NLP Training, Techniques & Products for learning NLP

Edward Demming once said "Learning is not compulsory but neither is survival!"

And in today's fast paced world your ability to learn, unlearn and relearn is key. In NLP we say the map is not the territory and this applies to scientific maps as well.

So a basic understanding of recent scientific research about the brain is worth getting on your map about the nature of learning and change.
Before I get into that, let's clarify what the process of "learning" means from an NLP viewpoint. In it's most basic definition we can say that learning equals behavioral change.

This definition goes much deeper than the idea that you've learnt something when you can recite it. Rather this definition points to the idea that in any contexts where skills play a key role, your ability to demonstrate and do the thing you've learnt is the criteria for whether you have "learnt" that something. Unfortunately based on this definition a lot of trainings, books and learning resources would fall short. (More on why in a future post.)

So what insights can science share…

Science Gets An Update

Up until the 1980's scientists held the view that the brain did most of its development in our childhood years and after it had pruned back the excess connections the structure was essentially fixed.

To quote one of the world's leading neuroscietists Fred Gage, the old idea was: "If the brain was changeable, then we would change. And if the brain made wrong changes, then we would change incorrectly. It was easier to believe there were no changes. That way, the individual would remain pretty much fixed."

This old and outdated view of the brain was forever changed with the ground breaking work that has been occurring within the field of neoroplasticiity over the past two decades.

The latest research by neuroscientists today indicate that:

• The structure of our brain is not fixed

• That the brain is highly malleable and subject to continual change as a result of experiences

• That our brain is constantly reorganising throughout our life time

So the good news is - if you are not happy with who you are or what you can do, you can change, regardless of age.

Going Deeper: How Your Brain Changes

Yet the breakthroughs didn't stop there. Further research brought home an equally important update on our understanding of the brain.

• That the actions we take - each and every moment - can literally expand or contract different regions of the brain over time.

• That through experiences we can change not just the brain's structure (anatomy) but also its functional organisation (physiology). In lay mans terms that means our brain will devote more cortical "real estate" to functions that we use more frequently and less to those we rarely perform (so be mindful of how you habitually act).

• Learning is always happening - both consciously and "unconsciously" (i.e when you are not consciously aware you are learning something the brain is always learning).

From an NLP perspective this brings us to an interesting point…

Everything you say or do is some form of practicing, instantiating a certain thought-feeling-behaviour on your brain. When you repeat the process many times (habituate a thought, evoke strong affective imagery etc) you influence the configuration of your brain. We each have done this countless times.

Kinda cool, isn't it?

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If you would like to learn more about how to use NLP to create more of the life you want check out our online training here.

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But equally this ongoing process is something that you will want to be mindful of - because the more frequently and with richer intensity you repeat certain activities (thoughts, feelings, movements) the more your brain's real estate is wired to produce that result - on que. Over time your brain can be triggered to create an emotional response or thought process by a greater number of generalized stimuli. (i.e. your brain has generalized the trigger).

Bottom line is what you habitually do you become more of.

So if you habitually talk badly to yourself or get annoyed whenever anyone is late for example then that is the instruction you are giving to your brain to wire and zone for brain real estate.

The question to ask yourself is - is that what you want?

If not, maybe now is good time to pimp your brain!

Got a question or comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts - feel free to leave a message below.

Many people have heard or learnt about the Meta Model since it was first released with the Structure of Magic Volume 1. However few know how to use it for more than drilling down into the details - yet the Meta Model can be used for much, much more than information gathering. It's one of the most powerful tools that we have in the entirely of NLP.

To celebrate the launch of a new program Michael Breen and I are releasing later this week call "Language Guru - Mastering The Meta Model" I've just completed a new five part video series sharing many of the top distinctions about working with the Meta Model that will help you transform what you can do with language, helping others and being ultra persuasive.

And I'm giving it away for free.

Check it out here.

In the first video you will enjoy a 17 minute free training video where you will learn:

• How Richard Bandler, Michael Breen and I use the Meta Model (and you can too) to get great results
• Discover two key distinctions to transform the results you can get with the Meta Model
• Why mastering this 1st pattern is ESSENTIAL to doing really elegant NLP work
• How you can quickly track, shift and change the 'hidden influencers' in any communication

If you have a question, feedback or comment. I'd love to hear it. Please leave it in the comment box below.

Today's world is one where speed is often the driving factor of the day. Yet running faster doesn't necessarily get you to your goal quicker, often too much speed makes achieving the goal harder (because you end up doing the wrong things). Taking time for a "stopping point", where you deliberately step off the life habits treadmill often pays huge rewards.

Here is are some great questions to ask yourself regularly:

What do you really want from your life and work?

Not what you'd like but what you really want

Write it down.

Going four hours beyond 20 years from now, what would have to be true in order for that life situation to work out exactly as you've imagined it?

Write down the key points paying particular attention to the people, places and activities that have occurred to make those outcomes happen.

Take all the time you need for you vividly imagine experiencing that very satisfying life situation. Bring up multiple perfect experiences in your mind. Keep captures ideas and insights onto a pad.

Once you can feel it viscerally in your body, with a sense of certainty and vividness and that these things have occurred, place your awareness back here in the now and ask yourself:

• What kind of personal attributes did I display that lead to those goals being achieved?
• What specific actions did I take to make that life happen?
• What kind of behaviors did I demonstrate that in addition to what I am already doing now?
• What kind of relationships did I cultivate that made those goals happen?

Then ask yourself:

What's the very next step to making this happen now?

Then go about making that first action happen.

Repeat the process on daily basis for a week and you will develop greater clarity and sense of certainty about making that satisfying life happen and save yourself alot of time and money thinking that the answers to the really important stuff for your life, lie outside of you.

Got a question, feedback or comment? I'd love to hear your feedback - click the box below.

Is it possible to have too much NLP training? It’s a good question.

Not all NLP is the same and not everyone gets the same insights into NLP that Dr. Bandler and a few other top NLP practitioners share.

Some of what is promoted in some trainings (both in NLP and else where) and on various public courses is a form of false learning. Ideas are set up that sound good but aren’t found in the world. Sometimes they are very useful ideas and tools, other times they trap you in a worldview.

Certain ideas are presupposed, loose cause effect connections and new meanings are linked up and "poof" you have the self-saboteur pattern that you now can go search in the world. And when things go wrong it must be because your “inner self is out of alignment with your outer self…”. You get the idea. A lot of ideas promoted in personal development are like this.

Sometimes these ideas help, but often the student forgets what they are - a set of ideas someone has invented as a way of describing something that may or may not be happening. When the student forgets this they loose the important connection between the idea or tool and context in which it is operating and open the door to all kinds of mischief to play havoc in your thinking.

This post shares 12 top ways to know if you have had ‘too much’ of distorted NLP conventionalisms.

If you identify with any of these then you might want to try the “too much NLP” antidote… mentioned below.

Top 12 Ways To Know If You’ve Had Too Much NLP

1. You tend to think people are “visuals”, “kinesthetic”, and “auditory” learners.

2. You think that there is somebody somewhere who has a model that will instantly change everything that is not going right, over night.

3. You think strategies, meta-programs and logical levels are real things in other people.

4. When you don’t know how something works you start talking about abstractions like “trapped emotions” being present “deep in their unconscious mind”.

5. You put way too much value on certificates, courses and titles rather than results, practice and real world observable actions.

6. You spend a lot of your time in chat rooms talking about NLP rather than using it.

7. You’ve heard that the map is not the territory yet you spend more time looking at how other peoples maps are “wrong” than exploring where your own mapping is erroneous.

8. You believe there is the set of secret magic phrases for persuading others and if you only knew these you could make people do what you want.

9. Although you have perhaps been studying NLP for years you still find it is easy for the same people, things and words to trigger your hot buttons, and when it happens you think it’s a problem with them rather than something about you.

10. You bitch frequently about other NLPers or schools of NLP.

11. Most of the books you read for ideas on NLP have NLP in the title.

12. You think NLP is a profession and a something to instantly make you wealthy.

So how did you get on?

Chances if you have been interested or involved in NLP for a while you scored positive on several of these.

Why do I guess this? Because a lot of what I shared is part of the culture that surrounds some people's presentation of NLP, which has been absorbed by many. In fact from the feedback of thousands of visitors to NLP Times - these ideas are widespread, but they keep us trapped inside a worldview.

Maybe it’s time for a change.

NLP is a genuinely an incredible technology, but like I said in my previous post, it’s not a magic bullet or an instant cure-all for everything.

As Master Trainer Owen Fitzpatrick once wrote "NLP doesn’t change your life you do".

If you’d like learn how to apply the tool set of NLP the way the true experts do and in doing so blow your mind about what is possible, then check out this unique program.

Got a comment or question? I’d love to hear your thoughts

NLP is a wonderful technology for creating change, enabling you to acquire skills and create results quicker than perhaps you thought possible. Over the years there has been a lot of hype and hyperbole spread that NLP is a magic bullet that works flawlessly and in every context with every individual. Many folks would like it to be just that: but it isn't and if you want to get good with NLP then rid yourself of any idea that NLP is fast money, instant success, magic result.

NLP is meant to be applied elsewhere:

NLP is a toolset you can apply to other disciplines. This is what folks who get good with the technology do. They take what they learn and apply the technology and processes of NLP elsewhere.

Where will you apply it today?