Everything that you need to succeed is already contained within you, you already have the resources inside. This is a presupposition of NLP that tells you that everything you need in order to be successful, is already within.
A while back, I had a plumbing incident. It was my first weekend off since NLP4Kids training. My stress was high and the training was definitely not without its challenges – you can only control your own technology (and only to some extent!).
By the weekend, I was looking forward to having a nice relaxing time but my washing machine decided that I needed to learn to plumb instead. I’d put the washing machine on the night before when I went to bed but I programmed it to come on in the early hours of the morning (good tip for saving yourself a bit of money). I got up in the morning and the washing cycle had been completed but the kitchen floor had a puddle in it. Not realising it was from the washing machine, I stuck on another wash cycle. It then became clear that the water was coming from the washing machine as there was lots of it.
I didn’t want to call out an emergency plumber at the weekend because that was going to get pricey and there is a little bit of me that thinks I can do DIY pretty well! I did some Googling and looked on youtube. The first thing I realised was that I needed to tighten up something, which I did. I ran the washing machine again and it leaked even more. I did a bit more googling and it led me to realise maybe the issue is that your waste pipe is blocked.
Now here is where my presupposition finally comes into the mix! The pipe comes down and then there is a u-bend that goes across and then down into the ground. I figured that if I poured the drain unblocker down the long pipe, I’d miss the u-bend. Or maybe the blockage was in the horizontal part. Unless there was something flushing the drain unblocker through, it would stay in the u-bend. So I thought “I know what I’m going to do, I’m going to remove the u-bend and check that the blockage isn’t in there” (it was not).
This left me with a further problem. Since the u-bend was clear, the blockage could be in the horizontal pipe. The problem with that was how would I get the drain unblocker to pour horizontally?
I kept thinking “There’s going to be something in this house to help you solve this problem!”
I looked around for tubes and pipes – anything I could to thread it through the pipe. I found a piece of old pipe but it was so stiff and the drain unblocker was so thick, that it was never going to pour through. The only solution that I could come up with was to sit on the kitchen floor and have a little cry. Eventually, I realised ‘hang on a moment you are an educated resourceful human being’ and the presupposition came to me….
Everything you need to succeed is already inside of you, you have all of the resources that you need.
I was telling myself there is an answer and the answer is here – like I was really quite certain with myself, even though I wasn’t feeling that way. I pretended to be very certain of myself and I told myself the answer you need to solve this problem is already here.
I started to think plumbers probably have this problem all the time so they must use what they’ve already got. Then I realised that I could screw the u-bend on the other way up. I then pulled the drain unblocker through and half an hour later my drain made a burp and belch and it then made the most almighty roar. I fixed the whole thing back together again which resolved the problem.
So perhaps you do have everything you need to succeed to be able to achieve your desired outcomes in your life. The trick is to tell yourself with absolute certainty that that is the case and to get your brain looking for the solutions.
To make this work 100% you need to ask yourself the right questions in these situations. Avoid ‘why’ questions such as “Why can’t I do it?”, “Why can’t I solve it?”, “Why isn’t it working?” Those questions will direct your brain to look for all of the reasons why you can’t do it, can’t solve it and can’t find the answer – this is unhelpful. The best question to ask yourself is a “how” question. A good question always will start with “how.” “How can I solve this?”, “How can I find what I need?”, “How can I come up with a creative idea here?” When you ask yourself a “how” question it gets your brain looking into the outside world to find ideas, experiences and resources that you hadn’t tuned into yet. Those solutions, ideas and resources were already out there. They already existed. You have to program your brain to go and find them to bring them into your awareness. You do that by asking yourself good quality questions and a good question is always going to start with “how”.
You’ve got to pick the right kind of tone when you talk to yourself even though it’s only inside your head. Feel free to do it out loud but assuming you’re going to do it inside your own head, tone of voice is still important.
All of the resources that you need to succeed are already inside of you and if you cannot find them when you want them, you can do that by asking yourself a “how” question.
By Gemma Bailey
www.peoplebuilding.co.uk
