Neuro Linguistic Programming

Chapter 8: Understanding to Be Understood: Meta Programs 137

When you’re procrastinating over a particular task, the problem may be that
you’re overwhelmed by the size of the job to be done. Use the following pro-
cess to break the task into manageable chunks:

1. Stop!

If you’re not already paralysed into inaction, that is.

2. Fetch some paper and a pen.


3. Sit down and make a list.

Think about, and write down, what’s really important to you.

4. Rearrange the list in order of importance.

You may want to transfer some of the points to another list of actions.

5. Get cracking!

To discover where on the scale between global and detail someone is, ask

about a recently completed project. A detail person gives a step-by-step

account, for example:

Jim and I met for lunch on the second Tuesday last July. I remember having

to ask Jim a lot of questions because he kept jumping all over the place and

I had to keep him focused on each step. I was very nervous at first but felt

much happier when we’d spent time on capturing all the information in a

project plan.

A global person presents things randomly, summarising the outcome, for

example:

Tom and I met for lunch last year sometime and decided to work on building

the animal sanctuary. It’s really important to focus on the biodiversity. I

really think people need help managing their circumstances, don’t you?

Fight, flight, freeze, and procrastination

Along with fight and flight, freezing is part of

the stress mechanism. An impala caught by

a cheetah goes into a state of hyper-arousal

and freezes. The survival response behind this

mechanism is to make the cheetah believe the

impala is dead, thereby giving the impala an

opportunity for escape if the cheetah stows it

away for later consumption. The other reason

for this survival response is that the impala

doesn’t feel the pain of being torn apart if the

cheetah decides on an immediate feast.

Procrastination is the human equivalent of a

freeze response. Are you in the habit of pro-

crastinating? It may be that you’re taking on too

much and just don’t know where to start.