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This FREE monthly e-letter will show up in your email every month. It will contain information you will find helpful in making your life easier. We won't overload you. You'll get bits of information that we've found to be very effective. We'll also share some stories from our travels and seminars that will be informative, fun, and useful. We always welcome your thoughts and ideas at john-morgan@cox.net 

You can also visit us on the web. http://JohnMorganSeminars.net

April and May were busy months for us traveling through Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York and Ohio. You find out interesting things when you travel. Take Findlay, Ohio for example. They are known as Flag City USA. They are also the home of Tell Taylor who wrote the song Down By The Old Mill Stream. In nearby Marion, Ohio, they host the Popcorn Festival each September. It's such a pleasure to find out about the places we visit in addition to meeting a lot of new people. It was also a thrill and an honor for me to be a guest on Ed McMahon's LifeStyles Live! radio program in May. Ed's program is heard on 250 radio stations in the United States and around the world on the Armed Forces Radio Network.

Here's a story from my forthcoming book THE SUCCESS TRIANGLE (Winter 2005). It's from when I was 6 years old and it illustrates how the same stimulus can generate a different response. 

When I was in the first grade, I attended a Christmas party my father's union had for their members and families. I remember going up and sitting on Santa's lap and describing all the things I wanted for Christmas. It was a great sensation knowing I had talked to Santa, getting assurance he would bring the toys I requested. We went to the party again the following year. There was Santa again. Only this time, he began to resemble my father's friend, Mr. Ferguson. Even though I sat on his lap and told him what I wanted, I did not have the same sensation I had the year before. By the time I reached third grade, I no longer sat on Santa's lap at the Christmas Party but encouraged my little brother to do so. I could see the sugarplums dancing in my brother's head, and that brought a smile to my face. By the time I was a teenager, my younger sisters were going to the Christmas party and sitting on Mr. Ferguson's lap. I could see their delight knowing Santa had heard their requests. It was another pleasurable moment for me.

No one ever told me Mr. Ferguson was playing Santa Claus. He wore the same costume every year. He was the same person every year. He was the stimulus. My response changed from glad, to unsure, to vicariously pleasurable without me even knowing how the change happened. My brain had the ability to update my response to the very same stimulus and so does yours. It begins with noticing you are running a pattern. Keeping with the dieting example, let’s pretend you had a filling dinner and 15 minutes later you’re in front of the refrigerator or cabinet wondering what looks good. Everyone watching this movie knows you are not physically hungry but yet your brain is running a “what looks good?” pattern. The pattern may stem all the way back to your childhood. That’s not important. What is most important at this juncture is to notice you’re running a pattern regardless of the origin. You may just say to yourself, “I’m having the ‘what looks good conversation’ in my head.” Or, have the recognition that “I’m having the picture of an ice cream sundae pop into my mind.” This recognition is the first step and sometimes the only step needed to update the pattern. If you start recognizing this pattern every time it runs, it will run less often and eventually stop. It takes some practice and patience and the results seem magical. There is no need to judge the pattern; only notice it.