I got a call yesterday
From a former student who is an NLP Practitioner. He wanted to tell me a story. It goes kind-of like this:
“So the other day over a coffee-break, I was playing pool with a couple of colleagues, one of whom is a typical ‘smart-ass’. In the last 6-months, this guy has been in 2 altercations at the office. He is a well-trained martial artist and has taken police courses on using batons AND advanced weapons (aka fighting sticks).
Since we only had one pool cue, when it was my turn he handed it to me and that a second after I grabbed it, he tapped the end closest to him down. That made the end closest to me rise rapidly.
I’ll let you figure out where it hit me.
Oh did I mention that he was losing?
So I was pretty clear on what he was really doing... I handed the cue back to him and began to walk outside. He called after me, “Hey – it was an accident, dude.” I replied over my shoulder that with his training, that’s a hard explanation to accept.
He protested that I was over-reacting, etc.
I went outside and considered what to do.
I was very angry. I was actually enraged.
Typically in the past, I would have done one of two things.
1) Gone back in and confronted him.
2) Gone to Management demanding he be fired.
I can see now that I was in a double-bind – all my behavioural choices were reduced to these 2 false choices. So I thought of my NLP training and realized I needed some time to figure out how to handle this. I called upstairs to my boss and told him I was going home for the rest of the day.
So this morning I went back to work. I still didn’t know what I was going to do – I was still angry and humiliated and didn’t know how I’d react when I saw the guy or the others who had witnessed the ‘accident’.
I thought back to your course and for some reason did a quick Self-Mentor Process™ while sitting at my desk.
Then something very weird happened.
I am a ‘messy-desk’ guy. I’ve always been a messy desk guy, but bizarrely, almost compulsively, I began to clean up my desk.
I began sorting months-old bills, papers, reports, placing them all in the proper folders, putting the folders in the hanging files, etc.
It was like part of me was cleaning up my desk while another part was watching incredulously saying, “Holy cow – I’m cleaning up my desk? Is that what I need to do first to find my way to the future I deserve??”
Then I thought about the incident and the guy and I realized that I didn’t really feel any way about it. He’s a jerk looking for a fight. I don’t have to be the other side of the fight for him.
So when I finished cleaning my desk I had to call you to tell you this story.
So thanks for the Self-Mentor Process™ - I don’t know if it saved my job or not, but I’m curious to see how this all plays out…”
So there you have it. This person finished his training last year, and he’ll be coming back for the Master Practitioner course starting the 12th of January.
Cool eh?
Certified NLP Practitioner training begins January 19th, 2008
Certified Master Practitioner training starts January 12th, 2008
“So the other day over a coffee-break, I was playing pool with a couple of colleagues, one of whom is a typical ‘smart-ass’. In the last 6-months, this guy has been in 2 altercations at the office. He is a well-trained martial artist and has taken police courses on using batons AND advanced weapons (aka fighting sticks).
Since we only had one pool cue, when it was my turn he handed it to me and that a second after I grabbed it, he tapped the end closest to him down. That made the end closest to me rise rapidly.
I’ll let you figure out where it hit me.
Oh did I mention that he was losing?
So I was pretty clear on what he was really doing... I handed the cue back to him and began to walk outside. He called after me, “Hey – it was an accident, dude.” I replied over my shoulder that with his training, that’s a hard explanation to accept.
He protested that I was over-reacting, etc.
I went outside and considered what to do.
I was very angry. I was actually enraged.
Typically in the past, I would have done one of two things.
1) Gone back in and confronted him.
2) Gone to Management demanding he be fired.
I can see now that I was in a double-bind – all my behavioural choices were reduced to these 2 false choices. So I thought of my NLP training and realized I needed some time to figure out how to handle this. I called upstairs to my boss and told him I was going home for the rest of the day.
So this morning I went back to work. I still didn’t know what I was going to do – I was still angry and humiliated and didn’t know how I’d react when I saw the guy or the others who had witnessed the ‘accident’.
I thought back to your course and for some reason did a quick Self-Mentor Process™ while sitting at my desk.
Then something very weird happened.
I am a ‘messy-desk’ guy. I’ve always been a messy desk guy, but bizarrely, almost compulsively, I began to clean up my desk.
I began sorting months-old bills, papers, reports, placing them all in the proper folders, putting the folders in the hanging files, etc.
It was like part of me was cleaning up my desk while another part was watching incredulously saying, “Holy cow – I’m cleaning up my desk? Is that what I need to do first to find my way to the future I deserve??”
Then I thought about the incident and the guy and I realized that I didn’t really feel any way about it. He’s a jerk looking for a fight. I don’t have to be the other side of the fight for him.
So when I finished cleaning my desk I had to call you to tell you this story.
So thanks for the Self-Mentor Process™ - I don’t know if it saved my job or not, but I’m curious to see how this all plays out…”
So there you have it. This person finished his training last year, and he’ll be coming back for the Master Practitioner course starting the 12th of January.
Cool eh?
Certified NLP Practitioner training begins January 19th, 2008
Certified Master Practitioner training starts January 12th, 2008
posted by Hugh Comerford at 10:37 AM
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