This Pegasus NLP Newsletter article looks at how we can apply in our everyday lives a very simple principle from the world of Outdoor Activities and, I believe, the work of Karl Rohnke.

The 10% New attitude

There's value in the old proverb 'little and often makes much'. Yet in a world of instant results where people can have complete image 'makeovers', or even life makeovers, in a 45 minute-plus-adverts television programme, the excitement and challenge of the Grand New Start is hard to resist.

The problem, as many of us have discovered, is that Grand New Starts don't tend to produce lasting changes and often upset the people around us.

This is because the upset our 'personal ecology' - they cause too much disruption in our lives and in our relationships - something which we explore in our NLP Core Skills course with the linked topics of Comfort Stretch Panic and 10% New.

The Comfort, Stretch, and Panic Zones

Our Comfort Zone is our area of familiarity - doing familiar, routine activities with which we are very comfortable.

In our Stretch Zone we're doing something unusual or out of the ordinary. This can be mildly stretching, as in a slight change in daily routine, or quite stretching as in a major change in daily routine, a new job, or even going to a new holiday destination.

The Panic Zone is the one to avoid; it's where we stretch too far - to the point where change in activity is unpleasantly, rather than exhilaratingly, stressful.

The 10% New idea

With 10% New we aim to respect ourselves by stretching in small increments rather than life disrupting changes. We aim to gradually develop skills and familiarity - rather than suddenly shocking our system with a 'stretch too far'. (The principle also encourages us to respect what other people select as their 10% stretch - but that's another topic).

These two principles, plus Challenge by Choice, set the framework for how people participate in the High or Low Ropes Challenge courses and how they interact with one another through the entire course.

The principles ensure that participation is enjoyable, is quite free of peer pressure, and is an opportunity to demonstrate respect for oneself and for others.

Simple can be Powerful!

The value of the concepts is not restricted to the ropes courses nor to NLP training; they have valuable applications just about everywhere in our daily lives.

In this article we're looking at what appears to be the least insignificant of the two - the '10% New' principle - because this is a great example of the simple being powerful. This apparently simplistic concept is one which, months or years after participating in one of our courses, people refer back to as having had an enduring effect - despite the fact that actual introduction of the principal took around 15 minutes of course time!

Back to that  'Grand New Start'

We've probably all done it: we read an inspiring book, watch a TV programme or YouTube video, or attend a workshop and decide 'that's it - time to change my life!' Full of enthusiasm we embark on our crusade to radically transform our own lives - and maybe even the lives of friends and family.

And usually this Grand New Start, this excursion into the Stretch Zone, is so disruptive of our life that it peters out and things soon return to normality - back into our Comfort Zone!

For example:

The Great Fitness Programme: the Grand New Start which leaves you so exhausted after a week or two that it disrupts your normal life and is soon quietly and guiltily abandoned.

The Super New Weight-Loss System:  which leaves you so hungry and miserable after a few days that you're soon back to the old ways.

The 'I Will Become Perfect' Programme: the Grand New Start  where 'I'm going to become be super-efficient and organised' but which is quickly abandoned because you spend more time being efficient and tidy than being productive!

The 'This Team Will Improve' Regime: this begins with 'Right, we as a team are going to radically improve our performance (or have shorter meetings, use less paper, etc etc)'. and it so disrupts normal smooth team functioning that it has to be abandoned.

The 'This Household Will Improve' Master Plan: 'We, as a household, are going to eat healthily (or start exercising, or going out for walks together, or going watch less TV, etc)' - a dream which quickly buckles under the strain of the disagreements, sabotage efforts or rebellions.

Grand New Starts don't last very long

What's common to each of these Grand New Starts is an enthusiastic beginning followed by lots of routine-disrupting activity which produces resistance or sabotage which, in turn, results in the project being abandoned!

This occurs because dramatic changes, i.e. very big Stretches, disrupt the 'system' or the established status quo so they provoke resistance or a backlash. Or a relentless on-going struggle with ourselves (in the case of personal stretches) or with others (when we attempt to impose our ideas on them).

The 10% New approach

'Little and often' rather than a lot occasionally is much more likely to be effective, enduring and enjoyable!

That's because with a measly '10%' improvement there's almost no disruption - and so there's no backlash. But.. these small and almost imperceptible changes usually become (pleasantly and gradually) life changing.

So, for example:

Rather than the Great Fitness Programme how about walking for 10-15 minutes more per day for the first week?

Instead of the Super New Weight-Loss System how about aiming to gradually reduce the size of food portions - and aiming to always leave a little food on the plate?

Instead of the 'I Will Become Perfect' Programme how about beginning with just one daily task that you will do differently and more effectively - and then sticking with this until it becomes a habit?

Rather than the This Team/Household Will Improve how about agreeing on specific small improvements which are persisted with until they become habitual?

KISS

Keep It Short & Simple by picking one little change and sticking with it for a few days. Not forever. Not for the rest of your life. Say about five or six days.

Since it's such a small and almost imperceptible change there won't be a backlash - either from yourself or from those around you...

...and after the five or six days it's likely it won't be so much in your Stretch zone - it'll be coming into your Comfort Zone - and becoming part of your routine.

Share your views on this...

You can make a comment on or ask a question about this article on the blog: http://pegasusnlpblog.com/.

There is a newsletter article on NLP and the Comfort, Stretch, Panic Model here

© 2009-2010 Reg Connolly

The Pegasus NLP Newsletter provides free practical, how-to information, tips and techniques to feel more in charge of you - your moods, your body, your relationships, your career or business and your future.  You can subscribe by clicking on the button below and a copy will silently slip into your in-box every few weeks...