The Presuppositions of NLP

The presuppositions of NLP are its central principles, its guiding philosophies if you will. These principles are never claimed to be true or universal they are there as guidelines to help work with NLP.

The presuppositions have been updated over the years and often changed so I have explained them in my own words and encourage you to reflect on them and decide on the meanings that work for you.

1 - The Map is not the Territory

People respond to the world according to their experiences and perspectives. Two

people will never see the same thing in the same way as we all have our view on

everything and everyone's opinion should be respected.

2 - Having a choice is better than not having a choice.

When people feel that they have no choice in what they do they feel trapped,

creating alternatives, even those we may not want to take gives us options and

may lead us to the freedom of an opportunity.

3 - People make the best choice they can at the time.

Whether they have one option or ten options, people will always choose the best

option that works for them according to their map of the world, their experiences

and their perspectives.

4 - People work perfectly.

Often quoted as "nobody is broken and nobody needs fixing" this states that people

are ok, but they have poor strategies for life or are carrying out those strategies

poorly.

5 - All actions have a purpose.

Every action we take, as human beings, has a purpose according to our map of the

world. The problem is we do not always know what the goal is, our unconscious is

always trying to achieve something, and in most cases, it's to survive or protect.

6 - Every behaviour has a positive intention.

One of the most challenged presuppositions in NLP states that every behaviour we

take has some form of positive intent. Much like number 5, this is usually to protect

us or help us survive at the basic of levels.

7 - The unconscious mind balances the conscious, it is in no way malicious.

Our unconscious and conscious mind are there to compliment each other, the

problem being that most people are not balanced between the two. For most

people, they go through their lives with their unconscious running the show.

8 - The meaning of communication is not only what you intended, but also the response you get.

It is the responsibility of the person communicating to portray their message so

that the other person understands adequately. It is also our responsibility to realise

that the response you get is purely feedback from your message.

9 - We already have all of the resources we need, or we can create them.

How often do you hear people say "I don't have enough time" or "I don't have

enough money"? The truth is that if we were in a life or death situation, we

could create any resource we needed to survive so we can do it in any case. There

are no non resourceful people, only non resourceful states of mind.

10 - Mind and body form a system, they are different expressions of the same person.

For centuries people believed that the mind and body were not one, that they were

split. Science has now disproved that so that we know there is an intrinsic

connection and everyone should be treated that way.

11 - We process all information through our senses.

No matter what we experience either externally or internally we process

everything through one of our five senses and turn that information into

language.

12 - Modelling successful performance leads to excellence.

For me, this is the heart of NLP, and I'll talk about it in great depth a bit later in the

course.

13 - If you want to understand, act.

This goes back to the Learning Circle and Kolb's model, to learn effectively we

have to take action, we have to engage and we have to practice what we have

learned so that it becomes a natural part of who we are. The learning is in the

doing.

14 - A final thought.

There is an often used phrase that was born in NLP that I'd like to address quickly.

"The is no such thing as failure, only results that you weren't expecting."

This I wholeheartedly agree with, and yet it should have the following on the end:

" There is also no such thing as success, only results that you hope for."

Success and failure are merely labels that we attach all too easily to people and our actions. When we stop thinking of them in terms of one or the other

then and we focus on the results we can learn to reflect and grow.