Author: nlpnowcom

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Travels

I hate Computers

At one time I was I suppose a computer expert.

For over thirty years I worked in the computer industry, being employed by computer manufacturers, NCR, Sperry Univac, Texas Instruments and end users, to program computers to do whatever the customers wanted.

As I aged, got older, with my hair going gray, the demands for my expertise and knowledge began to diminish and anyway I had found a new career in being a trainer in NLP, Hypnosis, PhotoReading, Mind Maps and Memory. I left the computer field. It is a young persons profession.

So I know a little about computers, but usually keep my mouth shut, as things go wrong, or people want advice.

I need computers in my work, for communication with Skype and Gizmo, entertainment with Slingbox enabling me to watch British TV no matter where I am in the world, to write my blog, letters and to play music with iTunes in my courses.

I get lots of emails per day, many are spams, unwanted mails which I delete easily and quickly. I am aware of the dangers of virus’s, Trojan’s, people trying to gain access to my computer and data, so I use software to protect myself.

For many years I have used Norton or Symantec software, paying my annual fees, and upgrading as required.

The latest release I upgraded to is Norton 360, as it was the natural upgrade path offered by Symantec. Oh how I regret it.

Time is important to me as I travel, prepare to start another day in a strange country for training, I have to catch planes, catch trains, keep appointments. I need to download my messages, process them, reply where required, then get on with my day.

It can take me more than half an hour to start my computer with the protection I need against people attacking my computer, half an hour of powering up and down, rebooting the computer, waiting for Norton 360 to load in the correct sequence, for if it loads last in the boot sequence, then Auto Protection facility is off, and nothing I do will switch it on. If Norton 360 loads first in the IPL sequence (Initial Program Load), the I get protection.

I have spoken to Symantec or Norton support, I think based in India, and got no where. Do they understand me?

I paid good money for the software, I want it to work. I cannot sit in an airport lounge reloading my computer, I need to work and catch my plane.

If you have the answer without having to buy more software, please let me know.

I hate computers.

See also blog My Computer Oh Poo Poo, and My Annus Mirabilis.

Categories
NLP Travels

Imagination is more important than knowledge, Albert Eintsein


Today I visited an exhibition in Istanbul on Albert Einstein.

                                                                            Albert Einstein  Albert Einstein

It is being held until the 2nd March 2008, in the Doğuş Power Center in Maslak, Istanbul, this is quite a large exhibition of the work of Einstein, which left me a little confused about his work on relativity, which I thought I had cracked.

I know light travels at 300,000 kms, but the way it was displayed and described, got me thinking about my understanding again on the law of relativity, and asking the guide got him confused too.

I toured the exhibition twice as on the first round I understood little of his great thinking. Well it was written in Turkish and I read nor speak any Turkish, I did have an English recording of the tour, but really it did not give very much information.

At each point of interest was a guide, speaking in Turkish, and they attracted quite large groups to their talks, the children in the groups, seemed especially to be transfixed in what they were saying. That left me feeling quite inadequate at my inability to understand E=mc² and the law of relativity. 

As I toured the exhibition I came across a saying from Albert Einstein which says:-

                                Imagination is more important than knowledge.

It was stated that Einstein got the answer to a problem from far fewer “hints” or pieces of information that other scientists, he had the ability to quickly gather results with very little knowledge or information.
 
It was also said that he loved fun, so the picture below is to honour Albert Einstein and his contribution to mankind as a great thinker, scientist, peacemaker and fun loving man.

                                                            Fun loving Albert Einstein Fun Loving Albert Einstein

Great exhibition if you are in Istanbul.

Categories
NLP Travels

I know where I am. The Seminal Hotel.


Yesterday I was lost, as I was half in and half out of sleep, I did not know where I was. Click here to read.
This morning I know where I am. The Seminal Hotel in Istanbul.

                                                        Seminal Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey Seminal Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey

I have stayed in the hotel many times over the years I have been visiting and training in Turkey, but it is a tourist hotel, with guests only staying for a few days, then they are off to visit another “important” site. The hotel seems to cater for mainly Arabic nationals, who always seem to have to shout at the top of their voices to have a conversation. They seem to have large families, taking many rooms, and they race from room to room, or shout from one room to another.

The hotel is comfortable, in need of a refurbishment, perhaps new carpets and a coat of paint, and like many hotels in Istanbul, sometimes have a bad smell. But the staff are friendly now they know me, and it is home for a few days.

My time to relax is in the breakfast room, where I can observe other guests starting their day. I feel at ease, as I watch, and try and workout the fellow guests nationality, are they Arab, Turkish, German, Russian?

As I sit drinking my strong Turkish tea English style, with a drop of milk, I watch the staff, as they busy themselves replenishing the food laid out in a buffet style, or cleaning the tables, wondering what they are thinking about the guests they are looking after.

One member of staff aways has a welcome, it is good to see his smiling face. I know where I am when I see Cafer, I am in the Seminal Hotel.

                                                        Cafer, staff member, Seminal Hotel  Cafer, staff member, Seminal Hotel

Categories
NLP Travels

Where am I?

This morning I was awoken early at 6am by a distant alarm call, too early for me on my rest day, my relaxation, I needed sleep.

As I held back my desire to complain at such an early awakening, the need for sleep washed over me like a wave, my head swirled with tiredness.

I do not like to lie in bed, usually I like to be up and about, I am not a person who says “five minutes more“, despite the description of my getting up in the morning strategy in my NLP courses. Some people who when it is time to get up like the “five minutes more” time in bed, and should there be any interruption to this extra 5 mins time, they will very forcefully demand quiet.

I lay there for a while though, trying my best to slip back into the deep slumber, even putting my head under the duvet, but I had to get up, as nature called, and the person or persons who needed to be up and about so early, readied themselves noisily. No consideration for others.

Eventually it all went quiet, and my head and body demanded more sleep, so I slipped back into my comfortable bed, beneath a warm cuddly duvet.

It seems as I travel the world delivering my courses in such places as China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Turkey, Italy etc, I never sleep in the same bed for more than ten days.

Each time I move to a new hotel or room, I have to get used to the bed and room.

                                                            My bedMy bed

Some beds are small singles, others are twins, yet others are gigantic beds, enough to hold a party. Some of the beds are so hard that it is like sleeping on a concrete floor, whereas some are so soft it is like floating in a warm tropical sea, others are of odd shapes, one was even like a banana giving me a very bad nights sleep.

I have to get accustomed to the layout of the rooms. Where are the light switches, so I can see in the dark. Which door is to the bathroom/toilet, I would not like to get it mixed up with a wardrobe in the middle of the night.

As I slipped under the duvet, pulling it up under my chin, that wave of sleep took over, my eyes closed, and as I drifted off, I started to dream, of some exotic harem (pronouned hareem), well I am in Turkey.

                                                                     Turkish Harem Turkish Harem

In this half dream half awake state, I suddenly started to panic.

Where was I?

Was I in a harem?

Which country am I in?

In the semi darkened room, I could not recognise anything, nothing made sense, was I in the UK, where was I?

My brain searched for answers, but found none, and I panicked more. I was lost.

Where was the belly dancer?

In my slowly emerging waking state, I searched for where the door as I lay there, where was the wardrobe?

What room was I in? I recognised nothing.

Slowly, slowly, I started to become aware of my surroundings, and I found myself once again.

By now I was fully awake, and there was no way I would get back to sleep.

It is strange how the brain can only take in a small proportion of information it is presented with (7 + /-2), and with that amount of information, (surface structure), comes up with stories of it’s own, it hallucinates to make sense of it, (deletes, distorts and generalises). click to read articles

This was not a good experience, but I look forward to slipping under the duvet tonight, I might find my belly dancer again. 

                                                                            Belly Dancer in my dreams Belly Dancer in my dreams
Who knows?

Categories
Culture Travels

Gong Xi Fa Cai


                                                                                Gong Xi Fa Cai   Gong Xi Fa Cai

Gong Xi Fa Cai, which is Chinese for Happy New Lunar Year, a very important time in the Chinese year. This year 2008 is the Year of the Rat.

                                                            Year of the Rat

The Chinese New Year celebration lasts for 15 days, and can fall anytime between 21st January and 20th February depending upon the full moon. 

The first day is the Chinese New Year, and is called the Spring Festival. Often little red packets (called an-pao in Malaysia) are given out to the unmarried members of the family by the married members, and contain money. Often houses are visited by the Lion Dancers bringing good luck.

                                                                            chinese new year card

The colour red is important to the Chinese at this time, with houses, buildings decorated in red, with Chinese auspicious phrases on banners and red lanterns, and people will often dress-up in red clothes.
 
Various special days are celebrated during this period, where the God of Fortune is greeted on the fifth day and fire crackers are let off, the loudest bringing the greatest fortune, but many fire crackers are let off on the first day.

The fifteenth day is the Lantern Festival (which is again celebrated in September), and where a special cake or dumpling made out of glutinous rice and is very sticky called the neen koh, is eaten, symbolising that the lips will be sealed together, thus not allowing the wrong doings of the family to be reported to the departed or spirits.

                                                                      Gong Xi Fa Cai

Categories
NLP

NLP in Gaziantep, Turkey and Bell’s Palsey (Palsy)


NLP arrived in Gaziantep in Southern Turkey, where 17 participants attended eager to learn and make a change.

                                                        Gaziantep January 2008 Gaziantep January 2008

Organised by Gap Consultancy in Gaziantep in conjunction with NLPNOW, it was a lively course, which allowed me to meet many more people, and try out new food and culture, including the tasty spoon and fork fruit, or its’ Turkish name of Medlar or Musmula. click to read.

Perhaps the most amazing and moving story to come out of the course was of a lady who had Bell’s Palsey (Palsy).

Bell’s Palsey is a condition which causes damage or inflammation of facial nerves, which results in paralysis or weakness of one side of the face, maybe resulting in the drooping and none closure of the eye and side of the mouth. The causes of Bell’s Palsey remains a mystery, perhaps with a viral infection playing a part, causing inflammation that presses on the nerves. 

Around 80% of sufferers make a recovery after about three months, but this lady had the problem for many years.

I was determined that at some stage, the problem with this lady would start to be resolved, and sure enough, she began to feel sensations returning to her face and her eye beginning to blink and close. We even saw a smile on her face.

It is at these times that I know that my work and training has worth, and that if there is a belief in that change can be made, then it can be.

Categories
Coaching NLP

Coaching, saying nothing with style.

I held a recent course in Istanbul on coaching, and one of the subjects or components of the course was the communication between the coach and the person being coached.

                                                   Coaching course February 2008, Istanbul, Turkey 
                                                                    Coaching course February 2008, Istanbul, Turkey.

Great teachers and philosophers of time were Socrates and his student and followers Plato and his student Aristotle, all knew the best way of teaching students, was to draw-out of them the knowledge, to understand that the knowledge is already there, the knowledge has to be accessed by the student or learner themselves.

Socrates devoted his life to talking to people of knowledge or claiming knowledge, then helping them to understand their ignorance as he understood his own, thus be able to increase their knowledge.

And thus it is with coaching someone. It is the function of a coach to guide, yes, but allow the coached person to find a solution themselves, which is believed is already available within, or that the person has the capabilities and resources to find the solution.

If a person has found a solution on their own accord, and they have committed to undertake that solution, they will be more likely to undertake and fulfill that solution, as against being told what to do.

To help the person being coached, we use chunking and the NLP Meta Model, to access the knowledge below the surface or within the deep structure of the mind or subconscious.

It is imperative that the coach keeps their understanding of the solution to themselves, to keep their cat off the mat, to understand that the map is not the territory.

The best way to keep the coaches way of understanding and thinking from that of the coached person, is for the coach to say nothing, but with style, and to give feedback as required that the coached person is learning and finding to right solution for them.

A great course. see web site www.c4coaching.com

Categories
Coaching Travels

A rest day


After a long run of courses, I find myself on a rest period. Nothing to do, but too much to do, and no time to do it in.

I know that there are lots of work I must catch-up on, as I have been away from the UK, plus my computer and the internet for too long.

My brain is still in training mode, and today I am finding it difficult to switch to relaxing or office work mode.

Perhaps writing a few journals can help me, considering the work I have undertaken and the prospects of the work coming up. I have so much in my head.

Cup of tea first I think, with a drop of milk. Sorry folks I am English. Tea with milk.

                                                            cup of tea and milk

Categories
English Sayings

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.


What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Firstly a gander is a male whilst a goose is a female.

                                                            goose, gander geese  goose or gander
   
This saying means what ever one does then it is alright or permissible for another person to do.

It is often used when one person does an action, something wrong against another person, then if the wronged person retaliates, does the same back then the saying “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” will be used.
 
For example. If one person makes a promise to do something, say pay for a service of work carried out, and the do not fulfill that promise or payment, then the person who has been wronged will withdraw their labour or not undertake their part of a bargain, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander“.

 

Categories
NLP

Where does time go.


I woke up just before my alarm clock was due to go off at 7:30am and I checked the time on my wristwatch, but that said 3:15am, and confusion reigned,  I could not believe it, as my watch never tells the wrong time.

The only answer was that the battery had run out, yet the watch was less than one year one, well one year in my ownership, how long it had lain in the shop I purchased it from is another story.

A friend said they would get the battery replaced, but that meant I have been without a wristwatch.

I did not know how many times a day I refer to my watch during a day, I was completely lost without it, and I was not in a position to use another watch from my collection.

The only solution would have to be to use a mobile phone I have which shows the time.

Then I got to think why don’t the manufacturers combine a wristwatch and mobile phone together.

The technology is there, chips are small enough to fit a phone and watch in the same small package, the answer to a battery, would be to house the battery in the wrist band, and we already have little blue tooth earpieces, proving that the speaker and mike can be close together.

Come on Samsung, Nokia or Casio, this device would truly be hands free.

                                                        Phillip's watchphone Phillip’s watchphone

Now I have lost my mobile phone, See Blog.