Euro zone

I think David Cameron was right not to sign us up to the new euro treaty. The new treaty is there to sort out the euro-crisis due to the debt in the euro countries and the single currency. UK is not part of the single currency and therefore is not part of the problem yet they want us to sign up to the solution which involves giving up more powers to Europe and giving them lots of money.

They wanted 200bn euros from us to help fix a problem that wasn't of our making. Also the new financial transaction tax hits the UK the most as 75% of these types of transactions are done through UK banks.

The Europeans are upset we haven't join! I am guessing they need our money and the tax generated through our banks.

I think to sign us up to the treaty would have been undemocratic as we were never part of the issues or the single currency.

Long term however, do we isolate our selves. Strategy in the Art or War talks a lot about having strategic alliances. The other European countries may cut us out the loop. The may insist on doing their financial transactions through other banks inside the euro zone.

If not part of Europe do we need to find other alliances instead!!!

Only history well tell if this is the right decision. I think it doesn't have to be a NO long term, but it needs to be debated with the UK public before jumping in without any thought. A referendum is needed on the long term relationship with Europe.

learning from work

I posted some months ago about using the same methods and techniques I use in work to be successful to help run my personal life and projects.

 

I created another tab on the spreadsheet next to the work actions for personal stuff and started listing the things I wanted to accomplish.

I also create a value against them and way of showing how they linked together.

 

Very quickly it produced big dividends as I followed up an idea on advertising a holiday rental property. This idea worked and has help me to gain more bookings than before. I don't think I would have done it without the actions list as I would have normally forgotten about the idea and lost the opportunity. I know log every idea and follow it through. Some of the ideas have come to nothing very quickly, but at least I know its not worth pursing. Some ideas are for the future, i.e. things to do in the next few years rather than weeks. Some ideas have just made life easier and more organised. A few have made money, or mostly saved me money. I created a financial plan and strategy, something I would do at work, but not at home. This is getting me organised and gives me hope and confidence in the future. I have found ways of saving money by learning to do my self assessment tax, tracking my financial outgoings and spotted areas to cut back.

 

Not all the actions are money related. One is on weight loss and health related. I have measured my weight daily and logged my exercise and calories intake daily. From this I have found areas I have gone wrong in and found times when I have got it right and now able to replicate it. It has proved me with a wealth of background data that upon analysis has shown what I need to do in order to keep getting fitter and lose weight. This is just a tracker, something I would put together on a team's or individual performance in work put never done it against myself. It is a very powerful tool.

 

I found my biggest improvements and gains from the personal action sheet were from projects I had already spent time on before, but never quite completed. It has given me the focus to finish these off and realise the assets I had already built up, but had yet to release to its full potential. The advertising action I mentioned earlier was one of these types. All the other hard work completed and this action made it finally successful.

 

The other part was tracking where the action lead to. What I found was some actions lead to other action, which lead to other actions. That is no surprise I hear you say, but the actions that came out of other actions weren't often the ones I expected. Sometimes I found something new on the way and created a new action/ project instead or found it combined well with another project and combined them together.

 

Overall working very well. So why do so many people organise their work life, but not their own life?

 

Is NLP a load of rubbish re-visited

I posted this original on the 31st December 2007. It has been by far the most visited page on my blog.
In fact top of the google search for this subject!!!

Nearly 4 years on I thought I would re-read it and see if 4 years of experience had changed my mind.

I still agree with what I first wrote down and have many experiences to back this up.
I work in a large multinational company as manager. I have tried using NLP on my Directors to get them to change their minds on subjects.
This had little effect as they didn't or couldn't change their minds as it would have been seen to be weak or go against their strategy. What I have noticed is the higher up into management you go the more stubborn they become and less effective NLP is on them.

Also discovered that people can become desensitized to NLP. My daughter for example no longer falls for the double bind and presuppotion of "Shoes on first or toilet first before we go out". She replies with "Neither I am not going out".

I have used NLP to good effect in interviews. However, I tried to write a NLP CV and Cover letter and it didn't work as well as it relied too much on NLP and not enough on selling myself properly. I bought a NLP CV and interviews book in the end that helped get the balance right.



NLP in the written work and NLP in speech are different things. A lot of NLP was created around objection handling and therapy, this works well in a conversation as the interaction provides the spark. However in the written word doesn't work so well, best then to concentrate on the positives only using embedded commands, presuppositions, sensory language in order to convey your message.

NLP I think is a helpful guide and useful addition to your communication skil, but it isn't and shouldn't be the only way you communicate.