School is good for learning to read, write, and to do basic maths. In school we also learn a little about how the world is. All of this means that we can contribute to society. But this is just the start of our learning journey. We can, or indeed should make our learning a lifelong undertaking. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) teaches additional skills for life, not currently taught in school, which are transferable to all areas of life.
So, what additional life skills does NLP teach.
Thinking patterns of successful people: NLP is almost 50 years old. It is used by top performing sports men, Prime Ministers and Presidents, motivational speakers, coaches, and successful businesspeople. If you understand how successful people think you can use this for yourself, your partner, your children, and your employees.
Goals & Achievement: NLP teaches about how to define goals. Goals act as a form of scaffolding to construct the life you want to lead. Achieving goals is then about motivation, taking action, and following processes that bring success.
Observation and rapport building: By taking your attention out of yourself and placing it on another person it is possible to notice small changes in their physiology. This means that you get a better idea of how your communication is being received. Rapport is a way to build a sense of trust between people. This will help you to see where the other person is coming from and will mean that they listen to what you have to say.
Listening & Questioning: It is therapeutic for anyone, in any context, to have someone who properly listens to them. Learning to listen is about paying attention to someone and their words. Whilst realising that words mean what they mean to other people not necessarily what they mean to you. Intertwined with listening is questioning. Effective questions help you home in on what someone else is experiencing. This can help you understand them better, and even help them to understand themselves better too.
Flexibility of thinking: Having a rigid pattern of thinking can get people stuck. If you can imagine different approaches or solutions that others haven’t yet seen, then you can help others to unstick themselves. Flexibility of thinking enhances creativity in your own life too.
Stories, metaphors, and analogies: Having a sense of flexible thinking can help you to see metaphors and analogies that can open up other people’s thinking. These are great with children and work well with adults too. Being able to add this, and storytelling to a business setting adds depth and richness to your presentations and communication. Stories and metaphors inspire people too.
Coaching: By adding all these together, you are beginning to build the toolkit of a coach. As a parent, friend, and partner the skills of a coach are essential, if still a little underused, even today. In business your management ability is enhanced by adding coaching skills. Management isn’t always about telling someone else what to do. It is also helping them find their own solutions. If you use coaching skills as a manager, you can help your people to grow.
This is just scratching the surface of what NLP can do to enhance your life skills. There are techniques to release emotions from the past, and to change beliefs about yourself which are limiting. You can learn how trance can improve learning, manage your own state, present, model others, about values, preferences, and how we use our senses to construct our experience. All of this adds up to an effective manual for how to use your brain. At school you learn a lot about what to think, NLP teaches you how to think. Just think about what that can do for you.
“Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” Albert Einstein
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