Do often feel that you sabotage your best efforts to loose weight, get fit, stop smoking, work smarter and the like? Is it a bit like having a gremlin on your shoulder giggling at you, or a little voice blowing raspberries? This is your inner-mind, (your subconscious), at work. What you want to do and what your subconscious wants are in conflict.

What to do The solution is to tap into the power of your mind and get it working in the direction you want to go. You can do it right now - here's how, by creating a vivid picture in your mind of how you want to be. So often we stay stuck with being overweight, un-fit or smokers because we don't really have any idea what it will be like for us to be that way. So our brain continues in the same old habit patterns.

Try this exercise for yourself now and start the process of making real change in your life: Take a deep breath, relax, and take another relaxing deep breath in and let it out. Now close your eyes, see yourself exactly how you want to be. Now when you've got the picture exactly how you want it, using your imagination climb into that picture, so that you really get feel what it's like to be how you want to be . . . . really savour that feeling and lock it into your mind, imagine how you'll talk, what people are saying, what you can see . . . . . When you're ready, open your eyes and come back to now.

Training yourself for Success What you've just done is started to programme your subconscious to achieve what you want. Do this every day on a regular basis, and you really will see results. You will be following one of the basic laws of the mind - what you focus on is what you get. Think about it. Have you ever succeeded relaxing by telling yourself to relax, or fell asleep by telling yourself to sleep? No? That's because you are actually focussing your subconscious on your current state of stress or sleeplessness, you are picturing how you are stressed, or awake, so that's what you get. Get the picture?

Your most powerful resource The mind is a very powerful resource - make it your ally. Get to know your inner-self - stop and listen to what's going on in your head. You will start to get clues as to what stops you breaking old habits or not getting what you want. And if you want to really make changes do it with hypnotherapy - you owe to yourself. Be the best you can be.

By Liz Labrum: Master NLP Practitioner and Hypnotherapist. Helping people make the right changes in their lives www.lizlabrum.co.uk