practical nlp applications & ideas
There’s a lot of rubble to get rid of so I ordered a skip from the local company. We’d used them many times before but this time they said they wouldn’t be able to negotiate the narrow corner because their new lorry was higher and wider and a huge branch was in the way. The Arboriculture Officer from the local council gave permission for the branch to be removed as long as it was done by a tree surgeon.
I’ve never had to contact a tree surgeon before but a quick scan on the Internet, Yellow Pages, and the local newspaper this afternoon showed that there were many such people available. I contacted a friend who recommended one and he is coming along tomorrow morning.
Now the interesting thing was that I then went down town and in the space of about 20 minutes saw no fewer than three vehicles with “tree surgeon” signs on them!
More than I’ve probably noticed in the past year…
And I’m probably destined to be seeing tree surgeon vehicles for the next few weeks – now that I’m tuned into this topic! In NLP terms I have set my mental or perceptual filters to notice them.
It’s the same pattern of mentally filtering to tune in to certain things that we use to get angry – when we begin paying attention to and totting up all the little things which irritate us about our partner, family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances etc. Totting them up to the point where we get well and truly angry – and then the least little thing can produce an explosive response.
It’s the same pattern which operates when we’re in the first heady flush of love and go around noticing how wonderful life is and how nice people and how beautiful is the sky and so on.
Or have a bout of poor health and begin noticing how much illness and pain and disease there is all around us.
Or begin househunting and notice “to let” or “for sale” all over the place.
Usually we set these filters, or in NLP-speak “meta-programmes”, automatically or unconsciously – they just seem to happen – and they carry on, in the background creating or emphasising our moods. And sometimes they happen when we allow the media to set the filters for us – as for example when we go along with whatever is the current flavour-of-the-week for the mass media.
Here is the UK a recent hot topic for the media was The World Economic Recession which was/is going to ruin us all. The it changed to The Knife Crime Epidemic which was/is making our streets unsafe for everyone. Right now, and for a few more days, it’s untypically a good-news topic i.e. the UK Gold Success at the Olympics.
So what? Well, for me, it’s a matter of noticing what I’m paying attention to and how this is influencing my attitude – of noticing whether I’m gathering evidence to feel good or to feel bad! And changing this filtering process if it’s not taking my mood/attitude in the direction that I’d like.
Oh, and remaining aware that journalists have a living to make and deadlines to meet and that bad news is good business for them.
