Motivation and NLP
Overcome Procrastination with NLP
Two NLP Exercises to Overcome Procrastination
“Our biggest limit is not in what we want and cannot do; it is in what we have never considered that we can do.” – Richard Bandler
Do you ever procrastinate about a particular task or situation? If you’re like 95% of the population, you probably said yes. We all struggle at times with lack of motivation to even do the things we want to do. To understand more about why you might be procrastinating and to learn several ideas that could help you, please see my other post: 16 Ways to Overcome Procrastination Now
In this post, I’ll be sharing two similar yet different Neuro-Linguistic Programming exercises for anyone struggling to have the motivation to do even what you know is in your best interest. Others have found them useful and hopefully you will too.
People (you included) are excellent thinkers, expert sorters and brilliant managers of information. Our minds are always operating the best way they currently know how. We think we’re familiar with our brains and know pretty well what we are and aren’t capable of. In reality, we often severely underestimate ourselves.
If you’re already getting the results in all areas of your life that you want, congratulations! You’ve already discovered your personal formula for how you best operate. If you aren’t finding the results you want in all areas, perhaps you may need an adjustment or two. That’s where Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP for short) can help.
NLP Defined
What is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, you ask? Well, you can think of it as a user’s manual for the brain.
NLP was created to give people more control over their mind and came about by studying how people actually change so that they can increase the choices available to them to then have the freedom to get the life they want.
Richard Bandler and John Grinder set out to better understand why certain high performers (particularly the most effective change agents at the time) excelled more than others and were so effective in producing change that was even considered miraculous in other people.
The answers produced NLP: the science of excellence…the art of change.
The term NLP itself refers to the whole mind–body connection.
Neuro – what we think in our minds and the impact of those thoughts.
Linguistic – our inner dialogue/ how we talk to ourselves and the meaning we attach to symbols and the effects created by these.
Programming – the filters or programs we use that determine what we pay attention to and affect how we respond.
NLP is famous for its fast fixes for phobias, long-held fears and anxieties, achieving high performance —and much more.
The goal of NLP coaching is essentially to assist clients to recognize their own current approach to their situation, to discover what works for them currently, to determine what they want to improve or change and to learn more effective ways to reach their goals. It’s about increasing your options in given situations which leads to even greater personal success and freedom.
Two NLP Exercises for Motivation
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got!
The message is clear: if what you’re doing isn’t working, do something different.
Now’s your chance. Do something different. Try one or both of the following exercises.
If you try one and it doesn’t quite produce the results you’re looking for yet, try the other. Play with them. Make any changes you want for it to feel right for you.
Exercise 1
When most people think about something and pull up a mental image of it, they have a sensation about where it is located in their view.
As you think about something that you procrastinate about, where is that thought located in relation to your body?
For example, if I close my eyes and try to create a mental picture of something right now that I don’t want to do, I see it to the right a little ways in front of me.
It can be anywhere. No one place is right or wrong. It’s just about recognizing where it is in relation to you. Is it to the right, left, up, down, close, far, in front of you, behind, etc.?
Go ahead and think about something specific that you are procrastinating about. Where is that mental picture located for you?
Again, any location is perfect.
Okay, clear the screen and the picture. Just let it disappear, or if need be,wipe it away so that your “screen” is blank.
Now think of something you are totally motivated about.
As you think about it, create a picture of it.
What is the location of that picture?
It’s most likely different from the first picture’s location.
Note where it is located, then clear this picture and the screen.
Now, recall the image of the situation you procrastinate about and quickly move it into the same spot as the thing you are totally motivated to do that you just imagined.
Do this quickly 5 times.
Notice what happens.
Do you feel an increase in motivation to do the task you’ve procrastinated? If not to the degree you want yet, keep trying. As with all things, the more we do it, the better it is.
Exercise 2
Review and practice this step-by-step process at a time when you’re alone and can get in touch with your feelings without being interrupted.
To get started, you’re going to create two mental images. The first image to make is of your favorite thing to do. Note: I’d say don’t choose sex or anything else that involves somebody else. Choose something that you might do on your own.
Whatever you choose is perfect for you as long as it’s something that you really enjoy doing.
Give yourself a moment to really remember the experience of that activity. Imagine yourself not just seeing the images, but experiencing it in first person like you’re starring in a movie of you actually enjoying the activity rather than in 3rd person and just watching yourself enjoying it. What do you see? Hear? Feel? Smell? Taste? Embrace the experience.
Once you’ve got it, put that image out in front of you a ways.
Next, imagine the task you’ve been putting off as a still picture and place it in the space between the image of what you want to be doing and you.
The image of what you don’t want to do can be whatever represents what you keep putting off – whether it’s seeing yourself doing the unpleasant task, just an image of a cluttered garage, a tax form or resume to be completed, the overgrown weeds in your yard, a pile of papers, a phone call that needs to be made—whatever it is. Just see the task itself.
Make sure the task is located between you and the thing you want to do.
Now, right in the center of your picture of the task you keep putting off, just open a little pinhole or window in the picture of the task so that you can see through the opening to the thing you want to do behind it.
Notice how the picture is brighter. You can see through it.
Open the pinhole or window a little bit so you can see that really good thing that you really enjoy. Keep opening it until you get the feeling of the really good activity and have an emotional connection to the thing you like to do.
As soon as you get that connection, hold on to that feeling and very slowly start closing that pinhole or window in the image of the unpleasant activity.
If the good feeling starts to go away, open the pinhole or window up again until the good feeling gets strong.
Do this process and then set it aside and ask yourself, “How do I feel now about that resume, cluttered garage, report, weeds, phone call, or whatever it is.
Do I feel any better about it? Am I more likely to do it?” If you don’t feel better, go back and try this process again.
This is a simple yet very powerful motivation process well worth practicing repeatedly so you can more easily accomplish whatever you want.
The strategy is based on the picture that’s behind the task. What will happen is your motivation will blast you through that unpleasant task by changing your relationship to it.
These techniques are a technology, not magic; so you should test them repeatedly.
As Albert Einstein said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
If what you’ve done isn’t working, why not try something new?
