Ah, Tom - you've discovered my unconscious commitment to flying under the Wiki! 

Many thanks, Barbara!

love and welcome,
michael

We did, Anja - in this instance it was about cashFlow, not cash!

love,
michael

I walk between two worlds one as  a Jedi and one as a fortune cookie- its an interesting balancing act lol   

Be careful out there - you might get eaten alive... 

Thank you both!  (Looking for the icon with the one sided smile but this is the best I can do...      )

love,
michael

Thanks for that, Maggie - it stays for now! 

love,
michael

Thank you so much, Neil!

love,
michael

Hey, Lenny -

That's definitely a first as a comparison, but a lovely illustration of the point! 

love and thanks,
michael

Thank you, Imaginer - happy, happy new year to you!

love,
michael

Fascinating, Nick - I've convinced myself that it was Gauguin, but the article's an interesting one!

love,
michael

Thank you, Natalie - and you're welcome!

Nina and the kids and I are very excited, and I'm personally excited that it came from just three questions - "What would have to happen?", "What would I have to do?", and "Will I do it?"

Thinking about it a bit deeper, the three questions speak to the first three stages of creation - opening up to the possibility, taking ownership of/responsibility for the result, and committing to having it show up!

love,
michael

[fantastic, Fantastic, FANTASTIC NEWS!]

.


just reporting back...
false alarm - clean bill of health!!

learning to eat better, and getting more exercise.



.

fantastic, Fantastic, FANTASTIC NEWS!
with love,
michael

Hey, all -

So, a bit of a long one (and perhaps a bit dry), but Nina and I got a call from our accountant on Friday to say that if we were able to put $46,000 into a retirement account by the 15th we'd be eligible for about a $20,000 or so refund on our taxes from last year.  Which was exciting and frustrating as we didn't happen to have $46,000 lying around!

Pre-possibility game I would have either grumbled or borrowed, but we wanted to try something different so we asked ourselves the questions and realized that while "we could never do that", we did have the money in our kids college funds.

A few more questions later we got to the point of recognizing that if we knew we could replenish the funds AND the penalties for early withdrawals didn't offset the tax savings, we would do it.  So we figured out how to do that and because the funds had actually been losing money, there was no penalty for early withdrawal.  (thanks, economy!  )

Next challenge - there was no time to guarantee the money would get from their college funds to our checking account in time.  So we asked the possibility questions of the woman from the investment company and she figured it out for us!

Final challenge - on the day, $5000 of the funds hadn't cleared.  A few more questions, a few more answers, and we now have an extra $46K in retirement funds and an extra $20K or so to add to the kids college funds.

We've decided that we like this game very much... 

Wow - that's one of the most thorough and insightful reviews I've ever read - thank you, James!

Would you be open to posting it on Amazon?

love and thanks,
michael

Loving you, Tom - please keep us posted or ignore us completely - whichever contributes more to your returning to peace! 

Fantastic, Anja -

And remember, all we're doing here is practicing possibilities!

No need to actually get all practical and successful (unless you actually want to...  )

love,
michael

You're welcome, Ritz!

Heard a beautiful speech about how to use your minutes from Jimmy Valvano, a college basketball coach who died of Cancer in the early 1990's.

The bit that jumped out at me was this:

To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have      something special.

You can watch the whole speech at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuoVM9nm42E&feature=player_embedded

Happy spending,
michael

Thanks, Tom!

love,
michael

Hey, all -

When the forums began many years ago (OK, so just a few years ago!  ) I envisioned it as a positive place where geniuses (that means you) and emerging voices in all walks of life could come for community, coaching, and a few smiles and giggles along the way.

I think we provided that for several years, and as my attention has been drawn to other projects and things like Facebook and Twitter have taken over the airwaves, participation in the forum has been reduced to the point where I'm questioning the value of keeping it running.

Not because it costs me money or anything like that - it just means one more place to check in with (or feel guilty about not checking in with) in an already full internet community calendar.

So...

Would you like the forums kept up?
Would you like to be part of revitalising them and bringing them back to life?
Do you have ideas for where we could go from here?

I am now on http://twitter.com/michael_neill and we'll keep expanding the blog, but I'd love to hear back from you as well!

With love and thanks,
michael

Hey, Tom -

No more than a thousand, though if the program is as cool as I think it's going to be we may well do it again!

And of course, the beauty of creating the impossible is in doing everything you can to create it without any downside if you don't - like being the underdog in the biggest sporting event in your life!

Happy exploring,
michael

That's wonderful, Electra - thank you so much for taking the time to listen and also to write!

love,
michael

Hey, Karen -

Nice to see you back on the forums!

I'm not actually sure about the copyright issue - I'm sure there is one, and I know that some people will police their copyright a lot more vigorously than others.

My two rules of thumb if I'm quoting people in books or tips:

1. If I can (i.e. if they're alive!) I will seek permission directly

2. Always attribute as accurately as you can and spell their name right! 

Can you post any of your designs here on the forums?

love,
michael

Hey, Ahmad -

Richard Bandler once said that 'There are people all over the world stuck at various levels of my personal development.'   

While I stand by what I've written in my first books, my work and I have both continued learning and about 18 months ago, we made a quantum leap together into a new way of seeing and talking with people about their lives that gets even better results even faster (and more effortlessly) than before.

Supercoach: 10 Secrets to Transform Anyone's Life is my first coding of the new work that I'm doing.  While some of the ideas will be familiar to those of you who regularly listen to the radio show and read the tips, I've put it together in the form of 10 coaching sessions with me so that you can go through it (and review it) at your own pace.

Hopefully, you will find it as useful to read as I found it enjoyable to write!

love,
michael

[The Rainbow Machine - Tales From a Neurolinguist's Journal]

Hi Everyone!

This is just a shameless and opportunitistic plug for my book, "The Rainbow Machine - Tales From a Neurolinguist's Journal."

http://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Machine-Tales-Neurolinguists-Journal/dp/0911226443/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232546230&sr=8-1

Allow me to add my quote, Andrew!

'The Rainbow Machine' is like a trip back through time to a place where therapists actually get results and patients really can get better.  Or is that a trip forward in time?  No matter - Andrew Austin's book is filled with some of the best stories I've read in years about how to use NLP effectively with some of the people who need it the most!

Hope everything is going well,
michael

[Do the thing and you will have the power!]

Hey, Lesley -

Any updates on your story?

One of my favorite quotes on courage comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Do the thing and you will have the power!
Happy exploring,
michael

Hey, Anja -

I got that stat off a wikipedia article (dangerous, I know), but must admit I can't get the math to work out at all - I keep getting $6, which I'm sure is wrong! 

Anyone got a different reference?

love,
michael

Hey, Annie B. -

What part of the world is "the middle of nowhere" in?

love,
michael

Thanks, Anja - haven't quite decided when we're going to bring the book out but this is exactly why I wrote it - to shift beliefs and reduce the pressures that get in the way of two people loving one another and treating each other with kindness!

love,
michael

Hey, all -

I don't really do resolutions (old year or new year) but I do like to begin each year with some guidelines and paradigm shifts to set each new year off in a slightly different direction to the last.

Here are some of the one's I've been playing with so far:

*Live in the deepest, most wonderful feeling you can find and follow your wisdom
*Act as you would if you had no language
*All good things come to and through a quiet mind

Happy exploring,
michael

Happy new year, Neil!

love,
michael

Thanks, Anja!

I am sitting in the office with my dogs, drinking the first coffee of the new year and feeling gratitude for last year's me switching to water a couple of hours before midnight... 

Happy new year to you all - I am excited both to create wonderful things in the coming months and to create the space for wonderful things I have not yet imagined to come to life!

love,
michael

Hey, Dave -

Would love an update if you've got one for us!

love,
michael

Now I have a question:
What's the difference between the Release Technique and the Sedona Method?

I would qualify Jay's answer slightly, Ahmad!

Both the Sedona method and the Release technique are directly derived from the work of Lester Levenson, but they are taught in sufficiently different ways that I've found most people have a more positive response to one than the other.

In most basic terms, I would say the Release technique is taught as a more somatic, body-based process, where the Sedona method is taught as a slightly more mind-based process.  Both are excellent, and the main teachers (Larry Crane for the Release technique and Hale Dwoskin for the Sedona method) are both masters at their craft.

Happy exploring,
michael

I've always been intrigued by questions of life purpose - firstly at what chunk size do you have something consistent enough to be your purpose throughout your life (as opposed to my purpose in this moment, which is to tickle my curiosity and inspire some responses)?

Second, what do you do differently once you know your purpose?  How is your life better (or not!) when you know your purpose in life?

Any thoughts welcome!

Hey, Sam -

Are you able to post any examples of your cards here for us to look at?

It's sometimes easier to get inspired about what we can see outside our heads than about the pictures we make up inside them! 

love,
michael

Thanks, Larry!

I have done a few collections of some of the early tips that we used to sell - we're thinking about making them available again, though of course you can always find them in the Solutions Cafe.

And some of the more recent ones show up in my books - I often use the tips as a chance to try out material and see what gets the most feedback and makes the biggest positive difference to people, so please do let me know when something really "hits the spot"!

love,
michael

[Introduction]

Good to see you back! How is the new book coming?

Delivered it to the publishers on Monday - Yaaaaaay! lwill keep tinkering with it for the next 6 weeks or so, and it should be out in the UK in late February!

Here's a little excerpt from the introduction...

Introduction

Whether you want to make more money, build your business, start a family, or save the world, chances are that your approach up until now has been primarily practical - that is, focused on what it is that you want and what it is you think you need to do in order to make it happen.

In the meantime, you seek to balance the hard work you put in to achieve your goals with as many pleasurable experiences as you can afford along the way, be they in the guise of sitting at home watching telly or nights out with friends, weekends away with the family or away on your own, retail therapy, trips to the gym or the salon and annual or semi-annual holidays to somewhere warmer than wherever you are right now.   

The problem with this 'work hard, play hard' philosophy is that it often results in our alternating between working ourselves into the ground and, in the words of Neil Postman, 'amusing ourselves to death'. This ill fated either/or approach to creating life/work balance misses something essential - that a life with less punishment requires far fewer rewards.

If you're a reasonably progressive thinker, you're probably also aware that one of the reasons you want what you want is that you believe it will in some way enhance your experience of being alive.

In other words, if you really want to have a more enjoyable life, you're going to have to find a more enjoyable way of getting there...

love,
michael

Yes, let's talk about other ways
(Still I'm interested who really did "Today's experiment". Even only 10% of it... )

I did get one e-mail from a minister who said he was going to wear a chicken suit to work but his boss wouldn't let him - not sure which boss he was referring to! 

love,
michael

My son actually acts as my 'complaint alarm clock'.  I had thought this had become a habit for me until my son complained that every time he walked by Nina and I playing scrabble (our tea time ritual) all he ever heard was the two of us complaining about what lousy letters we had! 

btw, another fun way of playing with this in a family (courtesy of Tony Robbins) is instituting 'the whine of the day'.  Yesterday's was "why do I have to go to bed so early", done in an appropriately whiney voice.  After declaring it the whine of the day it takes all the fun out of it by making it funny - a variation on what Adler called 'spitting in the soup'...

Happy exploring,
michael

Got it in one, Tom - beautifully put!

love,
michael

What is the NLP method of developing a conscious healthy relationship with money? I have heard the suggestion to develop a money story; what is the NLP equivalent to developing a healthy money story?

Thanks,
Electra

Hey, Electra -

I actually find that getting rid of (or at least diminishing your belief in) your old "money story" is even more powerful than actively creating a new one.

You can do this through things like "The Work" (www.thework.org), "The Abundance Course" (www.releasetechnique.com), and NLP. 

One thing I like to do with clients is have them right down their habitual money worry thoughts and give them a name, i.e. "the bag lady" thought, the "girl who let down her parents and wasted her education thought", etc.

That often makes it easier to "spot the thought" and not get caught up in thinking it's real!

Happy exploring,
michael

Hmmm... you'd rather not go.

Is it true?
Can you really know that it's true?
How do you feel when you tell yourself that?
Who would you be without that story?
 

If you do come, please come and say "hello!"

love,
michael

Thanks, Electra!

love,
michael

Fantastic, Dajo!

I have noticed this many times with that exercise.  One client who received a $100 bill within an hour of completing it still carries the money around as an "affirmation bookmark"...

Happy abundance,
michael

Hey, Annie -

This is a wonderful thing - I'm delighted to hear your story!

love,
michael

Hi Kind People!

I haven't posted here for a while so I've been having fun getting up to date. In the meantime I have written an e-book for people who have decided to do something about their finances and then wonder what to do next. It's called Master Your Money and then something. ..and I've created a survey to decide what the other bit is.
The link is below. All I'm asking is that you choose from ONE title and if you wish, you can then sign up for a bonus report (37 plus ways to spend less and save more without suffering!)
I'll let you know when the results are in (woo-hoo!)
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=P9YKS_2bNIhFZOb7_2bRBBxUng_3d_3d

Thanks a million again...
Anne

Hey, Anne -

Of the five...

1. Master Your Money: A simple 5 step plan to help you save more and spend less without suffering!

2. Master Your Money: A simple 5 step plan to set yourself up for financial success by saving more and spending less

3. Master Your Money: Free your financial gremlins in 5 easy steps!

4. Master Your Money: Learn how to easily save more and spend less

5. Master Your Money: Set yourself up for financial success by taming your money gremlins - easily save more and spend less

I think number one is my favourite of those listed, but had a few other possibles for you...

• A simple 5 step plan for financial success
• Effortless ways to spend less, save more, and create financial freedom
• A struggle-free plan for financial success

The one I would definitely avoid is "Free your financial gremlins in 5 easy steps!"  Sounds terrifying... I wouldn't want those gremlins running around free - someone might feed them after midnight... 

love,
michael

 Money / Status & Power / Challenge / Enjoyment / Appreciation / Involvement / A sense of Worth  Which methods have you used to successfully motivate a member of your success team?  Any other thoughts on this series of tips?

Thanks, Electra!

love,
michael

Hey, Richie (and Anja) -

I've been talking with Paul (McKenna) about my recording some trance stuff - I do have a guided meditation on the "Effortless Success" CD's but thus far have not put out anything else particularly trancey.

Consider it under real consideration, and if you remind me you will of course get a free copy for the suggestion!

love,
michael

Well, I'll be there! 

I'll ask Chris Morris to drop by to comment as well - he's organizing the event...

See you there,
michael