Nicole Schneider

Interview about Values with Benjamin Roberts

Nicole Schneider: ‘I had no idea how great life could be’

As she sips her cup of mint tea on a canal-side terrace in Amsterdam, Nicole Schneider, founder and trainer of Global NLP Training, looks up in an epiphany and whispers ‘I had no idea how great life could be’. Today ‘passion’ is one of Nicole’s fundamental values. Seven years ago that wasn’t the case, in fact, seven years ago her life looked, sounded, and felt completely different. For one, the five foot, five brunette was 100 pounds heavier, and completely in a different emotional state. The 37-year old felt as if she was disconnected from herself and the world around her. ‘That is the beauty of finding out what your fundamental values are – one of the great techniques of NLP’. ‘I found out and realized that one of my fundamental values was connectedness – ‘which is connected to my core value which is love. It comes across in different ways. That’s why I love my job as a NLP trainer because I can help bring out the potential in people and help make them feel good about their selves’. ‘I make it my point that they leave in a better emotional state than when I met them, even with just a smile’.

Connectedness

For me connectedness works on two different levels. Externally we are connected because we are all part of the same system, so when one person becomes better, that essentially influences other people. It’s a tiny step but each small step works like a boomer-rang. It’s the principle if I create a better environment for myself, that will radiate to those around me. If I help others to do the same, they end up influencing those that they encounter.

We also connect internally. By connecting to my own goals, to my personal growth. to my body, my emotions, and my fundamental values. Connecting internally and externally to my core value of love, which stands above and incorporates all my fundamental values. For me that translates being connected to my family. And I’m not only talking about blood relatives, a couple of friends are family to me in a broader sense of the word. Because there is also a family or foundation that we all can stand on, being part of each others evolution on a higher level. ‘Those are the people that are really there for you at your deepest’. The important thing is in order to ‘connect to good’. You don’t need a special sword. You just have to recognize your own evolution, embrace, and don’t settle just for goodness anymore, and ‘go only for greatness’. Anyone you consider family, needs to support you in that, and hold you to a higher standard. You do the same for them.

Balance

Another important fundamental value is balance. For me (as it is for many others,) looking for balance in life is finding an equilibrium between health, family, work and connecting to self or spirituality. For me it seems like a juggling act and sometimes it feels as if I am searching for the holy grail. Because perfect balance is peace.

Purpose

When you’ve found balance, for me that life balance is connected to purpose. Purpose is key. I feel my purpose is assisting others in their evolution and direction.

Magnificence

The next one for me is magnificence. Magnificence is almost indescribable but you know it when you have it. ‘Magnificence is where the seas part, and when people reach it, then they become powerful to do great things’.

Integrity

After that, integrity plays a big role in my life. Integrity is bigger than honesty. Integrity for me, is you yourself being housed in a foundation of goodness, instead of “just” being honest. And what am I going to connect to? Am I going to connect to good, or to bad, positive or negative? I’d rather connect to what is good and positive. It is living true to how you relate to other people operating from this foundation of goodness, and the great thing about integrity is that it doesn’t mean you have to be naïve. If you as person operate from integrity too, you (and I) will be standing on a good foundation. And when you are not, then I don’t have to be naïve about it.

Fun

One of the most important values for me is having fun. ‘Fun is like oxygen’. Fun makes life not boring. Fun is all of the body and emotions. Life through fun makes everything easier. It’s feeling as if you are a child again, enjoying everything as it comes along for the first time. ‘That’s my life now, the life of a 10-year old who is gracefully naïve’.

By Benjamin Roberts