The late great business coach and motivational speaker Bob Proctor, made famous by his appearance in the documentary The Secret, used to drive everywhere with a portable record player in his car and listen to motivational records by people like Earl Nightingale… who Bob eventually went on to work with.
The reason why Bob would listen to those kinds of records instead of just listening to pop songs on the radio was that it programed him to achieve more and to think and behave differently.
Every time Bob was in the car, he would listen to those records. Whenever he was staying at a hotel, he would listen to those records… or read books like Think And Grow Rich.
Listening to those records meant that he was constantly learning.
Even if he had heard the same record hundreds of times – apparently he played them constantly – the repetition of the information sank deep and reprogrammed his subconscious mind.
It’s the subconscious mind which controls our ‘natural’ behavior.
When you learn to drive a car, it’s all new to you and difficult to do. But the more you do it, the more it becomes ‘second nature’.
The repetition of the action pushes it into your subconscious and seals it as a ‘natural habit’ which means that you can now drive without having to think about what you are doing.
Listening to people who have achieved the things you want to achieve, and those who know the things you want to know, is incredibly powerful.
It worked for Bob.
It took him from being a heavily debted firefighter in Toronto to a multi-millionaire businessman and one of the biggest names on the motivational speaking circuit.
Bob was forever on stage teaching people how to achieve their dreams and get more out of life.
He has helped turn ordinary people into millionaires.
And it all started because he took the time to listen to other successful people.
He actively reprogramed his subconscious mind by learning what successful people did to become successful.
There are two things I want to talk about today, the first being…
How was the portable record player powered?
Was it a wind-up one?
Or was it battery?
The batteries must have been huge!
I imagine it was a wind-up one as it was late 1950s early 1960s.
If he was driving a car listening to records, wouldn’t they have been skipping all the time?
I can certainly tell you that had he been driving around on UK roads, (looking at the state of them today), they would have been jumping around like a kangaroo on a pogo stick.
I can only imagine that had Bob been driving around here in the UK listening to records on a portable record player, the only thing he would have learned would have been a ‘stutter’ when he spoke.
The second thing – and the most important thing – I wanted to talk about is the power of listening to what successful people have to say.
When you listen to what ‘wealthy’ and ‘successful’ people have to say, you have a far greater chance of success yourself!
Fortunately, in this day and age, we no longer need to take a wind-up portable record player and records with us, we now have access to podcasts.
Podcasts are wonderful because they are simply audio recordings that are stored online that are easily accessible by everyone.
You can listen to podcasts on your iPhone / Smartphone while you go for a walk, ride public transport, go for a run, workout in the gym, do the housework, or relax on the sofa with a brew.
You can access and listen to podcasts anywhere and everywhere.
There are thousands of podcasts available today covering all kinds of topics including sports, health, business, politics, copywriting and marketing.
If there is anything you want to learn more about, there is a podcast about it.
It is one of the most exciting developments of the new online economy.
No longer do you need to carry a bulky Walkman or Discman with you (remember those?), or have your pockets filled with spare batteries, cassette tapes or CDs. You simply plug your earphones into your phone, go to your favorite podcasts online (or through an app), and listen.
There is a whole pool of success and self-development podcasts to listen to which will help reprogram your subconscious mind to accept and achieve success in your life.
Including this one:
It’s a sad fact of life that the majority of people listen to bad news more than they listen to what successful people have to say.
Most of the population will read newspapers, listen to the news on the radio, talk to others about the news and watch it on television or online.
Very few people listen to or watch what successful people say or do.
Those who do, generally become successful.
It’s no coincidence that so many people who spend their lives focusing on the news and living from one drama to the next are not as successful as they could be or would like to be.
They are constantly filling their heads with negative information which has a detrimental effect on their actions and state of mind.
What you listen to the most… is what you are likely to become.
So it makes sense to switch off the bad news and listen to successful people instead if you want to become successful yourself.
You need to become the ‘Gatekeeper’ to your own mind.
You have to become aware of what you are watching and listening to on a regular basis and make sure that is what you NEED to be hearing and seeing.
IT’S – THAT – IMPORTANT!
Listening to what you enjoy is great, but if you want to be successful, then listening to what you enjoy may be holding you back.
What you NEED to listen to and what you enjoy listening to are two completely separate things.
I’m not saying that you cannot and should not listen to music or radio, but if you want to become successful and change your life in any shape or form, you need to swap enjoyment for learning.
At least have a healthy balance of the two.
By all means, listen to music and radio now and then, but your main focus should be on learning and reprogramming your subconscious and you can only do that by listening to the things you NEED to hear.
If you have a dog and walk it every day or if you walk to work every day and listen to music every time, why not mix it up so that you either listen to a podcast on the way there or music on the way back?
Or maybe you do a podcast one day then music the next.
If you walked to and from work five days a week and it took you 30 minutes each way, that is five hours of learning time.
Five hours of reprogramming your subconscious.
Five hours of changing your belief systems.
Five hours of stoking your fire for success and amplifying your desire to succeed.
Five hours a week for 48 weeks of the year would give you 240 hours of learning time.
240 hours to develop new skills, and knowledge and completely reprogram your mind for the better.
It Works… Just Ask Your Local Conspiracy NutJob!
Have you ever wondered what makes a person become a terrorist or a complete conspiracy nutjob?
It’s hours and hours and hours of listening to the same old information.
These people spend a large portion of their time repeatedly listening to the same ideas until it becomes their habitual thinking.
It becomes their belief system.
If they are not listening or reading about it, they are talking with other people about it.
They spend their lives in an ‘echo chamber’ of the same information.
It’s the same messages on a constant loop.
The repetition programs their subconscious and ultimately increases their desire and motivation for whatever it is that they want to achieve which drives them to take the necessary action to make it happen.
This is what you should be doing if you want to become successful.
You need to create your own ‘echo chamber’ of success.
You should be listening to those who are already successful.
You should be listening to those who are teaching the things you want and NEED to know.
You should be listening to only the things which will lead you to the success you desire and deserve.
This is why podcasts are such a wonderful thing.
They are available to anyone and they are easy to access… but the information they contain and the potential they have to change your future is immeasurable.
I recommend listening to at least one podcast a day.
Just one hour of learning each day can amplify your knowledge and efforts beyond your expectations.
Give it a try today; you might be surprised at what you’ll learn and what happens to your life.
A good place to start is with the podcast we publish here: The Internet Marketing Podcast. Why now have a listen to one of our recent episodes or subscribe for updates each time a new Podcast is released?
