It’s time for the answer to our most recent quiz.

As you too probably have, since coming up with the quiz, I’ve revisited some of my outcomes. I have also set new ones.

All endeavors, small or large, begin with knowing your desired outcome. A close cousin of your desired outcome is your intention.

Intention is the start of all great things.

Consider your intention as an anticipated outcome.

As in think about some of your own desires and aspirations; these are intentions. Revisit these. And if you are not so clear on them, ask yourself again what are your intentions.

Countless are the times I have come up with intentions and just wished for them to come come true. But no, life teaches us there are no such shortcuts, doesn’t it? …

See, intentions without action are like seeds with no water… nothing comes of one without the other.

If you’re paying attention, that was a clue to the answer to our quiz.

Our dreams and intentions only become reality when we take action toward their achievement.

Still, for many, intentions will remain forever pretensions.

Okay, so let’s go back to our quiz…

My question again was “What are the 2 personality types that most frequently differentiate the accomplished and fulfilled from the daydreamers?”

And here are the 2 types:

In camp #1: People who take action – the “doers,” and in the other camp,

Camp #2: Those who don’t take action.

photo credit: seeveeaar

Individuals who take action are the ones who make things happen. People who take action know that small actions taken are better than great deeds planned. These are the people who are focused on execution, who turn dreams into reality. Whereas those who shrink back from taking action struggle to follow through and therefore don’t make happen whatever it is they might may have aspired to accomplish.

If you see a little of yourself in both types, let me tell you that’s okay and trust me it is normal.

Often enough it’s hard to get my butt in gear. Sometimes we don’t know what action to take and this causes stress.

Personally, I rather do without the stress. And those are times when taking action really comes down to knowing or discovering what motivates you. Because the alternative, doing nothing, while it might provide some temporary relief, will just create more stress. If you are honest with yourself, deep down you know you’ve got this intention, and you’re not taking action toward it.

Remember, action is the ingredient that will breathe life into your dreams and wishes. And think about this… if you changed absolutely nothing in your life, would anything different happen?

Which camp are you in mostly, and what are some of your intentions?

Leave me a comment below and I’ll drop in and respond.

Ciao!

Taylor

P.S. I am oversimplifying a bit. The truth is there we could spend a whole day on intention, outcomes, action, and how to deal with the visible and invisible forces that stand in our way. Interested in learning more? Then you’ll like what’s coming up.

Personality quizzes – you can almost always find one in the aisles at your local grocery store. And whenever I spot one, I get the irresistible urge to check it out.

Is it just me, or are we always interested in our own personality type?

I took my first “real” personality test in high school. It was the MBTI Myers Briggs personality test.

Over the years there were a few others, each more revealing than the preceding one. Imagine reading details of why you behave the way you do, what makes you think and respond a certain way, why you do what you do, why you get what you get, how you have some thoughts more than others, why you speak as you do, and what makes you feel certain feelings.

What would it mean to your relationships if you read how certain patterns in your own life repeat themselves, what difference would it make in your finances if you discovered which actions to do more frequently to bring you more money, or what if you read how to bring shifts in your health? If there was such a book, would you be interested? I was, and it was a personal growth page-turner.

Now the truth is this has changed as time goes on. See, I have become more interested in the personalities of others than in my own. Maybe it is because I have grown to know me. And because other people are just more interesting, especially those who are accomplished and who are living fulfilling lives. (Note that I have deliberately left out “successful,” because first it makes sense to talk about what is success).

And the more I learned about different personalities, and as I bumped in to more people, I began to notice how, when you put aside all the many different personality permutations, there are really only 2 main personality types that distinguish the accomplished and fulfilled from those who swim upstream, who struggle rather than thrive.

Alright, what do you say we do another quickie quiz?

As before, I’m giving away a prize, naturally.

And to make it relevant to the subject at hand, how about access to a new program on goals coming up this summer to the first right answer?

Sound good?

Okay. Here’s the quiz…

What are the 2 personality types that most frequently differentiate the accomplished and fulfilled from the daydreamers?

Wow – I may have made this too easy!

Toss your hat into the ring.

Well?

Be the first to give it a shot in the comments section, and you may win entry into the goals program I mentioned above.

Okay… go.

Do you know what it is?

Good luck.

Ciao!

Taylor

I made this recording for you after clearing out my fridge.

My goal in this update is to shed light on how important it is to clear your mind, to clear your clutter – mental clutter that is.

Mental clutter holds us back. It can increase our brain age (you want a younger brain, as in a lower brain age is better). When you clear your mind more is possible.

Listen in and try this simple mind technique.

And let me know what you think, OK?

Ciao!

Taylor

One night last fall we had some friends over for dinner. A guest watched me draw out a knife, reach for my cutting board, and get busy on some garlic.

“Isn’t it amazing how quickly celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver (the naked chef guy) and Rachael Ray can chop things up? Incredible!” he said.

Yes, it is entertaining to watch a skilled chef. We watch them wondering how is it that these demi-gods prepare vegetables so gracefully, elegantly, and easily, whereas us mere mortals might cut off our own fingers.

Or the thirty-something bartender I met in the Philadelphia airport who whips up tasty concoctions as he juggles half-empty bottles of rum, blue curacao, and rum, while sliding them to his patrons?

Or just how mindblowing it can be to listen to your favorite singer or musician. Sometimes I get goosebumps.

Giotto di Bondone. Italian painter and architect

photo credit: McPig

And think about how enthralled you can be, slouched in your couch, watching your favorite actor do her thing.

So where am I going with this?

Well, are you ready to make some changes in your life?

Good, because the thing is, there’s nothing technically incredible about chopping vegetables, is there? In a lot of cases, things like these… they’re something that you and I can do too… with practice.

The people demonstrating these amazing feats are not all born with that ability. They gained the experience, developed more confidence, and honed their techniques over time, with practice.

And there you have it… pick one of the 7 areas of life where you want to change the most, and practice, practice, practice. This is the single thing we can do to improve ourselves.

It should be nothing new really. I know you’ve heard it before, “practice makes perfect.”

The advice is simple. Like most good advice that we seldom follow.

The more you practice something the better you get at it.

When we practice something, and when we repeat it, we improve. It is automatic. It is inevitable.

The chef who practices now can bake a perfect yorkshire pudding. The musician who practices chords tirelessly till his fingers blister does a great solo.

Like these men and women, we too over time can become practiced. And before you know it, someone less experienced will watch you in wonder accomplishing something that now is easy for you – no big deal.

Maybe you find this hard to believe. So let’s go back to when you were a child…

At first tying your shoes wasn’t easy, right? If you’ve ever seen a toddler or a preschooler trying to tie his shoes, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

And yet each of us, after much fumbling, and frustration, and stress, eventually learned how to do it, and do it so well that those laces would stay tied.

In Your 21st Century Personal Renaissance, I share the story about a young painter born near the city where I was raised.

Giotto di Bondone, better known as Giotto, was an Italian painter. Today he is generally considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to and developed the Italian Renaissance.

I was eleven when my art teacher told us how one day Giotto, ever the playful apprentice, painted a fly on the nose of a figure. Giotto painted the fly with such skill it practically came to life, causing his teacher Cimabue to repeatedly try to brush it away.

So start practicing more and watch your dreams come true.

And let me know what you think.

Ciao!

Taylor

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed growing mint, basil, and lavender. Mostly outdoors. And more recently indoors too.

The smell is wonderful. And that’s why over the holidays I picked up a few small windowsill pots.

We had so much going on that I never got the chance to seed the pots. That is, until I walked past a flower shop about ten days ago.

There sat rows of basil planters, their powerful fragrance detectable three stores down. In that very instant, I remembered my own little pots. I knew the time had come for me to dig them out of the basement and get my basil growing.

New life on my windowsill

Admittedly, I would glance at the pot several times the first three or four days. As if somehow by staring at it, suddenly a plant would pop up.

Then I realized it was a waste of energy to check on it so much, and I stopped. That was about a week ago.

Today, I had doubts. Maybe I wasn’t watering it enough.  Perhaps I’d given it too much water. Seemed like a good excuse to me to check it again.

And lo and behold… Life!

I took a picture for you. If you look closely, you can see 2 small green sprouts.

What a pleasant surprise. And how rewarding.

…To see progress. To see growth. To see something take form. To see life… especially when you are part of the process.

I got thinking again how great it is too to witness people growing.

People discovering and using their natural talents, and developing new ones.

People finding their new purpose.

People breaking through their limitations.

People getting clear on what they want.

People setting goals.

People charting a new course for themselves.

People living successful lives.

People being fulfilled.

Personal growth. How wonderful it is to help others experience it. Some times it can take a bit. Some times you have to be patient. Still, when it happens… well, you already know… it’s great.

So what’s happening with you… How are you growing or how do you want to grow?

Ciao!

Taylor

I hope you had a good weekend.

Everyone here was sick and it’s taking me a little longer to launch Podliminals …and therefore the Podliminals of the Month Club is being made available in the next few days.

…Can you believe it’s already December?

Ciao!

Taylor

Hi,

It’s amazing how small an agent of change can be…

For me, it recently was a tiny fruit fly that motivated me to make a change in my life.

I’ve talked about motivation in earlier posts; and what really gets you up and moving. This time for me-of all things-it was bugs near my fruit bowl.

Picture this… It’s summertime, and fruit flies are multiplying all over the joint! Naturally we’re to blame because we see so many delicious fruits and can’t resist piling it up in the kitchen…

…And wouldn’t you know these eager little critters can’t resist helping us eat it.

See, the “fruit fly situation” in my house just got unbearable. Actually, out of control. They gravitate towards anything that has even a hint of sweetness or sugar to it.

They converge onto a spoon.

If you leave a bottle of wine open, they swarm to the rim or just plunge right in.

I forgot how quickly these suckers can procreate and multiply.

…It kind of makes me want to brush up on my biology 101 to see how long it actually takes them to create more offspring. I’d say it’s about fifteen seconds? And BAM!, a thousand more pesky Drosophila Melanogasters now fluffing around my fruit bowl.

Anyway, as I was saying, you get that it got a little out of control, right? It reaches the point where they are everywhere. They’re in your face, you walk out of the kitchen to the living room or wherever, and there they are, fruit flies galore, more friendly little guys waiting for you.

You finish putting away the dishes, head on over to the living room to ease into the couch, and there again, more fruit flies swarming around hunting for their next meal. So just when I am kind of at my wit’s end-at my turning point really-my wife has the great simple suggestion of putting the fruit in the fridge.

This is why wives were invented…

…We get ourselves all tangled up, then along comes your beloved and points out the blindingly obvious!

I took her advice (all the while telling her I would have thought of it myself at any moment) and lo and behold, within the span of a few days, we dramatically cut back on the fruit fly population.

Now think back to what we talked about in a quiz some time ago on what makes us do the things we know we shouldn’t be doing – instead of doing the things we should be doing…

Let me ask you again, what is it that makes one person stay on course and keeps another person off track?

Remember?

The answer was “motivation.”

Why did the fruit flies bother me so much? The answer to that isn’t really important. What’s more important is that they bothered me enough that I reached a tipping point-the point at which my momentum for change was unstoppable-and suddenly I was motivated to do something about it.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then motivation is the father of change. I was motivated to save my fruit. Not to throw it away (I like fruit!), but to eat it and to share it-just not with the fruit flies. And truth be told, I also wanted to save my sanity.

And there is the basic principle:

Something bothers you, perhaps for a long time without you being consciously aware of it.

Then in a single moment you cross a threshold.

Now your problem has new meaning, and you begin to call the solution to you. And presto, life change!

Something to think about isn’t it?

…I’d love to hear about a similar experience you’ve had.

Ciao!

Taylor

Did you know that from the moment sharks are born, they never stop swimming, even when they are asleep?

Okay, sharks may not be the first thing you think of when you are asked about role models. Let’s face it though; sharks have been around much longer than man or any other mammal, maybe as much as 400 million years. To me this says they’re doing something right.

And they never stop moving forward. I think it’s a good metaphor for life: even if you’re only moving forward slowly, it’s vital to always keep moving.

Change doesn’t need to be hard: In fact, it’s better if it’s easy, and pleasurable, don’t you think?

Let’s say you want to lose 100 lbs (I like round numbers!)…

A hundred pounds, phew that’s a lot of hard work. It’s probably going to make you feel miserable for a long time, and I’m guessing you will only feel good about it you’ve lost it all, right?

Wrong!

Put aside the one hundred pounds for a minute…

And let’s dig into something that will help you get there (remember, this is just an example)…

Why not pick up a new recipe – perhaps one that uses ingredients low in saturated fats and is as fast to prepare as ordering takeout? Or maybe ask the person at the deli counter how they make that delicious Tuscan bean salad.

Prepare it, enjoy it, and then CELEBRATE!

…Buy yourself something that you absolutely love, like a brand-new book by your favorite author. Some new clothes. Call your friends and invite them over for drinks. Go completely over the top about how you celebrate achieving this first goal. I’m serious.

Make the change pleasurable.

Reward the good changes that you make.

This reminds me of a while back…

One of my mentors pointed out something to me that was so obvious and yet not so obvious…

What he told me is that if one day you’re making $10 and the next day you make $20, you’ve just doubled how much you make (or if you like percentages, that’s a two hundred percent increase). And no matter how small the amount might seem, you should celebrate.

That kind of got my attention. And even though in his example he used money, you can easily apply this to weight loss, relationships, your career and so on. I wonder if it will make you smile?

…Now back to reaching your goal, “rinse and repeat”… do it again… make another small improvement.

What I’ve just described pretty much sums up “AGAI” – one of my personal philosophies – Always Grow and Improve in the seven key areas of life. Do this and you will get the most juice out of life.

See, a tree doesn’t become 50 feet tall overnight. It works slowly at unfurling the seedling, throwing out some new shoots, beginning to make branches.

And all the while, it is aiming towards the light. It hardly sabotages itself by thinking “I’m too small, weak or dumb to become a tree from only this tiny seed.”

A tree just naturally strives to be as tall and strong as it is meant to be. A tree is always growing growing.

And so must you to live an extraordinary life.

Now I can almost hear you say it is sometimes necessary to take time out for reflection and understanding. And you’re right. The key is after that begin to pick up the pieces and go on with our lives, avoiding letting a pause turn into complacency or defeat.

One way I think of it… is if you are not growing, well, there’s really no other way to say it, you’re dieing. Now I’m not saying get out there and climb the highest mountain or swim the deepest ocean. Perhaps you can take it one step at a time, like biting small chunks out of one area of life each and every day. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day!

So maybe one day you can work on your breathing when find your temper boils up. Perhaps you can give a dirty bathroom a good cleaning every Saturday instead of putting it off until what you really need is a Hazmat team. And smile more often throughout the day saying goodbye to a frown (your mood follows your body). Or stick to the issue in an argument, instead of trying to score points dragging in other problems. And practice saying “no” more often if you are taken advantage of.

Small improvements… yes. And yet you can see how they add up, can’t you?

Imagine 365 improvements at the end of the year across the seven key areas of your life:

Three hundred and sixty five ways that you are growing, becoming even more interesting, and experiencing life at a new level.

Always Grow and Improve.

Ciao!

Taylor

Howdy.

My last post reminded me of a few things I’ve picked up about the brain that I want to share with you. In particular, the way our brain learns a language.

See, there are two main parts of our gray matter that learn to speak, and they do it in very different ways.

First there’s the “conscious” way. You know, the usual stuff like language lessons, repetition, note-taking and a kind of deliberate, focused learning.

Then there’s the other way… which happens at a different level, in the part of the brain that babies use to learn a language. This part is much more unconscious and is the part that is active when babies babble – busily making sounds that are a little bit like English (or Italian, or Swahili) but not recognizable. Gradually though, these babblings do become words, without any real effort by the baby.

My friend who learned Italian through audio programs was, without realizing it, using BOTH parts of her brain (maybe that’s why she learned it so fast!). When she listened to her Italian audio classes, she activated her “conscious” or “adult” part of her brain. She studied verbs, repeated words, looked things up in dictionaries and generally did everything she could think of to be able to read off a real Italian menu.

On the other hand, when she listened to podcasts of Italian radio, she engaged the other, “baby,” part of her brain (think subconscious mind). She often caught herself mumbling along with the talkshow callers – not in Italian, just using noise that sounded a bit like Italian.

Perhaps you’ve experienced something like this yourself… when you realized you are singing along to a song on the radio without ever sitting down to learn it “properly.”

When you are in this kind of distracted state (like when you’re pushing a vacuum around the house or out jogging, and not thinking about anything in particular), a brain scan would show a different kind of wave pattern. It is almost a meditative state and is a powerful place to be if you want to learn something new. When you are in this state, whatever you are listening to, whether an audio self help program, the news, or an ad, can speak directly to your unconscious, without needing to fight its way past the “Gatekeeper” that is your conscious mind.

Learning to use this kind of state in your downtime (even a few minutes waiting in the doctor’s office will do), or to meditate, opens you up to huge possibilities because such is the power of the subconscious mind.

Worth thinking about isn’t it? I’d like your comments on this, if you’ve got a minute.

Ciao!

Taylor

P.S. If you appreciate the effectiveness of self help audio, or you’re open to the idea of improving aspects of your life this way, you will be glad to see what I have in store for you.

This past week I had to take a long drive. I didn’t really want to. And the more I loathed the idea of being on the road for hours and hours, the more important it became to think differently.

So even though there was lots to do and driving was going to keep me from it, I figured this was a great opportunity to take a break and be alone with my thoughts on the open road.

My thoughts kept me interested for about thirty minutes (I know all the punchlines to my jokes). And because I had much further to go, it was time to dust off some audio books I brought along for the ride (John Grisham and some Dean Koontz, in case you´re interested).

Audio books-fiction and non-fiction-are a favorite of mine and take me back to the days of the Walkman. Remember them? They were the latest in miniature technology. I managed to go through several of them jogging-the heavy little things would slip from my side and crash to the ground.

The early iPod and its white earbuds made the Walkman a bit like a relic. Now we are more likely to use an MP3 device that fits on a key chain and has more memory than I do. But the basic principle is the same: If you want to learn a new language, listen to lectures recorded in Ivy League universities or just relax to the sound of whale song, there is a recording for you.

And think of a self help audio topic and I guarantee there will be a program for that too.

Using these, you can improve anywhere, anytime. Chopping vegetables, strolling along the sidewalk or waiting in line at the grocery store. While our bodies are occupied, our minds are free to be opened to new possibilities.

A friend of mine learned conversational Italian by alternating between a recorded language class and podcasts of Italian radio. The simple act of letting the chatter of Italian talkshow guests wash over her for a few hours a day helped her understand the flow of Italian and give her language lessons some context. Not bad for a few months work, especially because she managed to weed her entire garden and get the backlog of ironing out of the way at the same time, don’t you think?

So here’s a self help thought for today…

For anyone who is a fan of personal development – and I’m guessing you are because you’re reading my note – this way of learning makes a lot of sense. If you’re not using audio to keep up your own personal journey, maybe it’s time to think about picking up an MP3 player, a personal CD player or digging out the old Walkman from the back of the closet. At least for the jog down memory lane.

Oh… before I forget, if you already do this, I wonder what you listen to?

Ciao!

Taylor