 Ever wonder what the true Return on Investment is when someone stops smoking? If you're a smoker, you won't be motivated to quit by the money alone. Overall money is a poor motivator for any change. We adjust to expenditures after an intital resistance to the change. How many times have you heard a smoker complain about the cost of cigarettes as they buy another pack? Thye money alone won't make a difference.
But what many smokers don't recognize is the return on their investment when they finally decide to stop smoking. I had this point illustrated to me recently when one of my former clients shared some actual figures with me.
Ron just passed his one year anniversary as a non smoker. His intial investment for hypnosis to accomplish that goal was $250.
Ron smoked one or one and a half packs per day. At $5.00 per pack, Ron broke even on his investment after his first month as a nonsmoker. In the past year Ron saved $2700 simply by not buying cigarettes.
Ron went even further. He's a Financial Planner, so he checked his insurance rates to see if he now qualified for a change in his premiums. He had a life insurance policy of $250,000 at a monthly premium of $206. After one year as a non smoker, he qualified for a reduction in his premium to $115 per month. That would be a savings of $1092 to keep his policy at the same value. On a whim he asked what doubling his policy to $500,000 would cost now that he is a nonsmoker. For an increase of $17 per month he doubled his life insurance policy . That's an anual investment of $204.
So Let's consider the math: An intial investment of $250 to stop smoking gave Ron a virtual pay raise of $2700. That year of saving $2700 made him eligible for a $500,000 life insurance policy for an investment of $204. He could have opted to keep his insurance policy the same and saved an additional $1092 for a total savings (or additional income) of $3792. Was it worth it? We haven't even touched on his health, the happiness of his wife and family, the pride he feels in his own accomplishment, and the freedom from a destructive habit. All of these are hard to place a monetary value on.
If you could invest $250 to get back $3792, would you consider that a good investment?
Hypnosis works!
Want to know where you're going? It might help to look over your past for the clues. When you want to get a better sense of your life purpose or the direction for you to focus on, observing the themes and patterns of your life can give you clues. What are your talents? What are the things that people have always come to you for? Who have you attracted into your life? What flows easily in your life?
Make a list and draw a few pictures to represent the answers to these questions. The list accesses your left brain. The pictures gain access to your creative and intuitive right brain. Both are important to your knowing. Your purpose, the reason you are here now comes from deep within you. When you are moving forward in the right direction, you might notice that as a feeling. A sense that this is right. Or you might see cues along the way, a coincidence, an unexpected gift of some kind that affirms your choice. It might just be something that resonates within you that tells you this is the path to choose.
The decision doesn't have to be a big one. You don't have to know how it will all work out. You simply have to take another step in the direction that your purpose leads. You simply have to focus on how to best use that talent, to apply that lesson from your challenges, to give to the world the blessing that you are.
The first time that I knew that I was on my right path, I was still a child. I had been very worried about a classmate who was injured at a game in school. From my child's mind I could only do what I had been taught to do when I was worried. I prayed. I prayed very hard and I prayed for a long time. A short while later I was out walking in the woods. I came across a steep wooded hillside that was covered in beautiful Virginia Bluebells. All in bloom. I had never experienced this before. I understood at that moment that this vision of wild flowers and the beauty they contained was an affirmation that my prayers were heard. Not coincidence but gift. A moment that had meaning for me from my child knowing and my expereinces of the world. That field of bluebells might have spoken a different message to someone else, but to me they were the reassuring voice of God.
What message are you receiving todaY
Tired of feeling tired? Get moving. The more active you are the more energy you have. It doesn't take a marathon to get results in your mood, your health or your brain finction. Can you find a small amount of time in your schedule? Can you find five to eight minutes a couple of times in your day. Set yourself up for successful exercise by carving out two, three or four periods of time in your day and creating "exercise moments" during these times.
I like dancing in my kitchen. It's my favorite way of adding exercise into my busy day. I keep a couple of CD's of my favorite fast beat music in my kitchen. While I'm waiting for that pot to boil or my food to finish cooking I turn on the music and let myself move. The style of my dance steps doesn't matter. I just let myself go all out. I move my arms. I jump or swing or high step. Depending on the music, two or three songs give me a good eight minutes of active exercise.
Do you have stairs in your house? Use the lower step as your aerobic equipment. Put on your favorite tunes and step away!!
Want to include a little strength training? Use the wall in your kitchen to do pushups. Use canned vegetables as hand weights. You don't need special equipment or a gym membership. You don't need a full hour in your day. You just need more active movement than you are currently doing. Weight loss doesn't happen overnight, but increasing your activity has immediate results for your health, energy level and mental clarity.
Set yourself up for success by making it easy to be more active. Keep your walking shoes visible and convenient for you to put on after work. Take a brief walk when you come home. Even 15 mminutes will clear your head and improve your brain function. Keep your resistance bands next to your favorite chair. Use them during one of your TV shows. Using your muscles increases your level of fitness.
What creative ways will you find to incorporate more activity into your day?
Physical activity and enhanced fitness to improve cognitive function in older people without known cognitive impairment.Angevaren M, Aufdemkampe G, Verhaar HJ, Aleman A, Vanhees L.;Research Group Lifestyle and Health, University of Applied Sciences, Bolognalaan 101, Utrecht, Netherlands, 3584 CJ. Maaike.angevaren@hu.nl Psychosom Med. 2010 Apr;72(3):239-52. Epub 2010 Mar 11. Aerobic exercise and neurocognitive performance: a meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials.Smith PJ, Blumenthal JA, Hoffman BM, Cooper H, Strauman TA, Welsh-Bohmer K, Browndyke JN, Sherwood A.; Box 3119, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Smith562@mc.duke.edu; Brain Res. 2010 Oct 28;1358:172-83. Epub 2010 Aug 22. A neuroimaging investigation of the association between aerobic fitness, hippocampal volume, and memory performance in preadolescent children.Chaddock L, Erickson KI, Prakash RS, Kim JS, Voss MW, Vanpatter M, Pontifex MB, Raine LB, Konkel A, Hillman CH, Cohen NJ, Kramer AF.; Department of Psychology & Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Aerobic exercise enhances executive function and academic achievement in sedentary, overweight children aged 7-11 years O’Malley, G. Journal of Physiotherapy. 2011; 57(4): 255. The effect of a single aerobic training session on cognitive flexibility in late middle-aged adults; Netz Y, Tomer R, Axelrad S, Argov E, Inbar O.; International Journal of Sports Medicine. 2007 Jan; 28(1): 82-7. Resistance training and executive functions: a 12-month randomized controlled trial. Lui Ambrose T, Nagamatsu LS, Graf P, Beattie BL, Ashe MC, Handy TC. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2010 Jan 25; 170(2): 170-8. Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory Erickson KI, Voss MW, Prakash RS, Basak C, Szabo A, Chaddock L, Kim JS, Heo S, Alves H, White SM, Wojcicki TR, Mailey E, Vieira VJ, Martin SA, Pence BD, Woods JA, McAuley E, Kramer AF.; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. ; 2011 Feb; 108(7): 3017-22. The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, (nicabm) www.nicabm.com
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