Imagine if you could achieve anything you desired simply by changing the way you speak to yourself?

At a glance

Estimated reading time: 3-4 mins

Style: Simplified technical

Why? Because we need to learn how to use our mind more efficiently

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The Language of Your Mind

I would like to introduce to you a critically important subject that underlies self-investment and improvement, that is, Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP for short– whenever I say Neuro Linguistic Programming people’s brains just overload and explode – so I will spare your brain and explain that NLP is basically an approach to “hacking” or “upgrading” our brains so that we can do achieve whatever we want.

From a technical point of view NLP is the science of excellence, breaking down the processes that makes one person successful then replicating or modelling it for another person. It’s actually simpler than it sounds so don’t worry.

Breaking it down

Let’s look at what each word means:

• Neuro: meaning “of the brain”
• Linguistic: meaning “relating to the study of language”, and
• Programming: Is the process of achieving an outcome

Now put it together and we roughly get the study of the language of the brain that allows us to achieve outcomes.

Let’s use some examples to highlight how NLP shapes our lives.

One useful way to think about NLP is the concept that if one person can do it you can do it. I mean most of us (99%) are all born with a fully functional brain and a healthy body so what’s really stopping us from all becoming successful in our endeavors?

Of course there are other factors such as genetics, upbringing, and luck however in the end it all boils down to one thing – learning to communicate with your brain effectively.

What?! Aren’t I already communicating with my brain effectively?

Yes and no, but for most of us it’s a big NO!

A common way to highlight how poorly our language is structured is to ask someone to “don’t think” about something. E.g. don’t think about an angry giant blue chicken stepping on a fat kid – if you’re like most of the population, your brain has already processed the image of an angry giant blue chicken stepping on a fat kid (poor fat kid indeed) without much resistance!

Why does this happen?

The brain is wired in a way that it has to process the words into images (and emotions) before it can process the actual command (i.e. “don’t think”).

Practically speaking, think about all the times we tell ourselves and others to “don’t” do something, i.e. don’t forget, don’t fall, don’t hit me etc. I’m sure there have been times you tell someone to “don’t” do something however they do it anyway (“don’t buy me a present”, sound familiar?).

Although most us know ‘consciously’ NOT to do it, our ‘subconscious’ does not hear "the “don’t” part, that’s because the ‘subconscious’ only understands the world in images and emotions - nothing else!

A quick word on the Subconscious Mind

For the simplicity, I'll refer to both the subconscious mind and unconscious mind as the "subconscious mind".

Think of the subconscious mind as the hard disk in which your whole life is stored on, and everything you ever learned in life is stored as programs (or files) in this massive hard disk. These programs literally drive all our behavior and hence the results we achieve in life. For a better understanding of this analogy you can check out my article on the subconscious mind

Reprogramming the Mind

The root of NLP is in its ability to “reprogram” or “optimize” the programs stored in the subconscious.

This is where NLP attempts to close the gap between regular people and successful people. So that practically anyone can accomplish anything by changing the way they communicate to their own mind. This communication essentially "reprograms" the mind based on successful individuals whom have achieved excellence in a particular outcome.

As you can imagine, the very thought of reprogramming your own mind and the mind of others is literally mind blowing. Its application pervades every single aspect of our lives and its power to transform our lives is unlimited.

It is a valuable skill-set that is definitely worth learning.

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This of course is a very brief introduction to one of the most expansive field of psychology. If you have not yet grasped the concept that's completely fine, I will be touching on NLP progressively to give you a better understanding. There will also be plenty of practical applications to help you hack your brain and optimize the results in your life.

Happy Reprogramming~