EDUCATION, EDUCATION, EDUCATION

A real winter's day today but a great chance to catch up with some indoor work. I got my business accounts up to date and have made great strides into writing some new material for my upcoming workshops.

I'm excited to be starting up some new free weight management workshops for my patients in January. These will incorporate some of the skills I picked up from Paul McKenna on my recent training day with him. They will focus on the mental aspects of weight loss rather than on the mechanics of what to eat or not eat. I'm a firm believer in getting your head right before doing anything and losing weight is no exception.

I've also been working on material for a workshop I'm running in January for a group of local GP trainers. This is a great chance for me to convey my passion for NLP and coaching to the local medical community - and I'm determined to make the most of it.

My calf seems to be on the mend but it'll be Wednesday now before I get the chance to try it out on the roads. Tomorrow's combination of early morning commuter surgery, afternoon on-call and evening french lesson means I have a 15 hour day which doesn't leave any time for running.

The dark evenings are great for reading though don't you think? I'm currently re-reading one of Richard Bandler's early books, "Using Your Brain For a Change". For anyone looking for a great introduction to NLP, it's a very good place to start. As usual with great books, there is always more to get out of them on subsequent reads. Education is for life, you never stop learning. As I tell my kids, education gives you choices. I've just looked on their school website and saw that a lad who used to go to their primary school was awarded the top student prize in the 6th form and a prize of £ 3000 this week. Wow look at that I said to them, as they played Playstation, doesn't that make you want to go and start your homework? No replied one of them -you have to spend it on education!

As a psychiatrist once said about Basil Fawlty in a classic episode of Fawlty Towers...... there's enough material there for a whole conference!

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU DO WANT

Would you jump into a taxi and tell the driver where you didn't want to go?
Would you enter what you didn't want to find into a Google search box?

Silly questions - of course you wouldn't, but many of us spend too much of our time focusing on what we don't want.

We get more of what we focus on so one of the best first steps you can take to making your life better is simply to think about what it would look like if it was better. What would you see? What would you hear? How would you feel if you were living your ideal life?

The clearer the image you have of this, the easier it is for your unconscious mind to begin to work on it.

So instead of moaning about how this isn't right or that's not working out for you, spend a few short minutes every day visualising just how wonderful your life will be once you achieve your goals. Now how good does that feel?

PAUL McKENNA

It's been another busy week and a really enjoyable one.
If the downside was the upturn in the number of swine flu cases we are seeing in the surgery, the highlight had to be attending a training day with Paul McKenna. It was absolutely excellent.

He is a great speaker, he really held the audience's attention..... and we weren't the easiest group either. Three hundred or so medics - mostly doctors, all there to learn about his weight loss and NLP techniques. It was awesome. He apparently did it for free too, being a friend of my NLP trainer and organiser of the day, Dr.Natheera Indrasenan. He was obviously really passionate about the subject and had flown in specially from his home in Los Angeles just for the talk.

Helping people be a healthy weight is something I am passionate about too and is a topic that occupies much of my time, both as a coach and as a GP. I've picked up plenty of new tools to use now so a very big thank you to Natheera for arranging the day and to Paul for making it so memorable and enjoyable.

Since my last post I've had mixed fortunes on the running front. Last Sunday I beat my personal best in the Grand Union Canal Half Marathon but in yesterday's 22 mile training run I had to pull up after 14 miles with another calf strain. Unfortunately this will almost certainly put me out of the Luton marathon on 6th December. I'm taking this as a sign that there are other things in my life that need my attention right now so I'll be spending tomorrow working on material for some upcoming workshops.

Well I'm off for a shower now before watching X Factor - sad but true. Whatever you think of him, you can't help but admire Simon Cowell. Whatever happens he always manages to come up smelling of roses....... and with the amount of **** flying around on that show, that's no mean feat! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.