Slow Down And Do More

The turning of the great wheel brings another year and another birthday. Something which is greeted in youth with excitement and maybe even pride; but as the years keep on coming and coming birthdays can stop becoming a thing of celebration and point instead to approaching decline. So, not being as young as I was before, I was delighted to read this week that slowing down in old age is not a sign of decline after all but rather a sign of significant growth. Research conducted by a German University suggests that older people's thinking can appear to be slow because they know more than younger people do. As a result of having more knowledge they have more information to search through in their minds when they are aiming to recall or remember something. As an analogy this is a little like a computer who's hard drive is getting full of information and as a result begins to slow down.

Anecdotally I have noticed that older people often have better general knowledge. I saw a Mastermind programme recently where a young woman did well in her specialist subject but when it came to general knowledge she was eclipsed by an older contestant. Over time we gather and absorb more information, which is great but now ask yourself what are you doing with all this accumulated knowledge?

In the Coaching industry the older you are the more life experience that you have. The more able you are to relate to other people's situations. You are better placed to help others see their life situation in perspective. With a lifetime of accumulated knowledge you have more information to draw on when creating metaphors or analogies to guide clients.

So age is an advantage not a detriment in Coaching. On top of all of that experience if you learn NLP you will significantly gear up your ability to think. A lot of what NLP is about is teaching you how to think rather than what to think. In school we learn facts and figures; the Battle of Hastings was 1066; 2 plus 2 is 4; we learn less about how to make better use of the grey spongy stuff between our ears and more about what to put into it. But now take all of that knowledge that you have successfully accumulated over the years and with NLP learn how to utilise that to help yourself and others; imagine what that might do for you in your life. Remember experience in life isn't what happens to you it's what you do with it that counts. Find some space in your diary and explore the yet unutilised neurological circuitry, learn NLP, improve your results and then help others to do the same.

Origin: quick-pickup-rules.blogspot.com