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Rick Saldan is an excellent
inspirational speaker who tailored the seminar to the needs of the
individual students being instructed. This office thanks the Mayors Office
of Information Services for having such a vendor.
Timothy K. Lynch
Office of Fleet Management
City of Philadelphia
Rick has a magical approach that provides a clear and
concise message specifically designed to the needs of his
audience. Rick will provide all the motivational magic you
will ever need, propelling your organization to the next
level of greater success.
Thomas Mulhern
Frontier Communications
Rick Saldan is a compelling and absorbing motivational speaker and
magician.I have been to five of his
Motivational Magic presentations and it is amazing how he keeps our
college audiences on the edge of their seats.
A highly entertaining performer with great comedy flair. Rich content to
increase students' productivity, peak performance and motivation. If you
need an outstanding motivational speaker for colleges, Rick is definitely
one of the world's greatest speakers and magicians!
Dr. Rob Gilbert, Sport Psychologist,
Montclair State University
Rick Saldan has the wit, wisdom and sorcery of a wizard. He
has a dynamic personality, and all will enjoy his
captivating stories, comedy and magic!
Dennis Slaughter
Credit Suisse First Boston
Rick Saldan delivers a first-class show! A pro in every
sense of the word. Funny, unique, entertaining and polished.
Brian Letscher, Actor
Hawaii Five-O, NCIS, Cold Case, Law & Order and The Mentalist.
Rick Saldan is a wonderful combination of master magician, comic
improviser and first class speaker. The audience loved his program, which
was music to our ears. If you love celebrity motivational speakers such as
Tom Hopkins, Dale Carnegie and Zig Ziglar, then you'll love Rick!
Dottie Burman, President
Burtley Productions, Inc.
Rick Saldan
is an incredibly talented performer and motivational speaker with great insight. He shares many powerful
motivational messages that will enhance your life for the better!
Jack Murray, President
Dream Illusions
Rick is one of the best inspirational speakers on
the scene today. Funny, fun loving and highly energetic. If you want to
make your next event into an extraordinary one, then invite professional
speaker Rick Saldan and his amazing Motivational Magic.
Andres Lara, President
Inspiration Times Magazine
Self Esteem: Something I have or something I do? Author: Robert Scanlon
Self Esteem: Something I have or something I do? Why would this be important?
Stick with me and you'll see why this could be 'the difference that makes the difference' in improving self esteem.
Firstly a small experiment. What do you notice differs in your answers to the following pairs of questions?
Where would you buy a car?
Where would you buy pride?
Where would you store a chair?
Where would you store a relationship?
What color is your front door?
What color is your friendship?
What are the dimensions of your bedroom?
What are the dimensions of your motivation?
If you found the first question easier to answer than the second, that's normal! But why is this? The questions require some physical or tangible aspect to be answered. Far easier when the object of the question is a physical or tangible 'thing' - but when the object is less tangible, such as 'pride, relationship, friendship, or motivation', the answer is not definitive.
Easy you say, one question is related to a 'thing', the other is not.
You got it. Exactly my point!
Yet we constantly treat intangibles such as 'pride, relationship, friendship, or motivation' exactly as if they were 'things' outside of us that we could somehow alter, exchange or improve, just like cars, houses, or furniture.
For example: "I'd like more motivation." Or: "I want a better relationship." Or: "I need to improve my friendship with ... (someone)." Or: "I wish I could feel more pride."
Tell me, could you go to the supermarket and buy a new relationship?
Or have a tradesman come over and repair your friendship?
Of course it makes no sense to say this.
Yet when someone says "I have low self esteem", they are describing their self esteem as a 'thing', exactly as if some other person or process could come around and fix it for them.
Now to my first question.
Why would this be important?
It has to do with being able to exert control. By representing an 'intangible' as a 'thing', we can inadvertently place it 'outside of ourselves' - as if it could exist independently of us. By doing this, we accidentally abdicate responsibility for controlling how we 'do' this intangible. Lots of fancy words, but let me give you an example for the sake of clarity.
'Relationship' is an intangible noun. It appears to be a 'thing', but is really no more than a collection of thoughts, feelings and behaviors at any one time. To represent it as a noun tends to make it seem more solid or sometimes even stuck in a certain way of doing things - as if it were not an integral part of our thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
So lets reclaim our power and control over these intangibles. Luckily, it is very simple to start, although a life's work to refine!
Lets begin.
So far we have been looking at nouns ... now lets take a look at verbs, the 'doing words'.
Most, if not all of these intangible nouns are simply a large group of verbs, collected together and 'nominally' turned into a 'noun'. This process is called nominalization. The reverse of this process then is called ... yes you guessed it ... 'de-nominalization'!
We can now reclaim control by denominalizing our intangible nouns, such as relationship, by first turning it back into a verb. "I want a better relationship" becomes "How can I relate better?" or "How am I relating right now?". Notice the difference this makes inside of us when we ask the question in this way. It starts to uncover my real thoughts, feelings and behaviors that comprise this aspect of me. It is no longer something outside of me that I might perceive myself not to have control over.
This is tricky, because it requires me to be a 'Human Doing', not a 'Human Being' (for the sake of this exercise!), which is not necessarily something we are taught to do or have learned about before. But it is well worth it, especially now we get to the point of the experiment: My Self Esteem. By now, I hope you can easily see that self esteem is a nominalization and we need to turn it back into verbs to reclaim control.
Ask yourself: "How am I self esteeming?"; "How do I 'do' self esteem?"; "How am I lowering my esteem?"; and you will find these are very powerful questions that can connect directly with your unconscious thoughts and bring a sense of personal power.
The answers may still not be immediately evident or easy - but they are inside you!
Robert Scanlon is a corporate consultant, NLP Trainer, and the author of "Boost Your Self Esteem To New Heights", a free 21-day online Self Esteem Course and 35-page Workbook. You can find the course at http://www.selfesteemplus.com/.
