Don't Give Up!

Hello Speed Readers,

By now, some of you are in the flow of the Speed Reading process and digesting books, articles, reports, and websites easily. Others of you are still wrestling with your conditioned expectations and working on getting used to how different it feels to learn this new way. Be patient, it will happen for you if you let it.

Still others of you will have hit a roadblock and may not have practiced for quite some time. For you, these well intentioned emails may represent guilt and even shame that you aren't where others are. It is important to realize that there is nothing wrong with you or the process. One cannot underestimate the power of decades of conditioning that makes you want to do things the way you always have. In fact, the process may actually be working but your brain is really good at trying to convince you that it doesn't!

Some of you may just not have had the time to practice or there have just been too many distractions to get going. Now some of that resistance is real while the rest is that conditioned part of your brain again, which is really good at coming up with excuses. But whatever the reason you may have stalled, here are some ideas to get you back on track.

1.    Don't be afraid or discouraged

I talked about this in a previous post. The late Gabriel Roth who was an amazing author, dancer, and musician, said, "I find that virtually everyone is locked in fear; people are afraid of everything - losing their job, losing their lover, losing their life; they're afraid of success, afraid of being too happy, afraid of the truth, afraid of feeling, afraid of moving, of changing." Unreleased fear stiffens the jaw, contracts the forehead and locks the knees. And it stifles learning, keeps us from enjoying our work, and sabotages relationships.

Roth says, "Fear writes its signature all over the body, but we are all so used to it we've become desensitized to the loud-and-clear message of our body language. And this pervasive fear simply compounds itself; it paralyzes our life energy, seizes up our feelings. We're so afraid of what we are going to lose, so painfully attached to what we have, that we numb ourselves into a living death to shield us from the pain of real living. By clinging to life as we have it, we deny ourselves a vibrant present and future."

Fear keeps us from learning new things, even those things that could change our lives.

When the immobilizing energy of unexpressed fear is released, fear can be transformed into what Roth calls its "natural dynamic partner," excitement. When we give appropriate attention and expression to our fears as they arise, then the pent up energy and the paralysis can be released. Roth says, "Fear properly channeled yields wide-awake engagement."

Experiment with this. Look at your own fear response. Is it in proper proportion to the circumstances? Are you adequately and appropriately expressing your fears? Are you afraid of those things that could actually help you?  

When learning something new and you feel that familiar resistance or hesitance, always ask yourself: "Really now! What harm could it do to try?!"

2.    Start up again.

 If it has been some time since you practiced, go to the Audio Tips section of the website and listen to the very first audio - "Getting Back on Track." This gives you a quick review.

3.    Review your PowerPoint charts from the class.

4.    Now - Grab a book or article and JUST DO IT!

There is no mystery or trick to this. The only obstacles you feel, the only resistances you encounter, is solely based on the conditioned fear response you have built up to change and transformation. It's not your fault! Most of us experience the same thing, since so many of us have had uninspiring schooling that, at an early age, helped make us resistant to learning new things. And you have used an inefficient system for reading for so many years that it is hard for your conditioned mind to let it go. But you absolutely can do this. You have the power within you to create any life you want. 

5.    Keep practicing all the steps of the process with everything you read.

Remember, you can call or write me anytime for advice and if it has been less than 5 years since you have taken the class, you can take it again for FREE!

Apply these principles to anything in your life you want to accomplish. There need be no limits on your dreams. Go for it!

Jackie

Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
President, Center for Lifelong Learning
PO Box 77316 | Seattle, WA 98177 | USA
Cell: (206) 755-9272
FAX: (206) 494-7689
jackie@readfast.org
http://www.readfast.org