Top 5 Tips: 如何在更短暫的時間完成更多?

時間總是不足夠的，我們總是希望在更少時間完成更多事情，問題是如何能夠做到，在這裡是我的一些具生產力的習慣。

1. 集結類似的活動：不要反覆地開始和停下來，而是你要集合差不多的工作一起地處理，例如一次過回覆所有來電等等。

2. 只用一本記事簿：不要使用超過一本記事簿，你將以混亂告終，只是一本，不要在你的辦公室中使用一本而在你家中使用另外一本，只使用一本記事簿，來記載你所有的任務和需辦的工作，我只使用我的電子手帳，而我每天也與我的電腦進行同步，確使它們吻合。

3. 創造私人時間：與你自己約會是一個十分有生產力的習慣，每天保留一小時完全與外界斷絕，一小時完全平靜的時間，你可以完成大量積存的工作，就告訴人家你在開會吧！

4. 定出2個最終期限：除了真的期限之外，另加一個假的最終期限，假的最終期限在真的一個前幾天，你將把更多緩衝加到你的任務和生活中。

5. 使用事務總表：把你的所有需辦事務放在一個總表中，為每項任務加上一個日期，這比你把不同的任務放在不同的表中節省你更多時間，你將更難去遺漏任何一項任務。

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Different Perspectives in Seeing Things

Hi,

Today during the Career Coach Program, I told our participants that we can help our clients or others to see more by coaching them to look at the other perspectives.

But what is perspective?

Perspectives are the different sides of what you are looking at. To help others to see the other side, we must firstly be aware of what is their current perspective. We can then encourage them to see the other perspective by naming it.

Here are 6 very common perspectives in addition to the 18 others that I had mentioned in today's class:

1. Limited/Unlimited

2. Conservative/Progressive

3. Problems/Lessons to be Learned

4. Right or Wrong/Workable or Unworkable

5. Old/Newer

6. Surface Level/Deeper Level


Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Top 5 Tips: 為自己充電

Hi,

正如先前曾提及，我將陸續把過去的文章整理後刊登於本網頁中，首先整理的就是我的Top 5 Tips。

這是第一篇整理好的。

Top 5 Tips: 為自己充電

每日我們的生活都充斥著那麼多的期限和責任，為了達成所有這些期限和責任，我們通常花費了我們的所有可用的時間和精力，最後我們得不到足夠時間保養我們自己，壓力，頭疼，疲勞是通常的副產品。

在太遲以前，請在下邊發現一些簡單的秘訣來為自己充電。

1. 休息：沒有什麼東西比睡覺更能令你渙然一新，盡可能地睡得充足，我不相信我們會睡得過多，這根本無法在現代人中存在。

2. 飲水： 每天至少飲6 杯水，我們的新陳代謝需要用水來令我們的身体更正常運作，我知道這是每個人都瞭解的事實，但是你每天究竟飲多少水呢？

3. 運動：運動能夠減少壓力，無論什麼安全的運動也是好的，如果你沒有很多時間，15 分鐘的步行是很不錯的選擇。

4. 接近大自然：適度的緊張在生活中是可以是很有用的，太多的話就令人身心疲乏，如果我們城市人能夠多點到大自然中，那將會是既輕鬆又愉快的，考慮一下在周末到郊外或者午飯時到公園散散步吧。

5. 選擇：你可能不能奢侈地挑選你工作期間時做什麼，但是你絕對能在工作後有所選擇，你大可選擇你想見的人及你想做的事。

Keith To
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Personal Development: 我的前提假設 2004-2006

Hi,

既然發佈了今年的前提假設, 不如也把過去三年的也一併登出, 公諸同好:

2006年我的前提假設:

1. Things naturally go Bad. 事情自然轉壞

2. You can Choose to live in, below or above the Matrix. 你可以選擇活在思維矩陣之中, 之下, 或之上

3. Discovering, Destroying, and then Designing your life Again is the way to keep Alive. 發現、破壞、重新設計你的生命, 就是生存之道

4. Consciousness starts when you see Yourself being Unconscious. 意識顯化由發現自己並未清醒開始

5. When you see the Connections amongst Information, you get Ideas. 當你發現資料中的關聯，你找到意念


2005年我的前提假設:

1. See this year as 2010. 今年就是2010年

2. Innovation is not enough, we Re-Generate. 創新不足令你生存的，請重生概念

3. There are Signs everywhere! 訊號四處皆是！

4. You are Logical and so you are Creative. 你理性，所以你創新

5. Development builds from Awareness. 發展源自醒覺

6. You are what you look like, even though you are not. 你就是你的樣子，就算你不是


2004年我的前提假設:

1. Selfishness is great! 自私其實是好的!

2. Communication is a spectrum of Discovery & Influence. 溝通是一個發現/影響頻譜

3. Don't believe in your eyes and your mind. 不要相信你的眼睛和思想

4. Knowing is not Knowledge. 知道不是知識

5. Things/People can be Awesome or Awful. 人/事可以是好, 可以是壞

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

My Point of View: 我的2007年前提假設

Hi,

每年我都為自己定立些前提假設，作為自己的指導原則，今年也不例外，也希望與你分享，喜歡及相信與否，請自行決定：

1. Be a Hub! 成為萬能集線器! 在今天複雜不斷變化的環境中，能集思轉化才能不斷適應創新，就好像一個萬能集線器，它既能從不同的來源收集資訊，更能加以轉化成為合乎自己及他人所需，再發揚出去！

2. Stay on Purpose. Not on Outcome! 留在目的，不在目標! 目標只是達成目的的過程；不知目標，不知何去何從；只知目標，不知目的，也許只是盲目追求！

3. Don't Trust your Eyes! 不要相信你的眼睛! 太多事情我們看不出我們看不出，就算親眼看到，也不一定就是事實，更不用說只是聽說未有看過的！

4. Transcends Boundaries! 超越邊界! 每個人都不自覺地自定邊界，什麼是我的範疇，什麼不是；不自我超越破界而出，空談改進發展，根本於事無補！

5. Signs are Everywhere! 訊號四處皆是! 前年已是我的前提假設，深感四處皆是訊號，自己看到的比未看到的遠遠的少，今年再提醒自己，不斷看清世界與及自己；任何事物，皆有外露徵狀，連徵狀也看不到，說什麼可得什麼發現！

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Making "ideas & Thoughts of Keith To" into a Database of All My Works

Hi,

In the beginning of this year, I decided to enrich the content of this website, www.keithto.ws. I want to put all my works, past, present and future into this blog so that everyone can read something about my ideas, thoughts, theories, concepts, "inventions", etc, if they want to.

My objective is to turn this website of "Ideas & Thoughts of Keith To" into a Database of Information. If you want information of NLP, Hypnosis, Coaching, Facilitation, Development, etc, you can find some here.

Apart from just adding information to this site, I am adding various search functions in order to make accessing the information easier.

1. We have already have the "Labels" function. You can see a "Label" tag at the end of each article. For example, you will find an "Announcement" Label at the end of this article. If you click the link, all the past postings of announcement will be displayed.

2. There is a "Categories" function at the right hand side of the web-page. When you click the category link, all related articles in our database will be listed. I am making use of the Google Search Engine to do it. It is not perfect yet. Some of our older postings can't be found. I will learn how to improve it later this year.

3. I will add a "Training Programs Listing" function later. You can find all related training of mine there. Furthermore, I will write new articles more frequently and I will also add most of my older writings to the database. One of them is all my "Top 5 Tips" that I had written in the past 4+ years.

I am absolutely not a computer expert, so I will do all these slowly in 2007! Really wish you will enjoy all of the information and get something out of them!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Article Written Years Ago - The Chair of Success

Hi,

This is my 7th re-published article on NLP that I have wriiten years ago.

The Chair of Success

What make you successful?

Some people can tell but most can't. If you even don't know what make you successful, will it be possible to be really successful?

Your subconscious mind always knows what can help you successful. The following skill can help you to discover what you already know. This skill will reflect what's inside your subconscious.

Sit down and imagine yourself sitting on a chair. Each leg of the chair is an element making you successful. How many legs are needed for you sitting stable enough for success? One, two, three, four or more. How many exactly?

Now focus on the first leg of your chair. What is it? It can be anything. Just believe in your intuition. What comes to your mind now? Then, go to the second leg and ask again. Then the third, fourth and so on.

After you complete all the legs, imagine yourself sitting on your seat of success. How do you feel? Do you need adding or deleting any legs? Do you want to change any of the legs? Do you really want any of the leg, or do you really want this chair?

Why?

When you are completely satisfy with your chair, sit there for a minute. These are the elements for your success. What can you do with these elements? What can be done to enhance these
further? Then, imagine the sense of success going all the way from the chair to your body. Fill up your body with this sense of success. Enjoy it.

Next time when you feel stuck, imagine sitting on your chair ofsuccess and choices will come through to you.


Keith's 2007 Remark:

1. This is a typical application of the NLP Skills of Collecting Resources and Anchoring.

2. You can use this skill for anything else. It can also be a chair of job promotion, a chair of a good father, a chair of impressive public speaking, etc.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Learning from Life #121 - #125

Hi,

This is another edition of Learning from Life.

121. People expect something very different from what you think you can deliver. Forget about their expectation to live a happier life!

122. Too much work is not fun!

123. Too little, neither!

124. We need to build a boundary around us to protect ourselves. But make sure that it is large enough and make it flexible.

125. People disappoints you, and you disappoint others, too.


Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is about Thinking Part 9 - Why Modeling?

Hi,

This is Section 2 of our article series, NLP is about Thinking.

Someone asked me recently why we model. So, I decided to write this article (just one article) as Section 2 of the series - Why Modeling?

The co-originators of NLP, Richard Bandler & John Grinder started to model the greatest therapists to identify their models of effective and efficient therapy during 70's. This was the birth of NLP. Years after years, Bandler, Grinder and many other NLP co-developers, trainers and practitioners continued to model. The co-originators even declared that NLP is Modeling rather than the thousands of NLP models as the results of the modeling process. Why?

Because this unique NLP Modeling Process can help people finding out the "how" of the great techniques of great performers of any kind! Then we and all others people can follow the steps of these great people to excellence. (If you want to know more about the uniqueness of the NLP Modeling Process, have a look at my other article, 4 Key Elements of NLP Modeling)

But why should we learn the Modeling Process? Why can't we just learn from the existing models?

There can be hundreds of good reasons to model, here are 8 to consider:

1. Modeling Someone's Excellence. When you come across someone performing great in something you want to learn, you can model them by yourself! You learn faster!

2. Modeling Organizations and Cultures. You can also understand better how other (or yours) organizations and cultures functioning. We can benchmark them to get their strategies and we can also get along with them easier.

3. Modeling Others' Failures. You don't need to fail first to become successful in something. We can always model others' failures. We are not good at learning from failures so we fail again and again. Why? Because we do not have a systematic and effective method to learn. Modeling can be one of the answers. Modeling failures can also help us to help others to improve themselves.

4. Modeling Problems. One thing is quite sure for yesterday, today and in the future - Problems always exist. Many even believe that we are employed to solve the problems for our employers. We, ourselves have problems, at home, in the workplace, etc. If we can know how a problem works, problem solving is much easier.

5. Modeling Opportunities. Interesting? Yes, we can model opportunities! It is frustrating not to get hold of opportunities and let them pass by us. One of the reasons is that we do not know how they look so we can't recognize them. Even we can manage not to miss them, we might not be able to utilize them because we do not know how they work. Modeling helps us to notice them and use them.

6. Modeling Others' Thinking. Then we can communicate and persuade them according to their way of thinking! The problem why we can't persuade is that we are doing that according to our own thinking, not theirs. When we are proficient at modeling, we can Simultaneously Model others and get simultaneous feedback at the same time. Speed is everything, when persuading!

7. Modeling from History, Books and any other form of Information. Even we can't meet someone in person (we don't know them or they had already passed-away), we can still model them. It opens up a vast pool (or sea!) of knowledge to us! Learning from information is always difficult since we tend to analyze or memorize, rather than seeing how something happened.

8. Modeling Yourself. The last but not the least, modeling oneself is most important! We are aware of the importance of Self-Awareness, but we might not be aware of how to get it! We can model ourselves! We model our own successes, failures, problems, thinking and our history! We can then duplicate our achievements. We can stop repeating our problems and failures. We can adjust our own insane thinking. We understanding more about the most important person in the world - Yourself!

Learn Modeling and teach them to all others around you. Today, we are facing Information-Overflow, but we are always Knowledge-Deficient. Knowledge is the Understood and Usable Information. What can make it understood and what can make it usable? Modeling!

When more people are doing Modeling, we are adding knowledge to our world. This is my wish and this is my goal!

See you all again in Section 3 of the articles series.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Article Written Years Ago - Dissociation for Awareness

Hi,

This is my 6th re-published article on NLP that I have wriiten years ago.

Dissociation for Awareness

This is a story about a prisoner.

The prisoner was so unhappy after sending to the prison that he refused to go out of his cell. Later he was too depressed and becoming very sick. He was forced out of his cell to the clinic.

On the way, he discovered the prison was surrounded by mountains. The sky is so blue and the mountain is so green. He wondered why he never aware of such beauties.

His life changed dramatically. He was still a prisoner, but he took a totally different attitude. He studied hard for not just one, but three college degrees, the bachelor, master and doctor within
his 10 years of imprisonment. He is now a very successful therapist helping lots of people day after day.

Let me explain a bit further. The cell is your mind. If you lock yourself inside your own cell, you can see nothing but the walls of your own prison. You can't see above, below and around yourself. You can aware of nothing, opportunities and threats.

Until you open the door (your mind?) and walk out of your cell, you then can have a complete view.

In NLP, we use dissociation to gain that awareness. When you are associated, you see from your own eyes, hear from your own ears. You can easily feel stuck. You lock yourself inside your own prison. By dissociation, you detach yourself from your body and see things in a much larger view.

When you feel yourself mentally stuck, do something different physically. We believe our mind and body are inter-linked. Shake your head and look around. Notice where you are. Notice every details in the room, on the desk, outside the windows, etc. You gradually drift yourself to the dissociated state where awareness appears.

When you are stuck with yourself or others, stand back and observe yourself and others. By doing this, you physically and mentally detach yourself.

Of course, if you find something interest or exciting, do associate with it and enjoy. It is really sad to detach from happiness while associate with frustration and disappointment.

(Keith 2007's Remark: Excel might be coming from "Ex" & "Cell", "Ex" = "out of")


以抽離來覺察

這是關於一個囚犯的故事。

囚犯在送去監獄以後，他感覺很不快樂，他拒絕離開自己的牢房，稍後，他變得消沉，並因此而得病，他被迫送到他牢房外面的診所。

在途中，他發現監獄是被山所包圍，天空是很藍的，山是很綠的，他驚訝為什麼他從不意識到這樣的美麗。

他的生命戲劇性地改變了，他當然還是一個囚犯，但是他以另一種完全不同的態度去生活。他拼命地學習，在他的十年牢獄生涯裡，他取得不只一個，而是三個大學學位，學士、碩士和博士學位，他現在是很成功的臨床心理學家，日復一日地幫助很多很多人。

讓我進一步說明一下，牢房就是你自己的思維，如果你把自己鎖在你的自己的思想牢房裡面，你只會看見你自己的監獄中的墻壁，你不能看到上面、下面及你的週遭，你不能察覺到什麼－機會和威脅。

直到你打開門(你的頭腦?)，離開你的牢房，你才可以看到一幅完整的景象。在 NLP 中，我們使用抽離(Dissociation)來獲取這種覺察，當你在聯繫(Association)時，你從你自己的眼睛看事物，你從你的耳朵聽東西，你很容易就被膠著，動彈不得，你把自己鎖在自己的思想監獄裡面。通過抽離，你好像從自己的身體分離出去，以一個更大的角度看待事物。

當你心裡感覺到自己卡住時，你可以做一些不同的事情，如改變姿勢，我們相信我們的思維與我們的身體是相互連結的。搖搖你的頭，四處張望，刻意察覺自己身在何方，察覺週圍環境的每一細節，如察覺窗外的情況，察覺在桌子上的東西等等，讓自己逐漸抽離出來。

當你發覺自己膠著時，想像自己退後一步，觀察自己和他人，透過這樣做，你身心均從自己中抽離出來。當然，如果你發現一些有趣的事情，你應聯繫並好好享受其中樂趣，抽離快樂但卻聯繫困惑和失望是十分令人悲傷的。


Keith To
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Mental Symbology Level 2 Workshop: Full!

Hi,

We are going to do the advanced version of the Mental Symbology Program, the Level 2 Workshop next weekend.

It is fully booked and thanks all for your support!

You can go here to get some of the MP3 recordings of our Level 1 Workshop so that you can learn some ideas about how to use Symbology to help yourself and others.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Coaching: Coaching is about Discovery Part 1 - Discovering What?

Hi,

I am starting another articles series - Coaching is about Discovering. Although I am still working on another series (NLP is about Thinking), I just can't stop myself to start something new. (Might be I need some coaching?!)

This is Part 1 of the series. I am really not sure about when will Part 2 be available. It might be months later.

Back to 2001 when I start teaching Coaching, I told the participants that "Coaching" would become a buzz word in a few years' time (at that time, most of the people in business field of Hong Kong still haven't heard of the term). I also told them that with more people knowing about Coaching, there would be more and more misunderstandings. Both happened!


What is Coaching?

If you ask someone about Coaching, they will tell you different stories. Many people think that Coaching is like Training, Counselling, Persuading, Therapy, Advising, etc. If Coaching is about the above, then why gives her another name?!

No, Coaching is nothing about the above. It is something totally different. Coaching is about Discovery!

Coaching helps others by facilitating their discovery. The more they can discover, the higher their awareness.


But discovering what?

There are 3 levels of discovery.

1. Discovering about their Thinking about Themselves, their situations, their goals, their problems, their opportunities, their strength, their threats, their limitations, etc. These are what they think, their Perceptions!

2. Discovering about Themselves, their situations, their goals, their problems, their opportunities, their strength, their threats, their limitations, etc. These are what really are, the Reality!

3. Discovering what they don't know they don't know about Themselves. These are their Blindspots. The above 2 levels are something they don't know. When they know about it, they improve! But at this 3rd level, they are going to discover something they don't know they don't know! These are stuff that are totally out of their awareness. They just don't know their existence. When they know about it, they develop!


Is Coaching better?

No. Coaching is NOT more superior than all other helping skills. It is just different. Not everyone can be benefited from Coaching. Coaching is only for those who are willing to discover by themselves. Not every moment is suitable for Coaching. Coaching is appropriate only when time is available for a rather slow process of discovery.


Then why Coaching?

There is 2 distinctive advantages.

1. Acceptance. When people find out stuff by themselves, they are more readily to accept it. There needs no persuasion, which might be required in other forms of helping.

2. No Misleading. We do not direct or lead our clients when coaching. So, there is much less dangers of misleading others to wrong and unrealistic conclusions.

Coaching might result in Improvement and/or Development. Then, what is Improvement and Development? Let's discuss in Part 2 of the series.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Learning from Life: #116 - #120

Hi,

This is another set of my learning from life:

116. Things change, people come & go, appreciate what you have.

117. Respect and then you attract.

118. There are roads of most resistance and there are also roads of least resistance.

119. Worry does not help and it harms, too!

120. If you bring joys, you are more accepted.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Article Written Years Ago - How to Achieve Your Goals?

Hi,

This is the 5th re-published article on NLP that I have written years ago.

How to Achieve Your Goals?

Millions of people had talked about setting and achieving goals. But still millions of people can't succeed.

Why?

One of the reasons is we always wrongly educate our sub-conscious mind.

I had once seen a lady who wish to loss weight by pasting a picture of a really fat woman on the door of her fridge. According to her, the picture is used to remind her not to over-eat or else she will become as fat as the one in the picture.

What is the result?

She gained weight 20 pound after 2 months.

Again, why?

That picture really does the work well. It serves as a reminder to her sub-conscious mind to make her becoming just like the woman in the picture.

Our sub-conscious mind is just like a gigantic baby. He is powerful and straightforward. He will perform anything if you keep on telling him to do so.

So set up a positive goal. If you want to achieve something, put a picture of what you want in front of you. Then you are educating your sub-conscious towards your goals.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Article Written Years Ago - Eyes of the Tiger

Hi,

This is the 4th re-published article on NLP that I have written years ago.

Eyes of the Tiger

Remember the movie Rocky V. The original sound track is called the Eyes of The Tiger. I was really impressed by the movie that I had watched it for 5 times.

When Rocky could not wear the eyes of the tiger facing his challenger, he lost. He was frightened by the much stronger enemy. Finally, when the eyes of the tiger was in him, all the confidence, power and energy were triggered off and he won the game.

In NLP, we are talking about how to shift ourselves from one state to another state. For example, from a state of shyness to a state of confidence, from frighten to brave, from confusion to clarity, etc. NLP actually is the science of State Management.

But how can we achieve the effective shifting? For NLP Practitioners, we will use all those tools like Resources, Anchoring, Swish pattern, etc. However, I seldom use all these because I have another much easier and effective way, which I call the Eyes of the Tiger. I invented this well before I learned NLP. This was more than 20 years ago when I watched my fifth time the Rocky V.

When you need confidence, power and energy, wear the Eyes of the Tiger, just as Rocky did. Imagine yourself being a tiger, a strong tiger. You see the environment through these eyes of the tiger. How does a tiger's eye look? Do as what the tiger's eye looks. Within seconds, you are filled up with all those confidence, power and energy you need.

As we Chinese says, eyes are the windows of our souls. It affects the inside of us, but it even affects others, too. Many people judge another by looking at their eyes. You can pretend to be confident. You can look confident, but your eyes can betray you. This is the weakest part of our body, physically and mentally. But when you can wear the "set" of eyes you need, you gain the resources you want from inside out.

If you want to be quick in response, wear the eyes of a leopard.

If you want to be observant, wear the eyes of an eagle.

If you want to be persistent, wear the eyes of a camel

Just have your own sets of eyes ready, and you can access any of the Human Resources at any time.

(Keith's Remark in 2007: This is an application of the Content-Less High Performance State. We put ourselves in a Generalized 2nd Position of something having the resources we want.)

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is about Thinking Part 8 - Language

Hi,

This is Part 8 of our series of NLP is about Thinking and this is also the last part of our Section 1 - The Map is not the Territory of our article series.

The Map is not the Territory. Our Internal Reality is not exactly the External Reality. Einstein had once said that we could never know the true reality. he is absolutely right as we always delete, distort and/or generalize our outside world.

In our last 4 parts, we have already discussed the first 4 Factors which make "The Map is not the Territory". Today, we will proceed to the last factor, Language.

How does language creates the discrepancies between our map and the territory?

1. Language Has Limitations. Language is used to represent and communicate what we perceive & think. However, the information of what we perceive and think is in form of Sensory Data, i.e what we see, hear, feel, smell and taste. Language itself has limitations. Language might not be accurately used to represent and communicate them fully and exactly. This creates the discrepancies.

2. People Chooses Different Words. When we communicate, different people use different words to represent the same experience due to the difference of their filters. Even we hear the same words from someone, different people will have a different map about what he is talking about and it is quite sure that all these maps are not the same as the map of the speaker.

3. Words Used Imply Meanings to the Experience. As mentioned above, different people use different words to represent the same experience. Once the words are chosen, the experience is then influenced and limited by those words. He is not just him any more, he become a "bad guy" if we choose such words to describe him.

To reduce such discrepancies, we can

1. Become Multi-Lingual. Each language has her own limitations. The more languages that we can use to represent and communicate our experience, the less discrepancy will be created.

2. Be Good at Language. My primary teacher had once told me that if someone was good at language, he/she could be good at anything if he/she chose to learn it. She was right. If we can have more vocabularies to describe our perceptions and thinking, we can choose the more appropraite words.

3. Extend the Duration of Observation before we start to choose words to describe it. We form the First Access (FA) or the initial perception when we perceive something. The process is so fast that we tend to miss important information. Intentionally extending the duration allows us picking up as much information as possible. There is a paradox here. If we get more information, it becomes even more difficult to choose the right words to represent it.

4. Use Multiple Descriptions for the same experience. One single word or phrase might not be able to represent the experience close enough. We can use several different descriptions in our thinking and communication. This also promotes the use of different frames and perceptual positions, both for yourself and for the people you are communicating with.

5. Apply Meta-Model if Appropriate. In NLP, the Deep Structure is all the sensory information of the experience while the Surface Structure is the language we used to represent all those information in the Deep Structure. To communicate efficiently, the Surface Structure is a much deleted, distorted and generalized version of the Deep Structure. It is efficient but might not be effective. It can cause misunderstandings. Meta-Model is a special kind of language pattern use to reveal the Deep Structure during communication. You can find it in most of those good NLP books or we will discuss them in our NLP Practitioner Program.

Our maps are just the deleted, distorted, and generalized Perceptions and Linguistic Representations of the outside world. They are never the outside world.

This concludes our Section 1 of the article series. Starting next posting, we will continue to Section 2 - the NLP Modeling Process.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is about Thinking Part 7 - Filters

Hi,

This is Part 7 of our series of NLP is about Thinking.

I am speeding up myself in writing so as to at least finish the first major section of this articles series before the start of the NLP Practitioner Program this year.

We are continuing to discuss the 5 Factors that make "Our Maps are not the Territory". Filters is the 3rd factor. Filter is the single most core concepts of NLP. You can say that all other 4 factors are Filters-related.

The Physical Barriers, Missing Perspectives, Time and Language Factors create the discrepancies between our Map (Internal Reality) and the Territory (External Reality) and at the same time they add and/or alter the related Filters, which continue to generate the discrepancies in a long run, with or without those original factors existing.

For example, you saw one of your friends not caring your feelings as he was shouting loudly to you when you had make a mistake. However this might not be the reality as it is his habit to talk loudly when he is worrying. This is a typical Physical Barriers example. However, this individual incident might not affect your perception just once. It might also create a Belief (one of the Filters) of "He is not a caring person". This belief affects how you perceive and interact with your friend in the future.

We formed most of our Filters during our grown-up. During our earlier years of our lives, we do not have many filters. So, it is too easy for us to take in so many filters from people and situations around us, your parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, teachers, classmates, church, your school life, TV programs, etc. As we grow up, it becomes more difficult to add and alter filters as our existing filters "filter" off most of them.

There are basically 3 types of Filters: Value, Belief & Rule.

1. Values are what you think that are important. They are the qualities that are intrinsically desirable to us. When our values being met, we feel satisfied and harmonious. Our values influence the goals and choices that we make. Our values direct our Perceptions and thus our actions. If someone values "stability", he/she will constantly evaluate a situation whether it causes stability or instability.

2. Beliefs are what you think that are real. This guides our Meaning-Making System. It gives meaning to what is perceived. One can find something interesting, but another one can perceive it as annoying. Thus it affects our Reactions and Expectations.

3. Rules are what you think that are right or wrong. Rules connect some of our values to our actions. If we think something is important, we will non-consciously set some rules to make the value being valued by us and by others. Our rules make our actions and behaviours consistent, but they might also limit us to change or choosing other options of action.

All our Filters (Beliefs, Values & Rules) are just what we think. It can be real or far from reality.

Our filters can be conscious or non-conscious to us. Most of our filters are non-conscious. We do not know their existence but they affect us. So discovering your filters are one of the most important kinds of Self-Awareness.

Our Filters create discrepancies between our maps and the reality through 3 fundamental mechanisms, Deletion, Distortion and Generalization.

1. Deletion is the process of we selectively focus on part(s) of the experience and excluding others. The world is too complicated. Deletion reduces the world to make us capable of handling.

We might delete part of the outside information Content, e.g. we focus only on someone's out of style dressing, while ignoring what he is talking. We might also delete part of the Context, e.g. we focus only on someone's tone of speech. Furthermore, we can even delete most of the Outside World, e.g. you sink into your inside world to think of something important while forgetting everything outside.

We usually delete something we think which is not important to us (i.e. Non-Values), or which is not real (i.e. Non-Belief), or which is right or wrong (i.e. Rule & Non-Rule).

2. Distortion is the process of shifting our experience of outside world's information. It alters the information so as to match our original Preconceptions and/or Perceptions. For example, when one of your staff is late to work, you immediately think that he is lazy without asking for when happened to him.

We use Filters to distort the Outside World to fit our Filters. Great arts and breakthrough in science can be resulted from a distortion from the present reality of the world.

3. Generalization is the process of detaching one element of the experience and taking that element representing the whole category of which the experience is an example. Through generalization, we draw global conclusions based on one, two or more experiences.

Generalization can be Useful or Limiting. We can generalize that rejecting an opinion from our superior is not polite. This makes you having good relationship with your superiors, but it can also limit your performance if the opinion is not appropriate.

Generalization is also Context-Related. The above generalization can be very suitable in Chinese culture, but might not be useful in other countries.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Article Written Years Ago - The Prosperity Swish

Hi,

This is the 3rd re-published article on NLP that I have written years ago.

The Prosperity Swish

Do you want to prosper and be wealthy?

I think most of you will say "Yes", but how many of you are really prosper and wealthy. Don't tell me that you are wealthy at heart.

I am talking about the actual wealth, that's money.

Many people just don't give themselves the permission to prosper. This is one of the most common reason for so many people can't be as wealthy as they wish.

Think about what success and prosperity mean to you. How do you think about successful people? Do you believe successful people are rotten or bad? If you have a negative belief about
success, prosperity or wealth, you are just stopping yourself from getting the wealth coming to you.

Yes, wealth really automatically comes to whom who welcome it. According to statistics, if we evenly divide the world's money to everyone in the world, all of us get million of dollars.

Give yourself permission to prosper!

If you are the one who wants more wealth but can't, try the simple skill below. I promise that you will see the result very fast, might be days or weeks. But if you are the one who can get
what you want, don't do it. It will simply reverse the effect.

Visualize yourself becoming really wealthy. Observe in great details all the sub-modalities of your picture. That is, how large is your picture? Where is its location? How bright is it? How
clear is it? Is it black and white or in color? Is it close to you or far away? Is it a still picture or like a movie? Is the movement fast, slow or normal?

Then reverse all the sub-modalities of this original picture. Enlarge the picture if it is small, or vice versa. If it is located at lower than eye level, pull it up. If it is dim, brighten it. If it is B &
W, change it into color, etc, etc.

Continue to visualize this new picture and remember every details of this new picture. This is your Picture of Prosperity. While you are visualizing this new picture, draw whatever
comes to your mind, whether it is a symbol, a word, or a picture onto a paper.

Thinking of both your picture in your mind and the picture on the paper at the same time. Try it, you can do it.

Put this picture onto the place where you can see everyday.

Every night, before you go to sleep, take a look at this picture and visualize your Picture of Prosperity. 5 minutes a day is OK.

Be prepared to see the result's coming.

Remember, give yourself permission to prosper!

(Of course, if what you want is not prosperity, you can still use this techique by just replacing with the picture of what you want! Might be a slim body or a family of great harmony.)

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is about Thinking Part 6 - Time

Hi,

This is Part 6 of our series of NLP is about Thinking.

There are 5 factors making "Our Maps are not the Territory". Time is the 3rd factor.

There are some "old" maps inside our minds formed years ago. They can be valid at the time of their formation, but can be "outdated" at the present moment. However, we can still non-consciously use these maps in our lives.

Our maps are Static in nature. They are the snapshots of what we perceived at the moments of our perception. Unless we consciously update our maps, most of them will remain as they are forever.

Our maps can also be Passively Dynamic. They change as time goes by. They change not because of our intentional effort and will but they are updated automatically. How does this happen?

When something happens in our lives and the results do not match our original maps, we feel uneasy. For example, you believe that all bosses are bad, but now your boss is treating you really good. 2 things can happen:

1. Changing Filter. Your filter (in this case, your belief of "all bosses are bad") might be adjusted to "some bosses are bad". You feel more comfortable as your map is now matching the territory you perceived.

2. Distortion, Deletion, Generalization. Your filter does not change. You perceive the good acts of your boss is a kind of manipulation to make you working harder for him! You can then feel comfortable as your perceived territory matches your map. Our filters work for us to make us felling comfortable by distorting, deleting and/or generalizing the external reality.

If our maps are either Static or Passively Dynamic, we must Intentionally Update our maps or our Internal Reality is too far away from the External Reality. Then, we perceive, think, and act unrealistically. It is just like operating a 64-Bits Pentium PC with an age-old Windows 3.0 Operating System. We can't function at our best.

We can Intentionally Update our maps by Verifying and Backtracking our filters. This is a life-long process as we are continuous adding new filters to our minds. Our brain is already the best CPU in the world. It is already fastest and it is estimated to work at 10 Quadrillions/Second. It is faster than the fastest computer by 141 times.

We do not need to upgrade our brain, but we need to upgrade our Operating System.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Article Written Years Ago - Who's Driving the Bus? 誰在駕駛巴士?

Hi,

This is my second re-published article on NLP that I have wriiten years ago.

Who's Driving the Bus?

Dr, Richard Bandler, the founder of NLP, once said "Who's driving the bus?" Or it might be better said as "Who's driving your bus?"

Your brain is like a machine without an "off" switch. If you don't give it something to do, it just do something else. It might not be your will. Or it might be against your will. According to Dr.
Bandler, most people are prisoners of their own brain. They are like sitting in the last seat of their own bus and someone else is driving. You do not know where he is taking you.

So, you must start to drive your own bus. At least start with deciding where you want to go. Everyday in the morning, think of what you want to accomplish that day. Keep on thinking about this image until you feel as if you had already accomplished it.

It usually takes about 1 to 2 minutes. Start your day like this so as to take your own driver's seat.

If you are not driving your own bus, who's driving?


中文譯本:

誰在駕駛巴士?

Richard Bandler博士， NLP 的創始者之一，曾經說過：「誰在駕駛巴士？」，或者說：「誰的駕駛你的巴士？」可能更合適。

你的大腦就像一台沒有「關機掣」的機器，如果你不給它一些東西去做，它唯有自己找些東西來做。但那可能並非你的願望，甚或可能違反你的意願。

根據Richard Bandler博士，大多數人是他們的自己的大腦的「囚犯」，他們坐在他們自己的巴士最後排的座位，任由他人來駕駛他的巴士，你卻不知道他在帶他走向那裡。

因此，你必須開始重新駕駛你自己的巴士，至少由你自己決定你想去的目的地開始。每日早上，認真考慮，一下你想今天達成什麼，繼續想著這個圖像，直到你覺得好像你已經完成了它。

這通常只花大約 1 到 2 分鐘，每日以這樣開始來取回你的駕駛座。

如果你不在開你的自己的巴士，誰在開車？


Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Article Written Years Ago - The Super Stupid NAC

Hi,

Years ago, I wrote an articles series on some simple NLP Skills. I don't think I can write these again, as I had already shifted my focus from NLP Skills to the NLP Modeling Process itself.

These skills are simple, but effective. I am going to re-publish these articles in the coming posts. Here is my first one: The Super Stupid NAC.

NAC is a very powerful tool invented by Anthony Robbins. It stands for Neuro Associative Conditioning. Actually it is a combination of another 2 powerful NLP skills, Anchor and
Toward & Away From Profile.

The basic concept of NAC is simple. What motivate you to do something is either you love the result of doing it (Toward the Target Profile) or you hate the result of not doing it (Away From
Profile). Then we relate the good results to the doing of the job and relate the bad results to not doing the job. In NLP terms, we "anchor" the feelings to doing and not doing.

When I designed a new workshop called the Subconscious Body Reshaping recently, I designed a simplified, rather stupid, but very effective version of NAC. You will be surprise how
simple the procedure is.

Write down 10 results you don't like if you do not take the action you want to. Then write down 10 results you like if you really take the action.

Then everyday, for 21 days, write down the following on a piece of blank paper.

I don't want to not doing XXX because I don't want to …… (write down your first set of the 10 results)

I want to do XXX because I want to …… (write down your second set of the 10 results)

That's it.

It is simple and stupid, isn't it? Yes and it works every time I do it. The key point is that you must commit yourself to do it for consecutive 21 days and watch for the result coming.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: 我對於框架(Frames), 換框(Reframing)及濾網(Filters)的看法

Hi,

以下是我們的一位NLP同學大姨仔(Alexander Ng)電郵給我的觀點, 甚有意思, 經他同意我稍作修改及刊登, 收錄如下:

我對於框架(Frames), 換框(Reframing)及濾網(Filters)的看法:

框架(Frame)係接收資訊的方法。接收資訊的方法由多種元素組成，包括框架(Frame)、感官表象系統 (V, A, K, O...)、Perceptual Positions (1st, 2nd, 3rd...)、Logical Levels (E, B, C...)、聯系/抽離、及不能盡錄的其他組件。

這些組件會構成不同的觀點Points of View (例: V+1st+B+Asso, K+2nd+C+Asso...), 人們會對不同的事不同的人用不同的觀點去接收資訊。每個人都有自己的框架儲備，有些人可能有很多框架，有些人可能只有一個框架。濾網(Filters)為我們建立框架並安排我們在什麼時候用什麼組件共並以什麼框架來觀察及思維。

換框(Reframing)係指給人對某一部分現實的另一個看法。意義及情景換框法係運作於當時人的內容層面以上，當他說出A=B係唔好時, 我們講出A可能等於C或A=B在某情況下係好。

我們可以講出這些另外睇法係因為我們有另一個框架，如果對方想明白我們的睇法必須嘗試我們的框，當他一嘗試，他便能接受原有框框以外的資訊。但我相信這兩個只是多種換框法的其中兩種。

我之前同過你分享過一個睇法: 其實NLP有好多都好似做緊換框Reframing。不過係Work on Context 多個Work on Content。例: 當件事唔關你事，你會點諗? (3rd Position + Dissociation)。我們在提供一個新框給當時人接收資訊，即是換框Reframing。

甚至我們在Mind-Set Breakthrough 所學到重整Filters的方法，其實目的都是Reframing。假設我們加一個好信念: 沒有失敗只有回饋，我們就同時得到了回饋框，自然接收到先前收唔到的資訊。

以上是我綜合一年課堂及不斷思考到目前為止的睇法，與你睇法一致嗎? (Keith: 贊成!)


Keith To另註:

1. NLP講的是『輸入的改變』(輸入的方法How), 帶出『輸入的再改變』(輸入的資料What), 再帶出『輸入的再再改變』(看法Perception/First Access), 繼而帶出『輸出的改變』(想法Linguistic Representation), 再帶出『輸出的再改變』(做法), 從而得到不同的『結果』; 『輸入的改變』就是換框、換位、換狀態。

輸入的方法→輸入的資料→看法→想法→做法→結果

2. 當然, 很多時第一個想法出來時, 我們不會即時有所做法(如有的話就可能是反應太快了!), 第一個想法會變成輸入(What), 再次反覆變成另一個想法及更多想法, 直至得出做法為止; 但不少人卻會在上述循環中週而復始, 永遠沒有行動!

輸入的方法→輸入的資料→看法→想法→做法→結果
...........................↑__________↓

3. Filters當然就是存在於「輸入的資料→看法」及「看法→想法」的『→』處, 這些Filters也當然影響我們採用什麼輸入的方法(框、位、狀態)。

.........──────────────
.......↓......................... ↑..... ↑
輸入的方法→輸入的資料→看法→想法→做法→結果
...........................↑__________↓

4. 更複雜的是框、位、狀態又互相影響, 例如你如果能從另一位置看某事, 你可能會因此而改用了另一個框架來看, 繼而帶出另一種狀態(這叫Change of Perceptual Positions, Strategy of Creativity等等); 你也可以以不同的狀態來看事情, 你便不自覺地選擇了不同的位置, 以及不同的框架來看 (等於NLP中的Anchoring, Dissociation, Circle of Excellence等等); 當然你更可以一開始就選用不同的框架來看, 繼而帶出不同種位置及狀態(等於NLP中的換框, Meta-Model, Milton Model, Change of Submodalities等等)。

5. 更更複雜的是(如果大家仍有興趣聽下去的話), 我們的看法及想法均會影響我們的狀態, 從而影響我們的輸入的方法, 再週而復始(萬劫不復?!)。

.......──────────────
.......↓......................... ↑..... ↑
輸入的方法→輸入的資料→看法→想法→做法→結果
.......↑.................↑_____│___↓
.......│_________________ ↓___↓


大姨仔, 真的十分感謝你的『輸入』!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP的正確譯名

Hi,

NLP有眾多中文譯名，本人認為『身心語言程序學』乃最為貼切的名稱。

『Neuro』本應譯作『神經』，但NLP源自普通語義學，普通語義學中指的是『Neuro-Linguistic』，而不是單指『Neuro』，而『Neuro-Linguistic』實是指人類整體的身體(Body)，生理(Physiology)及神經系統(Nervous System)，以及思維與語言的相互關係，而不只是指『神經』，故譯作『身心』則已包括身體與思維更為合適；

至於『Programming』一詞，有譯作『程式』，亦有譯作『程序』，『程式』、『程序』好像是等同一樣，『Programming』一詞源自計算機科學（電腦科學），『程式』普遍用於台灣及香港，而『程序』則用於國內，在考慮3千萬人與13億人更易理解後，還是選擇『程序』一詞。

這只是本人的個人觀點, 給大家作為一點參考。

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Learning from the Old Stuff

Hi,

I am re-working the Integration Program for our NLP Practitioner Training today.

Amazingly, I can still find so many new things to learn from those "old" stuff!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Coaching: Logic & Truth

Hi,

In coaching, we use logic and truth to help our clients to discover their blind-spots. Some of our participants in our Coach Training Programs find it difficult to comprehend. Here is an interesting example of logic and truth.

I found an inspiring story both from the web and books:


有一對老夫婦，女的穿著一套腿色的條紋棉布衣服，而她的丈夫則穿著布製的便宜西裝，也沒有事先約好，就直接前去拜訪哈佛的校長。校長的秘書在片刻間就斷定這兩個鄉下人跟本不可能與哈佛有業務來往。

先生輕聲地對秘書說：我們要見校長。秘書很禮貌地說：校長整天都很忙，恐怕沒時間見你們。女士回答：沒關係，我們可以等。

過了幾個鐘頭，秘書一直不理他們，希望他們知難而退。但他們卻一直等在哪裡。秘書終於決定通知校長：也許他們跟你講幾句話就會走開。校長非常不情願地同意了。校長嚴肅地而且心不甘情不願地面對這對夫婦。


女士告訴他：我們有一個兒子曾經在哈佛上過一學年的課，他很喜歡哈佛，他在哈佛的生活很快樂。但是去年，他出了意外死亡。我丈夫和我想在校園為他留一個紀念物。校長並沒有被感動，反而覺得很可笑，他不耐煩地說：夫人，我們不能為每一位曾經讀過哈佛而後死亡的人建立雕像的。如果我們這樣做，我們這裡豈不成了墓園。


女士解釋說：不是，我們不是要豎立一座雕像，我們想要捐一棟大樓給哈佛。校長仔細地看了一下條紋棉布衣服及粗布便宜西裝，然後吐一口氣說：你們知不知道建一棟大樓要花多少錢?我們學校的建築物超過750萬美元。


這時，這位女士沉默不講話了。校長十分高興，因為總算可以把他們打發了。

這時，只聽見女士轉向她丈夫說：只要750萬就可以建一座大樓，那我們為甚麼不建一座大學了紀念我們的兒子? 就這樣，這對夫婦離開了哈佛，到了加州，成立了一所大學來紀念他們的兒子，這所大學就是後來全球知名的史丹福大學。

This is a very inspiring story, but there are something really wrong with this story!


Here is our analysis:


1. Standford University was found by Mr & Mrs Leland Standford in 1891. Mr Standford was the former Governor of California. President of Harvard was quite impossible not to recognize him, because Mr Standford was already famous and rich.


2. The Standfords did lost their son. He was died of typhoid fever, but not due to accident. His son died when he was 2 months before his 16th birthday. It was too young for him to attend the Harvard, and in fact, he had never studied in Harvard.


3. The Standfords built Standford University because they decided "The children of California shall be our children." after the death of their young son. They want to provide good university education to the young people in California. At that time, all good universities were not in the West Coast (California is in the West Coast). They did not build the Standford University for their son, but for all the young people in California.


4. They did visited the president of Harvard before they built Standford. But not to request for a building named after their son. They consulted President Eliot of Harvard for opinion. They had 3 ideas: a university, a large institution in San Francisco combining a lecture hall and a museum, and a technical school. Eliot answered, a university. Mrs. Stanford inquired how much the endowment should be, in addition to land and buildings, and he replied, not less than $5 million. A silence followed. Finally, Mr. Stanford said with a smile, "Well, Jane, we could manage that, couldn't we?" and a grave Mrs. Stanford nodded her assent.


** The above 4 points are about Truth. A Truth must be supported by Evidences. You can find the evidence in the any book about the History of Standford University.




5. It was in the end of 19th Century when Standford was built. At that time, 7.5 Millions was a great, great, great amount of money. It is estimated that 7.5 Millions in 1891 is equivalent to $171,428,571.43 today! That amount can build a lot of university buildings. So, it is not logical. (Remember in the real Standford history, it only took them 5 Millions to build the whole university!)


6. At that time (and even nowadays), presidents of Harvard University were very well-educated scholars of great manner. They would not so rude in treating people. It is again not logical.


** Point 5 & 6 are about Logic. If you had already learned the 3+1 Points for Valid Causes from our Career Coaching Program, you will understand that both Point 5 & 6 are of Valid Causes.


When we get used to Logic and Truth Analysis, it becomes more difficult to mislead us.

Keith

Explore, Exceed & Excel

Personal Development: Good Manner

Hi,

I always think that I am having a good manner, all until I come across the quote by Wendell Willkie, which I posted as the "Daily Quote for Your Soul" yesterday.

Here is the quote again: The test of good manners is to be able to put up pleasantly with bad ones.

I always do my best to treat others good but am I doing the same when I deal with someone with a bad manner? I am shocked and I can't come up with an absolute "yes" answer.

Quotes are always great mirror for us. It gives us more awareness if you really read them with your mind and your heart. It is better than a coach!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is about Thinking Part 5 - Missing Perspectives

Hi,

This is Part 5 of our series of NLP is about Thinking.

There are 5 factors making "the Map is not the Territory". The first one we talked about in our last part is Sensory Channels. Here is our 2nd factor: Missing Perspectives.

You see what you see, but not what others see!

Einstein once said that nobody can really know the reality. It might be because everyone is just seeing from his/her own perspective. The more perspectives we have, the more reality we can see. But we can't have any additional perspectives if we are seeing things in our own position. We must shift position in order to see from different perspectives.

In NLP, there are at least 6 different Perceptual Positions that we can shift ourselves to get more perspectives. There are 3 most important ones, the First, Second and Meta Position.

1. The First Position, or the Self-Position is seeing things from our own position. Most of us get used to this position as we perceive everything from this dominating position at most of the time. Any additional thing, which can only been seen from other positions becomes our blind-spots.

This position is still very useful because the information we get from it forms part of the whole picture. But if you are too stuck in this position, it will cause you troubles. One of them is being too subjective. Another one is Phobia, the unrealistic fear. If you can see the same thing from other positions, phobia might simply go away.

When you are in this position, you see the situation and others who are involved. But you can't see yourself.

2. The Second Position, or the Others-Position is seeing from other people's positions. There can be a lot of Second Positions as there are a lot of other people, who can see the same situation. The more Second Positions you can gain access of, the more objective you are. Some people can get stuck in the Second Position. They think and feel like others think and feel. They lost their own self and sometimes co-dependency is resulted.

When you are in this position, you see the situation and yourself, might be some others who are also involved. But you can't see that person.

3. The Meta-Position, or the Observer-Position is seeing from a totally unrelated, imaginary person's position, just doing the observation of the situation, yourself and others involved. You see everything, everyone in this position. You are in a mindset of "this is nothing about anyone, anything".

How can we access the Others-Position and the Observer-Position? You must consciously and intentionally detach from yourself and move to these positions in your mind. Or if the situation is already over, you can physically move to different positions. After many times of consciously and intentionally moving to different positions, you will be able to do it non-consciously and automatically.

One of the key factors that makes people be able to move into different positions is that you must go into the Observer-Position first before you can go into Others-Positions. How can you jump from one position to another? You must go through the transition position of the Observer-Position first!

That means, when you are detaching from any positions, you tell yourself "this is nothing about anyone, anything".

BTW, if you want to know more about our NLP Practitioner Training, which is done only once a year, go to our website at www.excelcentre.net/nlppractitioner.html.

See you again in our next part of this series.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is about Thinking Part 4 - Physical Barriers & Sensory Channels.

Hi,

This is Part 4 of our series of NLP is about Thinking.

Let's me recap a bit. NLP is about Modeling and Modeling is about Thinking.

There are 5 factors making "the Map is not the Territory". We are going to discuss each of them in our coming articles.

The first factor is Physical Barriers & Sensory Channels.

We see, hear and feel to get the outside information into our minds. There are always barriers blocking our sensory inputs. It is always desirable to reduce these barriers, though this is quite outside the scope of NLP.

Expanding our Sensory Channels, Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic is a great way to enhance both the quality and quantity of information feed-in, even under the above mentioned constrain of Physical Barrier.

Expanding our Sensory Channels is of 2 folds. Both expansions can be done by intentionally using our Sensory Channels. Our sensory inputs are quite "passive" and we can expand them by actively using them.

1. Maximize our Sensory Inputs. We intentionally see, hear and feel more. We do not just focus on one single part. We consciously be aware of our Attention and consciously put our Attention to different parts of what we are observing. We can also consciously alter our Levels of Scope during observation to see, hear and feel more.

2. Using All our Channels. We habitually rely on a single channel, either Visual, Auditory or Kinesthetic (we call it the Primary Representational System in NLP). More channels means more information. We consciously use our "less-used" channels to force them to serve us. For example, I am heavily relied on Auditory in the past, so I consciously do more "seeing" and "feeling" during interactions with people and things.

Both the above takes time to see the results. Knowing something is different from have the knowledge. You need to practise it. There are so many people know NLP but not all have the knowledge to use it to enhance their lives.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

品質最為重要？

Hi,

你是否認為現今競爭劇烈，我們必須不斷提升品質來保持競爭力？

如果你認為是的話，你可能只是看到事實的一面，而忽略了另一面。此話怎說？讓我慢慢道來。

黑膠唱片的音質比CD優越，但人們卻捨黑膠唱片而取CD；
CD的質素又比MP3高，但人們卻捨CD而取MP3；

書信比電郵有著更多表達空間，但人們卻捨書信而取電郵；
電郵比SMS更少辭不達意，但人們卻開始捨電郵而取SMS；

傳統電話比無線電話音質更好，但人們卻捨傳統電話而取無線電話；
無線電話的音質已經不算很好，但人們卻會使用令音質變得更差的藍牙耳機！

如果品質真的是最重要，上述情況絕不會發生，但它們真的已經發生了，為什麼呢？

因為品質不是真的最為重要，我們會捨品質而取其他條件，例如方便。

不要盲目相信或追求單一條件，很多時其他看似不是最重要的東西，反而左右著，甚至控制著人們的抉擇！

Keith
Explore. Exceed & Excel

Problemology - How to Describe a Problem?

Hi,

I've just finished the Ericksonian Therapy Program last week. I like the program very much because I am not doing what most others do - teaching language patterns, metaphors, story-telling and even hypnosis. I tried to model Erickson at a "near source-code" level, i.e. how he decided what/how to do and what are happening behind what he did. I will talk about this "near source-code" level in my future postings.

During the class, one of the participants asked me how to help a client to describe his/her problem. A good question and it is very important. So even I did not planned to cover that, I talked about it on that day.

Clients come to you to solve his problem (no matter it is a therapy, coaching, facilitation or consultation session). If he/she can't describe the problem as near to reality as possible, it adds problems to the problem! It makes problem solving more difficult.

We all need to understand the Content of a Problem before we can help to recover the missing parts in the clients' description.

The Content of a Problem might include:

1. The Background of the problem, i.e. Time, People, Place.
2. The Unwanted Behaviour(s).
3. The Unwanted Feeling(s).
4. The Desired Outcome(s).

Helping your clients to comprehensively describe their problems is helping yourself for a smooth process.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: What is Knowledge?

Hi,

In my last article of NLP is Epistemology, we talked about the production of knowledge. Here are some of my ideas on Knowledge.

What is Knowledge?

According to Plato, Knowledge is the "Cross-Over" of Truths and Beliefs. When you believe in something, it is you thinking that it is a Truth. But you might be wrong. Then you might not be able to make use of it to do something successfully.

However, but if what you believe is also a Truth, then, it will become useful. To prove something is really a Truth, we need Justification. That means, one must have a good reason to believe something is true. However, the Justification must also be Indefeasible, i.e. it is impossible to override that Reason of Justification.

So, Knowledge might be defined as Indefeasibly Justified True Beliefs.

Since NLP only applies to Pragmatic Knowledge, the Justification in NLP Modeling is the workability of the modelled patterns. To make the Justification near to Indefeasibility, the pattern must be tried and tested under similar conditions as of the modeling process. So, for example, even one has tested a new communication pattern which was modelled from a professional speaker on many professional speakers, it cannot be classified as a Indefeasible Justification for layman speakers, unless one also test this on layman speakers, too.

I must admit that even such test had been done, it still can't be 100% Indefeasible, unless the sample size is big enough as a scientific proof! So, I never recommend application of NLP Patterns in clinical situations. Leave that to professional psychologists, who have been trained with scientifically proved techniques. But it can be useful enough for our daily life!

This also makes Simultaneous Modeling particularly useful. The pattern modelled is just applied for that person and situation at that moment of modeling. It will become obsolete once the situation is over. We model everytime when we encounter a situation.

Next time, we will discuss the Types of Knowledge and we can then understand what kinds of Knowledge we can apply NLP.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is Epistemology (Theory of Knowlefdge)

Hi,

Recently someone had read my article of NLP is about Modeling & Thinking Part 1 & Part 2. He emailed me and asked me what NLP really is.

This article is written to answer his question.

Firstly, NLP is NOT a branch of Psychology. Both the co-founders of NLP, Richard Bandler and John Grinder is not a psychologist. Their works can't be psychology. (Although some psychologists use their ideas and concepts in therapy)

Secondly, NLP can be best described as a kind of Epistemology (知識論), the Theory of Knowledge. Epistemology is the study of the nature and production of knowledge. It can also be understand as how we know what we know.

At the very beginning of NLP, the co-founders acquired the knowlede of Virginia Satir's and Milton Erickson's knowledge of psychotherapy through the NLP Modeling Process. Then, those developers of NLP modelled many different excellent people in various fields to produce different kinds of knowledge. These are known as the Patterns and Models of NLP.

Pattern is the single chain of behaviours, while Model is a collection of minimal number of patterns that creates result.

In today's world, we are facing Information-Overflow, but not Knowledge-Overflow. There is so much information out there, but not all can be used by us. Knowledge is the useful information that can be used by us. Learning NLP is to acquire the Knowledge of generating Knowledge. That's why it is important nowadays.

When you learn NLP, you are going to study at least 4 things:

1. The Modeling Process. This is the core of NLP if NLP is a kind of Epistemology. This process was invented to produce knowldge through modeling those people having that knowledge.

2. The NLP Presuppositions. These are the fundamental assumptions backing up the NLP Modeling Process. These help one to model easier and faster.

3. NLP Models. These are the results of NLP Modeling. Learning these doesn't imply you are learning NLP. Learning these models serves 2 purposes. Firstly, when you understand the very best models created by the NLP Modeling Process, it makes your learning of NLP better. Secondly, some of these models support the NLP Modeling Process. These might include the T.O.T.E. Model, Representational System, Eye Accessing Cues Model, Submodalities Model, States Model, Perception Positions Model and the Filters Model.

4. NLP Patterns. These are again just the results of the NLP Modeling Process. Learning some of them can make your understanding of the Process itself better. You can't learn all of them. There are thousands of patterns, increasing every moment.

In my next article of What is Knowledge, I will discuss withh you more on how to acquire knowledge more effectively.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: Simultaneous Modeling

Hi,

As I had mentioned millions times before, NLP is about Modeling. NLP is never about the NLP Patterns, NLP Models or NLP Skills that produced as a result of NLP Modeling Process.

No matter how many NLP Patterns, Models, or Skills you had learned (including the most famous Meta Model, Milton Model, Representational Systems, Fast Phobia Cure, Swish Pattern...), you still do not know NLP if you haven't learned and understand the NLP Modeling Process itself.

The usefulness of NLP is not just about modeling excellence in forms of Strategies and Models that we taught in the NLP Practitioner & Master Practitioner Program. It lies in Simultaneous Modeling of others and yourself during daily life. You meet someone or a situation, you can simultaneously model them during your interaction with them, all at the same time. So you can recognize their patterns and respond accordingly at each interaction.

There are limitations in any NLP Patterns and Models because they are the results of modeling someone else in the past. The one you are interacting with might not be similar to that someone else being modelled in the past. This is why some NLP Skills sometimes work while sometimes do not work.

The only model and pattern always work is the one you specially model for that situation - Simultaneous Modeling!

Modeling Excellence is not modeling excellence people and behaviours. It is Modeling to Excellence. Through modeling others, you continuously generate well-coping strategies to cater for the situation, you then achieve excellence.

I will incorporate this Simultaneous Modeling in all of my future NLP Programs. This is the Source-Codes of NLP. If you had already done my NLP Programs in the past, come and refresh and relearn (of course, at no charge)!!!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Learning from Life: #111 - #115

Hi,

Another set of my Learning from Life:

111. Life experience, no matter good or bad, we can learn something from it.

112. If I want to request something from others, I try it on myself first.

113. We can choose to be happy or sad!

114. I can bring joy to others or I can also bring hatred and sorrows. I have the power to choose.

115. Knowing something and really knowing something is different!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Personal Development: Explore, Exceed & Excel

Hi,

You might notice that I had added "Explore, Exceed & Excel" into my email signature in the past 2 months.

Someone asked me my definitions of these 3's. Here are my answers:

Explore: Go where you haven't gone before and see what you haven't seen before.

Exceed: Then you will find something beyond your original boundary. Do something exceeding that boundary.

Excel: Then, you get out of your own cell (i.e. prison) and set yourself free from your past territories! (Excel = Ex-Cell). What's next? Explore again!

This is just my Model of Excellence. Hope you will find it interesting.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

My Point of View: 八十有餘，積善延續

Hi,

最近著名藝人曹達華先生仙遊，閒來無事，翻閱娛樂雜誌，得悉他的一名四十多年好友，是一位相士，多年前替他批命，告知其：八十有餘，積善延續，多麼超卓的一句暗示！

與其鐵批他人如此那麼的悲慘，無論你的預測多麼準確，對他又有何幫助？

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Facilitation: Willing, Able, Ready, Like, Eager & Commit

Hi,

Why does someone says he/she wants to do something but he/she does not actually do it? Or why can't you make someone doing something?

Consider this scale of Willing, Able, Ready, Like, Eager & Commit.

If that someone is not willing, able or ready for that something, he/she just can't do it! (Willingness, Ability & Readiness are 3 different, separate things. One can be able and ready but not willing to do something!) These 3's are the basic considerations. These are about Condition. If someone doesn't has these 3's, he/she cannot move.

Then it comes the 2nd part of the scale, Like, Eager & Commit. One will not commit if he/she doesn't like and/or eager to do something. These 3's are about Motivation. If one doesn't has these 3's, he/she will not move!

It is useless to motivate someone or yourself if he/she/you is not yet willing, able and ready. But we are doing so all the time. If you push him/her/yourself, one will either feel being offended (when one is not willing), or one is being "forced" to do that something but fail to do it (when one is not being able or ready). Either case will demotivate him/her/yourself and makes further motivation even more difficult!

Many people come to me telling me that they have a motivation problem. But most of the time, it is not about motivation. That someone is just not being willing, able and/or ready yet! This makes so many efforts in motivating useless or temporary!

There are different tactics for these 6's. Using them appropriately and you will get the result!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Coaching: Intention & Attention

Hi,

What makes Coaching different from other means of helping people?

Coaching helps others discovering their blindspots of thinking, then they can improve by themselves! Coaching creates low co-dependency!

Then, why we have blindspots?

I'd studied the mechanism of blindspots for years and I have over a dozen of sources of blindspots. I like the Intention & Attention Mechanism most.

When we intend to do or get something, we focus our Attention to it and to what it related to. Then we can miss everything outside our attention. This creates the blindspots!

Real masters and gurus do not have any specific intention and so they do not focus their attention to anything particular. They have less blindspots and see thing with more clarity!

There is a paradox here. If we do not have any Intention, we might end up achieving nothing. But when we intend to get or do something, we generate blindspots, which block our way to achievement!

Let's talk more about this paradox later.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Announcement: Personal Retreat 2007 & 2008

Hi,

I'd been back from my Personal Retreat.

This year we have nearly 60 friends joining us together to review and preview.

It is exciting because we have friends from Hong Kong, Macau, 中山 and 廣州. This is a 省港澳中 gathering!

I have fixed the dates for 2008's Retreat. It is on Jan 26-27 2008. If you want to join us next year, mark your calendar now!

It is going to be something different, bigger, more exciting, and more in depth and breadth reviews and previews for your life!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Learning from Life: #106 - #110

Hi,

Here is another five of my Learning from Life.

106. Start saving early. The earlier you start your savings, the quicker and bigger the pay-off. Save whatever!

107. Make journaling a habit. Write it on a diary or write it as a blog. If we can learn from our experience, it is meaningless if we forget them all!

108. We gain because of our capabilities. We lose because we lack discipline.

109. Something you already have can be better than something out there.

110. Experimenting something new! It doesn't take you too much risks if it is just an experiment.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Personal Development: Refresh, Recharge & Retreat

Hi,

Today is my first day of Personal Retreat. Every year, I conduct Personal Retreat with some of our classmates.

Why do I do retreat?

We are just too busy! We work, work and work. We lose sights of our directions. We are just thinking of our next step only but do not realise where this "next step" will take us to!

If we can do what 曾子 told us: 吾日三省吾身, it is OK for us not to intentionally look backward and then look forward,. If we can't, we are going to lose our visions and ourselves.

To look forward, we need to look backward first!

To Refresh ourselves, we have to put down the "old" stuff to make us fresh.
To fully Recharge ourselves, we have to discharge first.
To do so, we have to Retreat - withdraw ourselves from our busy lives, to look back and to treat ourselves better again.

If you can't join us today for the Personal Retreat, I really hope that you can do so by yourself.

After your Retreat, you will be Refreshed & Recharged!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Personal Development: A Better 2007 for Yourself

Hi,

I had just read a book. From the book, I learned the story of the invention of Linux, the free open-source operating system.

The inventor found that the existing operating systems cannot satisfy his need in using the floppy drive, so he wrote another OS by himself.

Dissatisfaction can be a greatest source of new ideas and inventions.

If you want a better 2007, you need more good ideas and inventions. I had just written a list of 10 items of dissatisfaction. I will work on them in 2007 to make them satisfactory.

Part of my list includes:
1. I can invest not just in the blue chip stock.
2. I can spend even less time in working.
3. I can build a more interactive website by myself.
4. I can write a better book, a book brings more in-depth insights.
5. I can increase the subscribers of the Excel Your Life Newsletter to 5,000.

May I suggest you doing the same? Write a list of 10 items of dissatisfaction by the end of this week (i.e. the very first week of 2007!) and start to work on them in the rest of the year.

Wish you all have a better and more satisfactory 2007!!!

Happy New Year!

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Signs are Everywhere: Mini Prediction for 2007

Hi,

Every year I do some predictions for the year. I've done this for the past several years. I do it simply by means of observing trends. My sole objective of doing predictions is to encourage people to see the bigger picture.

As I had mentioned some times before, 2007 is my last year of publicly presenting my prediction. I am lucky as my guesses are quite accurate in the past years. When it becomes too accurate, I really afraid that someone will rely on my predictions. That's not my intention. I think that I had already achieved my objective of encouraging people to see bigger and farther. So, 2007 should be a good ending.

My 2007 Prediction Seminar is scheduled on March 6 2007 (7:30pm-9:30pm). This is an internal event. Only participants of my past programs and their friends are invited. You can email me at keithto@keithto.com to book your seat now. In your email, please mention "2007 Prediction" and the number of seats you need.

In my 2006 Prediction, I mentioned the Hang Seng Index will rise until the end of the year. In December, many people asked me how far it will go. My answer was it would at least hit 20,000. Now, it had already hit 20,000. How far will it go?

I can only guess according to my observation. In December, most of the people said that we should be very cautious when investing in the stock market. When everyone was cautious, it could be quite safe.

But when the HS Index hit 20,000 at the end of last year, people becomes more and more aggressive. Some even predict it will go up to 21,000 or higher. Then, we must be really cautious now.

If you want to play safe, it is now the right time to sell all your stock. The market might still go up, but as everyone can tell you that no one can accurately estimate the peak.

I will wait for another 3 to 4 more weeks till the end of January. But I will be very careful to observe closely. When there are more positive predictions about the market, I will withdraw from it. People listen to predictions, particularly those by the professionals. They will become more and more aggressive and the market becomes more and more dangerous.

As I always tell my friends: Don't be too serious about my predictions. They are all from my personal observations. I can be very wrong. Don't trust me, trust yourself.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

NLP: NLP is about Thinking Part 3 - The Map is not the Teritory

Hi,

Thanks for reading Part 3 of our NLP is about Thinking Series.

As we have mentioned in Part 2, NLP is the science of Modeling of behaviour. There are about 20 NLP Presuppositions, which are the guidelines for modeling. These also form the basic concepts of NLP.

The most fundamental NLP Presupposition is "The Map is not the Territory". This is adopted from Korzybsk's works of 1933. Our perception of the Reality might be quite different from the Reality itself. The actual Territory is the Reality in the outside world, while we have our own Maps of the Reality inside our mind.

For example, there are 11 books on the desk. One might say that there are several books there. Another one might tell you that there are 11 books on the desk. Even a third one might say that there are 9 books and 2 magazines on the desk. All can be right or wrong to certain degree. They are all telling you the truth, according to their perceptions, i.e. their Maps of the Reality.

In short, what you think about something/someone might not be exactly the same as the Reality. That is, what you think might not be Real! However, we often don't realize that we are using a map at all.

Then, how does this "The Map is not the Territory" Presupposition relate to NLP?

1. NLP is about Modeling. When you model someone, his/her behaviour is based on his/her Map, but not the Reality. It is meaningless and sometimes quite useless to just "copy" his/her external behaviour. We model others' internal map, too. That is, we copy what are inside others' minds., their strategies of judgement, decision and perception.

2. NLP is about Thinking. The more deviation the Map from the Territory, the more unreal is our thinking. The decision and the behaviours resulted from these unreal thinking cannot match with the Reality. Problems are then the results. Our objective is to make our maps as closed to the Reality (Territory) as possible in order to achieve accurate thinking.


Then, what makes the Map not same as the Territory?

There can be 5 different sources of this difference between the Map and the Territory:

1. Physical Barriers. These might include some physical handicaps - one can't hear, see or sense clearly. Environmental factors can be other form of physical barriers. A noisy environment, communication using the telephone, talking in a hurry are examples of environmental factors.

NLP trains us to expand the capability of every Sensory Channels so that we can get the maximum amount of information with or without physical barriers. The more information feed-in, the more accurate is our maps.

2. Missing Perspectives. If you ask 3 persons to see something, they will tell you 3 separate different stories afterward. Why? Because they all see the same thing from different perspectives.

We can never see the whole picture from one single perspective. The more perspectives you have, the fuller the picture you can see. In NLP, we learn to see things from at least 6 Perceptual Positions to give us a more realistic Map.

3. Time. There are some "old" maps inside our minds formed years ago. They can be valid at the time of formation, but being "outdated" at the present moment. However, we can still non-consciously use these maps in our lives. Our maps are static in nature. They are the snapshots of what we perceived at the moments of our perception. Unless we consciously update our maps, most of them will remain as they are forever. Intentionally Updating our maps is another key NLP lessons.

4. Filters. This is one of the core concepts of NLP. Filters refer to our Beliefs, Values and Rules. They interact with each others to form our Beliefs System. This is the interface between the Reality and our Maps. Every information going into our mind from outside can be deleted, distorted or/and generalized when passing through these filters.

For example, if you believe that we must be nice to our parents, you will think someone is bad when you see he is shouting to his mom. You might miss the fact that it is their habit to talk to each others loudly or his mom is deaf. This is Deletion.

In NLP, we train ourselves to backtrack our Filters in order to identify them. Then we can consciously study them. This is one way of achieving Self-Awareness.

5. Language. Our maps affect the language we use and our language in turn affect our (and others') maps. For example, if one sees many people are not treating him/her good, one might say to him/herself: "Everybody is bad". This "Everybody is bad" statement will in turn makes him/her truly believe that Everybody is really bad.

NLP is also the studies of how language affects our thinking. We learn how to be aware of our language, and make use of our language to identify and fine-tune our maps. Meta Model is one of our key tools to attain such awareness.

As a conclusion, a more accurate map generates less misunderstanding, better decisions and an easier life.

In Part 4 of our series, we will discuss more on Physical Barriers & Sensory Channels.

Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel

Creative Right Brain vs Logical Left Brain Myth

Hi,

One of our classmates emailed me to ask me 2 questions about our brain. They are great questions and I like to share with everybody.

Question 1: From the class of Neuro-Mentalogy, we now understand that the myth about the "creative right brain" vs. the "logical left brain" is incorrect. Does it means that ONLY the "Creative vs. Logical Classification" is incorrect/over-simplified?

The Left-Right Brain Functions Model is over-simplified and misleading.

The Left Brain is responsible for logical, analytical jobs while the Right Brain is for spatial and emotional is not correct. From modern neuroscience researches, the brain functions are too complicated to be simply divided into left and right brain. For most of the tasks we perform, it is the result of co-ordination of many areas of the brain, both in the left and right brain.

Let's give you 3 examples to illustrate the point:

1. Both sides of our brain handle emotions, not just by the right brain as suggested by the Left-Right Brain Functions Model. When emotions are triggered by some visual images, the right side reacts more than the left side. However, when the emotions are triggered by words, the left side reacts more. I am not saying only the left or right side reacts, both sides react.

Furthermore, researches indicated that the Left Brain mediates Positive Emotions like happiness and the Right Brain plays a role in Negative Emotions like sorrow, anxiety, etc.

Both Brains handle Emotions!

2. In a neuroscience research, people are asked whether one objects is below or above another one, and how far they are apart from each others. According to the Left-Right Brain Model, these 2 activities are done by the right brain as this is a spatial function. The answer is no. The former one is done by the Left Brain while the latter one is done by the Right Brain! The first kind of activities is the "Categorical Spatial Reasoning" (i.e. above or below, left or right, front or back, etc) is done by an area in the Left Brain. The latter kind of activities is the "Coordinate Spatial Reasoning" and is done by area in the Right Brain.

Both Brains handle Spatial Functions!

3. Generating visual image in our mind is believed to be a Right Brain function according to the Left-Right Brain Functions Model. This simple task is a very complex brain operation that involves at least 5 parts of our brain, both in Left and Right Brain!

Both Brains handle nearly Every Functions!


Question 2: I also heard of the saying that the process of the two brains are different -- the "right brain" is for processing the big picture while the "left brain" is for processing the details. Is it true?

The Right Brain for Big Picture and the Left Brain for Details is again another myth. Some people believe that the Right Brain is for Big Picture because of the "Right Brain is for Spatial Function" myth. From the above Example 2, you understand that spatial functions are done by both side of our brain. So, we need both brains to give us Big Pictures and Details.


Keith
Explore, Exceed & Excel