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Neuro-Linguistic Programming for Dummies
NLP has a simple premise: take someone who's good at something, model how they do it and learn from them. This way it is possible to understand the thought processes common to excellence in any field and weed out negative or habitual thinking. Neuro-Linguistic Programming techniques extremely popular in many areas including business, education, sports, coaching, counselling, personal development and relationships. Neuro-linguistic Programming for Dummies avoids the jargon of many other books and provides both the basic essentials for the beginner and advanced theory for experienced NLP readers
240 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
August 11, 2014
A lot of filler. Still, there is a lot to take away, such as the idea of anchors (which can improve your mood), how to build rapport with word types (VAKOG) and storytelling, and reducing the intensity of a bad memory's pain.
I can now see why many criticize NLP for trying too hard to sound scientific i.e. it uses a lot of big words for a simple idea for which we already have words. For example, NLP uses "modalities", which are just your senses! The "sub-modalities" are just the details of the stimuli received from your senses. For example, the colour of an object is a sub-modality of the vision modality. Oh brother.
A useful book nonetheless. It is better than other NLP books I've read. Feel free to check my bookshelf called NLP.
I can now see why many criticize NLP for trying too hard to sound scientific i.e. it uses a lot of big words for a simple idea for which we already have words. For example, NLP uses "modalities", which are just your senses! The "sub-modalities" are just the details of the stimuli received from your senses. For example, the colour of an object is a sub-modality of the vision modality. Oh brother.
A useful book nonetheless. It is better than other NLP books I've read. Feel free to check my bookshelf called NLP.
November 20, 2011
You can bash NLP, or you can use it to improve your life, your communication skills and your understanding of others. It's a tool, nothing more nothing less. And I doubt the self-righteous fun of bashing brings you more than improvement in any part of your life would.
September 9, 2023
مطالب وسیع با عمق کم در مورد ان ال پی در این کتاب گنجانده شده. برای اینکه با ان ال پی آشنا بشید بد نیست.
December 30, 2008
NLP is more or less just more "self help" pseudo-science. It sounds highly technical, but the name is misleading, bordering on fraudulent. It may have originated with some scientific bases, but those have long since evaporated.
There are no scientific studies to back any of the miraculous claims.
That's not to say it's total charlatanry, though. There is some useful material on how to choose your words when writing, but you have to take that out of the context of miraculous claims about hypnotizing people.
I'm disappointed because this sounded interesting, but it belongs on the Dr. Phil shelf.
There are no scientific studies to back any of the miraculous claims.
That's not to say it's total charlatanry, though. There is some useful material on how to choose your words when writing, but you have to take that out of the context of miraculous claims about hypnotizing people.
I'm disappointed because this sounded interesting, but it belongs on the Dr. Phil shelf.
June 13, 2013
The Dummies books are designed to be dipped into at random, but I found the lack of an overarching structure and repetition frustrating. Based on the book, it seems that there isn't a single unifying concept, but a selection on unrelated tools. The analogy of a toolbox used in one chapter seems apt. Some of the concepts and ideas will, I'm sure, prove useful, but to grasp NLP I think a more coherent book will be needed.
January 12, 2009
An OK introduction to the topic. More therapeutic and personal development or communication oriented.
February 12, 2018
This book gives a good basic understanding of what NPL is, why its important, and how it can be useful to help you improve your communication skills.
Those are some important highlights that sum up the most important ideas of the book in my opinion:
- NLP, as it’s commonly referred to, is the study of how we understand and experience the world around us.
- Internal Representation: Our perspective is unique to us because what we experience gets filtered by a number of things. This is why 2 people experience the same thing one loves the other hates it.
- Nonverbal communication made up 55 percent of an effective, impactful conversation.
- Matching and mirroring: To build rapport find the rhythm of the conversation and be in sync with the person you’re talking to.
- Storytelling: People react differently to stories than they do to standard arguments., because a good story taps into memories and emotions.
- Anchor: sensitive information that puts you in some emotional state, it can be a memory, a smell, etc... You can create new, positive anchors that can help you get through difficult situations.
- Deletion represents the fact that we’re usually leaving certain things out when we’re explaining ourselves.
- Generalization refers to how we’re often vague or unspecific in details and tend to extrapolate the outcome of one situation and apply them to another.
- Distortion means misinterpreting events around you. For example, if your boss doesn’t greet you in the hallway and you immediately conclude that she hates you
Those are some important highlights that sum up the most important ideas of the book in my opinion:
- NLP, as it’s commonly referred to, is the study of how we understand and experience the world around us.
- Internal Representation: Our perspective is unique to us because what we experience gets filtered by a number of things. This is why 2 people experience the same thing one loves the other hates it.
- Nonverbal communication made up 55 percent of an effective, impactful conversation.
- Matching and mirroring: To build rapport find the rhythm of the conversation and be in sync with the person you’re talking to.
- Storytelling: People react differently to stories than they do to standard arguments., because a good story taps into memories and emotions.
- Anchor: sensitive information that puts you in some emotional state, it can be a memory, a smell, etc... You can create new, positive anchors that can help you get through difficult situations.
- Deletion represents the fact that we’re usually leaving certain things out when we’re explaining ourselves.
- Generalization refers to how we’re often vague or unspecific in details and tend to extrapolate the outcome of one situation and apply them to another.
- Distortion means misinterpreting events around you. For example, if your boss doesn’t greet you in the hallway and you immediately conclude that she hates you
August 22, 2020
My first 'for dummies' read. I'd been very unsure about getting into NLP but as a coach it presented as another tool in the kit so I decided to give it a go.
In the early chapters there's a lot of content that really resonated and I found myself rhapsoding to long-suffering husband on our lockdown walks. I latched on to anchoring and threw an exercise, untested, into a coaching session, where it kinda sunk... There are some great tips for presenting and building rapport, but there were also parts that were too much of a stretch for me such as modalities. After the first half it became a bit of a slog. There are some nice anecdotes and illustrations but a lot also seemed like common sense to anyone with vague coaching training.
Overall not a bad read, but I would that there were something shorter!
In the early chapters there's a lot of content that really resonated and I found myself rhapsoding to long-suffering husband on our lockdown walks. I latched on to anchoring and threw an exercise, untested, into a coaching session, where it kinda sunk... There are some great tips for presenting and building rapport, but there were also parts that were too much of a stretch for me such as modalities. After the first half it became a bit of a slog. There are some nice anecdotes and illustrations but a lot also seemed like common sense to anyone with vague coaching training.
Overall not a bad read, but I would that there were something shorter!
November 16, 2017
As the title says, this is an introduction to NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming.
I didn't know anything about NLP before I read the book, so I can't say whether or not this is truly introduces the topic properly.
What I can say is that this is a well-written overview of many of NLP topics. It is filled with small stories and examples that have me convinced that Ready and Burton know their topic.
After reading the book, I feel like I do know enough about NLP to do something with it and I have enough background to find out new books should I want to go further with the topic.
And I guess that's exactly what the goal of this book is.
I didn't know anything about NLP before I read the book, so I can't say whether or not this is truly introduces the topic properly.
What I can say is that this is a well-written overview of many of NLP topics. It is filled with small stories and examples that have me convinced that Ready and Burton know their topic.
After reading the book, I feel like I do know enough about NLP to do something with it and I have enough background to find out new books should I want to go further with the topic.
And I guess that's exactly what the goal of this book is.
November 15, 2020
This book is a good introduction to the concept and practice of neuro-linguistic programming. It is a version that is made for "dummies" like me.
Romila Ready started by defining what NLP is, and how it helps a person in daily life. I like concepts like 'clean language' that she introduced in the second half of the book.
The overall 'Dummies' structure of clearly highlighting anecdotes, giving jargon alerts, highlighting warnings etc., is good.
There are some good concepts and material in the book, but there is also a lot of verbiage. At the end, I was just glad that the book was coming to an end!
Romila Ready started by defining what NLP is, and how it helps a person in daily life. I like concepts like 'clean language' that she introduced in the second half of the book.
The overall 'Dummies' structure of clearly highlighting anecdotes, giving jargon alerts, highlighting warnings etc., is good.
There are some good concepts and material in the book, but there is also a lot of verbiage. At the end, I was just glad that the book was coming to an end!
November 27, 2022
Ive been duped! This isn’t the full book in audio format, this is a sample of what you can find in the book on audio format 🤣
I kept feeling frustrated with the over generalisation of the advice and how I’m told to ask the right questions without helping me figure out what the right questions are or how to get to those!
Anyway, I’m hoping to find a better version on advice to use NLP because I find the principles fascinating.
I kept feeling frustrated with the over generalisation of the advice and how I’m told to ask the right questions without helping me figure out what the right questions are or how to get to those!
Anyway, I’m hoping to find a better version on advice to use NLP because I find the principles fascinating.
February 17, 2019
Por fin terminé el libro y aunque sé que me demore mucho, lo hice tomando cada tarea y desarrollando cada ejercicio con la intención de en verdad aplicarlos en mi vida. Muchos de éstos ejercicios valieron la pena, otros tal es no mucho, pero definitivamente un libro que todos deberÃan al menos curiosear para entender como funcionamos como individuos y grupos.
April 11, 2019
There are several editions of this book out there, including an audio book. Forget the rest, this one by Romilla Ready is the one to get. This will open up the world of Neuro Linguistic Programming and isn't one of those books aimed at just "dominating at work" or other nonsense. If you are serious about understanding the inner workings of the human mind, try this edition out.
August 1, 2023
Rien de nouveau sous le soleil : effectivement, ayant lu des livres de développement personnel ou de management, je n'ai pas appris grand chose dans ce livre.
On peut le résumé par "il faut se mettre à la place de l'autre pour le comprendre et s'y adapter"
Je ne conseille pas spécialement, sauf à ceux n'ayant vraiment aucune notion de sciences humaines.
On peut le résumé par "il faut se mettre à la place de l'autre pour le comprendre et s'y adapter"
Je ne conseille pas spécialement, sauf à ceux n'ayant vraiment aucune notion de sciences humaines.
May 30, 2017
This book was my introduction to NLP. Definitely one of those subjects that you could either dismiss or look into and see what comes out of it. I found some of the exercises to be somewhat helpful in getting me to think about things differently.
October 16, 2019
I found this informative on the subject of how the brain deals with sensory information, how it filters this information and how the brain can get stuck on ideas and emotions. While I have no tried any of the therapies I can see how they might work.
July 29, 2020
Airport purchase I found in the back of a shelf... The book actually is not so bad at giving an overview of this strange field. One day I hope to find a NLP book that refers to the actual research underlying some of its ideas - it really seems like a hodgepodge of fact/fiction...
April 13, 2021
- Due to different background of growing up, people hear the same thing but interpret them differently
- Establishing rapport - through non verbal ways - is vital for communication (calm, confidence, matching & mirroring etc)
- Establishing rapport - through non verbal ways - is vital for communication (calm, confidence, matching & mirroring etc)
November 21, 2017
Nothing surprising in regards to NLP at the basic level. Good book to start with.
April 19, 2018
Very interesting, many tips to understand others, communicate better and appreciate life !
January 10, 2019
Easy to read. Many excercises and techniques. Many examples of using NLP in daily life.
November 21, 2021
While there were some good concepts in here, I found the book very light, and some of the anecdotes didn’t convince me that NLP could have solved the issue.
March 11, 2022
Fantastic, practical, in-depth look at NLP. Brilliantly explained but it’s very detailed.
💯 recommend
💯 recommend
May 29, 2022
I think it was unnecessary to hear this. The ideas are already known, also when you didn't know about the concept of NLP. I didn't enjoy this.
August 25, 2022
This book exploded my mind. It fills up what I am missing in my life.
June 5, 2023
Only a sample, not the whole book.
February 2, 2024
Too much expressions and words for such a simple ideas. The writers are the kind of people who talk just to talk.
I'm sure that there are a better books about the NLP than this one.
I'm sure that there are a better books about the NLP than this one.
April 27, 2025
I used it for a course on the subject
August 1, 2013
Let's just say I was glad to be finished with this one. It seemed like a good introduction to me, but I guess I already had been exposed to a lot of NLP in other places, because an awful lot of this was stuff with which I was quite familiar, and I found a lot of the examples tedious, because they didn't relate to my situation very well. If you don't know about NLP or are looking to work on things in an office environment, this might be more useful for you.
July 12, 2013
La estructura del libro es muy buena, está plagado de anécdotas, casos prácticos y ejercicios y el lenguaje es sencillo. Pero es un tochazo, porque el tema es el que es, y es denso. Más que un libro de inteligencia emocional, es una verdadera introducción para dedicarse al estudio de la PNL, pero para mi gusto, no como para poder sacar mucho material para la vida cotidiana (a no ser que seas un apasionado). Con todo, tiene sus perlicas.
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