Business by Janice

Yes, we’re still with this subject at the risk of boring those readers who prefer the TEFL stuff.

Losing an hour this week end has really thrown me out, revealing how much a slave to time I actually am. What I indirectly mean to say by this, is that I only have time this week to let you know that I have fixed a date for the talk on the Law of Attraction that I mentioned two posts ago.

The talk will be on:

WEDNESDAY 29TH APRIL

Business Centre, ACN FUTURO, C/LISBOA 3, MADRID

METRO MONCLOA.

We plan to give the talk from 19.00-21.00, split into an hour of talk/presentation and the second hour, discussion and debate.

So if you’e at all interested in this subject and wish to expand your knowledge and share your views with us, or indeed have no idea what I’m talking about but have an open mind and want to embrace new concepts, please let me know asap re. attendance.

The talk will be in English and I’ll helped by Jaspar Loyal who came into my life “by accident”, (more of, and clarification of that in the talk), who shares my passion for this subject.

One of the people (Shawn) commenting on my last post about the Law of Attraction said “it’s easy to attract money” in response to a comment I had previously left saying “money is the hardest thing to attract”.

When we compare those two statements, what is revealed? It demonstrates quite emphatically that all of us have different beliefs.

We live in a belief based universe. Our upbringing forms our beliefs, our experiences form our beliefs, what we hear via friends and the media forms our beliefs, the list is endless. Books like The Secret are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to eductating us about the LOA. They tell us that we have to think about what we want to manifest, we have to feel positive about it, feel happy and grateful in the now and hey presto! what we want manifests!

Is it really that easy?  No, it isn’t.

I’ve just read a great book by Joe Vitale called “The Key - the missing secret to attracting anything you want” which goes much deeper than other LOA books to look at what psychological and unconscious limitations are holding us back from manifesting what we want. The book then details various techniques for unblocking what is necessary for the energy to flow through us unimpeded, which will then bring us what we are wanting.

Let me put some personal examples around this to illustrate the point.

My state of health is incredible, I’m NEVER ill, I never get colds or anything. Even before I knew about the law of attraction I believed I never got ill. I think this belief was initiated as a child as my mother paid little attention to us when we caught colds and flu etc, she just let it run it’s course.  So, no focus given to the situation, no situation. Now when I feel a tingle in my throat that I might be catching something I just tell it to go away and ignore it. It does.

Turning to the money issue;after leaving university the money started to flow as I got my first job, got promoted and eventually got sent to Spain on an ex pat basis etc. However, several years ago I experienced a very traumatic situation related to money via my ex husband who due to a serie of extremely irresponsible action, virtually left my kids and I on the street.  Has such an experience affected my belief about the abundance of money?  Of course, and this is evident in the comment of mine quoted at the beginning of this post. I’m sure everyone can come up with a parallel experience all be it in another area, relationships, career etc.

Even though we want to attract  more money, a great relationship, a better job etc, if we have certain subconscious fears related to these scenarios, the manifestation is gong to be a lot slower in coming as we are blocking the energy getting to us. Our subconcious wants to protect us. It says, “hey, you had a lot of money before, or a great relationship, whatever it might be, and you lost it, you don’t want to go through the pain of all that again”. So basically we have to GET CLEAR of these energy blocks to become more successful in attacting what we want.

How can we get clear? One of the methods outlined in “The Key” is Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT.  Has anyone tried it?  EFT is based on an ancient Chinese medicine using the same energy pathways called meridians  as are used in acupuncture.  The theory is that negative emotions such as those that block us from what we consciously want, are caused by disruptions in this energy system. By tapping on key points, we balance the energy and clear the blocks. All very interesting stuff. Of all the tools outlined in Joe Vitale’s books it’s the  one that resonates most with me so I’m going to give it a go. I’ll let you know how I get on.

I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from “The Key” which sums up really well how beliefs affect our lives:

“The energy is coming into me, and as it goes through me, it’s being filtered through my beliefs, and then I look out and see the results. Well, those results aren’t really real. What they are is a reflection of my beliefs. And if I don’t like those results, I have to look at my beliefs. change my belief, I get different results.”

As most of  my regular readers know, I’m a great advocate of the Law of Attraction, in fact one of my distant goals is to become a Law of Attraction specialist. It’s a goal that’s written down and has a time frame of 3 years hence.

A couple of months ago  I was at a coaching seminar/course and as part of the course we were required to do 2 coaching sessions, so of course, you have to choose a goal for the person coaching you to coach you on, (bit of  a mouthful that, but you know what I mean). I chose the goal of giving a Law of Attraction talk. There was quite a bit for the coach to go on - asking me about all the steps that I needed to take, when I was going to take them etc. Basically as coaches we use a model called GROW, which underlines a 4 stage process of: Goal, Reality, Options and Will (meaning the committment to action).

One of the essential questions in any coaching process at the Reality stage is, “What obstacles are in the way of you achieving your goal?”. And for me, the obstacle was that I don’t know enough about the quantum physics side of the topic; information  you need to answer questions from those sceptics who are not satisfied with spiritual postulating, but need  scientific evidence that the Law of Attraction does exist and does work.

A condition of successful manifestation of an intention is to just let it go out to the universe. Of course you have to believe you will manifest your intention but there should be no neediness around it, as neediness is demonstrating a sense of lack and so that is what you will continue to get, the lack of what you want. Since the coaching day I hadn’t thought about my goal, although if anyone had asked me I would have said that yes, of course, one day I’m going to give a talk on the Law of Attraction as a first step to realising my vision of becoming a Law of Attraction Specialist.

A couple of weeks ago a friend contacted me and said “I think there’s someone you should meet, you’ll get on like a house on fire, He’s just arrived in Madrid, is a fitness coach, very into affirmations, visualisations etc and wants to become a life coach (after doing a TEFL course in the meantime!)”

So we met last Friday and guess what?  The Law of Attraction talk is scheduled for the 29th April!! I’m just bowled over with the simplicity of it all. Turns out this guy is REALLY knowledgable about quantum physics as related to the LOA. It wasn’t until the next day that the idea of doing a talk together hit me, and when it did there was a rush of positive emotion which I know from all my studying that that is my inner being telling me that I have to do it. And as Joe Vitale states in “The Secret”, the universe likes speed. When you have an inspired idea you have to ACT on it quickly to complete the manifestation of your intention.

Many people don’t act on ideas and thoughts as fears and limiting beliefs get in the way. Our mind is responsible for a lot of things NOT happening as well as things happening. Now, whenever I have an idea or thought that gives me a rush of positive emotion I act on it, whenever a thought keeps recurring I’m more aware of it than before and start to think what action I need to take to follow this through on this nudge from the universe.

Anecdote - I told my 9 year old son that I was going to give a talk on the LOA and his reply was “is that about traffic lights always being green for you and getting parking spaces all the time?”

So, if you want to find out how to manifest even the trivialities of life such as parking spaces as well as the big stuff and  you are interested in attending the talk, drop me a line. I don’t know the exact venue yet but it’ll be somewhere in central Madrid. Anyway, I know I should walk my talk, so I’ll expect the ideal venue to manifest itself!!

I know this is a subject that I’ve written about before from many angles but I wanted to revisit it this week after the publication of an article that I prompted on 20minutos.es published yesterday entitled “¿Quién da clases de inglés en tu empresa?” which you can see o:

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/454809/0/clases/ingles/empresas/.

Ok, the “escándalo” bit is a tad exaggerated but we need to get attention somehow.

And the article has definitely caused a stir with over 150 comments. Most of these comments focus on three areas, whether it’s better to have a native or non native teacher,  the attitude and behaviour of Spanish companies and the quality of teachers sent into companies to teach.

So, I’m going to hand the larger part of this post over to the Spanish public to hear their views on our ongoing debate. I’ve selected some comments which most intelligently represent the overall feelings:

To begin, let’s hear some views on the native/non-native issue:-

“La explicación para este fenómeno también está en la demanda: la gente, sobre todo las empresas, casi exclusivamente quieren profesores nativos, y como quieren enfocar en la comunicación, les da igual la formación del profesor, si al final y al cabo solo van a charlar. Como ése en muchos casos no sabe enseñar, las clases parecen a una sesión en casa con la televisión puesta con una peli en V.O., pero en realidad no se aprende nada.”

“No vale de nada tener titulo si no sabes ni pronunciar “Hello” como es debido……..

Prefiero un nativo que me enseñe como costruir las frases hablando y pronunciando perfectamente a alguien con una carrera que solo me enseñara los tipos de verbos y contruir una frase en un trozo de papel que no me sirve para nada……cuando quieras ir a un pais de ingles nativo estas totalmente perdido!!!

Que preferis un profesor como en los colegios publicos (que no tienen ni idea mas que de la gramatica) que te enseñan durante 10 años lo mismo y sales sin saber nada de nada; o uno nativo que te enseña todo ( pronunciacion, gramatica, didactica, TODO) en 1, 2, 3 años?

Ademas que os creeis que un idioma se aprende con 2 horas a la semana sin practicar??

Venga ya!!!”

Love this one - I wonder how they convinced the company on the methodolgy to be chosen?

En mi empresa las clases de inglés las da un señor nativo que lleva como metodo un libro para niños…….

Lo mas fuerte es que son OBLIGATORIAS y en horario no laboral. Mi jornada termina a las 6 y los lunes y miercoles me tengo que quedar de 6 a 8 a hacer el tonto con un libro que usa mi sobrina en el cole.

Y encima si digo que no voy me ponen unas caras de asco…”

On a more serious note and in my opinion one of the most insightful comments left;-

“Soy formador, y no de inglés, pero algo tan importante o más como son el Marketing y las ventas. Y credme, que es aún peor. Todo esta contaminado por el coste. Se quiere una buena formación, pagando poco y mal al formador, que lo dé en poco tiempo, y sobre todo que sea muy barato. Y ESO ES IMPOSIBLE. Un profesor no puede enseñar lo que ha aprendido en 5 años de carrera y en su experiencia profesional. El alumno necesita tiempo para: aprender, entender y asimilar. Y eso necesita tiempo. Creo que se banaliza la ensañanza porque la gente no sabe realmente lo dificil que es enseñar. Y sobre todo, por formarte no vas a conseguir inmediatamente un trabajo o ascenso, solo mayores probabilidades de conseguirlo. Hemos de cambiar la mentalidad. La buena formación tiene un coste, sino pues ahi tenemos las escuelas de negocios, o los institutos privados. Pero como siempre, será para aquellos que puedan pagarlo. Resumiendo: hay profesores que quieren vivir de su trabajo, que quiere ayudar. No lo veamos solo como un negocio, ni como un coste, Sino una necesidad para invertir para el futuro.

Is the general mentality of the Spanish towards learning at fault?:-

“El problema principal es el españolito que no quiere dedicar tiempo a nada, menos para estudiar, y con el profesor el único que quiere hacer es tomar unas cañas. ¿Para qué esforzarse y estudiar en casa? Por eso los españoles estudian el inglés toda su vida sin aprender nada… TODOS LOS IDIOMAS REQUIEREN MUCHO TIEMPO Y MUCHO ESFUERZO PARA APRENDER, POR ESO SE HABLA MEJOR EL INGLÉS EN TODOS OTROS PAÍSES EUROPEOS, POR LA MENTALIDAD DIFERENTE QUE TIENEN…Lo más fácil, como siempre, echar la culpa a los profesores”

Several comments focus of course on the practices of unprofessional schools:-

“Todo esto viene por contratar a gente sin cualificaciones ni madera para la docencia. Profesión con mucho intrusismo, creo que hay lugar para todos pero que sea un servicio profesional, un docente preparado, puntual, serio, con metodología y con conocimientos de lo que vaya a enseñar. La culpa es tanto de la empresa que no selecciona a su personal como de la empresa contratante que con decir “nativo” piensa que viene todo dado y perfecto. Y al decir selección me refiero a que no se base tan solo en titulación, que se midan más aspectos (manejo del salón, experiencia, conocimientos…). Seamos serios y profesionales en lo que hacemos.

And here we have someone who gets right to the point:-

“Es muy fácil arreglar, la empresa tienen que pedir el certificado CELTA o DELTA y pagar un sueldo que atrae más que a mochileros. Si las empresas no arreglan el nivel de enseñanza es que quieren que las cosas sigan tal y como están ahora.”

Now it’s my turn to get right to the point: If  the Spanish really took language training seriously and demanded quality, prepared to pay the price that quality costs, perhaps we wouldn’t be in the mess we are in now. Just yesterday a colleague in the sector, a business owner in Bilbao told me that he had quoted for a contract and absolutely refused to negotiate on price when he was informed by the company that another school has said they would provide the service for 24 euros/hour!!! It’s a vicious circle, if companies are paying peanuts, they’ll get peanuts because they force us to pay our teachers peanuts.