I have spent the past seven days working with a group of amazing people who want to take control of their lives and change their destiny. It was an NLP course, and those who know me know how much NLP has changed my life.
NLP stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming, but please don’t worry, the course is not as technical or scientific as it sounds! It is simply a way of understanding how our minds create our experiences and ultimately the world we look out on and call ‘reality’.
I have always been a positive person, before I had even heard of NLP I naturally looked for the good in situations – but if anyone had asked me HOW I did that, I wouldn’t have known. If anyone had asked me to teach others how to change their thinking to create their future, I would not have had any idea how to do that. You see, I had no system strategy or technique to teach the magic.
Having now served my apprenticeship, it has been amazing to complete the course from the position of trainer rather than participant. To see the transformation of the people arriving on the course has been incredible. To see them all as they arrive on day one – full of anticipation and looking perplexed, some are nervous, some are quite chatty and excited and none of them aware of the fantastic journey they are about to embark on.
I know from experience that you can have quite high expectations when you start on any training course. There is always a level of expectation and you go armed with your pen and exercise book, ready to take copious notes and commit everything said to memory. Well, that’s where NLP differs. For a start, I encourage my students to put down their pens and books. Just show up and listen.
Much of the work that goes on during the course is done internally. What do I mean by that? Students can go through massive change while on our courses and this is not down to the amount of studying that they do (although there is a prerequisite they do some pre-course work)) , it is down to them taking a fresh perspective on how they view the world they are living in. By understanding the role our minds play in how we experience our lives, it gives new meaning to what we can actualise and feel and ultimately bring into our reality.
When students arrive on day one they will have already undertaken some pre course work and this sets the scene for what they are about to uncover over the following 7 days. They start the week with some uncertainty and the inevitable expectation. By day four they are much more relaxed, there is usually quite a lot of laughter and changes have already happened.
It is such a privilege to witness the students moving forward and to know that their success is inevitable, as long as it is wanted. By the last day some of the changes are huge and lives have been transformed and for some, life will never be the same again.
Change is inevitable – as long as you want it. One of the biggest take-outs from the course is the understanding that YOU are in charge. YOU have choice in how you experience your circumstances. You are not a slave to life, your life is the sum of the choices you have made – and you can change your mind at any time. This is how understanding NLP can help you make better choices and achieve whatever it is you want to achieve.
Some people think it takes weeks, months even years to turn your life around but this simply isn’t the case. You can change in a week, you can change in a day, you can change in an instant or maybe even quicker than that.
It just takes insight and a willingness to change. And I can show you how.
It is never too late to change.