Prescription for living through The Quadruple Whammy...

Personally and professionally I watch people and patterns and how people behave; these days I've been noticing some odd behaviour in the world.

I've often found that by watching people move through a shopping centre or a store, you can predict what the traffic is going to be like. These days people are angry and frustrated and oblivious to what's going on with other people.

You can't blame them.

Whatever your situation, we're experiencing a quadruple whammy:

Whammy #1 - In the USA, the source of much media influence, we are in a period between presidents. In most times, that's a time where the outgoing president does a few self-congratulatory laps around the world, picking up accolades. However these days, there's hardly the atmosphere for that sort of activity because of:

Whammy #2 - It's the Economy, Stupid!!! Although in Canada we aren't as affected by what's going on in the US, their economy from many anecdotal reports is in extremely rough shape. 2 stories from this weekend's class: One student from the US' business is down 40%, and another just returned from Florida where (if I recall correctly) condos that were selling for over $1 million are going at fire sale prices. I want to say $200k but I'm not sure exactly what the price was, but it was bad. Now, that indirectly brings us to the third Whammy:

Whammy #3 - Have a Holly Jolly Christmas. Love it or hate it, Christmas is a time of pressure. Normal life goes away and is replaced by travel, shopping and heavy expectation. Watch the anxiety in shopping centres...it's awesome. If you think about the behavioural menu we all have, in the Christmas season many many people lost behavioural choice this time of year, and in other ways it's a time of great anticipation. So right now we're in a time of preparation and anticipation, not quite there yet, but getting ready....which brings us to...

Whammy #4 - The Canadian Political Drama. Once again, we're neither fish nor fowl as the saying goes. Wherever you are on the political continuum, we're in a time of anxiety. The conservatives managed to punt the decision to January which is probably very wise, but where does that bring us but to another time of waiting and anxiety.

So, in an anxious season we're finding ourselves in an economic meltdown, watching and waiting for late January when a new President will take the reins in the USA, and either resolution or more turmoil will happen in Canadian Parliament.

If people are acting out in odd ways, who can blame them? All you can do is notice, acknowledge what's happening and move on. As a matter of fact, that's my prescription today: NAMO - Notice, Acknowledge and Move On.

When someone behaves badly in a parking lot, acknowledge you are witnessing the effects of the Quadruple Whammy syndrome, make sure you keep your own emotions in check, and move on.

Same goes for bad shopping behaviour, holiday excesses, traffic, random frustrations and the like - just notice what's going on, understand they are feeling the effects, and then continue on your merry way...

What goes around comes around...and it takes 107 days (a must read)

A little over 3 months ago I decided to do something a little different in my life.

The idea that one small shift in my own daily behaviour can create a huge shift in the world is deeply embedded in me and is a part of everything I teach and touch.

So this past July I went to the usual Tim Hortons (a coffee place for you non-Canadians) where I live in Oakville, Ontario, and placed my usual order at the speaker. After I paid for my coffee, this time I pointed my thumb backwards and asked "How much is his order?"

The server at the window was a bit confused and I had to repeat the question. In my mind I imagined she was making sense of my request by imagining that I was surprising a friend who was in the next car, or paying for someone's coffee who was helping me in some way.

She told me what it was and I pulled a $5 bill and paid for the order of the guy behind me.

When I got my change, I quickly sped out of the parking lot and went to my meeting.

Now, in many ways the experience of anonymously buying someone's coffee changed my day. I spent a few minutes indulging in cackling thinking about what the person who arrived at the window to find some stranger had bought them a drink would think...

Is it a friend playing a trick?...
Is it someone who thinks I'm cute?...
Is it some sort of trick?...
Am I on camera?...

But then I went to my meeting and forgot about it. I enjoyed what I had done and in random moments wondered what someone would do if some stranger had bought them something out of the blue...

In the intervening months, I indulged in this experiment a half-dozen times. I didn't set up to do it, when I came to the window I would spontaneously (after I paid for my own coffee) ask about the order of the person behind me and pay it.

Each time I did it, I'd drive away smiling, hoping that the person would get the point of the exercise - that they would pay it forward as well.


That brings us to today. This morning I got up early because I was teaching a class downtown. I packed up the car and got everything ready. Made breakfast for Jack, gave him a kiss and told him to be a good boy for Mommy today. Got into the car, waved to him and headed off to the local Tim Horton's for my morning coffee.

The line was long and the drive-through was packed but it was moving. I looked at the long line of minivans and thought that Oakville had to be the land of the MiniVan!

When finally my turn came at the window, the teenager awkwardly handed me my coffee and, ignoring my $5 said, "The lady in front of you paid for your drink."

I said, "Uh...what?"

She repeated, "DUDE, THE LADY IN FRONT OF YOU PAID FOR YOUR DRINK."

I said, under my breath, "Oh my God...that's awesome!"

She said, "Yeah"

Really - that made my day.

My wife Jennifer has known about this quirky, nutty 'Hugh-thing' since I started doing it. I'm not sure if she thought I was great or nuts, but when I told her tonight, 107 days after I bought my first anonymous stranger a coffee, she cried. She said, "Oh my god - you paid it forward!!! And the person who bought your coffee was either someone whose coffee you bought, or someone who heard about it!"

Jennifer really got it. The trick is...and it's probably 'the trick' in life is to pay it forward with absolutely no expectation of ever getting it back. It doesn't have to be a big thing at all - even a coffee will do. You may think you're paying for a coffee or two or three or twelve, but you'll realize when you do it, it's not about the coffee, and it's not about the money and it's not about you. It's all about your decision to do something different and it's all about your intention.

Please send me an e-mail and let me know your own intention experiment goes for you.

Hugh Comerford goes Old School NLP??

First NLP Centres CANADA goes to a Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within event...and then Hugh does the NLP Swish Pattern at a Toronto Power Group event to 60 enthusiastic people last night...

What the...?

Okay okay...let me explain.

If you've taken an NLP course with me, you may have heard me say, "Swish sucks..." I may have made you repeat it. :-)

I'll agree with that earlier statement and say that in many ways, the Swish pattern is like driving a Ferrari through a field. It can be bumpy and clunky, but it will get the job done, and there are much sharper tools for personal change in 2008...

BUT

Calvin, one of the organizers of TPG asked me a few weeks back to DO the Swish Pattern to the entire group at once and I was intrigued. So I went back to school on the Swish pattern, thin-sliced it a bit and came to the realization that there are some interesting circumstances where the Swish can be very effective in creating change just-like-that!

So last night I had the opportunity to present the Swish pattern in a way I've never done before and it was a huge success. Doing a Swish on a group of people is a fun, borderline nutty activity but generates some seriously amazing results (Right Shawna :-)


P.S. I need some beta testers to help me debug a PC-based computer program I've just created. It's NLP-based and we'll begin selling it when all the bugs are ironed out. Helpful beta testers will get the program for free!

e-mail me to sign up!

Intro to NLP in Toronto and Montreal...again!

We will be doing another Introduction to NLP coming up later this month.

Intro to NLP
Toronto: September 27th, 2008
Downtown Toronto (Address TBA)
One day only: $129

Intro to NLP
Montreal: October 11th, 2008
in Old Montreal
One day only: $129

NLP DOJO!! (Yes finally)
Montreal: October 12th, 2008
One Day only: $99

NLP CERTIFIED Practitioner training is coming to Toronto September 13th and 14th. You still have time to register.

Full schedule is here at the bottom of the page.

Any questions, feel free to contact me.

NLP Video online; NLPworks in action

Although I did this a few years back, the other day I was playing with some video capture hardware and tested it out on the old videotape (check out the young bearded Comerford...) and it came out quite nicely.

So I thought I'd put it up on Youtube to show how NLP is done when NLPworks.

Follow ze link here, and if you have any feedback let me know!

Great news from NLP Centres CANADA

In the months of July and August, we have put on 4 Introduction to NLP Courses.

The feedback has been incredible! Some testimonials have been put out on the website at http://www.nlpworks.com/nlpintro.php, and I'll share a couple with you here below. Unattributed because those who have sent me these messages haven't let me know how they want to be attributed yet.

Here's one from one of the participants this past weekend:

"Hey Hugh. Just wanted to thank you for making such a big heartfelt impact in my life. There was one moment of the seminar that trully touched my heart and almost brought me into tears. Thank you for dreaming about me, it changed my life forever."

Here's another more formal one from someone who tested out some NLP I taught him in real life after the class:

"I am an MBA and a Molecular Biology major, thus I am generally quite reticent to try of adopt something that does not seem like a formal science at first glance . Therefore, I must admit, I was quite green to NLP before the session with Hugh. Hugh's approach to NLP was very engaging; he peeled away its layers so well that by the time I was done I only began to fathom what I had actually absorbed. This knowledge honestly and truly works on a very practical level!"


These are the only testimonials I have from the last session. More about that below.

More good news: I've been asked back to present at the Toronto Power Group meeting on September 9th at Metro Hall in downtown Toronto. Information is here

...and I've left the bad news for last. At the very last minute of the last class I walked over to my Macbook that had been diligently recording the entire session through Garageband and noticed it wasn't working. I rebooted to find it no longer rebooted.

I found out today that it had coughed up the hard drive on Sunday. What that means is if you have contacted me in the last while for a consultation or training, I may no longer have the e-mail. I do have my data and all the training manuals and ideas for more training (more on that in the future) I've lost some of my e-mail...and that might be forever!

So if you've contacted me for training or coaching in the last while and I haven't gotten back to you, please accept my apologies and e-mail me again.

If you're interested in Introduction to NLP (and NLP Dojo) courses in Montreal or Toronto, let me know. I'm building the training models right now as I reinstall programs...

Fall Certification Schedule is up!

If you've been interested in taking Certification training, the Fall Certification schedule is up at
http://www.nlpworks.com/certification.php

Click here for more info.

More Introduction to NLP classes are scheduled in Montreal and Toronto. Stay tuned for details!

FYI - I'm typing this from our lovely room overlooking Niagara Falls while Jack and Jennifer are off shopping!

I saw Tony Robbins this weekend...

...and was surprised and pleased by the level of authenticity I found.

And those of you who were there wouldn't be, but those who were might be surprised that this morning I woke up at 6am, and had a completely new process jump into my head.

I call it The Crossroads...stay tuned for more info!

I always thought that seeing Tony would be an exercise in Sizzle versus Steak, but what I discovered is he serves lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of pretty good steak. The problem is people don't have the capacity to process all that protein and most of it...uh....bypasses the digestive system.

Man can I get into metaphor trouble or what?

Essentially he puts so much information out there that people may (or may not) be ready for that overwhelm comes fast and hits hard.

Having been well trained by Janice Gray in the 1990s, and furthering that with Robert Dilts and Judy Delozier in the past few years, I was easily able to see what Tony was doing, how he was doing it, and then backtrack to the thinking behind his work. At the end of the day I unpacked some high level tidbits that were pretty 'cherse' as Archie Bunker would have said.

So let's frame my Tony experience as this:

- I only found out about NLP because of his book Unlimited Power so I owe him one out of the gate...
- I thought he was only an Infomercial geek.
- He was an informercial geek but I'm happy to say he isn't only that.
- He presents as completely authentic. Stood in front of 3000 people from 1pm - 10pm on Friday without a break. Spoke mostly extemporaneously. Did a pretty good job with one audience member (family really) intervention. Did okay with 2 others.
- Sunday was 8:45am - midnight with a one-hour break. (okay I left at 9pm because I saw where he was going...
- Told some positive stories about himself (guru alert!) but told some not-so-great stories about himself which made me feel better about him.

I had a great time in the end.

I told a friend I took to the event that it's not about NLP - it's about what he's done with NLP. And yes my friends....it's ALL NLP.

So at the end of the day, Tony's an NLP guy. He's managed to position himself as THE guy who charges $1million per year if you want to be personally coached by him. He's brilliantly packaged and has marketed himself in fantastic ways and really has set the standard.

He is definitely worth seeing. He delivers on his promises and gives a great show (and aerobics workout!).

Those of us who've taken some NLP will realize that it's all....NLP.

That said, if you want to learn (and this hit me early Sunday morning as I was heading back downtown) about 100x more than Tony teaches without having to join in all the hooting, yelling, yipping, and emoting all over yourself in a large way that is part of the Tony experience, NLP Centres Canada delivers.

We'll give you literally 100x what he does, give you deeper connection, deeper understanding, deeper knowledge. We can do all that because we teach instead of presenting. If you think I just disrespected Tony - read what's above.

We will give you the all the space you need to to savor, chew and digest the steak.

For a good, possibly free introduction to NLP head over to www.nlpworks.com/nlpintro.php

(and if you get the chance to see Tony, take it, then come see us so we can tell you what just happened to you!)

People from 98 countries have reset their brains

On a lark, I looked at the Google statistics for www.resetyourbrain.com tonight and instead of looking at the monthly visits, I decided to check out how many countries have been represented.

N.B. We've never ever spent a penny promoting www.resetyourbrain.com. This was always an experiment in viral marketing.

So tonight I found that as the title of this post mentions, we've served 98 countries (2 to go for triple digits!).

So congrats go the obvious G8 countries as well as some lesser known ones:

Estonia
Nigeria
Myanmar
Moldova
Algeria
Latvia
Mauritius
...and one from Iran (on the upside we've had hundreds from the USA so this all may turn out okay)

So remember one of the most Participaction-like processes. You get to jump and wiggle, freeze in confusion and laugh when you get it wrong.

Reset Your Brain was designed for kids as well as adults. Great for writer's block, programmer's block, brain cramps of all description, as well as frustration, quick anger, and much much more.

Head on over to http://www.resetyourbrain.com and begin the fun!

Happy weekend!

"...and then I'm gonna slam his ass into trance..."

Subtitled, "Why NLP often has such a crappy reputation..."

The title of this post is a quote from someone who was in my Introduction to NLP course in Montreal this past weekend. One of the participants was a clinical psychologist who told the following story:

"A few years back I had a client come to see me. For various reasons what I was doing with him wasn't producing results, and I was getting a bit desperate. The client wasn't eating and I was worried he was going to die. Now, I happened to be acquaintances with an 'NLP guy' who was in town for a seminar. I asked him if he'd be willing to work with my client.

He listened to the story of the client and said, "No problem. I can fix anything. I'm gonna slam his ass into trance, blast him through a couple of processes and he'll be all fixed up.."

Then he mentioned that he billed $3,000 per day.

I agreed to pay his rate if he could help my client.

I asked and my client agreed to see him, so my client, the 'NLP guy' and I sat down for an intense 2 1/2 hour NLP session. At the end of the session, the NLP guy pulled me aside and said, "Sorry man - your client is too resistant. He's pretty screwed up..."

This after he told me he could fix anything..."

So he got the impression that NLP Practitioners are a bunch of blustering arrogant aggressive BS-artists.

In this instance he was right.

But not in all instances.

I was pleased and gratified that this psychologist watched how we do NLP at NLP Centres CANADA and, along with the rest of the group wants me to go back to Montreal for one day every month so they keep learning!

So if you have a negative impression of NLP because you once came across some arrogant or incompetent NLP person, take heart. There are some ethical and skilled NLP Practitioners out there...

:-)