This article was first published on www.ptonthenet.com Pam Rigden BSc (Hons) Sports Sciences, MA, YMCA Personal Trainer, NLP Master Practitioner, Coach and Trainer writes the first of a series of articles about how cutting edge Fitness Professionals are achieving their results.
What motivates your client?
Preview
Are your clients motivated by wanting to move Away From their current state, or are they compelled to move Towards their goal, or outcome, (as goals are referred to in NLP)? In other words, are they fed up with being over weight and unfit or are they looking forward to being slim and having more energy?
Both are in pursuit of the same outcome, but their motivation is crucially different and it is their motivation that will determine whether they succeed or not - being motivated by wanting to move Away From some state is seldom as successful as being driven Towards a goal.
Thirty years after it was originated, it is now becoming widely recognised that the field of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) has much to contribute to the Fitness Industry. A number of innovative fitness professionals have taken the initiative and trained as NLP Practitioners and Master Practitioners – some have even continued to work in the Industry! Those of us still in Fitness stay because we have discovered for ourselves that NLP offers us powerful tools that complement perfectly those skills we had already learned and developed. Essentially what we are able to do is work with our clients’ minds, not just their bodies, and, as a consequence, we have seen unprecedented results.
Perhaps the clearest way of demonstrating how NLP complements our existing skills is to consider Robert Dilts’ Neurological Levels model (1).
Identity
Beliefs and Values
Capability
Behaviour
Environment
Note for Editor - usually drawn in a triangle as a hierarchy
Current practise focuses almost exclusively on what clients are doing – eating too much junk food, for example – and not doing – exercising - as is often the case. Either way the focus is on the clients’ behaviour and, traditionally, Trainers have responded by telling clients to exercise more, cut out junk food and eat more healthily. In so doing they endeavour to help the client change by having them change some aspect of their behaviour. This approach is at best limited because it does not allow for the clients thoughts and feelings and their sense of who they are. Yes, we can provide marvellous facilities (environment), teach clients how to use the equipment (the ‘how to’ is the capability level), offer nutritional advise and prescribe exercise, but if you don’t address what clients have going on in their minds it could be said you are selling them short.
Fitness Professionals trained in NLP have a more holistic approach; they are able to work with their client’s values and beliefs and, consequently, they are able to respond and intervene at the appropriate level. They help their clients explore the values they have around health and fitness, establish whether they were moving Away From or Towards a goal, and identify any limiting beliefs a client might have. This is important because offering a behavioural response to a client who is motivated by wanting to move Away From, rather than move Towards their goal, is unlikely to be successful in the long term, if at all. Similarly, simply telling a client who is running limiting beliefs such as ‘I’ll always be fat’ what exercise to do isn’t useful; unless they address how they feel the client is likely to continue behaving in a way that supports the belief.
This article focuses on the work you can do around your clients’ values so that any subsequent behavioural changes you suggest will be sustainable. The next article in the series will explore how you help clients overcome their limiting beliefs.
The Key to Success; Why it is important to understand how your clients motivate themselves
I can think of clients who in terms of behavioural change alone have done all the right things and have still not reached their targets. They have exercised more ( I know this because, as a Personal Trainer, I witnessed this), and, having listened dutifully to the whole re-education bit they have said they had eaten less and more healthily. I had no reason to disbelieve certain clients and yet still there was no change of the type they said they wanted. My personal belief now, knowing all that I do about NLP, is that these particular individuals were strongly motivated by wanting to move away from where they were- they were trying to avoid a state they had come to loathe - rather than focussing on what they wanted. It’s a case of mind over matter; only in these circumstances the impact of the negative mindset negates the positive behavioural changes.
Being motivated by wanting to move Away From some state keeps the clients focus on the unwanted state rather than their goal - and, as you get what you focus on, the tendency therefore, because the unconscious mind cannot process negatives, is for the client to simply get more of what they want to move Away From, that is, what they don’t want,. The unconscious mind doesn’t get the ‘don’t’ in ‘I don’t want to be fat anymore’ – conversely, what happens is the idea of being fat is kept very much alive.
For example, if the client is motivated by having had enough of being a Size 18 and being tired all the time their focus will be on being a size18 and being tired. Consequently there will be no change at a neurological level, and while exercising will have an effect, it will not be as powerful or as long lasting as it might be, were their thought patterns supporting their actions.
In the short term being motivated by wanting to move Away From some state will get clients off the sofa and to the gym, however, they are unlikely to see their membership out or be successful.
So wouldn’t it be useful to understand how your clients motivate themselves?
If you knew, for example, that your client was motivated by moving Away From you would know in advance that this is someone who will need more support when it comes to setting a positive outcome frame and shifting their thinking toward that outcome.
What are Values?
Note to Editor – Box off to side away from main text
It is important to have an understanding of what a value is and how they develop.
As defined by Joseph O’Connor (1), values are basically why we do what we do – they are what is important to us, they are the principles which direct our lives, acting as both the permissions and prohibitions on how we act or don’t act, as the case may be.
How can I tell whether my clients are motivated by moving Away From or Towards their fitness goals?
Some clients who are very much Away From might literally not be able to tell you what they want, only what they don’t want - and that would be a clue. Listening carefully to what your clients tell you might also give them away; for example, are they fed up with eating junk food, watching television and not being able to get into their old clothes (Away From), or have they been inspired by watching a Marathon and want to enter next years event (Towards)? A Fitness Professional trained in NLP will use carefully crafted questions and listen carefully to their client’s responses ( this is the L - Linguistic – of NLP) for the tell tale signs.
Can you tell me why exactly you are here?
Why are you really here?
What do you want in terms of your health and fitness?
Why do you want this change?
Asking questions will help you gather information, but it is not always clear cut – the surest way to find out what motivates your client is to elicit their values with regard to their health and fitness. Values Elicitation is a powerful tool and requires skill and practise in order to elegantly establish what really matters to your client. The technique is formally taught at NLP Master Practitioner level, and, while you can gain a considerable amount of knowledge through reading text books and articles, there is no substitute for taking an experiential training where you will see the technique demonstrated and have the opportunity to practise while supervised by qualified NLP trainers.
Values Elicitation
Simplified Version
A couple of simple questions around what a client feels is important with regard to their health and fitness can be illuminating.
Ask your client
“What is important to you in terms of your health and fitness?”
and they might answer
“Looking good, having energy, being able to run for the bus”
and of course, these are the types of answers people will come out with during their induction in response to standard questions such as
“What do you hope to achieve from your fitness program?”
But it’s what you ask next that will get the result. What you do is to ask them why?
“Why is looking good/having energy/being able to run for the bus important in the context of your health and fitness?”
It is this line of questioning that will reveal the
Because I am fed up with looking like the back end of a rhinoceros
(actual quote)
definitely Away From type statements !
What can I do to help a client who has Away From Motivation?
There are many NLP techniques which can help you help a client make a shift from being Away From to Towards motivated, – for example, any techniques that focus on helping the client create a compelling future will achieve this and we will cover some of these in the forthcoming series. Advanced techniques such as Timeline work, for example, can be used to help clients create a compelling future; given the level of complexity involved such techniques are best taught at Practitioner level by qualified NLP Trainers.
Basically you will need to persuade your clients, and demonstrate to them, that they can, literally, change their minds ( this is the ‘P’ – Programming- in NLP). You will need to encourage them to get very clear about and focus on what it is they want, because to reiterate you get what you concentrate on.. The aim is to let the unconscious mind know what it is aiming for – when your clients think about what they want, the state they are moving Towards, neurological changes are triggered which begin and facilitate the change process. This is similar to a person walking through a field and always taking a particular route. After a number of times through the field, a path will begin to form. As the path forms, the person’s pace will become faster since one knows where to go and consequently the grass is worn down under one’s steps, eventually becoming a well trodden dirt track. In the same manner, by having the client focus on what they do want, a neuron path for the desired state and its associated behaviours, being a size 12 and having an abundance of energy, (going back to our earlier example) will begin to form. After a period of time, the thinking and new behaviours that support that state will become second nature because the neuron connections that make up that state have been conditioned to set up that particular route.
Use the Well Formed Outcome model in the first instance to kick start this process; this will help your client set a positive outcome and by so doing they will begin to think differently (see below). Working through the questions will in itself help a client re-focus and encourage them towards a Towards orientation - they will begin to focus on how they will be when have achieved their outcome, rather than where they are now,
However, if a client has a collection of strong Away From motivations more therapeutic work such as an NLP Breakthrough Session may be required. In such a scenario, it is important that you recognise where your role as a Fitness Professional ends and refer the client to an appropriately qualified Practitioner. Recognising that Away From values are created during significant emotional events, often in early childhood, a Master Practitioner would use techniques such as Parts Integration, Alignment Therapy (2) in the first instance to resolve the incongruities that exist for the client, and Memory Resolution (3) to release negative emotions and limiting beliefs from the past. This will relieve the need to avoid things in the future and the Away From values and motivation will disappear and be replaced with Towards values. This in turn makes it possible for the client to achieve their fitness goals with ease as the motivation for wanting to do so is now balanced and healthy and creates change at a neurological level.
Helping your clients achieve Towards motivation is absolutely vital therefore, not least because this enables their ultimate success, but because, in fact, encouraging a client to subscribe to exercise whilst their motivation is Away From only has the result of fuelling the negativity which by definition cannot be comfortable for the client – and why would we want to do that? In this respect the best thing that can happen is that the client gives up, because the alternative is that they might become an obsessive compulsive over exerciser which potentially is far more damaging, at least psychologically, than being a yo-yo exerciser.
Well Formed Outcomes
Note to Editor – set off to side not in main body of text
1. Stated in the Positive
“What do you want?”
“What will that do for you?”
2. Demonstrable in Sensory Experience – Evidence Procedure
“How will you know when you have got it?”
“What will you be seeing when you have got it?”
“What will you be hearing when you have got it?”
“What will you be feeling when you have got it?”
“What will I see you doing when you have got it?”
“What will I hear you saying when you have got it?”
3. Started and Maintained by You
“Can you start and maintain this outcome?”
4. Appropriately Contextualised
“When, where and with whom do you want it?”
“When, where and with whom do you not want it?”
“How long for?”
5. Maintain the Current Positive Byproducts
“What do I get out of my current behaviour, that I would wish to preserve?”
6. Ecology Check
“Is it worth the cost to you?”
“Is it worth the time it is going to take?”
“Is this outcome in keeping with your sense of self?”
Think of something you want to achieve, be it a business or fitness goal, and work through the questions yourself, or with a colleague a few times, before working with clients.
NLP Breakthrough – Case Study
Female
33 Years
Presenting Problem; extreme insecurity, obsessive about looks
Background; physical abuse during childhood, anorexia/bulimia
Pre session Values Elicitation around Health and Fitness
1) Aesthetics
important in order to be sexually attractive
important because nothing else matters
important because attracts men
important because otherwise believes she is ugly and will be alone
Wants to avoid/ move Away From feeling ugly and loneliness
2) Recognition
important because it confirms existence
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Contributor's Note
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