I would like to really share some insights about nested loops, but before I begin, I am reminded of the time that I attended my first NLP training, and I remember the trainer sharing this wonderful tale about Milton H. Erickson, M.D., of Phoenix, Arizona.

Now I have never been to Phoenix, although I remember reading that the real estate boom that took place there, a few years back, made a lot of people quite wealthy, including financial educator, Robert Kiyosaki. If you have ever read any of Kiyosaki’s work or attended his seminars, you may recall a very powerful distinction he teaches. The difference between an asset and a liability. It is such a crucial distinction that that alone can make a person prosperous beyond belief. Now it really does come down to the beliefs you hold. And for Kiyosaki, the belief that an asset is anything that puts money into your pocket, while a liability is something takes money out of it, is quite a useful belief to have.

It is like when someone says they will give you 10 bucks to walk across a board that is one foot wide and ten feet long while suspended three feet above the ground. Simple right? An easy ten bucks! Then they say now I’ll give you ten times the amount if you walk across the same board when it rests between two 50-story building rooftops. Still simple? Come on! The only thing that has changed is the altitude and wind velocity. Or is there something else that has changed as well. Perhaps your own perceptions, your belief on what is and what is not possible, or perhaps it all comes down to as Bob Barker would say, “If the price is right.”

If our beliefs can have such an impact on us, consider what kind of beliefs you are holding on to. Are they the ones that are keeping you poor and unfulfilled or can they be the ones that fill your life with never-ending joy and the greatest of riches?

It is like that experiment with caterpillars that only follow one another or something to that affect. And the researcher places them one behind the other until they form a circle, and then places their favorite food a few inches inside the circle, but unfortunately their focus is only on the caterpillar in front of them and in a day or so they all die from starvation, while being only inches away from food.

Now that is the kind of loop you don’t want to be in. But people do that kind of stuff all the time, they go inside and start the record up and play the same few tracks they already know all too well. They usually even know the words by heart. Yet this is how the brain works. It likes things that are the same, but learns from what is different. So what does this mean? Are you stuck in a loop? Oh no, how will you get out! That’s when you go inside and shut up! And listen to that voice over there, that is saying, “Hey dumb-dumb, over here! I have been calling you for months. You need to listen better. Now, go this way!”

And it really doesn’t matter which way you go, if you are not in a hurry, but if you are, then picking the appropriate path can make a huge difference and save a lot of time and energy. When I was driving cross-country, I was taking Interstate 40, which is straight shot from California to North Carolina. However it doesn’t pass through Phoenix, so I have never made it down there. I mean that is a whole other state to be in.

But fortunately for Erickson, he was just as good of a patient as he was a doctor. So when his doctor had told him, that the only thing that would help his condition was to move to a drier state, he obliged quite willingly, and made the transition, without any hesitation. And it is the kind of intensity Erickson had that made him such a remarkable person. From Wisconsin, he could have moved to one of the Dakotas or even Utah, but no not Erickson. When he changes states, he really changes states. And that is how he got to Phoenix, Arizona, at least according to my trainer.

So back to nested loops. Now the first question you may want to ask yourself is how does it feel to be in a nested loop. From that feeling you may discover a great many things you thought you knew, in a totally new way; understand them differently, not like before. See the difference. That’s how you learned and can continue to do so. Now, this is the easy way to learn it. Read it again to make sure.