Tuesday, October 9, 2012

How Your Story About Quitting Cigarettes Can Make or Break Your Success

Most smokers would engage that once you have made the verdict to discontinuation smoking cigarettes, the next biggest word that you need to vacate is the fitting mindset. I believe it ' s the single biggest thing that will drive your success at quitting.

Now there are populous things one could revenue into consideration when you vision about all the elements that make up ' the legal mindset '. One of THE biggest is the story that you have about smoking AND the story you have about quitting.

I have helped over 500 clients drop cigarettes in 60 rag with hypnosis and what I have commence with partly every single one of them was that they had a story about quitting, about their bygone sophistication with quitting and about what they Feature they will be experiencing when they stroll out my office.

Once they have finished telling their VERY well justified story about their preceding contact with quitting, I in consequence start my pre - hypnosis talk by sharing a bunch of information about smoking, quitting and how to perdure a non - smoker. One of the most something things I contend is about developing the space station one can meditate the alternative of a new story about quitting. This is a very powerful tool in creating the condign mindset for quitting.

The bottom line is that the less we are attached to a story about the way we sense things are, the easier it will be to stir a new idea about other possibilities, and this is so important when it comes to quitting cigarettes.

It ' s a very normal thing for me to hear smokers share their stories about quitting, and they usually go something like this: ' It ' s not easy to quit, I ' ve tried everything and nothing seems to work for me, I just don ' t have the will power to quit, maybe I ' m just meant to be a smoker for the rest of my life, It ' s so hard to quit because I ' m addicted to nicotine, my body just needs that nicotine, everyone around me smokes how could I possibly quit? ' etc etc.

Like I said above, these are justified stories that I often hear, but it ' s important to be aware that they are exactly that - a story. And the more that we get attached to the stories we have about become a non - smoker and quitting cigarettes, the more we will simply create that reality for ourselves. It ' s also easy to see how this is closely related to the fact that as people we like to be right about things, our views and perceptions. So if we have a story that quitting is going to be hard and that nothing will work, in a way we ' ll just create this scenario for ourselves so we can justifiably say to the world - ' see, I told you so, I WAS RIGHT! '. The sad thing is that sometimes we would rather be right than experience a new possibility that is truly beneficial for us.

Now just to give you an idea of how powerful the story we tell ourselves can be, I ' d like to share with you a scientific study conducted by Dr Joe Dispenza, an expert in brain bio chemistry. He has spent many years studying patients who have experienced spontaneous remissions from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, rare genetic disorders, cardio vascular conditions, arrhythmia, high BP, high cholesterol levels, emphysema and endocrine disorders. He wanted to know if there was something in common with these people. And he found that there was.

As I describe what he found, just keep in mind what I have already mentioned about the power of the story that one tells themselves.

Firstly, he found that they all accepted that there was an intelligence that was bigger than them, some divine intelligence. But it doesn ' t have to be this mystical thing. It ' s the same intelligence that is keeping your heart beating right now. It ' s the intelligence that runs all the systems of your body. These people all accepted that if there was something greater than them, that they could perhaps tap into this and it would do the healing for them.

The second thing that they had in common was that they all believed that their thoughts, their way of thinking over a period of time actually contributed to their disease or illness. And they had the realisation that if my thinking has contributed to my disease, maybe I should change the way I ' ve been thinking.

There is also scientific evidence to support this. Studies have shown that every time we have a thought, our brain produces a chemical associated with that. If we have elevated, positive thoughts the brain produces chemicals that make us feel happy. In the same way if we have bad, negative insecure thoughts, the brain produces chemicals associated with that thought, state or feeling. These chemicals produced by the brain are literally the food that is feeding the physical body and its cells.

What type of food is your brain feeding to your cells?

So all these patients, once they had established the above set out to start to change the way they thoughts. So they began to interrupt their old process.

They decided that in order to break their thinking process / habit, they had to re - invent themselves. They had to become somebody else. And when they began to think about who they wanted to become, they stopped this biochemical feedback loop and they started to ask themselves some important questions like:

What would it be like to be a happy person?

Who do I know in my life right now that ' s happy?

What would I have to change about myself in order to be a different person?

Who in history do I admire and why?

And what is it about them do I like and how can I mirror this in myself?

They began to contemplate what ifs. They began to tell themselves a NEW STORY! And the brain began to change. This new thinking process began to create new connections in the brain that started to act as a platform for them to be. So they began to gather information in this way.

When these people began to re - invent themselves, they spend long moments where they lost track of time and space. They became so involved in what they were thinking about that when they realised how much time had gone by it was always MUCH more than they had thought. What felt like 10 or 15 minutes, was really an hour, hour and a half to two hours. They lost track of the feedback the brain is always having with regards to its environment.

Now if this process of creating a new story is able to help people spontaneously recover from life threatening illness and disease, I wonder if there is something in this for smokers to learn from?

What this remarkable study is showing is that if we are willing to look within and reinvent ourselves and tell ourselves something new about what it is that we say we want to achieve? Then we pave the way for amazing things to happen.

How to Write a Short Story About School Life An Example

When you write a story about school or school life, you should imagine it from the confine. A short story is different from a novel which sometimes finds its own way when writing it; you need a plan and a structure that is halfway complete, if you want to make it a good story.

Holding the example of one of note occupation ( for a short story, this is useful! ): a boy of 12 years has been thrown out of his school. The debate is, how to make an exciting and understandable story that ends with this negative event.

This is the moment to construct a flow of action leading to his exclusion. Of course, it means that you think the story from its ending, but you write it from the beginning. Use your experience and your fantasy to find reasons or motives why such a young boy might be excluded from his school.

You know some central elements and patterns that can lead to it: very bad behaviour, being often absent without any excuse, bad performance and grades, destroying something, and other grave problems. You need to look for really serious aspects, otherwise the story cannot be logical or understandable to the readers.

Imagine a class conference with all the teachers and the director where they talked only about this one boy. What did they say there? How did the teachers judge him? Were they looking for hints towards an improvement? Was it a question of sympathy? What was the form teacher ' s opinion? Was there a teacher who stated that it was not right to send him home forever?

Try to search for other facts in his situation, his life. Normally, the teachers will be right when they find that the behaviour of a pupil or a student is intolerable. But the task of an author is, I believe, to look at the things behind the visible action. What are his conditions at home like? Has he got friends who play with him, help him? How do his siblings act towards him?

Maybe you can find some serious problems in the family or in his daily life beyond school. Maybe his father is an alcoholic, his mother is drug addicted - or his best friend was killed in a car crash? Maybe he is very unhappy with a problem he cannot solve on his own?

Managing this background question, an author of a short story about school can help to explain problematic behaviour and bad performance of a student, without simply putting the blame on someone. So the focus can be set on the solving of a problem - even if the story only makes the problem visible.

If these relevant aspects are part of your plan, you can write the story, no matter where you begin: with the exclusion of the boy, with the class conference or with the decisive reason of his misery. You can write a successful story now!

How to Use the Core Story Principle to Build Brand Value

What is a core story?

If your communication doesn ' t match up with your brand values, your stakeholders will not kumtux your brand ' s offering, and there will be a hole between your brand ' s outward facsimile and your company ' s internal individuality. Using a core story is a planned way of order your communication to create a consistent message about your brand.

Your core story is your central brand message and the basis of all your communication. The aim of using a core brand story is to close helping space there might be between your brand ' s over match and your company ' s internal ego and sometime residency your brand ' s value. The story should be relevant and appealing to all of your stakeholders, so they are strained to it and want to connect with you, your brand and your company.

What are the benefits of using a core story to communicate your brand values?

The benefits of using a core brand story include:

- A platform for basing the rest of your storytelling ( and other ) communication on, resulting in consistent communication of brand values

- An easy and efficient way of communicating your brand values and your company ' s mission and vision

- Stakeholders easily understanding and becoming drawn to connect with your brand values and company

- A way of aligning, enhancing and communicating your marketing and communication strategy

- A way of differentiating your brand and business and standing out from the competition

- A way of engaging your stakeholders in the brand story, resulting in more positive psychological co - creation and word of mouth

Where do you " find " your core story?

The most important criteria for your core brand story is that it must be authentic - either based on an authentic personal story ( like what motivated you to start your own company ), or an authentic problem ( like using fictional characters to illustrate the problem you are solving through your services ). A good start on a core brand story for a small company or solopreneur is why you got started in the first place, what your values are and what your mission is with your company - basically your about page on your website.

However, for bigger and / or older companies, more people have had an influence on the brand and have helped co - create the brand through interacting with it. Therefore, the bigger the company, the more stakeholders you want to involve before creating your story. Consumers, customers, employees and others can be involved in creating the story. Through listening to these stakeholder groups ' stories about their experiences with the brand ( for example customer reviews ), you can create an authentic co - created story that includes the internal culture and external experiences with the brand. Involving a lot of stakeholders in creating your core brand story will also be effective in lessening the gaps in external image and internal identity.

How do you use your core story to communicate your brand values?

Think of your core story as a way to direct the rest of your communication. The articles you retweet on Twitter, share on Facebook or LinkedIn are more valuable to your brand if they have something in common with it ( making retweeting web design articles more valuable if you are a web designer ). The blogposts you create should establish you as a form of expert in your field of service, in turn making your brand and service more valuable and attractive. Your goal should be to communicate valuable, meaningful and interesting messages about your brand, that your stakeholders can connect with. Basically, before communicating with your stakeholders, you want to make sure that your message is consistent with your story and brand values, so as not to confuse your stakeholders about your brand.

By the way

Fog, Budtz and Yakaboylu ( 2004 ) have written a whole book ( Storytelling - Branding in Practice ) about how to find and use your core brand story, written for larger companies.

How To Write A Short Story That Sells

Writing a short story, for most writers, is a fairly simple task. Writing a novel is a primary effort that takes bountiful hours to complete. Most people can create a simple short story, however it doesn ' t tight they are easy to write. You still need to plan your story, create your characters, and tell the story in much fewer words than in a novel. When written right a short story can be just over memorable now ingredient novel. Workaday the best way to learn how to write a short story is to scrutinize short stories. A good book to interpret is 50 Great Short Stories edited by Milton Crane. Returns not of the style and how to write with owing to fewer words because possible. Further how the characters are developed, how dialogue is used, and how the plot unfolds. Ideas can essay into your head at chip time so carrying a diary is a advisable to note them down wherever you are. Most of the time you will guess of a small piece of the story like a location, or characters name. Ideas can come to you from many sources such as newspaper boards outside a shop, or something you over hear in the street. These can all be built into a good story. Sometimes a whole plot will come to you very quickly but this happens less often. If you need to write a story for a class or some other occasion and you have no good ideas, try looking through a local news paper or a magazine. You could also ask friends and family for help. There are several step to a good short story, so when you have decided on your idea these are the steps to follow. Introduction. Introduce your setting and character ' s. Initial Action. The action that starts tension rising. Increasing Actions These are events leading you to the climax. Climax. This is the turning point of the story. The climax. Decreasing Actions. The beginning of the conclusion. Conclusion. The final part of the story when it all comes together. Once you have decided on your plot it is often a good idea to write a plot plan to work out what will happen at what time While a novel can take place over many years, have many sub - plots and characters, a short story needs to be much reduced. No more than two or three main characters and a time limit of days rather than years. Sub - plops should also be avoided. If you cant write your short story following these rules you should look at turning your idea into a short novel. There are three points of view to tell a story from. First - person " I " Second - person " you " Third - person " He or She " First person can be limited as you can only tell the story from the one character. What they see feel or hear. Second person is not used very often. The reader becomes a character in the story. Third person is probably the most used as you can tell your story from multiple points of view. You should now have your characters and plot worked out and written out for you to follow. How much work you will have to do to finish your story depends on how much work you have done in planning. I may be that you just need to fill out the plot into a finished short story. For most it will be much harder than that, and a full story will need to be written. Its very important to get off to an interesting and quick start. You need to grip your readers attention with the first line if possible. Don ' t describe characters or settings in great detail. reveal this slowly throughout your short story. Set yourself targets such as how much you are going to write each day. You will probably run into a few problems, but don ' t let this put you off. Keep writing even if you decide to throw away that days writing and rewrite it. You may decide you want to change your story and adjust the plot or change it completely. Or you may add or remove a character. It ' s your story so this is not a problem. You can either write the story letting it develop as you write or re - plan the plot. Its completely up to you. When you have finished your story go back through it correcting mistakes and editing parts that don ' t sound right, or just doesn ' t flow. If you have time put your story aside for a few days before doing this, it gives you a bit of distance from your work and allow you to look at it more clearly. You may decide to rewrite parts or even the whole story.