What Is NLP?

Me, Mike Sweep. and a number of ways for you to apply it and use it in your everyday life. Listen up.

Now, this is session number one. Session number one, I obviously need to cover what is NLP. Now as you know this is the ten minute coach and I've only got ten minutes or less to do it in, that's my promise. And really to try and sum up NLP in ten minutes is a tough ask, but here it goes. Firstly, and you're probably already aware of this by now, NLP stands for Neurolinguistic Programming. Now that's a big mouthful in itself.

Now, NLP was invented, discovered, really and formulated back in the early seventies. And really it's it's an attempt to To rediscover all about human behavior, human psychology, human programs. Now the name itself NLP Neurolinguistic Programme the Neuropart refers to the mind body and the mind body connection and how how our neurology interacts with our physiology. Um both ways actually.

And the linguistic refers to the insights um to a person's thinking, our kind of internal dialogue, our internal communication. And uh and we also get to uh spend some of that time listening to people's language and how they describe their kind of internal world. And the programming is the is not

f not program as m as we may know it from from computer programming per se, but more more along the the programmes, the patterns and our certain behaviours, our certain triggers. What programs cause us to do certain things? So yeah, NLP Neurolinguistic Programme, the neurology, how we speak to ourselves and the how that's uh distributed in our own language.

uh internally and externally and then the programming, the programs that run, the programs that we can make run, and also the programs that we can pick apart that other people run to to use for ourselves in advantageous ways. Some people like to say that because of NLP, it's really given us a documented method, an owner's manual for the brain, to understand why we do what we do, why we think what we think.

how we can change what we do, how we can follow other people's patterns. So it so many people have described it as a bit of an owner's manual for the brain. And not only an owner's manual, it's it's it becomes It's a documented way to for us to create repeatable beneficial patterns and also to understand. uh negative patterns and behaviors and and what we're doing to create those.

So really an owner's manual is a is a great way because you know, f let's face it, we're born, we come into this world, we're with we're clothed, we taught how to look after ourselves, uh certain lessons at school and certain lessons off people, but no one really tells us.

how we should run us, um, what we do, how it affects us on so many levels. An NLP is an attempt to to do that and actually it some of the skills, the documentation, the principles that have been outlined give people a very clear pathway to at least understand themselves and others. It's baffling if you think that it's taken till the seventies and then up until now you'll still listen to it it's not common knowledge.

for people to come up with a way of understanding us. Now and the n the NLP methods and insights.

Allow a person to be far more in charge of their own thoughts and their own feelings and and behaviours and outcomes really. It also allows people to communicate much much more effectively and also understand other people's communication. Um we hear it in our language all the time, but you might hear someone say, uh what do you mean by that?

uh uh w we we we get that what we say isn't necessarily what we mean. And it's it's amazing to think that we do talk in metaphor, we do talk in in an ad lib way and expect people to fill in the gap Now, sometimes we may guess that wrong, and I say guess very loosely because my time as a coach and a therapist over the years, it really is a case of that. We do guess wrong most of the time. Now, as long as what we're guessing is advantageous to us.

Mm and it and it and it boosts our own well being, it boosts our own behaviors, our thoughts, our actions, our beliefs, then great. But guess what? Most of the time we guess wrong. We guess negatively. We guess we guess all the ways that that degrade us and make us feel bad. It increases anxiety, increases stress for no other reason. So the NLP insights and and the set of skills that it teaches really does show that we've uh we'll we've got a lot to learn.

My favorite part of NLP and perhaps one of the ways that uh one of the reasons NLP was created was the study of success, the study of achievement, the science of achievement. How do people achieve what they do? And uh it's it's ma it's amazing because the original studies based on factors which account for um people's success or people's failures in human performance

And it it's been it's been modified and and been created different patterns of how how we can replicate that. And this is called modelling within uh N L P and it really is the the forefront, the core of NLP, it really is what it's all about, where it came from and realistically w w where we can go from that. So some of these patterns have been well documented already, have been modelled so that we can take those pieces.

we can reapply them and we can follow suit where where other other successes, other achievements have have left off. Uh but also there are so many more traits and behaviors and actions that we can decide that we want to investigate more, we can model that and therefore we can apply those those processes. So modeling or the study of success The science of achievement is a real big part of NLP and perhaps the most exciting bit.

Understanding modelling and NLP can really take off the blinders. It can really get rid of that notion that certain successes come down to luck or come down to personality or DNA. Because most of those things. we can identify the the key ingredients for those people who are performing in certain areas. And an NLP allows us to understand the chunks, understand the parts.

understand the methodology, understand the sequencing, so that it can be systematically introduced in a way that allows them to be replicated. So it really is a way to understand performance in people. understand what they are doing in a very practical, very functional way. And it it is in a very kind of parts way, almost it's very easy to to

to throw things up in a bit of a met metaphysical way or to or to talk it ambiguously about certain metaphors or where they might have been or how they might have done it. But NLP allows us to really look at the chunk. Look at the pieces, look at the traits, look at the behaviors, look at how they're creating those so that we can replicate and we can recreate what others already have done.

Now thankfully most things in life have already happened. Uh there's there's very little new things that that emerge day to day we can we can communicate. We understand psychology to a certain level, influence, persuasion, success, happiness. social sciences, it's all there. So there's so much for us to model. And it's uh it's an important time that we that we all get to understand these things. Now, NLP isn't the the be-all and end all, but what a great way to understand yourself and others.

Since its conception forty or something years ago, NLP has obviously gone through so many transitions, so many understandings. So many people trying to rebrand it, claim it as their own, take parts of it, repackage it. But really NLP is so different, but the principles are are st stand true. Um so much of what people teach in in certain NLP training courses will differ from course to course.

W it would even differ from from the same course delivered the following year by the same person because it's a different understanding. even though this is this is a very very functional and very practical way to apply, it ought it's also about interpretation. And people's attitudes, people's models, people's internal worlds change all of the time. Therefore, they'll deliver the NLP in a different way. They'll understand it in a different way.

Now one thing that I would advise for anyone looking to investigate or build their knowledge on NLP would be to listen to whatever you can, take whatever you can with an open mind, read the books, go to a few courses. And don't just accept it's one way because it really isn't. It really is a flexible approach to understanding humans, to understanding yourself, understanding behavior, understanding performance. So really do just take it all with a pinch of salt.

and and learn your way. Understand that it needs to be dealt with uh or adopted in a way of uh curiousness. What what can you gain from this? Listen to everything with with a sense of curious curiosity and take from it what you will. You'll hear it hear it differently differently. Somewhere else.

you'll you'll absorb it differently off someone else and there and you'll create your own ways. And that's my one big tip with NLP. Take it with a pinch of salt, whatever you hear, even from me and from anyone else, and then Find another source, listen to it again, read it again, go to a different training course, and you'll find that you'll become very competent in these skills. And competent L NLP skills allow you to be competent in so many areas of your life. So it's an investment well spent.

Thanks for listening today. Enjoyed what you've heard. Perhaps you'll also like me. Psychology and the same. Gotcha. for more transforming 10-minute sessions. With me, Mike Sweet, your 10-minute coach. You can find me at all the w's: micsweet.co.uk. Catch you soon.