New Year's RE-Solutions

Going in to 2008, the time has come again to set our goals, and work out a plan of action to achieve them. Last year I wrote about some methods of visualization that are quite effective, and I encourage you to go back and read that article.

Although it seems to be a popular idea these days that just wishing and hoping for something is enough to “make” things happen (The Secret), I am going out on a limb to say- that just isn’t enough. There is always work involved in accomplishing an objective. It is simply a matter of presentation. Some people are able to make things look easy to an outside observer, when the truth is the successful achiever has been following a plan of action faithfully, and performing a lot of hard work to get where he is at. Here are some guidelines to make your new year successful and prosperous.

Develop a Well-Formed Outcome

1. Express the goal in the positive.
There’s a big difference between “I don’t want to be sick and tired anymore”. and “I want to be healthy with lots of energy.” The subconscious mind ignores negatives, whereas positives are well received.

2. Make sure the goal is within your power to achieve.
Is it initiated and maintained by you, or does it’s success depend on outside influences? You are in control of your own behavior, but not how well the stock market performs.

3. Is the ecology correct?
When you achieve this goal, will it affect your life in a positive way? How will it affect your family? Your job? Your own values? Are you prepared for the changes it will make in your life, and on others around you?

Once you have developed a well-formed outcome, here are some NLP processes that work best for achieving goals:

1. Add it to your timeline. Place it specifically where you want it to be, reinforce it with anchoring , and lock it into place. Use 3 or more of the representational systems (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, Gustatory).

2. The “As-if” frame. Acting as if a goal is already achieved can plant it permanently in the subconscious mind.

3. The New Behavior Generator. Running movies of yourself doing the new behavior, in and out of association. This way you can feel, hear and see what it’s like to achieve your goal (associated) and also see and feel it from an outside perspective (disassociated).

4. Visualization. As I described in my previous article that you have already read or will read right away.

5. The Swish Pattern. Brings your goal into focus, to replace old and ineffective behaviors.

6. Modeling. Modeling someone who demonstrates who you want to become, and has the qualities you wish to acquire in your own personality will put you on track to develop the behaviors you will achieve.

7. Release old, outdated beliefs that prevent you from achieving your goal. I should have listed this as number one, because it is the single most important necessary action. It’s amazing how limiting beliefs can be to your final outcome.

8. Lighten up. Laugh a lot, be happy, and take life with a grain of salt. Meditate, relax and enjoy life. A happy, content and calm person will accomplish more in life as a general rule.

9. Reward yourself. This is important enough that without it, everything else I have listed will have little or no effect. Each small step along the way deserves a reward of some kind, and the closer you get to your goal, the bigger the reward should be. If there are no rewards, why else will you do it? Subconsciously you must feel that you are getting something out of it to maintain the strength to continue pushing. A pat on the back will give you momentum to move in a positive direction.

2008! The year for change!

Procrastination-what you can do

NLP always works best when you are working directly with an NLP Practitioner, but there are some things you can do yourself. I still believe hypnosis to be the best bet. If you don't have access to a good hypnotist, or NLP Practitioner, you can go on line and order a good hypnosis tape for procrastination. If you are trained in self hypnosis- you simply make the suggestion to yourself BEFORE dropping into a trance, as the last thing you want to do is think about it while in trance. That would bring the conscious mind into play, and would be counter productive. Once in trance visit your favorite place and stay there for awhile.

A TIME LINE or REGRESSION is in order to find the source of the problem, and this can be done in hypnosis or out. Also, I would replace your old anchors with more productive ones. It's necessary to work with a professional for these things, but here are some things you can do yourself:

1. Positive Imaging:
This is what we call the "As if" frame in NLP. Also, if you have seen or read "The Secret" you will have some idea of what I am talking about. I like to have a friend help me with this one because it works well if they pretend to be a radio announcer interviewing you. You will pretend to have written a successful book about procrastination, and have succeeded at overcoming the problem. Write a list of things you think would help and ACT AS IF you did them and they worked. You really need to get into this for it to work, really FEEL it. You might want to tape it too, and you can always do it again until you really can feel it. Actors use this as well as the next suggestion . . .

2. Modelling:
Modelling is at the heart of NLP. The object is to figure out the behavior patterns of successful people and replicate them. It's easier than you might think!

Phase 1: Choose someone who gets things done on time, well and organized. Someone who has the qualities you wish to have (in other words, someone who does not procrastinate). Spend time with that person, focus on WHAT she does, HOW she does it and WHY she does it. The WHAT you get from observing. The HOW and WHY you get from asking questions. This requires spending time with this person, and in general becoming a pest, so make sure they understand what you are doing and are okay with it. Imagine yourself in their reality, walk their walk and talk their talk. Just like an actor does when playing a part, become that person (Think of Sissy Spacek in Coal Miners Daughter).

Phase 2: Once you get this down, start REMOVING behaviors and qualities one at a time and see if it makes a difference (You no longer need to be with the person during this phase, because you have already drawn from them all that you need. Now the object is to get rid of what you don't need. For instance, this might be a man, and you certainly don't need the man behaviours. See?) If you leave something out and it makes a difference in your results, then it is an essential element so add it back in. If it makes no difference in your results you can leave it out. This is how you refine your model.

Phase 3: Ask yourself the question "If I had to stand in for this person for the day, what would I need to do to get the same results they do in the same circumstances?"

Anytime you need to get things done, bring out that model and step into it. Once you perfect this technique you can do it with other things too, such as diet and exercise. You obviously cannot live in the model all the time, but keep it available when you need it, and practice it a lot to keep it fresh.

Your wish is your command!

He who doubts that the best will come to him with doing of that which is correct is already defeated. Don't blame others for what has happened or may happen. Do right yourself, physically, mentally and spiritually, and the best will come to you.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5203-1

We are the creators of our experience.

At some level we are always in control of every aspect of our lives. This can be a difficult concept for some of us to realize. Especially when we look around at what we have created! When we see chaos, unhappiness, and despair all around us, it always seems easier to put the blame elsewhere. Life becomes a piece of cake (chocolate? Butter cream? Cherry filling?) when we accept our own power and go with it. Once we know we can do anything we become the creative creatures we were born to be.

Beliefs residing deep within the subconscious mind have a powerful, and at times detrimental effect on our motivations and abilities. The use of visualization, and conscious control of our language and thoughts can alter the counterproductive beliefs, or delete them completely. Being the creator that you are, you can create new productive beliefs that will propel you to greater success and happiness!

We master our personal power when we can accept the responsibility for our own experience, and take charge of the wonderful possibility we call the future. When we ask the question “Why do I seem to attract what I don’t really want?” we open ourselves up to excuses and rationalization. Changing the question to “How can I attract what I do want?” creates movement in the direction of success.

Famous author and visionary Wayne Dyer states in his book The Power of Intention, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Negative concepts such as failure, defeat, desperation, and self condemnation must be erased from the black board of your conscious mind. A mindful effort to remove these ideas and replace them with optimistic ones, such as success, happiness, and love will manifest transformation deep within the subconscious mind.

Every experience provides the opportunity to learn and grow. The goal is to run with that opportunity when you see it. Life is a marathon, and every step taken brings you closer to the finish line. Everybody moves at their own pace, and arrives according to their own time line. Ribbons and trophies are given equally to all participants regardless of who arrives first.

It’s a true gift to be the creators of our own experience. Let’s be thrilled with the opportunity, joyous and grateful! Life is what you want it to be, and your genie (the universe) is waiting to grant your every desire.

“Your wish is your command!”

Two Wolves Metaphor- Parts Integration

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."

"The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Formula For Success.

"If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got."
-- Lee Iacocca

FORMULA FOR SUCCESS

1. Know what you want (not what you don't want). Be specific.
2. Is it within your control? (How can you start and maintain it?)
3. Identify the resources you need to get and keep what you want.
4. Work out a step by step plan.
5. Know how it will effect family and friends (what would happen if I got it?)
6. Have the flexibility to change behavior to get what you want.
7. Set a time limit.
8. Take action.

QUALITIES OF SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE

Passion, desire, vision, focus, direction.

Belief, faith, trust, confidence.

Values, criteria, integrity, principles, balance, alignment.

Strategies, skills, resources, perceptions, plans.

Energy, vitality, joy, action oriented.

Charisma, community, relationship, unity.

Master of communication, verbal and non-verbal.

Happy New Year Motivations!

Happy New Year Motivations!

To get 2007 off to a great start, did you sit down and write out your New Year’s Resolutions? You know you did. Most of us do. At the time, we really meant it too, didn’t we? I know I did. My heart and motives were completely pure, and my resolve was unstoppable. Unfortunately, it only took a week to break the first resolution, which was to improve my diet by eating healthy, organic foods. I thought about this last night as I downed a bottle of 7-Up spiked with a shot of Canadian Mist, and a bowl of microwaved popcorn slathered in butter and caked with salt (the popcorn was actually organic, but the butter was not). The saddest part of all was that I didn’t feel the least bit of guilt or regret. Does anybody really keep these resolutions? Sure, it would be great if we could. So, how can we?

Resolve is essentially willpower, which means nothing without motivation backing it up. Motivation creates change by giving us a shove in the right direction. We are either attracted by the promise of a pleasurable reward, or forced along by the threat of pain and suffering. Without this motivational force, a resolution has no power. There must be some kind of immediate gratification to keep us on the right track. This is lacking in a resolution to lose weight, or any similar long-term goal. The promise of reward is too far off into the future, as is the threat of pain and suffering if you don’t eventually lose weight and get healthy.

The secret is too get the motivation going and keep it on track, until you arrive at your destination of a pleasurable reward. If you are working with an NLP Practitioner, many methods can stimulate motivation. I will give you a brief example here. Eyes can be closed or opened for this exercise.

1. Create a movie in your mind's eye that represents the undesireable state(for example, not being able to zip your pants, men looking away in disgust). Add sounds (grunting to zip your pants), and feelings (failure, unhappiness and defeat). This will represent the negative possiblities that you are propelled away from.

2. Grow this movie to a larger size, making it huge and monsterous, the sounds amplified, colors brighter, and the feelings stronger. Really FEEL, SEE AND HEAR the pain!

3. Once you have truly experienced the pain and misery of the undesirable state, change the movie to black and white, and shrink it down to a very small size, eliminating the sound effects. Place what is left of this movie behind you to represent the AWAY From state.

4. Now, create a positive movie in your mind that represents your desired state (for instance, yourself in a bikini- sexy and hot). Add sounds (waves crashing, or guys whistling), and feelings (the pleasurable sensation of KNOWING you look good, happiness, satisfaction and joy). Locate this movie in FRONT of you to represent the TOWARD state.

2. Magnify this picture- growing it bigger, louder and brighter in your mind. Step into the picture to experience rather then watch. It’s important to truly SEE, FEEL, AND HEAR how wonderful reaching your goal will be!

3. Step out of this movie, but keep the scene in front of you.

The object is to feel the need to run forward TOWARD your positive goal, and escape the monstrous negative possibilities by jumping into the positive movie headfirst.

This exercise works best when you have the guidance of an NLP Coach.

There are many methods to create motivation. For instance, hanging pictures of you all over the house at your goal weight (computers can do amazing things these days), or clothes in a smaller size just waiting to be worn. Positive affirmations when used consistently will propel you toward your goal. Be bold, creative, and most importantly POSITIVE. Your thoughts have a life of their own once you have formed them, so be responsible with your creations!

Have a happy and prosperous 2007!

Are you under a spell?

Down the winding stairs, Rebecca stepped carefully. In the darkness, she was afraid she might fall and tumble down the steps into the eerie tomb below. Reaching the bottom, she noticed the old woman sitting at the table in the corner, a small lamp providing a light so dim, it did not even cast a shadow. The haggard woman cackled at Rebecca as she took a seat on the wobbly chair. The old hag's voice cracked as she croaked out, " Somebody has cast a spell upon you. A dark cloud of sorrow hangs over your head."

"Ever since that night I have failed at everything I try to do." A sob escaped from Rebecca's throat and she looked frightened. Sitting across from me at the restaurant table she drank some water. Her hand shook and the water dribbled across the table. "How do I break the spell? I don't even know who has cast it upon me!"

"The spell has no existence on it's own." I told her "Your negative belief gives it power."

Am I saying that spells aren't real? They are real, if you make them real. By believing that you are under a spell, you can make your life miserable and disastrous. A spell is a habit that becomes deeply ingrained in your subconscious, an ugly darkness that permeates your every move.

How do you break the spell? First, you have to realize that it was created by you, and you are the only one who can destroy it. Once you come to that realization, you have won the battle. A religious ritual in which you invoke the Higher Power can also break the spell, creating a quality of grace that washes out the debris. A ritual is merely a process that is used to change your belief. In this way, the spell loses it's power and you will be back in control of your life.

My life is just a collage . . .

Are you confused about what you really want to do with your life?

Try this: Go through a stack of magazines, and when you see an image, a word or a phrase that jumps out at you- that resonates to you- cut it out. This can be done over a period of a few days. Take your time so that you can capture the real you, and not just a momentary mood. If you look at a variety of magazines you'll have a better chance of finding the material that will shout to the world your unique personality and looks.

When you have an extensive stack of these words and images, paste them together on a large poster board into a colorful collage. As you do this you will begin to understand your inner self, your goals and aspirations, and what might be missing from your life.

When your collage is finished, hang it on the wall in a prominent place where you can observe it each day. Contemplate and meditate on it. You will be amazed at the enlightenment this fun and easy assignment will bring to your life.