Life is like an ocean. The waves may be very calm one day and the next day there may be a storm. Life is not like a mountain that remains steady forever. Right from our childhood we find the times changing. Sometimes everything looks going perfectly. Otherwise everything goes wrong. Why and what to do about this?

Some of us call this our fate. They accept that whatever happens is destined. Such people may be very calm. Some of those who believe in fate are also very inactive. They accept whatever comes their way without making any effort to fight the situation. Certainly one can believe in fate. But that should not stop us to act positively? How to act in tough times?

1. List out all your assets. Some of us think that they are left with nothing when tough times come. But that is not true. You may be facing the toughest time, but you are alive. That is an asset. If you are healthy, that is another asset. If your family is supporting you, that is one more asset. You have friends? Add them as your assets. Write down everything you have as an asset. This kind of list gives us positive inspiration. We feel that all is not lost. That is very important. To come out of the hopelessness is the first major step we should take during tough times.

2. Make a list of all the problems that you are facing. Divide that list in small problems and big problems. Look at the list again and find out which problems may be ignored for the time. Find out the problems that must be tackled. Begin with small problems from that list. As you solve one after another problem, you will see your confidence growing. Tough times test us our attitude. We must fight them out.

Perseverance is continuing to do something in spite of obstacles or difficulties. It is one of the best qualities to have because with perseverance success in your endeavors is almost guaranteed.

To persevere we need to have faith that we actually can succeed. If we don’t believe success is possible for us, we will not be motivated to continue. But this is the dilemma. If we don’t have much belief in ourselves, we will quit our efforts more readily, and when we quit, we obviously do not succeed and that seems to give credit to the idea we couldn’t succeed anyway. Sadly, this can develop into a regular habit. If on the other hand, we believe we will succeed, we will not give up. We may encounter great difficulties or even defeats, but because we believe we’ll ultimately succeed, even with failures we just change our tactics or adjust our goals a little and continue to try. Because we keep trying and adjusting we greatly improve our chances of success. This is the essence of self-fulfilling prophesy.

So at the heart of success, is the ability to persevere. But how do we encourage this quality in ourselves?

Be aware of your desire to give up too early, and of the truth that persistence will almost always lead to success. When you start a new endeavor, make a promise to yourself that you will try it for a specific period of time and won’t quit before that time is up. Make the interval of time short if you need to, but no matter what, keep your promise and do not quit before the allotted time. When the deadline arrives, you can then decide if your strategy is working and you should continue in the same manner, or if you need to make adjustments in your strategy. Allow yourself to abandon one strategy in favor of another after you’ve given it a fair trial, but never quit on your goals. Only change your strategies.

As you know by now rapport is a key skill that you will need to master to be a successful hypnotist. Without rapport your subject will not be open to your hypnotic suggestions and communications.

A brief review of rapport is the harmonious relationship that you share with people. In this relationship you understand and relate to people’s feelings, ideas as well as communicate them well with one another. Everyone does this everyday with the different relationships they share with family, friends and co-workers.

In order to build a strong and wide rapport you will need to practice and perfect certain skills. Rapport in normal circumstances can often come easily. Think of how easily you share your life with a spouse or your best friend. The rapport here is focused and good, it comes easily and casually.

However hypnosis is not a normal or casual relationship. A deep amount of comfort, trust and familiarity must be established before you can reach your goals with a hypnotic subject. Remember they are going to let you into their mind this is not a place you open to just a perfect stranger.

As you are learning hypnosis you will want to focus on advanced strategies for building rapport. Creating and building on ‘rapport hooks’ is a great skill that will get other people to build rapport with you. Rapport hooks are going to do the work of drawing your subject into you as you get acquainted.

Rapport hooks are developed in a way that will keep people coming back to you to build on the relationship. It causes people to work hard and value the relationships they are building. If a person feels that they are working hard to build something they will also continue to work to maintain the past success they have had.

When you put rapport hooks into action, they will keep the person coming back for more information. The hooks will get your subject to keep asking questions, and coming back to fill in the informational gaps in you are purposefully leaving in your stories.

One way to get a person to keep coming back for that information is to give them small pieces of information that may not be complete. Leave questions in their mind as you tell stories. Give a casual tone, but leave what, why and how open for your subject to dig with.

The key here is to avoid forcing information on to them. Get your subject interested but leave your topics open by adding suspense and unfinished information.

For example, if you are telling a story about a place you visited, use the name of the country but give no specifics about where you went. Tell them the scenery is beautiful but let them ask about the region or sites you saw. Let them probe for these answers. You can do this with almost any topic.

While you are talking remember to use a casual tone and present the information in a way that inclines them to ask for more. If your subject’s curiosity is peaked they will be inclined to want to know more to the point of asking you.

In this manner you are elegantly giving them a good story and drawing them in as well. The more curiosity and interest the person has the more questions they will ask. Asking you questions is subconsciously earning them the right to the information and they begin to feel it is more important.

When you use rapport hooks it will also help you with fractionate rapport. Fractionate rapport happens when you giving rapport then consciously taking it away.

Give your subject your full attention for a while, then, distract yourself. Getting casually distracted by looking around or engaging your attention elsewhere will cause the subject to re-engage you. If the person does re-engage you then you are on board with the beginnings of a foundation for an advanced rapport.

Again this is causing the person to work for your attention. You give it, and then take your attention away. They then have to work to get it back. This makes the relationship more valued yet again because it is not being forced upon them. They are asking for it and earning it.

When using these advanced rapport building skills you will successfully push your rapport further, faster than normal. The more push and pull you involve in your conversations the quicker and deeper your rapport will go.

These skills will take your relationship to higher levels of comfort and trust quickly so a good and wide enough rapport is set to continue. Once this is founded and put into place you will be able to begin to put your subject into trance and begin the real work of hypnosis.