Have you ever tried to get rid of an unconstructive behavior, only to fail? There is an extended list of widespread problem behaviors that people often try to alter or get rid of using hypnotherapy. 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 stop and think about it, all of these unhelpful 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 frazzled, 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 effectively think and motivate yourself out of these behaviors, you will need to know specifically how to go about doing so.

DESIRE: You're almost certainly reading this commentary because you want the motivation to make some personal changes. And that's convenient for the reason that the first ingredient 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 wants a change.

BELIEF IS REQUIRED FOR MOTIVATION: Before anyone can eliminate an unhelpful behavior, that person must be motivated to do so. Merely desiring 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 make a change in our behavior, we will experience a high level of motivation. Conversely, if we believe that something very important to us will be placed at risk if we don't make a change in our behavior, we will also feel powerfully motivated to alter our behavior.

Some straightforward examples of these motivational beliefs would be:

If I lose weight, then I'll be able to get a date or find someone to love me.

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

If I improve my study habits, then I can graduate with honors.

TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN CREATE THE BELIEFS THAT LEAD TO MOTIVATION: NLP - which is short for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, provides strategies that are able to instantaneously produce the element of belief. You can learn 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 an idea that provides you with a powerful feeling of motivation to make a change, you will feel compelled to make a decision to get rid of 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 thinking about making personal changes, you will actually take steps to create your desired changes.

SELF-TALK: One of the reasons that most individuals fail to change or eliminate a negative behavior is because of how they talk to themselves. 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 us say that you want to break a cigarette habit. The first thing that you might say or think to yourself is: "I'm not going to smoke anymore."

It is universal 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 wish to stop doing. And when we picture ourselves engaging in a behavior, our mind gives us a compulsion to generate that behavior.

SUMMARY: In order to get rid of a negative behavior, we must want or DESIRE to get rid of it. BELIEF is the factor that leads us to MOTIVATION. MOTIVATION is the drive that pushes us to DECISION. DECISION is the trigger to ACTION. Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a tool 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 movie of ourselves in the behavior that we want to eliminate. And that mental image gives us an urge to generate the unwanted behavior. So if we want to eliminate 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 addiction say: "I can live without them."

To abolish cravings for high calorie foods or to give up chewing tobacco say: "I can live without it."

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

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