HappY HollY DazE Tweeps and Peeps!

Emotional Techniques | Stuart Wilde | The Official Author Website

Emotional Techniques | Stuart Wilde | The Official Author Website

How the smell of a new car can stop you losing weight

Who would have thought it?

This post appears in @SocioWellBeing Angela Steel’s blog at http://www.superwellness.co.uk/how-the-smell-of-a-new-car-can-stop-you-losing-weight/

I am seeing Angela and she is doing wonders for my health because I was, as she puts it, ‘metabolically stuck’.  After years of being an Athlete, running around a Basketball court and now a sexagenarian, I got stuck.
I never realised how much sugar I was processing and the impact it was having on me.

Her blog post amused me; I can see the Obesogens flying in formation now!

How the smell of a new car can stop you losing weight

Sometimes people can get ‘metabolically stuck’ and feel that
even though they might be eating the right things, and
exercising regularly, their body is just holding onto fat.

How frustrating!

There are a few reasons why this can happen, and one
of them was covered recently in the journal ‘Molecular
Cell Endocrinology’ (not available from WH Smiths… J)

What were they looking at?

Something called obesogens (that’s the name they
gave them!) which are in fact chemicals coming from
outside, as well as bacteria residing in our guts.

The chemicals are well known already. It’s no new discovery that plasticizers (used in all kinds of materials, mainly plastics of course, and which evaporate into the environment. You know the new car smell?….. that comes from them), fungicides used  in agriculture, hormones fed to animals to suit mass production
‘requirements’, all cause disruption to our hormones.

Hormone disruptors

Of course our hormones are a crucial link in the chain that determines our ability to burn fat, lose weight, etc… so these ‘obesogens’ are flicking all the wrong switches and playing havoc with our finely tuned metabolism.

Obesogens from within

The other type of obesogen that was mentioned is perhaps less widely known and its origin is in our own gut.

These are essentially bacteria which can grow in the gut and create more calories than actual calories consumed during digestion!

Now that is not something we want at all…

How to avoid them

There are lots of things we can do once we are aware of these undesirable ‘obesogens’. Avoiding putting food in contact with plastic is one major step (especially heating food in plastic, for a whole lot of other reasons too). Buying organic food as much as possible (especially animal foods, like meat and milk).

Consider a detox

A functional detox, designed to help the liver drain off unwanted toxins AND balance gut flora as well can be a good way of pressing the RESTART button on your metabolism.

Who Else is a Female, in or Thinking of Being in, Their Own Business?

I have been aware lately of many Women oriented events , appearing mainly on Facebook and was pleasantly surprised to come across this Magazine. It’s different and worth a good read … and, ladies why not write something for it? …  AND being a Coach / Mentor I like what they  say:

“This magazine is for the go-getters, for the ones who believe, for the ones who dare and the ones who succeed!

We want to leave you feeling fired up and ready to take on the world and achieve amazing things!”

Isn’t that just the role of a coach? …

@AyPee

The Fastest Growing Magazine for Female Entrepreneurs

It’s not often that you come across something which is free…and of great value. Well, a relatively new magazine entitled This Girl Means Business certainly fits the bill.

The magazine is the fastest growing digital magazine for female entrepreneurs.

Instead of talking about the latest celebrity faux pas, how to lose weight and how to spice up your love life, This Girl Means Business talks about women who have built successful businesses, how to turn ideas into a reality and how to get the right mind-set for living an amazing life. With its unique style and inviting language, it’s really stuck a chord with women looking to achieve amazing things.

Sharing interviews with people such as Louise Hay, Kim Kiyosaki, Michelle Mone and Michael Gerber, the magazine aims to inspire women with stories and insights from truly successful people. The magazine also shares interesting stories about women from all over the world – from girls in their teens to women in their 80s, from women who have survived cancer and started a business, to women who quit their jobs to start a business. From raising finance to get started, to starting on a shoestring budget – the magazine aims to cover a diverse range of topics, all helping the readers to be inspired to excel.

Within the first 4 months of launching, the magazine was seen by over 1.3 million people. This is a magazine that’s really making a difference. There is nothing like it for women and it aims to fill the gap in the market.

Check out the latest issue of the magazine >>here<<

They’re always on the look out for contributors, so if you would like to get involved find out more  >>here<<

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Development Events London @ AyPeeCo http://bit.ly/rS6uQS

Development Events London @ AyPeeCo http://bit.ly/rS6uQS

Development Events London @ AyPeeCo http://bit.ly/rS6uQS

Wise observations for a Monday

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level
   and beat you with experience
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list 
3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak 
4. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.   
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.   
6. War does not determine who is right - only who is left.  
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.   
8. Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.   
9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.   
10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station
11. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.'   
12. I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you. 
13. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory. 
14. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness..   
15. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.   
16. You're never too old to learn something stupid.
17. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.  
18. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.  
19. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.  
20. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.

 

Courtesy of Peter Thomson

Development Events London @ AyPeeCo http://bit.ly/rS6uQS

Happy Focus

"Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention."

~ Greg Anderson
Author and founder of the American Wellness Project

 

via @ShareAQuote
shareaquote.com

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Systems before service

I keep toying with the idea of getting a web site where people can vote for (against) companies who put systems ahead of service.
Some have integrated  systems and service very well, but in most instances the two are considered to be the same thing.
In my experience Hostgator provide great service using a single chat window.
First Direct, the first telephone bank in the UK if not the world, provide an excellent response and there is are two fundamental reasons
…. they talk with their customers …. they don’t impose their systems on the customer
They listen to their customers and physically use their systems themselves.
I am afraid, Personal tweaks don’t do it either.
As I waited to talk to one company, I was offered  a choice of music while I waited  -  I didn’t want to listen to music and I certainly did not want to wait!!!
There was no option to not listen to the music and because I didn’t choose, they chose one for me anyway  - I didn’t want to listen to music and I DIDN’T WANT TO WAIT.
The fact I was offered music means that I was expected to wait. Otherwise there would be no need for it.
Again, I have to say in my experience, having to plough through my mobile phone service provider’s menu system takes between 2 and 3 minutes every time I have a new enquiry!

That 2-3 minutes is my time and I do not have an agreement for them to use my time.

I might buy their minutes but I don’t see any cash coming back for mine.

AND, of course, the immortal words:

”Your call is important to us”

If my call is important why don’t you answer it, then?

“we are experiencing heavy call volumes”.

The call volumes are not high, the staffing level is too low!

The proof is the amount of times that you hear that.

The words lack integrity.  If they were congruent, I should be recompensed for my time each time I have to wait. 

Again, if I am paying for the call, I might buy their minutes and I don’t see any cash coming back for mine

Having taught ‘Selling Through Service’ for one big retailer, I learnt that the younger generations have not experienced what I would call service.
I would ask “ Tell me of a time when you received great service. What was so great about it?”
Here are two memorable answers, I received:

“ I bought a pair of Jeans and they were the wrong sixe and they changed them”
“We bought a sofa. When it arrived there was a split in the material and they changed it”

We are now in a society that receive ‘Customer Service’ packaged as ‘Customer Processing’ but more importantly Service is disappearing from peoples’ experience and expectations are disappearing with it.
Companies like Hostgator and First Direct will thrive, others which are not like them, will likely be sold or traded or even fail.
For Customers, you could substitute the word People, whatever the relationship. Whether  is it a commercial or personal transaction, the lessons should remain the same. Talk with people and don’t impose your systems (beliefs or values) on them

Customer Personal Experience is everything!

Talk with people and  don’t impose your  systems on them

Development Events London @ AyPeeCo http://bit.ly/rS6uQS

Lady in Red – Iver, Buckinghamshire, UK – Jacky Parker

Lady in Red – Iver, Buckinghamshire, UK – Jacky Parker

If, for no other reason

 

*Save the earth..... It's the only planet with chocolate!*

~ Samuel D. Naples

Events in London @ AyPeeCo http://bit.ly/rS6uQS

Development Events London @ AyPeeCo http://bit.ly/rS6uQS

Putting your foot in it alone

Once upon a time there was a chap, who after a bitter divorce, became very lonely and so he went to the pet store and told the owner he wanted an unusual pet to keep him company.
After much discussion, he decided on a centipede, which he immediately named Carl. It came with a little white box which could be used as its house.
He took the box home and found a good location for it, and decided that he would start off by taking his new friend to the pub to have a drink. So he peeked into the opening on the box and said "Hey Carl, would you like to nip down to the pub for a beer?"
There was, however, no reply, and that bothered the chap a bit. A few minutes later he asked again and said "Hey, how about going down to the pub with me for a beer?" But again there was no answer from his new friend. So he waited ten more minutes thinking about the situation and then decided to ask one more time.
He put his mouth up to the opening in the white box and shouted "Hey, you in there, would you like to go to the pub place and have a drink with `
At this, a little voice came out of the box and said "No need to shout, hang on a minute, I heard you the first time. I'm putting on my shoes!"

Is Robert Cialdini socially influential?

I am currently re-reading Robert Cialdini’s ‘Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion’, in which he writes about 6 principles:

• consistency
• reciprocation
• social proof
• authority
• liking
• scarcity

I wonder how the model he describes exists within Social Media. Has it evolved into something else? It just got me thinking how these principles apply now- a-daze and

these are just my thoughts

Consistency

Consistency has 2 facets in Social Media:
Consistency of timing and consistency of content
Consistently posting on time is important but what you post needs to be varied or Random (the problem with that word is it’s popular use to mean something else). This holds true of any relationship: physical, personal, transactional, etc.
If you consistently post the same material, interest in you will wane and your influence with it.  Much the same if what you audibly say becomes predictable people will loose interest and you stand the risk of becoming known as a “Cracked record” – “always going on about …”, “'… blah blah blah …”
If you are posting, daily, weekly, monthly or at any other fixed period of time try not to miss your slot because when blog readers stop reading our blog or page, they tend to not come back.

Reciprocation

Hey! You like me, I like you!
I follow you, you follow me!

People need to be appreciated, even if that means that you just appreciate them for  appreciating you.  In the absence of anything else:

“Thank you” or “Thanks” goes a long way.

This can be difficult when you have lots of followers, but my objective is to respond to every Twitter mention that I get. For me, the optimal way sees to be:
reply personally to ‘one to one’ Tweets and group the ‘multi-Tweep-Tweets’ into groups of 6 tweeters and '’Shoutout’ in some way.  To make it easier, I get all my mentions emailed to me.
I do similar things on other networks, wherever I can.

Social proof

Social Proof does not equal Social Troof!

We will  always find the evidence to substantiate what we believe, say or think. We make things true.

---

What the Thinker thinks the Prover proves
~ Robert Anton Wilson

---

Taking Cialdini’s spin on this, this hasn’t changed. The masses determine what is true and prove it,  even if it isn’t true.

It is born from agreement and masses tend to agree with mass thinking.

With the opportunity to post out to millions of people in one go, then re-posting or re-tweeting what is considered popular can be instantaneous and cascades towards millions more …  Isn’t that what is known “Trending”?

Most of the time this is mass hypnosis

Authority

‘I iz important cos I sez I iz important!

I’ve come across a few of them in my time and the ‘Follow Me or else brigade’ in Twitter prove that one. Not what Cialdini is referring to but close methinks.

The easiest way to get authority is have somebody proclaim you an expert.

Being an Expert is about reputation rather than knowledge and it attracts others. If the person who is attracted then sees no evidence that you are an expert and that you lack knowledge or understanding or experience, they will personally downgrade you but your reputation will still last longer.

Many an incompetent has been deemed an expert and survived – it occurs to me as a Westminster sort of thing

An expert is somebody who says or writes something that somebody else hears or reads and then tells someone else. To the third person, who heard or read what the second person has said, the first person will probably become an expert. 

Isn’t that Social proof?

Liking

Now-a-daze, ‘Liking’ is a function, in Social Media. It may mean I like what you have written (emotional) or simply I have read what you have written (function).
‘Likes’ count towards Social Capital scores and Social Capital is a measure of Influence.

Unfortunately using ‘Likes’ as a measure in calculating Social Capital means that scores can be manipulated. For example you can visit someone’s page and like everything  they have posted –this is known as  ‘Like Bombing’.

Coming back to Cialdini’s point, if you express like for someone or something about them, you can achieve positive rapport much more quickly and that is good practice. It is also good practice in Social Media.

People are usually likeable. Find something to like about them.

If you genuinely like what someone has posted then hit the like or favourite buttons. Its good feedback for them and they will like you for it.

The feedback can also help stop somebody becoming a ‘Cracked Record’

Scarcity

Probably more akin to Marketing but also tactical in personal relations. Not being readily available is attractive – isn’t that right, girls?
I don’t think that being unavailable is a good thing in established relationships and that includes your followers or friends in Social Media. But in courtship: ‘Is there any other way ?’

---

‘Is there any other way ?’
~ Melvin Udall [Jack Nicholson] in ‘As Good As It Gets’

---

Court prospects, court potential lovers, court supporters, court partners, court Joint Venturers and appreciate everything they do for you

I conclude

This isn’t the truth. Its just my thoughts as  a person who has been called an expert by somebody else. I hope you Like what I wrote and that it does bomb. I’ll like you for it!
If I haven’t been posting to my blog of late, I was probably being Scarce but consistently so

Sources http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119822/quotes NOT!
Robert Cialdini ‘Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion’
http://aypee.wordpress.com
Image Wikipedia

BBC News - Smart headlights tackle rain and snow glare

Researchers in the US have come up with a solution to the problem of headlight glare reducing driver visibility in the rain.



It is a problem with which anyone driving on UK roads in the last ..............

BBC News - Smart headlights tackle rain and snow glare

BBC News - Why tech can't break the hold of paper

The promise we can all go paperless has been around for years so why is it that despite email, smartphones and computers we are all still so dependent on pen and paper?
LJ Rich explores why paper has such staying power in our hi-tech age.........


BBC News - Why tech can't break the hold of paper

BBC News - Personality tests: Can they identify the real you?

The next time you apply for a job, you may well be asked to take a personality test - even though the companies that make the tests often discourage their use for staff selection. The business of personality is big and growing. But do the tests work?

A few years back......

BBC News - Personality tests: Can they identify the real you?

Late for Work

Tom had this problem of getting up late in the morning and was always late for work. His boss was mad at him and threatened to fire him if he didn't do something about it.

So Tom went to his doctor who gave him a pill and told him to take it before he went to bed. Tom slept well and in fact beat the alarm in the morning. He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work. "Boss", he said, "The pill actually worked!"

"That's all fine" said the boss, "But where were you yesterday?"

Thanks to jokeswarehouse.com

Is TIME is driving you round the BEND? http://bit.ly/APTETimeBend

BBC News - In pictures: China's Shenzhou-9 returns to Earth http://ping.fm/Cf4SZ

BBC News - BAE Systems' Navsop navigation system rivals GPS http://ping.fm/fvh7G

BBC News - Thames cable car in London opens for passengers http://ping.fm/xfFsw

Facebook Statistics: Top European Penetration - Socialbakers http://ping.fm/W5lpI

Liking the Sky+ new menu system. Also very smart looking

BBC News - 'Twisted light' carries 2.5 terabits of data per second http://ping.fm/w0laO

BBC News - RBS computer problems kept man in prison http://ping.fm/U0kWo

BBC News - Role of stress in dementia investigated http://ping.fm/WsPXa

Microsoft buys Yammer for $1.2bn http://ping.fm/5C663

BBC News - Google TV service launches in UK with Sony tie-up http://ping.fm/GpLN8

Last-of-his-kind Galápagos tortoise, dies - FT.com http://ping.fm/5DOl3

Integrity Rant Programme Log File

<Variables string, rant, emotion, graphic>
<start programme>
<start string>
<start rant>

Thought I might steam off today and see where that took me. Forgive me my indulgence but if it helps in any way I am glad.

I get, from time to time and increasing in frequency, requests to endorse people on sites or Facebook apps such as Branchout.

I have even received endorsements from people I have never met, yet alone worked with!

As a coach, I have to be trusted and my word is very much under scrutiny. If I don’t do what I say I am going to do, then why would a client want to work with me?

More importantly, I hold my clients to their word and I can’t do that if I don’t do or be what I say I am going to. If they promise to do something I will literally hold then to their word

Integrity with another human being is vital for a workable, yet successful, relationship. Even with machinery or technology if things are not kept within the integrity of the design they breakdown. Put simply:

broken integrity = breakdown = things don’t work

Strangely within communication, words only account for 7% of what is being communicated but when trust has been broken, more often or not people will will recite the words that were used … “But you said ….”

Again, what is more interesting, is the energy that is consumed by being out of integrity way exceeds any gain that has been made! People actually get physically sick when they are out of integrity with the intention of the communication or the design in their lives.

Stress

<start graphic>
<intensify emotion>

so what of stress? How is that caused?
Look to see if things are in keeping with the design or with the intension.

What was intended is usually framed in a box called Agreement.

<end graphic>

Broken agreement = broken integrity = breakdown

And that’s why I am stressed today.

<deintensify emotion>
<end rant>
<end string>
<end programme>

<start happy programme>

Schemes for AyPee Arthur Partridge http://bit.ly/APSchemer

Megapixel Camera Try Gigapixel http://ping.fm/c2z9X

Leveraging social media for growth and job creation | AyPee's Funteresting Blog

See on Scoop.it - Funteresting Stuff


PLEASE CONNECT in any way that suits you at
http://xeeme.com/da12social

Pan European Social Media Initiative, inspiring businesses and entrepreneurs to leverage social media for growth and job creation as well as better integrating the public sector #da12social

See on xeeme.com

Things to Ponder on

There are some extremely valid and searching questions in life and here are but a few and I suspect the most important!

AhaJokes.com Ponderings collection 01

Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?
Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?
Why are there flotation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes?
Why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?
Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
If you can't drink and drive, why do you need a driver's license to buy liquor, and why do bars have parking lots?
Do you need a silencer if you are going to shoot a mime?
Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?
How does the guy who drives the snowplough get to work in the mornings?
If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

 

Thanks to ahajokes.com

*** Adult Truths ***

A friend recently emailed this to me. Apologies if it is your intellectual property or copyright!

Number 10 is so true! I fully subscribe to numbers 11 and 18 – get me a coffee while I think about that!

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die! 2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realise you're wrong. 3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger. 4. There is great need for a sarcasm font. 5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet? 6. Was learning cursive really necessary? 7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighbourhood. 8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.. 9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired. 10. Bad decisions make good stories.. 11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day. 12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again. 13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.. 14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call. 15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well. 16. I disagree with Kay Jewellers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay. 17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option. 18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger. 19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said? 20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters! 21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever…. Men only of course ladies! 22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is. 23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time. 24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. Ladies.....Quit Laughing.

Heal the past, live the present, dream the future. Enjoy life!!!

Quixotic Fusion: Dancing with light

Quixotic Fusion: Dancing with light #TED http://on.ted.com/CX14

Dilbert’s Daddy

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

~ Scott Adams,
American cartoonist and writer

• Born June 1957
• Earned a BA in economics and held various roles in big businesses
• Was a big fan of the Peanuts comics and of Mad magazine
• Started drawing his own comics at the age of six but didn’t became a full-time cartoonist until 1995
• Famous for creating the Dilbert comic strip        image and information from Wikipedia
  

and the show went on

6th February, 2010 and Sir Johnny Dankworth and his lifelong Partner and wife, Dame Cleo Laine are due to perform in concert that evening. A 40th anniversary, but Johnny had died that day in hospital.
82 year old Cleo, out of respect for John, went ahead with the show and asked John’s friend Andy to take John’s role in the piece that they were about to play, because, as Cleo said,
“He would have wanted to play this piece if he were here and I know that the one person that he would have entrusted it to would be to Andy ….”
It just make me think of just how important such a meaningless thing as music is. Music, in itself has no purpose other than the importance we attach to it and that attachment makes it so extremely important!
If you ever wish to invoke a memory, refer to the music that was playing at the time and watch how peoples’ state begins to change as soon as the music plays out and their memory recreates.
Yet music is timeless but so clearly leaves pegs in our timelines.
‘Sound pegs’  to which we attach emotional states and visual images.
‘Sergeant Pepper Lonely Heart’s Club Band’, played during the summer when I left school. ‘Stephen Stills’ solo album played when I was 21. The Doobie Brothers ‘Captain and Me’ had a profound impact on me when I first moved away from my home town, in 1973 and so they roll on, sounds as time pegs, each invoking emotional states from me but the biggest emotion of all … familiarity.
Familiarity because each piece of music is an old friend.

What songs or pieces of music are really important to you?

image from play.com amongst others

Legal Research

At a weekend convention of biological scientists, Hannah, a researcher remarks to Pam,
'Did you know that in our lab we have switched from mice to lawyers for our experiments?'

'Really?' Pam replies, 'Why did you switch?'

'Well, for two reasons. First we found that lawyers are far more plentiful, and second, the lab assistants don't get so attached to them,' chortled Hannah.

Source Various

Love not working

“If you find something you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life"

~ Erin Reagan 

played by Bridget Moynahan  in Blue Bloods
Series 2 episode 20
‘Working Girls’

Image Getglue.com

That’s not. Is it not?

There is a strange phenomena that happens when you use negation.
For example, if I were to say to you do not think of a blue elephant, the first thing that you would have to do is think of a blue elephant, so that you will know what it is that you must not think of.
Then  you can dismiss any thoughts of a blue elephant.
Since if you had to think of it then you cannot really dismiss it. Its too late! You already thought of it.
So, actually, there is a tremendous amount of power in using negative words and negative tag questions. Is there not?
I could, for example say “I'm not suggesting that you think about this as you sleep and dream tonight”.
Firstly, I am presupposing that you will sleep and dream tonight and secondly you will have to process this so that you can dismiss it. It is a command in the form of a suggestion : “Think about this tonight”
What are the chances that you will dream about what I have said – who knows?
The point is that you had to process what I said, which makes it a suggestion.  As my Mentor Steve Crabb says: “You cannot not process what I say”
In hypnotic language, the word not becomes very useful when making suggestions.  Does it not?
Now lets consider what happens in every day life and the hypnosis that takes place naturally:
Somebody might say to you “how are you?” and you respond
”I'm not too bad”

Your unconscious just heard, ‘I am ___ bad’.
It processes that and then reinstalls the word not The ‘Auto Suggestion’ has taken place. Has it not?

So it may seem strange that one of the better things that you can do is to say
“I'm not too good”
Because your unconscious will process  I'm ___ too good, and then add not back into the mix
All of this can be a confusing process. It becomes clear when you practice it.
What may be better is to delete not from your language and always frame your words in factual statements.
“How are you?”
”I am OK”. There is NO negative auto suggestion in that answer. It  is a positive Auto Suggestion.
Is that a good idea? Is it not?
My thanks go to Frank Pucelik for this little gem!
Now for the tag question “Is it not?”.
It is a question that is tagged on to the end of a question or statement and it is designed to invoke a positive or a negative response.
“Is it not?” will invoke a positive thought and “Is it?” will invoke a critical thought – an investigation as to the truth of the statement or question and so it invokes the negative – Does it not?

So do NOT have a great day and do NOT enjoy yourself and I suggest that you NOT smile a lot today!

Seeing eye to eye

From Will and Guy's Funny Clean Jokes at www.guy-sports.com

Roger left for work on Friday morning.  Friday was payday, so instead of going home, he stayed out the entire weekend partying with the boys and spending his entire pay packet.

Finally, Roger appeared at home on Sunday night, and obviously he was confronted by his angry wife, Martha who castigated Roger for nearly two hours with a tirade befitting his actions.  Finally, Martha stopped the nagging and said to Roger, 'How would you like it if you didn't see me for two or three days?”

Roger replied grimly, 'That would be fine with me”

Monday went by and he didn't see his Martha. Tuesday and Wednesday came and went with the same results.

By the Thursday, the swelling had gone down just enough so that Roger he could see Martha a little out of the corner of his left eye

 

Will Baker

I was born in Southsea, Portsmouth after the 2nd World War had ended and I lived for most of my childhood in Portchester; Trincomalee, Ceylon [Sri Lanka]; and attended the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, Suffolk. Sport was one of the few things that genuinely excited and interested me and I played and watched avidly.

I trained to be a teacher at Bulmershe College of Education, Reading and later at Sussex University and have taught in Paulsgrove; Leigh Park; Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico; North East Surrey and Gosport. Humour has always been an essential aspect of my teaching and attitude to life in general.

I am extremely happily married to Steve and have been since 1970 and we have two grown up children of whom we are very proud.  Will's favourite holiday destination is Les Costes, a Holiday Cottage in Pardaillan, Dordogne, France.

I am now retired and am enjoying working with my good friend and ex-teaching colleague, Guy, on our humour website.

Guy Thomas

I was born in Cowbridge, which is in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales.  My formative years were spent at the local grammar school followed by Cardiff University.

For 4 years I flirted with research into growing better plants.  What I like most about that job was part time teaching of undergraduates so I moved into mainstream education and to the teaching front line.  It was at my first school at Wakeford, in Hampshire that I met Will.

Silent interpretation

“God’s first language is Silence. Everything else is a translation”

Thomas Keating

• Born 7th March 1923 in New York City
• Trappist monk (Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) and priest
• One of architects of the Centering Prayer, a contemporary method of contemplative prayer and of the Centering Prayer movement and of Contemplative Outreach, Ltd
  

 

sources Wikipedia and centeringprayer.com

That's another Storify

I was reading Mark Schaffer's blog post ‘ What Do I Write About? ‘,  the other evening, where he suggests that when we are stuck, we have the following options: “Look to your peer groups, look in your comments, look in your key words and Google it”.

I found his post very useful and I happened to repost it to Facebook, where one of my Facebook friends then thanked me for posting the article because she too found it very useful. She suffers from bloggers block, as I do.

As a blogger,  I understand exactly what this is like because I too have become stuck on what I should write about on more than one occasion and given that my blog is 'Funteresting' - intended to be both Fun and Interesting - sometimes doubt creeps in and I ask myself ‘am I generating either of those two states for my readers?’

However, I find that the interesting and fun things have a tendency just to show up and I notice them if I am aware.
Note that I did not say "paying attention".  Theses are different states:

• Paying attention is being conscious and bringing my focus to things (I go to it)
  whereas
• being aware is allowing things to come to me from my experience in the moment, into my unconscious and conscious states (They come to me).

There is always a pattern to things that when you start linking them together, be it peer groups,  comments, key words, Google finds  or simply what you become aware of. A story emerges.

So what of storify.com?

Storify is a web site where you can create stories out of postings from elsewhere on the web, such as Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, BreakingNews, Flickr, Chute, SoundCloud, Instagram, GetGlue, StockTwits, Disqus, Google, Tumblr, RSS Feeds, Embedded URLs and Storify itself.
 http://storify.com/tour gives a much better view on how Storify works
The “create” screen has two halves:

• A Media collection area where you can search external sites
  and
• A Story Pad where you can assemble your story
  and add your own commentary  and pictures,  as you assemble the story

It strikes me as a great place to assemble your stories even if you never publish them because you can layout your story, see it and gauge if it fits what you want to create. The ability to review the media that you use is extensive and it doesn’t stop there.

I also use http://ifttt.com (If This Then That) another site where I can link together different elements of various websites together to take actions across sites or as ifttt themselves say “Put the internet to work for you”
Storify is one of the sites listed by ifttt which means I can automate my media collection amongst other things. For example, here are some of the recipes created by other ifttt users:

• “If someone tweets a mention of me, it goes to my StoryPad on Storify” - created by jeffthechimp
• “Send starred Google Reader items to Storify” - created by kopischke 
• “#instagram to #storify” - created by ajbatac
• “Post story on #storify, send it to #facebook” - created by by fr33q

Storify allows you to ‘Export’ your stories to Wordpress,  Tumblr, Posterous, Drupal and Mailchimp although, for whatever reason, I have never achieved exporting to Wordpress directly however using Scoop.it!‘s bookmarklet I can post a summary of the story direct to Wordpress and can add my comments there.

Grabbing the HTML code from Wordpress also allows me to blog in Ecademy.com

Happy Blogging!

5 Horrifying Facts You Didn't Know About the Space Shuttle - Forbes

See on Scoop.it - Funteresting Stuff
A very interesting article from Forbes.com. It would be easy to read this article from a negative perspective given the famous deaths that occurred but given the technology, what an innovative creation and icon of determination

 

Criticizing the Space Shuttle is like punching America in the face. After all, it’s been a symbol of national pride for thirty years.

See on www.forbes.com

Planning for disaster

‎"Most people plan by disaster. They think of what can go wrong and then they master it"

~Richard Bandler

Dr RICHARD BANDLER, Co-founder of Neuro Linguistic Programming and creator of Design Human Engineering(tm) and Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning(tm), has always been and remains at the very forefront of new technologies.
For the past thirty years, Richard has dedicated himself to developing new ideas tools, techniques and models for the advancement of human evolution. His genius as a trainer is world renowned.
Thousands of people provide testimony to his ability to help them to live their lives with greater happiness and freedom. He teaches with humour and joy and continues to care enough to share his newest discoveries with us.

I haven’t got time

I have been saying and hearing “I haven’t got time” a lot recently.
It occurs to me that when people say “I don't have time'”, that they are are actually telling me that there is something that they are in fear of. They are actually leaving something else outstanding, resulting in a stuck state.
Usually this comes out of some sort of fear and the strange thing is that whatever the fear; it  is usually quite insignificant. However, time itself seems to have taken over. Their head is full on conversation about the very thing that they are avoiding. i.e. they are putting in double or treble the effort avoiding something, rather than just doing it.

Here is a link to a conversation about that very point:   what-would-you-like-this-to-procrastinate-about-this-week

So the answer in these situations is not a time management system or even priorities. 

It is usually to do with some form of prior experience where there may have been a failure, an embarrassment, an upset or something that tends towards the unpleasant. Something not to be repeated.

Breaking this down.

• They are not being honest in the words they are using to converse with themselves.
  At worst they have become a victim of their own self talk. It could be that they are not even saying anything at all related to the subject
• Their expectations are not being met or have appear to be precarious.
• A past routine has kicked in.
  The brain cannot unlearn anything and so if they have taught themselves a routine, the more they practice that routine, the better they get at it. The situation reminds them of a prior occasion when they used this technique.
  Like a robot off it fires and takes control.

As you can see all those issues come from past experience but the problem does not exist in the past.  It exists now. 
Some form of getting present is required, albeit meditation, a short, sharp shock, a crisis.  One of those get real moments, some form of upset or simply a change. Anything to break the trance that they are in. A Pattern Interruption, a Hypnotist would say.

A good state changer is Disassociation. 
Disassociation from yourself as a captive of time to becoming a Controller Of Time

Imagine floating out of your body and seeing yourself in your stuck position.  Float all the way around yourself – a full 360°.  Notice what you notice and then, as if you were a puppeteer, move parts of your body: 
Maybe add a smile to your face. Changing your body posture and relocate yourself  into a different position.
Make fine adjustments and introduce a relaxed posture!

Imagine a time that you were told in really funny joke or imagine a time when something really funny happened to you. You could even imagine that the place that you are in has transported itself to a hot sunny beach or to your favourite holiday destination. Substitute any good feeling here (the naughtier the better, I find! )
Try this one:   doreens-story
Imagine floating back in to your body and NOW:
Notice how different you feel.
Notice how different things look. 
Notice how different things sound
Notice how much silence there is
Notice the differences and
Notice how your state has changed NOW
Crank up all the good feelings
Get present to what needs to be done next and

JUST DO IT!

Easter is Happening

An amusing tweet I received from my tweet pal ‘KP’

@AyPee Easter is happening. Hope my family will behave. Last year was a riot. Police came around 3 times, 3rd time they brought their wives.

— KP (@jadarc) April 1, 2012

 

Have a great Easter!

Fly Right

"Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude"

~ Zig Ziglar

Hilary Hinton "Zig" Ziglar
U.S. Motivational speaker and author. 
Born November 6, 1926

Image: Zig  Ziglar in March 2009 is  from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar

DO Management

“ I don’t have a To Do list”

~ Peter Thomson

 

 

“ The only important thing to do is the next thing”

~ Michael Neill

 

“Manage by outcomes not presence”

~ the guy who did the presentation for Microsoft at ‘Business 2012’ at the O2 on Tuesday 20th March 2012

 

Timely reminders that we tend to forget

In the “Product Creation Goldmine” 3 day workshop that I attended, Peter Thomson explained how he manages his priorities. “I don’t have a To Do list. I have a Do list”, he said.

We can create endless lists of things to do. Don’t get me wrong, we have to make lists because it focuses us on the next thing we need to do and it can also give a feeling of satisfaction when the list is complete. Happy Happy   ….

A few years back I heard Michael Neill say something remarkably similar. He was saying forget the list, do the most important thing that you need to do next and then do the next most important thing that you need to do after that. Happier Happier …  

At the Business 2012 exhibition the Guy (I don’t know his name. I ambled in half way through his presentation) on the Microsoft stand, whilst presenting Microsoft’s Anywhere, said “Manage by Outcomes not Presence” Even Happier …  

I was timely reminded!

So why do we forget and get ourselves bogged down with big lists and then feel the pressure and probably demonstrate stress?
Because we forget. I don’t know why. I do it myself!

I think the key is set up something to remind you and feel really good about how free we are doing what we need to do.
Re(place your)mind yourself and bump up the good feeling.

I use Simpleology’s programme to help me focus, in particular, what they call the “Dream catcher”. I dump my thoughts into the Dream Catcher and forget about them until I “Start my day”, as they put it, which is another part of their programme. 

To be honest, I haven’t looked at any other time and thought management programmes. I got this from my friend  (“the famous”) Jo Dodds (I expect she might be embarrassed by that  - which is why I said it!) …    

So getting things done is getting rid of the things we need to do next whilst do what we need to do now and then feeling really great about how unpressured we really are and feeling good for no reason whatsoever.
We have the list. The list doesn’t have us!

As a former Business Continuity Manager, the main thing I learnt was gauge the impact and the urgency - What is the impact of not doing something?
- How urgent is the thing that has to be done? And then the overriding question:

Does it have to be done at all?

The combination of how urgent and what is the impact of not doing it works for me!
I check it off against my grid and re-sort my Simpleology accordingly and that allows me to Focus on what I believe is the most important thing:

How good can I feel for absolutely no reason

 

images thebestyoucanbe.org  imindshift.com  microsoft.com AyPeeCo
Jo Dodds can be found at jododdssocialmedia.com