Many people have heard of “positive thinking.” To some, this is nothing more than some kind of Pollyanna-ish view that everything is just peachy, no matter what happens. In fact, I knew this guy in college that was heavy into the positive thinking mindset. He always had something positive to say, what a great day […]
A Most Indispensable Skill
Trying to predict the behavior of others is always fraught with danger. But when you have an expectation of how somebody will behave, and they don’t? This can cause serious problems. Say you’re walking into a potential client’s office. You’ve got a big sales pitch planned. If you land a contract, it could be worth […]
The Danger Of Misplaced Meaning
Your brain is incredibly fast, but not very accurate. This was a crucial distinction made long ago. Instead of sitting there determining the precise probability you’d be eaten by a tiger, early humans developed a fast thinking brain instead of an accurate one. This kept us alive. Of course, sometimes we made mistakes. But better […]
Where Does NLP Come From?
Plenty of people think that politicians are “trained” in NLP and are using some kind of super secret wicked powerful manipulation to woo the voters. That’s how they get away with such ridiculous shenanigans that would quickly land you are I in the clink. But are they really using NLP? Yes, and no. See, NLP […]
Covertly Compounded Suggestions For Easy Persuasion and Influence
Here’s a quick language pattern to slip into your daily conversations whenever you want to “sneak” an idea into somebody’s head. Works like this: [what you want them to do] + [what you know they want to do] + [tag question] If you just say what you want them to do, they’ll likely have objections. […]
Change Meaning About Meaning For A Different Perspective
Most of us have emotions about emotions. And they work at lightening speed. Before we are even aware of it. For example, you’re flipping something in a frying pan, and you miss, and it lands on the floor. (This happened to me last night lol). First you get pissed. Then you get upset about being […]
Failure or Feedback?
One of the presuppositions, or basic beliefs, of NLP is that there is no failure, only feedback. Now, anytime somebody starts off a sentence with “there is…” or “there isn’t…” watch your back. After all, you could take any sentence that anybody says starting out with those two words and question them with “according to […]
The Metaphor Metaphor
Most people are surprised when they find out how much of our everyday language is filled with metaphors. To get a bit technical, words themselves are metaphors, for the ideas the words represent. Just like the story of the Tortoise and the Hare, one of the widely learned metaphors in human history, the word “dog” […]
What’s Meaning Mean Anyhow?
Long time ago I used to work in a research and development laboratory for a big biomedical company. We used to use all kinds of medical type supplies in our testing. One day, this girl came in with some extra PVC tubing. We used a lot of it, and she assumed we could use it, […]