Before any session with Méthode Dolfino®, there are essentials to respect.

The prerequisite before a Méthode Dolfino hypnosis session is defining the goal. No goal, no session.

Imagine you’re at a reunion with old classmates. Over the meal, five of your friends tell you about their wish to quit smoking. Here’s how each of them puts it to you:

1. I don’t want to smoke anymore2. My wife wants me to quit smoking3. I have to quit smoking4. I’m going to quit smoking5. I’m quitting smoking

In your opinion, who has the best chance of quitting smoking?

If you answered number 5, you made the right choice. Their goal has truly taken root in their mind, because it’s stated in the present tense and the mental image is clear. You’ll still be able to help them refine their goal and achieve success in their project by mastering the technique.

The rules for defining a goal are precise and simple to follow.

Let’s move on to practice. For the purposes of this exercise, imagine that you want to bring about a change in your life by freeing yourself from a depressive state.

You’re ready to experience a Méthode Dolfino® hypnosis session to reach your goal. You’ve chosen to trust a guide who will ask you to clarify your goal, because without a goal, there can be no session. It’s like getting into a taxi without giving the driver an address.

So you’re going to write down your goal, in writing, so that it is:

• Written in the present tense, in the first person singular
• Equipped with a protective fuse (this criterion will be explained further on)

You’re already ready to achieve your goal. From now on, think of it in the present, and write it in the present tense using “I”.

That’s a good start — the sentence is in the present tense and begins with “I”. It can still be improved. Defining a goal is a journey.

Your Young Me doesn’t grasp negation. If you say “I’m no longer depressed”, it understands “I’m depressed”. Just watch a 5-year-old’s behavior when you tell them, “Don’t step in the puddle”, and they jump right into it with both feet. In the same way, if you tell yourself inwardly, “Don’t think of a pink elephant”, what appears in your mind? The image of a pink elephant. Now you understand why, when giving an instruction, it’s better to use the positive form.

“I sleep through the night” instead of: “I no longer have insomnia”

“I have a job” instead of: “I’m no longer unemployed”

“I stop smoking cigarettes” instead of: “I no longer smoke”.

Your goal must be phrased so that it can be understood by a 5-year-old, by your Young Me. Sentences must be built simply, with plain vocabulary.

“I feel good” rather than: “I am in a psychologically stable state”.

In this scenario, your goal is to free yourself from your depressive state — in other words, to feel good. But what does “feeling good” mean? It’s broad, vague, and subjective. It will certainly remain subjective, since it’s YOUR goal. Still, it’s essential that you specify what “feeling good” means for YOU.

The goal of wanting to come out of a depressive state may seem complex. That’s why it’s presented here as an example. To be achieved, this larger goal must be broken down into sub-goals. For example: changing my outlook on life, changing how I react to failure, setting aside time for pleasure, changing how I solve problems, eating better, exercising more, learning to set realistic goals, and so on. Each of these sub-goals should be examined closely and formulated according to the Méthode Dolfino®.

Let’s take the sub-goal “exercise more.” To feel good, you specify that you want to exercise more. So your session goal becomes:

“I exercise more and I feel good” rather than: “I feel good.”

The Young Me uses time like an elastic band and stretches it to its full capacity, unless the goal is clearly defined. So it’s best to let your Young Me know when you want to achieve your goal. It’s important to give your precious ally as much information as possible so it can succeed in bringing about the changes you want in your life. So here’s how to phrase your goal so that it’s placed in time and you can measure whether you’ve reached it.

“Every morning, I walk and I feel good” rather than: “When I have time, I walk,” or “As often as possible, I walk.”

You can now check, every day, whether your goal has been reached. However, if you don’t want to fall back into depression, it’s important to tell your Young Me that you want the situation to be lasting. So you need to add another element of time.

“Every morning and for the rest of my life, I walk and I feel good.”

How long will you walk? Two minutes or all day?

As you understood in the previous section, the Young Me loves to have fun. It constantly seeks pleasure. It’s not that walking isn’t an enjoyable activity, but it might be better to be more precise about the duration of the activity, in case your Young Me wants to run off to another activity after just two minutes.

It tends to be spontaneous and put things off. So, in your goal, it’s necessary to add the duration.

“Every morning and for the rest of my life, I walk for thirty minutes and I feel good.”

You now have a clearly defined goal. Much clearer than: “I’m getting out of depression.”

To achieve your overall goal, you’ll often need to accomplish a series of smaller goals that act like stairs, allowing you to reach the summit. At each step, remember to congratulate yourself, to reward yourself.

Now there’s only one element left to add to your precious goal: the protection fuse.

The protection fuse is the spare tire in your car, the safety net under the trapeze artist, the fuses in an electrical system. As you’ll have understood, it provides security to guard against any eventuality. For example, if your goal is to earn more money, that doesn’t mean you want your parents to die so you can inherit. This fuse protects you from yourself, from what you hadn’t thought of. What’s more, it contains words that invite you to abolish limits, to get even more, or to achieve even better than what you’ve defined.

Here are the words the protection fuse contains: “or even better,” “for my greater good and that of everyone”... You simply add it right after your objective.

“Every morning and throughout my life, I walk for thirty minutes and I feel good, or even better, for my greater good and that of everyone.”

For every session of the Méthode Dolfino®, all objectives must include this protection fuse.

You now know how to write an objective in order to communicate effectively with your Young Me, so as to succeed and reach your objective.