Erika is certified as an NLP practitioner by the International Teaching Seminars (ITS) in London which is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is run by the world renowned Ian Mcdermott. For the past 15 years her career has spanned from Hotel and Tourism in Austria, Argyll and Regus Business Centres in London, Credit Suisse London and the prestigious Law Firm Allen & Overy. To read more about her, check our her profile in our Meet The Team page!
| P =LP – I |
P is your true potential
LP is your limited potential
I is all your interference
Most of us are working in the sphere of our limited potential. This is because we hold ourselves back with all of our beliefs, our experiences and all the other interferences we have accumulated in our lives. It would be wrong to despise our interferences because they have actually played an important role in protecting us. You see, humans learn by imitating and by forming connections. With the vast amount of information coming at us we have had to learn to filter stuff out that is most relevant for our survival and our sanity. We have, therefore, picked out patterns and remembered those things that we have felt are most important to us at that point. Our collection of data therefore, represents how we see and understand the world. This representation is unique to us but is not necessarily a true depiction of the real world. For example let us say that during your school days you heard from 2 adults in your life the following phrase: “you are really not made for sports, it is better you just sit on the side and don’t volunteer for any of the teams next time.” If you heard that message only once from a role model of yours you would tend to accept it and believe it as true. If you heard it repeatedly over years from people: again you would accept it as the truth and wouldn’t even consider anything sporty going forward. Your hidden talent for sports would never come to shine because you wouldn’t even think of giving it a chance.
The beauty of NLP is that it helps to clear away the interferences. It helps you tackle all of your accumulated data to really test what is the truth and what is just a heavy negative anchor that is holding you back from your true potential.
To get you started on clearing some of your interference do the following:
Make a list of all the things you believe about your abilities.
For example:
- I know I am a good swimmer but a terrible squash player.
- I could never set up my own business.
- I always work hard but haven’t got what it takes to get promoted.
- I am so shy that is why I cannot network.
- I dislike sales because I can’t sell.
Now pick one of your sentences and really explore the origins of this belief.
- How do you know this?
- What is the evidence to prove it?
- What evidence is there to prove it wrong? (Don’t dismiss this, think hard of times when you were the opposite or achieved the opposite.)
- Does this belief serve you?
- What small thing could you do to prove yourself wrong?
Please be patient with yourself when doing this exercise as it is not easy. You may have given up before even attempting any of this exercise because it just seemed like too much to read and such hard work. This is normal. It is not easy to challenge your foundations and it takes energy and commitment. You also have to watch out for your biases as these too will interfere in your self-evaluation. But don’t give up; get a friend to help you out by asking you the questions or better still hire a life coach to keep you focused and on track. You owe it to yourself to live out your full potential.
By Erika Zechner
www.blueprintfive.com
