Beliefs on Which NLP is Based

“Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.” – Unknown

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) was founded on a core set of beliefs. NLP was originally used to model excellence, so the beliefs reflect patterns of excellence that show up in people at their best.

In Brilliant Nlp: What the Most Successful People Know, Say & Do, David Molden and Pat Hutchinson write about the core beliefs NLP is based on.

Key Take Aways
Here are my key take aways:

• Positive action over positive thinking. NLP is more than just positive thinking. It’s about taking action and producing results.
• Communication with yourself and others. NLP focuses heavily on language and communication to produce results for yourself and with others.
• Thoughts, feelings, and actions. NLP is holistic in that it combines thinking, feeling and doing. To change results, you change behavior. To change behavior, you change your feelings and thoughts.
• Individual, interpersonal, and systems excellence. While NLP is a framework for self-development, it’s also very focused on improving interpersonal skills and improving results in a system.
• Expediting results and duplicating success. NLP is about spreading success and speeding up results.
• "What works" is the guiding force. NLP is largely about modeling and tuning results. From that perspective, it’s more about applied use than theory. The theories aren’t in stone. Instead, they are a backdrop and a means to an end. Results are king.

Core NLP Beliefs
Molden and Hutchinson write about the beliefs behind NLP:

• The map is not the territory.
• Respect each other’s maps of the world.
• The meaning of your communication is the response you get.
• If it’s possible for one person, it’s possible for others.
• There is no failure, only feedback.
• Mind and body are part of the same system.
• Every behavior has a positive intention.
• The person with the most flexibility will control the system.
• If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always had.
• Your behavior is not who you are.
• Your perception is your reality.
• You are in charge of your mind, and therefore your results.
• Resistance is a sign of a lack of rapport.
• You cannot not communicate.
• You have all the resources you need to change.

My Related Posts

• Meta-Programs and Intrincis Values in NLP
• Satir Categories
• Generalization, Deletion, and Distortion

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