and make a list.
  

This is the key stage. Here you will find all of the skills and strategies that make you successful at what you do.

• How exactly do you find it easy to tell great jokes?
  
• What is it that you do that makes you a great Dad?
  
• How exactly do you get your team 100% behind you on an important project?
  
• What is it that makes you a good tennis player?
  
• What techniques to do you use when you do your best presentation or negotiation?
  
• What is it that you do and do well, so that you get to the end of the month and have that something extra to put into the bank?
  
• If you had to explain to someone what to do to take over from you as your friends’ best friend, what would you say to them?
  
  
• Think about what it is that you do when things aren’t going right for you in those situations and how specifically you get things back on track.
  
  
• What strategies do you use to motivate yourself when you are having a less than successful day?
  
• When you do you do when you meet a stumbling block?
  
  
• Now take all that you have learnt about yourself and see how you can use your strengths in other contexts.
  
  
• How can you use some of these same strategies in other areas of your life where you are not so successful?
  
• What can you copy or repeat from another context and use here to get a different and better result?
  
  
• Think of one situation in particular that you are having a challenge with and that you would like to get a better outcome with.
  

This could be in any area of your life, personal or professional.

• Transfer the skills across and see how things look.

Imagine yourself dealing with that challenge but using all the skills and resources that you have from your lists.

• To what extent do you now notice that this previous challenge or situation now feels a somewhat different?
  
• How do you see yourself moving on from here?
  
• What steps are you now ready to take?
  
  

Have fun playing with the activity.

Make it a great week, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus

How To be A Highly Effective Teacher - NLP for Teachers

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is an established set of principles for teaching, learning and personal development. It brings with it a range of methods and models and offers new understandings into how people think, behave, learn and change.

NLP for Teachers is certainly a book that many people have been waiting for and a great resource for all in the field of education. It contains a wealth of information on NLP, including the essential background to the most important tools and techniques.

One of the main strengths of the book is that it is directly aimed at classroom practice. As such, it is jam-packed with excellent advice and useful strategies as well as motivating and practical ideas. There is a bank of tips, Just Do It activities and a wide variety of NLP Toolboxes, all of which have immediate application to day to day classroom situations.

A small example of the areas and topics covered include

• The Presuppositions of NLP & The Study of Excellence
• How to plan successful lessons from inside out and reach your outcomes
• Using sensory preferences in language
• Building Rapport & Developing Effective Relationships in the Classroom
• How to be elegant in your use of language to influence others and affect change
• How to use body language to manage your learners
• How to see the world differently and increase your success
• Anchoring – Harnessing the resources within yourself and your environment
• How who you are affects what you do – Working out your values hierarchy
• The art of questioning and conversational belief change
• The skill of being artfully vague and using language to get what you want
• How to keep motivation on target

A regular feature of the book is the Jargon Buster which helps to clarify some of the concepts behind NLP and make its value all the more obvious and relevant.

As you work through the chapters, try out the activities and become more comfortable with the principles, presuppositions and skills of NLP, you will find that you become a better and more effective teacher, not only in terms of what you do, but also in terms of who you are both inside and outside the classroom.

Also particularly useful are the short Resource Zones, which add academic depth to the chapters and cover a wide variety of areas such as mirror neurons, hypnosis, emotional intelligence, eye movements and much more. Written in simple and easily accessible language, they reference work from other fields relevant to NLP and also include an extremely useful and detailed list of sources for further research and study.

In addition, the book also includes an Instant NLP Training Day, which includes a number of mini-training sessions and useful advice on how to bring the learning back into your own context.

Overall, NLP for Teachers really is a very useful book. It is an excellent balance of practical ideas and theoretical insight and an essential resource for those in the educational sector interested in being the difference that makes the difference.

Click below to buy the book from Amazon.

NLP for Teachers - Amazon UK

NLP for Teachers - Amazon US

My best

Séamus

For more information on how NLP can support teachers and help you develop effective classroom practice, visit our website at http://www.useyouredge.com/nlpineducation.html