With this newsletter I am excited to share with you matters I care about, hoping that it will inspire you to reflect, act and develop greater confidence and self-awareness in your roles. Because the most important relationship in our life is the one we have with our Self!

Let us begin with an announcement…

I invite you to my next free gig:

the Expert Insights series organized by the Central European University’s Executive Education Hub on 9th of June from 17-18:30 hrs.

I will talk about the basics of communication, what happens inside our neurology when we communicate, how we create our subjective reality and the difference between sensory acuity and mind-reading!

Interested? You can RSVP here.

… and continue with story…

Framing and Re-framing.

I grew up in an entrepreneurial family with both my parents being entrepreneurs, which I suppose lead me to be a serial entrepreneur myself. I’ve witnessed and lived through many of the challenges and joys of entrepreneurship. I remember the times when my parents struggled to provide bread on the table, and also the times when we were counting the massive amounts of money – on that same table.

Every year my father, who worked in the agriculture industry, would forecast the amount of potato seeds to be sold to the farmers for the season. Most of the time his forecast was correct, butnot that year! That year he sold only half of the seeds.

Left with a huge amount of potato seeds that are useless the next year, his employees were desperate: What were they to do with all the seeds?

My father saw a bigger picture: plant the potato seeds! So, he rented the unused land from the farmers in the region and planted the unsold seeds. The season was good, the land was fertile, the potatoes grew. Great! But, that year the potato supply was far bigger than the demand, and he was not able to sell. This time he ended up with a huge amount of potatoes: What was he to do now?

He thought: pigs eat potatoes! So, he invested in piglets. The piglets grew into healthy and strong pigs. They were able to sell the meat, reproduce the pigs and ended up with a small organic farm that is still operational.

The meaning of any event depends on the frame in which we perceive it.

Frequently in business (and in life) we end up stuck in the small frame in which we perceive a painful experience. Framing in psychological terms means establishing borders and constraints around something (a behavior, an interaction or an experience). The mental frame around a context gives its meaning. If you can change the frame, you can change the meaning! In NLP we call this re-framing.

Re-framing means mental agility.

For example, you a can do a meaning reframe of something by simply asking: What else could this (behavior, reaction, interaction, experience) mean? This way you open the frame of possible meanings and you expand your map of the world.

How about re-framing your challenges and begin seeing them as opportunities for growth?

This leads to…

What is Mental Agility?

Mental agility is the capacity to respond to events in a flexible way and be able to move quickly between different ideas. It is linked to an area of research called psychological flexibility. Studies have shown that people with higher levels of psychological flexibility are less likely to be depressed, anxious or stressed and more likely to report well-being in general.

Unfortunately, our brains are not naturally wired for agility. For example, we have difficult time zooming in and finding laser-focus. According to research, at work we are distracted on average 37 percent of the time. The average employee loses 2.1 hours a day to distractions and interruptions and is distracted roughly every 10.5 minutes.

The good news is that mental agility can be trained. It is a critical building block for success as we move into this next chapter of business and life.

Besides framing and re-framing, some other tools that help train our mental agility are:

• Cultivate a growth mindset.

• Practice shifting between zooming in and zooming out: block your calendar for maximum 90 minutes of focused work without interruptions (turn off your phone notifications and even turn off your internet connection), then take a break and zoom out by having a short stretch, exercise or a walk. Repeat as needed.
• Practice mindfulness.
• Apply personal editing – a reflective practice that helps us create more choice in our life.

Stephen Hawking was right: “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.”

If you want to thrive, you need mental agility!

Therefore …

Unlock limitless possibilities with NLP

When you join the NLP Practitioner, among others you learn and practice framing and re-framing, which allows you to play with frames. When you can play with frames, you can play with meaning! This is a life skill that helps you become more mentally agile in any circumstance!

I invite you to join the next NLP Practitioner training (online or live in Vienna)! It is a transformational journey full of practical tools. Click hereto inquire about availability.

To finish,

My message for the month of July is:

Learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job!

Conversation starters:

(Inspiration and Information Sources)

I’m reading:

• The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body’s Fear Response by Ellen Vora.
• Metaphor in Mind: Transformation through Symbolic Modelling by James Lawley and Penny Tompkins.