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Step Into Your Success: Time Lining Technique

Have you ever tried to overcome a certain life pattern only to find it repeating itself over and over? Maybe you always choose the wrong job. Maybe you always get overlooked for a raise or promotion. Maybe you've tried to start multiple businesses only to have them fail. Experiences in life can be a powerful force in shaping who we become but when we let the negative experiences derail our success, it's time to take the power back. How? By using a great NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) technique called Time Lining. Interested in stepping in to your successful now? Then read on!

Have you ever tried to overcome a certain life pattern only to find it repeating itself over and over? Maybe you always choose the wrong job. Maybe you always get overlooked for a raise or promotion. Maybe you’ve tried to start multiple businesses only to have them fail. Experiences in life can be a powerful force in shaping who we become but when we let the negative experiences derail our success, it’s time to take the power back. How? By using a great NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) technique called Time Lining. Interested in stepping in to your successful now? Then read on!

Time Lining is a great NLP technique that help us change the perceptions that we create in our mind about our past. And the reason this is helpful is that we live in the now created by the perceptions that we have of our self in the past. If we tell ourselves that we were not loved as a child and we were treated awfully then this will impact how you expect to be treated or behave as an adult. Like a victim. As though nothing is our fault because we are a product of a bad upbringing. That’s a pretty powerless way to live don’t you think? We are capable of changing that thought process that keeps us trapped in that past.

The reality is that we all have our own perceptions of the past. If we choose to live in the past and to live IN these perceptions, then how can we move forward? It is our choice to change what the perception is and Time Lining is a great tool to help you get out of the past and come into the future. The time of NOW. Your time to be successful and look towards your desired brighter future.

There are very specific steps in the Time Lining process so that we can identify the perceptions of our life experiences holding us back.

First we start with:
  • Stand with eyes closed for a moment. Closing our eyes helps us to focus.
  • We then need to think of various times in our life such as starting school, first relationships, first job or an important family member. Key times that can be associated with strong memories.
  • When a significant situation stands out, it is important to remember the feelings that are associated with it as it felt then. Try to step in to the memory at that age versus the age now. When stepping in the direction where you see this situation in your mind, is it forward? To the side? Backwards?
  • Keep doing this till you have a few more situations that you are stepping into. It is like you are mapping it out physically with your Healthy Body. 5 is a good amount. They can be big or small situations – it doesn’t matter. It’s the perception we hold about them that counts.
  • When this step is completed, the goal is to have “tagged” the situations and the feelings associated to them so that they can be revisited in the next step.

That next step? It involves sitting down and thinking of all of our positive attributes. Hopefully these words come easy, but just in case:

As we add more and more of these words to the list (and I’m sure it will be a long list!) think of the feelings that are associated with knowing those words are on the list. Powerful. Strong. Able. Keep hold of those feelings.

The last step is key to moving forward towards that brighter future we envision.

Go back to the first tagged situation. Bringing all that you know now with all of your strong positive attributes and energy. Revisiting all of the situations in the new light of now (if you miss one do not stress it). Even changing one perception is powerful accomplishment.

It is key to step in to the memory as we are now and bring the energy created by our list of positive attributes. Realizing that the power of who we are now can change how we perceive the past.

As we look at the situation with new eyes, our older more experienced and wiser eyes, notice how the perception shifts. How the situation and the feelings it caused then, don’t have the same power we once gave them.

This step allows us to permanently let go of the associations to the memory (perceptions) that may have been holding us back.

Taking the time to revisit as many tagged situations as possible can allow us to be free from the shackles of the past. Those things that have been holding us back and we may not have even realized it. The best thing about this technique is that it is limitless and timeless. It can be used over and over again to help you move forward. Isn’t it about time?

Namaste!