The fruits of this newsletter lie in the actions you take and the reflections you create about your life.

Thoughtful Thought

“Believing what to believe is also a belief.”- Dr Mehernosh J Randeria

NLP Quote Corner

“The easier you can make it inside your head, the easier things will be outside your head.”- Richard Bandler

One Minute NLP – “There are no unresourceful people, only unresourceful states”

State, in NLP, refers to our emotional state of being at any point of time. 

Resources, in NLP, refer to all the solutions that we believe we need that would help us in any situation. These solutions may be in the form of external resources (like help from others), or they may even be internal resources (like our beliefs, skills, talents, wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, etc). 

At times, there are situations where we are not able to access these resources which are within ourselves. And it is at these times that we often end up labeling ourselves in a disempowering or limiting manner – e.g.: “I shout at my colleagues for no reason”, “I always goof up in public speaking”, etc.

“There are no unresourceful people, only unresourceful states” What this particular presupposition of NLP reminds us is that people are not unresourceful, but the state in which they are at that moment is not appropriate for them to access these resources. In the above examples, 

Behaviour = shouting at colleagues for no reason; Unresourceful State = anger

Behaviour = Goof up in public speaking; Unresourceful State = nervousness

A lot of NLP tools and techniques are focused on how to be aware of your “state” and how to change your state from an unresourceful one to a more resourceful one, so that you can continue to perform at the peak of your potential whenever needed.

You can empower yourself with the tools and techniques of NLP by joining the complimentary weekend course here: www.learnnlp.in

Meta- Magic – It’s Not Always Plain Vanilla

A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:

“This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because I sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of Ice-Cream for dessert after dinner each night, but the kind of ice cream varies so, every night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it. It’s also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem…. You see, every time I buy a vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds “What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?””

The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter but sent an Engineer to check it out anyway. The Engineer intentionally sought the post-dinner time to meet the customer, so he could experience the problem first-hand. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’t start.

The Engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, they got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. The car started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start. The Engineer was flabbergasted. Could a car ever be allergic to Vanilla?

“Is Vanilla really the problem?” He asked himself and that’s when he began to shift his attention to other aspects and began taking note of time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth, etc. 

Within few days, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Yes! The ice cream store was arranged in such a way that Vanilla was the quickest accessible flavour at the front of the store. All other flavours were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to check out the flavour.

Now, the question for the Engineer was why the car wouldn’t start when it took less time. Eureka – Time was now the problem – not the vanilla ice cream!!!! The engineer quickly came up with the answer: “vapour lock”.

It was happening every night; but the extra time taken to get the other flavours allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapour lock to dissipate!

My question to you is: What areas of your life need a deeper look beyond just a plain vanilla approach?

Hook From The Book

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”- Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Movie Motivation

“…Toh kaisi lagi kahani? Ending khaarab hain an? Toh koi baat nahi, apni kahani hain, ending change kar lenge.” This dialogue from the movie Tamasha (translated to: “So how did you like the story? Ending is bad, isn’t it? No problem, it is our story, let’s change the ending.”) A very impactful dialogue that reminds us that we are the writer of our own story, and we have the power to choose how our story will end.

This Week’s Winning Post

Questions you can ask for Clarity

See you next week!

Thoughtfully Yours,

Mehernosh Randeria