NLP is full of fancy jargon, and you need a glossary of terms when attending a NLP Practitioner Training just to make sense of it all. “Presuppositions” are no exception, even though most think they know what it means.

Presuppositions are simply the linguistic equivalent of what most people call assumptions. But with a little more art and science to it when used on purpose.

Whenever we are communicating, we use presuppositions that assume something is already true; every sentence we speak in our everyday life has a presupposition in it. In most cases, we tend not to consciously recognize what we have presupposed, and instead concentrate on what is directly stated. Thus, presuppositions are unconsciously accepted as being true and the listener will act as if they were true.

Naturally, that’s the powerful part.

Think of it like this. Every sentence you speak contains a noun and a verb, so, with each sentence you speak you actually presuppose that something exists (noun) in the past, present or future.  You also presuppose that some action did or did not take place, is or is not taking place, or will or will not take place.

Great salespeople know how to use this to their advantage.

Some of my favorite “presuppositional” categories are:

Cognitive qualifiers: “Surprisingly, interestingly, amazingly, fortunately, luckily, happily, curiously, uniquely, naturally, obviously, etc.”  Everything that follows this word is assumed true as the focus is on the word (the cognitive qualifier) that starts the sentence assuming it so.  For more info on Cognitive Qualifiers – click here.

Presuppositions that shift space (in the mind of your prospects): “Along side of that, stacked on top of that, in addition to that, adding to that, instead of that, in front of that, inside of that, outside of that, behind that, underneath that, between that, above all that, etc.”

Presuppositions that shift time (in the mind of your customers): “look back on, in the future, right now, before, once, look ahead, finally, after, long awaited, everlasting, accelerate, presently, yet, carry through, then, when, now, etc.”

Presuppositional words that say something is factual, actual, or the truth: “actually, genuinely, unquestionably, surely, certainly, proven, obviously, self evident, valid, absolute, clearly, surely, naturally, etc.”

Presuppositional words of power: Realize, aware, notice, discover, uncover.

Future posts will have some examples of these, but this should get you thinking and more importantly, creating.

I often get asked, “How do I master my NLP skills?”

Answer: “One bite at a time.”

Sharpening your sensory experience, paying attention to all the non-verbals you may not have been consciously aware of before, mastering your state, establishing rapport on multiple levels, using the meta-model, listening to sensory predicates signaling representational systems, identifying metaprograms, eliciting strategy, using sleight of mouth patterns, carefully using your advanced language patterns and the milton-model, and everything else that NLP gives you as a model of excellence (which would take much longer than a blog post to mention)…takes time.

And practice.

The best way to learn it is one bite at a time. With that said and at the same time, much of what you learn in NLP can’t be singled out and be useful. Too much of it works together with something else.

You can’t drive a car by “just paying attention to the steering wheel”, you have to pay attention to other things simultaneously such as your gas pedal, the road in front of you, cars around you, etc. But there are other things you learn to pay attention once you get better at mastering the fundamentals of driving a car – you start to notice the radio station, the weather, your passengers and perhaps engage even in conversation, the speedometer, your fuel gauge, and everything else that completes your driving experience. Most, if not all, becomes very second nature with experience and application.

That is where unconscious competence begins. You learned how to master driving a car, so you can also learn how to master your NLP skills.