Why learn NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming?

Pegasus NLP Mind-Body Health Site

The practical applications of NLP in your life

Updated 06 September 2008

Why learn NLP?

People learn NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming because...

It is provides personal development tools that are more effective than most other self improvement approaches
It provides some of the most valuable and powerful career-development tools around
It enables them to become truly effective and influential communicators
A thorough training in NLP shows... In how they think and in how they present their ideas

I will happily declare an interest/bias here, too. This is not an objective evaluation of the benefits of NLP. I'm too close to the subject. I have been using NLP for almost two decades, and am even more enthusiastic about its potential now than when I first came across it.

But then objectivity is not really what NLP is about. It is, after all 'the study of subjective experience'. It is a way of understanding how each of us experiences life. Of understanding ourselves and others in a deeper way. And it's a whole lot of other things as well.

NLP is what you make it

If you use NLP to enhance your spiritual awareness then that is NLP - for you. The same applies if you use it

as part of a therapeutic process
to ethically or unethically sell something
to grow your business or develop your managerial abilities
to seduce people
to empower people with whom you live or work
to improve your sporting results
to train soldiers to fire guns or missiles
to con people out of their money
to improve your results as an educator
to contribute to your community
to become better friends with yourself - or others

Whatever you use it for and however you use it determines what, exactly NLP means for you and what you get out of it.

NLP is a bit like electricity

The inventor of electricity had no idea of how the invention would transform the world. Nor did its early developers. And it would not be easy to describe 'electricity' comprehensively and accurately to someone who had never encountered it.

Do you describe it in terms of how it originated? Or what produces it? Or what one can do with it (provide power for lighting, electric chairs, heart monitors in hospitals, etc.)? Or do you try to find concrete analogies to get across the abstract idea of electricity?

And yet NLP is not like electricity

Because wherever electricity comes from, wherever you encounter it, however it is produced it is still measurably 'electricity'.

But how one person, with a particular training background, with a particular set of beliefs and values, and with a particular set of objective uses NLP it is likely to distinctly different from how it would be used by someone else. There will be similarities in how they go about things but neither is 'doing NLP' - they are using NLP to enhance how they do what they do.

Should I learn NLP?

As I said at the beginning I am not objective in this - but I would heartily recommend that you embark on the journey of getting to know yourself and others better through becoming skilled in NLP.

1. First of all, remember that you cannot learn NLP from books - anymore than you can learn to swim or drive a car from a book or video or audio tape. NLP is not an intellectual thing. It's behavioural - it is about what you do, not about what you know. So you need to learn it from skilled trainers.

I'd recommend that you embark on this journey in slow stages. First of all do not put all of your eggs in one basket - or invest all of your money/time in one 'brand' of NLP, or one trainer or training organisation. Try a few out for size - in one or two-day workshops, spread over a few months.

I suggest that you carefully compare the training organisations, based on your experience with them and on what others have experienced. When you have found a set-up that appeals to you do a full-syllabus, full-length NLP Practitioner training. (See notes on the NLP Certification page, too).

2. Take enough time to become skilled in what you learn rather than trying to rush through as many trainings as possible. Lots of people try the latter route - sometimes doing Practitioner, Master Practitioner and Trainer trainings in a few months and then going out to teach others. (Yes, I have come across this - a couple of times!)

This is unfair to themselves because it will take them years to get around to savouring the true value of the basic material. And it is particularly unfair to others. You cannot really impart the true value of NLP unless you know, and have had extensive practical hands-on experience of using, all of its elements.

So after your first formal Practitioner training take at least six months and preferably longer to 'wire in' your skill, using the stuff all the time. When you have done this and have built up a neurological 'database' of experiences you will be in a position to fully benefit from doing a Master Practitioner Training. Then your NLP skills will really begin to fly!

But, can't I do it quicker???

Yes, of course you can. And there are lots of people out there to relieve you of the hefty training fees. However I recommend that you make haste slowly. If NLP were an intellectual discipline like many of the subjects you encountered at school and college it might make sense to rush through it as fast as you could intellectually grasp the concepts.

But with NLP this approach to learning does not apply. You really do need time to 'wire it in' behaviourally in order to become highly skilled.

So, if I do learn it, what then?

Then the world is your oyster!

Especially your inner world - and the world you share with those close to you. And, of course, you'll be able to do whatever you now do well - even better. And there are many other applications.

I don't want to be an NLP 'expert'

Most people don't. They want to make specific changes in their lives such as managing stress better, becoming more skilful in their career, enjoying their sporting activity more, and so on.

So look around for 'application workshops' to assist you in your particular goal. But beware - it can be a bit contagious. Many people, including myself, started out this way only to become so enthusiastic about the potential of the subject that they got hooked, wonderfully!

Information about NLP

NLP Courses in the New Forest

What is NLP + NLP FAQ

Why learn NLP

How to learn NLP

Where to learn NLP and how to choose a training provider

The NLP Practitioner Certification Programme

The NLP Master Practitioner Certification Programme

Features of Pegasus NLP Trainings

How we integrate NLP with outdoor activities

The Pegasus NLP Principles

Our main NLP section has now been re-located to http://www.nlp-now.co.uk - you will find more up-to-date information there.

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