Meet Joe Homs: Hypnotherapist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joe Homs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joe, is there something you believe many others might not?
New Year’s Resolutions are a waste of your time. The mind and body isn’t set up to make the (usually) drastic changes that are typically thought of in a New Year’s Resolution.

As a hypnotist, there’s many reasons why I just shake my head when someone tells me they have made a resolution to go to the gym more often or stop drinking, or whatever else they desire.

These resolutions come from a good place. A desire to change and improve is what makes for a great life. However, if you’re fighting against yourself, you’re going to have a hard time.

There’s many reasons why resolutions don’t work, but here’s a few of my favorites.

First, most people try to use willpower. That works great, for about 2 weeks, after which the gym is back to normal capacity. Willpower is exhausting and unsustainable. There’s a fix for this that is quite simple and we’ll get to at the end.

Second, there’s no structure to a resolution. Resolutions are usually the desire to have some sort of major behavior change. There’s usually some motivation to do something, but that’s not enough. There’s at least 2 more things you need before you’ll get a sustainable behavior. Ability and a trigger.

If you don’t have ability, good luck getting yourself over the critical starting phase of any new behavior. You want something that’s hard enough to be enjoyable, but not too hard so you don’t give up.

And if you don’t have something that you consistently do without thinking (also known as another habit) that will trigger you to start this new behavior, you’ll be lacking in some sort of way to fit this new resolution into your life.

Third, and the sneakiest of all, is the fact that you probably don’t want to do this resolution. It just sounds good. I call this a dirty goal. Albert Einstein famously said, “We cannot solve a problem on the level of consciousness that created it.” Here’s an example.

I had a woman come to me with a fear of driving. She was able to eliminate that in a few minutes of talking with her. She then called me up and said her fear had come back. I asked her what had happened between the time she wasn’t afraid anymore and then the time it came back. She said she had been taking her and her neighbor’s kids to school and was exhausted in the morning and then just suddenly felt scared.

Turns out, she really just didn’t want to take her neighbor’s kids to school. This didn’t make her a bad person. On the contrary, she was trying to be overly nice and her mind and body figured out that having a fear of driving would allow her to be excused from driving in a socially acceptable way.

So, after speaking with her, I helped her confront her neighbor in a kind and strong way and set reasonable boundaries for herself. She then no longer had a fear of driving and also had a good relationship with her neighbor and was able to work things out. Her real problem wasn’t a fear of driving (though that was a pretty severe symptom), it was the fact that she was afraid to stand up for herself.

Alright, so if resolutions don’t work…what does? Simple. A word, a belief, and a post-it note can get you to achieve any resolution-type thing you want in your life.

First, a word. We already know that resolutions tend to be hard to integrate into your life. That’s because they are too specific (don’t get me started on SMART goals…).

With the goal of going to the gym 5 days a week, your mind considers that you’re failing at your goal even if you go 4 days a week. You’re literally failing 86% of the time until you step into the gym for the 5th time that week.

So instead, choose a word. One word that will define your year for you. The lens through which you’ll see everything. The theme song that plays as the soundtrack of your life.

What word should you choose? Well, that’s up to you. Choose something that inspires you. How will you know that? You’ll feel something stir in your emotions.

One year I picked the word “upgrade” which started with upgrading some glassware in my house. Hand-blown gorgeous cups that still to this day make me feel great every time I drink out of one. That year I also tripled my business, had a baby, sold and bought a new home, got a new car gifted to me, and much more.

All because I filtered all my actions through the word “upgrade.” I gave more to people. I made my time matter more.

Here’s the important thing though: I succeeded every day. There was no disappointment. Only possibility and creativity awaited me.

Second, a belief. This one always gets people going. Who was the greatest boxer of all time? Most people I ask this question to answer “Muhammad Ali.” When I ask why, they talk about his record, his accomplishments, etc. and some of them remember the thing he used to say all the time about himself, “I am the greatest.”

See, the key to success in sticking with your chosen path is to make it a part of who you are. Not someday, but now. A positive statement about who you are can move mountains.

One of my clients made up the statement, “I am a great athlete!” which seems like no big deal to most people. However, he really and truly believes it about himself. That changed so many behaviors it’s hard to count. He cleaned up his diet, exercises consistently to improve his performance at his sport, practices relentlessly, is always cheerful, and the most important part for him, he wins constantly. In the span of a year he went from mediocre to #2 in the nation. He’s on track to be the #1 spot this year and I wish him all the best.

Last, a post-it note will do more for you than you think. Once you’ve created some of these things for yourself, it’s good to ask yourself why. Why are you doing this? What are YOU going to get out of it? What will it do for you?

Ask yourself repeatedly until you seem to keep getting the same answer over and over. The answer will be something like freedom, happiness, love, peace, clarity, or calm. Usually some sort of feeling will develop. Whatever the answer is, write that down along with your new belief/identity and your word that’s your theme for the year.

Copy it and stick up that note everywhere you can think of. Remind yourself day after day. Think about all you’re accomplishing. Ask yourself if what you’re about to do next will move you closer or further away from that ideal.

So, in a nutshell, New Year’s Resolutions suck. Pick a word to focus your year, couple that with an identity that’s positive, and remind yourself constantly until it sticks. You’ll be creative, inspired, and find you’ll have better outcomes than some random resolutions you hastily thought of on a random day of the year.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We’re the preeminent hypnotherapy practice in Orange County. We are unique in that we guarantee our work and your satisfaction or your money back. No other practice offers this kind of service.

We’re most proud of our work with helping people live high performance lives. Most people come to us stuck in a problem. That’s easy to get rid of. What we really love doing is then helping people to become their best self and create a life they are excited about too.

We’ve helped athletes win top titles and tournaments, business professionals reach new promotions and levels of success, businesses create unprecedented growth, and much more.

It was certainly not easy to get to this point. We had to work hard to go above and beyond for our clients. Each one presents a new challenge that we’re happy to meet. We take the word client seriously. You’re under our protection and care while we work with you.

We’ve learned that hard work isn’t enough in times like these. It takes something else. A shift in the way you think, act, and are in life. We’re experts at making the impossible possible.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout goes to a man named Igor Ledochowski. He’s been a friend and mentor for years. He runs the #1 hypnotherapy training program in the world and I’m proud to have had his encouragement and even partnership over the years.

Through his teaching, I’ve been able to help thousands of people all over the world.

He has a true superpower for understanding complex things and making them very simple to understand and utilize. For anyone looking to improve their life, their skills, their careers, you name it, this man and his hundreds of courses should be high on your list to check out.

He’s at https://hypnosistrainingacademy.com

Website: ochypno.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joehoms/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ochypno

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/OrangeCountyHypnosis