Go Higher

In NLP, there’re these things called “meta programs.”

These are filters through which we see the world.

Now, we all have millions of filters that change on a day to day or even moment to moment basis. Like if you’re really hungry, your subconscious will pick up anything that looks like it might be food.

Or if it’s been a while since you’ve been in a satisfying relationship, your subconscious will pick up people who look like they might be candidates.

Or maybe you just bought a red car, and you see red cars everywhere. Or maybe you just became or are trying to become pregnant, and you see pregnant ladies everywhere.

Deep Structure

Meta Programs operate on a much deeper, and much more “permanent” level. They can be changed, but only with conscious effort. Seeing red cars or pregnant ladies, on the other hand, happens on its own.

One Meta Program is how we are motivated. Either by somebody outside of us, or by ourselves.

Like when you know, really know, you did a good job at something, which feels better, somebody telling you that you did a good job, or when you tell yourself you did a good job?

This is also contextual. Meaning that depending on what we’re doing, that approval can seem better coming from the outside or the inside.

Seeking Approval

If the reason we’re doing something came from the outside (somebody telling us to do something) then hearing outside approval is usually better.

If the reason we’re doing something came from the inside (we decided to do something) then inside approval is usually better.

Nowhere is this truer than in the frame of “learning” anything.

If somebody tells you to “learn” something, like your boss or a teacher, you usually depend on their “approval” to know if you’ve done a good job or not.

But if you want to learn something for your own reasons, that approval best comes from within.

The best part is when you realize this on a conscious AND unconscious level.

Understand Why

When you are learning something for your own reasons, and YOU are the only one allowed to say if you’ve failed or not, you CAN make significantly more progress.

This means you can learn anything, for any reason, and NEVER feel as if you’ve “failed.”

Just like Edison when he went through 9,999 different filaments for his light bulb before he found the right one.

He NEVER failed once. He just of a whole lot of methods that didn’t work. Which meant it was simply a signal from his environment to keep searching for something that DID work.

You can do the same.