Written by: by Amy Sorkin
If you were introduced to a quick effective technique to create change in your life instantly - in your finances, health, relationships and career - would you try it?
Christopher Howard, an internationally acclaimed expert in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Leadership, has made a career out of guiding people to immediately transform ineffective thoughts and behaviors into adaptable, successful ones that allow them to create the results they want in their lives.
NLP is a hybrid science discovered and created in the early 70’s by a computer scientist and a linguist. The team studied the most effective therapists while they were conducting therapy to find out precisely how change occurred, with the intention of replicating this change for others in a fraction of the time. They found that the most effective method of change consisted of reconstructing beliefs, cognition and language in such a way as to make them work for - instead of against - the patient.
"Think of the human brain as being the most fantastic biocomputer ever created," explains Howard, who has personally led, managed, launched or turned around numerous organizations and businesses in the past decade. "But it’s not user friendly. The technologies we teach are kind of like a Users Guide. Installing a new system, such as the mindset of someone like Ghandi, for example, is like upgrading your software system."
In his courses, Howard uses the traditional techniques of NLP but takes them a step further. For one, he has combined these techniques with hypnosis to further instigate instant change on a subconscious level. He has also expanded upon the original sources used to develop and implement the science of NLP. "Instead of looking only at therapists as a source to model, I began looking to the greatest spiritual, world and business leaders of all time, such as Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and Richard Branson (the mastermind behind Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines), to name a few. Howard calls the tools he teaches today Creation Technologies. They are tools that allow you to create your life the way that you want by expanding your self concept and expanding the results that you are able to produce in any context.
"Through the technique of modeling, we can look at any result that anybody has every produced and replicate that result in a fraction of the time," explains Howard. "In the various courses we teach through our University of Excellence, modeling, along with other tools, is taught as a means of accelerating one’s own success. We teach how to replicate and expand excellence."
So what is the process of Creation Technologies? Let’s say somebody wants to become a multi-billionaire or super success, and they choose Oprah Winfrey as their role model. "Her success is the result of a superior mindset," says Howard. "The question then becomes: "How can we emulate and install her psychology into somebody else?" All of Oprah’s qualities - her values, attitudes, beliefs, the decisions she’s made, how she sees people, and the strategies she uses to produce the results she wants - are analyzed and broken down. "One of Oprah’s main driving forces is to be loved," explains Howard. "We can take that and then analyze the strategies she’s used to run that driving force. Part of what this technology does is allow us to break things down into small enough parts to make them transferable."
The manner in which Creation Technologies transfers such parts to an individual entails adjusting their values and beliefs in a way that serves their highest potential. "We all have certain ways we code and store information in our minds and bodies. A ’value’ is simply what is important to you, and values will largely shape your world," elaborates Howard. "A ’belief’ is simply a feeling of certainty about something, but it’s not necessarily true. Through Creation Technologies, we can shift the way you store values and beliefs in your body so you can change what’s important to you at the subconscious level, therefore releasing subconscious blocks to your success."
And going back to the computer analogy: "If all you have is poverty or lousy relationships punched into your search engine, that’s all that will come up. We teach people how to gain control of those things so that they can punch wealth and harmony in instead, and then that will appear in their lives."
In the weekend Breakthrough to Success Seminar, people choose an area of their lives where they’re not living up to their full potential. Howard and his associates help them and apply accelerated technologies to break through those blocks. "It’s a wonderful weekend to figure out what subconscious factors are controlling one’s life, and how they can break through these obstacles once and for all," says Howard.
A great example of the success of the techniques taught by Howard is exemplified by an artist who came to a weekend seminar. "She decided to focus on finances first," says Howard. "She was making $70,000 a year at the time. What she learned was that one of her beliefs was that money and happiness didn’t go hand in hand During the training she released this and other limiting decisions through a regression type of technique. Within a year-and-a-half after attending our program, she is now making $180,000 a year and working less. She’s also attended an additional week-long program, lost over 50 pounds, and has gotten her ideal relationship as well."
Howard maintains that there are two things that determine our success in life: our internal communication, which is how and what we communicate inside our minds and bodies (our thoughts), and our external communication, which is the manner in which we communicate with others. "No one who produces major results in the world has done so unless it has been with and through other people," emphasizes Howard. "Creation Technologies teaches us to change internal and external communication, focuses on leadership and groups, and shows people how to develop the ability to be influential in their own lives."
An important aspect of Howard’s training is that he has developed a system where people not only learn the tools for change, but are forced to apply them. In addition to the various exercises done in class, challenging activities such as ropes training, rock climbing, and even hang gliding are used to stretch people beyond their limits to make them believe they can do anything.
Although NLP is largely psychologically-oriented, Howard feels there is a strong spiritual aspect to what he does. "Who we really are is love and light and goodness, and what prevent us from tapping into that are negative emotions and limiting decisions. So when we release those things in our programs, we then become more of who we really are. I see the use of NLP in my courses as a means of getting closer to our spiritual nature.
"When people come into the weekend program," concludes Howard, "they have major changes as a result of being there only two-and-a-half days. They are blown away by the personal transformation they get afterwards and call us for weeks, months and even years later telling us how much their lives have changed. From an instructor’s viewpoint, what could be more fulfilling than that?"
For more information about Christopher Howard's
University of Excellence courses, visit us online.
