Language fascinates me, that when used effectively it has the power to positively change a life in one or two sentences. This life might be my own or someone else’s.
In 1962 I faced a crossroads in my life. I was in my final year of Matric at Parktown Boys High School.
I had got to Matric by barely scraping through each year by the grace of God alone. Low self-esteem, for one reason or another, was the prime suspect to be at fault for this sad state of affairs.
I had managed to fail dismally in Math and Latin during the lead up to my prelims.
Then one day during vocational guidance I had been ridiculed by the teacher for implying that I wanted to go on to university and study medicine the following year.
Embarrassed and ashamed I went home and decided to do something drastic about this situation.
My older sister who had been a star student all her life and still had all her notebooks neatly in storage kindly retrieved them for my use.
And so for just over a month, I had my buttocks glued to my seat catching up on years of study neglect.
On my return from the July holidays sitting in a Latin class with Mr David Wolfe a question was asked and for the first time ever I put my hand up with an answer. It was judged to be the incorrect answer and my dear friend Colin Porter’s answer judged to be correct instead.
I for once was certain in my gut that my answer was the right one and in trepidation, I challenged Colin’s answer. A heated debate ensued and It is here that my gratitude to Mr Wolfe for his excellent facilitation is most heartfelt. Though the discussion from the entire class was intense he stayed clear and centred and kept the energies in the classroom positive and open.
The decision was to call the head of the Latin department, Mr. Sydney Klevansky who was my Latin master in the previous year in to judge the merits of each side of the argument.
Mr. Klevasnsky stood in the doorway with barely one foot in the classroom and one foot out and listened to Mr Wolfe’s summary of the situation. Whereupon her looked at me and said, ”Theodosiou you could just have accepted you were wrong, sat down and been quiet but you stuck to your guns, well done Theodosiou, well done my boy.”
This one sentence changed my life.
And because of this life changing sentence hundreds and hundreds of people have changed their lives with my help.
Now years later, having studied NLP at very advanced levels and been practising NLP and training NLP for over 25 years I have learnt the language patterns that made Mr. Klevanskys words so effective in changing my life. I’m sure not even he used that language with knowledge of what made it so powerful.
NLP teaches how systematically and with the intention to use language to influence change.
Similar to my life changing experience at school, NLP principles, attitudes and techniques, as taught and lived by Sedrick’s training at Inspiritū – NLP, provide systematic guidance to use language with the intention to positively influence change.
