Something new this week: Here’s a transcript of a video I just posted on YouTube.

Here’s a question that people don’t ask me that I wish they would ask.
I wish they’d ask, what’s the difference between taking a bunch of free workshops
and taking a certification training? And I wish they’d ask that, because I know they get a lot of value
out of the free evening workshops we hold at NLP Canada Training
and I’m glad they get value.
But they’re leaving so much on the table.

Overview of the First Day

In our certification course, in just one day, here’s how much we cover:
We talk about calibration in yourself and of others, which means knowing what you’re feeling.
Mapping a feeling, which means scanning through your body.
and figuring out what are the physical markers of that state or feeling and how does changing those physical markers change what you feel
so you can change what you think?

But we also train what kind of states are useful for interacting in the world with other people, with situations.
How do you know you have enough information? In NLP, that’s called triple description and it means for any situation you’re in
you need to see it through your own eyes, through the eyes of another person or people who are involved,
and also, through a bigger, wider lens, where you see context and relationship.

How do you tell yourself about situations or feeling in a way that’s useful, in a way that filters out the right information
and focuses you on the right information.
How do you connect with people through language instead of talking at them?

And finally, how do you…set an intention so that you are likely to carry it out and this involves both mental rehearsal,
and a kind of thoughtful analysis of not just what you want.
But why you want it.

We cover all of that in one day.

See how the pieces connect

But we do something extra in the practitioner training. Because you’re doing it all in one day,
you’re not just seeing each piece.
You’re seeing how the different pieces connect.

And you are preparing yourself to scan through situations and go, what am I feeling?
What’s happening in my relationship? What’s happening in that connection I am making?

What’s happening in the situation that is shifting, in either the relationship or what I’m feeling.
How am I communicating, and how are they communicating with me?
And given all that: What is it I want right now
that is consistent with my values and my big goals, but it’s also achievable in the moment?

One piece at a time

Now, when we teach it in evening workshops, we teach one piece at a time.
And there’s a lot of value to that.
You get real focus and you notice the difference.
And you know why a difference happened.

It’s difficult to string the pieces together. It’s very difficult to string something you learn in one workshop with something you might learn two weeks later, a month later, two months later. It’s hard to see
that they are part of a single process that is already unfolding
without your awareness or intent whenever you interact with people.

This is why NLP is so valuable,
because it allows us to see the whole process.
by which you are existing and changing in the world.

How Change Happens

That means changing thoughts and feelings in yourself. It means interacting with other people in ways that change your thoughts and feelings and their thoughts and feelings.

It means using language and concepts to remind ourselves to look at a bigger picture,
to see a situation, and the way the situation is influencing us or influencing other people.

And it means always remembering the point is not to feel better in some universal kind of way.

The point is to feel better in relation to something specific
that you want to change in you or in the world.

You need to know what you want and how that fits with your values, your beliefs,
and the bigger context of who you are, and who you’re connecting to in the world.

Reps Make the Change Normal

The only way to get the whole big picture is to do a whole day.

And…the certification course is 8 days.

It’s 8 days, because that gives you time enough
to practice coming at those skills from all different directions
in different kinds of exercises with different levels of detail.

So you start building enough reps that this becomes normal.
Not natural. It doesn’t just happen.
But normal, routine.

It becomes a part of how you think and how you interact.

So that you can free that conscious mind of yours to deal with the unique specifics.
of the situations that face you today.

So come visit free workshops. They’re awesome.
We attract really lovely people at our evening workshops.

Everybody leaves connected, they leave smiling,

They leave feeling like they have just one little kernel that they can take away.

But when you get tired of the appetizers.
When you’ve had enough of the little nibbles,
Make the time.
Dedicate the effort to learning how the pieces fit together.
So that you end up.
with a satisfying meal.

I’m Linda Ferguson. Learn more at NLPcanada.com.