The Success Equation

Operating within belief, the key components for change, are imagination, motivation, and anticipation. If you can imagine something and it's within reason, mostly likely you will achieve it (Hadley and Staudacher,1996). What the mind can conceive and believe, you will achieve. Research has shown that when an event is vividly imagined, the body's internal system reacts in the precise same way it would if the activity were actually happening. This is what many great athletes practice: they imagine each part of an athletic event: golfers "see" the breaks in the green, they "smell" the finely cut grass, and they "hear" the roar of the crowd when the ball drops in the hole.

You too can practice this creative visualization process. First, clarify exactly what it is you wish to achieve. Maybe you want to clean out the garage. Imagine yourself starting the project: organizing what stays, what gets thrown out. See the clutter begin to disappear. Notice all the new available floor space. Perhaps you include a garage sale and now see your reward as all the money you have simply because you cleaned out your garage.

Maybe you wish to make more sales. Imagine yourself with your clients: discussing their needs, explaining how your product or service fulfills those needs, describing the benefits they would reap. See yourself shaking hands with the client and completing the sale, and picture yourself receiving your commission.

Practicing this process on a regular basis results in greater physical and mental energy which increases motivation. "Through the conditioned learning process, neural pathways between eliciting stimuli and behavioral responses become hardwired to ensure a repetitive pattern. Hardwired pathways are habits" (Lipton, The Biology of Belief, p103). Now you have the first part of the equation: imagination x motivation= belief (Hadley & Staudacher, Hypnosis for Change). Hadley and Staudacher extend the equation to include anticipation. (That's right, just like the song). If you expect something to happen, positive or negative, it will. It occurs because you have thoroughly convinced your subconscious mind to act upon your goals.