(How To Move Yourself Beyond The Illusion Of Limits!)

By: Peter C. Siegel, R.H.
© 2007 Peter C. Siegel, R.H.

You've thought about running a marathon because the glory of such an accomplishment invites enthusiasm and yearning within you. You begin a marathon-training program but soon realize it's not going to be easy. Watching the experience-hardened, power-lunged veteran runners, you find yourself saying, "Well, I guess they can do it, but I can't."

Or you look in the mirror and realize once again that 15 fewer pounds would do you and your waistline a world of good. But you've tried to diet before. "Well, I guess I just can't lose weight," you decide.

But think for a moment. In both the preceding examples, just why "can't" you?

That's not a rhetorical question. Really think about it! Is there any logical reason you'd embrace as to why others can accomplish something but you can't? Of course not! But somewhere along the way, you've programmed your subconscious mind (i.e. negative self hypnosis) to accept that for whatever reason, you "can't."

Recognize that this is a false, delusive mode of thinking. And I'm now going to show you how to change it so a positive, success-oriented mode of thinking incites clearly affirmative actions and behavior.

"You Can't" Is A Decided Lie!

First of all, understand that the notion "you can't" is a decided lie. The bountiful goodness of life - happiness, health, mega success, accomplishment - is nature's overriding purpose. Success, and all it entails, is what's supposed to happen to you. And you have only to attune your mind to dwell upon and embrace these basic life purposes to become a channel which creates these qualities in your life!

In other words, as you think, so you become. An irrefutable law of attraction operates in this world. With undeviating precision and justice, it moves you toward those things in accord with your dominant state of mind. So if you say - and believe - that you can't do something, you won't. If, on the other hand, you embrace the idea that you can and you must do it, then you're invoking the natural law of attraction to perfectly work out your individual positive demand.
And so from this time forward, every time you think you can't, resolve to think you MUST!

As a peak performance hypnotherapist, I've worked with hundreds of athletes and personal development strivers such as yourself. And I've always found that the word "can't" is nothing more than a delusive cover-up. It's never a well thought- out, experience-confirmed assessment of your real ability. Usually people don't consider this idea in regard to feats truly impossible, such as breast stroking across the Pacific Ocean or flapping their arms and "flying to the moon." Rather, they'll say, "I can't lose weight" or "I just can't ask my boss for a raise," attaching it to concerns that they absolutely can act upon and succeed with! In actuality, such an "I can't" mode of thinking only means you've embraced delusion and have not accepted the latent resourcefulness which would demonstrate that you irrefutably COULD!

To reinforce "I can't" is a negative self-suggestion which prevents accomplishment and happiness - which are possibilities for you - from manifesting in your life. Through constant projection of this notion, it first becomes an impoverishing habit of thought, which, as you're aware, limits you. But after the "I can't" mode sets in and is reinforced long enough, it becomes a joy-killing, success-precluding belief. You somehow convince yourself that the untruth of "I can't" is truthful, and you then find your experience confirming this idea.

And what happens when your subconscious accepts this false premise? It keeps you from testing yourself, from challenging self-imposed limitations, from acting with fierce conviction to triumph. You believe, for example, that the joy of completing a marathon is reserved for others but not for you, because you "can't." You believe that a perfectly trim and chiseled physique is for others who are genetically prone to achieve it, while you "can't." You believe that the full fruits of life's harvest are for other "lucky" or "special" people, but not for you because you "can't."

Start To Know What You Have…And CAN Do!

But just what is it they have that you don't? The answer: Absolutely nothing! The strength and purposefulness of life that they've converted into mega success exist within everybody, and this life power always CAN and always DOES come through! Look around you and you're sure to find people who you'd consider "lesser" than you who've achieved magnificent success. They've reached these levels because they've overcome this "I'm not supposed to/I can't" bind, enlisting instead their full creative power to surmount obstacles and masterfully triumph!

And if they can, you can too! (Just what would it be that you could tell yourself which would lead you to believe that you "couldn't"?)

For you to actually believe that you "can't" (in any aspect of your life) strengthens a delusion that prevents you from acting purposefully to find out if you indeed can. And so, knowing that can't, won't, shouldn't, and couldn't are predominantly delusions based more on habit than fact, from this moment on every time you find yourself entertaining thoughts suggesting "can't," immediately mentally exclaim, down to the depth of your soul, that you MUST!

Whenever or wherever you find yourself entertaining thoughts suggesting "can't", STOP yourself at once and give the deliberate mental command, "Now I MUST do this thing because I'm much bigger than I've let myself be, and my abilities are superior to this illusion "can't" suggests!" Then immediately generate specific, targeted action reflecting a commitment to prove to yourself you ARE more capable than your limited thinking led you to "believe."

This is a simple and direct positive self hypnosis – a decisive first step toward overriding unchallenged delusions of inability with self-induced, success-directed thoughts and actions. By exclaiming and reinforcing "I Must" when notions of "I can't" emerge in your mind, you're reprogramming fictitious ideas of ineptness with capacities possessed by a tougher, more capable and more resourceful aspect of you. You're firmly deciding it's NOT okay for your past to continue undermining your participation in life. You're refusing to acknowledge that you're anything less than the FULL power and potential of life's natural purpose — which is always success-oriented, which instinctively inclines toward more, and which always CAN!

Exploit The Power Of “I Must”

By this profound exclamation of "I Must" -- spoken or thought with conviction--you're also accomplishing something deeper than obliterating the "I can't" mode. You're accessing a powerful capacity residing within the potential of every human being. You're unleashing that part of you that doesn't have to think about what to do, how to do it, or what's right and wrong, proper or improper, based on perceived consequences. This part of you simply does what's necessary to triumph – directly, instinctively, automatically, and perfectly!

What happens when you're suddenly cut off by another vehicle on the freeway? All your reaction capacity, control, strength, decisiveness and even your creativity mobilize into a congruent action force. You don't ponder in your mind what you should do, or whether you "can" do it. You just perform spontaneously, exactly as you need to achieve a specific result. This happens automatically.

This same heightened power, that instinctive action capacity toward performance and accomplishment beyond your "normal" experience, can be channeled to fuel actions promoting long-term goals--such as fitness, financial success, or whatever you desire out of life. And instead of allowing life-and-death situations to be the sole activators of this potential, you can now actively invoke it through reinforcing "I Must" to boldly challenge--and crush--the delusion of "I can't" every time it enters your mind!

So generating the "I Must" command isn't a ploy to just bolster your ego or make you feel good. If you consistently invoke it every time you think you "can't," it becomes a catalyst--a compelling charge to take action in a context where you'd otherwise resign to limitation.

The more you continue acting boldly to purposefully dispel the illusion of "can't," (replacing it with "I Must") the more you'll recognize "can't" as just as old, ignorance-based habit of thought. Your whole self-concept will re-form and strengthen as you become aware that you're much more competent and resourceful--much more capable--than you ever let yourself be. And you'll be surprised, in fact, genuinely delighted, to find out you CAN! The only reason that you never had before is that you never took the initiative to override your own negative self-suggestions. But now, through the "I Must" strategy, you're going to do just that! And things you may once have thought impossible for you will start becoming eye-opening, esteem-building accomplishments--blatant self-initiated personal TRIUMPHS!

So right here, right now, say firmly and boldly to yourself, "EVERY TIME I THINK I 'CAN'T', I MUST!" And as you do, f-e-e-l the essence of this idea pulsing vigorously though you as you allow the power it engenders to flood every muscle, nerve and fiber within you. And know that because you feel the passion and energy connected with this idea, it's not just an empty-worded slogan, but a definite potential within you, awaiting to serve you as you want and need it to, RIGHT NOW!

In the beginning, you'll have to consciously, willfully interject your "I Must" statement in the face of every "can't" notion that arises. And each time you do this you advance the goal of establishing "I Must" as a natural, ingrained, spontaneous part of your thinking.

The "I MUST" Hypnosis Self Motivation Process

As an aid to further accomplishing this goal, employ the following easy hypnosis process during every "I can't" episode your mind projects. [*Do Not Use This Process While Driving Or While Engaging In Any Activity Requiring Your Full And Complete Attention!]

Immediately upon becoming aware you're thinking "I can't" in relation to anything, perform the following steps:

1.) Close your eyelids down and inhale deeply.

2.) Think or, if appropriate, verbalize emphatically: "EVERY TIME I THINK I 'CAN'T', I MUST!"

3.) In your imagination, project a scenario of yourself as a bold, deliberate personality of action, taking the initiative to do, succeed and achieve with the area in which the delusive notion "I can't" emerged.

4.) Sense and deeply feel the realness and impact of your action specificity. As you do, step into the picture and, while continuing to generate those actions purposefully geared toward succeeding, and feeling the accompanying sensations of energy and conviction surging through you...

5.) Implicitly experience the power, rightfulness, competence and sensory impact reflecting you are confidently taking charge, while perceiving yourself doing, saying and expressing yourself in that specific way which convincingly accomplishes the task!

6.) Experience yourself fully creating or accomplishing the exact outcome you anticipate will occur from your straightforward, success-targeted "I Must" actions.

7.) Savoring the empowering suggestions of "I CAN," open your eyes and immediately start do-ing -- in exact accordance with your "I Must" conviction!
You can use this hypnosis strategy to program the "I Must" idea so it becomes a subconscious conviction. And steadily, you'll find "I Must" becoming your rule of thumb, and "I CAN" becoming the predominant fact of your life!
 

Powerhouse self-help author, clinician, and national TV therapist, Pete Siegel is the country’s foremost peak performance hypnotherapist and personal best coach. Go now to review his acclaimed PowerMind© best selling life and success building programs, including Building Super Confidence, Success Mind-Sets, Living Invincibly Positive, Using Your Stress To Fuel Your Success!, Winning At Life, and the landmark book

The Formula© at www.incrediblechange.com