I’m not much of gardener but I’m pretty sure if you plant in rich soil, you’ll reap more of a harvest.

Things grow better in nutrient-rich environments, yet we often plant where seeds won’t grow. And even if they do, it’s a weak crop.

But this isn’t about “Green-thumb-ery.” It’s about goal setting and goal achieving.

Consciously setting a goal is a starting point. It’s the seed. So, where and how do you plant that seed?

You “Plant it in Presence.” That means you take the seed into a calm state of mind where it can root and grow. Perhaps an explanation would be helpful.

Seeing as I’ve conducted hypnosis sessions for close to 40 years, I can tell you with confidence that the way most people are taught to do goal setting with self-hypnosis is highly ineffective.

This method has dreadful results. It suggests that you get yourself in a calm state of mind and then give yourself a suggestion. That’s putting the accent on the wrong syllable.

Here’s the rub: A suggestible state of mind is a quiet mind. The second you interrupt that quiet to consciously “plant” a suggestion, you come out of the prepared soil and return to the hardpan, where you’ll be hard-pressed to grow anything.

In short, talking to yourself takes you out of the high-yielding state of presence.

A more effective way of goal setting is to bring your goal to mind beforehand. Consciously picture it, sound it out, or feel it, and imagine that you have already received it. Then, you’re ready to do your relaxation practice that transports you to a calm, nutrient-rich state of mind.

After you consciously set your goal, make your only goal getting into a frame of mind that is fertile for the seed you’re bringing in. When you do it this way, you are taking the goal in with you, not trying to formulate it after you’ve arrived.

This may seem like a minor distinction but it can cause major disappointments when you set goals out of order. If you do so, the “crop” you get will be spelled with an “a.”

Do your goal setting consciously before you take yourself inward. Set it and forget it, then put all your focus on quieting your mind. This is a fruitful way to “Plant in Presence” and, in turn, produce a bumper crop.

All the best,

John

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I have a goal-setting workshop in the pipeline. It’s based on a hypnotic writing technique I learned over 30 years ago. I won’t go into all the nuts and bolts of the 2-hour workshop, but I’ll share with you one of the subliminal methods of reinforcing a goal in your mind.

It’s simple to do. Just close your eyes for a few moments and bring your goal to mind. You can either make a picture of what it looks like, or describe it in words inside your head, or get a special feeling about it. Next, assign a color to your goal. Pick a color that you’ll see quite often in your everyday life. Finally, suggest to yourself that every time you see that color, it will trigger the creative part of you to continue working on your goal. Then just open your eyes and go about your day.

Every time you experience that color throughout the day, your goal will get communicated to the creative part of your mind that’s working on it.

You may catch yourself smiling when you consciously see that color because you know it’s triggering the part of you that’s working on your goal in the background.

The best part is that you don’t even have to be consciously aware of the color for it to alert your creative self. We take in huge amounts of sensory data throughout our day that never makes it into our conscious awareness. It, nevertheless, all registers with us at some level.

The color you assigned to your goal is everywhere, and even if it’s outside of your main field of vision – like in your peripheral vision, it’s still doing the reinforcing you requested when you did the eyes-closed exercise.

You can do the eyes-closed exercise on a regular basis to reinforce what you set into motion the first time you did it. The whole procedure takes a minute or two. I call it a mini-meditation.

It’s very relaxing and easy to do, and who knew how easily you could work on your goal just by assigning it a hue?

All the best,

John

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Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 7-6-20.

Read the written version here.

Have you ever seen an anthill? Ever wonder why they build hills? Me neither, until now.

Apparently, the hills aren’t built for a purpose; they’re a byproduct of a mission. The ants are digging subterranean tunnels and the dirt that makes up the hills is carried out and deposited at the entrance forming a mound that resembles the opening of a volcano.

I’m guessing that you’ve seen people step on those hills in an effort to destroy them and get rid of the ants. Ever wonder what goes through an ant’s mind when what they’ve created gets trashed and scattered? Nothing! They just go to work, and dig another tunnel, and make another hill.

Have any of your hills been destroyed? I’ve had many of mine stomped on and swept away – too many to count. But unlike the ant, I would sit and brood with “woe is me” thoughts coloring my mood. But somewhere in the back of my mind was an old Sinatra song called “High Hopes.“ Here are some of the lyrics:

Next time you’re found, with your chin on the ground

There a lot to be learned, so look around

Just what makes that little old ant

Think he’ll move that rubber tree plant

Anyone knows an ant, can’t

Move a rubber tree plant

But he’s got high hopes, he’s got high hopes

He’s got high apple pie, in the sky hopes

So any time you’re gettin’ low

‘stead of lettin’ go

Just remember that ant

Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant

What I’ve come to learn is the longer you lament, the longer you delay progress. Yes, it’s human conditioning to experience disappointment and frustration when our hill is flattened. But the quicker we move out of that mindset, the sooner we’re on to building our next hill.

We can all learn a lesson from that little old ant: When we keep our brooding to a minimum, we minimize the delay of creating a brand new day.

All the best,

John

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My mom used an expression to characterize when someone had it made. She would say, “Now, she’s on Front Street.” Or, she would say something like this: “If this or that had’ve happened, I’d be on Front Street.”

I came to find out that in the early days in the city of Philadelphia, Front Street was the most coveted address in town.

It got me to wondering what constitutes Front Street for me. I found out it’s my mental real estate.

Who owns prime property in my mind? Who gets to set up shop in my head? In the past, I would rent space to any thought or idea that entered. They could stay as long as they wanted, even though their presence may have been troubling to me.

I’m never going to be able to control who knocks on the door and comes in for a visit, but I can decide on who stays or goes.

I do this by employing the biggest and baddest of bouncers. His name is, “Observer.”

Just telling your thoughts to go away could go on all night and day without any results. “Hoping” they’ll leave has the same odds as “wishing” they would go.

Observer doesn’t physically toss them, he just gives them a polite stare from afar which causes them to pack up and leave. Yes, they may visit again but his presence keeps their visits short.

The good news is he’s always available and works for free, not just for me.

Start observing the thoughts that visit your mind. Do so unemotionally and without engaging them in conversation. This mere observation will give your mind a vacation from their presence.

Your mental real estate is a coveted address. Thoughts want to come and stay in the front and back of your mind. Employ observation and you’ll keep your “Front Street” a free flowing thoroughfare and quickly get bothersome thoughts out of your hair.

All the best,

John

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I think we can all agree that we’re “good” at something. What we may not agree on is that all of us are “experts” at that something.

Yet, tons of us are experts in something that doesn’t serve us well. Perhaps that’s you. I know, in the past, it was me.

What is this thing that many of us have expertise in that causes us more harm than good? We’re experts in what we “don’t want.”

Sorry for the double negative here, but have you ever noticed that hardly anyone doesn’t know what they don’t want? It’s one thing to have that realization; it’s another to recognize that awareness is not getting you closer to what you “do” want.

The goal seeking part of our mind doesn’t work so well with “don’t want” goals. It does, however, shift into high gear when we give it a desired “DO want” target to shoot for.

Just a slight shift in perspective keeps your focus from getting scattered and your aim from getting watered down. Set your focus on what you DO want and leave your “don’t want” behind, and you’ll stop being an expert on what has become a daily grind.

All the best,

John

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It’s not a universal law but I believe it’s more than a local ordinance to claim that those with whom we disagree are often categorized, by us, as “Not like me.”

You might disagree with someone’s lifestyle, viewpoint, politics, religion, social views, etc. but if you examine your opposition more closely, I think you’ll discover that your real view is they’re “not like you.”

Truth be told, no one is like you, not even if you have an identical twin. We’ve all developed different personalities with beliefs and habits that are uniquely ours. So expecting someone else to be just like you is more than a tall order; it’s impossible.

This realization may get you to conclude that what we all have in common are our differences.

It’s in all of our interests to respect those differences without castigating someone out of hand. Who knows, we might even make some new, exciting music by joining their band.

I believe we can all be a little more accepting. It certainly couldn’t hurt, because thinking they’re “not like me” is just a little too curt.

All the best,

John

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Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 6-29-20.

Read the written version here.

The Grasshopper had this to say today: “People will only remember the event, not the reasons.”

We humans have become reasoning machines. Translate “reasoning” into “excuse making” and you’ll grasp the underlying meaning of the Grasshopper’s message.

If you have disappointed someone by not doing what you said you would do, they’re not going to remember the well crafted reasons you offered as explanation. They’ll only remember that you didn’t come through. If you repeat this behavior often enough, you’ll earn the label of being “All talk and no action,” or as they say in Texas, “All hat and no cattle.”

The boiled down message is this: Stop making excuses! Hardly anyone believes them and they act as an impediment to taking action.

My friend Terry used to teach a sales training method, the opening line of which was this question to the prospective customer: “How could you be happier?” Once the client answered with their criteria of how they could be happier, he would ask, “How come that’s not happening now?”

That’s when all the excuses would come pouring out. They amounted to, “the reason I’m not happy is because of blah, blah, blah.”

Whenever I address this topic, I always think of my fourth grade teacher Miss Wagner who drilled into us, “you can have what you want or your reasons why not.”

It takes more time to come up with an excuse than it does to take some action towards your your goal. We get in the habit of diverting ourselves into to crafting some flowery prose instead of getting the grindstone closer to our nose.

As the Grasshopper reminded us many seasons ago, “Find your excuse and you’ll find your problem.”

If you truly want to find your way forward, give up the things that are holding you back: Your explanations.

Final thought: When you stop talking, you’ll have more time to take action, and excuses will no longer be your “go to” reaction.

All The best,

John

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The Grasshopper was very long-winded during my walk the other day when he said, “When you give a pat answer, you only have access to your knowledge. When you give a reflective answer, you have access to your wisdom.”

What you know pales in comparison to what you have access to. We just have to get out of our head long enough to let our storehouse of creativity and wisdom bubble up.

Sometimes a pat answer is the most appropriate one, especially if it’s a fact based question. “Have you ever driven a lawn tractor?” The patterned answer to that question is going to be “yes” or “no.” You don’t need access to your wisdom to answer that.

Your communication with another will deepen when you go deeper for an answer to their question. You do that by pausing before answering and let you pat answers silently go by before you reply.

Just a slight pause is often all that’s needed to get past a worn out answer, to one that’s more relevant and revealing.

You will surprise yourself when you take a beat before you respond. Answers that you’ve never issued before make their way in to your communications – answers that provide insight, rather than being un-usefully trite.

You show a lot more respect to the person you’re communicating with when you give them access to all of you, rather than regaling them an airbrushed answer that has the nutritional value of cotton candy.

Your communications will greatly improve if you remember to take a mini-breather before responding.

Like the old Coca-Cola commercial said, “It’s the pause that refreshes.”

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.