Happiness? Success? Love? Peace? A sense of purpose and meaning?

Intention is an important part of NLP. From “old school” techniques like the 6-Step Reframe (or N-Step Reframe), Grinder’s OIC Pattern, Dilts’ Neurological Levels, to the Virtual Question/ Primary Question process, Values and Logical Levels, getting beyond the surface to the core intention is powerful.

In his latest book, Martin Seligman, moves beyond focusing on just ‘happiness’ to “well-being” as the topic of positive psychology, and proposes five measurable elements (“PERMA”):

1. Positive emotion (including happiness and life satisfaction)
   How? What Went Well and Why.
2. Engagement (also known as flow – when you use your strengths to face the challenges coming your way)
   When people use their highest strengths to face the challenges that come their way they are more likely to experience flow.
   How? Identify your greatest strengths and identify specific ways that you can use them more.
3. Positive Relationships
   How? Using Active Constructive questioning.
4. Meaning (purpose and involvement in something greater than oneself)
   How? Write your vision of a positive future; Write your own obituary.
5. Achievement
   How? Grit – ‘never give up’/ self discipline – predicts the top performers.

In Flourish, Seligman outlines an array of ‘tested’ methods for enhancing these elements, many of which overlap with what we’ve been doing in NLP for years… it is great to see the evidence building!

You can watch Seligman’s 25-minute speech that he presented to RSA in July 2011 on this topic here. Note that this is more recent than his comments on the state of psychology he presented at TED.

Here is one attempt at recoding Robert Dilts’ Neurological Levels prepared by Daniel Smith:

If you can imagine holding a set of chopsticks (or pickup sticks) in one hand, vertically, then letting them go so that they fall to the surface. The sticks will often cross each other at various points.

1. Choose a behaviour, characteristic, or idea with which an individual identifies for exploration. Framed by “explore the intentions to generate alignment”, secure support from the unconscious for the process. It may be useful to prime awareness of the rules for logical levels (especially heritability).
2. Using codewords and inviting suggestions from the unconscious, generate an hierarchy of intention (eg asking “What for?”). It could be convenient to spatially mark the various points.
3. Return to the starting point. Again using codewords and inviting suggestions from the unconscious, chunk down to how that behaviour are manifested.
4. Present the proposed hierarchy to the unconscious for approval or refinement.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 for different behaviour, characteristic or idea. Initially, have subsequent hierarchies non-overlapping (eg by having them parallel or skewed). From Third Position, compare subsequent hierarchies together, noticing any patterns. Check for similarities and overlap between terms in the heirachy; where they are similar, ensure support from the unconscious for having them treated as the same, so that the separate hierarchies can start to overlap.
6. Discovery Process (optional): Move between the various points that have been marked and a Third Position, only allowing enough time for an awareness of that point to be reached before moving randomly to another point. Continue for 10-15 minutes (or until the unconscious presents a signal that it is time to stop).

This is an important and powerful experience, perhaps only matched by our Master Practitioner training. But what then?

Personally, I was immersed in the world of Anthony Robbins events and trainings. You might repeat your Practitioner or Master Practitioner training with the same trainer or different trainers to get a different perspective on things. You might also focus on applications of NLP – whether it be Robert Dilts’ session in Shenzhen on Sleight of Mouth in April, or Dr John Grinder and Carmen Bostic St Clair’s course on New Code NLP in Taipei in May. Or you might focus on reading, practising and enjoying living your life.

But what then?

For some of us, the next step is their NLP Trainers’ Training. For me, it was like doing my Black Belt grading – challenging, demanding, and exciting. There are many places that you can do your Trainers’ Training… but which one to choose?

One of those places has just released a short document outlining some things to consider, and one of the authors, Chris Collingwood, has just authorized me to share this with China NLP. It is quite objective, and whether you end up training with them in Sydney (as I did), or NLPU in Santa Cruz, or NLP Comprehensive in Colorado, or NLP Academy in Brighton (as I also did), or Richard Bandler in Florida, it could be worth having a look at. You can download it here.

Remember that Judith is coming to Shanghai to deliver a Master Practitioner training in June. Of course, if you’re interested, let me know.

There are three basic levels of NLP training.

The first basic level of training is “Practitioner”. An NLP Practitioner will typically have been exposed to between 7 and 18 days of NLP training, focused on learning the fundamental patterns, techniques and attitudes.

The second basic level is “Master Practitioner”. Building on the Practitioner, Master Practitioner usually involves an extra 6-18 days of training. Sometimes this is focused on learning additional “advanced” patterns, while other trainers will focus Master Practitioner on Modeling.

The third basic level is “Trainer”. NLP Trainers Trainings are usually conducted over about three weeks, and is less focused on improving “NLP skills” and more focused on how to present NLP material.

In a sense, the fourth level would be the Graduate Certificate of NLP. The GradCertNLP is government accredited as equivalent to a third of a Masters degree and so there is a much higher standard of quality control. This incorporates Practitioner and Master Practitioner trainings into a 40-day period of training. To me, the Graduate Certificate of NLP sounds great, though it is still very new… Nobody in China has completed this level of training yet.

Some NLP trainers call themselves “Master Trainers”. The term was first coined by Richard Bandler when he and John Grinder split up, some might say as a way to position some trainers as “better” (others might suggest to ‘recognize seniority or skill’). There are a few other fancy titles floating around too.

Now: Not all trainings are equal.

There are different lengths of training, different styles of training and vastly different content. In general:

• A longer training will be better.
  You’ll learn more, experience greater personal shifts and develop better skills.
• A smaller group of participants will be better.
  You’ll get more attention from the trainer, your peers will help you more since they’ll know you better, and the training can move along faster.
• A more highly trained trainer is better.
  There is so much more to being the right NLP Trainer for you than just whether the person is calling themselves one. How many days have they spent learning and growing in the past year? How are they applying their skills? What are they best at?

There are also different streams of NLP. There is the “Robert Dilts/NLPU” and “Richard Bandler” and “ABNLP/Tad James” or “Tony Robbins” and even a few with “John Grinder/New Code”. And more spin off and brand themselves each year. Some trainers will be stuck in one ‘way’ while others will have explored a number of streams in depth and be focused on communicating their own or a combination.

Perhaps the biggest difference between my NLP training and my time at university is that you can keep redoing your NLP training. The best practitioners and trainers that I have seen are those that have jumped back into the arena and remained perpetual students, never getting too attached to what they know to learn something new. So wherever you are at now, I hope that you can start moving towards where you want to be in NLP.

Since founded by Mark Julien, China NLP brings together a community of individuals interested in exploring and developing their NLP skills. Our speakers and trainers volunteer their time to share their ideas and insights. We look to cover a wide range of subjects across the NLP domain without attachment to any particular school of thought.

In a session, we might have someone who trained with NLP University (Robert Dilts), another who trained with Tad James, a Richard Bandler-trained Executive Coach, and others who have taken their NLP training with local training companies. We welcome and value everyone.

And if you would like to contribute something to China NLP, please do contact us…

If you’re interested in coming and haven’t already, please just let me know so we can prepare accordingly. It will be a great evening.

Four of us from Shanghai have spent the past few days with Robert Dilts here in Guangzhou. I’m looking forward to bringing those insights and ideas back with us to Shanghai.

Mario is one of my oldest friends in Shanghai and I’m delighted that he can join us.

Here is a flyer about the event that Mario is putting on just a few days later. It will give you some idea of what Mario will be sharing with us on the evening of the 15th.

More details

• Saturday 15 November, 6:00 for 6:30pm
• At 949 Yan An Xi Lu just off the Jiangsu Lu junction. This is a convenient 5-minute walk from Jiangsu Lu subway station on line 2.

Please do let us know if you’re coming. Once again, Jeff Tan’s REV is generously supporting China NLP with this special venue, though space is very limited.

Looking forward to seeing you there for a very special evening!
Dan

Hypnosis is a different experience for everybody, and we greatly appreciated the 25 or so of you who contributed your thoughts and insights.

Coming up: Emmanuel Mercado on Suggestion and something special from John Lee, both after the National Holiday.

We know of a few trainings coming up towards the end of the year – Jeff Tan’s looking to run another NLP Practitioner and possibly a Master Practitioner, Robert Dilts is coming to China for six-days with a training on Genius, and a few other things are on. If you have something special coming up, do let us know.

“Modeling” is the process of taking a complex event or series of events and breaking it into small enough chunks that it can be repeated in a manageable way. These pieces can be organized into step-by-step strategies or programs that anyone can learn. Through NLP, for example, the thinking processes of geniuses such as Albert Einstein. Walt Disney, Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Aristotle and others can be generalized and applied to health. Educates and organizational dynamics.

Robert has studied the mental processes used by highly creative people from many different fields. On the basis of this research, he has put together explicit maps of these processes and their applications which allow people to more fully develop their senses and mental capacities, achieve and retrigger states of creative excellence, use and direct unconscious processes, overcome blocks and resistance to creativity, and deal effectively with criticism.

At his November workshop in Guangzhou and drawing from the books Tools for Dreamers and Strategies of Genius, Robert will demonstrate how NLP tools may be used to:

• Model effective thinking processes
• Internalize powerful creativity strategies
• Establish beliefs that support creativity and innovation
• Identify and reframe limiting beliefs related to creativity and innovation
• Manage multi-level problem solving interventions

The structure the course will allow students not only to learn the powerful and creative thinking strategies used by some of history’s most important geniuses, but also to learn the tools and technologies by which such strategies can be identified, mapped and applied.

As an NLP developer, trainer and author, Robert has studied the mental processes used by highly creative people from many different fields. His past books, such as Belief: Pathways to Health and Well-Being, Tools for Dreamers, and Effective Presumption Skills, explore practical strategies and techniques for improving health, creativity and public speaking. His most recent works, Strategies of Genius. Vole I, Ⅱ&Ⅲ, apply the tools of NLP to model the thinking processes of important historical figures, including Aristotle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Walt Disney, Mozart, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci and Nikola Tesla. These thinking processes have been put into practical and effective “strategies of genius” that may be easily learner and applied to many different contexts. Robert views his work on Strategies of Genius as part of a larger mission to extend the horizon of human capabilities and achievement.

A short bio of Robert B. Dilts

For more information about the course in Guangzhou, please contact us.