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

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

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

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

I welcome your comments.

Ciao!

Taylor

A long time ago, before I was able to really get it and was clueless about the meaning of life, a mentor of mine said:

“Taylor…we all get the same amount of time!”

No matter how simple and profound this statement is, at the time, his words didn’t sink in.

But as the years went by, I’d hear those words a few more times. Returning like a refrain, I’d slowly appreciate this song.

See, there’s a thing with people who live their dreams, people who lead extraordinary lives. These folks have mastered the simple truth about time–that we all get the same amount of time.

…And they know something else too…

That it’s what you do with your time that gets you different results from everyone else.

That how you spend your time determines your future.

Now if you’re like me, that probably sounds elementary. But on some level it’s hard to disagree, right?

It’s time to get this out in the open… People who live a richer, more fulfilling life in every sense of the word, realize it’s not about needing more time. Let’s face it… We all have all the time we’re ever going to get. So the secret is in how you use that time, how you leverage time.

When someone has an issue with time, often we’ll talk about their relationship with time.

Not surprisingly, they’ll tell me they don’t have enough time to do this that or the other. I mean really, ask a random person at the grocery store… it’s rare to find anyone who has time to do anything. Or is it?

They like money, but they don’t have time to get organized to make more money.

They say they wish they were in better shape, but they don’t have time to eat healthier or to take better care of themselves physically or emotionally.

They dream of better relationships, but they don’t have time to create strong, long-lasting bonds.

They describe in detail what they hate about their current job, but they don’t have time to think of a more rewarding line of work or to design a career they can be passionate about.

Sometimes we talk about how things take effort. But mostly it’s about how things take time.

In a way, it’s funny. Because if you ask them to journal how they spend their time, they make some amazing discoveries.

When someone first told me about journaling, I couldn’t help but think of a large, worn-in, leather-bound journal. Like an artist’s sketchbook or something. But the fact is you can journal on a small pad you keep in your back pocket or purse, on your computer, iphone, or whatever way makes you most comfortable. And when you make it a habit to keep a journal of how you spend your time, you too will see patterns in what you do with your time–those precious hours, days, months and years of your life.

And so when on the one hand they say “I’m so busy… I don’t have time…” and then on the other hand they see right there in black and white what it is they’re actually busy doing, it’s quite eye-opening, and at times down-right shocking.

For example, just imagine their surprise when they realize how many hours they spend watching television…

A.C. Nielsen Co. reported the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (in reality, the TV is on more than that, an average of 6 hours, 47 minutes each day)

Why not try some simple math…

4 hours a day is 28 hours a week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year. 60 days of nonstop TV a year.

In a 65-year life, someone watching this much TV will have spent 9 years glued to the tube–more time today considering people are living longer. Tell me if that’s not alarming. Maybe it’s a wake up call.

Now, depending on what kind of television they watch, there may be some educational value to it. You know …if they’re watching things like the History Channel or the Discovery Channel.

And that’s just picking a classic example, people watching television hours and hours a day, wasting their gifts and lives in front of the television.

Listen, I used to be busy too. In fact, I still am quite often. At times you might have even seen me wearing “busyness” (is that a word?) almost as if it were a badge of honor.

Yes, I used to enjoy being busy.  The busier I was, the better I felt.

But that was a superficial feeling of fulfillment.

At a much deeper level, truth be told, I was far from satisfied with the things that were keeping me busy.

So there I was “busy”…

You know, there’s a thing about being busy…

When you are busy, you can get nowhere real fast.

Busy, busy, busy, at work. Or busy, busy, busy at home with the kids. Busy, maybe feeling like you’re a hamster on the hamster wheel. Busy getting tired, burning out.

Busy like our dogs running around in circles, chasing their tails.

That’s when along the road, another mentor taught this dog a new trick… Anyway, let me stay focused here…

What do you say let’s do a quickie quiz?

I’m giving away a prize, naturally.

And to make it relevant to the subject at hand, how about access to my Personal Renaissance group coaching and mentoring program to the first right answer?

Sound good?

Okay. Here’s the quiz:

You know people have goals. Spoken personal goals, the ones they’ll openly and easily share. And unspoken ones-goals maybe they would rather keep to themselves or don’t typically realize they have.

You probably even know a person or two who’s told you they have this or that goal. And yet in the same breath they also will painfully share that they don’t have time to work toward their goal because of how busy they are doing one thing or another.

You also know we all get the same amount of time. So if you take 2 random people who both have a goal of losing the same amount of weight and one of them gets to the gym 3 times a week and the other doesn’t, it isn’t because the first has more time.

So here’s the Big Question for today’s quiz:

What is it that makes someone who has a goal, clear or hazy, spoken or unspoken, as it may be, engage in logic-defying acts, squandering precious time when instead they could be taking action in support of their goals?

Why the self sabotage?

What is at the root of our self defeating behaviors?

Is it procrastination, fear …or something deeper?

What’s the key intrinsic reason why we do what we do instead of what we know we should do in support of our goals?

Toss your hat into the ring.

Well?

There IS a single answer.

Do you know what it is?

Be the first to nail it in the comments section, and you win entry into my coaching program, “Personal Renaissance.”

Okay… go.

Answer (and winner announced) Wednesday afternoon.

Good luck.

Ciao!

Taylor