Happy New Year's everybody! The New Year brings an opportunity for a fresh new start...at anything you want.

Watch this video by Josh Kaufman at a TEDx event. Josh isn't a hypnotist, no more than you or I were when we started down this path, however he is a masterful re-framer.

Watch this and then we'll talk some more:

The First 20 hours

Are you back? Great! Let's continue.

There is a prevailing myth or misconception that it takes a very long time to become good at anything, however the reality is that it only takes a short amount of time to become "good enough" to be effective at anything...approximately 20 hours, and often times, much less than that. As Josh mentions in his video, there is a 4 step approach to this 20 hours of focused training:

1.Deconstruct the skill. That means break it down into a bunch of smaller, easy to learn skills.

2.Learn enough to self-correct. This means have resources available, books, mentors, other students, that provide enough guidance to help you know when you are making mistakes and how to correct yourself.

3.Remove Practice Barriers. Dedicate time to practice in a place where you can be focused and uninterrupted.

4.Practice at least 20 hours. That's roughly 45 minutes a day for a month.

I have been using this process to teach my students for decades. For martial arts, computer programming, hypnosis, body building, art, communications, coaching and management skills, and a myriad of other things. The process works...and it works very well.

Many of you have been through my trainings. Some trainings are for a few hours, others are 2 days, and yet you were all able to learn new skills effectively and easily. Many of you came out of the training with such mastery of your new skills that it was hard to believe that you hadn't been doing it for 10 years already. However it amazes me how many of people, once they leave a training, don't follow up with more practice, or just go out and do what they have already learned and demonstrated that they know how to do. Why is that?

I think Josh states it best in his video...

"The major barrier to skill acquisition isn't intellectual...it's emotional"

Basically...it's fear.

...fear of failure

...fear of success

...fear of rejection

...fear of ridicule

...fear of resistance

Yet, take a moment and survey your life. Think of all of the things you have learned in your lifetime. And out of all of those skills, think of all of the things you learned almost instantly. When you see two children playing together and making up a game...how long does it take for all of them to understand the game and the rules, and then just have fun? Seconds...minutes? Definitely not hours, days, weeks, months or years. You hear a snappy tune on the radio...how long does it take you to learn the song well enough to sing along?

What's different about these situations and developing your skills as a hypnotist? Nothing really, except there's no fear in learning a new game, or song, or hobby, you do these things because they make you happy; Because they fire up some passion within you. You become driven inside to get better and better, not for someone else's approval, only for you.

The Houston Area Hypnosis Group was established to provide you a way to apply the 4 steps to learning outlined above, and if you want to accelerate the process, you don't have to wait until Monday nights to practice, you can do hypnosis (especially conversational hypnosis) anywhere, anytime, anyplace with anybody.

Do you want to get on the road to mastery? Got 20 hours?

Michael C. White, C.Ht.