Get The Life You Want

It has been a while since Richard Bandler had a book published so I was looking forward to getting my hands on 'Get The Life You Want'.

Now many books by Bandler are based on transcripts of seminars, think 'Using Your Brain' or 'Frogs Into Princes', both co-authored by John Grinder. Either that or they are the early 'Magic In Action' books, hard to read (in my opinion), and not much fun.

So What's This Book All About?

It's divided into sections, with the text written (or probably spoken, by the way it reads), and each section is aimed at dealing with a specific human 'issue', like, say, 'interview nerves'. Then typically there is a submodailty style exercise for you to do to integrate the 'trancey' words of the man himself.

The Exercises

Now some people will find the exercises easy, and some people will find them less easy, and they take a fair bit of practice in any event so my advice is this. If you find them easy then go ahead and do them, If you don't then find an NLP Practitioner who is comfortable enough with them and capable enough to be your guide.

Play

For goodness sake play with the exercises, treat them as a game, for as Bandler once said, 'what happens when people take things seriously is they end up taking things seriously'.

Or Just Read The Book And Ignore The Exercises

That's what I did. I just read it, and then read it again. I spoke to a couple of NLP trainers who said they thought that it was all a bit too basic but firstly this book is aimed at the general public, and secondly, the hypnotic language that RB uses throughout the text is far from basic. It may look straightforward, and is ever so easy to read, but it's far from 'basic'

Will It Sell?

'Get the Life You Want: The Secrets to Quick and Lasting Life Change with Neuro-Linguistic Programming' is not a nice snappy title like 'I Can Make You Rich', so it probably won't sell as many copies. Which is a shame, because although there's nothing wrong with Paul McKenna's books, 'Get The Life You Want' is so much better.

In my opinion

Is Magic In Practice Really Magic

The short answer is yes, at least I think it is. I am talking about ‘Magic In Practice’, the new book by NLP Trainer Garner Thomson and Dr Khalid Khan.

For years now I have been seeing clients, have been reasonably successful and have had often, at the end of treatment, had to deal with questions like, ‘Is there a really good book that explains what NLP is? I would love to know more about it?’

And I have answered with words like ‘umm.’

There are a number of good books on NLP

Because there are a number of excellent books out there that illustrate certain aspects of NLP and how it is applied. I particularly like the ones by Richard Bandler. However, the majority of these are transcripts from seminars and so whilst they are wonderful in their way (and I frequently do recommend books like ‘Frogs Into Princes’ and ‘Using Your Brain For A Change’), no one book really ‘did the trick’.

When The Client Is A Doctor And Wants To Know More...

It was particularly frustrating when those clients had been doctors, surgeons, psychiatrists or psychologists. The best way to learn NLP in my opinion, is to do every training that Richard Bandler does over the next couple of years, and repeatedly watch all of his DVD’s and read all of his books. And, if you have the time and the money, also go and get trained by Robert Dilts, Joseph Riggio, John Grinder and Nick Kemp.

Not that many people have the time to do that (or the money, for that matter), and I don’t think many, if any of the medical professionals I have seen as clients actually did so.

My life is a lot easier now as I can simply recommend that these people get the book ‘Magic in Practice’ and read through it a few times, and then, if they are from a medical background, go on one of Garner Thompson’s trainings.

As Richard Bandler says in the introduction, ‘All I can say is: it’s about time...’

He continues, ‘I have for years been very good at modelling successful healers, but have fallen short of providing the science....these gentlemen have gone so much further, I say thank you – and recommend that any Neuro-Linguistic Programmer read this over and over and over’.

The Rainbow Machine

Another excellent work on NLP to emerge recently is Andy Austin’s 'The Rainbow Machine' which is crammed full of information and insights gleaned from years of practice as an NLP Trainer and hypnotherapist, and also from Andy’s previous life as a psychiatric nurse.

It’s a fresh, thought provoking and interesting book that is in turns fascinating, moving and hilarious, and is like a breath of fresh air. It’s a book, when I read it, that I wished I had written. But I didn’t write it, Andy did, and if you are into NLP in any way, shape or form, then simply buy it. It’s brilliant.