By: Shlomo Vaknin, C.Ht

The Circle of Excellence pattern is an enjoyable way to free yourself of negative states. You will do this by extinguishing their anchors. We’re talking about negative anchors now. After all, most of our behaviors have some anchors connected with them, including negative states. At the same time, you will be creating a powerful anchor for a state of excellence. This was created by Dr. Grinder.

First, think of an unresourceful state that you would like to be free from. Ask yourself what things trigger this unresourceful state. Those things are negative anchors; the kind of anchors you want to extinguish. To understand the anchor, look for all sense modalities, including visual, auditory, and tactile, that occur when you are triggered into the unresourceful state. Your anchor can be any or all of those sense modes at one time or in a sequence.

Next, draw an imaginary circle on the floor or mark a circle in chalk large enough to step into.

Now remember experiences where you felt powerful, creative, composed, or any resourceful state where you felt balanced and centered. Emphasize the experiences that you would say are good antidotes to the un-resourceful state, that is, the states that would be best at counteracting that unresourceful state.

Next, you will slowly begin to step into that circle. However, only proceed so long as you are maintaining the resourceful state. If it diminishes, then stop and renew that state, then you can continue to step into the circle of excellence.

Do you remember how to amplify a state? Do what works best for you. You can look through your own eyes as you remember an experience in which you felt that state. Remember the words, remember the feelings, posture, breathing, and so forth. If you do better seeing yourself from third position, then use that perspec-tive and look at your posture, gestures, and expressions.

To make the state even stronger or to make it into the right blend, remember another experience. You can keep adding experiences and amplifying the state until it is strong.

When you are ready, you can step into the circle of excellence.

As you step in, remember the anchors that trigger the UN-resourceful state. Do this with each negative an-chor. You can do this process with a partner or coach, who provides the negative triggers. Remember that you must maintain the resourceful state as you step into the circle. What you are doing is making your re-sourceful, positive state more powerful than the triggers. As they say in behaviorism, you are extinguishing those anchors.

In the future, this circle of excellence can be an imaginary circle that you step into before a meeting or other challenge. You can make the circle so large that it is more like crossing a line into the entire area that you will be. After all, its YOUR imagination. You can do anything you like with it.