NLP

I am reading a book about neuro linguistic programming. So far there have been two ideas that have captivated my conceptual imagination.

The first is the idea that people can be motivated towards and motivated away from things. For example, a person can want to lose weight because they hate the way they look or because they want to be a picture of vibrant health. The former is motivation away, the latter motivation towards. Of course this can be applied to many things. A person might hate the job they do and be desperate to leave it (motivation away) or a person can apply for a job because it ticks all their boxes (motivation towards).

Motivation towards is, of course, better than motivation away. To be motivated towards something means we have to have a vision, an aspiration, a clear idea of what we definitely want. What's more, it's easier to find sustained motivation towards an arrival point as we remain motivated until we get there - especially if we are excited about the arrival. If we move away from something undesirable, I would imagine we can be satiated by a slight improvement and give up easily. I also think it's easy to know what we don't want (and you can see plenty of evidence of people knowing what they don't want in the form of moaning!) and perhaps that's why some people don't bother with motivating towards - it takes some imagination.

The other idea in the book that grabbed me was about creating goals. The book simply asked, if you were guaranteed success in anything you put your efforts into, what would you choose to do? This is basically saying, if we remove the fear of failure, what would you do? What a fantastic way to create dreams!

I am only on page 5.

Comments

  1. james16 November 2009 at 19:02

    Hey, if we can get Jim to read your blog, you could just brainwash him into doing what I want (well, what he should want too really)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WendyElf20 November 2009 at 23:03

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wendy Elf20 November 2009 at 23:07

    Very interesting Molly....at our school we have an active positive schools approach - and you tell the children what you DO want them to do, rather than what you don't. For example 'please walk down the stairs', rather than 'don't run'. Or 'please be kind to Roger', rather than 'stop being horrible'. All the staff had training on it, as it really is a whole new way of thinking - (for many of them). Interestingly, the most miserable members of the staff find it almost impossible to do..... it really is like having a whole life attitude to 'the glass is half full' scenario, rather than the 'glass is half empty' scenario, and then communicating that to others (in this case the children). Being motivated towards something is a more positive approach as we also feed our energy into an end result that is what we want, if people continually feed there thought energy in trying to steer away from what they don't want, then, as energy follows thought, they are actually feeding the problem!

    I think your whole blog Molly is a case of 'the glass half full' scenario, but in your case actually a case of 'the glass is full and overflowing and going on the floor and out the door and over the world and and and...'

    I think sometimes you are actually an expanding universe in disguise.... :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Molly Potter25 November 2009 at 16:56

    Hi Wendy, I have only just found this comment for which I thank you sweeteness. expanding universe? Pure projection on your part.
    xxxxxx

    ReplyDelete

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