GrasshopperNotes.com - Thoughts for inspired living


February 27, 2009

Your Perfect Blend

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 10:41 am

It seems as though everyone is looking for the ideal mix. We keep tinkering with the formula in search of the perfect blend.

What are we looking to combine for this ideal potion? – Our human nature and our spirit.

There is a not a perfect blend that works for everyone. It’s quite individual, but when you taste it, there is no mistake that this is the infusion that had to be in the Holy Grail.

Like a car going over a pothole, we get out of alignment from time to time. That’s the time to check your balance and make sure your parts are in the appropriate proportions.

There is no getting away from being human. It’s a part of us that’s to be honored and celebrated. It’s when we are tilted too far in the human direction that we experience the hopelessness of being an isolated individual. We have no real connection with others because we deem them separate from us. Our relationships are superficial, and when we realize they aren’t working, we add more dashes of human to the mix in order to rescue them. That never works long term. It may get you over the hump, but that camel is eventually going to bite you in the rump.

The secret to the ideal blend is to always infuse more spirit. It is the counter balance to human’s weakness of adding too many ingredients. This practice stems from the false premise that “more is better.”

Reminds me of a story . . .

A radio consultant named Lorna Osmon has a terrific technique she uses to have radio personalities reel in their habit of using too many words to say very little. She records one of their talk segments and transcribes it word for word. She then edits out all the unnecessary verbiage without changing the message. She then asks the radio personality to record her edited version and then she plays back both the original and edited versions for them. The difference is like night and light.

Adding more spirit happens automatically when you subtract an overabundance of human. Spirit is like water; it’s always ready to flow towards a void.

The practice that always adds too much human to the blend is summed up in a phrase I coined a few years ago – “Chasing the Horizon.”

At least if you chase a carrot and catch it, you have something to eat. When you near the horizon, you only get more horizon and continue to hunger. The only way to sate that hunger is with spirit.

To make room for more spirit it’s necessary to have more spaces show up between your human thoughts. There are many ways to get to that condition of calm and there’s one that will work for you.

If you haven’t already done so, find a practice that quiets your mind and engage in this practice every day. The sensations that come out of the silence of spirit intermingle with your human nature to concoct your perfect blend.

You can keep searching for ingredients to add to your latte until you wind up in an urn, or you can start sipping the serenity of spirit and find your perfect blend today.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 26, 2009

No Time

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 8:53 am

Einstein had no time for time. I may have no time for American Idol and you may have no time for watching Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger Tiger Woods Y’all! play golf, but we seem to make time for lots of other things.

Time is a perceptual construct. We take our limited senses and attempt to cram infinity into them and come up with the notion of time. It’s all quite logical, and like all logic it lives in a box that we only perceive the inside of.

Let’s look at the concept of time regarding the word “happen.” “Happened” is in the past and “will happen” is in the future, but the only time the action of happening can happen is right now in the present.

Think of right now as the space where action happens. It was the same space that something happened in, in the past, and it is the same space that it will happen in the future. The space remains constant and is not subject to the limitations of time.

Indulge me one more metaphor. Think of a clock face as the space where action happens and then think of the hour, minute, and second hands as time. Time happens in the same space all the time. The space is right now, the only time there is.

All things happen at once in the space of right now, but we sequence them through a limited perception filter that we call time.

This brings up the question that Facebook and Twitter ask: “What are you doing right now?”

This is a focusing question that takes time out of the equation.

The action you take right now is the only one that can effectuate change. The actions you’ve taken in the past and the actions you plan to take in the future don’t exist right now. So permit me to ask the question again: “What are you doing right now?”

If you have something in mind that you want to change, the only space that change can happen in is right now. You can’t change yesterday and you have the opportunity to change tomorrow, but only by acting in the space of right now.

If you can open yourself to the idea that action can only take place right now, you will get more done in the space we call time.

Notice the question isn’t: “What should I be doing right now?” nor is it “What should I have done back then?” The question is: “What am I doing right now?”

If you can ask the question and suspend your judgements about the actions you are taking at this moment, you insert a catalyst into the process of change.

The observation of right now will get more accomplished than any 5 year or 10 step plan. They focus on what you should be doing versus what you are doing. When you continually notice the actual action you are taking right now, it reveals the space where more and different actions can take place.

It’s really this simple: Focusing on right now suspends time and shows you the space where action takes place.

This isn’t a treatise intended to have you throw away your watch or to miss scheduled appointments. It’s a focusing exercise that allows change to happen quicker.

I wonder how quickly you’ll make time to ask, “What am I doing right now?”

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 25, 2009

At Stake

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 8:54 am

The Grasshopper was gushing on this topic yesterday.

He had a couple of things to communicate:

  1. “To play your best, something has to be at stake.”
  2. “For a game to be interesting, something has to be at stake.”

It reminded me of a story . . .

About 13 years ago my friend Chris and I were on a supply run to Office Max. There was a basketball in the back seat of my car. I spotted an empty Office Max shopping cart next to a light pole in the parking lot and suggested we play a game of “Carriage Ball.” It was a lot like basketball, only the basket was bigger. I made up the game on the spot and we went right into competitive mode to see who would be crowned “Carriage Ball Champion.” I really don’t remember who won; I only remember the fun we had – two goofs all over each other in the Office Max parking lot playing a game that had something at stake – our aliveness.

When there is nothing at stake, no risk, our performances can be lackluster and devoid of life.

The pervasive penchant to not risk results in a flatline existence. It’s the middle ground of mundane. There are few highs and few lows – just a “steady as she goes” banality that has us die a slow, painful death that we call life.

Our willingness to risk is the catalyst to activate our aliveness. It’s only at the edge that we learn something new. When we refuse to leave the cocoon of our comfort zone, we stagnate and wither.

This isn’t a suggestion to become a thrill seeker because that just becomes an addictive drug that has you make risk an end game instead of a springboard to life.

Practice risking in low risk situations so you get in the habit of risking. Taking minor risks conditions you to invite in more aliveness to your life. When you get the hang of it, you can proportionately move to the next level.

Risking has to become synonymous with trust. You have to trust that there is a part of you that knows how to manage risks so that you get the proper return on investment. That doesn’t mean you win all the time. That would be as unexciting as playing in a fixed sporting event. Reminds me of another story . . .

My childhood pal, Gerry had a pinball machine in his basement. All of our friends in the neighborhood would play against each other to see who could compile the highest score. The bragging rights were at stake. We had fun whether we won or lost. Adrenaline was pumping in either case. Then we got the bright idea to go into the machine and disable the “tilt” function. There is a mechanism within pinball machines that automatically ends your game if you shake the machine too much. It was one of the risk factors you had to consider while playing.

When the “tilt” function was no longer a risk, we could lift the machine up, turn it on its side, and execute many other maneuvers that kept the ball in play. It was no longer a challenge and no longer fun. We quickly found out, as young boys, that when you remove the risk, you remove aliveness.

If you have nothing at stake, you can’t win. When you have something at stake, you experience aliveness whether you win or lose.

When you refuse to risk, you allow your succulent grapes to die on the vine.

There is a popular expression that I would like to amend. Please change “No risk, no reward” to “No risk, no life.”

I’m betting that if you invite in more risk, you’ll be more alive everyday of your life.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 24, 2009

Continue

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 8:23 am

When you’re watching a movie on a DVD player and you get interrupted, you may pause the player, deal with the interruption, and then hit the play button and continue the movie.

There is a life lesson to be learned here.

How often do we hit the pause button and never continue? That’s called living your life on hold, or in this case, pause.

The difference between the DVD player and life is that life goes on even though you’re on pause. Life leaves you in the dust as it continues.

When you “freeze frame” yourself, you cannot grow. You remain attached to the current scene you’re in while life has moved forward. You’re attempting to live in a world that doesn’t exist anymore. You’ve attempted to capture that one moment and extrapolate it over the rest of your life. Often, it’s been called living in the past.

It’s a static existence which doesn’t offer any of the dynamism of real life. Your life has become a snapshot rather than the continuing movie it’s meant to be.

We’ve all been interrupted in life. The John Lennon quote comes to mind, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

When we attempt to stop the movement of life we stagnate. The only place life has stopped is in our mind. That means our world view is an old map that’s a great piece of history but useless in helping us navigate to the present moment.

If your life doesn’t continue, it ends, even though you may still be breathing.

Are you on pause? How long have you been there, and more importantly, how’s that working for you?

Reminds me of a story I’ve told before . . .

I was out of work a number of years ago and had been offered a job at a salary that was less than I had been making. I was telling my friend, Paul about my dilemma. I said, “It’s a lot less money than I was making.” His reply was, “It’s a lot more than you’re making now.”

How often do we attempt to color the present with yesterday’s crayons?

The way to hit the continue button is to notice what’s going on right now – not 5 minutes or 5 years ago or tomorrow or next year, but right now.

You can only act in the present moment. No action can come out of the past or the future; action only happens now.

Tomorrow’s results can only come from the action you take now.

I will admit that it’s scary to hit the play button after a long time on hold, but it’s the only option that allows life to continue. One fear is that you will not be up to speed with a world that has passed you by. The fear instantly goes away when you choose to continue your life.

It’s similar to catching up with a dear friend you haven’t seen in a long time. After the introductory hugs and handshakes, it’s as though no time has passed.

“Continue” isn’t your only option. You can remain on pause and stay stuck in time with the mindset The Grasshopper refers to as: If it could only be like it never was.”

OR

You can choose to restart your movie and catch up with life.

The past will weigh you down and the future can’t be counted on. The present is the only place from where you can continue.

It’s now time to play again. It’s the only way to continue.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 23, 2009

Control

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 8:57 am

Second to happiness, it seems the thing we chase the most in life is control. Like the blind monkey who finds a peanut once in a while, we occasionally catch happiness. We are always left in the dust when we run after control.

Control is an illusion no one has ever seen. It’s a myth more pervasive than the Jersey Devil.

I don’t have a problem believing in things I can’t see; my difficulty is wearing myself out chasing something that doesn’t exist.

If you believe in control, you are in an overwhelming majority who has never tested their faith. You can easily make me a believer again. Just control the next thought that spontaneously pops into your head and I’ll readily rejoin your house of worship.

It becomes quite apparent to anyone who’s paying attention that what we are attempting to control is reality. We inflict so much pain on ourselves and others by competing with “all that is” and trying to capture it in a jar. It’s a lifelong quest that leaves your thirst unquenched.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t take action to adjust to a situation we find ourselves in. It simply means if that action comes out of the mindset of control, it will fail. I was talking to a friend over the weekend and said, “I’m all for riding the current wherever it takes me, but there must be a reason they put paddles in the boat.”

The paddles are used to respond to reality, not to control it.

The real gift in life is our ability to respond. Reality gives us countless opportunities to practice every day. The more often you choose a response to reality, the less you are up Control Creek without a paddle.

The sooner you give up chasing control, the more time you have to enjoy the white water raft ride known as life. Reality will test you, scare you, invigorate you and throw you overboard from time to time. To pre-think (control) Reality’s every movement will burn all of your energy and you’ll have none left to respond.

Responding deftly paddles you through the currents. Control leaves you with your oars out of the water.

Which ride do you want to be on?

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 20, 2009

Solid

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 9:03 am

“Solid as a rock” is an old expression as well as an old song. Solid is an illusion – one that helps us and hurts us.

We are hurt when we bump into “solid” things and helped when we discover that they are not real.

When they take a powerful electron microscope and view something under it, the object’s solidity all but disappears. The magnifying glass used on a newspaper picture gives us a layman’s version of looking through one of these powerful scopes. We see the picture is made up of dots and space.

I have this unproven theory that there is no solidity whatsoever. It’s an assumption that’s worth adopting even though it can’t currently be proved.

What if electrons, photons, quarks, etc. were not even remotely solid but “shadows of energetic activity” captured by the magnification of the microscope? What if everything is really nothing?

Everyone is entitled to their wacky theories, even Columbus.

So pretend for a moment that my assumption is accurate. How will it help you?

It seems that every man made thing comes from the nothingness of an idea. They haven’t built a scope to capture an idea yet. My guess is they never will. Out of nothing comes something. It didn’t exist, now it does.

We treat ideas in our head as solid. We build things with them and we also build walls with them – walls of disconnection. We postulate that if something is “this,” it can’t be “that.” Our labels won’t allow it. But underneath the label is the connection of nothingness that makes “this” and “that” the same.

Solid translates to separation and isolation. If it’s solid, it needs a separate space and it can’t live in the same space as something else that’s solid, so the two must be isolated from each other.

That’s what we do as a people. We divide and are conquered.

When we search for the solid things that make us different, we aren’t looking for the invisible things that make us the same. Our search criteria keep us separated.

Eckhart Tolle offers a powerful example of our sameness when people say they have nothing in common with someone. He points out that in a matter of years you will both be rotting corpses.

So just maybe it’s useful to come to that conclusion before you die – that you came from nothing, and are returning to nothing. This idea of nothing being the only thing there is, has us make more connections because we can make space for everything when we’re not solid.

The rigidity of solid ideas has rigor mortis set in well before you die. The stiffness that goes with solid doesn’t allow the flexibility to stretch and find life’s connections.

Solid is the “Monroe Doctrine.” Nothing is infinite law.

Here’s a scientific piece of homework that is beneficial for all of us: Take a peek inward with your own microscope and begin to notice that your idea of solid is filled with holes. The more holes you find, the more connections you make.

You’ll discover that you can make nothing out of something.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 19, 2009

Conversation

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 8:40 am

We all have lots of experience with conversation. It’s the method of communication used most, whether we’re talking, Facebooking, texting or emailing back and forth. Dialogue is the currency of communication.

The question becomes, Are we using Monopoly money or the real thing in conversation?

Here are the conversations I dislike the most – tit for tat, one-upsmanship, the last word, or who’s more clever? These are conversations that go nowhere, except the same place they always go – the land of no connection.

The Grasshopper showed up yesterday with this nip of nectar:

“A conversation is more fruitful when it’s more about discovery and less about what you know.”

If it’s just about what you know, put it in a book or record it on a CD and give it to somebody, rather than pretend you’re conversing when you’re simply conducting a monologue.

Each person in a conversation benefits more when they each discover something. The way to discover something in a conversation is to remain present. Most of us, when we start speaking have our attention on what we are saying rather than on the person we are talking with. This always leads to disconnection. Reminds me of the broadcasting business . . .

I can easily hear a broadcaster who’s communicating and one who’s not in a matter of about 3 seconds. When they are listening to their own voice rather than putting their attention on who they are communicating with, they are dull, boring, predictable and prone to speaking mistakes. The ones whose attention is on the people they are communicating with make a connection.

When I coach broadcasting talent, I use Barbara Walters as an example. I ask if they think she has a good speaking voice and, almost always, the answer in “No.” I then say she must be doing something well to be as successful as she’s been for all these years. What she does is communicate. The conversation goes somewhere. She isn’t focused as much on her question as she is in the response of the other person. She is in discovery mode.

Just because you are talking to someone doesn’t make it communication. The absent piece in most conversation is attention – attending to not only yourself but the other person as well.

Most peoples’ attention disappears when they begin speaking. They go into their speaking trance and pay no attention to what’s being received or not. If you know a person who blathers on, you can bet they have no attention on you and are discovering very little. Notice how empty you feel IF they ever stop talking. No communication happens when people are disconnected.

The next time you are in a conversation, pay attention and notice what happens. You’ll start to make discoveries. If you already know everything, continue not to notice while conversing and the only thing you’ll discover is that you are becoming a party of one.

You have the power of attention. Use it today and my promise is this: You’ll discover something new.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 18, 2009

Competition

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 9:04 am

I was listening to an interview with Tiger Woods this morning and this question popped into my mind: Are you competitive? Do you have the desire to win whenever you compete?

It could be competition in a sport, a board game, a contest at work, or anything else that gets your competitive juices to flow.

Some people are spurred on to compete when someone tells them they can’t; others generate that fire on their own without prompting. Some never compete.

What causes you to compete or not?

My sense is the cause for competition is the same for everybody – a desire to let your spirit flow into what you do.

The best competitors let their spirit play them like a concert piano. They have the ability to let their thought process go on hold while they let the creative part of them compete.

That doesn’t mean they don’t talk trash or won’t attempt to psych you out or have an ego larger than mainland China. But notice all of that goes away when they are doing what they do best. The brashness may return immediately after they complete their spectacular feat, but it was gone when they were successfully competing.

I think the desire to win is overblown. That’s a lot of mind chatter. The real desire is to let what’s on the inside, out.

Every competitor knows that it’s not their training regime, alone, that gets them to compete at a top level. They also know that it’s not the strategy and tactics they’ve studied laboriously that brings out their performer. It’s mainly the innate desire and trust to let something bigger than them, take over for that brief moment to generate a work of art.

Paul Harvey tells a great story about football great, Rocky Bleier making a spectacular catch during a Pittsburgh Steelers win in Super Bowl XIII. Harvey recounted Bleier’s tour of duty in Vietnam where he received a wound in one leg and shrapnel in the other causing the doctors to tell him he would never play football again. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He did return to football and competed at the top level, but there was no way he was able to jump in the air more than a few inches off the ground due to the lasting effect of his war injuries no matter how much he trained. Paul Harvey wondered, “What caused him to leap well over a foot in the air to catch that winning touchdown pass?”

All thoughts of limitation were suspended and Bleier’s spirit flowed through allowing him to defy doctors’ prognostications, physical limitations, and any self doubt he may have had. Everyone who played in that Super Bowl was well trained and wanted to win. Bleier let his spirit flow and helped the Steelers win what is known as “The Big Show.”

When people say, “I’m not competitive,” what I hear is someone not believing that there is something bigger than them able to flow through them and allow them to compete and win.

Everyone likes to win but not everyone is willing to open themselves up to their competitive spirit. They are mentally married to limitation and it causes them not to compete because they “know” they can’t win. This knowing keeps them from competing and they justify this position by claiming to be above all this competitive nonsense.

Your spirit is itching to get out. I wonder if you can suspend your beliefs long enough to scratch your competitive itch.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 17, 2009

Love/Hate

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 8:33 am

Did you ever hear the expression, “They have a love/hate relationship”? I take that to mean that sometimes they love each other and sometimes they hate each other. On the surface, it would appear that Love & Hate are opposites. My guess is they are more closely related than that.

Jerry Stocking defines love as inclusion. I haven’t heard Jerry’s definition for hate, but my sense is it’s a subset of inclusion and not an opposite.

To hate someone, we have to consider them enough to include them. If they are on our radar screen, they have our attention. If they weren’t, it wouldn’t be hate, but exclusion.

When we hate, we include only the downside for consideration. When we do that, we are miles away from the other end of the continuum where the real opposites live.

When we selectively include or hate, what we are really advertising is that we are closer to love than we are to indifference or exclusion.

Question: Do you really hate that they can’t be different than they are right now?

That is a mind made distinction that is opposed to your body’s natural inclination to include. Look at toddlers play. There is no exclusion or cliques formed. It’s all inclusion until there’s a minor skirmish, some mild hatred if you will. After it’s settled, they go right back to including without grudges. It’s a natural push pull that settles itself.

When we add the mental baggage, the rift takes on a life of its own and becomes more about the issue and less about the participants. This thought process goes against our natural inclination to include and has us focus on differences rather than inclusion. This mental focus is hate.

Hate isn’t great but it is alive and well in most of us. We’ve been conditioned to find the differences and dig in our heels when we encounter them.

No one likes living in Limbo but many spend much of their life there. Their stay is lengthened anytime they pay more attention to differences than commonality. They are mentally preoccupied with the notion of wrong that they miss seeing what’s right. They are only a few steps from inclusion, but their thoughts keep their legs bound. It’s like The Grasshopper asked many moons ago:

“How much would you bet on a grasshopper race if their legs were bound by the limitations of your thoughts?”

You may find a person’s actions detestable but what you really hate is not them, but your inability to include them. This mental struggle keeps the differences alive and keeps you hating. Your mind is at war with what your spirit wants – inclusion. The mind will never give up on its own, and your spirit will not go away. Sticky wicket.

Here’s a suggested strategy: Recognize that love and hate are not that far apart and share a lot of common ground. Next, begin to catch your thoughts about hate when they arise. Just notice them and notice how they focus on difference. When you get in the practice of noticing these thoughts about difference, they come around less often and make room for commonality.

The strategy of hating hate isn’t working and exclusion just ignores the problem. The process of noticing hate, when it’s happening, puts you on the threshold of love.

“There’s a thin line between love and hate” is an old expression which contains a lot of wisdom. The thin line is the difference we choose to hold on to. When it disappears, there is only inclusion.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


February 16, 2009

Knowledge – Experience

Filed under: John Morgan's Blog — John Morgan @ 9:41 am

It seems that we are a culture entranced with knowledge and politely dismissive about experience. We build altars to one and keep the other on the church steps.

People are experienced creatures but not all of us are filled with formal knowledge. Many people of my generation had parents who didn’t finish high school. That didn’t prevent many of them from using their experience to excel in their field and provide for their family.

Somewhere along the way we got to leaning too far in the direction of knowledge and its merit badges – degrees, and too far away from experience. It costs us.

Reminds me of many stories . . .

My neighbor graduated from high school and went to work as a draftsman at a company that builds submarines. Back in the 90’s he was asked to fly to DC to consult on a submarine snafu that tons of highly trained and degreed talent could not solve. He solved the problem. He didn’t own their knowledge base, but neither did they own his experience.

My wife from another life completed high school by getting her GED after we got married. She worked as a waitress. One of her customers was a manager at a bank and asked her to come work for him. She did. Only a few years later, she became a travelling manager for that bank. She then changed banks and became the vice-president of one branch and oversight manager of two other branches. She had no college degree, nor an MBA; she had experience with people that she parlayed into being a top bank executive.

My business partner and I were travelling in Michigan about 6 years ago and were having lunch at Applebee’s. I noticed the hostess was quite gregarious and seemed likable. I said to him, “She could be on our sales force and sell our seminars.” He said, “She’s only a hostess at Applebee’s.” We struck up a conversation with her and invited her to see our seminar operation that night. My business partner was quickly convinced that she had the savvy we needed in our sales department. She was a single mother of two with no degree but a boatload of transferable life experience.

I never finished college but had quite a successful broadcasting career and created a thriving seminar business with my partner, who also is a high school graduate. In the early 90’s I applied for a part time job teaching radio programming and public speaking at a local junior college. The interview couldn’t have gone better. The interviewer said he couldn’t believe how perfect a fit I was for this job. I was an experienced radio program director and was an experienced public speaker in the seminar business. Then he asked what college I graduated from. I told him I didn’t. He became ashen. He went on to explain that he couldn’t hire me because I didn’t have a degree. It was the law.

The law would allow him to hire a degreed novice with no experience who was a chapter ahead of the class, but not an experienced professional who had a celebrated record of getting the job done.

I have no bias against education. I sent my three boys off to college and they all got degrees. I have taken many courses in my field of interest. There are many fields where a completed course of study is necessary – brain surgery comes to mind. My only point is that what we have to know oftentimes gets in the way of letting our experience flow.

Many people make it their life’s mission to get to know about themselves. They want to know what makes them tick, why they do this and that, and all sorts of other knowledge based questions. They are looking for the knowledge and avoiding the direct experience that’s always available. Quoting Eckhart Tolle:

“There is nothing wrong with psychoanalysis or finding out about your past as long as you don’t confuse knowing about yourself with knowing yourself.”

Know thyself” is the best prescription ever written. You begin that journey with the direct experience of noticing and feeling what’s going on in your body and sending your head on a sabbatical.

The resources you need for direct knowledge are already self-contained. There comes a point where you have to set aside your education and the step-by-step, mind generated plans, and do what the situation calls for by drawing on your inner experience.

There is a wealth of answers outside of education and everyone has access to them. I’m sure the Chinese person who discovered gunpowder wasn’t degreed, nor was the cave dweller who invented the wheel. There is a great story about Andrew Carnegie answering questions for a citizenship test. He told the questioner he didn’t know the answer to this one question, but could push a button in his office and have 5 people report to him with it in minutes.

“Know thyself” begins with “Trust thyself.” Trust that you have a part of you ready to provide life’s answers more efficiently than Andrew Carnegie’s assistants. If you need the answers for the Algebra test, study the book. If you’re looking for life’s answers, look inside.

Yes, consult with those knowledgeable in the field, but when push comes to shove, consult yourself and trust the answer that fills your body before your head. You’ll know your intuition is on target when you arrive at a state of presence, an inner knowing that’s not subject to debate.

There is a world full of knowledgeable people afraid to act because they have educated their mind not to trust their body.

If that list includes you, it’s time to take the home study course and discover your wealth of inner experience that doesn’t require you to fill your head up with facts.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com



Be Sociable, Share!


Next Page »