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Did you ever try to get rid of a negative behavior, only to not succeed? There is a lengthy list of universal problem behaviors that people often try to change or eliminate using self-hypnosis. 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 stop and think about it, all of these unhelpful behaviors are the end result 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 reason for these behaviors. And because you think and motivate yourself into these behaviors, you can think and motivate yourself out of them as well. But in order to successfully think and motivate yourself out of them, you will need to know the "Motivation Formula For Success."

DESIRE: You are most likely reading this commentary because you want the motivation to make some personal changes. And that's fitting for the reason that the first building block 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 desires a change.

BELIEF IS REQUIRED FOR MOTIVATION: Before anyone can eliminate a harmful 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, then 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 powerfully motivated to make a change.

Some straightforward 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 won't have to worry about cancer.

If I quit my nail biting, 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 immediately create the element of belief. You can find out 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 accept as true a thought that gives you a powerful feeling of motivation to change your behavior, 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 defines the word "Action" as an act or deed / to do or perform. Taking action means that instead of just daydreaming about making personal changes, you will actually take steps to create your desired changes.

SELF-TALK: One of the reasons that most people 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 think about this for a moment: Let's say that you want to quit smoking. Probably the first thing that you are likely to say or think to yourself is: "I'm not going to smoke anymore."

It is common for people to tell themselves what they are not going to do. Unfortunately, when we tell ourselves what we aren't going to do, we are actually compelling 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 picture ourselves participating in a behavior, our mind compels us to create that behavior.

SUMMARY: In order to modify a negative behavior, we must want or DESIRE to get rid of it. BELIEF is the ingredient that leads us to MOTIVATION. MOTIVATION is the drive that pushes us to DECISION. DECISION is the impetus 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 aren't going to do, we make a mental picture of ourselves engaging in the behavior that we want to get rid of. And that mental picture gives us a compulsion to participate in the negative behavior. So if we want to abolish a negative behavior, instead of telling ourselves what we won't do, we must always tell ourselves what we will do.

To break the smoking addiction say: "I can live without them."

To erase cravings for food that will make you fat or to quit smokeless chewing tobacco say: "I can live without it."

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

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

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