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What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming?

Article by John Taylor

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a communication model and a very effective, and sometimes controversial, approach to psychotherapy that was introduced by Richard Bandler (A mathematician) and John Grinder (A linguist) in the 1970's. After its introduction, NLP soon became one of the most important psychotropic and counseling tools. Before further discussion, let's analyze the 3 words (Neuro, Linguistic and Programming) to provide you with a glimpse of what NLP is about:

Neuro: refers to the human nervous system that includes the brain and the five senses controlled by the brain.

Linguistic: refers to the verbal and the non-verbal languages that we use to communicate with others and with ourselves (inner-conversation)

Programming: the process of structuring or engineering our linguistic or neurological systems, in the context of NLP, to achieve a particular result.

NLP is a quite complex concept but its fundamentals are very easy to absorb. There are four vital fundamentals to NLP which will be discussed later in this article. These four fundamentals can be considered as steps towards a more better you. NLP has been applied in a diverse range of fields including but not exclusive to:

BusinessEducationSportsHealthcarePsychologySales & MarketingCoaching etc.

People have been using NLP to remove many mental blocks that were acting as hurdles to their potential. To a large extent, what you achieve using NLP depends upon your frame of mind. However, in general, a person achieves the following common advantages from using NLP:

- Controlling the state of mind.- Helping others to know and to get what they really want.- Developing confidence and improving communication skills.- Removing obstacles in your personal or professional life.

The fundamentals, or rather steps, of NLP are fairly simple in comparison with the overall concept of NLP. At the same time, these steps are quite powerful as they are designed after in-depth analysis of human mental patterns, various behavioral mechanisms, goal setting and achieving strategies. The human brain is the most complex machine on the face of the earth. We can never exploit it 100% but using NLP, we can at least make use of its potential power.

Step 1:

Knowing What You Want - This is the first step or fundamental of NLP; you must know exactly what you want. If you don't have any clear picture of your goal, then it's unlikely that you'll achieve it. There's a well know phrase "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up somehwere else" which says a lot about the lack of clearly defined goals. If you know what you want, you will be able to structure your plan before moving towards your goal.

Step 2:

Taking Action - When you know what you want, you can take the appropriate action. Put your all focus towards your actions that you take to achieve your goal. In the above example, this would be the eqivalent of identifying the destination on a map, deciding the best means of travel and then planning a suitable route.

Step 3:

Carefully monitoring the outcome of your actions - For example, you know your destination, you've planned your route and you've decided to travel on your motorcycle. But when travelling in an unfamliar part of the country you need to frequently check that you are following the correct route by comparing your location with your map. It's important that you make sure that you are travelling in the right direction and you are on schedule to arrive at your destination on time.

Step 4:

Adjust what you are doing - It might surprise you to know that an airplane spends approximately 95% of its flight off its exact course. It the job of the pilot to make small adjustments in altitude and heading to correct for the prevailing weather conditions. Similarly, when we are striving to achieve a specific goal it's important that we monitor progress and take corrective action from time to time to keep on track. This is called behavioral flexibility. We all need to be flexible enough to change what choices we make and actions we take to achieve our goals.

About the Author

John Taylor is a Master NLP Practitioner and has worked with many individuals, teams and organisations to help them to make lasting and enduring changes. To learn how you too can use NLP to improve your business and personal life visit John's Talk About NLP blog.

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