The Circle of Excellence

Hi all

We recently ran the very first Manchester NLP Practice Group with great success. Thanks to all who took part. We practiced the Circle of Excellence technique (which you can find below) We will be e-mailing all members in the next week to look for suggestions for the technique members would like to practice next month.

If you are not on the mailing list, please e-mail nlppracticegroup@gmail.com

The Circle of Excellence is a spatial anchor whereby an imaginary circle is drawn on the floor which is ‘stepped in-to’ to install new and additional resources relative to a situation where different behaviour or thinking is wished.
The C.O.E. can be used to summon up the confidence to perform a skill of task to the very best of your ability. You can use it if you have a fear of public speaking, before an interview or important meeting, to play your best shot in sport and in many other instances. You can also take something that you already do well and recreate it whenever you want, and improve it.
If you have ever had a resource, even if it was only for one second, that means that you have it forever. The C.O.E. allows you to summon useful resources, choosing how you want to feel and how you want to respond at any time, in any situation.

Practising the Circle of Excellence.

1. The Situation. First think of a situation when you would like to feel your best and most resourceful self. Draw an imaginary circle on the ground in front of you. Make it a generous circle of about three feet in diameter.

2. Relive Confidence. Stand up and let yourself go back in your memory to a time when you were very confident, abundantly confident. Get back to it strongly; see what you saw and hear what you heard. Notice what you are feeling and how good it feels reliving that moment...

3. In the Circle. As you feel the confidence building step into the C.O.E. What colour would you like the circle to be? Would you like it to have a sound like a soft hum that indicates how powerful it is? What is the sound like? How does it feel? Are you relaxed , excited, strong? How is your posture and breathing right now? Notice the position of your feet and hands, the tilt of your head. When the feeling of confidence is at its fullest , step out of the circle, leaving those positive confident feelings, colours and sounds inside the circle. Break state.

4. Repeat the exercise with a second experience if you want to add further resourceful states to the circle or if the circle doesn’t feel strong enough. Repeat as many times as necessary. The circle is limitless and you can keep adding more confidence and power resources to the circle over time.

5. Selecting Cues. Now think of a specific time in the future when you want to have that same feeling of super confidence. See and hear what will be happening just before you want to feel confident. How will the scene unfold? What is the cue to knowing that it is nearly time to step into the C.E.O.? It could be the opening of an office door or stepping onto a stage or being introduced to an audience...

6. Step into the Circle of Excellence! Feel the confidence there for you again, the colour the sounds, the confident breathing and posture. Imagine the scene unfolding exactly the way to want it too with all your confident feelings and resources fully available for you.

7. Check Results. Now step out of the circle again, leaving those confident feelings there in the circle. Outside the circle, take a moment and think again of that upcoming event or situation. You’ll find you’ll automatically recall those confident feelings. This means that you’ve already reprogrammed yourself for that upcoming situation and you are already feeling better resourced for it. When the time comes you will naturally feel more confident and if you want to add more power to those positive feeling, your circle of excellence is only ever one footstep away.

We look forward to seeing you all at the next practice group

Chris and Sandie