Ever jump when something unexpected happened that jolted your awareness?

Maybe it was while you were lost in thought.

Or maybe it was when you were a child …day dreaming in class… when suddenly the teacher called on you to answer a question.

You completely didn’t hear it.

So a friend nudged you to “wake up”, while the other kids giggled.

As your awareness returned to the room, suddenly a sense of dread came over you - since you didn’t know what the teacher had asked!

You scanned the room looking for any clues.

Your friend whispers the wrong answer in your ear, which you then repeated like a parrot…

… only for the class to erupt in laughter.

Don’t worry - we’ve all been there.

Here’s the thing:

Everyday trances like the above are incredibly common.

People go their entire life lost in a pre-programmed trance without ever realising it.

Without ever knowing what their trance is.

Do you?

In NLP we say all behaviors are purposive or adaptive in some context.

When you step back and think about the implications of that, you get that every behavior has a function, it is in pursuit of.

Chunk up higher and you can identify a collection of purposes or adaptations all those behaviors are in service of.

Is knowing this stuff useful?

You bet it is!

When you can notice and track the meta-outcome a person is unconsciously pursuing, you have a very powerful tool to predict behavior and know how someone will respond.

Which makes change work quicker and easier.

Here is…

Ask yourself:

• What am I seeking?
• What are the things that I keep coming back to over and over again?
• Which activities and patterns of behaviour show up like clockwork again and again?

Use your phone to set a random alarm.

Then ask the following:

• What was I thinking?
• What am I seeking?
• How am I feeling?

Record your answers in a journal or on your phone. You’ll use these to gain an insight on yourself.

Do this for a few days so you have ample data to spot your pattern.

Once you have a few dozen entries chunk up a level to discover the pattern.

Look at each of the entries and ask:

• What is this behavior in pursuit of?
• What was I seeking by doing that?
• What are the collection of purposes pointing to?

Zero in on the most common unconscious patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour.

The patterns that you are not happy with the results they are producing in your life.

Choose to change them.

If you have experience with the Meta Model as we teach in Language Guru you can use it to quickly change unwanted behaviors.

In days ;-)

Change can be easy and pain free when you think on purpose.

Share this article: