Interesting times...

Yesterday I got the results of my performance report. It's from Enhanced Performance Systems and is called the TAIS or The attentional & Interpersonal Style Inventory.

I reviewed it last night and with a highlighter and pen reviewed it today. Over the weekend I've even going to review it with Alice and Alyssa to see if they agree with everything. I found most of it to be very accurate, almost bang on.

The report essentially discusses your strengths and weakness with respect to attention, focus, multi-tasking, interpersonal communications and style. One of the areas I was surprised to see was that I'm higher than the norm when it comes to being physically competitive. I always thought I a person who just competes against myself. I was also outside the norm on being extroverted and with showing expression of support and affection. I was below the norm on introversion.

Without going into all the gory details, it described my selling and interpersonal style to a tee. It recognized the areas I struggle with and know I have. It even described why I'm successful in spite of my short comings, thank goodness for the high expression of support and affection.

At 9:30 this morning I went to my assessment hypnosis appointment. I didn't know what to expect. When I got there it was on the 3rd floor of a nice building that has many doctors offices in it. Before I got there I was wondering if this was going to be New Age or what.

About 25 years ago I tried hypnosis, I don't think it worked. It was in the living room of a guys house and after he was done, I didn't feel he put me under and he didn't suggest I return. I think I went to be a better triathlete, to train consistently and he may have thought doing hypnosis for that purpose was a waste of time, that he had real people to help. I think that's what may have happened, OR he couldn't put me under and made that up.

The office was normal nice, no receptionist and when I opened the door a minute later the hypnotist came out and introduced herself and then pointed to 3 forms on the table, one was for weight loss, one was for smoking and the other was for other. She said, "I assume your not her for the weight loss". I chuckled and told her I am, kind of sort of, it's for snacking.

After I filled out the form, I waited as she was with another patient in the other room and then she took me to her office to discuss the issue. She sat on her chair and I sat across from her in a big old comfortable leather lazy boy. She started asking questions and I started answering them.

In a very short period of time, I described my life, my challenges with food, my triathlons, my partying, my selling of the business, my current contract negotiations, my family relationships, etc, etc, etc. She did some standing role playing tests as part of her analysis, which felt corny doing them.

With about 20 minutes she identified the problem and let it out. Wow.....it was much more than self-control. It addressed issues in my life that cause me to make the decisions I make and why. It was open, honest and amazingly similar to the assessment paper I got yesterday. In my heart I knew what she was saying was true and that I make decisions based on my internal programming and what I feel validates me.

I could tell that the process she was taking me through was the same that she does for everyone. I'm in sales so I know things follow a process and to the uneducated mind it feels like it was the first time the person ever did it. I love when someone follows a perfected process, it's art and people need to realize, "a salesman loves to be sold", by someone good that is.

After she unloaded my problem and what we would need to work on and that the eating was just a symptom, she left the room to attend to something else (or so she seemed) and left me with a 3 inch binder full of testimonials from patients to read. The front of the binder was people who successfully stopped smoking or weight loss and the back was other, more serious stuff, like OCD, lack of confidence, etc. It was impressive, all the testimonials were handwritten and the persons actual name and signature appeared.

When she returned and before she explained the program, I asked what her background and credentials were. Instead of her explaining who she is, she handed me her C.V. and let me read it, nothing more. I already knew this info from the Internet and only asked to she how she handled it.

I found her by googling hypnotists in Burlington Ontario and her name came up first in the organic search. I've come to think, from experience, that doctors or therapist that come up in the rankings are ahead of the curve with other stuff as well. If they take the time to get their sites ranked, chances are they take their business seriously.

What I liked about her and her site was that she went to the University of Toronto for her undergrad and then got her masters at Tufts university. You can visit her site by clicking here. She was very professional and not airy fairy.



She described that I'll become my "authentic self" and my decisions will not be based on external factors or pressures. Had I spoken to her a year ago or longer, I probably wouldn't have moved forward. I'm ready right now. A lot of things have happened in my life over the past 7-years that this feels like a natural point for me to get on the next step train. I agreed.

She then explained that she has a guarantee, that if after the recommended 6 sessions she hasn't helped me or that I feel I've been helped, all additional sessions are free. Even if I slip off the rails two years from now I can come back free of cost. Then she explained there is also an audio program that comes with the program.

She then had me sign the I understand your guarantee paper. Oh course at this point I asked, what is the cost??? It seemed like she using the "do not ask for the order sales technique" and just move it along, having people sign things and most people would rather go along with signing up than saying stop. I liked it, I liked her mastery. Like I said, a sales person loves too be sold good.

As she was going through the process of what I get before she told me what I'm going to pay I was thinking, "damn, I hope this isn't a couple of grand, if it is, I may still do it, I know I need the help, although that's a lot of money". She then said it's $895 and if I pay upfront I get 10% off and if I can't pay it all she'll work out a payment schedule with me based on my personal circumstance.

I thought the price was fair and it wasn't a sham, the payment plan, to whatever terms made me see she was wanting to help people, I'm sure she'd take $100 a month or less if someone needed the help. That was my gut feel. Her biggest concern was me being committed to doing it.

I knew I was. During the assessment, she did a brief session to see if I was hypnotizable and I was. I let myself go this time. I've had people try to hypnotise me in the past, once in session and another at one of those stage shows. At the stage show, one of my sales people was hypnotised and was on the stage doing all types of crazy things all night long in front of 3000 people. In both cases I wasn't hypnotised and I believe the reason was because my conscious mind resisted and won't allow it.

This time I let myself go. I trusted and every time I got feelings of resistance or control and forced myself to let them go and follow the instructions. She did a test with me not being able to open my eyes, it worked and it was cool. It was official, I could be hypnotised.

As we spoke, I noticed a semi-concealed box of tissues on the side table and a stress ball. I asked her about the tissues and she said I was the first person ever to see them in an assessment session. I have a feeling that if we go deep, I'm going to need them. Hell, who am I kidding, we won't even have to go that deep and I'm going to have to use them.

For the past four years I've spent a lot of time dealing with Ironman and setting goals and achieving them, in the process losing weight, gaining confidence and making a new group of friends. I now believe the time is right to fix what is inside of me and to focus on the non-physical stuff. I have no plans to stop training or alike, I'm just adding this to the mixture.

The way I think of it, is that I spend a lot of money on training aids and coaching to do triathlon well and now I'm prepared to do the same for my relationships and career. Had I not seen the value in having a coach for triathlons, I probably never would have though that having a coach or guidance for personal stuff would be of benefit. I'm a believer.

Alice made a funny, yet true, joke after I told her what happened at the session and that it's going to cost us $800. She said that if it works, it will be money well spent, it will save at least that much on groceries.

Training wise, I rested today and bailed on my swim session. It was a nicety session, I already did two this week. Oh, which reminds me, I also asked for help from the hypnotist to help me LOVE swimming. She chuckled.

Tonight was more of the same. Although I fought the urge to drink beer, I succumbed to snaking and eating. More of the same. The only solstice I got was knowing on Wednesday I'm going for my first hypnotist session and hopefully it will help.

I got a nah, nah, nah, nah, nah and see I told you so email from John Barclay. Telling me, "I see you didn't take my advice on getting the weight watchers snack bars, I'm down 12 lbs to my old training weight". That one hurt, I didn't realize they were that effective, I figured it was just another one of many suggestions. I guess I'll try them.

On the medical front, I've had a headache for the past couple days. It feels like a headache you get when you start a detox program and for the first two days all the sh*t goes out of your system. It started with my swim yesterday and I haven't lost it. The other day I set up a doctors appointment for a physical, just to be safe.

On the family front, Alyssa just got back one of her mid-term marks, she got 68 out of 70. AMAZING!!! She is just kicking A$$ in University. I've been starting to read some of her writing, on the pushing of Alice, and it is really good. She's a much better writer than I am. I'm still amazed that she can excel at University.

I went to one class years ago and dropped out after a few classes, it wasn't for me. I had finished high school about 2 -4 years earlier and had my lawn care business and decided to take a psychology class in the evening at the University of Winnipeg, I think the first group discussion was what was the difference between Nature versus Nurture and every time I came up with an answer I was wrong and sitting among all these younger people I felt out of place. I dropped it and never looked back. I hate / hated school.

Finally, last night, as I was eating and watching TV, I made a Charlie Sheen ring tone for my phone. I couldn't find any on the Internet. If you want to use it, you can download it here. https://public.me.com/brybrarobry  

No Training - Water Pussy
188.6 lbs
4160 calories today