Lodge It, Bodge It, Logic and Blog It

23^rd Apr 2007

This week's title may sound like a firm of solicitors, but these are four options with which I am repeatedly confronted.

'Lodging It' generally implies the process of lodging a complaint. I did go through a very determined 'complainer' phase in my life. I learnt assertiveness skills, which I still teach and which are still really useful, and I set to work in asserting myself with all kinds of (mostly retail) organisations.

The thing is, though, I started to get addicted to the adrenalin rush, and the assertiveness often slid down the slippery slope into a well of aggressive fantasy and behaviour. One Friday night, I was about to take on the entire board of a well known electrical goods retailer, when I fortunately remembered something: I have a life, a family and a creative soul. I had a choice between having a pleasant weekend, nurturing my children, or becoming the soulless villain in a latter day version of Les Miserables. Whingeing on and on about crap service, whilst I think it is legitimate, is pretty much a 'loser' kind of activity. I decided to cut my losses. I still name and shame companies that deliver poor service from time to time, but I now think there are more positive things to be doing.

I have moved on.

'Bodging It': well, professionally speaking I like to think I am a professional. When it comes to DIY though, it was a different story, until I realised that, as with 'complaining' there is no value in it for me personally. In fact, I have spent a lot more money and time trying to correct things that I have previously bodged than it would ever have cost me to find a professional to do the job properly in the first place. As Richard Koch puts it, find what you are good at and get brilliant at it. Find what you enjoy, and sub-contract everything else. What he doesn't say, but implies, is, if you are a demented tree frog with a pronounced tendency to self-delusional fantasies, you believe you are Sir Christopher Wren, have an allergy to sand, and arthritic knuckles, don't take up bricklaying.

I am getting there....being brilliant at what I love.....if I could just find someone who is brilliant at letting the public know how brilliant I am.....

Logic: now I have an ambivalent relationship with logic. Obviously, logic makes sense. Well..... it does until you begin to dig down into it. I know some fiercely rational, logical debaters. But the problem is, logic only makes sense if the basic premise on which your logical argument is constructed makes sense and is, in fact, factual.

If, however, your basic premise is, say, I am always the victim, or I am always right, or the fundamental, unifying force in the entire universe is custard, then no matter how logical the rest of your arguments are, the whole edifice will be fatally flawed. This is how fundamentalists in any cult or religion operate. They make one or two basic assumptions (usually three, actually; the three already mentioned, although the third one isn't generally custard) and then they set up study groups, research institutes, Phd's, practitioner accreditations, seminars (lots of seminars), terrorist camps (which are just seminars with guns) and off they go. That's not to say everyone who sets these things is beset with false premises. Some of them have very sound premises. And some of them, sadly, live in cardboard boxes under the arches at Waterloo station.

The shame is, lots of them are intelligent and potentially worthy people. They are just missing the one important fact. Everyone is different. Your idea of a perfect world and my idea of a perfect world are different. The creative force in the universe comes from its diversity, from consciousness and from tolerance and celebration of difference and contradiction.

If you want to employ real logic, try this.

In NLP (neuro linguistic programming), Robert Dilts developed a model called Logical Levels. It is a great model and if you want a really good explanation of it, get hold of a copy of 'NLP for Dummies' by Romilla Ready and Kate Burton.

In essence it says that whenever you want to change yourself or your business, you need to find the right level at which to intervene. The right level is the one where you can begin the process of change without freaking out and losing the baby with the bathwater. It also implies that the limitations that may be hindering the desired change reside in one or more of these logical levels.

The six levels at which you can intervene to make change form a kind of hierarchy and are (starting with the what is probably the easiest point of intervention): ENVIRONEMNT (external factors like where, when, who with?); BEHAVIOUR (actions and response, in other words, what?); CAPABILITIES (skills, knowledge, experience that support behavioural change, in other words, how?); BELIEFS (these are what provide motivation and begin to address the question, why?); IDENTITY (this is about our sense of ourselves, so answers the questions, who am I/ who are we, really?); and finally, PURPOSE (the bigger, world view level; the all embracing vision, which may address the questions 'for whom' or 'for what?').

SO HERE IS THE EXERCISE:

Think about a change which you want to achieve (define this change in terms of achieving a better outcome in life, or business).

Now find the level at which it feels easiest and most beneficial to you to begin the process of change. At what level could you make the most significant change now, without completely scaring yourself to death? The point about starting off easy is that it gives you positive feedback and hence, confidence, to take on some of the more challenging levels. Here are a few, fairly random ideas to get you going:

ENVIRONMENT:

Change your physical environment. Paint the walls a different colour. Work outside (or inside) for a change. Put up some posters or slogans that create focus around the desired change. Put a Louis Armstrong cd on (on the cd player..... or your forehead).

BEHAVIOUR:

Which of your current habits are bugging you most? (see me for help with changing habits). Find out what you are doing which is not working and do something different. Sing furiously and dementedly, or in a languid, sonorous fashion, or any other style you prefer (I find scat singing like Louis Armstrong helps). Experiment with doing things differently; like turning up for work half an hour earlier, or later. Discuss and agree behavioural changes, for limited time periods, with your colleagues, and then review and change again until everyone is happy and productive. Eat in the eating room instead of in the bath. It's just an experiment.

CAPABILITIES:

This is easy. Learn something! If you want to be more logical, ask yourself what specific skills, knowledge and attitudes are required to achieve a given outcome, and then acquire these capabilities or enable others to acquire them. If you don't know what skills, knowledge and attitudes are required to achieve a given outcome, go and find the greatest exponent and the most successful achiever of your desired outcomes and copy everything they do. (Unfortunately Louis Armstrong is dead, but I can lend you his cd's and also provide rudimentary trumpet lessons for anyone who is interested. Bring your own trumpet.)

BELIEFS:

Pretend, for a day, that you could, even if you don't really believe it...just pretend you do believe you could....just for a day. After all, once you have FOR A DAY, then a day and one hour isn't much longer. And a day and an hour isn't that much shorter than say a day and a half....or two days...or three...three days is nearly half a week..... and if you can believe YOU COULD for half a week, a whole week will be easy.....OR A FORTNIGHT.

Focus on what you want to achieve, go into a trance (come on the HypnoBusiness self-hypnosis weekend, see below!) and build a really vivid sensory experience of having already achieved your desired outcomes. Do this daily. Only focus on the positive outcome and then decide each day, what the next step is...the next action which you will take, in the next few minutes (i.e. learn something, do something, change your environment etc. Action is the friend of achievement.)

IDENTITY:

Think about your desired outcome and put your hand on your heart. Breathe in and out slowly, three or four times, pausing for a few seconds between each inhalation and exhalation. As you do so, when you are ready, ask yourself,

"Is this what I really, really want? Is this me? Is this what makes my heart sing and the bells go ding?"

For a small(ish) l fee you can enjoy a forty minute trance with me whilst I take you to the real authentic you... the person you have always known, deep down, you really are.

Purpose:

Think about your desired outcome, as chosen at the outset of this exercise. Now ask yourself, why? Why do I want to achieve that? So that I can....? So that they will....? So that the world is....?

With each answer, ask yourself again, why? Sometimes you can get through 5 or 6 'whys' before you get to your true purpose. When you get there, you'll know. Now you can check back with the original desired outcome you selected at the beginning of the exercise and test it against your overall purpose. How will ABC (your original outcome) help me to achieve XYZ (you overall purpose)?

You can start at whatever level you want within the six logical levels, but most people find that earlier ones easier to begin with. It's up to you.

Now, Blog It!

I blame Laura McHarrie. If you don't know Laura it's because you haven't yet joined Business Exchange in Dorset. Laura knows everything and everybody about and in business in Dorset, and she has been hounding me relentlessly for months. Well, when I saying 'hounding me', I mean, she sent me a couple of e mails.

Laura has this delightfully innocent notion that if I start a BLOG I might be able to keep it down to less than a page and then direct people who want more to the full blown newsletter, which, as you know, is rarely less than 5 pages.

There are some other reasons why I am keen to start a blog (or rather, several blogs), but I am not going to tell you much for now, as we will be onto the sixth page shortly.

In short, there will be blogs on HypnoBusiness Therapy (HBT) and HypnoBusiness Training (also HBT). There will also be a shorter version of the newsletter with just the exercises. And finally there will be a 'Richard The Bear' blog. If you desperately want to know more about Richard the Bear before the blog gets going, you will have to email me and I will do my best to explain.

For an introduction to HypnoBusiness go to http://hypnobusiness.blogwessex.com

You will also find Laura's blogs at http://thehiddenedge.blogwessex.com

Now, one last thing. Actually, two last things:

Thing Number 1: On Wednesday 20 June Lisa Pierson and I will be running a workshop (not a seminar, you understand) ....a workshop on Performance. The workshop is all about how to improve your performance in any respect. So if you are in sales, the performing arts, or business, or you simply want to perform better in your career, this is the workshop for you.

It will be tremendous fun. There will be a lot of performing. It will be safe and you will come away bristling with confidence, drive and focussed energy, ready to WOW your customers, your boss, your target audience. Details will be on the website later this week. www.hbtuk.com

Thing Number 2: On Saturday/Sunday 21/22 July, I will be running the first ever HypnoBusiness Training session in Bournemouth. This unique weekend event will provide you with all the basic skills and confidence you need to utilise self-hypnotic trance in your work, hobbies and personal life. You will learn how to induce your own trance; how to deepen trance; how to create and implant positive, safe and effective post-hypnotic suggestions; how to use self-hypnosis to create the life and business you have always wanted; and how to keep the whole process safe and ethical. There will be some guided fantasy work which will focus especially on how to access your creative mind. There will not be any stage hypnosis and you will feel totally comfortable and completely safe throughout the whole weekend. The workshop is open to anyone but if you have suffered from clinical depression or epilepsy talk to me first. Details will be posted on the website shortly. www.hbtuk.com

Until next time.....

A NOTE ABOUT COPYRIGHT:

Basically, I work on 'abundance mentality'. The more I share, the more comes back to me. There a couple of rules I would like you to observe.

You can use the content of these newsletters in any context as long as you display the following statement in the quotes below:

"This material was created and is owned by Harvey Taylor and HBT (UK) Ltd. It may be used in any context for any life enhancing purpose provided this message is clearly displayed.

Where the use of this material generates a financial profit for the person or legal entity using it, these persons or legal entities will be responsible for informing Harvey Taylor and HBT (UK) Limited and will be required to share a reasonable portion of this profit with Harvey Taylor and HBT (UK) limited in proportion to the profit generated by the use of the said materials. "