NLP “Potions” to get you in Motion!

I wonder what you’re motivated to do this week.

Maybe, there’s something that you want to do but you’re not motivated yet.

Today, I met with someone who is going to try to find two hours a day to meet her goal. Maybe she will and maybe she won’t. The problem is that people generally don’t complete their tries because they only plan to try!

Imagine how much more you can achieve with a dedicated amount of time each day…

The hours will add up and the impact can be amazing, can’t it?

This week, I’ve enjoyed watching magic in motion, on the run up to Halloween…

One of my clients has transformed her living room into a stylized haunted house. A neighbour has created webs for giant spiders and our fabulous friends in the States have staged a Halloween photo shoot to create the most magical mementos of Halloween in 2022.

So, how is it that it’s easier to find our motivation on some days that it is on others. And, if you’ve lost your motivation, how will you know where to look?

The word motivation is a nominalisation. The verb, to be motivated or to motivate, has been turned into a noun. Let’s face it, if motivation was a thing, we could fly to the supermarket and buy it by the cauldron full!

NLP metaprograms help us to understand our internal programs that run unconsciously. With regard to being motivated, it’s like the carrot and the stick. Sometime there’s a big shiny reward that we want to move towards [pleasure] and sometimes there’s something that we want to move away from [pain]. People who tend to move away from pain, may not move until things get really bad and people who find it easy to move towards the next shiny new goal, may not complete the mundane things that should also get done along the way.

NLP isn’t magic and NLP potions don’t really exist BUT NLP strategies for motivation can feel like magic, especially when there’s something you want to be motivated to do but you aren’t motivated yet.

John La Vale, president of the Society of NLP reminds us that in NLP [Neuro-Linguistic Programming], Linguistics is our middle name. And one of the strategies you can learn to be more motivated is called Modal Operators or Motivation Words to be even more precise.

Think of a small/insignificant goal you want to achieve, that you want to be motivated to do but you’re not just yet.

Now, notice what pictures you make in your mind’s eye when you say to yourself, “I’m going to try to…”, compared to when you say:

  • I wish I could…
  • I would like to…
  • I want to…
  • I need to…
  • I have to…
  • I must…
  • I will…
  • I am…

And notice which phrase produces the magic for you to be motivated to achieve it quickly and easily. And, now you have a compelling picture in your mind’s eye, you can do whatever it takes to make it even more desirable…

  • Turn the colours up
  • Make the picture big and bright
  • Float your mind into the picture and enjoy the journey…

And, having completed the activity in trance time, you can now be pleasantly surprised how much more easily you can achieve that goal in waking time because your brain doesn’t know the difference between real life and make believe and thinks it’s already completed the task in hand.

Kathleen La Valle, Mrs President of the Society of NLP and a renowned master trainer says tells a story about nominalisations like the word “motivation” …

A happy verb that used to be motivated to do all sorts of things until one day when a bad witch turned it into a rock, when it became stuck, until…

An NLP Programster can and released the spell, so that the rock could be motivated and achieve again!

This week, you may also want to recognise your metaprograms or unconscious programs. Notice when you’re moving towards [pleasure] and when you’re moving away [pain].

And, if you want to become an NLP Programster you can decide where to start your NLP Shine journey.

So, now you know one NLP strategy to be more motivated, please enjoy a Happy Halloween. You don’t have to create a haunted house photo shoot or create a stylized haunted house but if like me you want to enjoy magic in motion you may want to enjoy a trick or treat as you decide to explore whether to start you NLP Shine journey here.