Questions you should ask before enrolling in a NLP course

I wanted to enroll in a NLP Practitioner training, but I was confused by the amount of marketing information around NLP centers today.

Here I summarize a couple of questions that you should ask before you pay for the training:

- Who is the trainer? Which credentials does he have? How many years has he been training?

- How many hours does the training last? How is the training organized? Is it all theory? Are there practice sessions?

- What type of certificates does the center provide? Are they recognized by international NLP bodies?

- What type of training material do they provide? Is it paperback? PowerPoint presentations? or simply lectures?

for more questions and insights, check this link, by Topher Morrison.

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Posted in NLP

Your Boss' Priorities are Yours, but Don't Bring Them at Home

Do you often feel you need the validation of your boss in order to feel happy? Do you often need him/her to tell you "nice job!" or "this is good work!" to feel satisfied? What if you get off your desk and get home in time, do you feel somewhat guilty?
 

If you're at that point, then you probably have in your mind somethings that says "your boss should not be angry with you or your day will be a mess".

When asked "what should you do with your boss?", they respond that you should make his priorities you priorities, that you should help him reach his goals...But what if your boss does not value your personal time after 5pm? What if he considers your job undone, no matter how serious you work during the day?

I often times fall in this trap too. I found an interesting approach made by Aaron McHugh.

I bookmarked his website so that I can come to it later and read it. Basically, Aaron shows simple ways to re-think your beliefs and truths, about your boss and your work in general..

(photo credit: Craig Howell)

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Posted in Career, self help

The Four-Hour Workweek: some success stories

I've come across some success stories of people who've read and implemented the principles of the Tim Ferris' Four-Hour Workweek:

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Posted in Career, self help

Added a new page

I've added a new page. This is dedicated to all you guys that are struggling in your daily life, whether it is health, family, relationships, career.

We all have battles. We all need  a mental push sometimes.

Enjoy..

Get Pumped up Now!

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My best time to work out

I run a relatively busy schedule, between health, family, job and career. When I work out in the evening, my spouse gets upset that I don't spend time with her and the baby. When I work out on weekends, I get interrupted and my spouse asks me to buy her some items or go shopping. When my mom sees me working out, she gets upset too because she thinks that physical workout tires me :)

I must no stop exercising just to please others, at the price of losing my health and deteriorating my psychology.

So I had to rethink my workout time. And I thought "what's the best time for workout, while having the biggest amount of energy and not getting caught?"

Yep. While most people are getting up of bed or doing their stuff, I would be warming up for my P90X session :) and believe me, it has a great feeling after each morning session!

So if you're following a workout program, or if you're doing some kind of physical exercise, what is your best time to do it?

(photo credit: http://www.resurrectionhouston.org)

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Posted in Health&fitness

Top 5 goals, and the others remain in the "avoid at all cost"

One day I listened to an interview that involved Warren Buffet. This powerful man has a technique to achieve his goals. He only lists 5 top goals and put the rest in a "avoid at all cost" list.

I concentrated my short-term top 5 goals of what's left of 2013. I made sure to include religion, health, phychology and career in them.

Here's my list:

• Career goals: 
• study for CIPT1 exam and pass it
• Learn and pass Vmware VCA-DCV  and VCA-Cloud exams
• Health goal: P90X: keep pushing "play" everyday
• Personal goal: do the daily rituals
• Spiritual goals: 
• pray Fajr everyday
• dhikr:
• لا إله إلا أنت سبحانك اني كنت من الظالمين ,
• سبحان الله وبحمده one hundred times per day
• سبحان الله وبحمده سبحان الله العظيم
• سبحان الله والحمد لله ولا إله إلا الله والله أكبر --> غراس الجنة

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Posted in Random Thoughts

Personal Power2 Notes: Beliefs

Tony Robbins talked about how to eliminate negative beliefs and to install new empowering ones. He uses a technique that he developed after watching a movie.

The Dickens' Pattern
This technique works for:
- eliminating negative beliefs
- istalling empowering beliefs

Using the Dickens' pattern

1. write down your negative belief (or say it loud)
2. imagine what is the impact of having this belief:
• physically
• emotionally
• on your relationships
• on your time
• on your finances
• on your career
• on your sens of contribution
3. step five years into the future and repeat step 2
4. step ten years into the future and repeat step 2
5. step twenty years into the future and repeat step 2
6. change your physiology: walk, jump, do something silly, ...
7. write down your empowering belief (or say it loud)
8. imagine the impact of having this belief:
• physically
• emotionally
• on your relationships
• on your time
• on your finances
• on your career
• on your sens of contribution
9. step five years into the future and repeat step8
10. step ten years into the future and repeat step8
11. step twenty years into the future and repeat step 8 

 (photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Posted in self help

Personal Power2 Notes: Values

• According to Tony Robbins, there are two types of values: Moving-towards values and Moving-away-from values.
• Moving-towards values can be such as the following: love, connection, intimacy, health, respect, freedom, joy, sens of contribution, growth...
• Moving-away-from values can be: anger, despair, depression, frustration, anxiety, fear, disrespect, humiliation...

What's the difference between Values and Pain&Pleasure?
Pain&Pleasure are the ultimate driving forces. Each one of them comes in different levels. The Moving-towards values are different levels of Pleasure. The Moving-away-from values are levels of Pain.

How can we determine what our values are?
This is simple. Ask yourself these questions:
- What's the most important to me in life? This question gets you your Moving-towards life values
- What am trying to avoid the most in life? This question gets you your Moving-away-from life values

To get the correspondent values in your career, ask similar questions:
- What's the most important to me in career?
- What am trying to avoid the most in my career?
You can apply this set of questions to any areas you want.

Means Values (or End Values): The most important thing in my life is my Iphone
No, really. It's not your most important thing in your life. But think about what makes it so important. What does it bring to you? Maybe it makes you look trendy or cool. Maybe its applications make you laugh or maybe they break the routine.
These are called Means Values. They are values to an end. They don't have intrinsic value.


(photo credit: neil cummings )

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Posted in self help

P90X Progress, Part 1

As you may have read, I began the P90X program some time ago. It's a long journey. Now I'm at the last week of the program. And believe me, it's as hard as the first.
Let me tell you why: it takes a LOT of discipline NOT to fall in the trap of "I'm seeing results. So a a chocolate cake after dinner won't harm"!

The 13th week seemed hard to me because I got ill in the middle of it.  Although I'm using the chunking technique to finish each session, I still haven't made it to the end!

So, if you're a P90X student, you may face three big stones:

Stone 1: in the beginning of the program
Program routines will seem long and hard. It will seem to take a lifetime to finish a one-minute workout :)

Stone 2: in the middle of the program
you'll wonder "why am I repeating the same workout over and over? ". You'll see small improvements in your body and in your mood. This is the best time for quitters to quit :)

Stone 3: near the end
This is for the fans of the unachieved tasks like me :) you have no more patience. And, if you did not stick to the program daily, you'll wonder why you aren't having the same results as those guys in Youtube :)

What's your stone?

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Posted in Health&fitness

30-Second Speech By Bryan Dyson - Former CEO,Coca Cola

I got this from a co-worker. It's the shortest and wisest career-related speech I've ever read.

If you struggle finding a reason to balance work and life, read this:

Don't reinvent the wheel. Just get the lesson and balance your life. If you're not working out, or spending time for yourself and your family, pretending that your time is consumed at work, then you are missing out the meaning of life.

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Posted in Career

Committing to a low calories diet

Yesterday was tough. I almost ate nothing after midday. I did "Legs and Back" workout routine, and drank a liquid yogurt with a pill of Alvityl. But I still felt hungry.

I felt drouzy and heavy. I knew I would be hungry by 10pm. My wife insisted that I eat something or I would fall sick and tired. In the end, she won (kind of). I finished by eating a can of sardine.
Tonday, I have a bit of fever and am sweating in the air-conditioned office! My body is not used to this low level of calories. But I'll hold on.

One of the famous and somehow forgotten fitness tips is to get comfortable with a lower calories diet. At first I thought "well that's very easy, no more pasta!". Now I see how it is difficult to smell a hot pâté in front of me and not being "allowed" to eat it after 4pm :)

(photo credit: aldoaldoz

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Posted in Health&fitness

P90X Coach

You get a coach in business, you get a coach in relationships,...and you can get a coach in P90X workout.
I sent a request to Team BeachBody to change my female coach. She was never there to mentor me.
So I've sent an emai to Team BeachBody asking to change my coach to Troy Hoff.

I think the role of a coach, let alone free coaching, is not to push you everytime, but to put you on track whenever your motivation level is low, or when your comfort zone is keeping you from exploring new horizons.
Team BeachBody were very effective. They sent me a quick reply and changed my coach.

Why did I choose Troy? first, I wanted a P90X graduate. I wanted someone who exactly knows what I would be talking about, someone who went through all the "pain" :)

Second, I wanted somebody with the kind of body that I want to build.

Last, I wanted a coach who has developed the discipline to stay ripped no matter what his age is.

  (photo credit: Troy Hoff)

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Posted in Health&fitness