Personal Development - Worth it

monkey24

Hey,

I have been a keen reader of NLP and other forms of Personal Development for some years without ever really committing to them. Recently I have attended a number of seminars, with one in particular causing me to take a look at my career etc so far and understanding why i haven't achieved my goals.
To that extent I have decided to get more serious about Personal Development and am doing the training to become a Master Practitioner in NLP. Initially this is really to benefit me although I know it allows me to coach other people.

What I have found, amongst most people, is that the money spent on this is regarded as wasted. But if I had spent it on a 5,000 euro IT certification i.e. Prince2, ITIL Service Dev Manager or towards a Msc, it would be money well spent.

So really I was looking for any opinions on this. I am expecting a lot of negative views but would love to hear them all the same.

Thanks
m

Eoin

I really don't see how you can equate a certification in NLP with very industry specific qualifications. ITIL and Prince2 are accepted and sought after qualifications that may apply directly to an organisations's project life cycle and/or problem management solution (and ITIL can help lead to a company getting ISO certified).

However, if you are not going for a job in project management or support than ITIL and Prince2 aren't a huge amount of use. If you want to get into Personal Development, then a certification in an accepted methodology could be money well spent. Whether or not NLP is that accepted is probably another thread though.

monkey24

eoin_s wrote: »

I really don't see how you can equate a certification in NLP with very industry specific qualifications. ITIL and Prince2 are accepted and sought after qualifications that may apply directly to an organisations's project life cycle and/or problem management solution (and ITIL can help lead to a company getting ISO certified).

However, if you are not going for a job in project management or support than ITIL and Prince2 aren't a huge amount of use. If you want to get into Personal Development, then a certification in an accepted methodology could be money well spent. Whether or not NLP is that accepted is probably another thread though.

I think you misunderstood my post or I didn't explain myself well in the initial post. The point I was trying to make, is that most people would not think twice about spending money aimed at gaining a qualification in their relative field. In essence these give us skills which are directly related to our work and the role we would like to do. A lot of these would cost up to 5,000 ( I should have all my ITIL qualifications after the summer and am also starting a Msc next year so am not putting down that type of education ) and we would not consider it money wasted.
But if the money is invested in a Personal Development program i.e. its for your own development and not directly related to getting a better foot on the ladder or better job, then its money wasted.
What I am suggesting is do we tend to focus a little to much on education aimed at increasing our work skills but we spend little or no time focusing on our actual personal development or the tools we use in life, everyday.

Some of the most successful people in the world did not follow the educate yourself to death with certs etc and instead used their own values, beliefs and attitudes to get the results they desired.

Thanks for your reply though, I just think its an interesting subject.

Eoin

I see what you mean, but I think some of my post is still valid.

If someone is planning their career path, developing particular skills / certifications that are specifically looked for by companies will probably give the person a more tangible feeling of a return of investment.

Another factor could be that people know they don't know ITIL or Prince2, but they may not know that they actually could so with some personal development training?

monkey24

eoin_s wrote: »

I see what you mean, but I think some of my post is still valid.

If someone is planning their career path, developing particular skills / certifications that are specifically looked for by companies will probably give the person a more tangible feeling of a return of investment.

Another factor could be that people know they don't know ITIL or Prince2, but they may not know that they actually could so with some personal development training?

Yup I think your last point is very relevant. Its a lot easier for people to know what certs/qualifications are needed as these are determined by your career path. But we tend to spend very little time on our personal development. This means for a lot of us our lives can be pretty unbalanced.

Thanks again for the input.

DublinWriter

monkey24 wrote: »

So really I was looking for any opinions on this. I am expecting a lot of negative views but would love to hear them all the same.

You really are comparing apples with oranges here.

I too, work in I.T., have completed a MSc and am looking at doing the Prince2 certification and a PhD in the near future.

I'm also keenly interested in NLP and have done a lot of research into it.

However, these are different tracks in my life and I wouldn't confuse the two. I think a Prince2/ITIL qualification would be of more use to you in these days of compliance-obsessed IT.

Regarding NLP, I saw Richard Bandler talk in Dublin a few years back. Whilst he's an entertaining guy, a lot of what he said about himself was complete BS. He calls himself 'Dr.' yet he's only got two honoury doctorates. He made several references to these degrees during the talk and also to the fact that he's been happily married for 30 years and that he designed the hand-gun course for the US Army. Again, all nonsense.

Nothing I'm saying here is new or controversial. Google and Wiki around and you'll find a lot of controversy about Bandler and NLP.

Most high-profile NLP practitioners on this side of the pond use him as a poster-child for the cause and regularly book him to appear on their courses, most notably Paul McKenna in the UK.

The reason I'm mentioning this is because Bandler isn't the only show in town if you want to learn about NLP.

If you're serious about learning about NLP then you really need to check out Grinder too. Bandler and Grinder started out as the co-founders of NLP and split in the 80's with Bandler suing Grinder for the rights to use the name.

Regarding NLP and personal development, I personally wouldn't use any of the various NLP techniques I know in a business environment as it's primarily a technique of subliminal suggestion. I think that NLP is more of a technique not to help yourself, but to help others, in particular regarding phobias.

My own personal development heros are Brian Tracey and Tom Peters. Anthony Robbins just looks too scary for me.

Best of luck with it.