For 88% of those who made a new year resolution failure is just around the corner or has already happened.
On new years eve those people were just as adament as the other 12% that 2010 would be the year they stopped smoking, reduced their alcohol intake or got a new job but why should such a large number of people fail in their desires? Do they not want the result as much as the 12% who succeed? Recent studies have shown that it may be because they are relying on willpower to achieve their goal.
In my Sheffield hypnotherapy clinic I see many people think of themselves as weak willed because they haven't been able to stop smoking despite trying many many times.
They have put so much effort into stopping but each time they find themselves being sucked back into the habit of smoking.
They assume that their willpower is lacking because they really want to stop smoking but can't so there must be a deficiency somewhere.
That is not so in the vast majority of cases.
Willpower resides in the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex.
This part of the brain is relatively small and has several roles including keeping us focused, handling short-term memory and solving abstract problems.
If you think about what proportion of your average day you need to be focused, remember things and solve problems for a lot of people this is a large proportion.
If you then add to this that the willpower part of the brain must provide the mental strength to not think about smoking then you have a recipe for disaster.
The prefrontal cortex can only juggle so many balls at a time so you may be able to resist the urge to light a cigarette but you may find your memory suffering or your concentration.
That lapse in concentration sees you delete some vital file from the company computer leading to stress and anxiety while you try and recover the file which makes you feel more like you need a cigarette to cope! Your willpower just isn't sufficient in most cases to deal with an addiction to nicotine.
The second thing that means that willpower is always going to struggle to help you to stop smoking is because to use willpower when stopping smoking you have to think about smoking.
What a cruel twist of fate that the one bit of your brain that you want to use to help you stop thinking about smoking has to think about smoking in order to help you stop thinking about smoking!! Try to not think about a bright pink polar bear..
...
you see.
In order to focus on the problem at hand (not thinking about pink polar bears) you have to use your prefrontal cortex and the way this part of the brain works is to think about the pink polar bear to then try and forget about it.
The thing is though, if I hadn't just mentioned pink polar bears you would have been very unlikely to have thought of that anyway.
This shows that willpower just isn't the tool for the job when it comes to stopping smoking.
This is reflected in the statistics also.
Just 5% of smokers who stop use willpower alone.
There is an added problem to stopping smoking using willpower.
You may never be free from tobacco using this method.
Willpower works by contructing an image of the thing you want to resist so this image is always fresh in your mind and it becomes a struggle to put that fresh image out of your mind.
This struggle can happen every day, for some people it could be an hourly struggle to not think about smoking.
These are the people who tell you that stopping smoking is hell, one of the most difficult things you will ever do, more difficult to get off than heroin.
They say this because they are using the willpower method.
If you receive hypnotherapy however you could find that you can breeze through the stopping smoking process.
You could find that you have no mood swing, no stress, no anxiety.
That is because hypnotherapy deals with the psychological reasons behind smoking so instead of fighting the urge to smoke just one of those relaxing, tasty cigarettes you instead see your addiction for the habit it is.
A habit you have no desire for so you can just forget all about it and enjoy the process of becoming a non-smoker and reclaiming your life back from yourself.
With this fundamental shift in attitude you will have the very best chance of stopping and staying stopped and you WON'T have to trust your weak willpower to look out for you.
On new years eve those people were just as adament as the other 12% that 2010 would be the year they stopped smoking, reduced their alcohol intake or got a new job but why should such a large number of people fail in their desires? Do they not want the result as much as the 12% who succeed? Recent studies have shown that it may be because they are relying on willpower to achieve their goal.
In my Sheffield hypnotherapy clinic I see many people think of themselves as weak willed because they haven't been able to stop smoking despite trying many many times.
They have put so much effort into stopping but each time they find themselves being sucked back into the habit of smoking.
They assume that their willpower is lacking because they really want to stop smoking but can't so there must be a deficiency somewhere.
That is not so in the vast majority of cases.
Willpower resides in the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex.
This part of the brain is relatively small and has several roles including keeping us focused, handling short-term memory and solving abstract problems.
If you think about what proportion of your average day you need to be focused, remember things and solve problems for a lot of people this is a large proportion.
If you then add to this that the willpower part of the brain must provide the mental strength to not think about smoking then you have a recipe for disaster.
The prefrontal cortex can only juggle so many balls at a time so you may be able to resist the urge to light a cigarette but you may find your memory suffering or your concentration.
That lapse in concentration sees you delete some vital file from the company computer leading to stress and anxiety while you try and recover the file which makes you feel more like you need a cigarette to cope! Your willpower just isn't sufficient in most cases to deal with an addiction to nicotine.
The second thing that means that willpower is always going to struggle to help you to stop smoking is because to use willpower when stopping smoking you have to think about smoking.
What a cruel twist of fate that the one bit of your brain that you want to use to help you stop thinking about smoking has to think about smoking in order to help you stop thinking about smoking!! Try to not think about a bright pink polar bear..
...
you see.
In order to focus on the problem at hand (not thinking about pink polar bears) you have to use your prefrontal cortex and the way this part of the brain works is to think about the pink polar bear to then try and forget about it.
The thing is though, if I hadn't just mentioned pink polar bears you would have been very unlikely to have thought of that anyway.
This shows that willpower just isn't the tool for the job when it comes to stopping smoking.
This is reflected in the statistics also.
Just 5% of smokers who stop use willpower alone.
There is an added problem to stopping smoking using willpower.
You may never be free from tobacco using this method.
Willpower works by contructing an image of the thing you want to resist so this image is always fresh in your mind and it becomes a struggle to put that fresh image out of your mind.
This struggle can happen every day, for some people it could be an hourly struggle to not think about smoking.
These are the people who tell you that stopping smoking is hell, one of the most difficult things you will ever do, more difficult to get off than heroin.
They say this because they are using the willpower method.
If you receive hypnotherapy however you could find that you can breeze through the stopping smoking process.
You could find that you have no mood swing, no stress, no anxiety.
That is because hypnotherapy deals with the psychological reasons behind smoking so instead of fighting the urge to smoke just one of those relaxing, tasty cigarettes you instead see your addiction for the habit it is.
A habit you have no desire for so you can just forget all about it and enjoy the process of becoming a non-smoker and reclaiming your life back from yourself.
With this fundamental shift in attitude you will have the very best chance of stopping and staying stopped and you WON'T have to trust your weak willpower to look out for you.
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