In this article you are going to discover why it’s beneficial for anybody and everybody to consider training in multiple skill-sets. It’s different than what you probably think it is. And the best part is when you reach the end, you’ll learn a way to easily answer the question of “Okay, but how?!”
First, we have to ask, have you ever heard of the presupposition, “The piece which has the most options is the one in control?” How about, “The map is not the territory?” or “Anything that assumes trance causes trance…?”
Whether you’ve heard them all or not at all you’re about to uncover something remarkable that will make your life better. Really! We mean it!
For now though, let’s butter this biscuit of a blogpost and talk about something we’ve all experienced before...
The Worst Day Ever
You are probably asking yourself, “What kind of experience is that experience we’ve all had before?” Maybe you are just trying to figure out whether you want to get a biscuit or not?
Before you go raiding the cupboards in search of delicious snacks, ask yourself this question.
When was the worst day ever for you?
It could have been years ago, a few months ago, or heck, maybe just a few minutes ago! Whatever the timeframe was, just think of that moment and as you continue to read, consider all of the possible outcomes.
There was a story once about an individual named...Person. Now, most of Person’s social circles would describe them as average height, average build. You know, the usual. One day, Person woke up in a blur. Something felt off but still familiar. It was like they were walking around in a daze.
As Person stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom, it was then that they realized their toothbrush was completely gone and had been replaced with a hammer!
“That’s strange…” Person thought, “I certainly can’t brush my teeth with that…”
They walked to the kitchen and saw every appliance, every knife, fork, spoon, and even the dishware - all of them turned into hammers!
“Interesting…” Person said to themselves under their breath. “I can’t use those to cook or eat with! What’s going on?!” This day was starting to turn into a really terrible day.
Now getting more than frustrated or irritated with the situation, Person started looking around their entire house for an answer, a tool, something that would help them understand what was going on. It was then they realized that ALL of their tools had been replaced with hammers!
Curiously, Person went to the location where their actual hammer was and found that their hammer was still their usual hammer. Nothing had changed about it, as though it was untouched.
Furrowing their brow, Person thought to themselves, “As a matter of fact, I think all of the hammers in the house looked like this hammer!” Angrily, Person grabbed their normal hammer and headed back into the living room to compare it with the others.
Out of the corner of their eye, Person caught a glimpse of something that might make their day just a bit better. A nail!
*BANG BANG BANG* The hammer rang out so loud against the head of the protruding metallic mushroom that the vibration of the hammerhead striking the nail was so intense it could be felt.
“Well I’m glad I had this hammer. That was an easy choice to make.” Person thought to themselves. “I wonder what else I could get done today even though it’s turned out pretty bad so far?”
Person thought to themselves some more, rubbing their chin, they asked “I need to eat, but even my forks are hammers!” Looking down at the hammer they were holding, they suddenly remembered the claw end of it. “I could just use this as a fork!”
Smiling to themselves, Person thought some more, “See! This hammer is as good as a real fork because it’s kind of similar, so therefore, I don’t need a fork in the first place!”
Pulling out vegetables to make a quick salad, Person remembered the knives were also hammers. Using the claw end and the hammer end, Person smashed, squished, & pulverized a head of lettuce, 2 whole tomatoes, and several other colorful veggies.
After stabbing the bits of salad with the claw of the hammer, placing it in their mouth, and scraping their teeth on the wide metal talon as they attempted to take a bite of salad, Person thought to themselves, “Well, I mean, it got the job done! That’s fine!”
“Ouch! My tooth!” Person yelped! “I think I got a piece of salad in my tooth!”
Person exclaimed as they made a move toward their bathroom, “I’ll just brush my teeth! This hammer that I’ve become so used to using has worked out so far.”
They squished toothpaste out of the tube and watched a big gushy blob drip onto the center of the stainless steel hammerhead. Person brought the hammer up to their teeth, placed the hammer against their teeth and...
Suddenly, Person woke up - Drenched in sweat.
“WOW! that seemed so real! It felt like I had no control over my life! It was the worst day ever.”
It was then that Person had a moment of epiphany.“
Everything was like a nail because the only tool I had available was a hammer.”
Neurolinguistic Programming - Hypnosis - Personal Development
We can just hear you thinking to yourself, “What does neurology, hacking, hypnosis, or life coaching have anything to do with nails and hammers?” Maybe you are still trying to figure out whether you want to snack on a handful of biscuits?
No judgment here! Snack away, friend!
The truth is, neurolinguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, and personal development all weave into each other as beautifully as an ornate rug. And we’ve committed our lives to giving our students top-of-the-line training on all of these topics because it matters!
How much does it matter?
Well you are free to choose to keep doing what you’ve always done, hoping for a different result or you could approach it from a different angle. In fact, doing anything different is bound to give you a different result, don’t you think?
We think so too! (Fun fact - that’s actually another NLP presupposition: “If what you are doing isn’t working, do something else.”)
Ok, so onto answering the question of “So what…?”
Can you imagine approaching the same problem over and over again with the same answer even though you know the result won’t be consistent?
It’s like if you followed Granny’s secret cookie recipe but the final ingredient was all blurry or smudged, so instead of reading sugar you keep reading the last ingredient as salt. Now suddenly you are 6 dozen cookies deep into this frustrating bake-a-thon and yet the cookies still don’t taste like grandma’s secret recipe.
How many more dozens of cookies would you keep making with the hope that, maybe sometime soon, the cookies will magically taste how grandma used to make them?!
That’s frustrating enough to flip the table full of cookies over!
This is the exact same result that most hypnosis and NLP practitioners receive when they take a weekend long training thinking they’ll learn absolutely everything they need to start helping people and/or changing their own lives.
The bad news is though, that most other trainers will only teach you 1 or 2 things and send you on your way. Maybe you only learned a technique or two - or maybe you learned to read scripts at people.
Either way, it’s still the same nightmare.
What happens if a situation arises outside of what you learned in the classroom? What if Mr./Mrs. Person comes into your office saying they have anxiety about a brand-new, fast-paced job they just landed, but the only anxiety script you have is about feeling calm and relaxed?
How is this one magical script supposed to be the absolute end of anxiousness, yet there are all types of various anxiety people feel for all kinds of different things? That seems a little ridiculous, doesn’t it?
So now imagine you’ve got Mr./Mrs. Person sitting in your office and upset at you because not only are they still feeling anxious about their new job, but they are wondering why you talked to them about feeling calm and relaxed to stop the anxiety.
How do you respond? “Oh I’m sorry, that’s just what my script tells me to say to you…”
Awkward...
Maybe this is you? If you took hypnosis training and learned to read a script at people in order to help them overcome anxiety, does this sound familiar?
Your trainer probably told you very matter-of-factly that all you would have to do is read this long drawn-out script about how their anxiety goes away and then suddenly your client will be cured! Maybe they even gave you a list of scripts for all sorts of cure-all’s and told you to make recordings of them to give to your clients.
“This is all you need!” They would tell you all excitedly at the beginning of the training, but it definitely doesn’t feel that way by the end of it and you are working with people outside of the classroom.
The truth is, most people approach helping others or improving their own lives this way. In our very finite world of unlimited and infinite information, it’s interesting to us how people continue to approach different problems with the same solution and expect to get consistent results.
“You just need to only do THIS diet…”
“You just need to do this ONE exercise…”
“You just need to learn this ONE technique…”
When we went through our own personal training and educational journey revolving around the human mind, hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, and personal development, we were lucky to have found trainers who understood one of the key elements to successfully transforming lives.
That key element is called “The Law of Requisite Variety.”
The Law of Requisite Variety, AKA Ashby’s Law
Earlier we mentioned, “The piece which has the most options is the one in control” and it’s a core NLP presupposition. This is also known as The Law of Requisite Variety or Ashby’s Law.
(If you don’t know what a presupposition is, just think of it as a natural law or order that, if considered and taken on as belief, will provide more value in your life than grandma’s secret cookie recipe!)
Ross Ashby was a British psychologist and one of the founding fathers of cybernetic theory, which is one of the back-bones of our modern Artificial Intelligence systems! While studying biology and how organisms interacted with their environment, he discovered what he called “The Law of Requisite Variety” (Ashby’s Law).
In simple terms, Ashby’s Law is understanding how organisms and systems operate when given certain situations or circumstances. It’s the understanding of how well they can adapt to their environment.
What he found was a core element that changed how we understand technology, artificial intelligence, and people!
Essentially, the organism or system that has more options available will have a better chance at survival and adapting to the situation in the moment.
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!”
Our Students Learn it ALL - The Neo-Ericksonian Approach
So let’s go back to Mr./Mrs. Person sitting in your office. This time though, you understand they are there for a specific type of anxiety.
And because you were taught principles, like how to calibrate your clients right as they walk in the door and to use their own words as a direct way to build rapport, you start to develop a therapeutic alliance with your client.
Now, after taking a few notes around what specifically Mr./Mrs. Person is going through in their life, you notice the various ways they are responding to your suggestions. You adjust to what’s happening in the moment, even utilizing the sound of a car passing by to deepen the trance-work.
And because you are calibrating your client by looking at them rather than down at a script, you notice your client begins going through the motions of change, right in front of your eyes! Their body language changes and they are smiling. You instruct them to come out of trance and they immediately say, “Wow! That resonated so much with me! I feel awesome!”
This isn’t all that impossible to consider because our very own students tell us these types of stories in our private community!
When you have options, like understanding the principles and essentials of why things work, rather than only having one or two techniques or scripts available, then you are able to adjust and adapt to what’s happening in your environment.
The Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy is our flagship hypnosis certification training. It’s here when you become a member, that you’ll discover the principles and foundational techniques of direct and indirect hypnosis, neurolingustic programming, and communication.
In other words, it’s like having a toolbox full of variety rather than only having a single hammer.
This also applies in your own personal life!
Imagine how much easier it would be if you learned how to apply the same principles and do self-hypnosis or NLP techniques to overcome stressful situations, improve your sleep, or get in-the-zone!
This is the benefit of learning a Neo-Ericksonian approach like you’ll discover in the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy. When you can understand how and why it works rather than just what to say, it makes you mentally flexible.
This skill cross-transfers over into other areas of your life too! Work presentations suddenly become easy to deliver, your relationships naturally improve, you feel more secure and confident, and this has nothing to do with anything you read to anybody on a piece of paper.
That’s why we created the Personal Growth Membership, because we understand just how important Ashby’s Law is. The best part is that the same principles of hypnosis and neurolingustic programming can be applied to ourselves!
There are no scripts you can read to yourself that will give you the same results as understanding how to use your mind differently, more efficiently, and much more effectively.
Inside the Personal Growth Membership, you’ll discover all the tools to improve your physical health as well as your inner wellness and wellbeing. We believe you deserve to have an awesome life, so we are dedicated to helping you get there.
Of course you are free to choose to either join the Mike Mandel Hypnosis Academy or become a member of The Personal Growth Membership, either decision you make will benefit you!