NLP and The Inner Game

Virtual NLP Practitioner

Certification Program

NLP University

International

In every human endeavor there are two

arenas of engagement: the outer and the

inner. The outer game is played on an

external arena to overcome external obstacles

to reach an external goal. The

inner game

takes place within the mind of the player and

is played against such obstacles as fear, self-

doubt, lapses in focus, and limiting concepts

or assumptions. The inner game is played to

overcome the self-imposed obstacles that

prevent an individual or team from accessing

their full potential.

—Timothy

Gallwey

The “Inner Game”

2

The Inner Game and

the Outer Game

The Outer Game

External goals,

resources and

obstacles

Internal goals,

resources and

obstacles

The Inner Game

• When an outer obstacle is met by inner obstacles,

the result is an unsolvable problem.

• When an outer obstacle is met by inner resources,

the result is an achievable challenge.

• When an inner obstacle is met by outer resources,

the result is a lucky break.

• When inner resources are met with outer resources,

the result is magic!

3

When your Outer Game and Inner Game are working together,

actions flow with an effortless excellence that is called being in

“the zone.” Some indicators that you are in “the zone” are:

• Humble Authority: A feeling of confidence and the absence of

anxiety and self-doubt; No fear of failure or self-

consciousness about achieving your goals

• Relaxed readiness in the body and focused spaciousness in

the mind – Performance comes without effort and without

having to think about it

• Feeling of connection to something beyond yourself

The “Inner Game”

4

There is a vitality, a life force, a

quickening [an energy] that is

translated through you into action, and

because there is only one of you in all

time, this expression is unique. If you

block it, it will never exist through any

other medium and be lost. The world

will not have it. It is not yours to

determine how good it is; nor how it

compares with other expressions. It is

your business to keep the channel

open.

—Martha Graham

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Opening the Channel

The COACH State

– Channel Open

• Center yourself, especially in your belly

center

• Open your field of awareness

• Attend to what is going on within you

and around you with mindfulness

• Connect to yourself and to the larger

system(s) of which you are a part

• Hold whatever is happening from a

state of resourcefulness and

curiosity

6

CRASH State

– Channel Closed

§ Contracted

§ Reactive

§ Analysis Paralysis

§ Separate

§ Hostile: Hurting/Hating/Hitting

In a CRASH state you are contracted,

reacting to the environment, analyzing,

separated and feeling hostility to yourself

and others.

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Four Self-Mastery Skills

for Optimal Mindset

• Self-Awareness – Increasing your awareness of

the key cognitive and somatic elements making up

and influencing your inner state and mindset

• Self-Calibration – Assessing the current state of

those key elements with respect to their optimum

values

• Self-Adjustment – Adjusting the key elements to

produce a more appropriate or optimum expression

and exploring the new options that creates

• Self-Anchoring – Finding cues and triggers that will

help you to remember and solidify and optimum

expression of your mindset and inner state

Four Self-Mastery Skills

for Optimal Mindset

• Self-Awareness

What are you aware of? (Images, sounds,

feelings, sensations, etc.)

• Self-Calibration

How fully are you in your optimal mindset in

comparison to your peak? (0 - 10)

• Self-Adjustment

What can you do to shift to a more optimum

level?

• Self-Anchoring

What will help you to remember/hold this level?

Practicing Regaining

Optimal Mindset

1. Think of a challenging situation in which you would like to

improve your performance. Put yourself into that experience

using memory or imagination.

2. Calibrate yourself. On a scale of 0 to 10, how much do you

experience your COACH state as you think of that situation?

3. What can you do to increase your COACH state just a little

bit more? (i.e., physical, verbal, visual, reference

experience, role model, acting “as if”, etc.)

4. What level does it move to?

5. What difference does it make? What becomes possible

now?

6. How could you “anchor” this level of resourcefulness so that

it is available to you the next time you are in that situation?

Finding Your Center

1. Find (or if necessary, imagine) at least 3

examples of activities in which you fully felt a

sense of flow and being yourself (your “core

state”).

2. Find at least 3 examples of challenging times in

which you were able to stay centered and

resourceful.

3. Identify the common internal qualities shared by

all these experiences, in particular with respect to

feelings. How do you know when you are

connected to your center?

4. Use this to establish and anchor a felt sense of

your “center.”