Self-help entrepreneurs need copywriting that relates to their prospects at a deeper level. The sales letter is not all about selling your product or service. The main purpose is to begin to establish a relationship.

In the self-help arena, you need to build the relationship first. You don’t make the sale first in order to establish the relationship.

When you have a message that helps people solve personal problems, it requires that a relationship and trust be established before the prospect will buy into your message of hope.

So how do you establish this relationship in a sales letter? The following keys are based upon the assumption that most self-help entrepreneurs are in their particular niche because they personally came out of that problem.

· Identify with the emotional struggles your prospect is going through relating to the particular problem you solve.

· Tell only enough of your personal story to let the reader know that you identify with their struggles. The sales letter is mainly focused on the reader, not you and your story.

· Describe the efforts you tried which were unsuccessful in helping you overcome the problem. Do you know why those efforts did not work?

· Write out some of the common frustrations of staying stuck in this situation. Now turn them into questions for the reader. “Have you ever felt . . . ?” “Are you tired of feeling . . . ?” “Have you tried . . . and . . . to overcome this problem but still couldn’t break through?”

· Identify how your approach to solving this problem is different from other approaches. This is your Unique Selling Perspective. This must be identified and stated several different ways so your reader will understand exactly how your product or service (message) is different than others and how it can help them to finally overcome their problem. Use the language of the person stuck in this problem. If you use generic terms for this problem, you’ll lose your reader in an instant. They’re looking for someone who understands the deep issues they’re going through.

· Identify the emotional blockages you and your prospects go through in order to break free from this particular problem. Since you have overcome the problem, many times the prospect is not aware of some of these blockages. Don’t assume your reader has these blockages, but you might share them as further insights for the reader to consider.

· Identify the benefits you received by finally resolving this problem. Don’t just list the obvious benefits, but go deep into your heart to find the underlying peace and perhaps a brighter outlook. Can you identify any additional benefits you received that you never thought of while going through the problem?

· Your testimonials should include specific elements of the problem that were solved by your product or service. What was the “ah-ha” moment for each person giving a testimony?

These keys will be sprinkled throughout your sales letter in the appropriate places. It’s important to remember that when you have a message that changes a person’s life, rather than selling something like a computer, it requires this deeper, heart-to-heart approach.

The goal is to have your soul touch the soul of the hurting person you want to reach. To do so requires you to be emotionally vulnerable. Sharing the above keys will put you in this position to connect with the heart’s desire of your reader.

Other ways to improve your message can be found in my free report “The 7 Missing Elements In Sales Letters For Self-Help Messages” at http://www.christiancopywriter.org

If you feel that you are drinking too much or that you would like to change or control your drinking behavior then this basic ‘self help’ formula is for you. Taking control of your own drinking habits involves a learnt ‘self-control’ behavioral approach and is as successful in reducing your drinking as it is to be receiving the same self-help behavioral treatment from professionals.

This self help approach is both proven and effective and may just be the answer to helping you live a more healthy and controlled life with alcohol.

How to Cut Back on Excessive Drinking: Write down your reasons for drinking less.

For example – I wish to make good decisions while on alcohol, I want to be less abusive/destructive, I want to loose weight, I want to look after my health.

Set a drinking goal.

Write your drinking goal on a piece of paper – For example “I will not drink more than4 drinks per drinking session and I will not drink more than14 drinks per week”.

Keep track of what you’re drinking.

Write down how many drinks you have for each day during the week. Do this consecutively over a month and use these results to figure out where you’re going wrong or if you are on track.

4.      Keep only a small amount of alcohol at home.

Reduce temptation by removing most, or even better, all alcohol from home. Try to only purchase it out at bars or on the way to social events.

5.    Keep your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) low : When you drink, sip your drink slowly. Drink for taste rather than effect. Don’t drink on an empty stomach. Consume no more than one drink per hour. Eat food or “munchies” while drinking. High protein and high fat foods like cheese and nuts are especially good at keeping your blood alcohol content low. Drink soda, water, or juice after a drink containing alcohol.

(Quoted from www2.potsdam.edu)

6.    Learn to say “no” when you don’t want a drink

If you don’t want to have another drink then just say ‘no’. Just because it is offered to you does not mean that you have to say yes. If people do persist in buying you drinks and you feel too shy to say no then it is just as easy to accept the offer and then ‘accidentally’ misplace the drink. You could also try telling them you would prefer a non alcoholic beverage

7.         Distance yourself from people who give you a hard time about not drinking.

Again, avoid temptation by socialising with those who are controlled drinkers. Stay away from people who want you to drink more than you want to. Watch out for people, times, places or situations that encourage you to drink too much.

8.    Get support. It is always much easier to change your drinking behavior (or any behavior for that matter) when you have the love and support from your family and friends. If cutting back seems to be a loosing battle then ask your loved ones to help you where they can. For example ask your family/friends to accompany you to social events where there may be a lot of temptation for example work do’s and friends birthdays. If you are having trouble cutting down then try consulting your doctor as there are some medications available to help make it easier. 9.    Drink non alcoholic cocktails and beverages. There are plenty of drinks that resemble alcoholic drinks such as alcoholic cocktails or more commonly ‘mocktails’ (moch cocktails). Mocktails can be a refreshing and entertaining way to feel like you’re still part of the fun. There is also an extensive range of non alcoholic beers and wines such as Ariel wine and Warsteiner Premium Fresh. (go to www.clarety.co.nz for an excellent full range of non alcoholic beverages).

10.       Don’t give up!

If you don’t get it right the first few times then keep trying. Controlling your drinking is all about practice and practice takes time. Remember there are plenty of people out there like you who have successfully managed to use this exact same self-help method to control their drinking so use your support systems and don’t give up!

How much can be drunk safely?

The World Health Organisation defines a safe level of drinking as six standard drinks for men and four standard drinks for women per drinking occasion.

Self confidence is a crucial aspect of one’s mental well being. It enables people to be self assured about their own abilities, and gives them a measure of self worth that is imperative for them to continue with their daily lives. People who suffer from low confidence tend to feel worthless, and do not look forward to living their lives to the fullest, and instead they drag their feet and try to get by each day, feeling terrible about themselves and the world around them. If you feel that you have low self confidence, then this article is just for you. This article will show you some great tips on developing a great sense of self confidence, and ways on how you can eliminate self doubt so you can stand on your own two feet and seize every opportunity for success and live your life the way it is meant to be lived.

Firstly we need to address self doubt. Self doubt is a prevalent problem in a lot of people these days, as they doubt their abilities to succeed or even to live their lives the way they should. It is the limiting belief that prevents you from realizing your goals. Once we know the factors that contribute to our self doubt, only then can we build and develop our self confidence. Remove self doubt, and your self confidence will grow.

How do you remove your self doubt? You need to understand that self doubt is bred by repetitive negative thoughts, and so in order to eliminate self doubt you need to replace the negative thoughts with that of positive ones. While it may not be possible for you to do this overnight, you can however do it over time.

Read the rest of this entry…

In order to get ahead in life, we need to have a healthy dose of self confidence. Very rarely will you find someone who is successful in life but has a terrible sense of self confidence. This is because in order to succeed you need to first believe in your own ability for success, otherwise you will never get ahead in life. The thing you need to remember is this: Even the most confident person would have, at some point in their life, wish that they could be more confident, because with confidence comes success. Here are 5 great tips on how you can improve self confidence.

The first thing you should do is to stop being negative. You know how it is, it always begins with some minor little flaw that you think you might have. It may be excess weight here, some facial imperfection there, and then before you know it you start hating yourself for the way you look, thinking that people must think of you as some hideous freak, which would explain why no one loves you.

Chill!

Learn to love yourself for who you are. What others think of you is not nearly as important as what you think of yourself. If you constantly put yourself down then you will never be able to build a healthy sense of self confidence. Whenever you feel that negativity start creeping up on you, the best thing you can do for yourself is to banish it from your mind and focus on the positive.

Speaking of focusing on the positive, the next step you can consider is to focus on your strengths. This can mean anything from your talents to your positive traits. Expand on your talents by joining some hobby group where you can get the acknowledgement and recognition for your talents that you deserve, and this will go a long way in boosting your self confidence to phenomenal heights.

The third way you can build on your self confidence is to set for yourself some small goals or milestones. You may have some dream waiting for you in the horizon, but along the way it is good to have milestones which you can achieve in order to get a boost of self confidence as you trudge along towards your eventual big dream. Remember, visualize your big dream as a mountain, and your milestones would serve as checkpoints where you can stop and evaluate yourself as you pass each one in your journey ahead. The accomplishment of each milestone will serve as encouragement for you to keep working.

The fourth way you can improve self confidence is to remember your past achievements. Recall how great you felt when you last achieved some great event in your life. It doesn’t quite matter when you might have achieved it. It could have something to do with your childhood, or perhaps it had happened when you got your first job. Focus on the happiness derived from the event, and you will find yourself craving to achieve that same sense of happiness and satisfaction, and this will serve as motivation for you to keep building your self confidence.

The last way for you to improve your confidence is to celebrate your failures. This may sound absurd to you initially, but think of your failures as milestones to success. To paraphrase a certain celebrity, you should always prepare for glory by failing until you don’t. Success doesn’t come overnight, so learn to see your failures as you getting one step closer to success. Each failure is just another way for you to learn a new, better approach of doing things.

Self confidence is extremely important for you to succeed and achieve great things in life however many people struggle to find it. The good news is that there are many ways of improving self confidence.

Self confidence is made up of two key factors, self-efficacy and self-esteem. We gain a sense of self-efficacy when we can see ourselves doing well in something and reaching our goals. This does overlap with self-esteem which is a more general idea that we are able to cope with the things that are happening in our lives and that we have a reason and right to be happy.

People who are self confident believe in themselves and evaluate themselves realistically. They believe that they are in control of their lives.

One way of improving self confidence is positive self-talk. If you make yourself feel good about yourself you will eventually start believing it and it will show in your actions. You can even try looking into the mirror every morning, smile at yourself and say something nice to the confident person looking back at you.

Body language is a dead giveaway of someone who lacks self confidence. People who are feeling good about themselves use open body language. They carry themselves with pride and hold their heads high. They look people in the eye when speaking to them and use a firm handshake.

Always make sure that you feel well put together. Grooming is important and there is no doubt that a new haircut and a close shave will make you feel better about yourself. Even if you don’t feel like you look good, dress well and dress comfortably, this will improve your self image. Exercise is important; a healthy body leads to a healthy mind. If you feel good about yourself, that will shine through and people will feel good around you.

One of the most important tools to improving self confidence is to be positive. Learn to think positive things about yourself and your situation. Set your own standards and stick to them, stand up for what you believe in. When you feel down speak to your family or your friends, they will understand and lift your spirits to put you back on the right track.

You’ve heard it said that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Maybe that’s not true in all instances, but surprisingly enough, you really can help yourself defeat anxiety attacks.

Anxiety self-help is something more than yoga and meditation, reading books and taking notes. Actually, none of these methods really cures the problem, if you want to know the truth. Anxiety self-help is designed to offer you a straightforward approach to getting over your anxiety quickly and permanently, but only if you gain access to the right course and follow an accepted, proven and consistent format.

Before moving onto the specifics of anxiety self-help, it’s probably necessary to describe what anxiety is and how it affects the sufferer. Only then can it be understood that there is only one real cure for anxiety disorders like panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorders, agoraphobia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Anxiety is related to the flight or fight instinct that every human being possesses. A small part of the brain known as the amygdala governs this instinct. Think of the amygdala as the anxiety thermostat or anxiety control center in humans. In the event of a real external danger, the amygdala prepares the body to flee or defend itself.

As we have seen, appropriately directed anxiety offers a natural protection against external threats. However, inappropriately directed anxiety can lead to a number of undesirable physical and psychological responses, the most unpleasant of which is obviously anxiety attacks.

When a person suffers from anxiety attacks, he is essentially the victim of an amygdala that cannot differentiate from a real or imagined threat. In other words, the mind effectively scares itself into believing in a threat that just doesn’t exist. What, then, does anxiety self-help do?

Basically, it teaches you to recognize the unreality of internally directed scare tactics and teaches you how to break the cycle. Those who have used anxiety self-help to cure themselves have found that only this method has worked for them.

But you won’t find this method in a bottle of pills or on a psychologist’s couch. Rather, the answer is provided in a structured, supportive and continuous process.

Through this article you will learn that it is possible to improve self confidence with hypnosis. The fact is that your self confidence (or lack of self confidence) impacts all areas of your life … personal and professional. Therefore, being able to improve your self confidence can change your life drastically on all levels.

How Hypnosis Works

If you have spent any time watching television or movies, you have seen scenes in which some character supposedly is under hypnosis. In most instances, these scenes really do not appropriately portray hypnosis.

In simple, and yet more accurate, terms hypnosis involves putting you into a mental state in which you are more open to suggestion. There is an alteration to some degree in your state of consciousness through the hypnosis process.

Unlike what is seen on television and in movies, a person under hypnosis will not do outrageous things or things that are against what he or she believes. However, it is possible to end smoking through hypnosis. It is possible to improve self confidence with hypnosis.

Hypnosis is a Process

If you are thinking about taking the step to improve self confidence with hypnosis you need to understand that taking such action is a process. In other words, you cannot attend one session and have your self confidence restored. Typically, an individual will have to participate in a number of sessions in order to improve self confidence with hypnosis. However, improvement in regard to your own sense of self esteem actually will be seen and felt rather quickly.

Finding a Reliable Hypnotist

Understanding that it will be a process rather than a “one time thing” to improve self confidence with hypnosis, you definitely will want to make sure that you find a reliable hypnosis practitioner. There really are some very reliable people in the world who are capable and professional hypnotists. However, as is the case in regard to many different alternative therapeutic practices, there are also con artists and scams in this field as well.

Therefore, when you are seeking a professional to assist you to improve self confidence with hypnosis you will want to do your homework. You will want to educate yourself about the background of any individual that you seek out to assist you with your desire to improve self confidence with hypnosis. Indeed, you will want to obtain references and recommendations through this process as well.

A Better Life

By taking the step to improve self confidence with hypnosis you really will see improvement in your personal and professional life. You will find that your interpersonal relationships between your family members and friends will become healthier. You will also find that you are able to not only handle your job tasks and duties more effectively, but that you will see your career advancing in a way that you previously never thought was possible. In short, by taking the step to improve self confidence with hypnosis you will see your life on a whole new, positive course.

Self confidence is a personality trait. Some are naturally born with it while some struggle to have it. However, self confidence is a trait that can be developed and maintained throughout life. The process to develop self confidence may not be easy and obstacles may come your way.

Sometimes, life events will hit your confidence and regaining it can be a hard job. Nowadays, it is rare to see people who are completely satisfied with his or her selves. This is the reason why more and more people want to develop self confidence. With good self confidence, one can attract all positive thoughts around, making him or her successful in every field that he or she chooses.

In order to develop self confidence, you need to be prepared and welcome all positive changes that can happen in you. Take note that the lack of confidence can really hold you back in any areas in your life and it can be a big burden. If a person lacks self confidence, it can manifest in many ways. First off, people with poor self confidence tend to stay in unsatisfying careers and relationships.

This is because, they don’t believe in themselves and they don’t think that they can do better or have the power to raise their standards. This can be self perpetuating because if you are not happy in your life and if you are uncertain of the future, you sure wouldn’t thrive to do your best.

This is the reason why you need to develop self confidence. People with very low self esteem often resort of self destructive activities such as addiction or other eating disorders. This can be life-threatening and that is why it is really a must to develop self confidence in order to evade oneself to these chaotic situations.

Our level of self confidence has a direct impact on many areas of our lives. Self confident individuals tend to find it easier to become successful emotionally, financially and socially. Everybody is capable of improving their level of self confidence. First, you have to make a decision. Are you prepared to work hard and really focus on improving your self confidence and self esteem? Think about what you want to achieve in life? How will improving your self confidence help you to achieve your objectives? Here are two simple strategies that you can use to improve you self confidence – starting today.

Strategy One - Be positive about life.

It is vital to train yourself to appear positive on the outside, even if you do not feel positive on the inside. By behaving in a self confident manner, you are more likely to feel more self confident on the inside. Nobody likes other people talking about them in a negative way. Why then, would you choose to say nasty things about yourself? Think how you would like to be treated by others. Now, apply that to the way you treat yourself. Avoid people who either pity you or treat you badly. This will only result in you maintaining a low level of self esteem. Never let a person lead you to believe you are in some way inferior. You have strengths and talents that deserve to be credited. If somebody cannot treat you with respect, they are quite frankly not worth your time. It is vital to start thinking about the way you talk both to yourself and about yourself. Start to believe and talk to yourself in a positive way. Always talk about what you are doing in life, your future, your family and social life in a positive fashion.

 Strategy Two – Focus on your strengths and your achievements.

We are all human at the end of the day. Nobody is perfect. Nobody gets things right all the time. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes or ask for help if you need it. Avoid trying to be a perfectionist at all costs. It is not healthy and you will only succeed in failing to achieve your goals. All you can ask from yourself is to try your best. That is all anyone can do. Everybody is good at something. People tend to be good at things that they enjoy doing. What are your hobbies and interests? What are you passionate about? What new activities would you like to try but have never done before? Is there something that you would like to learn more about? Try to set aside just a couple of hours a week to do something you enjoy. This will help you to gain confidence by meeting like-minded people. Learn to take a compliment. Smile and say thank you. You deserve to be given fair praise for your achievements. Start to pay compliments to other people. Finally, I want you to grab some paper and a pen. Think about all the things you have done up to now. Devide the paper up into two columns. In the first column, write a list of twenty things that you are proud of doing in your life. In the second column, I want you to list your ten greatest strengths. You can ask your family and friends for their input on this. Congratulations, you are already a winner. Keep this list in a safe place. Whatever you feel down, look at the list and smile your achievements

But what happens when our existence is constantly interrupted by negative thought patterns? In most of the cases, people find themselves affected by a lack of confidence, thinking only about the negative aspects of their lives. Positive thinking techniques have taught people to overcome such negative patterns, build self confidence and rediscover their inner power. If you want to stop negative thinking and start gaining self confidence, then perhaps this is the right time to find out more information on the subject.
Every day, we are forced to take decisions about different aspects in our lives, whether we are talking about our jobs, relationships or careers in general. Improving self-esteem represents an important issue, especially if you want to climb high the ladder of success and maintain our resistance to stress. Positive thinking techniques are perfect for boosting self confidence, the advice offered teaching us how to be strong and resilient to negative thought patterns. Our mind represents the place where some of the most important decisions are taken, decisions that should never be affected by negative thinking. We have the power to suppress such bad habits, training and setting our subconscious mind for success.
Specialized resources teach us everything about improving self-esteem. They show the most popular positive thinking techniques and how to apply them, offering a lot of valuable information for those who show a lack of confidence. One of the first lessons that you will be taught is how to control the way you react to certain events. This does not include only the teaching of positive thinking techniques; you will also receive advice on how to control the way you breathe and even your heart rate, without betraying any visible powerful emotions. On the other hand, you will be taught that both anxiety and stress can be solved if you stop negative thinking, discovering new ways of gaining self confidence.
A strong person is able to recognize the achievements cumulated with the passing of time. Never let other people tell you otherwise or you risk suffering from an extreme lack of confidence. You are the only one responsible for negative thought patterns and improving self-esteem is possible, especially if you find strong points in the things that are good in your life. We all have bad and good experiences; the important thing is that we build self confidence and concentrate on the future, on the things that are positive and don’t dwell too much on what might go wrong. Life is too short to let ourselves be affected by negative thought patterns; we should be thankful for having so many resources available to turn to, people sharing their own input on how positive thinking techniques can be used to improve our lives. Don’t deny yourself the right to live a peaceful and positive existence; discover today how negative thought patterns can be disrupted and what are the best ways to escape the lack of self confidence!

Self confidence is not just something that people are born with. It is a power that can be attained by anyone who is willing to practice some very quick and simple mind techniques.

In order to master these mind techniques it is important to first understand the way the mind works and in particular your subconscious mind. The brain is, after all, just another organ in your body and the way it works can be easily understood.

Imagine your mind in two parts, the conscious and subconscious parts.  The conscious part of your brain takes in information, processes it and either acts on it straight away or stores it away in the subconscious mind.

It is easy to assume that it is the conscious mind that controls most of what we do. However, it is the subconscious mind that is usually the back seat driver of our actions.

Think about your habits and routines in your life. The more you think about it the more you can identify. We live most of our daily lives in this autopilot mode controlled by our subconscious mind.

So the key to building self confidence and destroying low self esteem is to reprogram our subconscious mind. A nervous person who meets someone for the first time would instinctively feel nervous, look at the floor and talk quietly. The self confident person would smile, look the other person directly in the eyes and push their hand forward first to shake hands announcing their name clearly.

This is not a conscious reaction, this is just habit and habits can be made and broken in as little as thirty days. Creating just one of these strong self confidence habits, which is triggered at every opportunity, is what we are going to learn now.

To make this work your self confidence trigger must be practiced at least once a day for at least thirty days until it becomes automatic. It is both simple and quick and yet extremely powerful.

Play a song which you love which is both energetic and cheerful. Something that would get you out of bed in the morning with the enthusiasm to achieve anything. Sit and listen with your eyes closed. Imagine in your mind a situation where you are at your most confident, doing something you are good at and in pleasant surroundings. Imagine the people around you looking on impressed at how self confident and powerful you are.

To create the self confidence trigger you must then link this thought with something physical. The most popular method is to touch the thumb and index finger of your hand together during this exercise. This may seem odd at first but there is a good reason for this.

As you practice this over the days and build that habit you are programming your subconscious mind. As it starts to work you will be able to trigger that feeling of self confidence you have imagined just by touching your thumb and index finger together.

At first it will be weak and you may need to move away from the difficult social situation, sit down, close your eyes and replay the music and scene in your mind. As the habit develops it will become stronger to the point where you could trigger that self confidence purely by thinking of your thumb and index finger touching but without actually doing it.

Practice makes perfect. Although quick and easy, it is extremely powerful. You have nothing to lose and everything to giving it a try.

This is just one of many quick and easy self confidence triggers which can be mastered in just thirty days. Once you have built up a bank of these confidence triggers you will be able to cope with most social situations with great pose and total self confidence.

In order to become successful, you need to have the right attitude and characteristics. It is a big world out there and you must always give your best shot if you want to reach your dreams in life. There are many challenges and problems along the way but you can be able to face them by building your self confidence.

Self confidence is an important characteristic every person must possess. It is the key ingredient to doing what you must do in order to reach success. However, not all of us are born with this attitude. Sometimes we just have to build self confidence. So how do you begin building your self-confidence? What are the steps you need to do to build your self confidence?

Here are five steps to help you out:

1. Exposure
If you want to be confident you must start by going out of your shell. You have to be bold enough to go out of your comfort zone. You should try doing things that pose as a challenge for you. Expose yourselves to activities which you haven’t tried before. Do not let your shyness or pessimism get in the way. You can start making friends with the right people or engage in activities where you can meet other people and learn new things.

2. Face fears
One of the reasons why many people don’t have confidence in them is because they are afraid. Fear is one factor that you have to face if you want to build self confidence. Do not be afraid to face your fears and overcome them. Sometimes they are the ones holding you back from being confident. Think positively and never allow your fear to interfere with the opportunities that come your way. You have to be strong and motivated to conquer your fears.

3. Work hard
Building self confidence takes time and a lot of hard work. You must make things happen and not just wait for it. What’s the use of all the self confidence tips you are reading if you don’t apply them in your daily life? You have to remember that you are capable of being confident if you just do the things you must do.

4. Be with confident people
The kind of friends you have greatly influence you as a person. One way to help you become confident is by hanging out with confident people. They are the ones who can motivate and encourage you to be more confident of yourself. Who knows, maybe some of their confidence will rub on to you.

5. Seek help
For some people, building self confidence can be very difficult. If you think you need more than just tips, it is time you seek professional help. You have to seek the advice of professionals to help you become confident especially if experienced trauma. You may find a guidance counselor or psychiatrist very helpful.

You can now build your self confidence using the five steps presented above. They will serve as your guide in making you more confident especially in front of other people. With these five simple steps you’re on your way to becoming more confident of yourself.