z8000783 wrote:

So when you used the word "related" you meant "like NLP but not NLP"?

I think I meant 'related to NLP but not neccessarily NLP'

The context is an article for Changes magazine with a deadline of Tuesday, so I was applying some rather dull rules such as:
- are they in stock at Anglo American or easily available to AA?
- have they recently been recommended in this slot by another reviewer?
- have I read them recently enough to be able to write a review without major re-reading?
- do they 'tie in' with Clean Language and perhaps support the ideas in our book?

So this is definitely not my 'all time NLP top twelve' - but I thought asking the question might spark an interesting discussion, as indeed it has. Thanks everyone!

By the way, Jonathan, I asked this question elsewhere and was urged to include the book you haven't written yet. What needs to happen? :-)

Hi Judy!

judy wrote:

By the way, Jonathan, I asked this question elsewhere and was urged to include the book you haven't written yet. What needs to happen? :-)

I'm honored you'd ask in this way.

Talk about synchronicity, too. A similar question arose yesterday by phone with not less than 3 otherwise-unrelated students.

I think it's just me settling down on a topic for a book project. Most of my audio or video projects tend to take 1-2 months, and my productivity & working style tends to prefer those sorts of projects more so than what's usually required for books.

I've long been considering writing a book on my take on voice development, but... voice? In text? It just feels a little wonky to me!

Another possible book might include explanations of some of the seemingly magical bits of verbal belief changes I've done at seminars or with coaching clients over the years. This is probably more my style of book because it's the kind of project I can just add to incrementally over time. This would probably be similar in style to Andy Austin's new book, but dissimilar in content, as I don't have his therapy background. So, my stories would come more from the realm of helping students or coaching clients over/past many of their internal blocks or their limiting beliefs.

Another possible book might be to chronicle some of my experiences of fatherhood with NLP (my 2 daughters will turn 7 & 11 this coming Summer). And while I know I've got a lot more to offer on this subject than I've written about through my newsletters or on my site's articles pages... (a) I wonder if I've got enough to fill a book or not, and (b) I also know I'm a decidedly imperfect father in a number of ways. I haven't yet eliminated every less-than-elegant behavior pattern I can identify as a father; many were easy to eliminate, others more resistant. Thus, should I really be putting myself out there as an exemplar on this topic?

Doug O'Brien & I have been discussing co-authoring a book based on Belief Craft (KE + SoM) that explores belief & belief system reprogramming. I have some mild hesitation over this project (a) because we've just released the seminar audio set, so if we release a book, that might either help or hurt sales of the audio set, and (b) because I wonder how wide (or not) the potential readership of Belief Craft is: After all, it's not "casual" reading -- it's pretty involved material.

Thanks for asking, Judy.

Regards,

- Jonathan

jonathanaltfeld wrote:

I think it's just me settling down on a topic for a book project. Most of my audio or video projects tend to take 1-2 months, and my productivity & working style tends to prefer those sorts of projects more so than what's usually required for books.

I am sure you are not short of topics for a book but doesn't it need a purpose before all that.

Otherwise it might just end up joining the ranks of "Yet another book on NLP" and none of us would want that to happen.

John

If you don't know where you're going, you can never be lost

z8000783 wrote:

I am sure you are not short of topics for a book but doesn't it need a purpose before all that. Otherwise it might just end up joining the ranks of "Yet another book on NLP" and none of us would want that to happen.
John

Hi John,

I agree 100%.

To me that's an absolute given -- so obvious to me I didn't even state it. Generally speaking, with home-study materials and with seminars, I don't do cookie-cutter or purposeless. I think the idea of it offends me to consider it, more than it would offend my customers or students to find/receive such.

Out of ~10 audio & video products I've authored (or recorded & edited), there's only one product set that even I would describe as derivative or "yet another" etc -- and that's my introductory "NLP Skills-Builders DVD-sets" on the commonly taught topics of Rapport, Influence, & Motivation. Admittedly there's some commonly taught material in those. I produced them because before I'd done so, I was receiving endless requests for more introductory basic good solid NLP material. I decided to offer at least a little bit of that on my shelf.

Even there, though, I still wanted to do something "a little different than usual" during the filming: while instructing students on exercise drills with 'private' instructions for each role in an exercise -- most readers here are familiar with the idea of constructing an exercise drill with "special roles for person A, person B, & person C" -- I had the camera follow me through groups A, B, & C independently, so viewers can see how I constructed student exercise drills.

I suppose everyone will be their own judge on the matter; in my opinion, everything else I've produced are original works with their own purpose. If you feel otherwise, of course that's your prerogative.

So -- I'm glad you brought the point forward.

Regards,

- Jonathan

jonathanaltfeld wrote:

Hi John,

I agree 100%.

To me that's an absolute given -- so obvious to me I didn't even state it. Generally speaking, with home-study materials and with seminars, I don't do cookie-cutter or purposeless. I think the idea of it offends me to consider it, more than it would offend my customers or students to find/receive such.

Out of ~10 audio & video products I've authored (or recorded & edited), there's only one product set that even I would describe as derivative or "yet another" etc -- and that's my introductory "NLP Skills-Builders DVD-sets" on the commonly taught topics of Rapport, Influence, & Motivation. Admittedly there's some commonly taught material in those. I produced them because before I'd done so, I was receiving endless requests for more introductory basic good solid NLP material. I decided to offer at least a little bit of that on my shelf.

Even there, though, I still wanted to do something "a little different than usual" during the filming: while instructing students on exercise drills with 'private' instructions for each role in an exercise -- most readers here are familiar with the idea of constructing an exercise drill with "special roles for person A, person B, & person C" -- I had the camera follow me through groups A, B, & C independently, so viewers can see how I constructed student exercise drills.

I suppose everyone will be their own judge on the matter; in my opinion, everything else I've produced are original works with their own purpose. If you feel otherwise, of course that's your prerogative.

So -- I'm glad you brought the point forward.

Regards,

- Jonathan

I am not saying you work is not original and I am sure it does have a purpose once it is made.

What came across to me from the previous post was lots of possibilities for doing something but the objective for doing it didn't leap out at me.

But hey, who says it has to be, it's none of my business after all.

The best books I have ever read have been because the author was passionate about telling me something, fact or fiction, not because he wanted to write a book.

Still looking forward to your next trip to London to do some training.

John

Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control when you know the batteries are dead?

z8000783 wrote:

What came across to me from the previous post was lots of possibilities for doing something but the objective for doing it didn't leap out at me.

Thanks for clarifying; I can easily see that would be a question, when looking at my original post. It may have looked as though I was just rattling off random possibilities to write about.

Rather, that set of ideas was 'most of' my short list for book topics, so far (I've intentionally omitted mentioning 2 other topics). Like any reasonably creative person, I have far too many OK, reasonably good, good, and great ideas to ever implement even a reasonable percentage of the ideas that emerge. Most get thrown out or offered to others. A few with real potential and purpose make their way to my short list.

So -- in mentioning those topics, I wasn't doing so just to say "well I might write a book just so I'll have a book." I have to have more motivation, passion, & unique reasons for completing one, to do what it would take to add to the available literature.

Another angle here is that arguably, some of my seminar or home-study audio program ideas could have been done as books instead. There are certainly some people for whom that would have been their way of going about bringing material to the public. I like seminar formats, I like home-study materials, and I have a strong preference for the real-time feedback loops of live training, so I have typically avoided putting effort into writing books, and put most of my effort into creating and delivering the best possible live "learning experiences" I can, with maximal actual skills-transfer in any time allotted.

And while I recognize that writing books would bring more students into my courses, I refuse to write a book "just for that reason." Never mind there are quite a few "trainers(?)" who have done just that in the past several years alone (as I said -- it offends my sensibilities).

Ultimately, all of the above (combined with what I shared in prior posts here) is why I still haven't written a book (yet).

z8000783 wrote:

Still looking forward to your next trip to London to do some training.

And I look forward to seeing you again!

Regards,

- Jonathan

jonathanaltfeld wrote:

And I look forward to seeing you again!

Regards,

- Jonathan

I think Jonathan should write a book on sales. I recall a while back I started a thread on sales and his was among the best advice on there. I'm still struggling from time to time, but I think salespeople with less emotional baggage would benefit greatly.

jonathanaltfeld wrote:

I've long been considering writing a book on my take on voice development, but... voice? In text? It just feels a little wonky to me!

It can be done, and quite well. Change Your Voice : Change Your Life : A Quick, Simple Plan for Finding & Using Your Natural Dynamic Voice by Morton Cooper is a good example. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Voice-Finding-Natural/dp/0879804416/"]amazon link[/ame] It takes a lot longer to explain what to do than to show it, but the author does a good job.

I've considered that your voice product, at least the first one, would be even better as a video, with animated sequences. Do you know how to use Blender?

Another possible book might include explanations of some of the seemingly magical bits of verbal belief changes I've done at seminars or with coaching clients over the years.

That would rock.

Doug O'Brien & I have been discussing co-authoring a book based on Belief Craft (KE + SoM) that explores belief & belief system reprogramming.

So would that.

After all, it's not "casual" reading -- it's pretty involved material.

That just means it'd be expensive.

jonathanaltfeld wrote:

(I've intentionally omitted mentioning 2 other topics).

It's no secret, Jonathan. We all know that romance novels sell well.

jonathanaltfeld wrote:

After all, it's not "casual" reading -- it's pretty involved material.

Ooh, this is getting interesting :-)

Our experience with Clean Language, which is also pretty involved material, was that once we'd decided to create a mass-market, readable book, we had to take our intended content, then divide it by two, then divide it by two again.

So we ended up with a book that covers about a quarter of the ground we originally thought it would - basically, the content of our two-day introductory training. If people want the rest, they need to attend a live training - or we need to write a sequel!

It taught me some useful lessons about how multi-layered a live training can be, compared with a relatively 'linear' book.

I am amazed to see nobody mentioned Maxwell Matz (Psycho-Cebernetics), monumental on using self-image as a leverage of personal change. NLP related, simply a must read.

I am also a bit worrried nobody mentioned Nathaniel Branden books on Living Consciously and Self-Esteem Psychology; they propose multiple frames connecting values to emotions in a clear and simple way I can now find as underpinning many patterns.

Also, nothing by Chris Argyris on single and double loop learning and defense mechanisms. What about Korzybski? What about Tad James on the Time Line Therapy?

And to follow John's pattern -

Predicting is very hard, especially about the future (Yogi Berra)

JurkMalecki wrote:

I am amazed to see nobody mentioned Maxwell Matz (Psycho-Cebernetics), monumental on using self-image as a leverage of personal change. NLP related, simply a must read.

Good suggestion. A lot of material will be familiar from NLP. I like the back story too.

The author was a plastic surgeon who noticed that a lot of his customers were looking for a feeling that they wouldn't get by changing their appearance. He then spent a lot of time exploring how to make a change in self image without using a knife.

Very true, Nick. Interestingly, I have the audio version of this book with me in Russia (along with couple of other Gigabytes of the indespensible stuff) so that I could continue my exploration of the NLP!

I specifically remember the fragment that got my attention yesterday, namely that Maltz "fixed" face of a very pretty woman, whose looks apparently even increased after the surgery (and of course the car accident that disfigured her.)

When Maltz interviewed her, she said that she is still upset because she is still ugly. He gave her a mirror and asked - Don't you see the difference? Maltz says that he was young at that point in time and girl's response was not very welcome, so in desperation he repeated his question to which the reposnse was: Yes doctor, but I do not feel any difference.

Maxwell was smart enough to register that it was not just about a different representation system, he knew he was up to somthing bigger, and in fact he was!!!