Neuro Linguistic Programming looks at the way we think and how we process our thoughts. With NLP, we are learning how our minds work and how we interact with everything around us which we do by using our senses. These being our sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and thoughts.
NLP can assist us to develop and maintain a high level of motivation for achieving our goals.
Everything we experience is created twice. First in our minds and then in reality. The experiences we create are representative of our internal state. The way we think and feel, triggers a response. When we have the tools to change our internal state, we then in turn, can change our external reality to match our new internal state.
The following exercise can be done very quickly. Anytime, anywhere.
It is extremely effective if you practice it as a daily visualization. This then tends to fuel your motivation. Focus your mind on a goal or an activity that you wish to achieve. It also needs to be done on a regular basis. Consistency is the key.
- Imagine yourself in the future already having achieved the goal, or outcome. Experience it in an associated state, meaning you are looking through your own eyes and you can see, hear and feel exactly what you would at that moment in time should you have already achieved it.
- Experiment with making the visual brighter, more colourful, larger, bringing it bigger and closer to you. Experiment with adjusting the sound by making it louder, surround sound, different tempos as you can even add music to it. This can help to add in intensity and emotion.
- Any feelings you have inside the body, intensify them in any way you can. Imagine you are turning up a dial and you are in control. Magnify your feelings. Really step inside your emotions.
- Now remember those feelings and picture a movie playing and you are the star of it. Watch yourself doing all of the things you need to do in order to achieve your outcome or goal.
This movie features it all. What you see, what you hear, what you feel.
What this NLP motivation technique does, is it stimulates the central nervous system by focusing on the outcome rather than just the behaviour.