Remember subliminal messages? Or rather, remember when you were told about subliminal advertising? Soft drink and candy companies would insert flashes of their products into the movies that were screening at theaters – too quick for your conscious mind to see, but that your subconscious mind latched onto, and sales soared.

This kind of advertising was quickly made illegal. Probably because the whole idea of how you can speak to your unconscious mind is pretty interesting, isn’t it? See, our unconscious mind is like the genius child who soaks up everything – and I do mean everything. The thing is your unconscious doesn’t have the skills to decide if something is good for you, or bad.

Now take a moment and think about how most of our behavior is because of our unconscious. And this means most of our ‘natural’ reactions aren’t so spontaneous. What I’m saying is these reactions are generally automatic responses generated by your unconscious. Let’s call them “learned” responses.

…What’s interesting is you usually don’t notice when, or how, you’ve learned these responses – like how you’re going to blink, right? You don’t plan to blink… it just happens.

Not only that, I’d say it’s also important to understand how, often without realizing it, we send messages to our subconscious that may or may not be serving us well.

Case in point: how you can set yourself up for success or failure with your self-talk, the dialog you speak silently within your head or out loud.

So when you say something like “I’m not good enough to do x, to have y, or to be z” you limit yourself.

That’s because your subconscious is on your side. After all, it is a part of you. And it wants to please you. And it does exactly as you tell it.

So it’s no surprise then, that when it hears your words “I’m not good enough to do x, to have y, or to be z” it goes right ahead and “helps” you, by making sure that you don’t do, have or become any of those things. And it makes no difference if your self talk doesn’t include “I’m not good enough” because there are plently of other limiting thoughts most of us have at one time or another.

I can’t tell you how many people laugh or just nod when I say this. Then they get a blank stare – the kind that screams “Holy smoke.”

Remember how we’ve talked about the power of self-persuasion earlier? And the exciting news that we can communicate with ourselves in GOOD ways?

Well, what if you could get your willing and eager subconscious mind to bring about more of the changes you want?

With a little determination (this is the power of your conscious mind over your subconscious), today this is easier than ever…

Reshaping your unconscious mind is as simple as loading your MP3 or CD player with what I’ve named Podliminals – audio technology designed for you to have a convenient, elegant, and fun way to send new messages to your subconscious.

For some, the notion that you can communicate with your unconscious is hard to grasp and seems a little far fetched. So I typically answer by saying that when you use Podliminals, you’re making new use of the same tools you have been using your whole life.

I find it interesting how a lot of people will tell you they’re perfectly happy just the way things are. Dig a little deeper and you discover that sure, they could use more money, more love, more success, more respect, more time, more energy, … more sleep (sign me up). Everyone can use a little more of something, for their own benefit or someone else’s.

And that’s what each Podliminal is designed to do… zoom in where you want, work on something, and then let it happen. Your wonderful unconscious mind takes it in, and gets on with the job of creating the reality you want.

Podliminals will change your life. But rather than take my word for it, you’ll want to try them for yourself.

You probably know I’ve been looking forward to open the doors to the Podliminal of the Month Club. The good news is you can expect this to happen next week. (Did you notice the new Podliminals logo up in the right hand corner?)

I’ll be sending out a special offer for reading my blog. But you will only get it if you are on my mailing list. If you are not sure whether or not you are on the list, add yourself now by entering your name and email address in the sign up box on this blog, then click the “Sign Up” button. And don’t worry – if you’re already on this list, the system will not add you twice.

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

Hi,

You have probably already realized we are more than half-way through the year. And whether or not you make formal new years resolutions or set goals for the new year, we all have at least a few things we hope to achieve before the year draws to a close, right?

So I wonder …what’s cooking with you? And it’s perfectly OK to share what’s not cooking or what you’d like to change.

Ciao!

Taylor

I welcome your comments.

Ciao!

Taylor