MAKING 2016 MEANINGFUL

I’m often asked, “What is Neuro-Semantics?” The shortest answer is, “It is about the meaningfulness of your life.” That’s because the term “semantics” refers to meaning and meaningfulness and “neuro-” refers to where you experience meaning, namely, in your body and in your experiences. Given that, how meaningful is your current life experience? How much meaning do you experience on a daily basis?

These initial questions about meaning and meaningfulness is just the beginning. There are a lot more to ask. For example, we can take any aspect of life (well-being, health, fitness, relationships, family, job/career, finances, wealth-creation, hobbies, creativity, sports, faith/spirituality, etc.) and asked these questions regarding meaning.

How meaningful is exercise for you? What meanings do you give to staying fit? How meaningful is your work, the job you do, your career path? What meanings do you give to your loved ones? How much meaning do you invest in them? How much more meaning would you like to invest?

One of the central models we use in Neuro-Semantics, which takes it beyond the ken of NLP, is The Meaning—Performance Axes. This model arose from the study of self-actualization and the research into the history of the Human Potential Movement which was the background for the emergence of NLP (see “The Secret History of NLP”). These axes enable us to sort out the two dimensions of life, the inner and outer dimensions, which uniquely and still mysteriously defines our lives.

The Meaning Axis. You and I are meaning-makers. We create, construct, and invent meaning. This lies at the heart of our essential nature. Without formal “instincts” which animals have, we create our “instinct-like” responses by the meanings we construct. Nor is this optional. You have to invent meanings. Why? Because by itself, nothing meanings anything. For anything to have “meaning,” you have to attribute meaning to it. And when you think, when you feel, when you respond—that is what is happening, you are attributing, appraising, and constructing meaning. What meaning you create then becomes the question. So also the quality of the meaning that you invent. That’s because the quality of your life is the quality of your meanings. This is the inner dimension—the dimension that you cannot see, hear, smell, or taste. It is your inner game. And all of the truly meaningful and significant facets of your life comes from this dimension. That’s why it is inside-out.

The Performance Axis. You and I are also responders. We act. We speak, emote, behave, react, respond, and do things. And the key to our actions, the meaning of our actions, the quality of our behaviors lies in our meanings. That’s because behind or within every response is a meaning and the response is the acting-out of meaning. That’s also what every emotion is—the feel of meaning. Regarding this outward dimension, this is the outer game and is what you can see, hear, smell, and taste. It is empirical and sensory-based. And, the quality of your actions

or performances depends on the quality of your meanings.

This is Neuro-Semantics: the synthesis of meaning and performance which enables you to manage your life—both your inner and outer dimensions of life so that you find it significant and highly meaningful. If there’s some aspect of life that you don’t experience as rich and meaningful as you would like, you have two areas or dimensions that you can work with—the inner and the outer games.

As you begin the new year, the structure of experience requires that you must choose and act, for better or worse, to determine the meaning of your life. No one can do this for you. No one or no thing will come along to relieve you of that responsibility. You are the meaning-maker and you are the responder. So your life—and the quality of your life, the quality of your actions, the effectiveness of what you do—is ultimately in your hands. If you try to live off of the meanings that someone else gives you—you do so to your own detriment. If you procrastinate, waiting for some great meaning to come to you—the odds are against you and you will more likely just be wasting your time.

To make your life meaningful—you need to learn what meaning is, how you make it, how you can suspend old meanings, how to reframe new meanings, how to integrate meanings into your neurology, to translate what you know into what you do, and how to perform your highest meanings. That’s what Neuro-Semantics is all about.

Yes, this is about “how to run your own brain” (the basic NLP theme) and yes, it is about “how to manage your states” (another NLP theme). It is also about how to become a professional communicator in using language with precision and clarity (after all, NLP is essentially a Communication Model). Yet it is about much more. It is about discovering your uniqueness and stepping into your very best states so that you can unleash your highest meanings and values. That’s what the Accessing Personal Genius (APG) focuses on as the flagship training of Neuro-Semantics.

From there we move into the unleashing processes, that is, how actualizing your highest meanings into your best performances work. Accordingly, picking up on the modeling emphasis of Maslow and NLP, Neuro-Semantics focuses on the structure of experience and how to model excellent and highly meaningful performances. If you’re committed to raising the level of meaningfulness in your life this year, try Neuro-Semantics.

Check out www.neurosemantics.com / Trainings / Institutes/ 2016 Schedule