Triggers

Triggers are the things that initiate thoughts, feelings and behaviours. There are triggers that boost performance and triggers that cause us to perform less than optimally.

Triggers are not necessarily “good” or “bad. It is indeed our response to them is what matters. For example, extra supportive parents can trigger a positive self-image for one child yet to be viewed as a “controlling parent” by another child.

Even for the identical twins- Equal levels of devotion and caring can trigger gratitude in one child and rebellion in another. Same parents. same environment yet different responses.

To fully understand the reason for this, it’s helpful to take a closer look at these last two dimensions of triggers- encouraging or discouraging, productive or counterproductive.  They express the timeless tension between what we want and what we need.

Let’s talk about what makes an encouraging trigger. The peanut salad may trigger hunger in us and disgust in another person with a peanut allergy.

Likewise, we define what makes a productive trigger. We claim to want financial security; it’s a universal goal. But when we win a lottery, some of us put the money in the bank while others gamble it away.

We can illustrate this conflict in the following matrix where encouraging triggers lead us toward what we want and productive triggers lead us toward what we need. In order to achieve any goal or change in behaviour, it is important for our encouraging triggers and productive triggers to be congruent. It is possible and It’s the ideal situation. Unfortunately, what we want often lures us away from what we need. Let’s take a closer look.

We Want It vs We Need It

1. We want it and Need It: Upper right quadrant is where we prefer to be all the time. When a short-term gratification we want is congruent with the long-term achievement we need.

2. We Don’t Need It But Want It: This is where we encounter pleasurable situations that can tempt or distract us from achieving our goals. If you ever binged chocolate or ice cream while being on a diet.

3. We Don’t Want It but Need It:  Rules push us in the right direction even our first impulse is to go the other way. The traffic light, the speed limits on the road.

4. We Don’t Need It and Don’t Want It: here the triggers are most discouraging and counterproductive.

FINDING/DIRECTING TRIGGERS WITH NLP TECHNIQUES

Many NLP Interventions work on ‘trigger event’ or Internal Representation to access the problem. Here are few techniques you can use to find a trigger and replace negative triggers with positive ones.

Mapping Across

Anchoring

Swish Pattern

Strategy