What is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)?

First time I heard about NLP was in 2002 and I have been practising NLP for many years now. Now I am certified as an SNLP master practitioner. Many people have asked me this question which is a title of this blog (What is NLP?) and I thought of answering this as most of the people who have only read about NLP have their own perception. Even though many NLP masters have also answered this question clearly; there may be some confusion in your mind as there is a lot of glamour around NLP due to its quick and effective techniques.

In one sentence “NLP is about the study of human excellence”. NLP believes that there is a lot that happens at an unconscious level when a person applies any skill. It is important to understand the unconscious activity of a genius to acquire the skill he has. NLP offers such methodologies to make our learning faster. This process of identifying a structure behind a skill is called Modelling. In my mind, modelling is a core of NLP and most of the other techniques have evolved with the help of the modelling process.

Richard Bandler, John Grinder and others first studied therapist like Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson who were great at transforming people effectively. NLP masters studied the language patterns (Linguistic) used by these great therapists and the impact of the language patterns on the human brain and behaviour (Neuro). They also studied how these great therapists understand the unconscious, based on the language that the client uses during interactions. After studying, they found out that just like these great therapists do, the human brain can also be programmed so that it can change a behaviour or acquire a new skill very quickly. In short, a model can be installed on a human brain (Programming). This is how the name Nero Linguistic Programming might have been formed.

Later, NLP modelling was used to model many more experts in various fields like sales, marketing or education and the studies were published by many NLP masters. Some of the studies got turned into flashy techniques and some others got turned into methodologies. This process of studying excellence will exist for a long time even though the techniques may change. It is also one of the most valuable tools for us that aids in mastering new skills.

Every person is good at learning many skills. In some areas, his pace of learning may be slow and in some other areas, it may be fast. If you acquire unconscious strategies of a person who is good in a particular skill you may also learn the same skill at a faster pace. Many times, we try to learn a skill by just mimicking the behaviour of another person who is good at a particular skill and you know what happens by that? Yes, you are right, it’s mimicry. Have you ever seen a mimicry artist replacing a hero of a movie? The same way if you mimic someone you may not master the skill they are good at.

I am not sure if by luck or by intention the therapist (Virginia Satir and Milton Erickson) selected by masters of NLP for modelling were using very much different strategies for a making behavioural change and both of them were similarly effective. This might have also led to complete the picture as far as neuro, linguistic and programming aspects of NLP.

One of the most important points to understand here is that you will always find people around you who excel in a particular skill and strategies of those people will always fit the most for your context due to the similarity in the environment and many other factors. I can help you here to make a behavioural shift to achieve your goal and progress in the path of the purpose of your life may it be career, money, business growth, love, family relationships and more. You may get it to touch with me on my email address gaurishb@gmail.com