If you are discouraged with your apparent lack of will power, this may be the most important information you could possibly get your hands on.
Previously, the medical community believed the human brain consisted of the conscious and subconscious (or non-conscious). More recently, scientific human brain research has proven this to be inaccurate.
Tests done on human subjects actually prove we think in six areas of our brains simultaneously. While asleep our mind still functions in five of these areas.
This means our conscious thinking is actually only 1/6th of our brain power and the non-conscious portion is actually 5/6th.
Trying to achieve success or make personal changes is like having a tug of war with your non-conscious beliefs, thoughts and habits. One of you is pulling for self improvement, change and positive outcomes. On the other end of the rope there are 5 of you with hidden, pre-programmed subconscious beliefs keeping you stuck right where you are now.
Which side do you think will win? It's obvious your pre-conditioned subconscious programming will be victorious.
No matter how strong someone's will power, more than likely you will fail since scientific research has proven the odds are against your success. However, don't give up hope just yet. There are simple solutions, as I will explain.
EXERTING SELF-CONTROL CREATES WEAKNESS:
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 74, 1998) published the results of an interesting experiment.
Just one act of self-control depletes your ability to have self-control in another unrelated area.
For example, when subjects were told not to eat chocolates sitting right in front of them, their persistence in puzzle solving deteriorated.
When they were told to suppress an emotional reaction to a movie, they had problems solving a solvable anagram.
This experiment proves that trying to effect positive change using will power is limited by our conscious ability to consistently focus on only one (or two at best) areas of life.
You are not a "failure" simply because you broke a New Year's resolutions or can't seem to get past unwanted negative behavior?
You are after all, being human and operating with the same limitations as pretty much everyone else.
HOW TO ACCOMPLISH GOALS WITHOUT WILL POWER
Imagine automobile traffic speeding along an 8 lane super highway that funnels into a one lane city street.
Have you got that picture in your mind's eye? Can you see the traffic backed up, sitting idle on the super highway, trying to get access to the single lane city street?
Good - now you see exactly what happens inside our brains. The subconscious is processing information over 200,000 times faster than the conscious mind. However the conscious mind, like a single lane street, slows everything down to a crawl.
It's great you want to make changes in your life. However, unless you change the subconscious programming to be focusing on the same goals as your conscious desires, you are effectively reducing progress down to one lane.
To accelerate achievements (in any area of your life) you need to initiate change at the source - your subconscious mind. Then will power is not even an issue.
Or you can continue using the slow method and consciously focus on one specific area of change until it is mastered and then move on to another area.
When programmed with new beliefs, the non-conscious mind will work 24/7 to make these new beliefs become your reality.
I found hypnosis and/or self hypnosis to be one of the easiest and fastest tools to re-program the mind. Many have tried hypnosis and gave up due to apparent lack of success.
Understand this - your old habits and beliefs created strong neural pathways which have been reinforced through repetition. Various "triggers" can initiate your thought patterns to travel along these pathways, resurrecting old beliefs you believed to be vanquished.
You therefore need to remain persistent if you plan to successfully remove or neutralize self-limiting beliefs and hypnosis and/or self-hypnosis has been a blessing in helping me eliminate unwanted habits to make permanent changes.
Another amazingly effective tool is visualization. With a little research you will discover most pro athletes consistently visualize their performance well in advance of actually playing the game.
Affirmations are also a great way to change the mental programming. However, there are a few tricks you need to learn before they are a viable technique.
Do you still think will power is the way to go? How has it served you so far? Give your self a fighting chance and begin utilizing some of the mind tools which have been proven to work.
You want your non-conscious mind working in harmony with your conscious desires. Hypnosis, visualization and affirmations are three of the many effective techniques available to re-program the subconscious. In today's busy world will power is not a practical option for self improvement as it is unlikely you will be able to consistently remain focused on one specific goal until it is achieved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gene Anger has a passion for self improvement which led him to helping others overcome self-limiting beliefs and self-sabotage. You can connect with Gene at his blog www.lifewithgene.com and also go to www.best-self-help-sites.com and access his "Free Self Help Tutorial."
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