Category Archives: Well Formed Outcome

Hints and Tips for Surviving a tempory recession – HT Four

Hello again, Nigel Hetherington here

So far this series of hints and tips have explored, in a very general way, what is essentially your outlook and  response-ability for your future.

This article is about the process of beginning to plan your future.

Its about starting to do something, and doing it now…

I recall when I did my first NLP Practitioner the ‘Well Formed Outcome’ was presented as a full and complete process. This demonstrated a worrying naivety of practical application and so in reality nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the first part of creating your outcome. There are other parts that are absolutely essential  for successful completion and they will be explore in detail in future articles.

So, this part is about WHAT DO YOU WANT? And exploring this in great detail.

The well formed outcome as far as I understand comes from the creator of Gestalt Therapy Fritz Pearls. There are certain conditions that seem to be required, certainly from a cognitive perspective that make a goal, an outcome even a dream all the more likely to come to fruition. Think about this in terms of a self fulfilling prophesy.

This version of the process requires the following:

  • Knowing what you do want ( as oppose to what you dont ) – See HT3
  • Taking responsibility yourself to making it happen – See HT2
  • Managing your state and how you feel – See HT1
  • Having a full sensory experience of it ( what you see, smell, taste, feel and hear )

The following process, created and developed by my good friend Andy Hunt is the first step in exploring realistic and desired personal goals and outcomes.

It is all about imagining, pretending and trying out potential outcomes before you make any commitments to pursuing them. Its all done in the safety and infinite resources of your own mind and body.

I have used this process with individuals and companies alike to explore possible future outcomes. I stress this is NOT a complete process. It is a beginning, and what a great place to start.

OK. Lets get to the practicalities. This is an exercise that you simply must do.

Pick some outcomes you want to explore and use the following process created by Andy Hunt.

Compass Exercise

The following H&T articles will make use of your exploration of your own goals. In a nut shell. DO the exercise. Then do it again. This is about you, yes YOU, taking control.

Get it on!

best wishes and continuing success’s
nigel

How to get more of what you want with NLP

Our NLP training course in Newcastle upon Tyne has a great deal of emphasis on practical application. Its not about learning 20 processes in one week and having no real skill as to how to use them. Communicating Excellence and Integrity NLP practitioner courses give you the time to develop and integrate your NLP skills into your life.

Getting More of what you want with NLP

There are just two very simple parts of getting what you want using NLP’s well formed outcome. A full exploration of your outcome and then acting on the information. The full exploration is called a ‘well formed outcome’.

well formed outcome

Step 1

State what you want, your outcome in the positive. Then in your imagination, See / Feel / Hear / Taste and Smell – exactly what it will be like when you have got your outcome. You require a sensory description!

  • “I dont want to get angry” is not stated in the positive, so one way to turn this to the positive can be “I want to be calm”.
  • When I am calm “it will be good” is not a sensory description. When I am calm I will be seeing other people next to me, they will be treating me differently, specifically they are talking to me, asking me about my ideas, opinions. I can smell one lady’s perfume and notice the smell of coffee. I am in a cafe. I feel relaxed and my shoulders are particularly comfortable.

Step 2

Check the possible consequences

  • How will getting your outcome affect you, friends, family, others? You can think of this in terms of time, relationships, other commitments and any and all impacts your outcome will have on the relationships with these other people.
  • What will you gain, what will you lose and what will stay the same? You can think of this in terms of money, time, relationships…
  • How will you sort our potential difficulties? Think about it, what difficulties could arise? What problems are obvious what problems are hidden?
  • Where do you want this outcome, where do you not want this outcome? In which physical locations; not at home but at the office.

Step 3

Resources and Control

  • What level of control and influence can you bring to bear as resources to attaining your outcome. You have little to zero influence of winning the lottery. You can think of this as is this achievable and how can you make it more so.
  • Do you have all the Skills, Understanding, Time and Information to realise your outcome? If you require additional information / skills / time / understandings – where can you get it from, what and where are your resources?
  • How will you overcome and barriers and hurdles?

Step 4

Do you still want this outcome?

  • So having explored, examined and gathered information and resources. Do you still want this?
  • Is getting your outcome the steps to getting something else?
  • When do you want this and what are your next steps?

If you choose to use this process for a specific outcome, run the process three times on the same outcome. Then ACT on the information you have generated. Many people know about this process but seemingly only a few actually use it – be one of those who do.

best wishes


nigel hetherington


Communicating Excellence
Excellence in NLP and Clinical Hypnotherapy

Therapy or Coaching – Well Formed Outcomes

Knowing what you client wants really is important in a therapeutic setting. This not only by definition defines the goal post but also fixes and directs your clients attention – remember that old one ‘ where attention goes energy flows ‘.

Free NLP Resources – Well Formed Outcome – Compass by Andy Hunt

To Access the Free PDF of the Compass – go to the bottom of this article.

Over Christmas I have done some shopping at shops ( not on -line ) and for the most part it was a good experience. There were three anomalies to that experience thought. Each time I knew exactly what I wanted.

The first I visited was the glitteringly infamous PC World, after waiting 15 minutes to be served by busy floor staff talking about what and who they did the previous weekend I was served by a woman, who attempted no less than three times to sell me products I did not want nor had asked for, then she tried to sell me anti-virus software ( all available for free on the internet ), telling me it was imperative I bought this to accompany and protect my product and then tried to sell me insurance ( that most home insurance will cover ). Finally when I had rebuffed the unwanted hard sales attempts, they did not have the product in stock – this took in total 35 minutes.

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