Gambling has gotten a bad name. Just like the word “discrimination” has come to mean racism; gambling has become synonymous with losing the family grocery money at the craps game.

Every fork in the road is a gamble. Like the old joke goes, “When you get to a fork in the road, take one.”

Gambling is part of life. It’s called risk.

What are the odds of winning without risk? – South of slim.

If you are gambling your money away in the hopes of winning your self-esteem, you are in deep smelly stuff and need intervention NOW!

Conversely, if you are refusing to risk, it’s a bad bet as well. We re-label this behavior as “playing it safe.”

There is no juice generated by the safe spot known as inertia. The jumpstart is risk. Reminds me of a story . . .

My mother was a waitress and I remember that each day she would head off to her job with just enough money in her purse for the subway ride to work. I remember asking, “Isn’t that a bit risky?” She just casually said, “Now, I have to make money.”

It was a combination of risk and trust.

It seems that’s the necessary combination for moving forward. There is a chance it could move you backward, but not as big as the silent risk you take by becoming stationary. That’s a guarantee that you will not grow. In fact, it’s a surefire formula for atrophy.

The next time you are out driving, take a look at the names on the commercial trucks and vans that pass you by. Each one of those businesses at one time took a risk.

If you think risk is for other people, you’ll spend your whole life attempting to drive the car from the passenger seat. You’ll have all the maps and GPS settings but no gas pedal.

Answer this question: What are you unwilling to risk? When you get that answer, you have found your roadblock.

It’s a good bet that the answer to your question is a mental image of yourself – one that you’re unwilling to risk.

It’s just an image that you made up and you can just as easily make up another with a bit of trust. Eventually you’re going to have to trust someone in order to risk; maybe that someone should be you.

Some people need to get into the water a toe at a time while others take the plunge. Both methods will get you the same result. Risking is what gets you to the water’s edge. Trust is what gets you to learn how to swim which reminds me of another story . . .

Many years ago when my youngest son was learning to swim, his instructor said to him, “Remember the magic words – reach and pull.”

The magic words to move forward in life are “risk and trust.”

I’m betting on you!

All the best,

John

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SAVE THE IRISH

It may seem like I’m stating the obvious here, but those who can’t seem to grasp the concept of gratitude are negative people.

It got me to wondering.

Some folks just approach life from the angle of negativity. It’s conditioning, but we think it’s who they are. No, it’s who they made up and got comfortable with.

Gratitude is an antidote for negativity but it’s a hard sell to someone on the minus side of the ledger.

There are so many things to be grateful for that we can fill up journals with them. If we take time to just meditate on one of the ideas, it’s enough to bring us peace.

But negativity doesn’t look in the direction of gratitude.

I believe there is a way to help. It’s a bridge building strategy to gratitude for any negative Nelly or Ned.

Let’s call it “Negative Gratitude.”

Here’s the concept: You become grateful for the things you don’t have. “I’m grateful I’m not Michael Jackson’s doctor.””I’m grateful I don’t have my in-law’s living with me.” I’m grateful that my feet aren’t as big as Shaquille O’Neal‘s, especially if I get athlete’s foot.” You get the idea.

The list could go on and on and it would resonate with the negative energy generated by these folks. The idea is to introduce them to the feelings that go along with gratitude. Once they have a taste of these feelings, it’s an easier transition to express gratitude for the things they DO have and have the layers of negativity peel away.

It’s the strategy that Colin Tipping uses for people who cannot accept things. Part of his Radical Forgiveness model is acceptance. When someone states to him that they can’t accept something, he asks them if they can accept that they can’t accept it. He’s introducing them to acceptance from the back door.

I can assure you that “Be Positive” is a message that will never reach a negative person simply because there is no strategy offered with the suggestion. They don’t know how, and your suggestion doesn’t contain requisite instructions.

Gratitude will get you more positive but someone negative needs more than “Be grateful for what you have” to find gratitude.

Negative Gratitude may just be the introduction these people need to enjoy the healing properties that embracing gratitude delivers.

If you’re having trouble finding something to be grateful for, make the effort to find some gratitude for something you don’t have. You may get two gifts for the price of one – Gratitude and Empathy.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

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SAVE THE IRISH

The Grasshopper seems to come out to play when he’s on an airplane. Such was the case when he served as flight attendant and gave me this:

“A calcified heart has no room for forgiveness.”

Hardening of the arteries is something that science is working on but hardening of the heart is not on its radar screen. Such an oversight!

Whether it’s an elongated grudge, feud, war or spat, the result is always the same – the heart hardens.

The downside is the hardening happens for all parties engaged in conflict. It’s the silent killer of forgiveness.

As stated on numerous occasions, I don’t believe that you have the power to forgive anyone. Forgiveness, like the concept of grace, arrives when it arrives. It’s a gift, not a commodity that you keep on the shelf to parcel out when you deem it necessary.

You have to be open for forgiveness to flow. You can preach forgiveness from atop Mount Everest and no one receives the message, including you, if you’re hanging on to bitterness.

There has to be an opening in order for forgiveness to work its softening miracle.

How do we open up to forgiveness? It’s simpler than it seems. We just have to be open to the idea.

Let’s face it, what is your grudge other than an idea that you’re open to? What if you decided to be open to forgiveness?

In the past, the concept never even got to the negotiating table and the hardening got worse. What if it now becomes an agenda item? The chances for it happening have just increased. There is no chance if it’s not allowed in the meeting room.

Here’s a crazy notion: Open yourself up to the idea of forgiveness and see what happens.

You may just find a soft spot in your heart for this idea.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

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SAVE THE IRISH

I’ve never found a four leaf clover

I’ve never had a hole in one

I am a work in progress

With many things to be done

Happy Fourth of July!

John

PS I encourage you to read last year’s blog on Fireworks. I think you’ll find it implosive.

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SAVE THE IRISH

I met an aspiring poet yesterday. Her name is Emily.

It’s not often that you get to witness someone’s dreams oozing out over just an hour’s lunch, but there it was in full view for anyone willing to observe and inquire about.

Emily is a college student/waitress who travels with pastel pencils, pens and a note book. She’s artistic but calls herself a poet/writer. She wears the uniform of the budding artist but she doesn’t know it’s a uniform yet.

These folks are easy to spot and easy to dismiss, but you do so at the expense of your own enrichment.

Ask anyone about their hopes, aspirations and dreams and you will make a new friend. More importantly, you help keep the conduit open between them and their creative self. Be careful though, some of that oozing passion just may awaken some of that desire that you’ve hidden away causing you to dream again.

Emily is discovering her creativity and is not sure how to apply it yet. That doesn’t make her any different than most people of her age. In fact, it doesn’t make her any different than people of any age. The difficulty I see, at one point, is burying your creative self with expectations that impede its progress.

These expectations serve as steel walls that creativity cannot fully scale. The sheer force of creativity will allow some of it to permeate these walls – enough to let us know that something more powerful than our expectations is present.

Expectation leads to self doubt which leads to atrophy which leads to lethargy. This progression contains a lot of starts and stops until we just shut down.

The self doubt that is felt is a result of the condemnation of not reaching expectations. It all boils down to this: “I am not enough.”

Depending on which “I” you are talking about, that can be a pretty accurate statement. The “I” that expectation comes from is never enough. It’s a self imposed pressure to measure up to an airbrushed ideal. It’s tough to compete with an enhanced expectation.

The way to give expectation the heave-ho and let creativity in is to just stop acting.

Even the greatest actors of our time cannot recreate the realness of an episode of “Cops.”

Acting out our expectation keeps creativity bottled up and bobbing with the secret message never getting read.

When you drop your act, you automatically let go of expectations and discover the eye of creativity. You begin to see things in a different light and your creations come out unexpectedly.

The expectation to be anybody other than who you are is self imposed. When you release the pressure of expectation, you unleash your creative self.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

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SAVE THE IRISH

“What makes me different?” is a question that popped up this morning.

As I began to answer it, I got a host of answers that people can agree on and argue about. Then I got one worth talking about.

I began the answering the question by listing things that most people like that I don’t. For example, I am not a fan of fireworks. I don’t yet appreciate David Letterman or Jay Leno. Monty Python and The Simpsons make me yawn. You can see where these stated preferences are out of the mainstream and could fire up the talk show “back and forth” any day of the week.

You are normal if you took the bait and began to disagree with me. Those are difference. Differences can divide until we find the place where we can all unite.

Believe it or not, there is a place where our opinion doesn’t matter. We rarely go there. Let’s call it “The Agreement Zone.”

There are no talk shows there. There are no soapboxes, pulpits, perches or podia from which to announce your position. In fact, talking is not allowed. The minute you speak, you are automatically ejected. The good news is you are welcomed back anytime you commit to the silence that’s necessary.

There are no personal opinions allowed in The Agreement Zone and you are required to check your intellect and cleverness at the door. “What a dull place” may be your response. That’s where I’ll gently differ with you.

You can proffer what honey tastes like until you burst a blood vessel, but if you’ve never tasted it, you need to take a spoonful before you speak.

Why does everyone agree in The Agreement Zone? Because there is nothing in there on which to disagree. That’s the key; there is nothing there, just endless space where you’ll never bump into an opinion to disagree with, not even your own.

Many never enter The Agreement Zone because they either don’t know of its existence or they’re too busy formulating an argument about untasted honey.

It’s going to be a noisy weekend for most even if you don’t celebrate the 4^th of July.

Here’s a suggestion. Devote a portion of your curiosity to finding The Agreement Zone. Then go through the admission process of checking your opinions, positions, truths, and prejudices at the door and commit to the necessary silence required to enter.

If you can’t find this place on your own, look for a guide, someone who can help you get there. It will be the most peaceful vacation you’ve ever taken. The best news is even the most disagreeable come back with a greater sense of peace.

I’m not sure if The Agreement Zone is listed in the Conde Nast publications but I’ll lobby for it to be added. In fact, I just have.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

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SAVE THE IRISH

The term “breaking a habit” is such a part of our culture that it seems an upstream swim to semantically take it on, but I like a good swim.

I answered a query this morning about the best way to break a habit. Here’s what I said:

“Broken habits repair themselves. Habits outgrown leave town for good.”

Broken habits suggest willpower which is the weakest agent for change on the planet. It’s a sprinter in a marathon world.

President Obama admitted recently that he still smokes occasionally. Putting your politics aside for a moment, I think most would agree that he’s a pretty bright guy with a lot of discipline. His brilliance and his willpower aren’t enough to break his habit.

If he’s like the hundreds of thousands of smokers I have presented my seminars to, he’s made extraordinary willpower attempts in the past to break the habit. I wonder how likely he is to grow out his hair like he wore it as a teenager. He’d probably laugh at the suggestion. He won’t be doing that because he’s outgrown the pattern. It doesn’t make sense to him anymore.

When you outgrow something, the gravitational pull is suspended and your habit floats away.

Here comes my broken record message again: Noticing a habit, while you are in the middle of it, is the routine that puts you at the doorstep of change.

Replication of this noticing routine weakens the hold of the pattern and presents the opportunity to grow into a new way.

Outgrowing the old way and growing into a new way is a process. It may look like a break for someone who makes a permanent change quickly like we see in hypnosis, but upon deeper inspection it’s a progression from the old to the new.

Outgrown habits are like faded memories – they just don’t have the allure to attract us anymore.

Think of anything that you’ve outgrown, and in retrospect, you’ll notice the process. More to the point, you know at the deepest level that it doesn’t make sense to you anymore. It’s no longer important.

If the quality of your life is being interfered with by a recurring routine, it’s time to take notice. The more often you notice, the less likely you are to repair a broken habit.

All the best,

John

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A lot of folks are already gearing up for the July 4^th Weekend and may forget to take advantage of this HALF PRICE sale. I trust that you have the good sense to order while everything is HALF PRICE with FREE SHIPPING. This offer is only good till Midnight, July 6^th.

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SAVE THE IRISH

“The reason for unhappiness is the cause of continuing misery.” So said THE GRASSHOPPER during a recent visit.

Notice that we are always unhappy for a reason. That’s a myth. We are unhappy and then we find a reason; that’s reality.

The myth behind your misery is easy to find. Just fill in one blank. “I am unhappy because (your answer).”

I’m sure your answer is reasonable. They always are.

It’s the reason that continues to fuel feeling unhappy. The longer you hang on to the reason, the longer you remain unhappy.

Just notice that unhappiness shows up and then we attempt to find a reason. The more convincing we can make the reason, the more we experience unhappiness.

The reason is the roadblock to happiness.

Everyone feels unhappiness. It’s a state of internal unrest. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t experience unhappiness. That being said, it’s time to claim ownership of our unhappiness instead of pretending we’re renting it from an evil slumlord – reason.

When people get to the border of recognizing that they own their unhappiness, they take a step back and justify it – another reason. They fight to retain their unhappiness. It’s called arguing for your limitations.

Are you justifying your unhappiness? If so, it will take a lot longer to feel happiness again.

I’m remembering the declaration that Eckhart Tolle offers: “I have unhappiness inside of me.”

That’s stating a condition of fact. It can be verified by the feelings you are experiencing. Adding to them by piling on reasons makes it a heavy weight to get out from under.

Release your reasons and you’ll have a clearer path to happiness. Remove the word “because” from your unhappiness and it will be a quicker transition.

Does that sound reasonable?

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

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SAVE THE IRISH

The other day, out of the green, THE GRASSHOPPER arrived with this morsel:

“Don’t wait for a date to celebrate.”

It seems we are always waiting for something – to be next in line at the deli, for the right circumstances, the planets to align, the new season of 24, etc.

We make celebration dependent on something else rather than treating it as the independent contractor it is. You can celebrate independent of events. There is no more waiting necessary.

There is a pretty widespread mindset that suggests that we have to complain before we can celebrate. It’s the “My God it’s only Wednesday” club.

The arithmetic of their actions has never reached these folks. Here’s the equation: It’s impossible to celebrate when complaining.

Do the math; complaining is on a parallel path to celebrating. You can’t get there from here.

I think that we’ve been conditioned that we can only celebrate big things: Birthdays, holidays, vacations, weekends, weddings and the like. That’s a surefire formula to cheat yourself out of a lot of celebrating.

Celebrating is a mindset that can be built “poco un poco.” (It’s so easy when you know the language).

It all starts by noticing you can celebrate just about anything. Getting out of bed can be a celebration. Having your favorite tea or coffee blend on hand is worth celebrating. Celebrate your ability to breathe or walk, or anything else that if it wasn’t available to you, would make living more challenging.

It’s only conditioning that taught you to complain. You can recondition yourself to celebrate. You just have to notice.

Here’s the exercise: The next time you notice yourself about to complain, find something to celebrate – anything! It doesn’t have to be big.

The interruption of the complaint with something to celebrate, when practiced, sets up an automatic program to shift from one to the other. It’s called reconditioning your mind. It takes some discipline to begin the process and the results are worth celebrating.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

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SAVE THE IRISH

There is a giant upside to open book tests – all the answers are there.

The downside is if you haven’t studied how to best access the material, your search is somewhat scattered and time consuming and the answers take longer to come.

Life seems to be an open book test. Many of the answers are multiple choice or true or false and that causes us to guess correctly more often than if we had to give an essay answer to each question.

But, for the most part, we are guessing about life until we consult it first-hand. Then the answers come to us much more quickly without furtive searching.

All the questions have answers, they just may not be in the section of the book we’re looking in, and even if they are, they may not be in the form we were looking for.

When we go looking for a pre-determined, one size fits all answer, we may run into an imposter with a fake nose and glasses and select it. When the test results come back, that answer has a big red line through it. It didn’t work, but that doesn’t prevent us from selecting it again and again in the future.

We could use a bit of test prep if we want to get better answers. It takes the guess work and pedantic thinking out of the process.

Step one to better test scores is to know the answer is available. This mindset paves the way for better results. “It can’t be done” is just not a workable mindset in an open book test.

Step two is to know that every section of the book may contain the answer, not just a few preferred pages or chapters. Too often the answer may lie in a footnote or the appendix or the table of contents that we consistently skip over.

Step three is the action step. Let someone more qualified than your intellect do the searching. Think of it as the difference between your intellect having access to an old set of encyclopedias and the part of you that knows how to search more quickly having access to Google. No contest!

The key to activating the part of you that knows how to search is twofold:

1. Wonder
2. Trust

Socrates told us, “Wisdom begins in wonder.”

Following his sage observation, we can take the pressure off of ourselves of having to know the answer and allow ourselves the freedom to wonder. Wonder is the speediest search engine on earth. Once we set the wonder search in motion, it’s time to set our thinking aside. Once you wonder, it’s time to trust that the wisdom is forthcoming. It’s the same type of trust you give to Mother Nature to produce a plant from a seed you planted.

You needn’t dig the seed up every day to see if it’s sprouting roots. That delays the process and often thwarts fruition. The same is true with thinking. Thinking our way to the answer is the slowest process on earth. It lacks the sophistication of wonder and trust.

Every day is an opportunity to use wonder and trust because every day is an open book test.

I wonder if you see the wisdom in this testing procedure. I trust that you do.

All the best,

John