As with any goal setting, make sure your goals are SMART. This means your goal is:
• Specific – you have an exact goal rather than a general one
• Measurable – you will know when you’ve succeeded and how far you are along your path during your journey
• Attainable – your goals are actually possible for you to accomplish
• Reasonable – you give yourself the time you will need to achieve your goal
• Timely – you give yourself a timeline to follow, although you can be fairly flexible about this
If you want to lose weight, rather than say: I want to lose weight, it is better to choose something more specific and measurable: I will lose 2 pounds a week.
Also make sure goals are attainable – hypnotism cannot help you win the lottery, to build a house if you don’t know how to build a house or to build a house in one day. It can help you to gain more confidence at work or to overcome your fear of heights. A timeline is good to follow for many goals, such as quitting smoking or improving job performance, although for other goals, it can be difficult to quantify objectives. It’s hard to say how much you will improve your confidence by, or when you will be done improving your self confidence. Improving your confidence and self esteem is a more long term goal, which makes it more difficult to define.
You can however, decide that each day you will become more confident, or that you will begin to say no to things you cannot do, and congratulate yourself each day for becoming more confident and for anytime which you said no.
Choose the goal which is most important to you and use self hypnosis to help you achieve that goal. Self hypnosis can help you get past any obstacles that may be blocking your path, whether it be lack of confidence (I can’t do this), patterns of behavior (I always do this while I am doing this), or other destructive behaviors.
Your goal may be one of a variety of things, such as:
• to improve memory and/or concentration
• to lower blood pressure or improve health in other ways
• to quit smoking or other destructive behaviors
• to increase self esteem or do better at work
• to improve your job performance or other skill
• to help you get to sleep, and help you get better sleep
Hypnotherapy can also be used to help expectant mothers relax during labor and have an easier birth, and to help reduce anxiety about childbirth. This can be learned with special coaches who specialize in hypnosis during pregnancy.
Your goals will also be achieved more easily if you repeat them in a waking (non hypnotic) state, to reinforce the idea in both your subconscious and conscious mind. Also, remember that during any process, there will be setbacks. When you have set backs, just take the time to refocus. Maybe take another look at your goal, or rewrite your hypnotic prescription, and then keep going.