Did you ever try to do away with a harmful behavior, only to fail? There is an extensive list of ordinary problem behaviors that people often try to alter or eliminate using self-hypnosis or NLP. The most common are: Overeating and weight loss; stop smoking; quit chewing tobacco; stop nail biting; increasing self-confidence; overcoming insomnia and sleeping better; improving memory; and managing stress.

WHAT THE MIND CAUSES, THE MIND CAN CURE:

The motivation for our behaviors starts in our thoughts. If you stop and think about it, all of these unconstructive behaviors are the result of negative thinking. In other words, you think and motivate yourself into all of these behaviors. Or at least you think yourself into feeling anxious, and that can be the origin of these behaviors. And in view of the fact that you think and motivate yourself into these behaviors, you can think and motivate yourself out of them as well. In order to think and motivate yourself out of them, you will need to know specifically how to go about doing so.

DESIRE:

You are almost certainly reading this editorial because you want the motivation to make some personal changes. And that is fitting for the reason that the first building block in the "Motivation Formula For Your Success" is that you must want or desire to change. If you have read this far, at least a little part of you wishes a change.

BELIEF IS REQUIRED FOR MOTIVATION:

Before anyone can eliminate a negative behavior, that person must be motivated to do so. Merely wanting a behavior to change is not adequate.

Our motivation comes from the things that we believe. If we believe that something very important to us will get better or "become enhanced" if we alter our behavior, then we will feel a high level of motivation. Conversely, if we believe that something very important to us will be placed in jeopardy if we don't alter our behavior, we will also experience motivation to alter our behavior.

Some simple examples of these motivational beliefs would be:

If I take some weight off, then I'll be able to find a companion.

If I kick my smoking habit, then I won't have to worry about cancer.

If I stop biting my nails, then my hands will look a lot more attractive.

TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN CREATE THE BELIEFS THAT LEAD TO MOTIVATION:

Neuro-Linguistic Programming - which is commonly known as NLP, provides methods that are able to instantly produce the element of belief. You can study more concerning this by reading the articles "How To Get Motivated To Exercise Using Hypnosis And NLP" and "Motivation Theory - How To Quit Smoking Using NLP And Hypnosis For Motivation." These articles are both available in my free hypnosis research library.

DECISION:

The dictionary definition of the word "Decision" is making up one's mind / a verdict or judgment. When you believe a concept that gives you a powerful feeling of motivation to make a change, you will feel compelled to make a decision to eliminate a negative behavior. Decision is the key that unlocks the door to compelling action.

ACTION:

The dictionary defines the word "Action" as an act or deed / to do or perform. Taking action means that rather than just daydreaming about making personal changes, you will actually take steps to bring about your desired changes.

SELF-TALK:

One of the many reasons that most individuals are unsuccessful at eliminating a negative behavior is because of what they say to themselves. Self-talk is important because repeatedly it is an important part of what caused the negative behavior to begin with.

I'd like you to think about this for a moment: Let us say that you want to kick a cigarette addiction. The first thing that you are likely to say or think to yourself is: "I'm not going to smoke cigarettes anymore."

It is universal for people to tell themselves what they aren't going to do. Unfortunately, when we tell ourselves what we aren't going to do, we are actually programming ourselves to do it!

SELF-TALK EXERCISE:

Say the following to yourself: I can't see blue. I can't see polka dots . . . . . . .

I'll bet your mind showed you the color blue, and then it showed you polka dots. That's because when we tell ourselves what we aren't going to do, in order to make sense of it our mind must make an image of us doing whatever it is that we would like to stop doing. And when we imagine ourselves in a behavior, our mind compels us to produce that behavior.

SUMMARY:

In order to get rid of a negative behavior, we must first want or DESIRE to eliminate it. BELIEF is the element that leads us to MOTIVATION. MOTIVATION is the drive that leads us to DECISION. DECISION is the impetus to ACTION. Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a technology that we can use to facilitate beliefs, motivation, decisions, and actions.

When we tell ourselves what we aren't going to do, we make a mental picture of ourselves using the behavior that we want to alter. And that mental image gives us an urge to participate in the negative behavior. So if we want to abolish a negative behavior, rather than tell ourselves what we won't do, we must always tell ourselves what we will do.

To stop smoking say: "I can live without them."

To eliminate cravings for high calorie foods or to stop chewing smokeless tobacco say: "I can live without it."

To reduce stress say: "I'm relaxed and calm, both mentally and physically."

To overcome insomnia say: "I fall asleep promptly, and sleep soundly throughout the entire night."