Why I Used a Star Chart with My Cat

I have two cats. One called Hindsight and he is smart, good looking and clever. He is everything you could ever want in a cat. He is independent and he looks like he should have a pipe, monocle and a smoking jacket.     Then there's the other one. His name is Patience. I think when Patience first heard his name, he decided it must mean "Act now, think later. Or forget to think altogether, but crucially, ACT." In fact as I write this email he has parked himself on my lap in a way that makes me balance the macbook precariously on my knee caps to accommodate him.     Patience gets into no-end of trouble. In the year that he has lived with me, he has caught a chicken (probably from a neighbours garden), somehow got covered in red paint, fallen off the banisters and released his bowls as he fell, shoved the front door shut whilst I was outside with no keys and eaten (then regurgitated) the tie cord to a favourite and expensive bikini.    

Now I'm not completely converted into a crazy cat lady, in that the kittens are not allowed to get away with any old behaviour. They're actually quite well disciplined - and they've had to be too.     I think Patience might have been the runt of the litter because for a long time, he was so worried about getting enough food and eating it really quickly. It became a problem when I wasn't being speedy enough at preparing their meals and he took to launching himself at my head. He'd then cling on to my head/dressing gown of any other item of my person that he managed to sink his claws into in a frantic effort to hurry me up.     I was getting really cross about this and one day I took myself off to the office, intent on finding a solution to the problem.    

I pretended in my mind, that a client had come to me stating that someone that they cared for was being a pain in the backside. Except really the client was me and the cat was the pain!     I realised that if I had a client like that, I'd tell them that they couldn't change the other person (the cat) but they could change themselves and how they behaved to cause the system to shift. So I realised I need to change what I was doing.  

I decided that I would remove Patience from the room, the instant his behaviour was unacceptable, but I was also aware from having worked with children and parents before that they both needed a tracking device to keep them tied to the commitment to behave differently. So I created a star chart - not for Patience, for me! Every time I effectively took action (by putting him outside of the room if he launched himself at me) instead of shouting at him, I gave myself a star. We only had to do it for 4 weeks and then he learned that he had to sit nicely and wait or else he would be shut out of the room whilst I prepared his food.    

(Here is a picture of Patience)    

When you are experiencing a problem, it can be difficult to see the solution until you take yourself outside of the problem. When you think about the problem as being "over there" or happening to someone else, we tend to suddenly see a solution.     There's a specific technique we use in NLP to create that effect and you can learn all about it on our upcoming training.
   

That's why for a very limited time, I'm offering 25% off of the cost of our training.    

BE WARNED, THE PRICE WILL CREEP UP A LITTLE MORE EVERY WEEK... 25% off ends today at Midday. The discount will then fall to 12.5% off. 12.5% off lasts only until Wednesday 7th October at midday.
 

Our next www.Master-Your-Mind.co.uk intro-day isn’t until November and there are still a few seats remaining on the October NLP Practitioner course AND our Master Practitioner training in December 2015/January 2016. So I'm reaching out to you directly to offer you a discounted price, even if you haven’t been to the intro-day first.


The courses are taking place in Hertfordshire and there is a little home study to do before attending the live training. These are accredited course so the training standards are very high. The home study helps to accelerate your learning so that you are better prepared for the live training.


The full course contents are listed on the website here: www.PeopleBuilding.co.uk with all the details about the training venue and what is included in your course fees (your home study materials, certification costs, test paper marking and 3 months professional membership to the ANLP are all included in the fees.)


But please don’t buy the courses online. I'm offering a 25% discount on the course costs to PB subscribers but you will only get the discounted price if you call the office and introduce yourself as someone who received this email. There is a further discount when you buy more than one training too. 


You can contact our office between 9am and 6pm on 0203 6677294 to get more details about the training and to establish if if it is right for you.


Best wishes

Gemma Bailey Director of People Building

P.S You can also purchase the course and pay via monthly instalments. As soon as a deposit amount is received your home study materials will be shipped out to you. Just give the office a call for more information tel: 0203 6677294     P.P.S If you are already NLP trained and not, therefore eligible for this offer, please forward the email to someone you know who can take advantage of it.