Blog has moved!

I've set up a new blog - clairesvoyage.blogspot.com - and will be blogging on NLP (among other things) at that location from now on.

New Year, new start

Whoops, where did those few weeks go to? No post since 25th November? Startling!

I've done a fair bit of reading since I last posted, and have found a few NLP areas which particularly resonate with me, and on which I'm planning to concentrate my efforts for the time being.

One of these is the use of enriched language. I really enjoyed Sue's chapter on this subject, and try to look out for examples when I'm reading other people's writing. I don't get to do a lot of writing of my own, but plan to change that this year, through the media of blogging, journal-keeping and, well, just writing more. I have some presentations to give at work early this year, and would love to make them more interesting and engaging by the use of such language.

I also enjoyed Sue's chapter on Precision Questions, particularly the case study of the man who needed help managing his feelings before and after giving a presentation. His experiences reflect my own - I get very nervous before and during presenting - and I'm going to use the NLP techniques described, to help build my confidence in this area.

Finally, I'm amazed at how often in the past few weeks I've read statements along the lines of: "you cannot change what another person says, does or thinks - you can only change your reaction to it." This calls to mind what Sue said about not reacting immediately, and the importance of the gap between something happening or being said, and you reacting to it. This is a key message for me...

A mixed bag of a week

The end of another week - and only just over four weeks to Christmas, now that is scary!

I had good chats this week with both my manager and his, about the NLP course and what I got out of it. I didn't however feel as if I made any progress with actually putting anything into practice, I feel very snowed under at work just now and find it hard to step back and think about anything other than "getting things done". I want to make time to do that each week, to keep the approach at the forefront of my mind rather than letting it get buried somewhere near the back!

On Wednesday I attended a workshop entitled "Critical Success Factors for Effective Personal and Organisational Change", run by Elisabeth Goodman of RiverRhee Consulting. There was some useful stuff in there, models and techniques for change management which will no doubt come in useful. Interestingly, the NLP "Levels of Influence" diagram formed part of the discussion - it can be useful to know what levels people are operating at, if you want to encourage them to accept change.

Having been on a Knowledge Management course, an NLP course and a Change Management course all in the last six weeks, I feel a bit "modelled out"! It would be good to take stock of all of them, and see where the overlaps are - particularly between NLP and Change Management.

Off to a party this weekend, at which I will know very few people. An excellent opportunity to listen to people talking and see if I can use the filters to help me enter the conversation!

Whatever you're doing this weekend, I hope it's a good one.

One week on...

Hard to believe, this time last week we were almost wrapping up at the end of the course. 

I wonder how everyone else has found this week? I think I was shellshocked when I got home on Friday night, I was certainly exhausted, partly down to two early mornings on the trot. Friday night was spent chilling out with dinner and a glass of wine, and I slept like a log. Then Saturday dawned and I began to feel rising panic as I thought about everything we had discussed. How could I possibly take it all in, and apply it in real-life situations?

Somehow, during Sunday, realisation dawned - it's a journey, you don't have to take it all in at once, and suddenly become an expert NLP practitioner. For me, I think it will be a case of taking it in bite-sized chunks (maybe because I'm predominantly a small-chunk person?) - and looking for ways to apply a particular concept in my own situation. I decided to focus on the filters this week.

I've been looking for opportunities to listen to conversations and try to spot the filters being applied. It's reinforced for me how quiet our office is, and how little people talk to each other! Everyone in my team is up to their eyes in work, and an hour can easily pass with no conversation being heard. When something does crop up, it's usually a work-related question. I also found it difficult to concentrate both on what was being said, and on filter-spotting, something which I think I also experienced during the exercises we did on the course.

Interestingly, this also made me realise that I might enjoy work more if I was in a more conversational environment. I'd like to be able to use my organisational skills, and satisfaction from helping people, in a more interactive way. I will be exploring the options over the weeks and months to come.

My mood has been up and down this week, and I left work yesterday on a definite downward dip. Cycling to my tennis lesson this morning, with blue sky above and wonderful autumn colour around me, I gave myself a good talking to about how lucky I am etc etc , and ended up really enjoying my tennis (as I usually do, in fact). Cycling home again, I caught myself "self-modelling" - scary if exciting moment! I was thinking about how good it felt to be positive and feel enjoyment for something I was doing.

So I'm ending the week on an upward curve - looking forward to the weekend, with a very good friend coming to visit - we'll have some good conversations, I feel sure!

Hope you all have a good weekend too...

Let's start at the very beginning..

Hopefully a very good place to start. I'm all fired up about NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) following a fantastic two-day introductory course led by Sue Knight. I've recently started subscribing to other people's blogs, mainly in the LIS (Library and Information Services) arena, and have often thought I'd like to start blogging, but wondered what I could blog about. Enter NLP - a perfect topic, as you are constantly learning both with it and about it. I promised my fellow course attendees that I would start a blog, so here it is. I would encourage you all to do the same! It would be great to hear how you are all doing.

So why "Everest"? As my fellow participants will recall, during the course I identified a particular work issue which I'm planning to address using NLP techniques. When asked how I felt about tackling it, my response was "It will be like climbing Everest for me...!" So that seemed a good name to give to my blog.

Crampons and ice axe at the ready, then... here goes!