Kevin Hogan

International Speaker

Latest Articles:  Stopping the Black Swan Can You Become a New Person?

Attractive Women Drive Men

Men are motivated to exert effort when they see photos of women they consider attractive. It’s one of the few predictable drivers that is effective in most heterosexual men.

Motivating a heterosexual man (but not necessarily a woman) is not too difficult. Either integrate attractive women in the room with a man, or have image(s) of attractive women in sight.

Subliminal Covert Influence This causes effort, assertion and performance to improve for men.

There is a vast array of data on the impact of various combinations of women and men in a room and how those combinations impact individuals. We know which combinations enhance both men and women’s performance and in what contexts. (Do women do better taking a math test with men in the room? Are they more cooperative team members with men in the room? Are they superior competitors with men in the room?)

We can talk about that next week as it is the next logical step in both self motivation and influencing others to do better.

Meanwhile, let’s return to the idea of a photograph. A photo of an attractive woman on the desk is a far cry from subliminal cues flashing on a screen – but once again, even when you can’t see the attractive woman, the subliminal flash of an attractive woman is enough to cause men to exert effort and perform better if that photograph is shown immediately after a successful task is accomplished and the person is moving right into the next task.

One study that came out recently [Guess What? Implicit Motivation Boosts the Influence of Subliminal Information on Choice; Maxim Milyavsky , Ran R. Hassin , Yaacov Schul, Consciousness and Cognition, 2012] showed that men performing tasks on a computer who were rewarded with subliminal images of attractive women did far better at the tasks than those men who experienced a smiley face instead.

To find out how to utilize this trigger for personal performance, look at the program, Acquisition in the store.

Devil is in the Details

Eliza Taylor There is a problem with images. Placing a photo of Eliza Taylor on your desk or coffee table might be deemed imperfect to coworkers. Testing other lesser but still helpful motivational triggers will become important. To date there are no other images that have panned out to predictably improve men’s performance at tasks.

This is important to note because it now appears that there is a loop in behavior. Remember, the pre-existing motivation level one has appears to impact the effectiveness of subliminal images! That means that if a person isn’t already motivated in some respect, then all the photos of Eliza Taylor on the planet aren’t likely to get the man off his back side.

Key Point: If a person isn’t already motivated in some respect, subliminal images are virtually impotent.

Similarly, influencing choices and decisions in others is what life is all about, so knowing what kinds of cues and primes might trigger a “yes” or “I’ll take that one” response can be mighty helpful.

Cutting-edge research just out has opened yet another window, shedding light on subliminal cues, specifically – subliminal priming cues that you can adapt and use in your everyday life and business.

Subliminal “messages” which we will more precisely refer to as cues or images, can make a big impact on you and me. Subliminal cues can and often do trigger specific behaviors and actions.

Sadly, every subliminal product I’ve reviewed on the market is impotent because regardless of the coolness of the video technology, the messages presented don’t trigger the intended behaviors. They simply don’t “work.” The developers understood the tech, but not the science.

It’s important to understand what subliminal priming is because once you understand just HOW subliminal priming works, you can use the same technology in non-subliminal (supraliminal) ways at home and at the office.

How Potent are Subliminal Cues?

Subliminal Images in Gambling In one study it was found that men playing video slot machines bet a lot more when flashed subliminal images of winning the jackpot. In fact, in 2007, Onatario’s provincial gambling operator pulled 87 slot machines from premises where they were flashing subliminal messages.

Are Men and Women Impacted Differently by Cues in Video Slots?

Of course.

Men and women are different.

Men bet more money when flashed subliminal images using video gaming technology. Women did not. However, this doesn’t mean that further testing shouldn’t be done here. I can think of a lot of cues that might trigger women that would not likely trigger men and vice versa.

[Brilliant study – Subliminal Priming of Winning Images Prompts Increased Betting in Slot Machine Play; Bryan Gibson, Katherine Zielaskowski at Central Michigan University; Journal of Applied Psychology 2013]

Thing One, Pet Two, Person Three

Subliminal cues and images make everyone a little excited. Excitement is essentially the same emotion as anxiety of course; so how you interpret the feeling is all unique to your experience. And that is an important distinction to remember when influencing others as well.

People in general don’t make serious distinctions between objects, pets or people in their brain. Psychologists have studied this effect for years and from the points of view of behavior, attitudes, motivation and serious influence, it is a critical distinction to make.

Not long ago in the U.S., there was an ongoing public discussion against the objectification of women that lasted for 20 years. In the last decade, the discussion has morphed into tangential topics all fascinating and for another day. Of course awareness of a societal experience and shifting norms can change the public behavior of specific individuals, but it may not impact 2,000,000 years of genetic code.

Paying all people their due respect is something that shouldn’t require more than good parenting. Perhaps as important as the now desirable societal stance is what we know about the brain and how it perceives and is influenced. Here, the research is clear.

Subliminal Images and Human Behavior Key Point: Objects (stuff) are roughly seen as pets which are roughly experienced as people in the brains of humans. For many (arguably most) brains, people are experienced as literal objects.

This is one of the most critical points of understanding in influencing others and even motivating yourself.

If you admire or are safely curious about something someone adores (person, pet or thing) you are perceived as “like me” and instantly appreciated.

Remember, not all of these things are processed precisely the same way in all people’s brains, but the degree of similarity and the significance of all of them is very similar to most individuals. It is in fact, dramatic.

Try throwing away someone else’s stuff.

Try to go into their bedroom and rearrange their stuff without communicating that in advance.

Try to take someone’s stuff and see if they don’t react similarly to taking their spouse or pet.

I don’t think people are objects. You certainly don’t.

But, you know that your brain experiences everything as an object more or less similar to other objects with the key distinction being the SIGNIFICANCE of the object (person, pet, thing) to the individual.

Want to know the significance of a person, pet or thing? See what happens when it is taken away. It’s that simple.

The emotion is called GRIEF.

If you think about it, most people treat their pets similarly and as well as or better than they do people. And most people treat their most favored possessions as well as or better than people. This is true for both men and women.

Perhaps if some people spent as much time on their relationships as they did on polishing their automobile, I suspect they’d spend less time polishing and more time … doing something else. But I don’t mean to kid you about what/who you love. It is very personal to you and that is the key point to you. (I just picked on a man’s car which is similar to picking on his mother. You just don’t do it … because it is adored.)

This brings us right back to subliminal triggers.

Let’s get clear on Subliminal Cues …

60-Second Subliminal Primer

Subliminal Images and Male Behavior A subliminal cue or prime is some word or image that is flashed to a subject using video technology like TV, a video screen, a movie screen, a smartphone, or a computer but the person can’t actually see it consciously.

You can say, “look for the face” and you will never see it.

What’s interesting is that you probably can’t see a subliminal image.

However, about 60% of the time you can tell me if the person is smiling or not. You simply can’t see and process it in consciousness.

  • Your nonconscious mind acts on stuff you never see in consciousness – all day long.
  • You behave in certain ways because of stimulus in the environment – which could be causing you to be a crazy person or a genius.

Key Point: Because you never ‘see a stimulus in consciousness” means nothing to your brain, which sees and processes cues everywhere around you. Something can literally be one foot from your face in a potential line of vision, and you will not consciously see it.

Change the STUFF in your environment and you change your behavior and that of others around you.

These cues or primes (something that prepares the mind for or triggers a desired behavior) are really not messages. A message is more typically thought of as a sentence or a question.

For years people have talked about the subliminal messages in advertising. Most of the chat 40 years ago was about the use of imagery related to sexuality and how it might influence buying behavior. There is no question that some subliminal cues do shift behavior.

But there’s not much out there on the effectiveness of cloaked messages in print advertising. But actual subliminal cues and primes used on video screens in your favorite department store? Well, that is going to be a hot topic in the 2020’s.

What about Literal Subliminal Messages Flashed on Video?

The brain is able to pick up on these unseen questions and sentences, but it doesn’t act on them. It’s simply too much information for the brain to act on via impulse.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” shown subliminally on the screen isn’t to cause people to go and be kind to their neighbor.

Subliminal Images and Words However, a single word like, “love” or “neighbor” or “kind” individually – just might. In fact, you can easily test such words to find out which words work best for which people or people in general. With technology today, the sky is the limit on finding cues that trigger behavior.

You can do the same experiment at home or at the office using words from Magnetic Poetry on a refrigerator and note which words trigger different behaviors in the few minutes after being exposed to the word on the refrigerator.

If you show a group of people a Coke logo subliminally they probably will pick up a Coke instead of a Pepsi on the way out of a room, but only if they are thirsty. This is a critical factor in subliminal effectiveness.

Key Point: For subliminal cues to trigger a behavior, they generally must be consistent with what the body/brain needs or wants.

This is also true for environmental cues outside of the computer and away from the screen at your home or office.

If the brain/body isn’t thirsty, then there is no internal motivation to get something to drink and the cue to do so is a waste of time.

Is there a downside to Subliminal Technology?

Now The Bad News

And there is some bad news for anyone who wants to control the world with subliminal technology.

Subliminal Images and Behavior Just because someone is flashed a puppy dog on a video screen of some kind, doesn’t mean the viewer is going to go buy one.

It probably biases the choice of which kind of dog if someone has already decided to buy a pet, but there is no way they are going to buy a dog because of a subliminal flash at home if the person doesn’t like dogs. It just isn’t going to cut it in changing a preference.

It also doesn’t mean that someone will behave like a puppy dog because they experience a subliminal flash.

Bridging the Subliminal to the Real World of Influence and Decision Making

You’ve got a message you want to get across. You have seconds.

You don’t have time for a reasoned argument or debate. You don’t have time for traditional processes. You need them to make a snap decision.

Today, there is almost an unlimited supply of information at your fingertips.

How do most people make decisions?

They don’t actually decide much of anything. They react. They do nothing until they do something and the something is typically triggered in an almost random moment.

They snap in a moment. They look at something. They hear something. They smell something. The feel SOMETHING. And then they say:

“I want that one.”

“I vote for that guy.”

“I don’t think it will work.”

“I have to think about it.”

The most important fact in all of influence is that everything influences a choice, direction or decision.

The second most important fact in influence is that people don’t think, but are triggered to make the majority of their decisions.

Rarely is thinking involved. (Thinking means an awareness which is then considered and balanced against other related information and a decision to choose a, b, c is in process.)

People chime in and say they “trust their gut,” but the truth of the matter is that as bad of a decision maker as their gut is, humans only rarely get to the point of making a gut decision. People don’t think that much. They don’t even feel their way to choices. Humans are triggered.

Key Point: People experience an external stimulus and inside it either does or does not trigger some kind of motivation to act in some way.

Instantaneous random moments occur where snap decisions/choices occur.

It’s terrifying; but it’s how humans live.

Most choices/decisions are trigger based.

Far fewer are “gut” or emotionally based.

Almost no decisions are cognitively considered, well thought-out.

If people evolve to the point of thinking, the world will change. In another few million years that could happen. I have hope for the future!

You’d find unattractive people at the head of businesses and governments. You’d find average looking people running the school board or in the House of Representatives. But that’s not what happens today. People buy their government based upon snap “decisions,” and choices.

Now for some real life subliminal scenarios! …

Surely this can’t be true …

But it is.

Subliminal Images and Political Candidates When you show voters who have no knowledge of who is running for an office of some kind photos of candidates, those ignorant (unaware) voters may not know who to vote for, but they can tell you with uncanny accuracy who WILL WIN the election, IF they also are dedicated television viewers. And that is the part that is new here.

We never knew the precise impact of television on elections until today.

In other words, when you combine low-knowledge people and filter out those who don’t watch a lot of TV, you get people who make decisions in large part on nothing but physical appearance. Those who watch a lot of television and aren’t politically astute, choose good looking candidates for office.

Millions (now billions in the Presidential races!) of dollars are spent on polls and election advertising.

But the fact is that you can take a roomful of people who know NOTHING about an election (if they have knowledge of the election, they don’t perform as well at this task) and they can point at photos selecting who they think looks best. 70 – 90% of the time whether school boards, city council or senators and even the President of the United States wins because he/she is the best looking candidate of those running in the election.

The effect is most pronounced in people who watch a great deal of television and have very little knowledge of politics. This may only be 10- 20% of the population but that 10 – 20% will decide who wins or loses the election. Their choices from black and white photographs alone predict the election winners far more than 70% of the time!

[For the fascinating and often shocking original research – Looking the Part: Television Leads Less Informed Citizens to Vote Based on Candidates’ Appearance, Gabriel S. Lenz, Chappell Lawson; Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 2011]

The fate of the “free world” rests in the hands of an uninformed group of citizens voting for the most attractive candidates.

How do YOU take Advantage of this Effect?

The fact is that people will respond to YOU in the same way that they respond to election candidates. Your attractiveness matters a great deal as to whether you will hear “yes” or “no.”

It matters a lot more to people who watch television and are mostly Uninformed about you and your work.

That means if you want people to make snap decisions in your favor, you absolutely want the best appearance you have when looking at the buyer or person in front of you that you need a decision from.

If your work is done online, you want to use the videos where you look the best and the photos that show all the right stuff for you.

Public opinion is being formed about you by people who know nothing about you or even what you are talking about.

Subliminal Images and Your Edge If you work face to face, you have to work harder because you have to look good all the time. Face to face means you need to look more like the news anchors and talk show hosts if you want to hear “yes” more often.

The more technical your offer/proposal is, the less important your physical appearance is. But don’t fool yourself. Even in the highest level choices with the most money on the line, the person doing the negotiating or buying and selling favor the better looking option/choice.

Key Point: Looking your absolute best is absolutely critical if you want to be the leader in your field.

Physical appearance definitely isn’t everything, it’s simply the unfair advantage and the most important trigger among those with the least knowledge about a subject.

Being seen as the most attractive choice doesn’t mean you will win. It means you have an advantage.

Do what you can to secure that advantage. Improve your Perceived Self to your public.


 

“What Would Happen if you really Acquired all of the GOALS You Set this Year?”

Get your copy of …

Acquisition! The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System

Acquisition!

The Comprehensive
Goal Attainment System
That Gives You Everything You Really Want in Life

Get Your Copy of Acquisition! Now!

You’ll Never “Try” to Achieve a Goal Again…Now They Predictably Happen

You want a car that will get there every day.
You want a spouse who will be there for you. Period.
You want to look good and feel good. Always.

You want a goal attainment system that is actually going to accomplish what it sets out to do:

You do 1,2,3,4,5 and you get X, Y, Z.

Simple enough.

Until today, you found out what everyone else found out…goal setting systems to date…didn’t work.

Why?

They all attempt to teach “setting a goal…”

No goal system until today is designed to actually acquire your goals.

 

It’s like buying an iPhone and then looking at it all day, every day and TURNING IT ON and OFF and ON and OFF and On and OFF…

This is square one.

Perhaps you write down, “I want to lose 20 pounds,” and stick it on the fridge.

You don’t need a system for that. You need a fridge, a pen and a paper.

But for a dozen reasons, that simple idea won’t work either, even if you had a system attached to it.

Acquisition! is designed specifically with you in mind.

Acquisition! The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System by Kevin Hogan You would say something like,

“If I could have anyone design a goal setting system for me, I’d want it to be Kevin Hogan and then I would be certain that it would actually work.”

A Goal Setting System that actually worked would be worth $100,000. Perhaps more.

One of the many, many problems in all goal setting systems I’ve encountered to date is the language of goals.

 

Be Careful What You Say to Yourself

  • Reach
  • Aspire
  • Inspire
  • Optimistic
  • Hope

What do all those words “say?”

The language of 20th Century Goal Setting comes down to one word: maybe.

I hate *maybe.*

I’d rather hear “no.”

When it comes to your goals…

Maybe = Failure

Evidence?

Go back into your goal setting program from last year and see if you acquired more than say 25% of the goals you set for everything that was set for greater than one week into the future.

Survey says?

Didn’t happen.

Here’s what’s unsettling…

A lot of people were religious about setting goals and they STILL didn’t happen. You could have done everything from A to Z and wouldn’t have made any difference. You might as well have been hanging out on Facebook.

Whose fault?

This time around it IS the developer’s blunder.

Why?

They didn’t do their homework and sold you something that CAN’T produce for you. It doesn’t work. It can’t work. It won’t work. It looks pretty. Toss it now.

A…Little Better… Language of Goal Setting

Now, go up to the middle level language of goals which has been the language of the last 15 years.

  • Peak
  • Reach
  • Meet
  • Top
  • Arrive
  • Achieve

Well…it IS a little better.

You are directed toward hitting a target with this language.

Seriously, it’s a better group of words that create better imagery in the brain.

The message is that you stood in front of the guru and got to shake hands.

He probably has nice hands.

That’s pretty darned good. You made your $10,000 bonus last year. Very nice. You lost 20 pounds though you did gain back 10 of it. Nevertheless, even after you left, at least you had arrived. You hit the top of the hill regardless of what happened next.

That is much better than, “Gee maybe I’ll get there. I’ll keep a positive and optimistic attitude, put it on my vision board and believe it.”

You already know how that story ends…

Translation: Slicker looking goal setting systems with slightly improved language aren’t causing success to connect with other successes anywhere except in people’s dreams.

What is the language of Acquisition? that opens the door to the possibility of success?

  • You don’t “set” goals per se. You sequence them.
  • You don’t “hope” for anything. They happen.
  • You don’t “work on your goals.” You complete projects.
  • You don’t hope to arrive at the grocery store. You go shopping.
  • You don’t hope your child goes to school. She goes to school.
  • You don’t hope you get exercise today. You get down and do 20.
  • You don’t hope people see you as credible. You are credible.
  • You don’t hope to be believable. You are the picture next to the word in the dictionary.

Completion and achievement are nice things.

But they are really pretty rudimentary.

Did you seriously impress by going shopping?

Of course not.

Everyone knows you just go shopping!

There is no “wonder” or “uncertainty.” The plan is in place.

You put the cake in the oven.

“I hope to have a cake in one hour. I really believe in myself and I know I can have a cake in an hour if I work hard enough at it.”

or

“We’re having cake in an hour. Be here.”

End of story.

Goal acquisition can be a fact as soon as you learn HOW to make acquisition a fact.

“I hope to use the restroom in one hour. I really believe in myself and I know I can have a successful restroom visit if I work hard enough at it.”

or

“Where is the restroom? I’ll be back in a minute.”

Language can represent what is in the mind or language can create new images for the mind.

There is no hoping, wondering, optimism or pessimism. There is no “negative” or “positive” attitude. There is no aspiration.

You do it.

Yes, of course you can “achieve” some of your goals.

What I really want for you…is to HAVE what you want in life because YOU CHOOSE it and you ARE in control of your life to the point where when you want something, something is what you get.

There’s nothing to “reach for.”

You are going to literally learn to DO and then DO and I promise no one has ever shown you how.

  1. You learn the requirements for specific goal acquisition.
  2. You prepare for and then meet those requirements.
  3. You create the possibility and context.
  4. You mold the possibility in the context into “sequences.”
  5. You begin.

And then you acquire what you said you wanted.

It sounds super simple and difficult all at the same time. Five years from now you will have used the system and you won’t even think about it any more. When you want something you simply “go to the grocery store.”

This is the stuff no one has ever taught you. None of the gurus. No one at University.

Before you set a goal, you have to create a sequence for it to be all but certain it will happen. Then the language is “real.” The language then represents, “I’m going to the store. Back in an hour.”

If you had no access to a car, fuel, had a broken leg with no crutches and no one to help you get there, you can say anything you want but you are going to watch TV. This has nothing to do with “pretend things.”

You’ve either set the table for dinner or you are eating with your fingers. You can use any words you want but if you aren’t prepared, nothing happens. Takes 3 minutes to set the table.

Most people never set the table of life.

When you create the setting, the opportunity, the possibility…, by having a car and fuel, healed legs or crutches, or someone to help you, now you can say, “…back in an hour.”

And it happens.

No one is surprised when you come back with a bag of stuff from the store. You SAID you’d be back in an hour. Why would anyone be surprised?

You sequenced it years ago.

It happens.

You do it without even being conscious.

The language changes matter because the new language represents using very different means and different ends.

And then it happens.

Goal: Accomplished

Language matters because it generates shifts in emotion, priority, drive…and with goals?

Language Precludes Acquisition.

You acquire.

You capture.

You have.

You own.

You are.

You possess.

You are in control.

You do.

It’s done.

You Learn to Use the Tool of Environmental Triggering to Spark Outcomes You Want When you Want Them

So all you have to do is change your language and you achieve your goals?

No.

Of course not. Language only opens the front door to the building of acquisition. Becoming the President of the company in the building takes a few more puzzle pieces set in place.

If the language doesn’t represent using an actual Maserati instead of an old junker, it isn’t processed as real and you won’t get what you want.

You have to make some important adjustments “deep inside” first.

These adjustments are setting the table. And it takes a bit more effort to be able to get pretty much all the things you really want than it does to set the table. But once you have it…you have made the adjustments and you have tested them, you don’t have to make them again.

Five years from now this goal acquisition system will be burned into your Passive Goal Guidance System and you will never set a goal quite the same way ever again.

You won’t need to because goal acquisition will be a default track written in your brain and not something worked on by your mind.

Once you have the formula burned into the neurology of the brain and use it regularly…you have it forever.

You’ll never think of anything in terms of goals or dreams beginning in 2017.

You will simply write it down and every single person says about you, “he’s going to X.”

… and they are right.

They seriously think it is “easy for you.”

They miss the fact that you use effort and sweat when you cut the lawn. The illusion for everyone else is so intense that they believe you are a magician that makes stuff appear out of thin air.

Like the Acquisition program itself.

Your Journey to Goal Acquisition

Goals As “Dreams”?

Until now setting a significant goal like adding $100,000 to your income, losing weight and keeping it off, wanting a secure retirement, making more sales, getting a better job, becoming involved with someone you find attractive, or even raising successful kids was all a “dream.”

Some of it was ethereal. Some of those things happened only to people who got lucky.

The metaphor of the dream, of course, is a disaster movie in and of itself. “Living your dreams,” is a common phrase in the American way of speaking. But what most people “dream” about only ends up happening when they sleep. Rarely do the dreams manifest in real life.

The dreams almost certainly won’t happen in real life because the brain capably and predictably reacts to the fact that what you dream about ends when you wake up. The brain will protect you from your dreams. Count on it.

One of the most important cognitions you’ll ever get is that brains don’t think. They react and act on a few basic types of programming, which are all very predictable.

You’ll learn precisely how to harness all of this for the acquisition of your desires and goals in Acquisition.

A Goal Seeking Device?

One old timer suggested that the “brain is a goal seeking device.”

Dr. Maxwell Maltz was 100% correct and he was 100% incorrect.

The brain is a goal seeking and acquiring device for all things related to survival and then it shuts off.

Brains rarely seek goals that have anything to do with anything other than minimum survival.

Here’s what really happens in your brain:

The brain is the control center where genetic code which generates impulses to self replicate is interpreted and acted upon. Genes meet up against decades of behavioral conditioning and interconnecting neuronal networks that are stimulated by external stimuli. This interaction is what causes your brain to either shut off, achieve survival goals or to carry on with “acquisition goals.”

I didn’t say it would sound simple, but it’s what happens.

With proper preparation it will acquire the latter. Without it, there is almost zero chance of goal acquisition.

Maltz thought you could program the brain to get you a new car. That thought was like the belief in 1700 that you could get a man to the moon. You can. But you can’t do it with conventional horse and buggies.

He was ahead of his time in one sense. He observed people surviving in the most difficult of times.

And more importantly, he observed the life changes that plastic surgery did to people. Their lives changed dramatically. It was something that could only have happened in the 20th century going forward. What was missing? He simply didn’t have the technology to cause people to do more than survive.

He understood the role of the reticular formation. The rudimentary pieces were starting to come together. A very resilient and persistent individual could painfully bump along and achieve some goals. But the tech wasn’t quite there.

Survival is Essential and Soon Your Goals Will Be As Well!

Don’t get me wrong, survival is *really* important.

Your genes have literally been self-replicating for 2,000,000 years. It is really hard for you to screw up your survival chances prior to the age of reproduction.

Half of men never reproduced 2,000 years ago!

Today you are walking proof of the success of genetic code “doing its job.”

Genes copying themselves. Simple and powerful survival.

But survival is generally not goal acquisition.

While your brain takes you away from what it interprets as real danger and causes you to eat ’til you are more than full and then causes you to procrastinate…well…those are all survival behaviors.

The brain interprets opening doors that have unfamiliar settings behind them as dangerous. The brain wants you to rest, eat, sleep, attempt to reproduce, rest, get out of pain, rest some more and stay safe until those offspring can reproduce themselves.

The brain spends its time on those activities. If someone is comfortable within those parameters, the code goes as far as to drive the individual to belong to a group, to help others survive, to learn.

Your Brain is Flat Out Amazing

Your brain is remarkable. It recognizes the folly of one’s past failures at anything and does everything in its power to discourage the individual from doing anything similar again. It doesn’t think. It acts upon recognition.

The brain causes survival and it screws up the majority of people from doing anything more than being comfortable in a familiar environment…because it needs you to survive. It is very, very good at the jobs it performs!

Fortunately you and I have a mind which is not the brain.

I’ll keep this really short and sweet. It is important.

Most People are “Sleep Walking Living”

For most people, the mind (consciousness), is shut off most of the time. How often are people “awake” while they are ..awake…?

Many people walk through their life with minutes of conscious activity each day. The majority might be interacting with the world in conscious interaction an hour or two per day.

But there are some people who begin to emerge at a higher level of conscious awareness. They are “awake” a lot more often.

They know they want to achieve, accomplish, acquire and attain because it is sensible and desirable.

What causes them to be special is their mind thinks into the future beyond tomorrow.

Most people are uncomfortable thinking too far into the future and they shut off and return to resting, eating, sleeping.

Your outcome is to be as awake as you can be and take advantage of the brains powerful survival drive and use that potential energy to acquire what you desire.

Write this down: The time is coming after you complete Acquisition!, your goals will no longer be goals. They will be obvious results. You simply will have them. Do remind people that it required effort because it LOOKS LIKE MAGIC.

Every single day the brain makes absolutely certain you:

  • Eat
  • Sleep
  • Rest
  • Use the restroom

It doesn’t make any mistakes. You *do* these things and the brain doesn’t let you not accomplish them. Period. When the body for some reason doesn’t experience one of those things it goes into Great Danger mode and does everything it can to direct you to comfort.

The brain almost always gets what it is programmed to get.

Don’t think this means because you want a Maserati you will get it. That thought vaporizes in the neurology of the brain right after you read it.

There is plenty of new wiring and plenty of rewiring you’ve never seen or done before that has to happen to get that Maserati.

If you tell the brain to add:

  • $100,000 more next year than I made this year.
  • Lose 35 pounds this year.
  • Get the right girl this year.
  • Have a happy home this year.

The brain with standard wiring will get you none of it.

And if you got lucky, the brain would almost certainly do what it could to get rid of the money, put back on the weight, get the girl out of your life and return your home to misery as soon as possible.

That’s what brains do
they follow specific deeply entrenched programs that are very difficult to uproot and change.

The brain got you to this point with no significant change in 2,000,000 years.

Makes sense: The genes in the brain have were copied from genes an ancestor of yours had 2,000,000 years ago.

That
is power.

Comprehensive Goal Attainment System

The System Causes the Brain to Be an Ally!

Fortunately there is now, yes, a system to take advantage of that wiring and reroute it to goal acquisition.

Today you can start a process using the brain as an ally not only for survival but for goal acquisition that will indeed predictably cause you to add:

$100,000 more income in this year than I made last year.
Lose 35 pounds this year.
Get the right girl this year.
Have a happy home this year.

and not have the brain go back and erase it all.

And best of all is it SUPER EASY and INSTANTANEOUS?

Heck no.

“Reprogramming” takes a bit of time. Not as much as you might think, but it is NOT instant.

Brains hate doing anything that takes time. It’s not comfortable at first. Then when it becomes familiar, it becomes very comfortable.

The fact is you can have pretty much anything you want in life.

You can have your brain as your ally.

And if you have stumbled upon some degree of success to this point in life, you have a bonus opportunity of exponential growth.

But let’s not get carried away.

Acquisition! is replicable. It will work for virtually anyone.

If you can add 17 and 5 in your head and come up with the correct answer, Acquisition! will work for you. If you can’t…it won’t.

I imagine you’ve used a goal setting system of some kind in the past. If that’s the case, forgive the developer. It’s over. It’s past.

It was destined to fail because they didn’t know how to make it so it would work.

That’s the nature of life.

If you tried to work within that old method, you certainly worked hard at your goals and while you probably hit some of the smaller and shorter term goals, most of the bigger 1 – 3 year goals almost never happened.

You are a walking testimonial for how that gurus goal setting system doesn’t work.

But you don’t need or want to “give” that anti-testimonial.

You really simply want what you want in life and want a real way to attain it.

When I set out on my own after having to quit college at 3 years because I ran out of money, I picked up some books and set tons of goals. I failed at just about all of them for the first 5 or 6 years of setting goals.

It made no sense to me.

I felt like an idiot.

Typical Goal Setting Systems Don’t Work

I worked very hard still ended up working at a restaurant as an Assistant Manager vs. the goals I had set which were far more desirable than that.

Ultimately, I learned a great deal from being an Assistant Manager for a year. I could have read the book and done what I really wanted to do in life instead. But I was using a “system” that wasn’t going to work except by luck.

It was a cool looking system with a lot of beautifully crafted pieces to the system.

But all the cute in the world didn’t mean it worked. When I left the restaurant business, I went back into sales and fundraising. Other salespeople used it. They made no more money. Their lives weren’t better. These were people who were dedicated. These weren’t the kind of people who buy something and set it aside. They USED the thing! No difference.

The creator of the system was quite a successful man, someone we all looked up to. I don’t know about them, but I figured it had to be me.

I followed the instructions to the letter for years. I was religious. I still have everything and just looking at it still makes me feel embarrassed even though I know that if I would have continued doing that, I would never have hit any level of success.

It just didn’t work, and frankly it depressed me.

I always abhorred working *really* hard and getting no result.

Eventually I set aside the goal setting systems I tried out. Either they were a disaster or I was.

Set Your Goals On Fire!

Finally: A New Approach

I developed a very new and rudimentary approach to goals.

It was far from a system. It was an approach.

Coincidentally, within two years I had tripled my income and then some. I can’t prove the clunky approach in those early days made the difference. Being a bit of a nerdy scientist, I knew that my results were just that. And they certainly didn’t mean much in anyone else’s real world.

But I fine tuned it over time and pretty soon it wasn’t a clunky system anymore. Pretty soon I had attained almost every goal or it’s twin sister. If I set it…there was a good chance it would come to fruition.

Example: One goal was in 2005 when I wrote I wanted my next book with Penguin. It turned out to be placed with Wiley. I counted that as a goal accomplished. It was huge. Millions of people would read that first book that was published with Wiley.

Had I known about one more piece of the goal puzzle, Penguin would have taken the book and saved me a few weeks.

Again, all of this was my result of using a clunky approach to getting what I wanted in life.

Over the next few years I did a great deal of research into achievement motivation, researching “individual differences,” the influence of controversial findings about depression, anxiety, etc. on human accomplishment.

I devoured hundreds and hundreds of scientific papers on what caused specific behaviors within people. What drove people. What people’s default drives were, when those drives engaged and disengaged. Crucial secondary research was into mirror neurons.

That triggered two great aha’s that when applied in my life, that had predictable results. No one was studying entrepreneurs, salespeople, people wanting the best person in their life possible, artists, creative people, therapists, people who lived much less structured lives than those who went to an institution every single day (a corporate office, a government office, a university).

The research that WAS being done was always transpiring in structured locations. This revelation brought one of the final pieces together as you’ll see when you begin to use Acquisition!

I was FINALLY able to tweak the clunky approach into a very specific laser and my world changed.

More importantly, I was able to observe the impact of various degrees of integrating certain pieces of this new methodology into other people’s lives. I watched companies integrate a very few specific strategies to cause executives who were terrified to bring in new business…to bring in new business.

It…was working.

Over the last 7 years, I’ve directly observed people I work with typically have their best years as far as income and/or relationship and/or life satisfaction or both having their best years in their careers. All of this happening in a time period when a lot of people were struggling to keep a job.

I also have discovered a few surprising factors about what causes accomplishment when people who are attaining diverse and unrelated goals come together.

What I was doing bore only a small resemblance to anything else others were teaching. It was not the easiest approach. It was not a complete goal setting system. Today, however, it is just that.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not stopping the research just because something works.

Acquisition! is here for you today. 10 years from now there will be another factor discovered. The system will come out in 2.0. Another decade? 3.0

For now, people deserve to have a life they earn.

Why is it that every goal setting system you have used has failed?

How is it possible that such smart people with so many great books and programs thought they had a great system only to find customers and clients left without results from that specific program?

How would you recognize a system that worked if you saw it?

What might lead you to believe that Acquisition: The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System is really different and will actually work for you?

And really, couldn’t you just synthesize four or five other programs out there and pick and choose what seems to make sense and then put your own system together?

Acquisition! The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System by Kevin Hogan

Acquisition! is the product of researching real people in the real world.

Most of the time the academics “get the science right” and “discover and report.”

Unfortunately, the academics tend to study college students and goal performance for things related to studying and exams.

That’s extremely useful information in its context!

And, unfortunately, that experience doesn’t map over to you unless you are also a student in a structured setting. In THAT CASE it DOES map over.

But most people aren’t in that position.

Goal achievement research at university for years showed a big disconnect from the real world. There IS some research FINALLY being generated now but it is slow coming and still based on achievement in structured settings like a corporate office, a management team and again, University.

Do understand, I am not, not, not, knocking this work. I respect the work being done. For people in those settings that material is priceless. So why doesn’t it explain and predict (work) in real life out here?”

Because the salesman lives in a completely unstructured environment. The salesman drives their car, goes on appointments and in most cases their income is dependent on one thing only: performance. Researchers almost never study unstructured careers or entrepreneurs because access to these people in “controlled settings” is not only not possible, it’s counterproductive.

Entrepreneurs, salespeople, therapists, entertainers, artists, creative people, people who are in charge of their own destiny in some way haven’t been studied in their natural environment to the end of discovering what causes “success” and “failure” as far as income, relationship success, accomplishment of tasks outside of structured situations.

It’s that simple.

The Observer Effect

Metaphor: When you want to study fish, you can’t go to the ocean, go fishing, take the fish out of the water, bring the fish into the classroom and observe their behavior. You can only study fish to the end of understanding them by looking down into the ocean without actually entering the ocean and messing up the research.

In science this is called “The Observer Effect.”

In 90% of research into everything else in the world, “observer effect” can be controlled.

Not here.

The point is that what seems to be “right” or “common sense” is rarely right in general but in particular this is true with goal motivation, achievement drives and acquisition of desired outcomes.

And that is the case because scientists aren’t in charge of their own destiny. They aren’t salespeople, entrepreneurs. They view the world in very, very different ways from each other. Scientists are paid by Universities and other institutions and then they go do their research without the pressure of having to acquire new business to earn their paycheck. They work…and they get their paycheck. That is their life experience. It is not the life experience that salespeople, entertainers, entreprenuers or those who have a life experience which has no “safety net.”

I could elaborate further, but my goal isn’t to be unkind to the researchers whose work in almost all areas of life is so important to my life and yours.

Meanwhile most of the popular goal setting programs and books aren’t written by academics. They’re written by people most typically in the field of selling.

You would *think* that salespeople writing a goals setting course would excel at being able to address the crucial aspects of goal acquisition. They seemingly do it themselves, how could they not be considered “the expert” for such a program or book?

The answer is the flip side of the academic.

In this case you have someone creating a program based on what has worked for that person.

“How did you do it?!”

Accumulation of History

Writing the process of acquiring your goals into your brain comes right after learning what few tracks you should avoid.

Some people want to go to the moon, themselves, when they have no rocket ship…

The answer to that is that it is not “impossible.” Not much is “impossible.” But you can mess up a life chasing some strange dream that isn’t going to happen. I’m inclined to say, “it just doesn’t work, it can’t work.” But I know that is unsatisfying; so simply consider this:

Le Bron James takes off work from his job as a basketball player…He’s going to show me how to be a pro basketball player. He budgets the entire YEAR. Every day, 14 hours per day. He’s the best. To not only learn from the best but to do precisely what he does will easily make me CLOSE to the best basketball player of the century…won’t it?

Accumulation of History and Goal Acquisition Let’s say it goes further than that. Let’s say LeBron gets the ENTIRE Miami basketball team to take off and work with me as well. Now we have a context. We are playing 5 on 5 every single day. All day.

Let’s also put it out there that every single one of the guys is focused on making me the best basketball player in history.

WOW!

They whip me into shape. We work out. We practice, drill, drill, drill, drill. We get 3,000 hours of work in as no one takes any hours off except to sleep this year.

Surely I must be a Professional Basketball Player by next year.

But obviously not.

I’m not 27. I don’t have 20 years of dribbling, shooting, reading offenses, reading defenses, the agility to move in a way that is instinctive and as much as I will be one heck of a ball player one year from now, I wouldn’t be able to play professionally. I’d get run over. Oh, I’d be healthy, stronger than ever and I’d be pretty amazing for my complete lack of experience and age.

The fact is I will gain two years of amazing experience in one year which is huge, but these guys all have 20 years of experience. They breathe better when they dribble, they think better when they dribble. Yet 10 professionals can’t get you to be able to be a pro just because you drill, practice and are amazing. HISTORY matters in the equation. How much, what kind. Trying to go pro in any sport after age 30 is almost impossible. (After 25 is almost impossible.) It has happened.

The reality is that Olympians are made at age 8, 9, 10, 11.

Modeling is a lot more than simply replicating what someone is doing.

The good news is that you don’t want to play in the NFL or MLB.

For that, you began at age 8 or you didn’t get to the NFL.

Ah. I can show you how I invest money.

That would be pretty valuable for almost anyone, but that knowledge, while helpful, won’t get you the same results unless you are starting with the same capital. That’s the accumulation of history part of the equation.

So, if you are 40 years old and want to be trying out for the Miami Heat next year, I’m simply going to encourage you to forget it.

If you don’t have a million dollars today and you want to make a million dollars investing next year, it will not happen in 99.9% of all situations. I could show you the exception, but I’d be terrified that you’d actually do it and lose everything in your life.

These, of course, are extreme situations.

Almost ALL Processes Can Be Learned and Mastered

As far as learning how to do processes like building a website, writing a book, starting a small business, growing wealth to a million, anything where your behavioral history isn’t a significant obstacle, in these cases you can indeed create a system to achieve.

And that’s what the gurus do and that is where they stop.

It would work in a vacuum…but they missed a whole bunch of BIG PROBLEMS.

Watch:

Set a goal.
Work toward it.
Don’t let anything stop you.
Achieve the goal.

If I told you that was all there was to it, you’d be ecstatic. After all, each of those ARE at least somewhat similar to pieces of the puzzle of goal acquisition.

They simply are 4 pieces of a puzzle, though.

Even if you break each of the four points above down into a step-by-step “system”…the goal still will only rarely be realized if it requires anything more than a few days to happen outside of a structured environment.

Goal Acquisition Encompasses Far More than the Goal Setting You and I Were Taught

So what did I do that all these other people who are generally as sharp or sharper than I am missed?

The fact is that goal setting is more than goal setting. Goal setting is something people do on a piece of paper. And that is a good thing. Almost anything that is detailed on a piece of paper has a chance of something good happening.

One word: Context.

I found the context for goal acquisition.

That’s 1/3 of the acquisition result right there.

That word, however, has a LOT of cool and fun stuff loaded into it for Goal Setting and Acquisition.

You’ll be learning not just about that, but how to USE it to CAUSE your goals to happen.

No one has taught about the context of goal acquisition.

Where do you set a goal?

When do you set a goal?

How do you set a goal?

Why do you set a goal?

What is a REAL goal?

How is it that a goal can be set and not realized to the tune of >97% of the time for almost all people?!!?

How do you move toward a goal?

How do you navigate difficulties along the way?

What are ALL the crucial factors that must be part of the HISTORY of setting the goal?

How do you create HISTORY?

🙂

Ah, you will discover that shortly…

No one. Ever. Not one guru or academic ever found this essential. 10 years from now everyone will teach this. They’ll teach it in schools, in the workplace. But today I’ve shared only an inkling with the public.

Acquisition! The Comprehensive Goal Attainment System

Want to know EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE GETTING TODAY?

Here is what is in your copy of Acquisition!:

CD 1. Why Goal Setting Hasn’t Worked…Yet

Track 1: The 21st Century, #1 Goal Setting Tool….Doesn’t Work
Track 2: Goal Tool Dynamics that Cause Failure
Track 3: Your Passive Goal Guidance System
Track 4: Your Best Year Ever
Track 5 The Brain – No Program to lose 40 Pounds?
Track 6: Nonconscious Goals vs. Conscious Goals

CD 2. The Elements of Real Goals

Track 1: Never Be Concerned about Survival
Track 2: Ants and Squirrels have Useful PGGS’s
Track 3: Your New Reaction in Crisis
Track 4: Your Fear Advantage
Track 5: New Goal List vs. To Do List
Track 6: Lessons from Losing Every day to a Chess Master
Track 7: Your Elements of a Goal

CD 3. Creating Real Opportunity

Track 1: Your Goal to “Be a Millionaire?” No…
Track 2: Sequencing
Track 3: When Do You Work on Your Life Plan?
Track 4: What Happens When Everything Goes Wrong?
Track 5: Creating Opportunity and Shooting Off Rockets

CD 4: Goals: The Truth Behind Motivation, Reward so You Get What You Want in Life

Track 1: Your First Steps of Goal Acquisition
Track 2: Engagement
Track 3: New Goal Achievers Do This
Track 4: Acquisition requires Availability
Track 5: Storm Chasers – Sequencing in Action
Track 6: Introduction to Vengeance
Track 7: Could You Date a Supermodel?

CD 5: End Point Goals vs. Life Time Goals

Track 1: End Point Goals
Track 2: She’s Out of My League
Track 3: The Wedding Dress Fit!
Track 4: Your Cheat Sheet, Page 2
Track 5: Leveraging Addiction
Track 6: Numerous Types of Brain Fuel
Track 7: Chocolate for Brain Fuel?

CD 6: Anything You Want in Life?

Track 1: V is for Vengeance
Track 2: The Conversation
Track 3: Creating your Creation Space
Track 4: TV Your Best Friend?
Track 5: The New & Better You Creates Feelings of Danger in Others
Track 6: Creating Sequences Reveals Likelihood of Attainment

CD 7: Your Obsession

Track 1: The Goal Vanishes Without _________
Track 2: New Gets Old Fast if it is Not Obsession
Track 3: Cool Obsession
Track 4: Girl A, $250,000, or 25 Pounds
Track 5: Your $5,000,000 Solution
Track 6: Survival Happens
Track 7: Girl A or Girl B

CD 8. Anything Your Brain Wants, It Gets

Track 1: Anything Your Brain Wants, It Gets
Track 2: You Have History
Track 3: One Paycheck Per Year
Track 4: Your People Choice
Track 5: Built to Last

CD 9: Goal Systems…Missing Pieces FOUND!

Track 1: Your Genes Do This For You
Track 2: Is Dr. House in the House?
Track 3: Your Resolutions
Track 4: Dumb Things People Do That Lead to Goal Failure
Track 5: Split Screen Thinking For Goal Acquisition
Track 6: Feelings Aren’t a GPS

CD 10: Goal Setting for Meaning

Track 1: Your Saturn Five
Track 2: Danger of Feeling Unrewarded
Track 3: See, Believe, Begin, Continue, Finish
Track 4: Goal Setting For Meaning
Track 5: Action, Plan, Think, Contingency, Plan, Adjustment
Track 6: What You Enjoy Doing – Matter?
Track 7: Necessary to Change Existing Beliefs?

CD 11: New Goal Setting for Living the Life You Choose

Track 1: New Goal Setting = Life You Choose
Track 2: Preparation Logging
Track 3: Your Modeling Failure for Success
Track 4: Success and Failure in New Goal Setting
Track 5: New Goal Setting: The Strategy
Track 6: Getting What You Really Want
Track 7: Your Confidence = _________

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