Bruce Thompson Coaching

At this time of year many people are minded to make resolutions as part of the New Year tradition. They decide to give up smoking, take up jogging to lose weight or make a career change to get away from a job they dislike. Sometimes they attempt to do all of the above at once!

Research carried out by the University of Hertfordshire shows that less than a quarter of people who make New Year’s resolutions actually keep them. Their data shows that most people (78% of their 700 people sampled) focus on the down side of not achieving their goals. It comes as no surprise to me that they fail to achieve results if they are focusing on the negative side. What we focus on tends to grow.

The best way to achieve any goal is to forward vision the result you want to achieve, and then frame the steps to achieving it in positive terms. You may want to lose ten pounds, but focusing on not eating does not help you to do it. Instead, how about focusing on eating a healthy, balanced diet and taking regular light exercise? You want to give up smoking? How about focusing on taking a healthy drink of pure water, every time you would previously have had a cigarette? You want to leave your dead-end job? How about identifying the recruiting requirements for your ideal job, studying to build your qualifications and then applying for the position?

Notice how these are all goal seeking motivations, with positive steps towards where you want to be. This is important to success, as your unconscious has difficulty processing negative images or sustaining away motivation. Instead of stating the objective as a negative (ie Stop Smoking) you focus on the positive steps you are going to take, such as drinking pure water.

When you make your New Year’s resolutions there are just three steps; Decide, Commit then Act.

• Decide on your achievable goal and focus on the positive steps you are going to take.
• Commit to achieving your goal, by cutting off from any other possibility.
• Act to achieve your goal, every day and in every possible way.

Part of the problem that people have in maintaining resolutions is the meaning that we give to things. Human beings are meaning making machines; we attribute meaning to everything. It is a legacy of our primitive past, where we started to attribute meaning to natural events as a way of overcoming fear.

Remember that a minor slip on your path does not mean that you cannot achieve your goal. If it rains and you don’t get out for that morning jog, it does not mean that your resolution is broken – it just means that it is raining. So stay indoors, do push-ups and sit-ups and get over it!

Focus on the positive to achieve the results you want, and have a Happy New Year!

Last night I was sitting in Andrew Barton’s fashionable Covent Garden salon while Shirley was having her hair cut and styled by Andrew himself. As he worked his magic, I realised why he is such a popular stylist, and remembered the old adage that you get what you pay for. The value is in the result.

Many of you will know Andrew from TV programmes such as Channel 4’s award-winning 10 Years Younger. Andrew has worked on the heads of many celebrities including Robbie Williams, Kylie, Elle Macpherson, Kate Moss, Penny Lancaster, Juliette Lewis, Jennifer Ellison, The Olsen Twins, Melinda Messenger and Turkish pop singer Sertab Erener. ¹

Having worked for Tony & Guy, and been International Creative Director for UK’s leading hair and beauty salon group Saks, Andrew is now creative head of his own Andrew Barton Hair & Beauty Empire. His flagship Covent Garden salon opened on 12 November, and the business is encouragingly busy.

Watching Andrew at work, he is obviously passionate about what he does, and has excellent rapport skills with the customers. The staff are friendly and helpful, and kept me supplied with latte coffee while watching the master at work. The result is spectacular and Shirley is pleased with the finished style; well worth the trip to London.

If you want to book an appointment with Andrew, or one of his hand picked stylists, the Andrew Barton Salon is located at 25 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 8NA. You can phone for an appointment on 02071112 5998 or email appointments@andrewbarton.tv

Note 1. List cribbed from andrewbarton.tv/profile
Prices and services are on the website at andrewbarton.tv

I note with interest that Ian Sample, science correspondent for the guardian.co.uk, has reported that Scientists at New York University have found peoples’ memories could be rewritten after being recalled. While this may be a surprise to the researchers, led by Elizabeth Phelps, it comes as no surprise to NLP master practitioners!

This is a technique we use to re-pattern the neurology of a client in a number of different interventions, to achieve spectacular results; for example:

• Phobia Elimination
• Memory revisiting to remove a limiting decision
• Removing performance anxiety caused by past failures
• Changing a like to a dislike – say to avoid overeating a particular food
• Revisiting past events to take new meanings

As reported today in the article entitled Memories can be ‘rewritten’ to make them less traumatic Ian records:

In a breakthrough that has major implications for treating phobias and anxiety disorders, psychologists have helped people conquer their fears by “rewriting” their memories to make them less traumatic.

The therapy takes advantage of the discovery that human memories can be modified and made less frightening if they are manipulated soon after they are retrieved. They have concluded that invasive techniques and pharmacological interventions may not be necessary.

According to the university researchers who carried out the conditioning experiment, the best results occur when the memory is rewritten between three minutes and six hours after recalling. This is why a reprogramming session can make such a difference in a very short time. Once the memory has been revisited, it is ripe for changing so that it is no longer a block to performance.

If you are interested in experiencing the beneficial effects of memory changing using hypnosis and light or deep trance, why not click on the link below, fill in your details and get in touch.

Click here to contact us
Click here to read the Guardian article.