Title: NLP in 21 DAYS: A complete introduction and training programme.

Authors: Harry Alder and Beryl Heather

It's just as well the authors give readers the opportunity to take as long as they like to work through this book. I have taken months.

NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming offers a ‘structured approach to how people think and how they behave' and Alder and Heather offer this book as a training program for people wanting to experience ‘rapid changes in behaviour and achievement'. It can be applied in all fields.

The book starts looking at how we tick, then moves through such things as getting what we want, knowing what it is that you want, making sense of your own world, winning friends and influencing people, the power of language and so much more. Each chapter concludes with exercises you can do to put what you've learned into practice.

That's why it has taken me much longer than 21 days to finish it. I would go away, try out the exercise, realize that I needed more information or to check what had happened, and then have to try the exercise again. There were some humorous exercises like changing your subjective mind. ( For this you imagine your boss with a silly hat on) Then there were more serious exercises as in Reframing which is a technique in creative problem solving. (For this take a situation such as when your boss runs you down in front of others. At first you think your boss is picking on you, but if you reframe the situation you might consider that maybe your boss is not well, has just had a huge argument with his boss or has just lost a great deal of money betting on a horse. If you take any one of these reframes, it changes the way you look at the original situation)

Fascinating stuff. I found this book difficult to keep reading. One reason I identified is that when using NLP, the grammar can be quite different to what is considered correct. The authors warned us about that fortunately and my anal (versus analytical) approach to grammar clearly slowed me down in my reading as I had to go back to the beginning of sections to ensure I understood what was meant.

I was about to give up, when I met a man who said something like ‘ Isn't NLP fascinating? I can't believe how much of a change you can make just by using three little words' That was enough to make me continue to the end and now I am referring to the book on a regular basis.

Penny Paxman owns Ticks Life Coaching and is currently working with women in businesses affected by the bushfires. Email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it