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The quickest way to boost your NLP meta model skills

January 7, 2023

How do you boost your NLP meta model skills? Where do you start?

The NLP Meta Model is taught in NLP Practitioner training. Many trainers focus on the science of linguistics, teaching it in an academic sense, throwing words out there like “unspecified verbs”, “universal quantifiers”, “deletion.” These are excellent ways to understand the mathematics of linguistics but leave the student at a loss in the practical application of this knowledge in the world. In a sense, instead of being taught from a place of learning or understanding, it is taught for teaching it for its own sake. Most NLP trainers don’t go much further than teaching the math, and then practice it in exercises. Which is already better than traditional academics, as there is at least practice. But this still isn’t an optimal way of learning, and I see this time and again when I get NLP Practitioners from other schools inside our NLP Master Practitioner training.

Teaching the NLP meta model

I abandoned the way the NLP Meta Model was taught by own teachers a long time ago, which is where most NLP trainers are still stuck, they repeat their process. It was archaic, and I felt the quality of my students could improve much more. I largely tossed the mathematics and started to engage with my student’s brains in the way children learn. Childhood is a time in our lives where we learn the most. Before we even enter elementary school, we learn the most, from lying in a crib to running. From not being able to speak, to talking and asking questions. That’s the path I wanted to follow. So, I tossed the math, and turned teaching the Meta Model into a game, for it to be learned entirely through play.

Simple NLP meta model exercises

So here are a few simple exercises that anyone NLP trained can follow.

Three meta model questions

Focus on only 3 NLP Meta Model questions for now:

What specifically?
Who specifically?
How specifically?

That’s it. Forget about the math, the other questions, etc.

When listening to another person:

– In the foreground of your focus you keep what the person is saying, and filter through for anything that is vague, or you could be curious about. The best way to do this is to imagine that anyone could stop the communication at any moment, and you had to repeat exactly what the other person said. If you can’t do this, you are simply only hearing, rather than listening, and these are entirely different activities.

– In the background you keep your three questions, and thoughts about which one to ask.

– Completely eliminated from your field of attention are your own thoughts, your own story, the impression you are making, and anything not related to the above.

You will find that this is the quickest way to boost your NLP Meta Model skills.