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 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 stressed, 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. But in order to successfully think and motivate yourself out of these negative behaviors, you will need to know the "Motivation Formula For Success."
DESIRE:
You're almost certainly reading this editorial because you want the motivation to change something about yourself. And that is handy for the reason that the first component 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 harmful behavior, that person must be motivated to do so. Merely wanting a change is not sufficient.
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 modify our behavior, then we will experience a high level of motivation. Conversely, if we believe that something very important to us will be in jeopardy if we don't make a change in our behavior, we will also feel powerfully motivated to make a change.
Some straightforward examples of these motivational beliefs could be:
If I lose weight, then I'll be able to get a date or find someone to love me.
If I stop smoking, then I won't have to worry about cancer.
If I quit my nail biting, 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, offers strategies that are able to instantaneously generate the element of belief. You can learn more about 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 something that gives you a powerful feeling of motivation to alter your behavior, you will feel bound to make a decision to eliminate 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. When you take action it means that rather than just daydreaming about making personal changes, you will actually take steps to create your desired changes.
SELF-TALK:
One of the reasons that most people are unsuccessful at eliminating a negative behavior is because of their self-talk. Self-talk is important because time and again 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 quit smoking. Possibly the first thing that you are likely to say or think to yourself is: "I'm not going to smoke any longer."
It's 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 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 wish to stop doing. And when we picture ourselves in a behavior, our mind compels us to create that behavior.
SUMMARY:
In order to modify a negative behavior, we must first want or DESIRE to get rid of it. BELIEF is the facet that creates MOTIVATION. MOTIVATION is the drive that leads us to DECISION. DECISION is the means 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 image of ourselves in the behavior that we want to eliminate. And that mental movie gives us a compulsion to create the unwanted 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 break the smoking habit say: "I can live without them."
To abort cravings for food that will make you fat or to quit smokeless chewing tobacco say: "I can live without it."
To manage stress say: "I'm relaxed and calm, both mentally and physically."
To fall asleep more quickly say: "I fall asleep quickly, and sleep soundly and restfully throughout the entire night."
Alan B. Densky, CH is a certified hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. He runs the Neuro-VISION self-hypnosis CDs website and the Self-hypnosis Video Blog. He offers hypnosis & NLP CDs for motivation. Visit his site for his free Hypnosis MP3 downloads, newsletters, and his hypnosis research library.