There has been some very good weather recently in Newcastle upon Tyne and like myself, I hope you have made and taken the opportunities to enjoy it while it lasts. While away enjoying this summer sun and balmy heat I have been out in the city centre.
And like any other day in Newcastle, I saw one or two street entertainers playing things from what looked like a cup with a rubber band, a one stringed guitar, a drum, a flute, you know, the usual mixture of good and bad. But one man playing an accordion really caught my eye.
During a pause from his playing, this very skilled, tanned and silver haired accordion player started to fumble in his pocket and pulled out a very new looking iPhone. With fingers seemingly as dexterous on his iPhone as his accordion, he looked to be checking email or texts or perhaps just surfing the web.
So how come I noticed his iPhone? Meta Programs.
Some people say meta programs can be described as the generalised repetitive patterns of thought, perception and behaviour that people seem to have. Another way to describe meta programs is where you focus your attention.
Please, these patterns are mostly unconscious, unless you know about them. You see, if you have completed an NLP Practitioner you will already know quite a bit about meta programs … but just in case you yet don’t, let me share a short example …
One of my friends, I remember like it was just yesterday, once told me he had started dating someone and the first time he went to her house he was in the kitchen. Looking around the kitchen out of all the things he saw there he noticed a cup. Now this cup was the same as one his ex-partner has.
Out of everything there to be see in the kitchen his focus of attention noticed the one thing that was similar. This perception of noticing ‘sameness’ is called in meta program language ‘Sort for Similarity’. He then, not his best move, continued to tell his new girlfriend his new discovery.
One thing to understand about meta programs is that they are neither good not bad in and of themselves, they are simply repetitive patterns of thought and behaviour. So sorting for similarity will be valuable in some context and sorting for difference will be valuable in some context.
For example, sometimes, some specific meta program(s) may be responsible for a person having a string of failed relationships, they pick the same kind of partner and they have the same kind of experiences which massively contribute to an unhappy and then terminal relationship.
Perhaps in such cases noticing what is different in a fairly specific way could … and I stress could … clear the way for a much healthier more loving and mutually supportive relationships.
This is about not only recognising the language and behaviour of other and ourselves but even more so about being able to change our language and behaviour to ethically realise more of our desires and dreams. To be able to change meta programs for positive applications and purpose.
I don’t want you to take my word for this, just simply consider the possibility that, it is possible to alter, change and influence our own meta programs depending on what we want to achieve or even what someone else wants to achieve.
I am sure you are aware and now getting the bigger picture that the unconscious meta programs you run are to a large extent your patterns that determine your successes and failures in life.
All right, now, so how useful do you believe it is to coaches, therapists, personal developers and any one in the business of change to have a really deep understanding of the application of meta programs?
Our Newcastle NLP Master Practitioner explores and unpacks meta programs in terms of language and behaviour patterns in even deeper and more sophisticated ways than our NLP Practitioner training covers.
And here is an additional invite for NLP Practitioner and NLP Master Practitioners, re-read this article and look out for all of the meta programs. Notice anything you find yourself agreeing with and the ideas and concepts that see to appeal to you but also look out for things that you don’t agree with or sentences that do not entirely grip you.
Our NLP Newcastle based Practitioner and NLP Master Practitioner courses begin this coming September and if you already have an NLP qualification and wish to to it again for all the additional benefits you can for half the usual course price. Now which meta programs does this great offer appeal to?
And while the sun is still out and shining I want to finish my story, and you might be wondering, so how come I noticed this highly skilled accordion players iPhone? Well no mystery there, I have one too!
The weather forecast is suggesting that this coming week the UK will this week experience a week long heat wave. So if you are out walking practising noticing NLP Meta Programs in Newcastle upon Tyne, you might like to keep your eyes peeled to see not just accordion players but one with an iPhone.