Program yourselfWhat we think influences what
we feel and what we
communicateTop sports people have usually mastered this self-
programming technique: They have either taught themselves
how to do it or have been coached into this positive way of
thinking. They know that if they start worrying about hitting the
ball out of court or off the green, that is what they are
programming themselves to do. Even if the bulk of their
thinking is positive, they know that a fleeting negative thought
can make the difference between winning the point and losing
it. They have modeled themselves on excellence.
How often have you said to yourself “I mustn't do that” only
to find yourself doing it? Just this morning my husband said he
wanted to be sure that no one dropped his new kitchen knife
as it has a fragile ceramic blade. He was indirectly telling the
rest of our household to take care if we used it. But those
weren’t the words he used. Within an hour of saying this he
had dropped the knife! What you think influences how you
feel and how you communicate.Two teams had been given the job of identifying ways in which
their business could pull itself out of recession and achieve new
business objectives that had been set. The teams had been asked
to develop their ideas and come back on a specific date to present
their conclusions. They returned with new proposals as agreed.
One team looked dejected. They presented their ideas: how
to cut costs, reduce overheads, and rationalize the workforce.
They felt this was the way forward. An air of gloom hung around
them. The rest of the room was silent.
The second team presented their ideas. They looked
delighted. This team was made up of people from the
manufacturing side of the business. Previously they had looked
at ways of improving quality and reducing wastage. This time
they had decided to take a different stance. They had thought
about the future they really wanted: the number of plants they
would like to build, the amount of research they wanted to do,
and the people they wanted to employ. They were fired up with
their ideas and their passion for the future. They had decided it
was time to turn the company around. It should be they who
were telling the salesforce how much business they needed to
support this program, instead of them responding to whatever
the salesforce sold, as had been the case in the past.270 NLP AT WORK