Use actions to create empowering beliefs

Every moment of your life is an opportunity to change completely. Your beliefs. Your life’s direction. Your destiny.

The following exercise tells you how.

1. Think of something you want to believe about yourself, but which you aren’t quite sure is true.
2. State your desired belief in a positive form. Make sure it’s truly yours, something you can do something about. Make sure it’s respectful of your work, your family and your friends, and about process, not static perfection. Complete this before going on.
3. Ask yourself, "What would a person with this desired belief naturally do?" imagine many different actions. List them.
4. Select a specific time and place in your future where you would like to have your desired belief.
5. Select an action from your list that’s evidence of your desired belief and is appropriate for that specific future time and place.
6. See yourself in your selected future time and place doing that action. Watch the scene (as though it were a movie) of that "future you" completing the actions of your desired belief. Revise the scene if it’s necessary so that it is positive and appropriate.
7. Rewind that scene to the beginning. Step into it and go through this future time as if you're living it now. See the scene around you. Feel the feelings. Hear yourself state your belief with conviction. Go through the scene to the end.

Repeat steps 4 through 7 three more times. Select a different appropriate action from your list of actions for your desired belief each time, each with another future time and place.

From NLP Patterns for Success Mastery, Charles Faulkner & Robert McDonald, Nightingale Conant