Have you ever tried to eliminate an unconstructive behavior, only to fail? There is a long list of ordinary problem behaviors that people often try to change or get rid of using hypnosis. Possibly 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. When you mull it over, all of these negative behaviors are the product 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 since you think and motivate yourself into these behaviors, you can think and motivate yourself out of them as well. In order to effectively think and motivate yourself out of these behaviors, you will need to know the "Motivation Formula For Success."

DESIRE: You're almost certainly reading this piece because you want the motivation to make some personal changes. And that is fitting for the reason that 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 alter an unhelpful behavior, that person must be motivated to do so. Merely desiring a behavior to change is not adequate. 

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, then we will feel motivated. Conversely, if we believe that something very important to us will be in jeopardy if we don't alter our behavior, we will also experience motivation to change.

Some simple examples of these motivational beliefs could be: 

• If I take some weight off, then I'll be able to find a companion.  
• If I kick my smoking habit, then I will not have to worry about cancer.
• If I quit 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, offers methods that can instantaneously create the element of belief. You can learn 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 definition of the word "Decision" is making up one's mind / a verdict or judgment. When you accept as true something that provides you with a powerful feeling of motivation to modify your behavior, you will feel compelled to make a decision to eliminate a negative behavior. Decision is the key that unlocks the door to taking action.

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

SELF-TALK: One of the reasons that most individuals are unsuccessful at altering a negative behavior is because of what they say to themselves. Self-talk is important because time and again it is part of what caused the negative behavior to begin with.  

I'd like you to consider this for a moment: Let's say that you want to break a cigarette addiction. Possibly the first thing that you may well say or think to yourself is: "I'm not going to smoke cigarettes any longer."  

It is common for people to tell themselves what they are not going to do. Unfortunately, when we tell ourselves what we are not 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 are not going to do, in order to make sense of it our mind must make an image of us doing what it is that we want to stop doing. And when we imagine ourselves engaging in a behavior, our mind compels us to create that behavior.

SUMMARY: In order to eliminate a negative behavior, we must want or DESIRE to get rid of it. BELIEF is the factor that creates MOTIVATION. MOTIVATION is the drive that leads us to DECISION. DECISION is the means 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 are not going to do, we make a mental image of ourselves engaging in the behavior that we want to alter. And that mental picture gives us an urge to create 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 quit smoking say: "I can live without them."  

To eliminate cravings for fattening food or to give up smokeless say: "I can live without it."  

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

To sleep better say: "I fall asleep promptly, and sleep restfully throughout the entire night."

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