Back in 2006 I thought I knew what NLP was and how it could help me be a more resourceful professional. So, I enrolled in multiple trainings and worked toward being ‘certified’ because then I would know how to do NLP. At the time I had no idea how this one decision would be the foundation that shaped my life from that moment forward.
Fast track nearly 10 years on and I find myself a Trainer of NLP (and Time Line Therapy®, NLP Coaching, Hypnosis) a published Author and Year 3 Completed into the Tad James Co Master Trainer Program.
I should tell you that when I joined the Master Trainer program I was on a mission to achieve a Title. A prestigious title verifying that I could certify Trainers in the field of NLP and somehow I believed that this would make me more successful. What I wasn’t clear about was that the experience of becoming a Master Trainer thus far has been much more important and profound than I could have imagined and here’s why.
The Assistant’s program at any level (not just in the Master Trainer Program), allows graduates to review information from a whole new perspective and due to our Filtering processes of deleting, distorting and generalizing we can capture new chunks of information that perhaps we didn’t acknowledge consciously before. When students are in the training environment, they challenge their old beliefs/boundaries and habits that no longer serve them – We (the people assisting them) experience clarity, motivation to take action and more consciousness about ourselves while observing someone else giving up their ‘stuff’.
During the NLP Trainers Training specifically, the coaching assistants provide feedback on presentations as part of their assessment and make recommendations for how the student Trainer can improve.
I now know that the quality of my feedback, my skills to deliver it and my ability to observe beyond the lesson has the potential to create or destroy a trainer once they go out into the ‘real world’. I have always taken pride in how I provide feedback for growth, yet what I didn’t know when I first started giving feedback was that my ability to recognize areas where someone else could improve had a direct relationship to my knowledge, my ability to improve and stay conscious and (most importantly) how I could deliver a message to empower and build confidence in any communication.
In order to become a successful Master Trainer one has to develop themselves. Some people have asked the question: “Why would you want to go and be part of the same training year after year? Don’t you know it by now?” The truth is that there is always more learning to be done. Attending the program and assisting others to break through their layers assists me to develop more logical levels of knowledge and take critical thinking to a whole new level. For me, layering in the learnings each year, by helping others find their ‘greatness’ I continue to grow not only as a Trainer but in all areas of my life. In the observation of others I am forced to review “what am I doing and how could I do it better?”
While here in Sydney, Australia at the 33rd Annual NLP Trainers Training, I looked around the room at the 68 people who have challenged themselves to become Magical Presenters, the Conscious Team of Coaching Assistants/Tad James Co Team Members and of course our wonderful Master Trainers – in one moment I was able to get conscious of just how powerful this one event and our actions are in impacting people on our planet. The simple yet complex experience of Perception is Projection reaches as whole new level for me and as I observe excellence around me I know that with every piece of feedback I give I become more excellent myself.
Don’t be fooled – The learning never stops.
I hope to see you in a Training soon and that you can experience first-hand for yourself the journey of a Master Trainer in Training toward excellence.
Until then, be well and be empowered!