Integrate!

This is Kylemore Patience. We called her Kylie. She joined our family just after Christmas in 2001 and she left us on Wednesday. She left gently and with grace, patient as her breathing grew more and more difficult. She waited until my husband and I were both at home and then she let go. This is a time for tears. She was just a sweet little dog who couldn't do much of anything anymore except let us know that she valued our attention. Every plan we made, every day, we thought about her and worked around her, and tried to keep her safe and well. What difference does NLP make when it is time for tears? There is no affirmation or visualization that protects us from the day when someone we love leaves us. It doesn't happen because we are sloppy or negative. NLP does not allow anyone to outsmart life. Life still happens and tears still happen. NLP helps. It helped me know on the weekend that it was okay for her to steal the giant bone (to which she was probably allergic) an...

It's obvious to everyone that just before you drop, you should rest. Holidays are often seen as ways to ward off collapse from fatigue or burn out. When absolutely necessary, rest for a short time and then get back into the swing of things. This necessity arises at different times for different people in different kinds of work. For entrepreneurs, it arises just before they crash (if they're lucky). This isn't the best way to think productively. If we use the word "creative" lots of people feel they can sidestep the value of rest because they do not see themselves as "creative." For many years, I thought that having a research degree in a competitive field meant that I was an analytical thinker. I am, of course, an analytical thinker but it turns out that in no way also prevents me from being the kind of thinker who produces stuff: words and ideas and motivation and innovation. You might not be a creative person but it is likely that if you are readi...

Yes. I am being pretty hard on you. I said that to someone in a coaching session last night. He was curious about how I decide when to challenge and when to support. He'd watch me do some metaphor coaching, which probably looked like fun from the outside. It was about stepping into the body of a powerful animal and exploring a landscape to which that particular animal was well-suited. Compared to that, some probing questions that led to uncomfortable answers were rough. The difference was that the first client knew what he wanted and so we were able to explore what he wanted using a metaphor. That metaphor protected his privacy while it allowed him to discover that he was stronger than he might have thought as he approached a challenge. The challenge was relatively well-defined, and since he picked the metaphor there was no danger that I was leading him to feel stronger than he really is. He  felt pushed a little anyway. Coaching is not about letting someone sit with their li...

It's not really about the coffee (although I believe this was really good coffee). It's not even about having someone pour you a little springtime in the middle of a very long, very cold winter. It's about what changes in you as you make time and space to notice where and when you are as you sip the coffee. Sometimes it's a great coffee because you need to create a treat for yourself, a moment to gather energy and let your thoughts rest. You might be sitting on a dock in the sunrise or in a busy crowd at a cool independent coffee shop or you might sit for a moment instead of running out of the place you always pick up a coffee for the road. What makes it great is in the coffee and in you. It's the moment of "ahhh." And the next moment, when the satisfaction lingers and your mind moves on. Sometimes it's a great coffee because someone on the other side of the table has all of your attention. You sip your coffees and talk or do not talk, but yo...