Shifts Work

How to use negatives better

Three important ideas for using negatives better:

1) Uncover the benefits of starting with what you don't want

2) You need to match other people (with a negative) before you can get them to shift to a positive

3) The brain naturally weighs loss more than gain; it takes an effort to focus on the positive (when you start with a negative, you can lend someone some of your willpower so they can make a shift)

How Real is Zoom Fatigue?

According to researchers at Stanford, Zoom fatigue is real. But does that mean it's inevitable? Linda Ferguson offers an NLP (neurolinguistic programming) perspective on using your senses to engage in video chats and meetings. Linda references this TED talk on doodling and Adam Grant's recent podcast episode with Malcolm Gladwell.

Warning: this episode contains tips that might make you love connecting, even on Zoom.

Doing the best you can when you are not at your best

You might not feel like your best self today. You might not even be a 7/10.  Maybe you're a three. It's okay. You can work with that. You have to start where you are to make a difference.

Look at Halloween through NLP eyes

What does NLP allow us to see happening at this scary time of year? Look at how Halloween reveals the best way to approach our deep fears and find the resources to deal with them.

What you pay attention to will grow

It's the kernel of truth at the core of the law of attraction. Whatever you give your attention becomes more available as a pattern to use while interpreting situations. What you give your attention to will grow. It doesn't mean to expect goals without work. It means you can prime yourself to notice opportunity.

What thinking inside the box can mean for you

When you're stuck, it can feel like the walls are closing in on you. There's not enough room to move and no good options. You want to think outside the box, but all you can see or feel is the box.

Let Linda guide you through an experience that will change the way you experience the box and it's place in the world. Thinking inside the box is more fun - and more productive - than you might expect.

Photo credit: © Can Stock Photo / evgenyatamanenko.jpg

An Introduction to Strategic Communication

Take about 20 minutes to walk through the basics of strategic communication. Learn how communication works automatically and how wanting something specific changes that. Explore why communication is always a part of how make positive change happen. Discover the three keys to being more strategic: 1) know what you want; 2) know what you have in common; 3) know what you don't know. And then walk through the core strategy for involving other people in making the change you want to see happen.

Take the sting out of failure so you can grow

I bet you've failed at something, and I bet you hated the experience. When we think of our failures, they can sting, even years after they happened. That sting gets in our way: it stops us from pushing past limits and learning and trying new things.

Avoiding failure is a bad plan; it's impossible most of the time and even when you think it's working, you are limiting yourself to what you already know and what you can already do. A better plan is to approach failure with grit: the combination of purpose and perseverance that allows you to genuinely experience each failure as one more step toward solving a problem or reaching an achievement.

This exercise takes just 6 minutes to reframe your failure and open up new possibilities.

Photo credit: Marius Kallhardt

Suggestions can be more powerful than commands

Listen to this episode to discover how easily you are led to accept ideas that come from a trusted source in a relationship you value. Whether you are making or taking suggestions, it's appropriate to also take a deep breath and ask yourself: is this really what I want? how much of this motivation is a desire to stay connected? what else do I want now?

Spot the frames when someone else is speaking or writing

Take ten minutes to get better at noticing the structure which is setting you up to interpret a communication in a particular way. Structure is inevitable: it's how language works. When a structure is embedded into a communication, it is as hard to notice as the bone structure of a human being. You might not think about it consciously, but you notice the shape it gives your thinking and you use it to interpret the details.

This is a simple (but not easy) three step method for getting better at spotting frames in communication that you hear or read. Following this process will make you quicker to see the implications or consequences of buying into what someone is saying and it will give you more choices about how to interpret the information being shaped by the frames.

Photo credit: Les Chatfield, https://www.flickr.com/photos/elsie/