So to any newbies who haven’t heard of NLP or aren’t sure what it stands for, the N is for Neuro, the L is for Linguistic and the P stands for Programming. The story goes that Richard Bandler (the co-founder & creative genius behind NLP) was pulled over by the cops one day and asked what his job was. Richard being in college had a Neurology, a Linguistics and a Computer Programming book in the passenger seat of his car so quickly replied… Neuro Linguistic Programmer.
The main tenet of NLP is that it is an Attitude, Methodology and Technology of excellence. It is about using your brain differently (Neuro) by learning to think and communicate differently (language) so you can reprogram your behaviors. The Attitude is one of Curiosity, Relentlessness & Creative Flexibility. It is about focusing on usefulness. The Methodology is a system of studying and learning what other successful people do so you can replicate their success. The Technology is an approach to human psychology & personal change that offers techniques to change the way you think and feel, destroy limiting beliefs and make better decisions.
Okay, enough about that. What do I mean by the evolution of NLP? Well, in the early days of the 1970′s, NLP was all about eye accessing cues and how you can learn more about how others are thinking by where their eyes move. It was about listening to how they use language to give you an insight into how they were representing their world. It was about creating rapport by matching their behavior.
In the 1980′s, there was more of a focus on what people do inside their heads to create feelings. Techniques were invented to help people overcome personal problems. After this, NLP underwent many of rebranding experiments. Since it proved so effective, many people learned the skills but instead of calling it NLP they would create their own unique term for it and claim it as a new, more intelligent invention.
Meanwhile, as the field of NLP evolved in one way, Richard Bandler’s version of NLP evolved in another. Over the last few years, Richard has presented NLP as not just being about excellence or success or even happiness but about Personal Freedom. His style of NLP offers you an opportunity to choose how you are going to feel, think, communicate and behave on a regular basis. It is a set of tools that offer you hope and the reality of a better life.
