SORT IT OUT!

Pete Cohen has been bringing Life Coaching and Self Improvement to the masses for over ten years, and he is absolutely passionate about personal development .

He has an unforgettable and charismatic personality - I can vouch for that having personally seen him in action on a 'Lighten Up' workshop in 2001.Pete is one of the few in his field who is able to make Life Coaching visual... his techniques are inspirational and memorable. I saw him demonstrate this by mixing lard and junk food together in front of a slightly nauseated audience!

He's applied his techniques to Habit Busting, Fear Busting and Life DIY...and is now tying it all together with a new 'Sort Your Life Out' programme of workshops, CDs and a newsletter. Pete took time from his busy schedule of sorting people out to tell Relentlessly Positive what it's all about...

So, Pete, How did you get into the field of NLP and personal life coaching?

I first got into NLP after a friend lent me the book “Over the Top” by Zig Ziglar, who is an American motivational speaker from the 70s and 80s. I couldn’t believe that you could change the way we think and the way we behave. It lit a fire in me and made me realise that maybe you can help people in the way they think and feel, not just within the realms of PT and training.

After that I went on to read Tony Robins book, who is the biggest and most well-known life coach in the world. I then studied NLP with the person that pioneered it, Richard Bandler, who is the master practitioner and trainer. This prompted me to start writing books, doing workshops and seeing famous people.

Through studying other areas of coaching, counselling and working with hundreds of people I have developed my own unique method of helping people, creating practical solutions to everyday problems.

How have you applied the system to your own life?

When learning all of this I had to apply it to myself. I had to learn to look after myself because how could I help others if I wasn’t helping myself?

You seem to focus a lot on weight loss specifically, first with Lighten Up and now with SYLO. How does the SYLO programme differ from Lighten Up?

The SYLO programme is different because it is much more simple and easy to follow and therefore the work has been refined. It is the distillation of years of experience helping people lose weight. SYLO is about helping people apply common sense. Although weight loss is the area I am most well-known for, I have been doing workshops aimed at helping people sort out all major areas of their lives, for example breaking habits, conquering fears and feeling good about themselves. I have also been seeing people individually.

Do you have plans to focus on any other subject areas in detail, such as finances or relationships? Or does SYLO effectively address each of these in a way that they don’t need separate workshops?

I’m planning to do SYLO workshops for all areas including improving finances, creating great relationships, sex, breaking fears and boosting self-confidence and alleviating stress. I have a workshop coming up on 17 February, SYLO Sessions, which is for anyone who wants to enjoy a better quality of life and will help you by improving your well being, confidence, motivation, self-esteem, relationships, finances, health and fitness.

I still remember the Lighten Up workshop where you squished junk food together with lard and made people feel quite sick, thinking about what eating rubbish actually LOOKS like. Does SYLO have any equally revolting visual reinforcements?

I think it’s important to get people to visualise what their future will be like if they don’t change and think about the consequences of their actions. I use lots of different techniques that make people laugh at themselves and realise how silly we all are and see the humorous side of human behaviour.