Mastery in NLP(1)

Mastery in NLP

(Neuro Linguistic Programming)

By: Joseph OÆConnor

In our April article we laid out the four stages in the traditional learning cycle:Unconscious Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Conscious Competence, and finally Unconscious Competence, when you do the activity easily without thinking. It has become streamlined and habitual, and is taken over by the unconscious part of your mind.

Beyond this stage is Mastery

Mastery is the stage when mere competence is not an issue any more. We look for and find mastery in the top sportsmen and women, and in the work of artists. You can also see it in everyday life, in any simple activity. When you watch a master at work, the task looks easy. It looks as if anyone can do it. It is easy now for them, because they have put in time, energy and commitment. Their facility hides all the preparatory work. When you act from a state of mastery, it is spontaneous, you do not need to analyse or reflect on what you are doing at the time, it just seems to happen, it flows. Mastery is learning to be spontaneous.

Being spontaneous is a paradox. You cannot try to be spontaneous. You just are - when you stop trying. Trying comes from the conscious mind. In a state of mastery there is no trying, so there is no internal dialogue providing a commentary about what you are doing.

There is no excess muscular tension. It is not a totally relaxed state, but you accomplish what you want with minimum effort, this is one reason why it looks easy.

You will have a wide vision and focus. Trying typically narrows your vision onto a particular point. In a state of mastery, you see what you need to see clearly without making an effort to focus on it. Masters know, and direct their attention to the important areas of the activity.

Masters spent a lot of time on the 'simple' basic parts of their art. There is a story of the nineteenth century Hungarian virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt, who was renowned for his speed and facility of playing. He was staying with a friend, whose young son was learning the piano. Early one morning the boy listened to outside the door while Lizst was practising.

His father asked him afterwards what he learned. 'Father,' said the boy, 'He practices so slowly.'

Masters are not primarily concerned with winning in a competitive sense. Their main opponent is themselves and their own perceived limitations.

Fear and anxiety destroy the state of mastery. Masters concentrate on their own emotional state, knowing that if they can attain the right state, the activity will flow.

'The wheel turns,

The hands move,

The pot appears.'

States of mastery can be modelled usingNLP modelling methodology.