Hypnosis Articles

Date Published: Jun 2006
Publisher: Hypnosis Motivation Institute

Overcome Procrastination with Hypnosis

Imagine this: You've got a great idea for a product or service. As usual, you've waited until the last minute to put together your big presentation or sales call.

In the throes of your 11th-hour scramble, you notice a dog sleeping comfortably nearby. The thought crosses your mind, "What I wouldn't give to be that dog right now. Why do I put myself through all this stress? If I was a dog, I could just lie there without a care in the world. I wish I was a dog." Good News! In some very useful ways, you are.

Remember Ivan Pavlov? He earned a Nobel Prize in 1904 by demonstrating that he could use a bell to trigger a drooling response from dogs who had learned to associate the bell with food.

Let's be clear about something, folks: Pavlov's dogs didn't salivate because they were excited to be involved in a paradigm-shifting experiment, nor was it because they were Russian dogs, and Russian dogs are big droolers. They learned to drool because they anticipated a reward. Period.

You know that the world needs that product, that idea of yours. But maybe you've had a habit of procrastinating in the past. Hypnosis is an efficient, powerful, and safe tool which helps you tap into your ability to take action. In the same way that the action of drooling became automatic for Pavlov's dogs, your learning to anticipate a reward can teach you automatically to take action. Your time is now.

There are three major parts to Pavlov's experiment, and hypnosis uses the same steps to create your new habit. Let's have a look at them.

1. The Bell (or any stimulus)
   The bell tolls for thee, my friend. Our internal bell is "that feeling." If you've been a procrastinator in the past, you know "that feeling." Most people call it dread, or fear, or maybe avoidance. But everyone who has overcome procrastination knows that there's only one way to get rid of that feeling . . . (this is not the part where you say, "Go watch a movie?" or "Take a nap?") . . . the only way to rid yourself of it: Take Action.

   Hypnosis can bring your internal messages more clearly into your awareness, allowing you the opportunity to choose your desired response to that feeling. Once you understand the true meaning of those signals (keep reading for that info), you take action automatically. Your time is now.

2. The Drool (or any automatic action)
   Those dogs drooled (took action) because of their association between the bell (stimulus) and the food (reward). This is where hypnotic suggestions and written affirmations come into play, because you'd better believe that in the past you've had some associations with that old feeling that weren't doing you much good! That's about to change.

   You see, your mind doesn't do anything unless it believes you'll benefit from it. So let's check out the benefits of that feeling, and how suggestions and affirmations transform that old dread & fear into your desired outcome.

   The first one is easy: If it isn't important to you, do you care whether or not you take action on it? No! So that feeling is the very thing that lets you know that something's important.

   Suggestion / Affirmation: "Every time I feel that old feeling, I'm doing something truly important."

   The second one is easier: Studies show that humans feel that feeling most powerfully when you are on the verge of a breakthrough. If you were truly afraid, they theorize, you wouldn't let yourself even think about actually doing something great.

   Suggestion / Affirmation: "Every time I feel that old feeling, I'm ready for a breakthrough."

   The third one is easiest: That feeling reminds you that when you learn a response, you're very good at doing it (for example, you weren't born procrastinating, you learned to do it . . . and rather well, it seems).

   Suggestion / Affirmation: "Every time I feel that old feeling, I'm reminded that when I learn to do something I do it very well."

   So you recognize now that old feeling is your trigger, your bell. And your new associations are important actions, profound breakthroughs, and positive affirmations. Without reinforcement, however, these incredibly powerful new learnings fade over time. Again, hypnosis can help. Keep reading, and know that your time is now.

3. The Reward (or any desired outcome)
   Profoundly successful people understand that your desired reward is already yours. You only have to own it on all levels of belief, and then you own it in life. Now we've arrived at what hypnosis does best: belief system enhancement.

   So what is truly rewarding to you?

   Rewards... ah, now there's a challenge. First you've got to be worthy of them, then you've got to know yourself well enough to know what you would want if you ever actually earned it, then you've got to believe that the reward actually can be yours someday. All this work?! Why not just go play the lottery and hope for the best instead?

   Or some of you may be saying, "But I've tried the 'carrot on the end of the stick' thing, and it doesn't work for me." You're damn right it doesn't work. It works for a horse because the horse doesn't realize that he'll never get the carrot. That the carrot will always stay equally far away. That there is no reward for his efforts. But you're smarter than the horse on the other end of that stick. That is why we never put the reward out of reach. It has to be tangible. Graspable. Truly motivating.

   When thinking about rewards, my clients have found two areas that truly help them to identify ways in which they can be good to themselves:

   1. Things they could have or could do, but aren't making time for; and...
   2. Things they did when they were procrastinating, but didn't fully enjoy because they felt guilty for avoiding their goals.

   Does this sound familiar? "I loved to read when I was younger, but now I'm too busy. I should read more." Or maybe, "I'd spend more time playing piano if this house was ever clean." Realize something: Rewards are those things that you enjoy fully because you've earned them. And you'll notice that many rewards are about time, not money. So even a shortage of funds isn't a valid excuse. You could go read or play piano or do whatever you love to do right now. Of course, it would be half-empty fun because you'd know you should be doing something else. Unless you earn it first. Your time is now.

So stop for a moment to become aware again of the three necessary parts to your success story:

1. The Bell
   That old feeling, letting you know it's time to earn a reward.

2. The Drool
   Associate that old feeling to the realizations that:

   1. It must be important,
   2. growth is around the corner, and,
   3. you do things well.
3. The Reward
   Truly reward yourself for taking action with free time or a prize.

Notice in yourself that you can absolutely do all three steps. They're easy! Hypnosis helps you by speeding up the integration of these associations, so you automatically take action. And as you fully integrate these success strategies into your life now, you can effortlessly reach those beautiful goals that you're accomplishing!

Remember that you are just enough like those dogs to be teachable. Hypnosis is that teaching tool. Those dogs didn't drool the first time they heard a bell, and you might not expect, really truly expect, to take action every time you feel that old feeling. By rewarding your successes, however, you will have learned to do in order to get. Pretty soon, just thinking about something that's important to you causes you to automatically skip that old feeling and move straight to taking powerful actions for the sake of your fulfilling rewards.

Now... what is that great product or service you have? Your time is NOW.