How many times have you tried to lose a few pounds, only to step on the scale a few weeks later and see the same number (or, God forbid, a larger one!) looking back at you? There are many problems associated with weight loss, but one of the most effective things one can do to help themselves achieve their weight loss goals is to partner with someone so they have some level of accountability. This, along with a consistent program of diet and exercise, will help you get the results you want.

Most people think that finding a workout partner or friend to talk to about their progress is the solution, but this approach comes with a number of problems. First, a friend is, by definition, a
biased observer. You can’t count on a friend to give consistent, unbiased feedback on your progress. Second, putting that kind of responsibility on a friend can strain the relationship, and make it even more difficult to get unbiased feedback.

So what’s the solution? Recently, life coaching has exploded in popularity. As people deal with more and more stress on a daily basis, they are finding that the help of a professionally trained life coach can allow them to put aside some of their persistent hangups and move forward in a way that would have been nearly impossible on their own.

A life coaching relationship is based on an agreement between the coach and the client – they set up goals and achievements for the client. More than anything else, life coaching is a learning process. The client learns a great deal about himself, and this improved self-knowledge leads to confidence and success.

As far as weight loss, nothing beats having a devoted coach to hold you accountable for your workouts and diet. A life coach can also help make suggestions and give guidance on issues of time
management and prioritization, both essential skills in a weight loss regimen.

A life coach can also help by referring their client to other specialists such as a nutritionist or a personal trainer to help them get to their goals. Think of your life coach as the ultimate resource – the coach can help you to find whatever help you need for you to achieve success.

Life coaching is a powerful tool to help you get your weight where you want it to be. With consistent effort and the right resources, anyone can achieve their goals.

Until then…
Peak into your future,
Coach Guerci

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP life coaching

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Are you having trouble concentrating in school? Does the daily grind of classes and homework fill you with dread? There may be a solution to your problems. While spending time studying and reviewing materials are both important, there are two additional tools that can help you achieve success – hypnosis and life coaching.

Hypnosis has a long history of use in improving academic performance – there are a variety of techniques to make it easier and more pleasurable to spend time studying, and planting the right suggestions can help deal with the performance anxiety that many people deal with when taking tests. These tools can help you not only to be more successful in school, but to feel better while you’re achieving that success as well.

Life coaching is another powerful tool to move you forward in the academic world. Life coaches are skilled professionals who can help you with time management, prioritizing, and general life outlook. Most of the problems that students face have to do with time management and prioritizing – many people spend too much time on unimportant work and end up missing the essential information they need. With the help of a life coach, you can work to find what you’re doing that’s a waste of time and move on to more important work. Time management is another essential skill that most people never develop to the fullest extent. Time management skills are relatively easy to learn, and once you master them along with proper priorities, you can accomplish a great deal more every day. This effective use of your resources will show immediate results in your academic performance.

Another aspect of school that’s difficult for many people – the social aspect. It’s hard to have a fulfilling experience in the academic world when you don’t think highly of yourself. Both hypnosis and life coaching can help in this. Hypnosis can be used to bolster your confidence and feeling of self-worth, while a life coach can assist you in weeding out the negative relationships in your life and discovering which relationships help to move you in a positive, productive direction. This two-pronged attack can help relieve the stresses of a school social life and free you up to achieve the success you want. When used together, life coaching and hypnosis are powerful weapons to have in your arsenal. In everyone’s life, we look to use tools that help us achieve our goals, and hypnosis and life coach are simply tools to help you succeed.

Until then…Peak Into Your Future,

Coach Guerci

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP Hypnosis, life coaching, success

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Who could have guessed that a rivalry between two men, their lives separated by a century, would eventually shape an entire field of study and research? The academic rivalry between the schools of Franz Mesmer and James Braid lit up the world of psychology and directed the cultural history of hypnosis, and their feud is, in many ways, still ongoing.

Mesmer was a philomath who lived in the middle of the Eighteenth Century. He developed a complicated and occult system which he used to put his patients into “trances,” during which he would work with them to deal with anxiety and neuroses (at that time called “hysteria”). He based his system on a concept he called “animal magnetism,” which he believed was an invisible force that bound all sentient creatures together. By shaping this “magnetism,” he could work on the fevered minds of his patients.

Jean-Martin Charcot, known as the father of modern neurology, was a devotee ofMesmer’s methods, and promoted them at his school in Paris, Salpetriere. Charcot was a well-respected man of science, and his endorsement of Mesmer’s methods gave them a great deal of weight.

At the same time that Charcot popularized Mesmer’s ideas, a Scottish physician named James Braid was trying to make a respectable science out of hypnosis, which he called “neurohypnotism.” Braid believed that the most important manifestations of the hypnotic state were psychological rather than physiological (as Charcot and Mesmer believed). Braid’s work was not well received in his native United Kingdom, but in France it took hold and was developed further by a group of scientists based in the Nancy School of Hippolyte Bernheim.

The rivalry grew, and became harsher and starker as time went on. Sigmund Freud traveled to study with the hypnotists both at the Salpetriere and the Nancy School, and when he returned to Austria, he translated two of Bernheim’s works into German.

Over time, the work of the Nancy School was victorious, and Charcot’s (and by extension, Mesmer’s) ideas were completely discredited a few years later. Since then, hypnotism has become an important tool in the arsenal of psychologists therapists, helping patients with conditions as diverse as smoking cessation, asthma, and losing weight. Hypnosis has been found to be most effective in treating anxiety disorders, and has a proven track record.

From occult mumbo jumbo to medical and psychological tool, hypnosis has come a long way. Next time you think of a stage hypnotist or see the villain in some science fiction show swinging a pendulum to “mesmerize” his victims (now you know where that word comes from!), remember that modern hypnosis of the Braid school is more akin to medicine than magic.

Until then…Peak Into Your Future,

Coach Jim Guerci

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP Hypnosis, mesmerize

You walk in to a room and freeze up. There are strangers all
around – and you’re paralyzed, thinking “Am I good enough for
these people? Am I attractive, smart, and wealthy enough?” For
millions of people all over the world, social anxiety and low self
esteem are a daily problem.

When someone has a lot of confidence, other people can tell and
they tend to treat that someone better. Without a strong feeling of
self-worth, people act like they’re not worth anything at all.
Almost all interpersonal problems can be solved with a healthy
injection of confidence and self-esteem.

The enemy of confidence is anxiety. If you’re constantly thinking
about what other people think, how can you be confident? There
are plenty of ways to deal with anxiety, from taking up watercolors
to going for a jog, but one of the most effective methods for
leaving your anxiety behind and getting on with your life is
hypnosis. For over 200 years, hypnosis has been used to great
effect to help those with anxiety and self-esteem problems.

When most people think of hypnosis, they conjure up an image of
some guy in a top hat and a cape making people quack like
ducks. This picture couldn’t be a less accurate depiction of what
goes on during hypnotherapy. The point of hypnosis isn’t to force
others to do your will; rather it is to attain a state of deep
relaxation so that your mind can operate without all the normal
blinders and restrictions of conscious thought.

Once in a state of hypnosis, the subject can work with his
subconscious mind, planting “suggestions” or ideas there to bear
fruit while in your normal state. Think of it as changing the
wallpaper in your brain. Rather than playing a constant loop of
“I’m no good,” you can replace the backdrop of your daily activity
with “I’m successful and intelligent.” Not only will this help you
feel better, but it will produce results at work, school, and on the
athletic fields.

A 2003 study by a group of German scientists gives us strong
reason to view hypnosis as the effective tool that it is. It showed
that in a meta-analysis of a group of 57 studies completed on the
usefulness of hypnosis, at least 64% of those treated achieved
success towards their goal as compared to 37% of those who
tried to do it without hypnosis. Even more surprising, when an
additional 76 studies on hypnosis were included, it was found that
an astonishing 74% of those treated were successful, while only
27% of those who were untreated achieved success.

Whether you want to feel better about yourself, get the confidence
to talk to that stranger at a party, or shave some time off your
mile, hypnosis may be the tool that helps you to achieve your
goals.

Until then…Peak into Your Future,
Coach Jim Guerci

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP Confidence, Hypnosis, Performance

Hypnosis is an odd word – it came into existence as a shortening
of James Braid’s 19th Century term “neuro-hypnotism.” The root
of the word is from the Greek “hypnos,” meaning “sleep,” but has
little to do with the state we know as sleep. Hypnosis is in fact a
deep state of relaxation, during which the subject has released
tensions and worries of everyday life, and can focus their will and
concentration in a way that is usually impossible.

As far back as ancient Egypt, people have been using hypnosis
for healing. In Egypt, India, and Greece, there were places known
as “sleep temples,” where those suffering from physical and
psychological ailments could go to experience ritual healing.
Usually, they would gather in a large chamber, and sacred
chanting and dance were used to induce a hypnotic state, during
which the sufferers were more open to the suggestions of their
physicians.

In the modern world, it is easy to dismiss hypnosis, as most of us
are familiar with it only in the context of the entertaining stage
shows. However, hypnosis can be very useful in treating a variety
of ailments, from anxiety to compulsive behaviors to the treatment
of chronic pain. The British Medical Association and the American
Medical Association have both endorsed hypnosis as an effective
treatment as anesthetic and for psycho-somatic disorders and
neuroses, in 1955 and 1958 respectively.

We’ve come a long way since sleep temples – hypnosis is now
used as a remedy for a variety of problems, from smoking
cessation to dealing with asthma and irritable bowel syndrome.
Even Sigmund Freud was an enthusiastic supporter of hypnosis
as a tool to assist his patients with analysis – however, because of
the rather small number of hypnosis practitioners at the time, he
abandoned his work with the technique. In 1919, he wrote “It is
very probable, too, that the application of our therapy to numbers
will compel us to alloy the pure gold of analysis plentifully with the
copper of direct suggestion [hypnosis].”

A 2003 study completed in Germany gives us even more reason
to believe in the efficacy of hypnosis in treating health issues. It
showed that in a meta-analysis of a group of 57 studies
completed on the usefulness of hypnosis, at least 64% of those
treated achieved success towards their goal as compared to 37%
of those who tried to do it without hypnosis. Even more
surprising, when an additional 76 studies on hypnosis were
included, it was found that an astonishing 74% of those treated
were successful, while only 27% of those who were untreated
achieved success.

Hypnosis is a powerful and effective tool in dealing with a wide
variety of ailments, neuroses, and conditions. The research backs
up these claims. Looking at all the evidence, it seems that it
would be wise for the modern world to reevaluate our views on
hypnosis and start using it to better our lives.

Until then…Peak into Your Future,
Coach Jim Guerci

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP Hypnosis

How would you like to run a faster 40 yard dash, increase your bench press,
or cut a few seconds off your mile? If you’re looking to do any of these
things, consistent hard work and discipline will be an essential part of your
regimen. Research suggests that there may be another weapon in your
arsenal – hypnosis.

Confidence and positive thinking play a huge role in your success as an
athlete – it makes all the difference at the margins of your performance.
Whether it’s pushing out an extra rep in the weight room or somehow
managing to keep your legs moving at the end of a grueling football game,
it’s confidence that gives you the fuel to keep going. This is where hypnosis
comes in.

When most people think about hypnosis, they immediately conjure up the
image of a stage hypnotist making people dance or bark like dogs. This is
one of the cruder ways to use the increased suggestibility of a hypnotic
subject, with short-term suggestions and triggers. When properly applied,
hypnosis is a tool that helps you to create a new map or set of rules for your
subconscious mind.

Think about it this way – in your everyday life, you are
always operating on a set of subconscious assumptions. These
assumptions can be as benign as “if I find a penny that’s heads-up, I’ll have
good luck” or as destructive and negative as “I’ll always fail at anything I try.”
These assumptions shape our perceptions, and can sometimes cloud our
assessment of situations. Hypnosis can help you to clear out the
clutter of your subconscious, and willfully set up some new,
positive “scripts”.

These “scripts” can be as simple as “I’m a successful person, and
I’m good at what I do” to help with general confidence, or more
complex and goal- oriented visualizations, such as picturing
oneself finishing a race ahead of the rest of the pack or pinning
someone else to the mat at the end of a wrestling match. As time
passes and these images or scripts become the background of
your daily life, it becomes easier and easier to see the success
that springs up around you.

The subconscious mind is a powerful ally in achieving your goals.
As an athlete, it makes sense to use all the weapons at one’s
disposal. Just like diet and exercise, visualization and goal-setting
(with the help of hypnosis) can work for you and help you to attain
the success you work so hard for.

Until then…

Peak Into Your Future,

Coach Jim Guerci

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP athletes, Hypnosis, peak performance

It might sound funny at first to have a life coach. I mean, everyone lives their lives from day to day. Why on earth would you need a “coach” to make it through? The point is not just making it through life. Rather, it has much more to do with actually getting something out of life, fulfilling yourself and enjoying every minute of life you get to experience.

In order to make the most of your years here on earth, you should really consider the services of a life
coach. Why, you may be asking? The following listing of benefits should help you understand just why life coaching is vital to your happiness and success in all that you pursue.

Life Coaches Listen
A life coach is much like a therapist, in a way, because they are hired to listen to you. However, a life coach is much more intent on actively helping you change your life for the better and moving forward, rather than dwelling on the past. A life coach is great because he or she is paid to listen to you. Unlike a friend, you do not have to reciprocate. This is a one-sided relationship all in your favor.

Life Coaches Keep You Focused
Life coaching can help you stay on the path you wish to stay on in life. For many people, it is difficult to actively pursue their goals. With a life coach, you will be pushed to complete the tasks you wish to
complete. Rather than relying on your own gumption, you will have the external pressure of a life coach to push you in the direction you want to go. It’s an extremely helpful method of creating goals and sticking to them.

Life Coaches Always Tell the Truth
Unlike friends in your life, a life coach will always tell you the truth about yourself. Don’t expect to be
pandered or to be told what you want to hear by a life coach. That’s what the other people in your life are for. A life coach can provide you with an objective view of yourself and your life. This is very beneficial when you are facing tough decisions or trying to make excuses to get out of a tough situation.

Life Coaches Help You Overcome Obstacles
If you are facing obstacles in your life, a life coach can help build you up and overcome them. Whether it is weaknesses, fears or bad habits, a life coach can teach you to reach down deep in order to harness the strength you didn’t know you had.

Until then…

Peak into your future,

Coach Jim Guerci

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP life coach, personal coaching

The fruits of your labors are not always realized right away. Most people would agree while others would scream, “not fair.” It all depends on your point of view. You may know the “not fair” individuals all to well. When we speak these words we are claiming that we are the victims of circumstance. While disappointments may be present in our lives, it is in how we act in the face of these adversities that reveal our real mental game.

The past two years, I have worked with a high school girl’s basketball team. The team’s coach is a two time state championship. While at a different school, she was able to bring her team to the state level twice and win. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of that kind of win. It’s something that stays with you the rest of your life.

This coach transferred to a different school and was met with great success and countless wins. In her section, she has the most wins as coach in her section. Since at her new school she was able to bring her team to the sectionals five times. Each time her team met defeat even though they had the coaching and the talent to make it happen. Many would consider this a five-time failure, while this coach views it as five opportunities.

Her passion shows in her game and her coaching. Over the years, she was blessed with many outstanding athletes who have gone on to do great things in college and life. This coach called me on board last year to give her team that edge to cut through to become section champs, the coveted “Golden Ball”. I worked with her team who responded very well to the ideas presented to them. At the same time, I coached the coach to take these ideas to the next level. You have to understand that just because I know the answers, it doesn’t always mean that I can deliver them.

There is a certain relationship and trust between a coach and the athletes. After coaching the coach and staying on as a consults, the team was able to pull themselves together to be formidable opponents. Even though they were the lowest seed, they made it through the maze of competitions onto the sectionals. Their playing style came together and they seemed to get stronger with each competition. Finally, they were to face the top seed in the final sectional tournament.

The top seed team walked onto the court like they owned it. They would quickly discover that it’s not your credentials that make you champions; it’s your heart. The lowest seed team put their heart and soul into the game. Of course, they triumphed! No longer were they bride’s maids; finally they were the brides.

Now if you recall, this was their sixth attempt at the coveted “Golden Ball.” Each loss in the past only fueled the passion of both the coach and the team. They looked at their past as opportunities and never uttered the words, “not fair.” You see, they were never victims; they were never looking at the loss as an indication that it was all over. They were victorious and not the victim. They showed success and perseverance where others would have folded.

Does this happen to your team? What’s their mental mind set? Sometimes a coach outside the program can offer something that you can’t. I always say that it’s impossible to be the lifeguard and the swimmer at the same time. Perhaps the seeds we plant today can create the trees, which can provide shade for us in the future. Maybe you can envision that your future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades.

Until then…Peak into your future,
Coach Jim Guerci
jim@guerci.net

P.S. Catch the article of the team’s win below.
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/SPORTS02/803030348/1049/SPORTS0202
Here’s the video
http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080302/VIDEO03/80302004/1049/SPORTS0202

Technorati Tags: peak performance, life coach, hypnosis, sports hypnosis, NLP athletes, coaching, consulting