NLP → NLP Lexicon

Resources

Definition

In NLP, the term "resources" refers to anything that helps a person achieve their goals and bring about desired changes. Resources can be both external and internal in nature:

• External resources: Support from other people, financial means, tools, technologies, or information.
• Internal resources: Skills, talents, strengths, positive memories, knowledge, emotions, or helpful beliefs.

A central NLP principle states that every person has all the necessary resources to achieve their goals — even if some are partially unconscious or blocked. The NLP practitioner helps clients consciously activate and effectively use these resources.

Origins and Theoretical Background

The concept of resources is closely linked to the fundamental assumption of NLP that people possess all the abilities and inner strengths they need for change. Richard Bandler composure John Grinder observed that successful people deliberately access inner and outer resources to overcome challenges.

The idea was developed through influences from humanistic psychology (e.g. Carl Rogers composure Abraham Maslow) and the positive psychology which focuses on potentials and strengths rather than deficits. Resource activation is considered in NLP as the key to self-efficacy and sustainable change.

Application Examples

• Coaching: Activating self-confidence, motivation, or past successes to achieve current goals.
• Therapy: Support in processing trauma by accessing inner resources such as resilience or inner strength.
• Leadership: Identification and promotion of individual resources of team members to strengthen motivation and collaboration.
• Self-help: Using positive memories or skills to overcome fears or transform self-doubt.

Areas of Application

• Therapy: Activating inner strengths to cope with difficult situations.
• Coaching: Developing a resource-oriented mindset and increasing self-efficacy.
• Leadership Training: Promoting individual and collective potentials within the team.
• Personal Development: Strengthening self-confidence, creativity, and decisiveness.
• Conflict resolution: Utilizing existing strengths to promote constructive solutions.

Methods and Exercises

1. Resource anchor: Linking a positive inner state (e.g. self-confidence) with an external stimulus such as a gesture or touch, to be able to immediately access the resource when needed.
2. Resource technique: A person imagines overcoming a challenge with the qualities of their strongest, most successful self.
3. Timeline technique: Drawing on past successes to gain confidence and strength for future situations.
4. Resource discovery: Reflecting on which skills were helpful in the past and consciously transferring these resources to current issues.

Synonyms

• Internal resources
• Skills
• Strengths
• Potentials

Scientific or Practical Benefit

• Practical benefits: Resource-oriented work promotes a solution-oriented attitude and strengthens resilience. It helps people shift their focus from deficits to strengths.
• Scientific benefits: In positive psychology, activating resources is considered a central factor for well-being, motivation, and self-efficacy.

Criticism or Limitations

• Flattening complex problems: Critics argue that the resource model oversimplifies complex psychological issues.
• Limited empirical research: The specific effectiveness of NLP resource techniques is not comprehensively supported by scientific evidence.
• Overwhelm: Not every client can immediately access all resources – sometimes deeper emotional processes are required.

Literature and References

• Dilts, R. (1990). Changing Belief Systems with NLPMeta Publications.
• O’Connor, J., & Seymour, J. (1993). Introducing NLP: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People. HarperCollins.
• Whitaker, J., & Albrecht, D. (1995). NLP: The New Technology of Achievement. HarperCollins.

Metaphor or Analogy

Resources in NLP are like tools in a toolbox. Every person possesses a variety of tools – skills, memories, talents, or supportive people – that they can use depending on the situation to overcome challenges. If one tool doesn't fit, you reach for another – just as you flexibly use inner strengths to achieve the desired outcome.

See also