Did you ever try to eliminate a negative behavior, only to be unsuccessful? There is list of common problem behaviors that people often try to alter or eradicate using self-hypnosis. Perhaps 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. If you mull it over, all of these harmful behaviors are the consequence 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 out, and that can be the reason for 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. But in order to think and motivate yourself out of them, you will need to know specifically how to go about accomplishing it.

DESIRE: You are almost certainly reading this commentary because you want the motivation to change something about yourself. And that's convenient for the reason that the first element 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 wishes a change.

BELIEF IS REQUIRED FOR MOTIVATION: Before anyone can alter an unhelpful behavior, that person must be motivated to do so. Merely wanting a change is not adequate.

Our 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 alter our behavior, we will become motivated. 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 motivated to change.

Some simple examples of these motivational beliefs might be:

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

If I quit smoking cigarettes, then I will not have to worry about cancer.

If I quit biting my nails, then my hands will be a lot prettier.

TECHNOLOGIES THAT CAN CREATE THE BELIEFS THAT LEAD TO MOTIVATION: Neuro-Linguistic Programming - which is commonly known as NLP, provides strategies that can instantaneously create the element of belief. You can discover 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 a concept that gives you a powerful feeling of motivation to alter your behavior, you will feel a compulsion 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. Taking action means that instead of just daydreaming about making personal changes, you will actually take action and bring about your desired changes.

SELF-TALK: One of the many reasons that most people are unsuccessful at altering a negative behavior is because of the way that they talk to themselves. Self-talk is significant 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 us say that you want to break a cigarette addiction. The first thing that you may well 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 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 do not want to do, or what we won't 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 see ourselves engaging in a behavior, our mind compels us to create that behavior.

SUMMARY: In order to alter a negative behavior, we must first want or DESIRE to get rid of it. BELIEF is the factor that leads us to MOTIVATION. MOTIVATION is the drive that compels us to DECISION. DECISION is the means to ACTION. NLP is a modality 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 using the behavior that we want to modify. And that mental picture gives us a compulsion 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 erase cravings for high calorie foods or to give up smokeless tobacco say: "I can live without it."

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

To eliminate insomnia say: "I fall asleep promptly, and sleep soundly throughout the entire night."

Alan B. Densky, CH is certified by the NGH. He runs the Neuro-VISION Video Hypnosis website and the Video Self-Hypnosis Blog. He offers Hypnosis CDs for motivation. Visit his site for his free MP3 downloads, newsletters, and his hypnosis research library.