Hypnotherapy Associates Blog

Jan 2013

• PROCRASTINATING? MAKE A NEW START!

  07
  Jan

  by on Mon 07 Jan 2013 13:37:01 GMT

  Sometimes it can feel that January is a time of pressure, pressure to do what we know we SHOULD do.   When we feel pressured instead of  'GETTING UP AND GONG FOR IT' we can PROCRASTINATE instead.   I know I have felt like that sometimes. But amazingly, I have found that there is a way to reach  goals without feeling pressured.
  
  Is your goal to lose weight, get on top of work schedules, or become more confident socially? Whatever your goal is, at times the distance between A (your present state) and B (goal) can seem impossible to reach - so you give up.   However, as soon as it seems easy rather than difficult to reach your goal, you feel differently, you start to think differently, and then you do the things which enable you to reach your goal instead of procrastinating.
  
  What if you could feel it was EASY to reach your goal, what would life be like?
  
  This is what I am going to tell you about today. Rather than feeling that to reach your goal you have to take a long and difficult series of steps or actions in order to get there, I'm going to tell you about how to 'create an identity shift' to get to your goal.
  
  When we want to do something very, very much, the wanting is so different from how we feel if we have already achieved our goal.   Let me give you an example:   if someone wants to lose 3 stone, for instance, they may feel that the difference and distance between A (3 stone overweight)................ and B (ideal weight) is insurmountable, however much they WANT to lose weight.   But if they have the identity of a person who has already lost that weight, they will be thinking differently, feeling differently about themselves, and doing different things in their life.   Imagine a fitness instructor who finds the idea of being overweight inconceivable.   This person will be likely to think of themselves as fit and lithe, agile, active and healthy.   This person will be likely to have transformed their eating patterns by buying and preparing healthy food,  throwing out junk food, and be taking exercise regularly, at least 3 or 4 times a week, at least 30-90 mins each time.   This person will easily maintain  their ideal weight, as it would seem monstrous and shocking to them to be overweight;  they would therefore instinctively do all they needed to do to maintain that ideal weight which went with their IDENTITY as a health and fitness instructor.
  
  So the trick is, not to want or WISH for our goal...but to act as if we already HAVE our goal.    Because the WISH can be the same as WISHFUL THINKING..where acting as if we already HAVE the goal leads us to DO what we need to to get to our goal.
  
  The actions we take actually come from thinking about the positive side effects of our goal, for instance, the positive side effects of beng our ideal weight. What do I mean by side effects? Well, if I am my ideal weight I think about  things I enjoy in my life, rather than being ruled by thinking about food, because I will be eating healthy food in moderate amounts instinctively, rather than eating junk food; I feel more agile and positive about myself; I will natually take the actions which maintain my ideal body weight, like exercising regularly, mentally diarying in the times and amounts of exercise automatically into my week, b ecuase it feels more comfortable to do this than sit about like a couch potato.
  
  
  So there you have it. By using these methods to create your own identity shift YOU can reach YOUR goals easily, free of tension, feeing light hearted and ready to sail through January into a wonderful Spring!
  
  Sometimes it can feel that January is a time of pressure, pressure to do what we know we SHOULD do.   When we feel pressured instead of  'GETTING UP AND GONG FOR IT' we can PROCRASTINATE instead.   I know I have felt like that sometimes. But amazingly, I have found that there is a way to reach  goals without feeling pressured.
  
  Is your goal to lose weight, get on top of work schedules, or become more confident socially? Whatever your goal is, at times the distance between A (your present state) and B (goal) can seem impossible to reach - so you give up.   However, as soon as it seems easy rather than difficult to reach your goal, you feel differently, you start to think differently, and then you do the things which enable you to reach your goal instead of procrastinating.
  
  What if you could feel it was EASY to reach your goal, what would life be like?
  
  This is what I am going to tell you about today. Rather than feeling that to reach your goal you have to take a long and difficult series of steps or actions in order to get there, I'm going to tell you about how to 'create an identity shift' to get to your goal.
  
  When we want to do something very, very much, the wanting is so different from how we feel if we have already achieved our goal.   Let me give you an example:   if someone wants to lose 3 stone, for instance, they may feel that the difference and distance between A (3 stone overweight)................ and B (ideal weight) is insurmountable, however much they WANT to lose weight.   But if they have the identity of a person who has already lost that weight, they will be thinking differently, feeling differently about themselves, and doing different things in their life.   Imagine a fitness instructor who finds the idea of being overweight inconceivable.   This person will be likely to think of themselves as fit and lithe, agile, active and healthy.   This person will be likely to have transformed their eating patterns by buying and preparing healthy food,  throwing out junk food, and be taking exercise regularly, at least 3 or 4 times a week, at least 30-90 mins each time.   This person will easily maintain  their ideal weight, as it would seem monstrous and shocking to them to be overweight;  they would therefore instinctively do all they needed to do to maintain that ideal weight which went with their IDENTITY as a health and fitness instructor.
  
  So the trick is, not to want or WISH for our goal...but to act as if we already HAVE our goal.    Because the WISH can be the same as WISHFUL THINKING..where acting as if we already HAVE the goal leads us to DO what we need to to get to our goal.
  
  The actions we take actually come from thinking about the positive side effects of our goal, for instance, the positive side effects of beng our ideal weight. What do I mean by side effects? Well, if I am my ideal weight I think about  things I enjoy in my life, rather than being ruled by thinking about food, because I will be eating healthy food in moderate amounts instinctively, rather than eating junk food; I feel more agile and positive about myself; I will natually take the actions which maintain my ideal body weight, like exercising regularly, mentally diarying in the times and amounts of exercise automatically into my week, b ecuase it feels more comfortable to do this than sit about like a couch potato.
  
  So there you have it. By using these methods to create your own identity shift YOU can reach YOUR goals easily, free of tension, feeing light hearted and ready to sail through January into a wonderful Spring!