[Neurons] 2020 Neurons #65 UNCOVERING LATENT RESOURCES

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall   

2020 Neurons #65

December 7, 2020

**

UNCOVERING YOUR

LATENT RESOURCES

 

There are a multitude of resources all around us- some we call them natural
resources.  Examples include forests, rivers, coal, gas, oil, sunlight, and
on and on.  Others are human resources- assets that enable you to be the
best version of you- intelligence, faith, hope, joy, love, courage,
persistence, resilience, and on and on.  Of these resources- some are active
and readily available, some are latent and have to be developed.

 

We sometimes describe NLP in terms of resources- identifying, developing,
refining, and applying resources.  With the Well-Formed Outcome questions,
the resource questions follow the interference question (What stops you?)
and asks, "What resource do you need to handle that block?"  It could be an
external resource (time, money, personnel, advice, coaching, etc.) and it
could be an internal resources (courage, understanding, humor, etc.). 

 

Often you have to go in search of a resource- you have to go explore where
it is and how to access it.  Just as people explore for oil, explore for
wind, water, and sun energy sources, so you may have to explore and then
develop what at first may not seem like a resource.  When people first
discovered oil seeping up from the ground, it was considered a problem, a
mess, an inconvenience.  They did not want it and that was because they
didn't know what they could do with it.

 

Resources are like that- if you don't know what to do with a latent
resource, you will tend to discount it, view it pessimistically, treat it
like a problem to be solved rather than realize it is an asset to develop.
In the book Neuro-Linguistic Programming, the authors described environment
variables- the sources from which we can develop resources. 

"Each ... involves a shift from the class of environmental variables into
the class of decision variables by reframing or restructuring the way a
problematic phenomenon fit into our models.  It is the continuation of this
process, the shifting of environmental variables into decision variables by
sorting and punctuating the way the variables fit into context, that is the
goal of neuro-linguistic programming." (Dilts, 1980, p. 9)

 

That's fancy language (which is not all that clear) about turning a problem
into an asset.   It speaks about shifting an environmental variable into a
decision variable which you can then take advantage of.  Now you have
choice!

"NLP extends the limits of the modern scientific model by placing the locus
of behavioral control in the individual. ...   NLP takes one further step
and proposes to examine the correlations between what we experience as the
external environment and our internal representations of that experience."
(1980, p. 12)

 

In other words, how you think about the external problem can turn it into an
internal resource.  Using the example of oil, once people learned about it,
discovered ways to use it, their inner perception changed it from a problem
to a resource- how to provide abundant energy and how to create an economy
based on it.  We did that with rivers as we built dams to capture the energy
and then transfer it into wires that today light and warm our homes.  In
fact, hundreds of external things (environmental variables) that our
ancestors considered as problems, or as unusable factors, we have turned
into assets that frequently creates an economic fortune for those with this
ability.  When once people saw a lake frozen over, they viewed that as a
problem, today we turn it into a ice skating ring and charge people to go
skate.  That's also reframing as we change our mind about an external
factor, removing it from one category to a more useful category.

 

In a most creative way, Joe Cheal took the four dysfunctional communication
stances of Virginia Satir (e.g., blamer, placater, distracter, and computer)
and noting that when one of these are used 'in moderation' there are useful
qualities within them that can be used as a personal strength.  So from the
liability of blamer can come the asset of Expresser (direct, focused,
emphatic, strong, clear, etc.).  From the liability of placator can come the
asset of Engager (inviting, consulting, asking, open, including, etc.).
>From the liability of distracter can come the asset of Entertainer (amusing,
light-hearted, cheerful, charming, creative, etc.).  and From the liability
of computer can come the asset of Education (factual, evidence-based,
credible, intelligent, explaining, etc.). (Acuity, 2013, p. 51)

 


What are some of your latent resources- variables that today you may think
of, and conceive as, a problem- that if you could, or would, change your
mind, you would discover it as a source for wealth, health, creativity,
love, courage, etc.?  People create wealth all the time in this way.  Others
use complaints, problems, frustrations, etc. for creativity, for love, and
for resilience.

 

For many, the pandemic, the lock-down, the economic down-turn has been
nothing but an unmitigated problem.  The media used it to spread a pandemic
of fear and paranoia.  Yet it doesn't have to be that way.  Simply ask, "How
can I turn this environmental variable into an asset?"  I used the lock down
to accelerate my research and writing (last week's Neurons #64).  Some used
it to develop a daily exercise routine.  Some used it to build up an inner
sense of resilience.

 

Think about a latent resource as a resource-in-waiting.  It is there, it is
simply not activated - not yet.  It could be an understanding, a meaning, a
competence (capacity), a symbol waiting to become an overt resource.  Latent
resources, however, can be deceptive.  On the surface, they do not normally
reveal themselves as resources.  That's why you have to look deeper, explore
more thoroughly, frame and reframe to find and develop that hidden resource.
It is a potential that can be actualized, yet it takes a robust
meaning-maker to do so.  This is the challenge- are you up for it? 

 

For more, see Mind-Lines which is about the art of reframing, Unleashed
which is on the process of how unleashing potentials work, or
Neuro-Semantics - how we construct meaning and then actualize it in our
performances.

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton CO. 81520 USA

www.neurosemantics.com 

 

To unsubscribe to Neurons, send request to meta at acsol.net 

Humor is a meta-perspective about incongruity, exaggeration, playfulness,
and even absurdity.

For a touch of humor --- see the new book --- HUMOROUS THINKING  (2020)

 

 



 

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