One of the greats of our time was the hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson. It was Erickson among others whom Richard Bandler and John Ginder modeled to create NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming.

One of the attributes of Erickson, apart from being a great hypnotist and therapist, was his ability to tell stories to his clients, and within those stories would be instructions for the client to follow, suggestions, little seeds that he would place in peoples minds, that would grow. He was a master of metaphors.

The definition of a metaphor is, communication made by a story or figure of speech which indirectly implies a comparison with something else.

In NLP a metaphor could cover allegories, parables, stories or similes.

"England was experiencing very bad weather, with storm force winds of up to 85 miles (136 Km) per hour, combined with spring tides and heavy rain, that meant floods and extensive damage was expected.

Bob had made a visit to a friend of his during these storms, to a friend he had not seen for a long time, and although they were very, very good friends, they knew that they did not have to see each other all the time, or even make contact, because if anything went wrong, they would be there for each other.

They had a great time together, as they always did, visiting a good restaurant for lunch, talking about the good times and the bad times they were experiencing at that time of their lives. They laughed and joked as they talked about what they planned to do in the future, the deadlines that they had to keep.

Bob's friend had decided some years ago that he needed something fresh in his life, and as he had looked back over his failures and achievements, he realised he had neglected his education. Even though he was over 70 years old, he knew he needed something new, something that would stretch his capabilities, his mind, give him something to aim for, to keep him young at heart. He decided to take a degree course, and in five days time, he had to deliver his final piece of work, if he was late, years of study would have been wasted, he would fail.

It was as they discussed the deadlines they had to meet, that Bob realised that his friend had put aside some of his study and preparation time, just to be with Bob, and it on this realisation that he suggest that they headed home, so his friend could continue his studies, to reach his goal, and get his degree.

Now Bob lived a long way from his friend, it would take him many hours to make the journey home, and it was on this long car ride that the storms started to get worse, and a tree was blown down, crashing into his car. Bob was unhurt, but his precious car was damaged, he needed help.

Should he call his friend?

Bob knew how much his friend had worked to get this far to get his degree, and Bob knew that if he made one simple telephone, his friend would be there to help him, even help him repair the car, they were very good friends, and more than that.

But Bob decided to wait, wait until after the weekend, when his friend would have completed his work for the degree. He knew his friend would be there for him, as in his way Bob was there for his friend."

Just a story.