NLP Presupposition #5 - Individual skills function by the development and sequencing of representational systems

Skills can be developed. If you suck at something, you don’t have to suck forever. Everything from a conceptual grasp of a concept to a complex muscle memory of how to kick somebody in the head is a skill, and therefore can be learned. 

We piece together our new results by applying new skills. We can learn this the trial-and-error way, or we can hack it by modelling and mimicry to determine the submodalities of each new rep system. 

Workout and Nutrition are great examples. 

Trouble with fat loss is by and large a behavior motivation issue for most people. 

Either we lack the information they need to make good decisions, or we have mistaken beliefs that lead them to ineffective behavior. 

No matter what theory you follow from the science community, fat loss has been mapped out and studied from angle after angle, and we have a great corpus of knowledge from both scientific and anecdotal sources. 

Losing weight is not procedurally difficult. While “healthy” is more complicated a concept, “fat loss” is measurable, and you can actually get skilled at losing fat. 

We can learn a procedure, a system of beliefs, and/or representational systems for each skill we want to improve.

My eating plan, for instance, is a culmination of new, better informed beliefs about food. I eat mostly paleo, slow carb sometimes, and I cheat my ass off a few times per week. I also party super hard, but only drink whiskey. 

I’ve cut out most simple carbs, and stick to things like beans, lentils, and yams to keep my calories up. This system has been studied and extrapolated by a whole ton of people, and it’s not simple. 

Whether you follow the carb-restricted approach or not, the bottom line is there’s a proven system I can model. Once modelled, I can tweak it to meet my goals, I don’t have to start from scratch. I’m better at eating, sleeping, and thinking because of the work I’ve done to choose my eating plan. 

Workouts are the same way. You can get simple models like “buy insanity. then do it everyday”, or any one of these calisthenic pics that floats around the fitblr community. They all work to some extent. 

Or, you can hire a personal trainer, or get a degree in kinesiology or do all the studying yourself. I used to be a certified personal trainer. I picked up my old PT books and made myself a workout plan. Did you know that NASM has a book for under $50 that tells you EXACTLY what to do when choosing your workouts?

You don’t have to guess. It’s all right there in the text. Everything from exercise selection to flexibility training to sets, reps, tempos, periodization, stabilization… it’s all in there. It tells you what to do, when to do it, how long to take, and how to know to move up. It teaches you how to measure your fitness level, and how to progress while minimizing the risk of injury. 

There’s a system. You can actually follow this system to get skilled at fat loss, muscle growth, strength, power, and or agility. 

NLP presupposes that most things are skills, they can be learned, and that learning them can be done by adjusting the way you represent them in your head. 

The path is there. It’s been done before, and that’s empowering.