NLP Sensory-Based Outcomes

In NLP, an outcome is more than a goal. An outcome includes sensory-based evidence, such that you know when you have reached an outcome because the outcome is recognizable by your senses. In other words, based on what you can see, hear, feel, smell or taste, how do you know you have reached your outcome? To use a barbecue as an example... what do perfectly cooked chops look, sound and smell like before you remove them from the grill? Without these submodalities as a guide we run the risk of over or under-cooking the chops.

Just Ask

It all starts with getting clear or sure about what do you want to learn or have, or where you want to go. Invest the time to see the sights, hear the sounds, and feel the feelings not of having completed the last step on the way to the outcome. For example, if your outcome is to enjoy Niagra Falls (known by some to be the second biggest disappointment of the honeymoon), then visualize yourself driving through the gates of the parking lot on either the American or the Canadian side and paying the parking fee in the local currency.

Outcome Thinking vs. Problem Thinking

This is a key difference between successful people versus people in stuck states. A problem-orientation or outlook results in behaviors of blame or other kinds of inaction. Outcome thinking charts a course from the problem state to the outcome state, and then uses sensory feedback to decide when steps toward the outcome are actually completed successfully. The outcome is assured before it even happens.

Outcome-oriented thinkers look at a problem as something to be understood and clarified, because they know that a problem well-stated is a problem half solved. Then the rest of the steps toward the desired outcome become action oriented.

With this background, let's dive a little deeper into outcomes.