NLP: The New Technology of Achievement

Chapter One

Changing Your Mind

The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

-- William James, eminent American psychologist

Entering a World of Change

This book will change your life. We know. What you're about to read has already changed ours. We are the trainers and consultants of NLP Comprehensive, an organization of individuals dedicated to helping people reach their unlimited inner resources. The accounts of personal change you'll read in these chapters happened to actual individuals. In many cases, their changes took place in the same amount of time it will take you to read about them. These transformations, which include changing fear into confidence, despair into desire, and worry over the past into goal-oriented action, are the result of specific and learnable techniques. We've taught them to counselors, consultants, coaches, managers, engineers, athletes, entrepreneurs, executives, and parents-all kinds of people interested in effective personal and professional change. Collectively, we have edited or authored almost a dozen of the key books on this transformational technology, and produced more than three times that many audio and videotape programs.

Over the last ten years, through our books, tapes, and training sessions, we've introduced this new possibility for living to over a million people in situations ranging from corporate boardrooms to a one-room schoolhouse, from packed auditoriums to a cancer-treatment hospital room.

We didn't starthere. We set out, probably very much like you,with little more than our sincere desire and hope that deliberate change was possible. We spent years searching across the fields of psychology and personal development for ways to implement change that works. From university educations to the school of hard knocks, and from expensive training seminars to silent selfexamination, we measured what we found by the results it could produce.

A number of us spent more than a decade searching for the keys to real and lasting change before we found them. Our motives were personal as well as professional. We wanted to assist our clients in transcending their past difficulties and self-imposed limitations, so they could get on with the adventure of their lives. We wanted to affect the bottom lines of businesses and the people who work for them, to increase their productivity, profit, and professional satisfaction. And we wanted something for ourselves. As agents of change, we wanted skills that could enhance those who were already achieving and increase what was already excellent. For our own satisfaction, we wanted to be able to move beyond fixing problems to creating possibilities. We've always believed we could do, be, have, and become more, and that you can too.

Now, more than at any other time in human history, many approaches, old and new, are pointing toward improving human potential and increasing possibilities. Some of them are well known, with names like positive mental attitude, visualization, affirmations, inner child work, goal setting, and personal power. You may even have tried one or more of them at one time or another. If your experience was like ours, sometimes they worked and the results were truly marvelous. At other times, though, they didn't. And when they didn't, no matter how much we wanted or needed them to work, they wouldn't. It was these erratic results that kept us searching even further for the real roots of change. We knew we were already part of the way there. We wanted to produce results consistently. We wanted to know the difference that made the difference between an occasional or temporary relief and a deep, lasting change. We wanted to be able to deliberately facilitate transformational change and teach others to do it for themselves as well.

Creating Change

Before we guide you into creating new possibilities of thinking, feeling, and acting for yourself and those you love, we would like to take just a moment to introduce ourselves and let you know a little bit about what we do and how we work.

Steve Andreas, M.A.; NLP Comprehensive cofounder, trainer, author, and NLP innovator, sits listening attentively to a woman as she describes how a shameful incident from her past resurfaces on occasion. She describes how this recurring memory has limited her feelings and life choices. Steve gently interrupts her story and asks how she would like things to be. She brightens and talks about a new career idea and a different kind of life. He asks some unusual questions about the first experience and then the second. At least she thinks they're unusual. No one has ever asked her if her memories were black and white or in color before. He then guides her through what seems to be a simple visualization, only at the end, tears have filled her eyes, not of sorrow, but of joy. She feels released from her past. Less than thirty minutes has passed. She remains free of the memory.

Charles Faulkner, trainer, author, and expert modeler, finishes hisinterview with the company's best financial decision maker. Here isa man whose thoughts and opinions affect the movement of millionsof dollars a day. Charles points to the notes he has made on theboard. In a language of pictures, words, and feelings, he describesthe details of this decision maker's strategy in easy-to-understandterms. The members of the assembled team begin to realize that theycan use these same steps to dramatically improve their own decision-making abilities. The rest of the morning is spent applying their newskills to a wide variety of problems and opportunities.

Kelly Gerling, Ph.D., corporate trainer and leadership catalyst, enters the conference room and takes in the scene. He can see the tension and despair on their faces. The company's direction is at stake, and the board has been deadlocked for weeks. He begins by asking for each executive's perception of the situation. As he acknowledges their concerns, he asks them to talk about their values. The feeling in the room begins to shift, No one has talked with them this way. They can sense some change is stirring. Two days later, they are designing their new strategic plan. A year later, the values expressed at those meetings have spread throughout the company, improving morale, and transforming them back into market leaders.