Goals and using non-conscious focus..

I recently read two PDF white paper studies on how goal setting can be done via an non-conscious effort and you will achieve the same result.  I am still reading through it all but I found the way the hypothesis was proven to work through a series of experiments interesting.

The first experiment was done the following way:

The test was to see how many words within a word search puzzle the subjects could find within 10 min, they would all be primed in 3 ways.

• One group would be given goal setting words to over achieve subliminally, this was done via a word search puzzle they did when they first entered the room. (Non-Conscious Goal setting)
• One group would be given mundane words that had no relevance. (No Goals)

78 First Year psychology students (30 men, 48 women) where arranged into 2 groups.

• Group 1 – Was the Test group, this group would be first given a sample word search puzzle to do first before the actual puzzle, the first puzzle contained the following words: 6 neutral words (building, turtle, green, staple, lamp,plant) 7 Priming words (win, compete, succeed, strive, attain, achieve, and master).
• Group 2 – Was the neutral Group their sample words where: 13 neutral words (building, turtle, green, staple, lamp,plant, ranch, carpet, river, shampoo, robin, hat, and window)

The actual test puzzle contained three categories of words:

• foods (e.g., cake, peach, eggs, corn, cabbage)
• bugs (e.g., roach, mosquito, beetle, moth, butterfly)
• colours (e.g., red, purple, yellow, orange, tan)

These words were arranged at random to create the puzzles, each puzzle had 10 words from the selected groups. There is a lot of other things included to make the experiment not weighted but I won’t bore you with the details, at the end of the tests they crunched the numbers and found the following:

As predicted, the main effect of prime was reliable, F(1, 74) = 9.64, p = .003. High-performance-goal primed participants found a mean of 26.0 words, compared with a mean of 21.5 words for participants in the neutral priming condition. Neither the main effect for gender, F(1, 74) = 2.99, p = .09, nor the interaction, F( 1, 74) = 1.66,p = .20, attained significance.

That’s a direct quote, its very umm matthy, but the numbers that really interested me was the goal primed people found more words compared to the neutral primed people.  The experiment has been repeated and the results are always in favour of the goal primed participates.

The question I find asking myself is, how can I use this fire and forget goal setting method for myself, well I have an idea of a way to do it, select the words that would make up the goal you want to achieve and read them to yourself each night for a week then forget about it and let your non-conscious mind do its work.. So no more re-reading your goal or being super focused on it, as your behaviours and actions will steer you in the right direction.

Well that’s my thought on the whole thing at this time, I will have to do some more research but its a start, less work same result, I like it.

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Ref: The automated will: nonconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals.

Why I choose and not let life happen

Over my small life on this plant I have learned a number of things, but the greatest lesson for me is to have the responsibility to choose what happens to you in your life.  Choice is one of those words that carries with it a level of consequence that most children and a lot of adults just can’t deal with.  For me its one of my birth rights to choose who I am and what I do, even when there is only 1 choice to have, I still choose that choice. Many would ask why and its pretty simple, I choose because I choose, there is no reason for it, it’s because I choose.

Over the last 4 weeks my life has been completely changed, everything is in a massive state of flux.  Instead of blaming this or that or they were mean to me, oh poor me, I take the stance that I have chosen all of these changes to occur in my life right now.  This is what I need to know now, so I choose.  I choose to stay in a house where my wife and daughter have moved out of, why, no reason!  It’s simply that I choose to do so.   I choose to be separated from my wife, why?  because I choose to take responsiblity for the relationship we have.

This might sound like the ramblings of someone on the edge, but assure it’s not, once you can choose what happens to you, you are empowered to create what your choice will bring you. New opportunities now exist where none exist for the person who doesn’t choose.

Anyway, its late/early and I need sleep.  Good night oh world of wonder, bring me new choices for tomorrow.

My Brothers Wedding

I had the pleasure of doing the photography for my brothers wedding, while it was a lot of work I found it rewarding, here are some of the my favourite photos.

By defending being Gay we all make it diffrent.

I was listening to morning radio and the announcer was going on about how a local sitcom has introduced a gay character and that was fine. He then wanted people to call in with their opinions, as you would guess you have the people who demand that it not be shown and then people who are gay calling up saying they didn’t choose this life style and on it went.

One thing that stuck me like a truck; Because our media attempts to support people who are gay this creates a sense that being gay is different enough from “everyone else” that its worth talking point. Well people don’t think like that, if its big enough to make a fuss about, its different! When stuff is different then its bad.

Working on this premise I would suggest that talking about “gay” people be stopped and move them into the “so what” category the same way heterosexuals are, you don’t see heterosexual people “fighting for their right” or “Heterosexual pride parade” the fact that these movements exist cause the people who are not gay instantly put them into the bad basket, no amount of “its ok” is going to change that. What is going to change, is when you see same sex couples together as “so what”!

Your gay! “SO WHAT!” get on with life.

Corporation Puppet!

I have been thinking about my life and how I got here the choices I made to get me here I have come to relise that most of them were not really made by me but by some corporate PR department/consulting firm.

It’s disturbing to think that from the day I was born my life has been manipulated so that I grew up to become an all consuming being for the sake of generating more revenue for corporations around the world. I have only begun to realise the impact this has had on my purchasing choices, everything from my house to the toothpaste, its all been through manipulation of my primal instinct to be instantly gratified and to fill some mythical “desire” that I have.

I have been thinking can I really avoid or even eliminate this manipulation now that I know it exists?
How can one man fight a well oiled system of manipulation that has existed for generations?
What if we all put the media on a black ban for 1 week?
How would this effect the corporations and government?
Would this cause panic?
Would this create a sense of control within the population?
Has the majority of the population been manipulated to the point of no return?
Do people really want to be free from these chains?

So many questions and none that I have an answer for right now, I wouldn’t even know how to approach each question for discussion and thought. So I have resigned myself to think about each question on its own or with its consequence and see were it leads me.

Motorcyclist that Think the cars owe them!

It astounds me how many motorcyclist believe that car drivers owe them!  Just to be clear, I ride a motorcycle every day into work and I tend to see a lot of things that you would otherwise miss unless you were a rider.  

This morning on the way in, I was following a motorcyclist lane split as I do most mornings it was all going as normal until the gap between two cars was not wide enough for the motorcyclist to get through.  This is when the bullshit antics started  he would rev his engine, shake his hand at them while screaming obscenities  at them like they owe him..

What a joke! Car drivers owe us riders nothing, when one of them moves out of my way I consider it a selfes act of kindness towards motorcyclists.  I thank them if I can, this type of behavour should always be responded in kind. 

If  the driver doesn’t want to move then I simply wait for the opportunity to get past,  if they deliberately block me from getting past I pull back and wait, because they owe me nothing as I am just another user of the road.  

I just wanted to put this out there for people who drive that not all motorcyclists are pricks and we do appreciate when you move out of the way.  I would just like to say a big thank you, you make my day when ever you allow me to lane split past you, even when your not expecting it.

What Long term means in IT

I have learned two things about time and planning when it comes to IT:

1. Long term means 3 months!
2. Temporary means 7 years!

Victorian Fires

Vehicles on the Yea Road near Kinglake, I used to do weekend rides along this road. Photo: John Woudstra

I can’t help but think about all those families that died over the weekend, there is a sadness in my heart that just won’t go away.  Australian bush-fires in the past have been known to be aggressive and unpredictable, but this one was just completely out of control.  What makes this even worse is that someone actually lit it win intent to cause a fire and as a consequence cause the untimely death of 100+ people!

When I think about this arsonist, I only have destructive thoughts towards them; like burning them putting out the flames and letting them writhe in pain until they die.  These are not good thoughts but I can’t help it,  why should these people get to live and these other 100 people die?  I know these people aren’t innocent by any means but they also do not deserve to die engulfed in flames they deserve to die in their sleep after living a LONG and fruitful life.

Events like this always cause greif within our community for these people, it also makes us take stock of our own lives,  how short they really are, are we living them as fully as we would like to? some of us might be, but the rest of us are just walking around like living dead, Seize the day is the biggest thought in my head today.

ref story

Vonnegut’s Advice on writing short stories.

I was jumping around the web and found a great little video that someone put together that had advice from Vonnegut about writing short stories here it is. I enjoyed it so much I figured I would blog it

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things – reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and inocent your characters are make awful things happen to them in order that your reader see what they are made of.
7. Write to please one person. If you write to please the world your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To Heck with suspense readers should have such a complete understanding of the book that if the last few pages were eaten by cockroaches they would be able to finish the story themselves.

Atheist – yes I am one and proud

I have been reading a lot about atheists, it makes me very happy that finally people who don’t believe in God are being vocal about their views.  Far too long have we hidden away from the public eye or called ourselves agnostic because this  is socially acceptable.