Monday, May 26, 2008

Life Coach & Therapist Training Funded For You...Or Not?

As you did your training to become a Life Coach or Therapist, you might have come across training providers who were members of the Career Development Loan scheme.

This arrangement allows you to take out a loan from a high steet bank to fund your training, and you pay it back as you go along. Its a fairly good way for people to fund their qualifications.

Now I've run over 20 NLP Practitioner Certifications over the last 7 years and had Registered Provider status with the CDL organistion since 2003. After a
cabinet reshuffle within that organisation, I was recently asked to renew my status by reapplying. The whole process took over 2 months waiting to hear back from them.

Imagine my surprise last week when I was told they rejected my application, on the grounds that, and I quote: "There is no evidence to suggest that an NLP Practitioner can make an adequate income doing NLP".

I'd better go back to a 5 figure income and start lookin for a real job then...

Friday, May 16, 2008

Know Your Debt Consolidation Options And Avoid The Money Minefield

Standing in the gents loo in a service station on the M76 last week, I was reading one of those strategically placed posters. It gave an example of a couple £30,000 in credit card debt and paying over £700 per month in loans.

The poster claimed that after using the advertised service, they were now paying £300 per month and would be debt free in 2 years. Then I read the very small print, and I was ready to write to trading standards [if only my hands weren’t full at the time].

If I could sum up the pros and cons of 9 of the most often peddled debt-recovery options (including bankruptcy, debt consolidation, and IVAs), then you will gain an insight into why I usually advise against each and every one, and why I almost insist you do too.

Bankruptcy – Huge social stigma attached to it, takes years to shake off afterwards, your self-esteem and credibility will take a hard knock – this is the last resort. It will be displayed in the local newspaper under Public Notices. Anything of value that you have, or acquire, can be seized to pay off the debt. You have to shut down any and all bank and building society accounts so you can’t get paid by BACS. And with no ability to set up Direct Debits, Standing Orders or cash cheques, you’d better get familiar with the Post Office, cos you’ll be in the queue a lot from now on.

Informal agreements – you write and ask for a compromise, and a renegotiated timetable for repayment. Not legally binding though, so they can revoke it at will. Speak to Citizens Advice about it.

Debt management – some companies will offer to act as middle man and will charge a fee to handle your affairs for you. This usually means lower monthly payments and over a longer term. Sounds good, but overall you end up paying more in the long run, so you’re actually getting in deeper.

Credit counsellors – Professional advice freely available. They may even negotiate terms for you with your creditors. Watch out for cowboys who offer to clean your credit record for large fees [I fell for that one once]. Watch out for heavy sales patter and pressure.

Remortgage – borrow more money against the equity in your home. Good way of reducing the interest rate, but beware of adding credit card debt to a mortgage. That £3000 holiday may now take 25 years to pay off, making it more like a £12,000 holiday long term. Hope the beaches were nice. You’ve also just turned an unsecured debt [your home under no risk] into a secured debt [you’d better glue it to the ground!]

Individual Voluntary Agreements – a third party acts as middle man between you and the creditors, usually over 5 years. Repayments are renegotiated, and sometimes small balances are written off. However, there are admin costs and that puts you more in the red.

Administration – If there are CCJ’s against you then an administration order may be issued. You pay through the court, but if you later break the agreement, it’s as bad as bankruptcy long term.

Debt consolidation – you see these ads on TV every day. Pile all of your debts into one to them, and now the only people who need paid is the debt consolidation company. Lower payments, and longer to pay them, which looks good on paper. Simplifies the whole picture, because now its one debt. But the monthly fees stack up and again long term you end up paying more.

Personal loan – you go to your bank and ask for a good deal. As an existing customer they will probably offer you a good deal. But again look what you’ve really done – never mind Peter, you’ve just robbed Paul to pay the next guy in the line…

The simple solution is to dig yourself out of the hole, make amicable arrangements with your creditors, increase your income, decrease your outgoings and get to work working your plan. There's virtually no debt situation that cannot be recovered, and recovered quite quickly.

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You know how you never have enough money and you feel tied down and restricted? Jonathan Clark teaches 7 simple steps to financial independence which means you’re debt free in 3-5 years. For the ultimate training visit www.ReleaseRetreat.com

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Release Retreat

Personal Growth NLP & Money Retreat In Spain

5 Days In The Sun, A Massage Every Morning, World Class Money Mastery Seminars In The Afternoon, All In A Luxury Hotel & Spa On The Spanish Coast...

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Dear Friend,

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If so, this may be the most interesting message you will ever read.

Here's why: My name is Jonathan Clark and I want to invite you on a very special holiday package of a lifetime.

Have Your Cake......And Eat it Too


I'm thrilled to announce a revolutionary new concept in holidaying... with a priceless twist -- You see, The Retreat is for PERSONAL GROWTH ENTHUSIASTS ONLY and members share the experience as a group, having fun while making life-long relationships...

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Picture yourself, and your spouse or a friend relaxing in the lap of luxury, surrounded by other self help fans where you can:

A week of healthy eating and daily pampering - shed the toxins built up over the past few months

Make contacts for life

Learn profitable new skills from world-class experts in an intimate setting of cooperation - master your money, your energy and your time once and for all!

Relax in elegant and spacious surroundings and build supportive relationships

Enjoy new adventures with exciting people in sunny Spain while everyone you know has their head to the grindstone...

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And the best part is... it's so affordable, you'll feel like you're stealing your membership. For a free brochure just click here

Friday, May 02, 2008

This Touched Me, It'll Touch You Too

I'll let the video say it all...

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Am I Normal?

9pm on a Monday night I swear at the TV, because the BBC 2 “Am I Normal?” series comes on led by clinical psychologist Dr Tanya Byron. And oh that woman’s language patterns….

This time the supposedly objective discussion was around attitudes towards religion and the supernatural. Specifically the fine line between devotion vs. psychiatric disorder. What’s the difference between eccentric and abnormal? Is speaking in tongues a sign of God or a sign of mental illness? What’s the difference between a Priest and a religious zealot?

Byron described a middle aged woman living in seclusion with strict routine and little contact with the outside world as a manic depressive, then she introduced us to the Nuns. Ah, the contrast frame, often used in sales to get us to compare two things to make them appear similar, even if they’re not.

Then the Sister was asked what’s the difference between fulfilling a personal need vs. having a spiritual calling and I loved her answer – “You know in your heart vs. knowing in your head”. That would stump our Tanya then.

To really understand how loaded this programme commentary was, you have to understand how presuppositions work. They are ideas, assumptions or beliefs that are presupposed, i.e. taken for granted and acted upon, or assumed to make the communication make sense. NLP author L. Michael Hall describes them as “Silent assumptions, unspoken paradigms”. NLP creators Bandler & Grinder said “Presuppositions are particularly insidious as they are not presented openly for consideration”.

Presuppose means “suppose first”. Suppose (from Latin) means “to put under”. They act as the supporting structure of a given statement, and within them they hold that person’s beliefs about their map of reality. They don’t appear in the surface structure, they are direct “pillars” coming up from the deep structure. They work covertly, unconsciously and indirectly as we have to accept them to process what we read/heard.

After 8 minutes I noticed the following suggestions.

“Religious belief depends on faith, not proof, and it can never be proved” she said. So what’s the point of this documentary then?
“The Priest is asking you to believe you’re eating the flesh of Christ”. No wonder those wafers taste funny…
“There is a high correlation between schizophrenics and religious believers”. Now there’s a not-so-subtle inference.
“People undergoing therapy are scared to discuss their religious beliefs in case it gets them labelled as crazy”. That tells us more about the beliefs of the therapists surely?
“If you speak to God its prayer. If God speaks back its schizophrenia”. LOL!
“The brain is susceptible to suggestions from within, and without”. Yeah, and to careless suggestions from Clinical Psychologists.
“If society talked more about madness, perhaps there would be less mad people”
“The UK is one of the least overt religious countries in the world, therefore we find overt worship odd”.
“There’s a belief that sudden religious faith equals mental breakdown”. Well there is now…
“Maybe this is where I demonstrate my own prejudice”. Err, you did that after the credits dear.
“Desperate people are drawn to irrational beliefs”. So rational people aren’t desperate?
“The man who’s putting her into trance…” Err, wrong again.
“There’s no evidence that Spirit Release is safe or effective”. Who mentioned safe? Oh yeah, the psychologist.

Now Tanya has a nasty habit of listening to someone, then feeding it back with her interpretation. She says “It sounds like you’re saying…” or “So that means…” but then ends with something the other person never said. And I was delighted when 3 of the guests finally called her on it! Well done Dr Alan Sanderson, doing spirit release therapy and using a technique similar to one I learned in Huna. When Tanya concludes “So all spirits are parasites then?”. “Actually no, that’s not what I said” he replied. Finally!

You have to look at the big picture – Dr Byron has a clinical bias, and here she’s attempting to scrutinise spiritual and religious phenomenon, which by definition won’t pass her tests. It’s the conscious mental body trying to comprehend the super conscious spiritual body, trying to describe with words something that’s beyond words.

Her conclusion - “Show me the evidence, or stop raising false hopes.” So the next time you Coach someone in a dreadful situation, rather than offer them positive hope [which is often based on nothing tangible] remember to tell them their statistical chances. Jeez!

My conclusion - The religious rallies arouse trance states using rhythmic music, hypnotic lighting, showmanship and rapid trance inductions. So does Tony Robbins. When you enter a trance state your entire nervous system switches from “sympathetic” adrenaline and stress to “parasympathetic” relaxed and dozy. That’s one of the reasons people have so called spiritual experiences, feeling peaceful, cosmic euphoria and connected. This is often thought to be divine. Unfortunately there’s very little follow up to see if the miraculous cure actually lasted.

Sometimes the conscious mind needs to go through some kind of ritual to give the unconscious mind permission to do what it already knows how to. People have different rituals, which they believe in and which work for them. Believers could be healed, but non-believers couldn’t. It’s your belief in the ritual that permits the unconscious mind to affect you. And even non-desperate rational Tanya has rituals… Like her belief in clinical psychology, which is her religion, and that’s good for her.

Jeremy Vine was superb – he said certainty equals ignorance. The surer you are that something is true, the less you actually know. A bit like quantum physics…

This programme was skewed from the start, and anything that disagrees with the presenter’s model of the word becomes dubious, and that’s the inherent danger of these programmes – they are inherently biased. If you don’t believe me, just listen to the presuppositions.

The highlight for me was the euphoric young dude after the Christian rally. She asked “What’s so good about this experience?” and he simply said: “JC on the hookup”. Amen brother.