Circle of Excellence

One of the major presuppositions of NLP is that we have all the resources we need. The Circle of Excellence technique is a way of gathering powerful internal states in our unconscious and making them available when we need them. John Grinder and Judith de Lozier developed the original pattern for collapsing unresourceful states.

This technique is a variation used to improve our “performance” whether in sports or personal relationships. Excellence doesn’t necessarily mean some powerful pumped up state of enthusiasm. It can be one of solid, centered stability for instance.

The Circle of Cxcellence is a powerful type of NLP Anchoring we can do for ourselves. It is a way to gain control over our emotional states. Our states influence our behavior and therefore the results we get in life. 

Keys

• How well you can act “as if” and elicit the state.
• How much you can intensify the resource.

People often underachieve by not accessing all the resources they have within themselves. It’s possible that they are unaware of their resources, or maybe they have not thought about how transferable the resources are from completely unrelated areas of their lives. It is also possible that they do not know how to access those resources at the point at which they require to use them. 

The Circle of Excellence technique, will enable you and your clients to access the right state, at the right time, in the right place. 

1. Know how you want to feel. By identifying how you want to feel, it means that you can break down those desired states and access them one by one from other life experiences. Ask yourself: ‘How do I want to feel in a particular situation, (e.g. confident, excited, focused, fluent might be the feelings you would select for presenting)  ‘What states would make me even more effective in …’? If you are still unsure ask someone, who excels in what you want to do. how they feel when they do the task well. An example of a desired state might be: ‘I am just about to give a presentation to 500 people and I want to feel confident, fluent and respected’ 
2. Design a ‘Circle’ that works as your anchor.  A starting point would be to draw an imaginary circle on the floor, which you step into when you wish to both ‘set’ and ‘access’ your anchored states. 
3. Anchor your desired states. This is the crucial part of the technique. Lay your circle in front of you and think of a time when you absolutely had the desired state (you might start with confidence). This does not have to be confidence in presenting – it can be confidence in ANY situation. When did you have an experience when you felt really confident about something – can you think of that time? When you have thought of a specific time – just ask yourself: What did I see? What did I hear? What did I feel? When you start to feel that state reproduce itself inside you.
4. Step into your circle and remain there as the feeling intensifies, then step out. Repeat this if you want to add additional desired states to link with the activity you are preparing for. If it is useful to add in other anchors, such as an auditory anchor, where you might say something specific to yourself as you step into the circle, or a visual anchor, where you see a particular image as you step into the circle, then add that in to further strengthen that anchoring process.
Tip: If you are doing this with someone else – make sure you use their own words back to them when you are talking through the questions. If they are anchoring confidence for example – ask them about a time they felt confident. Also make sure if more than one state is being anchored, that all three are compatible and can exist simultaneously. If you are unable to think of a time when you experienced the desired state, imagine what it would feel like, or what someone else would feel when they had that experience: this can work just as well as having had the experience yourself. Over time you can add even more strength to your anchor. When you successfully complete the presentation (or activity) and you felt confident, fluent and respected, just step into your circle and ‘stack’ that feeling so it will be even easier next time round to access that state. Whenever you finish with your circle, shrink it down and place it safely on your finger, so it is always there for you. 
5. Test your anchor. Some people need to be convinced that tools and techniques work, testing by future pacing (thinking about the next time the you will find yourself in the experience and noticing as if you were doing that task there and then and how different it feels). You will find that you immediately feel those desired states. If you do not get the intensity of feeling you desired, repeat the process, paying as much attention as possible to the original states that you recalled – really connect with them emotionally and allow yourself to feel them, see how you looked, hear what you heard. You may find that you want/need more experiences to be stacked, before you feel the intensity of feeling you really desire. 

*Click the link below for PDF on the Circle of Excellence

https://nlpcoachcertificationtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/10/Circle-of-excellence.pdf

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