There's almost no-one on earth that is really able to break his or her bad habits alone. That's the point of bad habits. They're ingrained bits of behaviour that we know are harmful, that we know, intellectually we shouldn't do; that we don't want to do any more. But we can't help them. That's why they are called habits. They come from our sub conscious, which lords it over our "higher" consciousness. Well, help (which, as we've noted, we all need when we're trying to crack the nut of a really damaging or deep seated habit) is much more at hand these days than it used to be – thanks to the wonders of NLP.

Neuro Linguistic Programming, to give the technique its full name, is a hyper aware and extremely intelligent version of the old "positive reinforcement" technique that we've all tried at some time or another in our lives. You know when you look into the mirror in the morning and say some motivational phrase? That's a very basic version of Neuro Linguistic Programming, which aims to "teach" the subconscious to behave in a healthier way by drilling it with a series of repeated words and phrases. The whole idea is of repetition almost to the point where meaning seems to vanish from the words – which is when they really start to sink into the subconscious. Over a period of professionally orchestrated time, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) has been proven to dismantle bad behaviours like smoking or aggression, and rebuild good ones – like not smoking, or being nicer to people.

The great thing about NLP is that you don't even have to do it yourself. It can be done for you with the aid of a download or a CD – which is how the rich and famous are getting over their relationship behaviour, their smoking, their excessive drinking and their insomnia. Actors, in particular, are flocking to the cause of Neuro Linguistic Programming, citing it as the motivating factor in their giving up cigarettes or dealing with the permanent jet lag that follows them as they fly from movie to movie.

It's really good stuff, thisNLP – and it seems to work for everyone. Maybe that's because it is so un-intrusive: and because at the end of the day you are persuading yourself to do something you already know you should be doing, or not to do something you are well aware that you should not be doing. Either way, it would seem that Neuro Linguistic Programming, heretofore the secret to many star's successful New Year's Resolution, is here to stay for the masses too. Enjoy!