Following my interview in a lovely glossy accounting magazine I was contacted by a gentleman who wanted my help. The magazine featured different businesses every quarter, all business related; as I treat people for a variety of things related to business, aversion to cold calling, performance anxiety, procrastination, decision making and so on; I was featured. This was a real boon, most of the other articles are about employment law and accounting and other very dry stuff; I was in there to leaven the mix. It was a really great article form my point of view, really reflected what I do very well.
Anyway, someone who saw this article contacted me for help. He was a businessman who was approaching retirement age though had no intention of retiring at all. He had handed over the reins of his business to more junior staff and really enjoyed being the company’s ambassador. Everyone kept asking him when he was going to retire; it was really getting him down. I have to confess it was one of the first things that crossed my mind when I met him.
Not only was his problem unusual, I don’t expect to encounter this one ever again; the treatment I chose was unusual as well. I installed amnesia. This is something I never do. I don’t see the point of it, as a rule. This time however it just seemed sensible to add to the ‘It doesn’t matter to you one bit that people ask you when you are going to retire’ a suggestion of ‘and as soon as they have asked about your retirement you forget instantly that they have’. And then ‘It seems that people seemed to have stopped asking you when you are going to retire’.
So, there you are, all techniques have their place sooner or later. Unfortunately, this is just the sort of patient who when you ask whether their treatment worked they say, ‘no’; because they have amnesia.
