NLP is a methodology that was created to model the excellence of others. The basic idea was to be able to replicate the skills and abilities of experts.

Most of the time modeling is all about taking a small slice of ability and working out how an expert does it. For example how a good sales professional opens the conversation, how they handle objections or close deals. This article is about some ideas that I have about keeping going despite problems and pitfalls. It is about maintaining focus, vision and motivation over long periods of time.

I have known Romilla Ready, the co-author of NLP for Dummies for a long time, and I have learnt a lot from her just by watching her published her first book, Neurolinguistic Programming for Dummies.

It took Romilla over a year to get the publisher interested. During that period, she lost her original co-author. Once through these problems, she not only had to set about writing her first book. But she also took it to be in the UK's best-selling Dummies book. Now the publisher has asked her to write the NLP for dummies workbook, which will be on sale in April 2008.

The whole thing took a considerable amount of time, there were many setbacks, and it was interesting to notice how Romilla maintained her motivation to see the project through. Here are a few of the things that I've learned through Romilla's experience.

Having strong values and the big vision is typical of Romilla's life. Neurolinguistic Programming for Dummies is only a small part of a grand plan that Romilla has for a affecting global change. This book is only the first part of a range of books, DVDs, to increase the reach and provide a positive change the world. When you are not particularly motivated to do the next task, would it be easier if you could connect with your purpose or mission in life? Perhaps see how this small task relates to the bigger picture, and how it moves you forward? By being able to connect what you are doing to the big picture helps with motivation.

Even when writing the book Romilla was having ideas and thoughts about the second book and all the other things that she wanted to get done. This certainly helped her to stay motivated and keeping this step, in proportion.

Another thing I noticed about Romilla was that she took this as a learning experience. She was constantly telling me about how much she was learning about writing, NLP, publishing, marketing, and all of this was coming through the experience of writing this book. This is a great attitude to have because it gives you the chance to ask questions, not to be perfect, learned from mistakes and move on. Any new enterprise will contain setbacks, mistakes and frustrations. But having a learning attitude towards what you're doing will allow you to gain experience and move on from any setbacks.

Something else, I noticed about Romilla, is that she was writing little, but very often. This developed consistency and discipline, as well as habit. This approach is often better than blocking huge amount of time for a specific task. It stops you going in to overwhelm, it sets up a habit and keep your motivation going.

NLP Modelling is really about looking at what's underneath the behaviour of a person. It is about their values, their beliefs and strategies. In this way, we can find out what drives them to be good at what they do. A good NLP Practitioner Course will show you how to do this.

Neurolinguistic Programming for Dummies is a great introduction book, and you can find various NLP Techniques for you to try on my website.