Not from what I see, not every time anyway...
I run a lot of seminars. Law of Attraction, Persuasion, Sales Training, Inner Game, NLP, Motivation, State Management, Attitudinal Training, Firewalking, Glasswalking....It's a big list.
I have sat in on a lot of personal development seminars run by other 'trainers'in my time. I have even gone undercover at a few just to see what some people are actually saying and doing in front of groups of people, otherwise known as paying Clients/ Customers/ Delegates.
I have also kept a low profile at some Firewalking events up and down the country and I am amazed at what I hear sometimes.
Old, out of date, training exercises being rolled out again and again, either through inexperience, lack of training or just plain old lazyness. On occasion I have actually feared for the safety of the public on some of these events. I saw an Arrow Bend once which could have ended up on the ten o'clock news.
Some are re-hashing old out of date exercises, or its the new 'expert' that has either read a book or read someone elses notes or even just took a company over and decided they know what they are doing.
Some of the messages conveyed to the audiences leave a lot to be desired.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. That's for sure.
A terrific book has been published about the Self Help movement and I recommend you read it. It is called SHAM and it's available from Amazon (isn't everything?) This really is a book to make you think, even if you are in the profession. It makes you realise what is going on around you, what some people are up to and also, how easy it is to be tarred by the same brush JUST by association. You can get more information at the books blog page HERE.
The challenge you have is 'how do you know the person you are listening to, or the person training you, is the right one to follow.
I have to refer you back to a previous blog post that hammers home the point:
It’s a story about a man that would walk down past the jewelry store every morning and he would take out his gold watch and he would look in the window and he would set his watch. And then he‘d be on his way. This went on day after day, week after week, month after month. Every morning for a few years the jeweler saw this man doing this.
I have to refer you back to a previous blog post that hammers home the point:
It’s a story about a man that would walk down past the jewelry store every morning and he would take out his gold watch and he would look in the window and he would set his watch. And then he‘d be on his way. This went on day after day, week after week, month after month. Every morning for a few years the jeweler saw this man doing this.
Well, one day the jeweler is out in front of the store and he is sweeping the sidewalk and the man stops, takes out his watch and sets it. And the jeweler said, “Pardon me, where do you work?” He said, “I work down at the big factory and it’s important that I have the watch set properly because I blow the whistle at noon telling everybody it’s time to go to lunch.”
The jeweler said, “Isn’t that funny? Because I have been setting that clock by that whistle every day at noon.”
The moral here is, are you following the right person? Do they know what they are talking about? Where do they get their information from? How old is it? Does it work?
When I was at college the craze was (and still is if you look at the dumbing down of examinations) to not buy new text books but to read the textbooks others had used and read the writing, the notes made in pen in the margins, and check out the underlined passages. I couldn't figure that one out. The person who had the book before you could have been a mad man!!!
There is a lot that is lost in translation. Things get dilluted, distilled and the original message can be lost.
Always check to see what their history is, who they know, who they have worked with.
You see, once you start questioning you realise that sometimes, if it Walks like a Duck, Quacks like a Duck and Looks like a Duck...it could be a cartoon duck and NOT the real thing!
One other thing. There is a Phobia that is very relevant in the Self Help or Personal Development arena. The Phobia is Anatidaephobia ...It is the Fear that somewhere in the world there is a Duck watching you.....There are a lot of ducks in this business. I know who they are and I know they are watching me....Once on a plane I saw this....
So as you can see, things are not all they are quacked up to be! ;-)
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