AN ATTITUDE IS A META-STATE

We know that attitude is important. But how important? And why is attitude so important? We all have heard that attitude makes the difference. But what difference does it make? For that matter, what is an attitude anyway?

Here are a set of questions that the original NLP could not and did not answer. That’s why for the first 20 years, there was nothing done in the field of NLP on attitude. Perhaps that’s because, as the dictionary indicates, an attitude is a very rich, complex gestalt made up of the disposition of one’s mind, emotions, and body and “the position of something in relation to a frame of reference.” Then, in 1994, upon discovering the Meta-States model, it became obvious that an attitude is a meta-state.

Take optimism as an attitude. The optimistic person is a person who accesses and applies positive thinking and feeling toward something. Then having access this positive state of thinking about possibilities and opportunities, the person speaks and acts accordingly. Yet this is not a primary state like fear, anger, joy, relaxation, tension, love, hate, etc. In a primary state you can point to the body parts (to your physiology) where you feel the state. But, where do you feel “optimism?” This reveals that it is not in the body as much as it is in the mind. It is a belief. The optimist believes in possibilities and in thinking positively.

Because of this, the person repeatedly brings this belief to many experiences in life. This reveals the meta-level nature of optimism. By repeatedly applying this state to one’s everyday states, the person meta-states himself or herself with optimism. The habituation then turns the meta-state into a meta- program. Now it is in the person’s eyes as his lens for perceiving things.

This is the case with every attitude— a timid, fearful attitude, a go-for-it proactive attitude, a racist attitude, a procrastination attitude of putting things off, a looking for the path of least resistence attitude, a critical attitude, an attitude of gratitude, and so on. These are gestalt states made up of multiple states-about-states. This explains the power of an attitude. It is not just a thought, but much more than a thought. An attitude is a disposition of mind-and-emotion, a meta-level self-organizing attractor and belief.

This explains why attitudes are so important. They organize us. They control our perceptions. They induce us into states. They establish our internal motives and motivation. They make up one of the most significant variables in our personality. Your attitude, and mine, can prevent us from even considering opposing information. Attitude can limit you from accessing some resources.

Given all of this, what attitudes do you have that do not serve you well? Do you have a grumpy attitude when you get into traffic? Do you have a fearful and apprehensive attitude when you see or hear others in conflict? What’s your attitude about mistakes, errors, and failures? How robust is your attitude in

bouncing back in a resilient way from a set-back? What’s your attitude about learning new things? Obviously, attitude plays a very significant role in our lives and therefore we need to have a way to change our attitudes, refresh them, make them more robust, eliminate negative attitudes, and create new attitudes as the need arises. How do we do that? Here’s a recommended process.

1) First identify and detect your attitudes.

Take time to begin an attitude search in your life. Three or four times a day stop and identify the attitude that you are experiencing or have experienced. Make a record of the attitudes that you find yourself experiencing. You can not change what you are not aware of. So this is first.

2) Decide which of your attitudes need some help.

Which of your attitudes do you no longer need? Which undermine your effectiveness? Which ones reduce your joy and gratitude in life? Which ones increase your sense of grumpiness and misery? Which attitudes are good but need to be refreshed or rejuvenated or made more robust and courageous? To do this you will need to rise above the attitude as it were and run a quality control on it. Does the attitude give your life higher quality or does it lessen the quality of your life? Does it work to enhance your life, empower you as a person, reflect your best values?

3) Explore the variables inside the attitude.

Your attitude is made up of thoughts, emotions, beliefs, etc. that you have built over the years from your experiences. They develop from the conclusions you have drawn ... and some of your conclusions were made by a five-year-old mind, others by a fourteen-year-old mind, etc. So which ones are limiting? What changes do you need to make in your representations? In your beliefs.

4) Use the basic NLP and Neuro-Semantic patterns to make changes.

There are lots of patterns for making changes: Sub-modality shifts, Change Personal History, Movie Rewind, Meta-Yes Belief Change, Reframing, Super-Charging Your Attitude, etc. See any Introducing NLP, Sourcebook of Magic, User’s Manual of the Brain, etc.

Structurally, your attitudes, as your outlook on the world, are your meta-programs and your meta-states. Knowing that, you now have several ways by which you can refine your attitudes to make them richer and more resourceful.