Welcome to Episode #158 of NLP Around You

🧠 Thoughtful Thought

“Your emotion plays a key role in your promotion or demotion.” — Thoughtfully Yours

For your daily dose of Thoughtful Thoughts, get your Thoughtful Calendar here.

💬 NLP Quote Corner

“I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.” — Virginia Woolf

⏳ One Minute NLP – Managing Your Energy, Not Just Time

We often try to manage time better. Plan more. Schedule more. Optimise more.
But what if the real game is not time… it’s energy?

In NLP, your state determines your output. Two hours of low energy can feel exhausting. One hour of high energy can create magic.

So instead of asking, “What should I do next?” ask,
“What state am I in right now?”

If your energy is low, don’t push harder. Reset. Move your body. Breathe deeply. Step away for a moment.

When your energy shifts, your thinking sharpens. Your decisions improve. Your actions become more effective.

Time is constant. Energy is flexible.

And in NLP, those who learn to manage their energy… end up mastering their time.

🔮 Meta Magic – When One Answer Is Not Enough

A young man walked into a quiet workshop where an old locksmith was working. “I’ve tried everything,” the young man said, placing a small locked box on the table. “I have two keys. Both fit. Both turn. But the box won’t open.”

The locksmith picked up the box, examined it gently, and asked, “Show me.”

The young man inserted the first key. It turned smoothly. Nothing happened.He tried the second. Same result.

“See?” he said. “Both work. Still nothing.”

The locksmith smiled. “Use them together.”

The young man frowned. “Together?”

“Yes.”

Hesitantly, he placed both keys in their slots and turned them at the same time.

Click. The box opened. Inside was a simple note:

“Some doors don’t open with effort. They open with alignment.”

The young man looked up, puzzled. “Why make it this complicated?” The locksmith replied softly,

“It was never complicated. You were just trying to win with one key at a time.”

Meta Magic Insight:

Sometimes it’s not about finding a better answer.

It’s about combining what you already know.

📖 Hook from the Book

“They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrows.” — Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

🎬 Movie Motivation 

“Bhagwan par bharosa karne se pehle, khud par bharosa karna seekho.” Translated to “Before trusting God, learn to trust yourself.” This dialogue from the movie Guide reminds us that Self-belief is the gateway to accessing inner resources.

 

🏆 Popular Post of the Week

A Dhurandhar Masterclass

PS: Missed the past issues of NLP Around You? Find them all here: https://w3coach.com/nlparoundyou/

Thoughtfully Yours,

Welcome to Episode #157 of NLP Around You

🧠 Thoughtful Thought

“To listen is not just to hear. It is to be here!” — Thoughtfully Yours

For your daily dose of Thoughtful Thoughts, get your Thoughtful Calendar here.

💬 NLP Quote Corner

“You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let into your life.” — Austin Kleon

⏳ One Minute NLP – The Power of Micro Shifts

Big change can feel overwhelming. That’s why most people wait for the right time, the right mood, the perfect plan. And while they wait… nothing changes.

In NLP, we focus on micro shifts. Small, almost invisible changes that quietly reshape your behaviour.

One deeper breath.
One better question.
One kinder thought.
One tiny action.

It may not look like much—but your brain notices. It begins to build a new pattern. And patterns, repeated over time, become identity.

Don’t underestimate the power of small shifts done consistently. You don’t need a massive breakthrough every day. You just need a slightly better direction.

Because in NLP, transformation isn’t about giant leaps. It’s about tiny shifts… repeated until they become who you are.

🔮 Meta Magic – You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

The watchman worked at a large villa. Every morning his boss drove out in a luxury car, and it was the watchman’s duty to open the gates and greet him.

“Good morning, sir,” he would say faithfully.

But the boss never responded.

Not once.

One day the boss saw the watchman opening garbage bags outside the villa, searching for leftover food to take home. Yet, as always, the boss drove past without reacting, as if he had not seen anything at all.

The next day the watchman noticed a paper bag lying at the same spot near the garbage area. It was clean, and the food inside was neatly covered. Fresh vegetables and groceries. It looked as if someone had just bought them from the supermarket.

The watchman didn’t question it. He simply took the bag home, grateful.

The same thing happened the next day. And the day after that.

Every day there was a paper bag in the same place, filled with fresh vegetables and food. It slowly became part of his daily routine. The watchman fed his wife and children with those groceries.

Sometimes he even wondered, half amused, who the fool could be who forgot a bag full of fresh food every single day.

Then one day something unusual happened in the villa.

There was commotion everywhere. Guests kept arriving. The watchman was told that his boss had passed away.

That day the paper bag did not appear.

He assumed one of the guests must have taken it.

But the next day it was missing again.

And the next.

Days turned into weeks. Without the groceries, the watchman struggled again to provide food for his family. Finally he decided to ask his boss’s wife for a salary raise, or he would have to quit the job.

When he spoke to her, she looked surprised.

“You have never complained about your salary in the last two years,” she said. “Why is it suddenly not enough now?”

He tried to give excuses, but she remained unconvinced.

Eventually he told her the truth. He explained about the mysterious paper bags and how those groceries had quietly become his family’s daily provision.

She asked him one simple question.

“When did the bags stop appearing?”

He replied, “After your husband passed away.”

In that moment, the watchman realised something he had never considered before.

The paper bags had stopped exactly when the boss had died.

Which meant the person who had been leaving the groceries all along… was the same man who had never responded to his greetings.

The boss’s wife began to cry.

The watchman apologised quickly. “Please don’t cry, madam. I’m sorry I asked for a raise. I didn’t know your husband was the one helping my family. I will continue working here happily.”

But she shook her head gently.

“I’m crying because I have finally found the seventh person.”

She explained that her husband had quietly supported seven people every day by leaving them groceries. After his death she had managed to find six of them.

The watchman was the seventh.

From the next day onward, the groceries started arriving again. This time the boss’s son personally brought the bag to the watchman’s house and handed it to him.

Whenever the watchman thanked him, the young man never replied.

Just like his father.

One day the watchman said “THANK YOU” very loudly.

The young man smiled and replied softly.

“Please don’t be offended when I don’t respond. I have a hearing problem… just like my father.”

Meta Magic Insight

How often do we judge people based on what we think we see?

A silence becomes arrogance.

A behaviour becomes a story.

Yet the truth behind someone’s actions may be very different from what we assume.

Before concluding, there is always a wiser step.

Ask.

Because everyone you meet may be fighting a battle.

Or carrying a kindness.

That you know nothing about.

📖 Hook from the Book

“If the unexamined life was not worth living, was the unlived life worth examining?” — Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air

🎬 Movie Motivation 

“Jo log apni zindagi nahi jeete, woh doosron ki zindagi jeete hain.” Translated to “Those who don’t live their own life end up living someone else’s.” This dialogue from the movie Guide refers to the unconscious patterns that arise from borrowed beliefs.

 

🏆 Popular Post of the Week

Scientific Studies That Prove NLP Techniques Work for Influence & Persuasion

PS: Missed the past issues of NLP Around You? Find them all here: https://w3coach.com/nlparoundyou/

Thoughtfully Yours,

Your W3 Coach

Mehernosh 

Welcome to Episode #156 of NLP Around You

🧠 Thoughtful Thought

“Your trauma is not your fault, but healing is your responsibility.” — Thoughtfully Yours

For your daily dose of Thoughtful Thoughts, get your Thoughtful Calendar here.

💬 NLP Quote Corner

“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.” — Fyodor Dostoevsky

⏳ One Minute NLP – The Power of One Word

A participant once shared something interesting during a session.

“I keep telling myself I have to finish this project.”

“Have to?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “If I don’t, everything will collapse.”

I asked him to pause for a moment and repeat the sentence.

“I have to finish this project.”

Now I asked him to change just one word.

Instead of have to, say choose to.

He tried it.

“I choose to finish this project.”

Something subtle shifted in his expression.

The same project.
The same deadline.
But a different internal experience.

You see, the phrase “have to” creates pressure.
It feels like force, obligation, even resistance.

But “choose to” creates ownership.

And ownership activates motivation.

In NLP, we often say:

The words you use are not just communication.
They are instructions to your nervous system.

So the next time you catch yourself saying:

“I have to do this.”

Pause.

Replace it with:

“I choose to do this.”

The task may remain the same.
But your relationship with it changes instantly.

Sometimes transformation begins with just one word.

 

🔮 Meta Magic – Are You Solving Problems… Or Quietly Creating Them?

He entered the session with the confidence of someone who had built a reputation for being dependable.

A senior team leader.
Efficient. Trusted. Always the one people turned to when things got complicated.

But that morning, his frustration was visible.

“My team isn’t stepping up,” he said bluntly.
“They come to me for everything.”

Everything.

Small decisions.
Routine approvals.
Problems they should easily handle themselves.

“I’ve tried empowering them,” he continued.
“I keep telling them to take ownership. But somehow the responsibility still lands back on my table.”

Most conversations around this topic go in familiar directions.

Team capability.
Delegation frameworks.
Accountability structures.

But something about the way he described his role in the team felt different.

So instead of analysing the team, I asked about him.

“What do you usually do when someone comes to you with a problem?”

He didn’t hesitate.

“I solve it. Or I guide them immediately. That’s my job as a leader, right?”

“Immediately?” I asked.

“Yes. I don’t like leaving things hanging. It slows down progress.”

I nodded.

“Let me ask you something,” I said.

“When someone comes to you with a problem… do they usually leave with the answer?”

“Of course,” he said. “That’s why they come to me.”

“And when they face a similar problem next time?”

He paused.

“They come again.”

The room went quiet.

Not uncomfortable quiet.

Reflective quiet.

I continued gently.

“If every time they come to you, they receive the answer… what are they being trained to become?”

He leaned back slowly.

Not defensive.

Just thinking.

“Dependent,” he said after a moment.

Exactly.

His intention was to help.

But his speed of solving had quietly trained the team to outsource thinking.

He wasn’t managing a team that lacked capability.

He had unintentionally created a system where answers lived with him.

The shift wasn’t about pushing the team harder.

It was about asking better questions before giving better answers.

Sometimes leadership isn’t about being the fastest problem solver in the room.

Sometimes it’s about being the last one to solve the problem.

Because the moment you stop answering immediately…

someone else starts thinking.

And that’s where real ownership begins.

So here’s a question worth sitting with:

Are you solving problems for your team…
or are you unknowingly training them to stop solving them themselves?

📖 Hook from the Book

“If you have an idea you’re excited about and you don’t bring it to life, it’s not uncommon for the idea to find its voice through another maker. This isn’t because the other artist stole your idea, but because the idea’s time has come.” — Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

🎬 Movie Motivation 

“I’ve delivered a million passengers safely over 40 years in the air, but in the end I’m going to be judged on 208 seconds.” This dialogue from the movie Sully reminds us that human perception compresses identity into single moments.

 

🏆 Popular Post of the Week

The Common Misconceptions About Persuasion

PS: Missed the past issues of NLP Around You? Find them all here: https://w3coach.com/nlparoundyou/

Thoughtfully Yours,

🧠 Thoughtful Thought

“Clutter is the enemy of Clarity.” — Thoughtfully Yours

For your daily dose of Thoughtful Thoughts, get your Thoughtful Calendar here.

💬 NLP Quote Corner

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” — Steve Jobs

⏳ One Minute NLP – The Language of Possibility

Listen carefully to the words you use every day.

“I have to.”

“I should.”

“I must.”

These phrases may sound normal, but they quietly create pressure. They make life feel like an obligation instead of a choice.

In NLP, one small language shift can transform your state. Replace “I have to” with “I choose to.”

“I have to work today” becomes “I choose to work today because it supports my goals.”

“I have to exercise” becomes “I choose to exercise because I value my health.”

Notice the difference. The task is the same, but the meaning changes. Responsibility turns into ownership. Pressure becomes purpose.

Language doesn’t just describe your reality. It shapes it.

And sometimes, the smallest shift in words opens the biggest shift in mindset.

 

🔮 Meta Magic – Coaching Chronicles

To Finish or Not to Finish?

She joined the session with a slightly embarrassed smile.

“I love books,” she began quickly, almost defensively.
“My shelves are full. My Kindle is full. I buy them with excitement.”

Then she sighed.

“But I rarely finish them.”

This wasn’t a time problem. She made that clear.

“I start with enthusiasm,” she said.
“The first few chapters are amazing. I underline things, take notes.”

“And then?” I asked.

“Then another book catches my attention… or I feel like I’m not reading it properly… or I think I should read something more useful.”

Soon the new book becomes the current book.
And the current book becomes another unfinished bookmark.

By now she had a quiet collection of half-read wisdom.

A typical coaching conversation might have gone toward systems.

Reading schedules.
Daily page goals.
Accountability trackers.

But the pattern didn’t feel logistical.

So I asked her something unexpected.

“When you start a book… what makes you stop?”

She thought for a moment.

“I feel like I’m not absorbing it deeply enough. Like I’m wasting the book if I don’t read it perfectly.”

I paused.

“Let me ask you something,” I said.

“When you meet a person… do you feel guilty if you don’t understand everything about them in the first conversation?”

She laughed immediately.

“Of course not.”

“Then why,” I asked gently,
“does a book have to be understood perfectly before it’s allowed to be finished?”

Silence.

Not uncomfortable silence.

The kind where a belief quietly rearranges itself.

She leaned back.

“I think,” she said slowly,
“I’ve been treating books like exams.”

There it was.

She wasn’t failing to finish books.

She was over-respecting them.

Perfection had quietly turned reading into pressure.

And pressure had been quietly closing the book.

Her lightbulb moment landed softly:

“Maybe finishing a book isn’t about mastering it…
maybe it’s about completing a conversation with it.”

Sometimes the barrier isn’t discipline.

Sometimes it’s the story we attach to the experience.

And the moment that story changes…

the page finally turns.

📖 Hook from the Book

“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” — Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

🎬 Movie Motivation 

“Problem yeh nahi hai ki raasta mushkil hai… problem yeh hai ki humne abhi tak raasta dhoonda nahi.” Translated to: “The problem is not that the path is difficult. The problem is that we have not yet found the path.” This dialogue from Mission Raniganj reminds us of the Language of Possibility. When meaning shifts from impossible to not yet figured out, the brain automatically starts searching for solutions.

 

🏆 Winning Post of the Week

What Not to Do as a Leader – NLP Insights on Avoiding Leadership Pitfalls

PS: Missed the past issues of NLP Around You? Find them all here: https://w3coach.com/nlparoundyou/

Thoughtfully Yours,

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Let’s begin Episode #154 with some insights

💡 Aha Moment of the Week

The cohort of The Behavioural Edge Program in Mumbai this weekend experienced insights and reflections on how their strengths, when overused , start sabotaging their goals:

“Be aware of your default patterns of thinking – not only the ones which are limiting, but also the ones which have usually worked in your favour!”

🧠 Thoughtful Thought

“What a Trigger triggers in you is already within you!” — Thoughtfully Yours

For your daily dose of Thoughtful Thoughts, get your Thoughtful Calendar here.

💬 NLP Quote Corner

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” — Albert Einstein

⏳ One Minute NLP – Your Reticular Activating System

Have you ever noticed that once you decide to buy a certain car, you suddenly start seeing it everywhere? That’s not coincidence. That’s your brain filtering reality.

In NLP, we talk about the Reticular Activating System—the part of your brain that decides what gets your attention. It filters millions of bits of information and highlights what matches your focus.

So here’s the real question. What are you training it to notice? Problems? Obstacles? Criticism? Or opportunities? Growth? Support?

If you keep telling yourself, “Nothing is working,” your brain will find proof. If you start asking, “Where is progress already happening?” your mind will show you evidence.

Your focus becomes your filter. Your filter shapes your experience.

In NLP, change doesn’t always begin outside. It begins by deciding what your mind is allowed to notice.

 

🔮 Meta Magic – Coaching Chronicles

Strength or Saboteur?

He walked into the session with the composure of someone who carried too much responsibility — and wore it well.

A Senior Director. Sharp. Respected. High-performing.

But that day, his voice carried fatigue.

“My biggest weakness?” he said without hesitation. “Time management. I never get to the important work. My days are consumed by urgency. Constant firefighting. Something is always on fire.”

He spoke the way many leaders do — convinced the problem was external. Deadlines. Demands. Escalations. People.

A typical coaching conversation could have gone down familiar lanes:
“What’s not working?”
“How do we prioritise?”
“What system can we build?”

But something in his tone — the way he described dropping everything to respond — held a different pattern.

So instead of exploring the weakness further, I shifted direction.

“Tell me about your strengths.”

His posture changed instantly. Energy rose.

“I’m extremely flexible,” he said proudly. “And I’m always available for my team. They know they can reach me anytime. That’s what makes me effective.”

There it was.

The very thing he valued most.

I let the moment breathe before asking the question that altered the trajectory of the session.

“How much role is this strength playing in your weakness?”

He frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

“How much of your time management challenge,” I continued gently, “is happening because you are flexible… because you are always available?”

Silence.

Not defensive silence.
Reflective silence.

He leaned back.

For the first time, he wasn’t fighting fires in his calendar.
He was observing the pattern behind them.

His strength — availability — had quietly trained his environment to expect instant access.

His flexibility had become permission for interruption.

His leadership had turned reactive, not because he lacked discipline…
but because he had overused what once made him exceptional.

That was his Aha.

Not all weaknesses are deficits.

Sometimes, they are strengths used without boundaries.

And the real growth begins
when you ask yourself —

Where is my greatest strength creating my biggest constraint?

📖 Hook from the Book

“Death is a state of mind—many people on Earth spend their entire lives dead.” — Gabrielle Zevin, Elsewhere

🎬 Movie Motivation 

“There is no spoon.” This dialogue from The Matrix emphasises that reality is filtered through perception.

 

🏆 Winning Post of the Week

How to Read People’s Emotional Triggers & Adjust Your Message for Maximum Influence

PS: Missed the past issues of NLP Around You? Find them all here: https://w3coach.com/nlparoundyou/

Thoughtfully Yours,

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