Tom MacKay’s NLP Blog

I cannot say how much learning NLP has changed my life – it really was one of the most important things I ever learned. However it was not just listening or reading about it that makes the difference – it really is living it.

On a daily basis it makes such a difference to ask myself ‘what can i do today to develop and grow?’. Every day I love to see what I can learn.

Going back to the evolution journal I talked about in the recent blog, I recommend to everyone to write down a list of things they will do differently tomorrow and do this in the evening. When you awaken your unconscious mind will be ready to take action on these things.

Our next NLP Practitioner training starts on December 5th and is a great way to learn these things. I have also started a twitter on mackaynlp.

I just finished running an Advanced NLP Practitioner training in the weekend. Some of the techniques I teach on this NLP course are ones that are not taught on a large percentage of the trainings out there now. Accelerated trainings are great for saving time, however a lot of great techniques are not covered are a told as being no longer needed. Take the 6 step reframe – this is a wonderful process – I have used this with countless clients successfully to help people stop grinding their teeth at night, stop stammering and a whole host of other issues.

Quick is convenient, but not always best. Students who take the entire 15 day Practitioner find the benefits they gain are well worth investing the time in,

In the last NLP blog I was talking about becoming more positive through taking feedback from what happens and thinking about what you will do differently next time.

To re-emphasize, it is important to imagine yourself doing the behaviour the way you want to do it next time.

So just now, think about something you have done recently that you would like to improve. How would you like to be doing it differently. Think about the specific behaviours and how they would be done. Make a movie in your mind of yourself doing these behaviours the way you would really like to do it. See and hear yourself in as much detail as possible.

Now float into the movie (associate) and imagine that you are doing the behaviours and feel what it would feel like to do them.

This sort of rehearsal is incredibly powerful for rehearsing new behaviours.

More about positive thinking….

Something that is really important to consider is where NLP differs from standard positive thinking. NLP does a lot more than just get you to put on a pair of Rose Coloured glasses and see everything in the world as wonderful. Just saying all the time ‘there are no bills…there are no bills…’ isn’t going to make your bills go away!

In a similar way, when things don’t go entirely as we would have liked them to, rather than ignore those things and pretend they didn’t happen, it is far better to think ‘what can I learn from this?’

Feedback is the ‘breakfast of champions’ – it is the way to true success. Learning from our actions that do not go entirely as planned is the real way to improve – the most successful people in life have usual had more ‘failures’ in their life than most other people, but they learn from their mistakes and develop.

More soon…

By the way…I have just started on twitter….

So the first step is to make a journal at the end of the day and write down 3 things that went well during the day.

The next step is to write down 3 things that you would like to do differently tomorrow. Now the skill with doing this is not to beat yourself up about things that didn’t go well today, but to focus on specific things you would like to improve for the next day. What could you do better and most importantly, what how you be doing that skill better tomorrow.

You need to focus on what to do, and not what NOT to do!

More in the next NLP Blog…

As I said in the blog yesterday, being positive is partly a matter of developing a new habit. People often get so conditioned into seeing the negative, that they ignore a lot of the great stuff going on.NLP shows many different ways to develop new thinking.

One method to help develop a new way of looking at things is by keeping a journal. To develop the new habit this needs to be kept every day consistently – try it out for at least a month and notice the difference. At the end of the day, or on the way home from work is the best time to do this.

First write down all the things that went well today. Either things you did well or good things that happened to you.Write down at least 3 things. Good things happen every day, but sometimes we just don’t notice them – whether it is someone saying something nice, a phone call that went well or anything at all – it doesn’t matter how small it is!

Next step in the next blog…

Is the glass half full or half empty?

That is a question most people are familiar with, and really does summarise the extreme differences in perspectives at looking at things. Someone who is made redundant – is this the end of their world, or the opportunity to do something they really want to for a change!

Changing your perspective is largely a matter of installing a new habit. In NLP we talk about metaprograms, which are our unconscious filters to our experience – basically our perceptual habits. We develop habitual ways for perceiving the world, and as with all habits, we can change them, however changing a habit requires work.

In the next NLP blog, we will explore some ways to do this.

A while ago a friend of mine set me an article about a British man living in the US who was going from psychiatrist to psychiatrist seeking help for his moods – nobody could understand his constant utterances like ‘mustn’t grumble…not so bad…etc’. After going to several different consultants, he was finally diagnosed as being ‘clinically British’!

Many people do seem to remember the bad stuff that happens to them, but fail to remember the great things. It is all about focus.

We can either delete the positive things from our experience, or we can delete the negative (after taking the learnings!). Which you do will determine how you feel. NLP is a powerful way to do this.

Over the next few blogs, I will give some suggestions for how to shift your focus and positively change your state.

Yesterday someone asked me what I do. Something that we all get asked probably several times each week. My first thought is ‘what exactly do you mean by DO?’ – many people seem to define themselves in terms of their identity by their work. That is not usually my first thought, but when I do answer what my work involves, it can start a long process of explanation. Usually saying ‘NLP Trainer’ results with a blank stare – Neuro Linguistic Programming makes it even worse!

When people attend the training, they are almost always amazed at how many different things are covered, and that makes it really hard to define in brief terms what it is all about.

how to use the language of your mind to consistently achieve your desired results

When most people hear about hypnosis, they think of phrases like ‘you are feeling sleepy’ and think of people under the ‘control’ of someone else. The examples we have on television, don’t usually paint it in the best light. I turned on the show with Derren Brown recently and admired the way he creates his show that gives the appearance of different kinds of influence.

In reality hypnosis is very different. You cannot make anyone do things they do not want to do. Hypnosis is a very relaxing state where you actually have greater internal control – for example you can influence your heart rate, blood pressure, and feel more confident. All people who attend our trainings are amazed at how beneficial hypnosis can be.