The New Behavior Generator is an NLP method that uses mental rehearsal or visualization to help develop lasting changes in behavior. Achieving meaningful outcomes typically involves consistent actions and responses over time. For example, obtaining a qualification isn’t just about passing an exam but also requires ongoing traits like persistence, maintaining optimism, and keeping a clear vision.
While habits often get a bad reputation, they actually help our brains operate efficiently by reducing the need to consciously control every action. If we had to think through every behavior, we’d waste a lot of mental energy and productivity.
To build and maintain habits, it’s important to connect long-term goals with the specific behaviors and reactions needed to reach them. Starting an exercise routine might be easy, but without a strong link between the desired result (like improved fitness or appearance) and the repeated actions, it’s challenging to keep going.
Skill Development
The New Behavior Generator creates a mental template or map that guides the development of unconscious competence in a skill. It helps organize your nervous system so that learning becomes smoother and more structured. However, actual skill mastery still requires practice and ongoing refinement.
Leveraging Existing Experience
We don’t need to start from zero when learning. Effective learning means building on what we already know from personal experience and from observing others. Our brains have many unconscious patterns and behaviors that can be rearranged and connected to form new skills.
People learn by watching, practicing, and improving. We form strategies to accomplish goals. For instance, if you want to paint your office, you would plan how to clear the space, prepare surfaces, and apply paint. If you were a professional painter, these steps would be automatic—a set of ingrained strategies.
Steps in the New Behavior Generator
- Choose a specific behavior that will help you achieve your desired outcome.
- Ensure your goal is well-defined and positively stated. Check that it fits your values and doesn’t conflict with other goals (an ecology check).
- Visualize a “dissociated movie” of the behavior—watching yourself or someone else performing it from a detached perspective. The model could be yourself, someone you know, a celebrity, a fictional character, or even an animal. Adjust this mental movie until it perfectly represents how you want the behavior to look.
- If you started with someone else’s behavior, then imagine yourself performing it, still from a dissociated viewpoint.
- Create a physical connection by associating yourself with the movie. Focus on your body’s sensations and posture during the behavior. For example, notice how your shoulders relax or your posture changes when you speak confidently.
- Finally, test your new behavior by mentally placing yourself in future real-life situations (future pacing). This helps build conscious belief that you have truly acquired the new behavior.