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In yesterday’s article about NLP techniques I discussed the different thinking patterns that we each use. By now you should have a clear idea of your own prime thinking pattern.
Now you need to start studying other people’s thinking patterns. In particular you need to pay attention to the thinking patterns used by those whom you most want to influence.
This is a matter of watching closely and listening. You need to sharpen up your listening skills so that you can clearly hear the differences between someone who uses a Visual thinking pattern and someone who uses a Feeling thinking pattern.
It helps to observe the body language of the different types of people. They will often give you behavioural clues by the body language that they use.
For instance someone who is Auditory may tend to lean forward with one ear cocked in order to hear better, or she may cup her hand behind her ear.
Someone who is Visual may stare at you very intently when listening, or she may draw mind maps to help herself to understand your meaning.
A Feeling person may smile a lot or encourage you to express yourself warmly. They may also gesticulate emotionally when speaking.
Once you have picked up on some body language clues about a person’s thinking pattern listen even more closely for further verbal clues until you are sure you have them categorised correctly.
Today you should study two people whom you wish to influence and categorise them. Tomorrow I will show you how to do this.
