Why learn NLP?

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

It enables people to communicate more effectively and influentially
It provides personal development methods which are among the most effective around
It provides some excellent career-development tools around
it enables people to think more clearly and incisively - and act more congruently and effectively

Now this article doesn’t claim to be an objective evaluation of NLP. Having used it in my work and my life for over 30 years I'm probably not an objective commentator!

But then objectivity is not really what NLP is about. The NLP byline states that it is ‘the study of subjective experience'. It is a way of understanding how each of us experiences life - a way of understanding ourselves and others more thoroughly. And it's a whole lot of other things as well.

Rather 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 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 consider learning 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.

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.