AlexK’s Blog
Feb 04
Changing your mind to making it work [...more]
Posted: under Personal development, expectation, frustration, learning, success.
Tags: experience, Photoreading, thinking
Are you getting the results you desire with all those self help audios?
Often people use tools like meditation and hypnosis tapes to improve an area of their lives and despite committing their time to listening to the tapes they feel they have a program running that blocks them. Some even feel like they are going backwards when they use self improvement audios. They find themselves gaining weight or even more fearful or anxious than when they started.
One thing I have discovered through the years is that often people say words like confidence, determination, stamina but they don’t really know what they mean to them. When I ask them what they want they might say, ‘I don’t want to be afraid.’ They are focusing on what they don’t want. And if you do this the meditation, the hypnosis or any audio guide you’re working with will work to keep you where you don’t want to be.
Think about it. The mind works in pictures. Need help?
Not, a polar bear in a pink polka dot bikini wearing a lime green tutu.
Did you laugh? Did you see the polar bear? Did you notice that your mind pictured what came after Not?
What do you picture when you think of not afraid? Since the mind has no meaning for not it draws up an image or memory of being afraid. Then when you listen to a program designed to help you conquer this fear it winds up reinforcing exactly what you fear.
Since the non-conscious mind takes things very literally it works with the image you bring up. This is where you need to put some conscious reasoning to work. Because if you want to change you need a different picture. The opposite of being afraid. Since using the expression not afraid with the first image or idea that pops into the mind is someone who is afraid we know the non-conscious mind is not that great with opposites so we need to think of a word that means the opposite to us. In this example it might be “brave”. When you think of this word a completely different image comes to mind.
So when using a self help audio and consider what you want. Pay attention to the word “not”. It’s a valuable cue that you need to discover the opposite image.
Another problem area is with the meaning of words. Or rather what the words mean to you in your experience
For example if someone says the word ‘confidence’, do you get an image of yourself weak lacking in confidence because that has been how you’ve experienced yourself in the past? If you keep this image as you listen to a guided self help audio you’re going to be successful in keeping the image you have of yourself. Again you need to change this image. One of the easier ways to do this is to think of someone who exhibits the quality that you desire. Think of that person and then pretend you are that person. Play it out in your minds eye. When you are ready and can say, that’s what I want. That’s how I want to be. Then you have an image of what you can become and then the audio programs or your meditations have a greater chance for rapid success.
Just to be clear. This article isn’t saying that those audio programs won’t work. However your mind is powerful and by focusing on what you don’t want you will keep it in your life longer. A good program will get you to make that switch to seeing the image of yourself how you do want to be, eventually. You can help yourself and accelerate that process by checking what you are seeing or sensing in your minds eye. If it’s the image of the problem that you want to end. Clear the picture and paint the image you do want.
© Alex Viefhaus Feb 2009
Jun 19
I learned how to PhotoRead but I suck at activation
Lets check your activation technique and discuss some of the experiences you might have had.
Begin your activation by revisiting step one of the system. This is probably more important than most people realise and often overlooked. Check in with your purpose regularly make sure you are [...] [...more]
Posted: under Activation, PhotoRead, Photoreading, Purpose, comprehension, confusion, expectation, frustration, motivation.
I learned how to PhotoRead but I suck at activation
Lets check your activation technique and discuss some of the experiences you might have had.
Begin your activation by revisiting step one of the system. This is probably more important than most people realise and often overlooked. Check in with your purpose regularly make sure you are on track. Then select one of your questions and review your trigger word list. From there you want to select the first question you want answered.
Remembering that the book was written by a human who wanted to pass on information imagine that you are entering into a conversation with that author. You are about to ask them a question. As look for the answers to your questions you will also find other questions coming to mind. If your question hasn’t been answered write the new question down.
As you find answers you may want to mind map them. Its very easy to dismiss the results of your first activations. You may feel like you’re not really getting anything and get ready to quit for the old fashioned way of reading. Before you do that lets consider this.
When you begin reading you just read. You hope information build as you follow word for word what the author has written. In 10 minutes you may have finished the first chapter. How much do you really know? Is that even important information in relation to your purpose or studying?
The purpose of activation is to build trust in your body mind connection. How often have you set out to learn something only to realise you already knew most of what is being taught? An interesting experience my students often have. “I discovered something else I want to know more about and my original question turned out not important.
It saddens me when beginners negate this experience. I think its brilliant and yet they think no, no its not right. I should be able to form the perfect question in the first place. In my mind it was the perfect question. It got them started and lead them to the next question that they wanted answered even more. Isn’t the next question always more important than the one that was before it? Its brilliant it got the ball rolling. You started a conversation with the author. The more you do use the PhotoReading system the better you get at it naturally and you learn to recognise you already know the answers.
It’s the same when they say to me. I did badly. I ran out of questions but felt I was missing something so I rapid read to check and sure enough that I found that very important piece of information that I missed. I am no good at activation.
What? No good at activation?
What you did was activation. It was listening to that feeling, thinking, knowing, small voice within that told you, you were missing something. It didn’t help you form a question and yet guided you to rapid read to find the answer. That’s how you activate, you follow your gut and strengthen your body mind connection. That something “wasn’t right” is a powerful activation signal that your body mind has given you and you write it off?
My suggestion is make note of it and mentally tell yourself that in future you expect to pull that information during your activation layers. Your body and mind has done everything right. It might have taken longer this time and will always take longer if you write off this very special communication you just had from your body and mind.
If you want to perfect your PhotoReading skills take every experience as just that an experience. Its neither good nor bad. An experience is something to build on. The better you leave behind the judgment and negative self talk the sooner you will be able to recognise yourself as a proficient PhotoReader. See my post on Noticing even small gains.
© Alex K Viefhaus
May 29
After their initial success with learning PhotoReading many students fall back into their old reading habits. There are a number of reasons for this. One the reason I’m going to cover right now is learning to accept the results you get.
New PhotoReaders often excited to apply what they learned and then it doesn’t happen. [...] [...more]
Posted: under Goals, Persistence, Personal development, Photoreading, expectation, frustration, learning, success.
After their initial success with learning PhotoReading many students fall back into their old reading habits. There are a number of reasons for this. One the reason I’m going to cover right now is learning to accept the results you get.
New PhotoReaders often excited to apply what they learned and then it doesn’t happen. It’s a problems for any newly learned skill or attempt to change not just PhotoReading. Many have left a self-improvement seminar excited to use these brilliant ideas, only to realise two or three weeks later nothing has changed. What is going wrong?
The unrealistic expectation
“Now that I know it I will automatically apply what I know.” Sorry it doesn’t work that way.
Sadly no matter how much time we can save or how much easier the new approach may be, old habits die hard. The old habits are like well worn, familiar tracks, through the jungle of out neural networks. They are the first one we take when we are on automatic pilot.
Change takes a conscious approach and it takes 21 to 30 days to develop a new habit. We need to make a conscious effort and when we notice we missed an opportunity to use our newly acquired skill to acknowledge it. To first become aware that we have choices.
The other thing we can do is schedule specific activities for the next 30-days in our planner that make use of the new skill. The time need only be 15 to 20 minutes. It’s important to remember it takes 30 consecutive days. If you are not one to use a planner Get a calendar and aim to put a cross through each day that you have successfully applied the new skill.
If you want to succeed with PhotoReading look for opportunities to use your skill. Select one book for the week to work with over 6 days at 15 to 20 minutes each day. Play with the steps of the system and see what happens.
Be aware
It’s important to remember when we learn something 
new we often fall short of our expectation. This means the result we got might have been less than what we hoped for. You may have done really well in the PhotoReading seminar and now on your own you fall short of your expectation. If you followed what you learned as best you can you did get a result. And any result that takes you in the direction you want to go is a good result.
New PhotoReaders they are often uber critical of their minor successes and throw the baby out with the bath water.
Why do we do that?
The problem probably stems from our education system where there is a top grade wins awards and accolades and a passing grade which is considered just barely acceptable and in many cases not quite good enough or even poo pooed. Just passing or not passing left us feeling inferior and to avoid that feeling we procrastinate in doing what we know we need to work on.
We develop an ’All or Nothing’ approach and result to developing new skills. It becomes a stop sign, anything to avoid feeling inferior. It leaves us stuck with the old habit even when we know the new skill we learned would serve us better. If we could just develop it some more.
The biggest problem is we never learned to celebrate small improvements. We ignored poor results instead of using them as a guide post to push ahead. We scratch it and start over instead of keeping going until we’ve given it all we have.
That too is the biggest problem for those who are learning PhotoReading on their own. They do one activation and say it doesn’t work instead of using that activation layer and building on it with another and then another. For the beginner to finish a book in 1/3rd the time it takes them to read it in the traditional way you need to do a few activation layers.
Be kind to yourself and learn to celebrate minor successes. If you only managed 10 minutes of your new exercise routine although you planned to do 30. Give yourself credit. Celebrate. It’s 10 minutes more than nothing. And it makes it easier to add more minutes next time.
Ignoring it or berating yourself about it isn’t going to motivate you. Your mind will think what if I only manage 9 minutes next time that’s worse I better not start because I feel bad about myself then. Only because you threw out the results you got as not good enough. Don’t make yourself start over. Build on it and see if you can do a bit more than that next time.
If you find yourself disappointed after applying yourself to do something, Stop! Reconsider. You did something and you got a result. Can you champion yourself to use that as something to build on? Something to get better than rather than starting over?
Celebrate your successes. No matter how small.
© Alex K Viefhaus May 2008
Dec 12
If you are spending a lot of time researching how other people did it perhaps you’re afraid to be a little different?
You can learn on your own terms. Courses usually teach you what to do step by step.
Yet some people are afraid to start in case they fail. They want to make sure they have [...] [...more]
Posted: under expectation, frustration, learning.
If you are spending a lot of time researching how other people did it perhaps you’re afraid to be a little different?
You can learn on your own terms. Courses usually teach you what to do step by step.
Yet some people are afraid to start in case they fail. They want to make sure they have everything right before opening the books. They want to have everything 100% perfect with minimal to no effort. Failing means they might be different to those who succeeded before them.
I’m often amazed at how much effort people put into researching. Seeking to know from others, ’How long did it take you? How many hours did you put in Is there anyway that I can learn faster than you? Are there any short cuts? What’s the secret?’
Now it’s interesting when I tell them just start the course it will take you as long as it takes you. Three months later they are still asking me how long will it take when I start and can you guarantee me that I will succeed?
Well no I can’t guarantee you’ll succeed. Sad to say if you’re still researching whether you should start the course three months later I’m not sure you’ll succeed because you might not start.
Is it really difficult to be that little bit different and just start the course and perhaps not be a master at it the first time you do it? How can you make it okay to be different that it takes you a different length of time than someone else? Why must your ability match their time frame?
Dare to be different.
The sooner you start the course the sooner you reach a destination.
Consider this for a moment. If you spent 3 months researching 2 hours a day to prove that the course you are interested in works. You’ve spent roughly 240 hours researching. If you start a course with 8 to 24 CDs that require an hour of listening and perhaps an hour of work each the total time to complete the course is 16 to 48 hours.
If you started 3 months ago you’d be using a new skill now.
So don’t ask
- how long did it take you?
- how much have your grades improved
- what are your grades now?
The answer is who cares? You’re not really asking to be inspired. You’re asking to be guaranteed that the effort is worth it. Yet expending more effort looking for that guarantee. Just Do It and see.
Ask instead
- what are you doing that I am not?
And I can answer immediately. I’m applying what I learned.
We are all different. So there is little point to fear what is reality. Dance to the tune of your own drum. Just make sure you recognise where you are putting your energy. Into procrastination? You don’t need to research reasons why you shouldn’t do something you don’t want to do. Don’t do it. If you’re not interested in a course right now then it’s okay to say it.
I see people spend three months researching before they take a risk and do the course. They stoke the fear that they will fail.They rob themselves of the valuable time they have to start learning and then are rushed by desperation and panic because they used so much time researching. If you need to prove that you can or cannot learn what is taught in a course you need to start the course and see. No one else can do that for you.
Experimenting and discovering it doesn’t work for you isn’t failure and you’re still okay. You’re allowed to be different. You don’t have to be good at the same thing as everyone else. You just found out what doesn’t work for you.
What do you think?
© Alex Viefhaus
Dec 28
A Balanced life will consider all 6 areas of our lives most people only have one area in their life where they have a mission.
How do you find balance? Goal setting. You need not focus on every area of your life everyday for that balance but periodically you need to check how you are doing [...] [...more]
Posted: under Goals, Purpose, expectation.
A Balanced life will consider all 6 areas of our lives most people only have one area in their life where they have a mission.
How do you find balance? Goal setting. You need not focus on every area of your life everyday for that balance but periodically you need to check how you are doing in other areas. The best ways to do that is write your annual goals.
New Years Eve or New Years Day we often make resolutions. Resolutions seem like a good idea yet we fail to keep them. Our diets go out the window by week two and our exercise program barely started when the routine broke because it isn’t a routine yet. Our goal to increase our income by taking a course of study doesn’t work because there is no guarantee that once you have that paper your income will increase. There is more you have to do once you’ve gained the pass in the course. The hunt for a new job with a better pay will start tomorrow because today the workload is too heavy and you’re too stressed right now. Tomorrow never comes.
There is an underlying flaw with our resolution. It’s summed up in two words.
No Purpose.
The important purpose. It becomes a reason for for taking action . Purpose is the motivator that keeps you going once you start Purpose is what it takes to make changes in your life. When we have a purpose we have a mission in life. It doesn’t matter if it’s personal, in ways spiritual, relationship, wealth, success or career. It’s the engine that drives our mission.
Your resolution isn’t a mission in your life. The purpose is weak. To look good, lose weight, be healthier, earn more money are not your real mission.
If you’re serious about having a balanced life set goals that have a purpose. A real purpose comes from within the heart. It takes a few moments to go inside and reflect on what achieving your goal means to you. Looking good, being healthier having more money are superficial until we know WHY. Why is it important to you to look good. Why is it important to be healthier? Why is it important to you to have more money? Why is studying for your career important to you? Why are your spiritual goals important to you? Why do you want to change or begin a new relationship?
When you look at writing your goals for this year Look deeply for the, “Why”.
Once you know why. You have your mission. Then you only need to Decide what your first step is. Believe you can do it and Start. Reflect, Decide, Believe, Start on your goals for the coming year.
If goal setting isn’t your strong point and you don’t know how to go inside to discover your mission for next year there is a course I can recommend.
© Alex Viefhaus December 2006
