What experiences will be available to you when you discard filters that other people would like to shape your perceptions with?

My guess is that we can discard the most obvious and tenuous ones, but the filters held firmly in our unconscious are resistant to change without purpose. Some 'beliefs' however 'incorrect' serve a need. NLP gives us tools to modify these perceptions. Reframe is one tool.

Modeling is another powerful tool which includes , for my purposes, being 'with' those whom we wish to be like either in real time or virtual. Modeling redirects the the 'inner beliefs' but often after the 'event'. Do the 'thing' first and the belief will follow. It is not logical but it is so. If you model what others want you to model,you will modify your filters to suite their model. This can be 'bad' or'good'. In practice, those beliefs that are most effective ( either 'bad' or 'good') need a strong rational to change. Hang around with some depressed people for a while and see what happens!

Aristotle, said that you must first practice being a 'good' man before being a good man. With NLP the change comes from outside in as well as inside out. A coaching friend of mine , who is a successful speed coach, says that many athletes who can run fast do not, because they do not know what 'fast' feels like. They 'believe' that what they 'do' is fast. To modify this belief which is part of his/her movement program, he pulls them from behind a moving vehicle. When they do this they experience 'faster'. Another technique is to have them run down hill. In our modeling and imagery we experience 'fast' or 'confidence' or 'success by regular practice'. Before we realize it...our beliefs have changed. Sometimes only then do we become aware what our former belief was " Oh my God did I...?" and the answer is"yes I did!" That is a real filter change!

Yesterdays elite effort will become tomorrow's regular event. Satisfaction escapes with achievement! Success is a process not a destination.

When I first started working in a high school that was primarily minority ( I am what is called 'white') I experienced different perceptions of the students. I perceive them differently now, more like my own children and family. The 'them' has become 'us'. My filters have adjusted( with effort) ...thank God! Remembering a belief that I no longer have is one of the AHAH experiences. It can also be a sense of uncovered embarrassment at having believed a thing 'so'? 'And I thought that my intentions were always honorable, always 'right'?' My God......I am human!

Joe Donahue

"We do not rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training." Bruce Lee