Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP): What It Is And How It Works

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) was created by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California (United States) in the seventies. Its creators claim that there is a connection between neurological procedures, language and learned behavior patterns.

The creators of NLP were based on three masters, Fritz Perls, Virginia Satir and Milton Ericksson, and through several studies identified that these three people had special communication skills that allowed them to obtain good results with their patients.

In this way, they created a set of tools that they later called neurolinguistic programming.

All of us have at one time reacted to a situation and then our inner voice told us that we should have said something else or reacted differently.

Indeed, our way of responding and thinking is conditioned by a neurological map that encodes and stores our way of responding in a given situation.

This map is composed of our past, our present and our future, and from it we build our beliefs, lessons and learned behaviors.

The structures of our mind are so deeply ingrained in us that we cannot influence them, at least in a conscious way.

The mind works on two levels: conscious (logical thinking) and unconscious (automatic functioning).

The conscious mind is constantly alert, which allows us to remember dates and names of people, for example. And the unconscious mind is the part of the brain that activates all the behaviors, beliefs and values ​​that we have learned and that shape our way of acting. It is the part of our mind that allows us to drive, write an email or open a window.

In order for our subconscious mind to “draw” a new map, it needs to act with a clear objective that answers the question “What do we want?”

And the tricky thing is precisely this: we often don’t know what we want, we don’t know how to define our objective. That’s why we need to think of something that really changes our usual behavior in a given situation, something that is apparently impossible.

The goal we set ourselves needs to answer a series of questions:

Is it a positive goal?

For programming to work, you need to set a positive goal. The goal should not start with “I don’t want…”.

Does it benefit you?

Your goal needs to be something you do for yourself that is up to you and not others. For example, it is very common that the goal of young people is to finish a university education, but this is not their own goal, but that of their parents. Also, you need to control what you do to reach your goal so that it depends on you.

We can’t aim for sunshine on the weekend, because that’s not up to us.

How will you know you’re reaching your goal?

Think about what you will be doing right now and how you will feel.

Visualize every action, every feeling that arises in that moment, what scent you smell, what you taste, what you hear, how you move, what you do. Furthermore, to know if we are achieving our goal, we will need to set short-term goals and measure whether we are meeting them. For example, if my goal is to find a job, one goal is to look for jobs and volunteer every week.

Is your goal specific?

You need to make it clear what you want and what you don’t want. The more defined and detailed your objective, the simpler it will be to establish the steps to reach it. For example, the goal “I want to get a job” is a very generic and vague goal setting.

But if we redefine the goal giving details, we will have much clearer goals to achieve our goal: For example: “From February 1, 2016 I will work in a company dedicated to IT that will pay me X reais per month.”

What resources do you need to make it a reality?

Think about what resources you already have and what you need more broadly: knowledge, objects, economic resources, help from others.

Once our goal is defined, we will need to review our beliefs and values. That which we have deeply rooted in ourselves and that prevents us from achieving our dreams. We need to change our negative belief structures that put us in a position to move toward our goal.

One of the biggest obstacles we will face on the path to our dreams is the opinions of others. Remember that each person has a different perspective and we must put ourselves in their shoes to try to understand their thoughts.

All the way to your goal, visualize your dream, feel its aroma, its sound, what you play and especially the feeling of happiness that it causes in having reached your goal.

And achieve your dream! Make your aspiration come true!

In order for our subconscious mind to learn a new program that allows us to make our dream come true, it must understand why, why.

In NLP, the learning process is established in four phases:

Phase 1: Unconscious incompetence. I don’t know why I don’t know.
Phase 2: Conscious incompetence. I know I don’t know.
Phase 3: Conscious competence. I know I know.
Phase 4: Unconscious competence. I don’t know that I know.

To unlearn we go from step 4 to 2, and to relearn from step 2 to 4.

Once the new program is learned, we will be able to apply it whenever necessary.

Therefore, NLP helps to create new mental programs that make many aspects of our lives easier for us, and that allow us to work on goals to achieve what we dream and desire.

The greatest development of NLP occurred in interpersonal relationships and in the professional sphere. In both areas you can use NLP to train your skills, overcome obstacles, resolve conflicts and influence others.

But, above all, NLP offers the necessary tools for you to control how to respond to your surroundings, how to perceive it, and thus take the steps to make your dreams a reality.