The power of stories... the following was taken from an NLP trainer...

The power of stories... the following was taken from an NLP trainer... So you have been warned ;)

The Gecko and the Moth

A few minutes ago I was sitting on my balcony following a long day of training our NLP Trainers Training program, here in Thailand. It is a beautiful warm, balmy evening, probably about 25 degrees and the night is dark with many bright stars sparkling overhead. In the distance, out to sea, there are about 50 green lights of the squid boats fishing for their night time catch. Sharing my balcony were two geckos (lizards), one very small and the other, quite large. The big one was probably a foot long and the small one, maybe a couple of inches. I watched these fascinating creatures for a while. The big gecko seemed to be asleep (although it is virtually impossible to tell) whilst the small one seemed to be more tense whilst 'glued' to the ceiling. As I watched I noticed that the small gecko was in fact moving VERY slowly and carefully in a particular direction and my attention was drawn to a sleeping moth seemingly attached to the ceiling 4 feet in fron of the little gecko. I watched carefully and noticed how slowly the little gecko was moving, directly towards the moth. he would move each leg in turn VEEERRYY slowly which made his progress very hard to distinguish. One thing was for sure - he was moving towards the moth. Once in a while he would take a few rapid steps (still upside down on the ceiling) and then freeze for a couple of minutes. I was obviously witnesssing the hunter and the hunted. The moth did not appear to notice the gecko and remained unmoving on the celing. The gecko was now 2 feet away and was getting serious! You could almost feel the tension in his body as he moved closer and closer to his dinner. Every movement was carefully orchestrated not to draw attention to itself and the steps towards the moth became even slower. I sat fascinated by this demonstration of nature at work. I was glued to the scene! The little gecko was now a foot away from the moth and the moth had not moved. Closer and closer until it was 6 inches away from the moth and i anticipated the final leap - a blur of movement that would result in the end of the moth. But it never came! Rather than launch the attack from 6 inches the little gecko edge closer and got to about 3 inches from the moth. He was pushing his luck now! Why didn't he take his chance or was he looking for certainty? He edged a little closer and it was plain to see that certainty was what he was aiming for! He was 2 inches from the moth when the moth 'woke up' and sensed, or saw, the gecko about to launch his attack and with a swift flap of its wings, it unhinged itself from the ceiling and flew across to the other side and landed on the balcony rail right in front of the big gecko, who promptly ate him. At that moment I learned something.....I wonder if you did too?