'Warriors, Settlers and Nomads', by Terence Watts
'Intriguing title' I thought, when the book was recommended to me, and so the book turned out to be.
Terence Watts is a Fellow of the Hypnotherapy Research Society, a member of the National Council of Psychotherapists and an accredited member of the National Council for Hypnotherapy which gives him some kind of credibility – or not – depending on your viewpoint. I approached the book, as I have many others in the – as the author describes his own book – self-help genre with a dose of scepticism given that, in my view, there seems to be quite a deal of hype and hogwash surrounding the whole field of self-help, hypnotherapy and hypnotism.
I’m very pleased to say that, because the author debunks many of the myths surrounding the subject of hypnotherapy, I found the book very interesting and helpful.
Watts’s goal for the book is for the reader to be successful by becoming the real ‘them’, the person they were born to be. To achieve this, the author postulates the concept of evolutionary psychology; he believes that we inherit memories, instincts, knowledge, skills and attitudes from our ancestors. These are archetypes, a little like Jungian archetypes, and influence our behaviour and the kind of person we are.
Once the author’s hypothesis has been explained, the reader is encouraged to take part in a questionnaire that will reveal which dominant tribe he/she belong to; Warrior, Settler or Nomad. I’m not sure how the questions asked were arrived at and how they determine which tribe we belong to, but it’s all fascinating stuff.
Once we know whether we are a Warrior, Settler or Nomad, we can then use that knowledge to become a more congruent ‘us’. Watts says that so many people live lives in which they don’t feel that they fit in with other members of their family - that they are totally unlike either of their parents and this book can help explain why this is.
Apparently none of us have the characteristics of only one of the three tribes; if our main archetype is of a Warrior, for instance, we will have some Settler and Nomad ‘in us’ and we can call on the traits and characteristics of these other two, when necessary to influence others or handle challenging situations.
The book explains how a Settler should handle a Nomad, a Warrior, a Settler and so on and it seems to make a great deal of sense providing you accept the original concept.
There is a lot of stuff that chimes with 'The Winning Edge': visualisation, affirmations (although I would take issue with the way Watts words them in some instances) goal-setting, self-confidence and almost all of it is very helpful and positive. Self-imposed barriers to success are explored and this section is potentially very useful to those of us who seem to want success and find it eludes us, despite seemingly doing all the right things to achieve it.
There are several occasions when reading this book when I found myself in disagreement with the author, but overall, I believe it to be a very worthwhile read. It is well written and comes at problems from which most of us ‘suffer’ from a new angle and I found that extremely interesting and thought provoking. I thoroughly recommend that you buy this book and I would like your opinion on it too, so perhaps you would be kind enough to email me at richard@mancroftinternational.com
Richard Jackson