Did you ever try to get rid of an unhelpful behavior, only to be unsuccessful? There is list of widespread problem behaviors that people often try to alter or eliminate using self-hypnosis. Perhaps 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 harmful behaviors are the end 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 worried, and that can result in these behaviors. And because 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 these negative behaviors, you will need to know specifically how to go about accomplishing it.

DESIRE: You're probably reading this piece because you want the motivation to change something about yourself. And that is fitting because the first factor in the "Motivation Formula For Your Success" is that you must want or desire to change. If you have read this far, at least some part of you wants a change.

BELIEF IS REQUIRED FOR MOTIVATION: Before anyone can change a negative behavior, that person must be motivated to do so. Merely wanting a behavior to change is not sufficient. 

Our motivation comes from what we believe. If we believe that something very important to us will get better or "become enhanced" if we make a change in our behavior, we will become motivated. 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 feel highly motivated to change.

Some simple examples of these motivational beliefs might be: 

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

If I kick my smoking habit, then I will not have to worry about cancer.

If I stop biting my nails, then my hands will be a lot prettier.

TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN CREATE THE BELIEFS THAT LEAD TO MOTIVATION: NLP - which is short for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, provides methods that can immediately generate the element of belief. You can study more on this topic 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 defines the word "Decision" as making up one's mind / a verdict or judgment. When you believe a thought that provides you with a powerful feeling of motivation to make a change, you will feel bound to make a decision to change a negative behavior. Decision is the key that unlocks the door to taking action.

ACTION: The dictionary definition of the word "Action" is an act or deed / to do or perform. Taking action means that rather than just thinking about making personal changes, you will actually take action and bring about your desired changes.

SELF-TALK: One of the many reasons that most individuals fail to change or eliminate a negative behavior is because of their self-talk. Self-talk is significant because often it is an important part of what caused the negative behavior in the first place. 

I'd like you to consider this for a moment: Let's say that you want to stop smoking. Probably the first thing that you are likely to say or think to yourself is: "I'm not going to smoke cigarettes anymore." 

It is common for people to tell themselves what they aren't going to do. Unfortunately, when we tell ourselves what we are not going to do, we are actually compelling 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 don't want to do, or what we won't do, in order to make sense of it our mind must show us doing whatever it is that we wish to stop doing. And when we see ourselves engaging in a behavior, our mind compels us to generate that behavior.

SUMMARY: In order to modify a negative behavior, we must want or DESIRE to eliminate it. BELIEF is the factor that leads us to MOTIVATION. MOTIVATION is the drive that compels us to DECISION. DECISION is the trigger to ACTION. NLP is a technology that we can use to facilitate beliefs, motivation, decisions, and actions.

When we tell ourselves what we are not going to do, we make a mental picture of ourselves engaging in the behavior that we want to modify. And that mental picture gives us a compulsion to participate in the unwanted behavior. So if we want to get rid of a negative behavior, instead of telling ourselves what we will not do, we must always tell ourselves what we will do. 

To break the smoking habit say: "I can live without them." 

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

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

To fall asleep more quickly say: "I fall asleep promptly, and sleep soundly throughout the night."

Alan B. Densky, CH is an NLP Practitioner and certified hypnotherapist. He operates the Neuro-VISION self-hypnosis CDs website and BestHypnosisDownloads website. He offers NLP & hypnosis downloads for motivation. Visit the site for his free Hypnosis MP3 downloads, newsletters, and his hypnosis research library.

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