NLP Training

NLP – What’s That All About?

“NLP” – it’s a common enough term these days. People in sport use it, people in business use it, and authors of personal-development books certainly use it, so what is it? In truth, there is no one answer to that question. I first came across NLP in the late 80s when I read a book titled NLP: The New Technology of Achievement by Steve Andreas and Charles Faulkner. Life took over at the time but I later returned to the subject to find my own answers by studying with some of the greats in the field including co-founder Richard Bandler, Judith Delozier, and my personal favourite Robert Dilts at the NLPU in Santa Cruz, California. I now incorporate everything I learned into sports psychology 2 techniques and NLP coaching to help others, from all walks of life, discover what it’s all about for themselves. NLP will continue to mean different things to different people but something that all answers will have in common is that NLP is a way of discovering how to be the best you can be in whatever it is you do.

“I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end” – Abraham Lincoln

What do the letters N L P actually mean?

NLP is an abbreviation of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. As the name suggests, it began as a study of language and how the spoken word can influence a person’s thinking. In the 1970s, Richard Bandler was a student at the University of California and he began to study the language used by Fitz Perls, a successful therapist, to discover why his choice of words were proving so effective in producing positive changes in his clients. With the help of one of his lecturers, linguistics professor John Grinder, Bandler put together a model of the influential word structures used by Perls and Virginia Satir, also a successful family therapist at that time. That model became known as the Meta Model and Bandler and Grinder promoted the idea that anyone could learn the structure of the therapists language and use it successfully themselves.

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind” – Rudyard Kipling

So is it just about language?

The answer to that question is no. What began as a study of language grew into a study of general behavioural patterns. The work of Milton Erickson, a successful psychiatrist and hypnotherapist, was added to the study and what began as a study of the language used by successful therapists became a study of the overall behaviour of successful people from all areas of life. In short, NLP became a study of what makes great people great. Bandler and Grinder developed a model of effective communication methods by studying not only what successful people say but also what they think, what they feel, and what they do.

“Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an action and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny” – Charles Reade

What can NLP do for me?

Since its beginnings, NLP has become widely used in many areas of life. It grew quickly from an effective model of language that could be used successfully by therapists into an effective model of communication used by those in business, in sport, in education, and by those interested in developing better personal effectiveness in life in general. Today, NLP is considered to be simply a study of how to be a better you, in everything you do. Through NLP, anyone can discover the benefits of being open to change. You could say it’s a study of becoming more aware of your surroundings and the world you live in: it’s about learning how you see the world and how you think and, crucially, learning to question everything. Could your current beliefs and behaviour be holding you back? Do the successful people you aspire to be see and think the way you do?

Does NLP work for everyone?

NLP encourages everyone to be curious. Curious about themselves and curious about other people. Curious about the possibilities of change and what change could bring. My own curiosity about the influential power of words was heightened by a personal experience with NLP Master Trainer and well-known hypnotist Paul McKenna. I had a real fear of spiders but using his Fast Phobia Cure, he had me holding a tarantula in my hand after only twenty minutes. Losing a fear of spiders may not seem particularly life-changing but what the experience demonstrated to me was that my long-held belief and indeed habit of being afraid had been changed, in a positive way, in just a matter of minutes. Studying the habits of successful people you admire or inspirational people in your life can open your mind to the potential for achieving more. Understanding who you are and where you are now allows you to consider what changes might be changes for the better.

NLP coaching can help you to do what you do – better! NLP techniques can be applied to just about every area of life as learned skills allow you to make positive changes in:Communication skills

Good communication skills have the added benefit of helping you to develop a rapport with people. Being able to naturally, and instantaneously, build a rapport with someone allows you to really communicate. Rapport creates common ground and a mutual feeling of being at ease. NLP highlights the fact that effective communication is both verbal and non-verbal. These are skills that benefit both your professional and your personal life.

Business relationships
Whether you manage a team of employees or work for yourself as a sole-trader, how you come across to others and how other people respond to you will have a bearing on your effectiveness, and ultimately your success, in that role. NLP helps you to understand and then take responsibility for how people see you, paving the way for you to then develop effective, successful business relationships.

Personal relationships
With enhanced communication skills and a greater understanding of how your image of yourself may be quite different to the image others have of you, you can learn how to develop, and then portray, the best possible version of you in everything you do in your personal life as well as your business life.

Managing your emotional state
NLP helps you to learn about you. By gaining an understanding of how you view the environment you live in and how everyday life is affecting you emotionally as well as physically, you can learn how to develop a positive mental attitude and how to remain in control of your emotions – rather than allowing your emotions to control you.

Developing a sense of well-being
No-one is better at being you than you. Knowing that you are creating the best version of you and that you have infinite possibilities available to you to become an even better you brings with it unlimited potential for greater health, wealth, and happiness!

So yes, everyone can benefit from NLP practices. NLP processes are about learning ‘the difference that can make the difference.’ Knowing something is just the beginning – doing something is what makes the difference. NLP bridges the gap between knowing and doing. It’s all about creating effective, powerful models that work for you. There’s no magic involved, although when people put NLP coaching into practice, the results can appear magical! In fact, NLP methods are simple and can be put into practice by anyone because the core of NLP is simply to discover how anyone produces excellence in anything.

The ‘modelling of excellence’

With NLP branching out into so many different areas of life, some people now to refer to its methods as the ‘modelling of excellence.’ We can all learn by using successful people as our models but NLP teaches the value of maintaining our own individual uniqueness too. People change, situations change, and the world we live in is constantly changing so it becomes important to continue questioning whether our own beliefs and attitudes have changed accordingly. NLP encourages everyone to study not only what experts pay attention to, but also what they choose to delete. Successful people have learned how to differentiate between thoughts and actions that bring positive results and those that have the potential to block progress and produce a negative effect. What are the conscious and sub-conscious patterns of behaviour that make successful people successful? There will be as many answers to that question as there are successful people but something they will all have in common is a positive, can do attitude; a willingness to keep on learning; and an ambition to be the best version of themselves they can possibly be.

“Chris Hoy thinks that the day Chris Hoy starts referring to Chris Hoy in the third person is the day Chris Hoy disappears up his own arse!” – Sir Chris Hoy’s response to the question: “What does Chris Hoy think of Chris Hoy”

In sport for example:
An aspiring athlete can model themselves on a sporting hero. Youngsters who aspire to become tennis champions can use the training methods used by Andy Murray; they can follow the same training diet; they can watch him in action and learn how he executes a winning performance but to really understand what makes him ‘excellent’ will require a deep understanding of what goes on inside his head. What is it that allows Andy Murray to maintain his focus at Wimbledon when the pressure is on? What thoughts allow him to ‘hold his nerve’ when the game, set, and match all hinge on the very next move he makes? Creating a balance between physical and psychological training becomes key and NLP coaching provides the tools to bridge the gap between knowing what Andy Murray does and doing what he does. Aspiring athletes and their coaches can learn more about developing strong foundations on which to build winning performances.The model of excellence includes all of the internal processes as well as the external ones so, in short, NLP can help an aspiring athlete learn how to develop a winning attitude.

In business for example:
An individual in the process of setting up a new business can model themselves on a successful businessperson. They can follow that person’s business strategies and follow proven business models but to really understand what makes that successful person ‘excellent’ in their business will require an insight into how that person thinks and how they communicate and interact with others in their working life. NLP helps people in business understand what makes great people in business. The popular TV programme ‘Dragon’s Den’ has inspired a great many people to venture into the business world with their own entrepreneurial ideas. The ‘Dragons’ have success and wealth in common yet they all come from very different backgrounds and have very different business interests. They are all looking for something different in those who come before them to pitch their idea: they are all looking for their own translation of ‘the difference that makes the difference.’ Having a good idea and being able to make a good pitch is only part of the task when trying to get a Dragon to part with his or her money! They are also looking for a ‘match’ in terms of business attitude. They are looking beyond the ‘idea’ to see the person who created it. In some cases, a positive attitude can be all it takes to clinch a deal. Successful people can see the potential for success in others. NLP allows you to see the potential for success in you.

“We‘ve got an engaging, edgy, vibrant, fun product…It may or may not work, but we‘re going to give it our best shot” – Sir Richard Branson

So in answer to the question: NLP – what’s that all about? It’s a methodology; a practical yet powerful method of enhancing personal effectiveness. It’s a psychology of personal excellence; a study of success, but above all, it’s a learning process; a process of learning how to make changes. Sports psychology 2 and NLP coaching techniques can show you how. They provide the solid roots from which to begin the process of change, allowing you to grow as you develop a greater understanding of what it takes to be the best you can be. Everyone has the potential to change and everyone has the potential to be excellent in whatever they put their mind to.

“Don’t ask what the world needs – ask what makes you come alive and go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive” – Howard Thurman

If you have heard about NLP and want the inside track why not come along to the next Zoned in Performance NLP Diploma starting in March 2010 Click here!

“It has been said that any technology which is sufficiently advanced has the appearance of magic…Donald MacNaughton makes use of cutting-edge mind technology(NLP) with a simplicity that is magical”  – Michael Neill Best selling Author of “Supercoach” and “You can have what you want”

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