How Do You Get Good at NLP? Practice!
Author
Damon Cart
Date
Oct 12, 2015
Tags
General tips
Content
Author
By Logan Christopher
It's interesting. NLP is taught the world over. And there are many great trainers, plus many not so great ones. Do you know what makes the difference? Well, there are probably a few different factors, but one of them certainly is PRACTICE.
I'm in the works on a book called How to Practice NLP. This idea of actually practicing the skills in NLP seems to be a missing component in a lot of training. Somehow the idea has been forgotten. And our aim at NLP-Gym is to bring it back.
This came about as a result of several things.
I began training with an NLP Trainer up in Medford, Oregon. I certainly gained some skills, but I felt like I could really "use" NLP after taking the Practitioner course at NLPU. I needed that structured learning and practice.
We had asked our trainers like Judy and Robert how to get better and they answered with one word, "PRACTICE".
At that point Damon and I got together, pretty much on a weekly basis to do exactly that. There was also quite a bit of solo practice on our parts.
The next year we took the Master Practitioner course. At that point we both new for sure this was something we wanted to achieve mastery in. We sat down together and mapped out ways to turn up our practice even further.
This in turn led to us starting workshops. The best way to learn something is to teach it, and we've found this to be very much true. Teaching workshops on the meta model, sleight of mouth, sub modalities, meta programs, sensory acuity and more has helped us to really integrate these skill sets.
And we've only just begun.
The feedback we've gotten from people is that we're very skilled and knowledgeable in NLP. Even more so than many people that have been doing NLP for ten or more years. I don't say this to brag, I say it to show what dedicated practice can do for you.
Its called a PRACTITIONER. The root of this word is in PRACTICE.
Yet I see so many people go through a course and think they now "own" the skills. A course gives you knowledge and some practice. But if you want to be really good you're going to have to put in a lot more practice. A LOT MORE!
You can't learn NLP by reading a book.
Basically, a Practitioner or Master Practitioner course should give you the knowledge and tools you then need to become good on your own. By itself its not sufficient. And if you think it is, or even are led by your teachers into thinking so, you're lying to yourself.
Its like in the martial arts. In some systems you get promoted just for time passing. Its called "time in rank". But this is wrong. Are you really better just because time has passed? I don't think so. You should be improving in your skills, but is that really the case? The truth is if you're not getting better, you're getting worse.
You see once you reach a certain point of competency, especially unconscious, unless you do certain things you won't get any better.
Does all of the driving you do make you a better driver? Probably not. Why? Because you're not focusing on becoming a better driver. Once a skill set gets to a certain level you need to increase the challenge to continue to improve. Not everyone does this. And if you don't you will not continue to improve.
Note the arrows from conscious to unconscious competence. Unless you keep going back you'll just stay in a comfort zone of performance.
That's how skill works.
Think about the early days of NLP. When it started there was the Meta Model and nothing else. So this was practiced over and over and over again. Can you imagine just using the meta model for one year? How good would you be at it then? Would you then know what a "lost performative" was just off the top of your head.
Then, in the early days of NLP, they came up with something new, like eye accessing cues, which was then drilled to the point of unconscious competency.
Today when you get training you get 40 years of knowledge packed into a couple weeks. Some even offer practitioner in just one week. To think you "know" it after that is delusional. Sorry, but its true.
This applies to NLP and to everything else.
In case you don't know,my "main business" is health and fitness. Far from just being about putting in the time, any form of movement involves skill.
Thus, I began in depth study and experimentation to find the best ways to practice. Not all practice is equal. There is more effective practice and less effective practice. Hopefully that is self evident to you.
Thus if we look at the "structure" of the more productive practice, we can then engineer that to happen. This is NLP modeling in action.
In future articles I'll share more details on how to practice properly. And stay tuned for the book…
Damon Cart
Author
Damon Cart is considered to be a natural talent by some of the best NLP trainers in the world. His approach to guiding and teaching students brings to their awareness that they've been doing NLP all of their lives without realizing it and he empowers them with skills and resources to thrive and reach their full potential. With the understanding of how Neuro Linguistic Programs create oneβs experience a person can then take charge of those programs and create the experience and the life they want. By taking this approach into his own rigorous, daily NLP practice Damon has been able to rapidly accelerate his progress in learning, coaching clients and teaching workshops.
