Recent Success Stories

"I was able to almost triple my income in just 30 days as a result of working with Christopher Howard. Not only did the work we did together impact my financial future, but he assisted me in finding my life’s purpose. I am more on track and excited about life then ever before."

— Jon Andre Bliss, USA

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A short time after my last visit to Australia I received the news that Simon, one of the people who had assisted me on the programmes had been killed in a car accident. I had only known him for the week of the trainings yet I felt devastated by the news. He was a generous, expansive, loving and vibrant young man. My time in Sydney was enriched by his presence and friendship. And one month ago Andrew, the son of a close friend was also killed in road accident in Liverpool in the UK. Over 400 people went to his funeral. Someone remarked that you might expect that number for someone older who had lived a public life but this was a young man of 22 years of age. Both of these young men in their short lives had made a rich inspiring and lasting impact on everyone with whom they had come into contact. Their legacies live on even with those of us who knew them only fleetingly.

Modelling Excellence

My work (and my life) centres on modelling excellence and on my current Master Practitioner Programme I mentioned to the group that I am inviting people who are models of excellence along to the next module for the group to learn from them. One of the delegates asked me “Where do you find them?” Little does she know that several are members of my own family, my father in law who at the age of 83 has just completed a computing course, my cousin who left school at the age of 15 with no qualifications but who has just won the franchisee of the year award for his work with a tool manufacturing and sales business. And that is the point – we are surrounded by models of excellence but we may not have seen them nor might they realise that that is what they are. If they were free I would invite my own sons – one who is working passionately to rehabilitate wildlife in the heart of Ecuador. And the other who is already a Marine and is now training as an officer, giving all of his time to develop his fitness and mental attitude to do his duty without question for his country. Neither earns much but both are rich in their passion for life and work. Each I believe has learnt to let his light shine. For many of us I suspect that we have not yet taken the cover off that light.

How to let that light shine and be a model of excellence

So what does it take to touch and inspire others in a way that is memorable and inspiring; to be that model of excellence?

Some simple principles that might help us with that outcome (based on the Neuro Logical Levels of Change Model and the presuppositions of NLP):

• Discard the ‘shoulds’, ‘oughts’, ‘try’s’, ‘musts’ and the like and replace with them with ‘really wants’ and ‘can dos’ and ‘risk’.
• Keep your beliefs and values in the forefront of your mind and act in a way that is true to them every day, morning to night.
• Love others as you would yourself and if you don’t love yourself find a way so that you do
• Give unconditionally
• Be the change that you want to see in others in the world
• Consider the legacy that you have given to everyone with whom you come into contact every moment of every day.
• Give up ‘judging’ and be curious and open to what others have to give you
• Find something about which you are positively passionate and move closer to the realisation of that dream day by day
• Treat every situation and every meeting as an opportunity to learn
• Assume that what you and others choose to do is the best choice at the time that you do it
• You have everything that you need within yourself already
• Burn your way into the hearts and minds of everyone you meet.

In my experience living these principles surpass any number of sales training courses, any quantity of leadership training books and the tedium of most hard work.

I am reminded of a quote once sent to me ...

Sing like nobody’s listening, dance like no-one is
watching and love like you could never be hurt!

Sue Knight is author of NLP at Work and is an international consultant, trainer, speaker and coach. You can find out more about her and her work on SueKnight.co.uk Sue is giving away bookmarks that capture visions and words that support this way of thinking. If you would like one mail her on Sue@SueKnight.co.uk with your address and we will send one to you.

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