Mental Fitness for Good Health

Motivations that Create Deprivation

Not all motivations are created equal.  Some motivations don’t create deprivation.  When people make changes without experiencing deprivation, their changes will be permanent.

Some motivations create deprivation.  When the conscious mind senses a state of deprivation created in the unconscious mind, the conscious mind will sabotage the efforts of the unconscious mind.  As a result people fail.

For years I lost my wrestling match with my smoking addiction. All of my creative endeavors to control my smoking failed.  Finally I had to admit that smoking controlled me.

After admitting to my smoking addiction, I always seemed to get sidetracked on my road to Recovery.

I finally was able to break free of my addiction, by changing my motivation for change.

I knew I had to "stop smoking".  I looked at my deteriorating health and I knew I had to stop.

I continued to fail, because I was programming my unconscious mind to fail. 

Jane Savoie wrote in her book, That Winning Feeling!  Program Your Mind for Peak Performance,  "You must decide whether you will Program your subconscious mind with a WIN mechanism or as a LOSE mechanism".

Without knowing it, I programmed my mind with motives that destroyed the possibility of permanent freedom from smoking.  I was programming my unconscious mind to "stop smoking" by choosing words that punished, intimidated and deprived me.

I was bound to fail!   No, I had to fail or I would have had a miserable existence.  Unconsciously non-smoking was programmed as:

1. A punishment and I didn’t want to be punished for the rest of my life;
2. An intimidation and I didn’t want to be intimidated for the rest of my life; and
3. A deprivation and I didn’t want to be deprived for the rest of my life.

I finally found words to motivate me, so "not smoking" was a reward for me.  Once I have found new words to motivate my recovery, I no longer had to struggle.  Since I have found positively motivating words to motivate my recovery, I have not relapsed.

Remember, You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

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