94 Leading with NLP
Watch yourself as if on a movie screen. Be completely
detached from your screen self, as if it’s not really you,
but a friend who is role-playing to show you what hap-
pened and in a moment will ask for your advice. Watch
the movie through to the end.
What can you learn from the incident so that it will
not happen again in the same way?
What would you have liked to happen instead?
With the benefit of hindsight, what advice would you
give the person in the movie that would help them
make the situation better?Imagine yourself doing that now, reliving the incident
in your imagination, seeing yourself acting differently,
and see how the situation resolves itself in a different
way. Then blank your mental screen.
Do this at least three times and blank your mental
screen after each action replay.Now step into the picture. Imagine yourself back in the
situation. Go through it again, in the new way that you
have just tried out. Take your own advice – act differ-
ently in the situation and see how it turns out now.
Is this satisfactory?
If not, then go back to watching the original movie
and seeing what else you can learn and what other ad-
vice you can give. Then step into the situation again
and act that new advice. Do this until the situation turns
out to your satisfaction.There is one other possibility. The change may not have
been tried at the right time. Whatever you did then, it
may neverhave turned out as planned.
In this case, think what circumstances would have to
have changed in order to have made a difference in
that situation.
Have those circumstances changed in the meantime?