Programming Is the Craft of NLP

It's no coincidence that Richard Bandler was a computer programmer at the time he coined the term "Neuro Linguistic Programming". By that time, he understood that our unconscious minds ran programs developed, compiled and executed in our neurology from a cumulation of our past experiences.

In Richard Bandler's and John Grinder's pursuit of understanding excellence, they came to realize that programs or strategies of healing or excellence in people ran all by themselves in people, even though they themselves did not know how those programs worked. Just like you and I can use computer programs to achieve our goals without ever having to see or understand the code running underneath those programs.

So if John and Richard could learn the code to those programs, they would be able to adapt and install those programs on the neurological operating systems of other people.

NLP Programs Address Three Questions

Would you buy a piece of software that did not do what you needed it to? Of course not? You want to make sure that the program satisfies your computing requirements, and does its job well.

In NLP neurological programs are no different. We want to make sure the programs work well in our real lives. So we start out by asking three questions:

• What do you want... exactly? What is your desired outcome?
• Where are you now? How exactly do you do the things that are not working now?
• What is the best, most effective, efficient, ecological and enjoyable way to get what you want, given your operating system? What other choices can we create for you now?

Based on the answers to these questions, NLP can design and build a program that can then be installed into one's neurology that allows a person to move through the world in the direction of those things that they really want to have, do, or be.

People Are Not Broken, Our Programs Are Outdated

If what we are doing is not working, NLP does not say the person is broken. NLP says instead that we need some new programs... programs that lead to better results. This is the work of NLP. We design, test, install and support new programs that work better in people, in their real lives. Sometimes our strategies need to be replaced. Other times, our strategies just need a bug fix or an upgrade. Sometimes we need to search for and destroy thought viruses that are interfering with the functioning of strategies that otherwise would work well.

And just like a programmer would approach the a computer system to decide what is needed before designing a new software program, a Neuro Linguistic Programmer would also approach the programs running in the neurology... or the conscious and unconscious mind.

This section deals with the major components of our neurological programs. Outcomes, Strategies and States.