keystothemind.com -

Hypnosis Trainers Are Saying Confidence is Everything… But Here’s How it Can Secretly Trip You Up!

Confidence is gaining a good reputation in the hypnosis space. People are realizing that if you want people to trust you, to accept your suggestions, and to act on your instructions… basically, if you want them to be persuaded, then you really have to be confident.

Believing that you are “The Hypnotist” is often a great way to boost your “in the moment’ confidence, particularly in a Street Hypnosis or live covert hypnosis / persuasion setting.

Having that belief to fall back on in the moment can be both reassuring and empowering.

But in many new hypnotists, I see it almost causing more harm than good.

They create this fragile surface level identity of being ‘The Hypnotist.’ They tell their friends about the 73 inductions they know, and the 11 certificates they downloaded off the internet for $5.95.

Then they get a chance to test their skills, and BOOM. Suddenly, the idea of “failure!” hits like a baseball bat over the head, a 1000 times worse than normal.

Not only are they faced with the prospect of failure in a social setting, but if they fail, their entire self-image as “The Hypnotist” would crumble into dust!

This becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, as when they do fail (which inevitably happens when you’re learning – which you always are!), their identity often collapses too.

So, what’s the solution? Where does the balance lie between the ultra confident ego boosting idea of The Hypnotist, and the problem of creating an identity so vulnerable to failure?

I have seen many people create permanent identities as learners. Even after 10+ years doing hypnosis professionally, they still look at themselves as beginners. This means failure is not an issue – they’re learning – but it also stops them from advancing, from pushing boundaries, testing the envelope. After all, they’re just learners, who are they to try and create anything new?

For the ambitious, what I suggest is a mixture between the two frames.

Yes, you are a  hypnotist, but you’re also learning. Mastery is a lifelong task, if you make a mistake now, tomorrow, in 10 years time, it doesn’t matter. Learn from it, and move on.

Learning from mistakes. Viewing failure as a positive learning experience. It’s funny how easy it is to write about, but often how hard it really is to do.

Prove this to yourself: Think about a specific time when you felt really nervous about something. Things could go one way, or another, and if they went the wrong way, it would be terrible, wouldn’t it?

Now, looking back on it, you can probably laugh. Obviously, because you’re sitting here, reading this, you’re ok. Your house still has a roof, power and internet bills are paid, eyes are still working, head still on, everything really is fine, isn’t it?

When we are faced with ANY pressured situation, we blow the cons out of the water, and freak ourselves out. Don’t hate yourself for it, actually be grateful. Realize it’s just your unconscious mind trying to protect you from harm.

But know – and practice telling yourself, people often forget that beliefs and attitudes need as much practice as language patterns and techniques, if not more, – that everything really will be fine, and the worst case scenario, really isn’t that bad. Even if things went as bad as possible, you’d be able to recover.

And, if you do freak out in the moment, even after reading this, don’t worry! People look at fear and nervousness as a reason NOT to do something. They think that by reading about confidence they will never feel fear or nervousness again.

In my last post, I gave you Two Ways to Bust Fear, Kill Nervousness, and Be Confident When Doing Hypnosis, and these tips will serve you well, but I need to add a crucial element to that:

The pathway to mastery is NOT sticking to the sidelines UNTIL your fear goes. Fear will always out wait you. The path to mastery is to, as the saying goes, “Feel The Fear, and Do it Anyway!”

Accept fear and nervousness. It’s not a big deal. Use the techniques I show you to reduce, but realize that if some of it is still there, it does not matter!

Internal confidence always requires outward action – so start DOING, and before you know it, you’ll find yourself BEING. Unfortunately, it seldom works the other way around!

A solid identity is something you earn, not something you feebly tell yourself you have. So, take action, face the fear, and take the first steps towards being THE master hypnotist!

Cheers,
Nathan Thomas

PS

Want to Master Hypnosis LIVE? Let’s Meet Up in Melbourne!

I’ll be teaching a live two day intense hypnosis training program in Melbourne, Australia, July 2 and 3 this year.

We’ll be going in depth into how you can BE a master hypnotist from the inside out, taking concepts like we discussed in this post and making them 10,000 times more powerful. I’ll be guiding you through the map to (almost!) effortless mastery, and showing you how to ramp up the benefits, and avoid all the mistakes and pitfalls I spent years trying to climb out of.

On the afternoon of the second day, New Zealand’s top Street Hypnotist, Reg Blackwood, will be flying up specially to deliver a unique workshop to everyone who attends entitled “Instant Street Hypnosis for Fun and Profit.”

This is the action taking part of the event, and by the time you get up to it you will shock yourself with the ease, confidence and grace with which you pull off your instant inductions, and with the incredible reactions you get from all your eager volunteers.

By this stage of the program you won’t be another hypnotist who just ‘entertains’ – you’ll be able to transform lives!

I have no doubt that this will be the hypnosis event of a lifetime – so no matter where you are in the world, make sure you’re a member of one of my Hypnosis Newsletters, and you keep your eyes peeled for announcements!

• Posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011
• 6 comments