Motivational Potential in NLP: How to Create a Better Future

In NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), there’s an interesting term called “motivational potential.” If we understand what it means and learn how to use it, fulfilling our desires (just as promised by Transurfing!) is practically guaranteed.

A Metaphor to Start

Imagine you’re at home in the evening, looking after a small child. The child is playing peacefully in their room while you’re in the kitchen heating up dinner. Suddenly, the child runs in, points to their room, and says they’re afraid to go back because there’s a monster under the bed.

No matter how much you try to reassure the child, they won’t calm down until you act out a little magic scene. You take the child by the hand, go into their room, turn on the light, move the bed, and loudly talk to the “monster.” When you “chase it away” in the voice of a grumpy old neighbor, the child relaxes and believes the monster has left in shame.

If you just laugh at the child and say it’s all nonsense and there are no monsters, the child may pretend to agree, but they won’t feel at peace. Worse, they’ll lose you as a protector and someone who understands them.

Children have their own reality, and you have yours. In your reality, there’s no money; in theirs, there’s no belief that monsters don’t exist. Over time, things will settle, but for now, you have to respect the child’s reality.

How We React to Reality

Let’s replay this NLP “movie” and look at your reaction to the child’s claim about the monster under the bed. You stayed completely calm, right? The information didn’t make you call emergency services or plan an escape route across the rooftops. Why? Because people only react to the reality they themselves believe in—no more, no less.

The paradox of human psychology is that we react not to what actually exists, but to what seems real to us. The child’s reaction to the monster is appropriate and active—they believe in it. Your reaction is different because, in your reality, monsters don’t exist.

Now, answer this: who would be better at executing a complex escape plan from the apartment—you, who dismisses the danger, or the one who sees the danger as real? When it comes to developing rooftop escape skills, believing in monsters is actually useful.

Understanding Motivational Potential in NLP

Now, let’s get to the NLP term itself—motivational potential. Motivational potential is what we believe is real. That’s what motivates us to react.

If you tell a child that if they don’t put away their toys, you’ll throw them out in the morning, and the child doesn’t react, it means only one thing: you’ve painted a “future scenario” the child doesn’t believe in. In other words, that scenario has no motivational potential for them.

What Do People Do All Their Lives?

All our lives (from the NLP perspective), we ask ourselves: “What is real? What’s true and what’s not?” Our driving force is the need to react and act. But we can only act toward what we see as REALITY, not fantasy.

We need to know what truly exists and what doesn’t, what’s really happening and what’s just rumors. The most emotional and common question we ask is: “Does this person love me?” Because we need to know how to behave with them. If they love us, we act one way; if not, we act differently.

Depending on the answers we get, we react and behave in completely different ways. We ask ourselves and the world burning questions like:

• Is it true that I’m very attractive?
• Is it true that wishes come true if you really want them?
• Is it true that I’m always lucky?
• Is it true that my past left many scars on my soul?
• Is it true that my husband cheated on me?
• Is it true that people like me have to work twice as hard to achieve anything?

For answers, people turn to fortune tellers, office gossips, close friends, therapists, literature, religion, the media, and so on.

It’s important for us to know what’s real and what’s not, so we don’t waste our energy and can save our physical and mental efforts. For example, when a teacher threatens a surprise test, the whole class weighs the chances: will she really do it, or will she forget? Should we prepare or just ignore it?

When This Trait Backfires

It’s great when we choose not to believe in threats—following the principle: “Don’t believe, don’t fear, don’t ask.” Experienced people know that 99% of threats are just manipulation by pushy politicians or salespeople and aren’t worth our attention.

But it’s bad when we choose not to believe in the reality of our own bright future.

However, there’s a whole category of people who, even without NLP or therapy, playfully construct a likely (wonderful) future for themselves. Then they act as if that future is already real or about to happen (so they need to get ready!).

People who behave as if their constructed wonderful future is a sure thing almost always get what they ordered.

As Victor Pelevin wrote in “Chapayev and Void”: “They don’t actually predict the future, they create it, moving toward where they think the wind will blow. After that, the wind has no choice but to actually blow from that direction.”

How to Fill Your Future with Motivational Potential

So, how do you believe in a date? In a trip? In a job offer? How do you fill that picture with motivational potential?

It’s simple—remember the child who believes there’s a monster under the bed. And remember his aunt, who only believes that if she leaves the cutlets on the stove for one more minute, they’ll definitely burn.

You can probably guess whose “sense of being” strategy you should copy in this case—so you can take off, pushing off from the rooftops…