My thought about “magic” changed back in 2010. I started believing in it.
It was a crisp afternoon in April 2010 when Mary gingerly raised her hand in a room full of around 30 of us.
“I believe I have a phobia,” she said.
“What kind?” our trainer probed.
“I am scared of heights. I cannot, just cannot imagine travelling by air. I have never gone trekking. Heck, I can’t even step into a balcony.”
Mary grew visibly uncomfortable. Pearls of sweat settled on her forehead. By now she was shaking with nervousness.
It seemed like Sharon Pearson, our trainer, had found her match. Over the next few minutes, she would “swoosh” her invisible wand and bust Mary’s acrophobia of 25 years, using NLP.
The challenge was to get Mary to take a photo at the building’s open terrace. Huge deal for her. So here’s what happened in a nutshell:
Before the phobia bust: Mary cannot imagine stepping up the stairs to the terrace. She gets nervous goosebumps just talking about it.
…Magic…
After the phobia bust: Mary has overcome her phobia successfully. She gets her photo clicked at the rooftop.
So how does someone get from here to there?
They say that if a man can do it, another can replicate it too. NLP, or Neuro Linguistic Programming, is based heavily on this principle. More formally known as “modelling”, it is one of the core pillars of NLP.
In short, if any task is done skilfully, it can be decoded and replicated by others.
But simply put, I liken NLP to the science of how people can achieve outstanding results. These people can be from diverse spectrum of fields – finance, communications, sales, customer service – you name it.
It’s equally important to acknowledge that NLP is not just effective professionally. There are numerous personal life instances that I have witnessed its success (Mary is one example) – personal change work, behavioural therapy, phobia busting, addiction relief, healing, confidence boost and many more.
How it All Began. . .
NLP was founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in early 70’s as a thesis project in California. The duo had one simple goal: To decode why certain people were excellent at what they did whereas others sucked. What set them apart? And how could the not-so-smart ones replicate the results, if at all?
They studied three key people who were successful at what they did. Studying their behavioural patterns, Bandler and Grinder found that, although pretty different in personalities, these three pioneers shared some striking similarities in the form of language patterns, submodalities, eye-scanning patterns, reframes to name a few.
And that was only the beginning.
Today . . .
Today, NLP is used in a myriad of fields such as hypnosis, healing, personal change work, sport, life coaching, business coaching and sales training. It’s also taken a spiritual detour, with learners combining it to connect with the divine. Some are using it in hospitals to reduce the need to induce anaesthesia. Others use it to become better parents, fight stage fright or cure allergies. What’s more, you can even use it to pick up women in clubs.
The application of NLP means that any desired state can be invoked upon will. There are many conscious (and unconscious) strategies that help achieve peak performance.
The Future. . .
In future, NLP will continue to be used in the areas above, and more to come. It won’t be surprising to see NLP being applied in more day-to-day areas.
Meta Dynamics™ is the “ultimate thinking model for solving problems and determining future directions”.
For many of us, we believe that the best way to help us change the way we think is to tell ourselves repeatedly, to think a different way. The idea isn’t new. In fact, it’s very, very old.
But choosing a mantra isn’t enough, it is important to learn new ways to do things, even little changes will give you a whole new perspective. By changing or breaking even small routines, your brain will be exposed to new stimuli and will create new neural pathways to accommodate these changes.
Meta Dynamics™ is about getting to the heart of the problem. One of the biggest challenges that professional coaches face in the industry is reaching a bottleneck and getting stuck with their clients. Instead of looping around clients’ issues not knowing how to get to the heart of the problem, Meta Dynamics™ shows them exactly how.
Here are the key differences between traditional NLP and Meta Dynamics™:
1. NLP focuses on the present and short-term change, whereas Meta Dynamics™ focuses on the entire timeline. Meta Dynamics™ coaches integrate the past, present and future for cohesive, lasting, meaningful change.
2. Meta Dynamics™ does not seek to stand against traditional coaching or NLP. Rather, it seeks to integrate, distill and adapt the most effective tools and strategies, which in turn evolve and give rise to its own original models and methodologies.
3. Meta Dynamics™ has its own research-based coaching models and methodology including Critical Alignment Model, which is the foundation of the Meta Dynamics™ Profiling Tool, which is empirically supported through an Alpha and Beta releases with sample size of 500+ and 2000+ respectively.
4. Over 400+ traits were tested and analysed through for relevance and correlation to the Critical Alignment Model dimensions and proposed behavioural and thinking patterns; distilling it down to 4 categories, 16 dimensions, and 64 traits.
5. The results and relevance of the Meta Dynamics™ Profiling Tool are cross-referenced and cross-examined with major psychometric models including: Big 5 Personality Traits, HEXACO, NEO Personality Inventory, MBTI, DISC, EQSQ, and more.
Meta Dynamics™ now is in its first decade as a field of study symbolising the relationship between the brain, body and language.
It has evolved over the years and we’re heading toward a new direction, with more areas adopting it and making its best use to achieve extraordinary results, by not only communicating better with others, but also gain more control on what we thought was an automatic function of our neurology.
The one thing that really excites me is the application of Meta Dynamics™ in schools. Several Meta Dynamics™ coaches are now bringing Meta Dynamics™ into schools in their own way, one name that comes to mind is Kristy Ambrose in Western Australia who is focused on helping schools deliver better education and overall environment that nurtures the all-rounded development of the students.
The sad reality until now was that we left it up to the students to figure out how to learn. When in reality, a large number of these learning strategies that inexperienced students come up with are inefficient/ineffective.
And when the push comes to shove, many of these students take it upon themselves and assume something is wrong with them. The truth however is they don’t know any better and expect different results.
And when that doesn’t work, they devalue learning, the school and eventually, the whole education system. Coaching intervention can help here. Teachers can be equipped and coached with Meta Dynamics™ strategies not just for regular students but also for those with special needs, learning disabilities, dyslexia, ADD to name a few.
To learn more about the methodology behind Meta Dynamics™ and its application, click here.
You will learn how Meta Dynamics™ provides you with a structure to facilitate transformational thinking. This is particularly effective in applying to your own thinking (when you wish to achieve your own personal goals) OR when assisting others.
One area in which the application has become increasingly popular is life coaching.
Applying the Meta Dynamics™ provides coaches with a blueprint to helping individuals and groups achieve their goals – guaranteeing amazing results!
To learn more about the methodology behind Meta Dynamics™ and its application, click here.
