NLP the New Technology of Achievement

First, let me set the frame for this review.NLP has many different definitions offered by its senior authorities (a story unto itself, this book offers five), but the most common one seems to be "NLP models excellence". This is unhelpful, as any discipline that seeks to teach itself is modeling its own excellence, especially those that offer mentoring such as apprenticeships (e.g; plumbing, electrical), articling (e.g; law) or internships (e.g; medicine).After reading and re-reading a few NLP books (including this one), and taking three courses, I offer my own definition of NLP:A toolbox of disparate mental techniques intended to:1) help the learner get closer to becoming a self-actualized person2) help the learner optimize communication and connection with othersImportant caveats:a) Some of these techniques work very well, some are OK and some are uselessb) NLP has its own jargon, often consisting of i) ambiguous metaphors and aphorisms ii) common words redefined as NLP concepts, which impedes learning, especially self-directed learningc) The toolbox is always growing and always incompleted) A lot of NLP techniques are adopted from other disciplines, begging the question: "Shouldn't I just go to the original source and learn these techniques?"e) Mastering all these techniques demands a lot of time, energy and moneyNow that that's said.......This book is really rooted in that all-too-American secular religion, the self-improvement movement, and takes many tools out of the toolbox to guide the student to become more confident, a better communicator, build rapport with greater ease and effectiveness, overcome phobias, learn how to better understand others and complex situations, and so on.Going by the title of the book, someone starting out in NLP might buy this to understand the codification of the theory of NLP. I don't think any book can do this, at this stage of the evolution of NLP. This is really a self-help book. Its greatest strength is the exercises.The text is organized in the progressive step-wise fashion of self-help books, starting with motivating the reader, then establishing a personal mission statement and set of goals for the reader (just like a good business would) in the first five chapters. The last seven chapters address self-improvement in the fields of rapport-building, anxiety/phobia control, self-confidence, self-esteem and attitude. Each chapter contains exercises of a self-affirmation-style to achieve these ends.A twenty-one day program of exercises is outlined at the end. These are different from those in the text but organized in a similar progressive fashion: Week 1 Going for Your Goals, Week 2 Persuasive Communication, Week 3 The Peak Performance ProgramEach chapter supports its exercises by explaining its purpose and methodology in an avuncular fashion. NLP methods are often not formally declared as such, but are introduced subtly as the authors espouse their philosophy, state their specific goals for the reader and instruct the reader on performing the exercises, which use NLP mental techniques.This works well when NLP jargon is eschewed and the text is clear. The book is at its weakest when it falls into using jargon. As an example the NLP "presuppositions" are virtually all ambiguous and open to interpretation and even challenge.The book works best when the exercises are employed to correct personal deficiencies and optimize performance, especially in interpersonal situations. The reader does not have to even understand NLP to reap the benefits of this approach. NLP self-help should: 1) help the high-performer break through to the next level and 2) be an efficacious adjunct to appropriate psychotherapy and/or psychotropic medications for adults suffering from some forms of psychological infirmity.As I mentioned, this is a self-help book but....As an additional caveat, when an individual feels stuck by some vague and undiagnosed psychological barrier that results in negative attitudes and/or unproductive/destructive behaviours, a thorough psychological/psychiatric assessment by a competent mental health expert(s) should come first, ideally. As examples, ADHD, bipolar disorder, Asperger's syndrome, depression and anxiety all have fairly high prevalence rates amongst the adult population, may be very subtle and undiagnosed, and respond best to a combination of specific medications, tailored psychotherapy and self-help exercises such as described in Andreas's and Faulkner's book.Another similar text is "Get the Life You Want" (2008) by Richard Bandler

This was surprisingly good. I am not a huge fan of NLP.A lot of it consists of discredited waffle on linguistic theory and pseudoscience. The useful bit s are basically positive visualisations and I am not sure how original that is to NLP .The Co- founder of NLP, Richard Bandler has a very troublesome history and isn't exactly a good advert for it.Despite the embarrassing title, this book was much more modest than most books on this subject The two most useful techniques for me are "anchoring" and the "swish pattern". There are sections on goal setting which are useful, though again they are not exclusive to NLP.You could probably get most of the good stuff that this book contains on Wikipedia. The courses on NLP seems terrible value for money. They cost ridiculous amounts and tend to run by people who seem to offer very little evidence of their own achievements or those of the people who take the course.

This book contains lots of exercises to increase confidence and develop a positive attitude. But a note of caution. I've read many books over the years that claimed to be able to change lives for the better but I'm yet to find one that actually does - this one included! NLP may help some people but it will not help everyone. There are some apsects of the human personality that cannot be changed no matter what this or that author may say. It may be possible to reframe a negative, past experience in a more positive light; but if a dog bit you when you were five it's hard to reframe that as anything other than a horrible experience. It would have been helpful if this aspect of human experience had been dealt with more realistically - other than do the exercise again! If a new way of thinking/behaving is to be helpful it must be believable. And I found a lot in this book was not believable. My advice is to take from this book what helps and dispence with the rest - and there are some helpful bits. I enjoyed it as a bedtime read and I may even do some of the exercises. But as life is a combination of both good and bad experiences the key, in my view, is to approach life with caution!! There's an old saying: You reap what you sow - how true!!

I bought this book thinking that there was some secret "neural" or "linguistic" programming (like a certain set of instructions) I could follow to gain some sort of advantage in life, and what I got was just a lot of the same self-help stuff that seems to have been already covered by many others. The "technology" is really just learning how to think of things differently; particularly negative things that drag you down.There are also some ideas related to communications and establishing rapport with others that could come in handy.That said, precious little in this book struck me as being "new". And to add bewilderment to my dissappointment there were also two particularly logic defying ideas that form the foundation of this "technology".First, "Every behavior is useful in some context". Hmmm, this was written in 1994. Did having a bunch of fanatics fly airliners into the World Trade Center maybe cause this presupposition to come into question?Second, "If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it."That's right. One person figured out that mass equals energy times the speed of light squared, and so anyone could learn to figure out the profound principles that govern our universe. If one person can design a microprocessor chip, anyone can learn to. If one person can compose a recording like "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts" or "Pet Sounds", then anyone can learn to. If one person can carve a statue of David out of marble (who did that again?), anyone can learn to!I could be a nuclear physicist, a computer engineering genious, a classical music composer, an opera star, a nobel prize winning economist --you name it -- simply because someone else did! Brilliant.Well, I gotta cut this short because today I'm writing a bestselling novel, recording the next great love song, and designing an ion-propulsion engine for space travel. After all, one person has done those things. I can learn to do them too.Seriously, I gave this book two stars instead of one because if the reader has geniunely never been introduced to some of the thought pattern changing techniques in this book, then he or she could actually benefit from reading it. I could probably stand a little more "inner alignment" myself.

This book by Nightingale-Conant is a decent intro to the discipline of NLP. Beginning with an introduction to NLP, and progressing through an understanding of relationships, self-awareness, self-improvement and peak performance, the authors do a decent job of introducting the reder to a complex psychological science, while providing numerous exercises and examples to follow to learn and implement NLP elements in your life.The book capstones with a 21 day NLP immersion - leading the reader step by step through a 3 week plan to improve and implement NLP principles, while also learning about their tendancies (move to or away from, values, motivators) and their desires.As an intro book, this is probably one of the better ones out there on NLP. There is much to learn and digest in the science of NLP, and a good intro will go a long way to demythologizing the practice and making it approachable. Like most Nightingale-Conant products, this does that at probably the right level for the average reader, and will likely prove to be a catalyst to learning more.