It may a negative thing to say about my clients that they are lazy! In fact, we all are inherently lazy. Lazy is for all of us a natural state of mind.
What do I mean with that?
The mind will always take the easiest and quickest route, to achieve its positive intention. (And yes, even the bad stuff we do has a positive intention.) And the brain learns very fast. That’s why we found ourselves day dreaming and doing other things with our minds during our time in elementary, high school or even college. When the brain isn’t engaged enough, it’s starts doing something else. This is why learning should not only be fast, it should also be fun. That’s the only way the brain can learn.
In order to get a client to do something, you have to shift their focus away from something else and onto the task at hand. The brain will by default not pay attention. That’s what I mean with lazy. It is your job as an NLP Practitioner and coach, to keep having your client focus on the task in order to achieve their goals.
In a way, that’s your most important job as a coach. You help the client determine a goal, the most effective tools to use for this is setting a “Well Formed Outcome.” Which is something taught in a quality NLP Practitioner training or coaching course. There are however other good goal setting tools available (most common, though not most effective one, being setting SMART goals.) Then you lay out the tasks. And your job is to re-focus the client continuously on completing tasks. And help them define tasks that are required in order to achieve the goal.
Knowing that “lazy” is natural state a mind, will keep you on your toes to keep focusing the client as to where there attention needs to go. And where attention goes, energy flows!
You are correct we do look for the easy way. I never applied the term lazy when clearly it fits. Thanks!
Hi Nikkie,
Having just completed your fantastic NLP Master Practitioner training in Amsterdam, I’m already helping my clients set goals differently to how I did it before. The key for me with the Well-formed Outcome is having the client ‘start with the end in mind’ (to quote Stephen Covey!). Having them fully imagine the point of achievement and work backwards to determine the steps needed to get there seems to bring a stronger sense of reality to what they’re going to make happen, much more so than following step 1, step 2, step 3, etc. I think it also distracts their mind from slipping into path of least resistance as it creates and helps maintain excitement and energy around the end point. Powerful stuff!