NLP

Neuro Linguistic Programming And Your Goals

Welcome to the NLP page. This web site is about setting and achieving personal goals. To see more goals articles please go to our achieve your personal goals or setting goals pages.

What is NLP - and how can it help you achieve your goals?

The letters N-L-P stand for neuro linguistic programming and, to my mind at least, the principles overlap with those of Psycho Cybernetics.

Whereas Psycho-Cybernetics had been written by Maxwell Maltz in 1960, neuro linguistic programming was first developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the early 1970's. In their book 'Introducing NLP', Joseph O'Connor and John Seymour say that if it were ever to be explained in a 3 minute seminar, the presentation would go something like this:

To achieve success in life you need remember only three principles:

First, have a clear goal.
Second, be alert to what you're getting now.
Third, keep changing what you do until you are successful.

So neuro linguistic programming is a series of techniques to help you achieve your goals. Like psycho cybernetics, it is a mind techology. It works on the principle that, in order to achieve new results (like reaching a goal), you need to think differently. When you think in a new way, you change your behaviour and this brings changed results.

The sequence is BE - DO - GET.

One of the key techniques is to 'model success'. In other words, you find someone who has already achieved your goal and you copy them. This may include copying body posture, choice of words, thinking patterns, attitudes and so on. It's almost like 'stepping into their shoes'. I look on it a bit like an apprenticeship. You learn from a master.

However, neuro linguistic programming attempts to speed up the apprenticeship process. For example, in the 1950's it was generally thought that the best way to learn to ski was to simply follow better skiers down the slopes. But then someone had the idea of studying films of skilled skiers frame by frame. By doing this, researchers identified certain key techniques from the films, techniques that could be taught to beginners to make them more successful. Neuro linguistic programming uses this same modelling idea.

If you'd like to read a book about these techniques, the top two which I've seen recommended (and I've read them both) are:

NLP : The New Technology Of Achievement by Steve Andreas, Charles Faulkner and The NLP Comprehensive Training Team. This is the best book if you want a practical introduction to using neuro linguistic programming for your personal success.

Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming: The New Psychology of Personal Excellence by Joseph O'Connor and John Seymour. This is more focused on ideas rather than being a practical handbook.

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