What is NLP?

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) began in the early 1970s when a mathematician called Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder asked themselves a simple but fascinating question: “What is it that makes the difference between somebody who is merely competent at any given skill, and somebody who excels at the same skill?”

This simple question engendered a model to understand how we as humans perceive the world, how we organise our thinking, feeling, skills and behaviour. It is a field that is continually innovating and developing.

NLP is essentially a model of excellence and achievement, or ‘what works’. It is a set of guiding principles, attitudes, knowledge, skills and techniques.

How will you benefit from discovering more about NLP? NLP can be used remedially so that if you are not getting what you want out of life, it can enable you to uncover, change or transform what is holding you back.

NLP can also be used generatively to enable you to make far-reaching positive changes beyond the initial problem. NLP offers you some of the most powerful communication skills available. Much of our success in life depends on our ability to communicate effectively – NLP will show you how.

We are often told that our brain is the most amazing computer on the planet – but nobody ever gave us an instruction manual on how to use it. NLP offers you that information, enabling you to take more control over your thoughts, feelings action and life.

NLP offers the tools to make excellence more easily attainable because if someone is achieving excellence in any field it can be modelled ­ detailed, replicated and taught to others.

Finally, NLP offers many people a doorway to something far deeper. Once you know more about how you, as a human being work, you can use NLP to answer some truly meaningful questions, to help you more fully understand your mission in life and some of the answers to true happiness and fulfilment.

NLP … affords the opportunity to gain flexibility, creativity and greater freedom of action than most of us know how …

Training and Development Journal 

NLP could be the most important synthesis of knowledge about human communication to emerge since the sixties

Science Diges

Ten Essential Strategies For Turning Vision into Action

By Ian McDermott

Many of us have a vision, how do we make that vision come alive? Here, Ian McDermott, Master Trainer and NLP Coach will tell us more ...

Start Being Who You Really Are

Those rare individuals, who create lives which are the picture of their dreams and visions, are at home in themselves. At the times when you are turning your vision into action, you will be ‘being you.’ So by contrast, it can be really useful to look at the times when you are not ‘being you’ to be clear about how you are selling yourself short.   You can then use the tools of NLP and the skills of Coaching to make any changes in the areas that will make the journey from Vision into Action; easier, faster and more rewarding.

2. Decide How Much Your Vision Matters

Turning your vision into action should not be a struggle. There may be obstacles to overcome. Those who achieve are driven by a strong desire to take action. The strength of this desire is directly related to how much your vision matters to you. If your vision does not matter deeply to you, is it any surprise to find yourself un-motivated to take the action?  If taking action is a problem for you, you may want to go back and check the vision. Maybe it requires fine tuning. Perhaps it's time for a new vision. Either way, a vision that matters deeply to you is a pre-requisite for significant action.

3. Face Your Fears

It’s useful to distinguish between ‘fear’ and the natural concerns and hesitations that we all experience when doing anything new and significant. If you take off in an aeroplane on a windy day, you may have some moments of ‘doubt’ but you probably just buckle your seat belt, take a deep breath and get on with it!

There are also times when you know deep down that fear is an important message. In particular, appreciating the positive intention of the fear and using NLP can rapidly reduce or eliminate it all together. In fact, when fear is the major obstacle stopping us turning vision into action, it’s time to get excited, because once you deal with the fear; you open the door to your potential.

4. Check - What Are You Voting For In Your Life?

With every minute, we choose to do one thing rather than another. Every moment we do this we are voting with our time.

On any given day we have a finite amount of energy. We can spend it wisely – or not.

5. Check – Will You Collaborate With Others?

Many people are anxious when it comes to working with others; that they’ll be done down or undermined in some way. Others are not sure how to find allies. Whatever your vision, it is almost certainly the case that at some point you’re going to need to be collaborating with others.

6. Get The Right Balance Between Vision & Action

We’ve all met individuals who live in the land of amazing ideas. They spend most of their time fantasising over their visions. The problem is their visions are just that – fantasies – because they lack an effective strategy to take action.  The opposite extreme is the individual who is so busy ‘doing’ that they never step back to consider what they are doing – and most importantly why they are doing it. Such people certainly get a lot done, but often not the things that will lead them to fulfilment.

So the key is to find a balance between vision and action.

7. Make A Phased Transition

Beware the motivational speaker who tells you to ‘just go for it’ and throw away the day job. You need to build time into your planning for turning vision into action – enough time to manage any major transition and enough time to ensure that if you meet unexpected setbacks you will not be thrown off course.

8. Decide - Are You Willing To Pay The Price?

The gold medal winning Olympic athlete is often cited as a metaphorical example of what you need to do to turn vision into action. They visualise success, they set goals they are passionate about what they do, they are able to enter ‘the zone’ etc etc.

True enough. But there is another factor in the athlete’s success which is not mentioned as frequently, because it is not quite as appealing. They are willing to pay the price. They are willing to get up at 5am every day and practice in freezing temperatures. They will endure frustration, failure and sometimes physical injury.

Hopefully turning your vision into action will not be quite as arduous. But if you are going to accomplish anything of significance, there will probably be a price to pay. It may be small or large but part of achieving that goal involves deciding that you are willing to pay the price.

9. Learn How To Tap The Wisdom Within

Many people wonder whether they can turn their vision into action without realising that they have vital resources to do so already within them. These resources are available once you know how to tap the wisdom of your unconscious mind.

Developing this ability to tap into your own inner wisdom will lead you to make better decisions.

10. Know What You Want Your Legacy To Be

Those who achieve are invariably driven by a vision that encompasses some larger or even higher purpose. Often, they will talk of what they want to leave behind, of ‘creating something more than me’ or ‘creating something that will live on after me.’ Your vision will be easier to achieve when you know what you want your legacy to be. When you turn your attention to what your legacy will be, you are taking an important step in turning your vision into action, because you are creating an incredibly strong reason for your behaviour.