Chapter 2: Some Basic Assumptions of NLP 31
NLP helps you to explore your reasons for wanting change, even if that
reason is just a little niggle of discontent. Change can be choppy, like riding
the rapids, but the people we know who have made it through – having
decided on choices that they made for themselves – are much more content
and in control of their lives.You can find help with deciding what you want from your life and how to
begin to implement it in Chapter 4.A multinational company was shedding a lot of people. Many of the employ-
ees waited, hoping they wouldn’t be forced to go. The IT industry was in the
doldrums and jobs were thin on the ground; the general belief was that people
had no choice other than to hang on to the job they were in, no matter how far
the company pushed them. They believed that they had no choice.
The employees who were relieved to get away from the stress were the ones
who knew what they wanted from their jobs and had made provisions to
move into alternative careers; or those who were willing to look at all the
available options, no matter how far-fetched they seemed.Modelling successful performance leads to excellence
If you aspire to be a long-distance runner like Paula Radcliffe and you’re
able-bodied, display her single-minded determination, and have a support
network, you can develop your beliefs and values to align your environment,
capabilities, and behaviour to achieve your aspirations (read more about
these categories in the earlier section ‘People are much more than their
behaviour’).NLP provides the tools for you to model someone, take what that person
does well, and replicate it. You don’t, however, need to have such a big ambi-
tion: you may have a very simple desire, such as modelling the skills of a co-
worker who always brings projects in on time, or a friend who always knows
the right thing to say at the right time. You can question people that you
want to emulate to find out what inspires them, how they know the time is
right to do what they do, and how they keep focused on their goal.In the case of the co-worker, they may have a string of strategies to meet
their project targets, which you can reproduce. Modelling people’s successes
is a great way to turn potential negative feelings of envy into a constructive
process for experiencing their success for yourself. We dip into this subject
more in Chapter 19.