A boy asked his mother, ‘What is NLP?’ Neuro Linguistic Programming.
Here is a very simple explanation.
His mother said ‘I will tell you in a moment, but first you have to do something so you can understand. See your grandfather over there in his chair?’
‘Yep,’ said the boy.
‘Go and ask him how his arthritis is today.’
The boy went over to his grandfather. ‘Granddad,’ he said, ‘how’s your arthritis today?’
‘Oh, it’s a bit bad, son,’ replied the old man. ‘It’s always worse in damp weather. I can hardly move my fingers today.’ A look of pain crossed his face.
The boy went back to his mother. ‘He said it was bad. I think it hurts him. Are you going to tell me what NLP is now?’
‘In a minute, I promise,’ replied his mother. ‘Now go over and ask Granddad what was the funniest thing you ever did when I was very young.’
The boy went over to his grandfather. ‘Granddad,’ he began, ‘what’s the funniest thing I ever did when I was very young?’
The old man’s face lit up. ‘Oh,’ he smiled, ‘there were lots of things. There was the time when you and your friend played Father Christmas and sprinkled talcum powder all over the bathroom pretending it was snow. I laughed – but I didn’t have to clean it up.’ He stared into the distance with a smile. ‘Then there was the time I took you out for a walk. It was a lovely day and you were singing a nursery rhyme you had just learned. Loudly. A man went past and gave you a nasty look. He thought you were being too noisy. He asked me to tell you to be quite. You turned around and said to him, “If you don’t like me singing, you can go and boil your head.” And carried on even louder… ‘The old man chuckled.
The boy went back to his mother. ‘Did you hear what Granddad said?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ his mother replied. ‘You changed how he felt with a few words. That’s NLP.