Lots of interest but....what will it take to make the change?

I've often said to a new client that the hardest part of their journey is already over by the time they come to see me.

Why?

Because they have already made enough of a commitment to make a change for the better in their life.

At this time of year I see lots of extra activity on my Hypnotherapy web site (www.somersethypnotherapy.com) but it can often be months from a person finding the site to taking action.

Do it now. Delay just means more of what you don't want. Start making that change now and feel so much better sooner. To quote a friend of mine (Brad Burton) "The further you run (away from the problem), the weaker you become.

Start that change now.

New Resolutions looking a bit battered?

Since around 2001, I have been on a journey exploring the world of personal development. I have worked with NLP, hypnosis, EFT and other techniques first to change me and then to show others how they might change.

Traditionally this is the time of year when people make new commitments to make a positive change in their life. From dropping a bad habit to dropping a dress size, it is the New Year that has us resolving to make a change.

Most of these resolutions get broken within days, old habits are restarted and months may roll by before a new start is made.

So here is an alternative idea for you; commit to making a change even though you might fail. Commit to making a change even though you may not know how you will achieve your goal. Think about a child learning to walk, we KNOW that at first they will fall over (fail), and yet we will help them up as many times as required UNTIL they learn to walk.

We never say "Well that's it, this baby is never going to walk!"

We keep going UNTIL it happens.

So if your new year resolution has already taken a battering, pick yourself up, start again and keep going UNTIL your reach your goal. You'll get there eventually.

An old method but still a good one

Half way through January those New Year resolutions may not have the power they once had at the start of the month.

Here's an old technique but still a good one for when you are trying to stop doing something.

Take sturdy elastic band and put it around your wrist; we want the blood to keep flowing, so make sure it is not too tight.

Now each time you have that thought cross your mind that you want to stop, pull out the elastic band and let snap back on to your wrist...ITS GOING TO HURT!

You will begin to associate 'that' thought or action with the pain of the band snapping back into place and pretty soon your unconscious mind will build the connection that this unwanted thought or action will lead to pain; it wont take long.

Then those unwanted thoughts or actions will occur less often. Used in conjunction with other methods this will help you stay on track with those New Year resolutions.

Try it today.

The 30 day trial idea

I'm back on the idea of how to most effectively make changes in your life and a while ago came across a guy called Steve Pavlina. He has a very interesting web blog about personal development.

He has borrowed the 30 day trial concept from the old days of Shareware and used it to makes changes in his life.

I know from personal experience of working with clients that it often takes around 3 weeks to make a real change in a habit. Steve's approach is to say, try this new habit for 30 days and then see if you want to continue.

For many people the idea of making a life long change in their eating or exercise habits is just too daunting a jump and so they do nothing at all.

You can break that barrier to progress by trialling a change for just 30 days and then check at the end if it still feels right. Follow the link for Steve's article.

Try it for yourself and let me know how you get on.

It's freezing! Time to think about 2009

Here is the UK it was -3.5 degrees C this morning and whilst that may be relatively warm for some it felt cold to me.

So today has become a day for staying in the warm and planning for 2009. So often that word 'planning' will make people switch off as they think about writing out lots of lists and notes that feel far too much like work.

So today here are some planning alternatives for you to consider as you think about what you want to achieve in the year ahead.

1) Write a list of all the things you would like to do. It's the old school approach but it will work well for some. See if you can get to 100 items, it can be surprisingly difficult.

2) Make a picture board or scrap book of what you want to happen in the next 12 months. Cut pictures from magazines and papers of the places you would like to go or the things you would like to enjoy.

3) Tech Savvy? Make a video of how you would like the year ahead to be. Even if you don't have a video camera many regular point and shoot digital cameras will take video. Mobile phones and web cams can be used as well. Edit with some free software like Windows MovieMaker or similar and create a short video of what you would like to achieve.

4) Make a voice recording on your MP3 player (or use Windows sound recorder) of what you want to be, do and have in 2009. Listen often to remind yourself of the path you want to take.

Use any or all of the techniques above and you are certain to get far more out of this New Year than those in the past.

Time to set your new year goals?

Today is 2nd January, many people are enjoying the last day off before going back to work on Monday 5th.

So just maybe this is the perfect time to think about how you are going to make your life better in 2009. (Just possibly with all the financial turmoil it may be that you are simply hoping to survive!)

Many of us will have had the experience of setting new year resolutions and then failing to achieve any of them.

So this year what about trying things a different way?

Take this time to set yourself some SMART goals. SMART is simply a way to define what you want to happen:

S = Specific. Make the goal specific, when will it happen, where, on your own or with others?
M = Measurable. How will you measure it? How many pounds off, how much money saved?
A = Achievable. Is it really possible to do this? Have other people done it?
R = Realistic. Given all the circumstances is the goal reasonable? Losing 50lbs in 2 weeks is impossible, doing the same over 50 weeks is very realistic.
T = Timely or time bound. When will this happen, what time markers will you set along the way?

By using the SMART model you are much more likely to achieve the goals that you set.

So what about an example; perhaps you have put on some weight over the holiday period and exercise has become something that happens very infrequently. You'd like things to be better but another diet just seems so dull; procrastination has set.

So lets try the SMART approach:
Specific
How much weight do you want to shed? How many pounds or kilos is right for you?
Be SPECIFIC. How many inches would you like to lose from your waist measurement? Be SPECIFIC.

Measurable
Some things are easy to measure, weight and size are simple to check. Other things are more difficult; how do you measure confidence or presentation skills. Find suitable ways to measure what you achieve against the goals that you set.

Achievable
Impossible to achieve goals result only in frustration and failure. Is what you want physically achievable? Has someone else done it before you? Are you attempting to alter the laws of physics to make that goal happen?

Realistic
How realistic is that you get a job next week that will double your pay? How realistic is it to achieve all your goals in one month? Most goals are a sequence of smaller steps that are easy to take on their own, but that add up to a huge change in your life. Make each step realistic to avoid the frustration of failure.

Timebound
This is just another way of saying, when will this happen? It's useful to set up a number of markers in time so that you know you are on track to achieving your ultimate goal. For example in the first month I will shed 8pounds of unwanted weight and lose 1 inch from my waist size.
Your ultimate goal might be that by June 17th 2009 I will have shed 25pounds and dropped 4 inches from my waist.


Making your New Year resolutions SMART will make it much easier for you to achieve your goals.

If you're ready for this but still feel in need of some help to deal with that procrastination then my hypnosis MP3 recording 'Beat Procrastination' is just the thing to break through that log jam of exscuses and get 2009 off to a flying start.

Happy New Year!