By Lynn | February 16, 2007
Collages are a very low-tech/high return method of advertising to ourselves. I think one reason they are so effective is that the time you devote to cutting and pasting your collage is a moving meditation on your goal. Collages also employ the basic principles that many of our methods are based on:
* Find images of what your life will look like when the goal you want has been achieved.
* Place those images in a place where you will see them a lot - like on your computer or refrigerator.
We can display pictures collections to ourselves in many other ways - for example a screensaver or widget slideshow. However we choose to display them, innowen’s article reminds us that it’s very powerful to create a collection of images around a specific theme - especially when they show us concrete details about the future we want to achieve. As she says, showing ourselves these pictures can make the difference between staying on the sofa or getting up to achieve our dreams.
By Lynn | February 12, 2007
Google’s widget engine is buried inside a larger application called Google Desktop. Google Desktop is an application whose primary purpose is to index every document, photo and email message on your computer, and make that material searchable for you. Regardless of whether you think making all of your documents searchable is a good idea, I recommend that you consider installing Google Desktop just to get the Google widget engine. It’s that good.
By Lynn | February 5, 2007
Desktop widgets and gadgets are really useful for personal advertising because they can display your ads in your peripheral vision while you are working. One of best methods I’ve discovered for advertising to myself is to set up a widget with a little slideshow of rotating pictures and position it in the corner of my screen. I also have another one with rotating bits of text.
By Lynn | January 29, 2007
We are wired to notice when the visual landscape changes, since that shift may be providing information about something that is coming to eat us. In the natural world, change often equals danger. Once we have determined that everything is OK, we no longer need to pay as much attention to our surroundings until something changes again.
Displaying a rotating slideshow on my computers is one of my favorite methods for advertising to myself, because it is both easy and effective. I put digital pictures in a folder on my computer (or a remote location), and then use a variety of different methods to show them to myself for a few minutes one at a time. Each time the picture changes, it captures my attention for a moment until my brain registers what it is.
By Lynn | January 19, 2007
The thing that really made the refrigerator ads pop is adding a huge, adorable photo of our dog. What that did was move the vacation photos from foreground to background, and I think that’s good. Instead of the conscious mind weighing the pros and cons of vacation logistics, time off, air travel, etc - in other words, all of the things that prevent us from going on vacations in the first place - I just look at the refrigerator and laugh. Seriously - who could not love that mug? Of course in my peripheral vision when I’m feeling so open and happy are the photos of the beach and camper.
By Lynn | January 12, 2007
Last week I wrote about making a virtual model of improvements I want to make to my front yard, and about how spending time “there” has helped me experience a future in which those changes have already happened. I also saved a picture of the model as my computer’s desktop background, and since then I have seen that picture many times each day.
A few days later I had an experience that demonstrates my unconscious mind is already busy transforming my exterior reality to resemble that model…I find these results to be exciting because they demonstrate to me that my behavior seems to be influenced by my ad campaigns, even when I am not consciously aware of it.
By Lynn | January 7, 2007
Computers can dramatically increase our ability to imagine a desired outcome. That computer background is not just a digital picture on a screen. It’s a frequent reminder of pleasant time I have spent hanging out in a convincing visualization of my desired future. The changes I want to implement in my yard have already occurred in my imagination – and those changes are being massively reinforced by the imagery I have created for myself. Apparently that’s a really powerful combination.
By Lynn | January 1, 2007
Wow. I recently finished making my New Year collage. What an amazing project. I had not done one for a few years, and had forgotten just how powerful the process can be. Overall, I can say I do not recall ever feeling so clearly focused on my goals. Each day I feel motivated to do something about at least one of them.
By Lynn | December 18, 2006
Because the sense of starting a new cycle is so strong for me at this time, I often think about what I would like to accomplish in the next year. I have made a collage several times to remind me of those goals. It’s a lot of fun and an extremely effective way to key in on what you want to manifest in your life.
The process of building a tangible representation will cause you to define and focus on your goals in a very concentrated way. Your collage then helps both your conscious and unconscious mind remain aware of the things you said you want to do for the rest of the year. It is a remarkably powerful technique.
By Lynn | December 14, 2006
Some of the ideas we want to remind ourselves about lend themselves better to text than images. For example, maybe you want to get in the habit of giving yourself positive messages. In the last article I discussed how to compose an effective text ad for yourself. Now let’s combine that technique with a little technology.
Backpack is an online service with several nice features, including the ability to send text messages to your email or cell phone. The free version of Backpack will let you schedule up to 10 messages at a time.
By Lynn | December 10, 2006
The beauty of the Post-It note is the stark simplicity of the medium. Because producing and deploying your ads is so simple with this method, it offers the opportunity to focus solely on your marketing message. The centrality of message can be eclipsed in other, sexier, delivery systems, but not here. The zen of the Post-It forces us to look square in the face the question: What is my message? And that’s what makes this technique so valuable. Because even when we are enthralled by the delicious glitter of technology, message is all there ever is, really.
By Lynn | December 7, 2006
The campaign to get you to buy Christmas gifts combines several strategies that are enormously effective, Together, they are able to create a mass trance that lasts for two months and causes people to do crazy things like go into debt, wait in line outside big box stores at 4am, and buy chia pets.
Because the pitches for these holiday dollars are so intense and in your face, the holiday season is an especially good time to examine advertising for clues about how we might persuade ourselves to do our own bidding. Let’s deconstruct some of the Christmas marketing strategies to see if there is anything we can use in our own ad campaigns.
By Lynn | December 4, 2006
Here in the northern hemisphere it is the darkest, coldest season of the year. Bears hibernate during this season. Honey bees retreat into the hive and huddle together for survival. Many other insects simply die. Trees lose their foliage as the sap flows deep inside. The tops of other plants die off completely for many months while growth only occurs underground. Most living species in this ecosystem respond to the absence of light and the plummeting temperatures by drawing inward for a long period of quiet regeneration. Except humans, who plan parties, decorate their homes, and flock like manic lemmings to shopping malls.
By Lynn | November 30, 2006
It turned out that for Jenny, the most important part of the whole scenario was taking the pictures. She wanted to take them with a very particular high-end camera, and did not have the money to buy it. The more we talked about it, it sounded like buying that camera felt like the obstacle between where she is now and where she’d like to be.
By Lynn | November 26, 2006
For many knowledge workers the background image on our computer desktop is something we return to many times each day. The stock patterns and nature photos that come with your computer are nice, but one of the easiest ways to advertise to yourself is to take control of that image.
By Lynn | November 22, 2006
The problem I have with advertising is not the fact that it exists, but that it’s distracting. The ratio of messages that benefit advertisers to the ratio that benefit us is wildly unfavorable to us. In fact, the ratio is not just unfavorable; it’s a shut-out.
By Lynn | November 20, 2006
Our refrigerator is in a very central location. I pass by it to go anywhere else in the house. In fact, you can see it from the room where my partner and I spend our evenings. And of course I visit it many times a day to get food. So this location has a lot going for it in terms of message placement. Consciously or unconsciously, whatever is up there is going to get a lot of play in our attention.
By Lynn | November 18, 2006
One of the easiest methods I use to advertise to myself is to simply print a picture of what I want. The internet is a rich source of images for our personal ad campaigns. Do you want to work somewhere? Download their logo. Go somewhere? Find some great photos of that place. Own something? It’s easy to get a picture of it off of a website. Read something? Grab a copy of the book cover from Amazon.com.
By Lynn | November 16, 2006
It seems that people choose to remind themselves of connections to others and fun times they have had in the past. And of course there is nothing wrong with that. But let me propose a slight tweak: in addition to reminding yourself of fun times from the past, what would happen if you showed yourself a picture of something fun you’d like to do in the future?
By Lynn | November 14, 2006
Over the course of the last 6 months I have deployed about two dozen ad campaigns, ranging from reminding myself about things I want, to behavior changes, to really large long-term goals. Nine of them have definitely worked. A few were duds and others are still in process, but there have been some really impressive successes. Let me give you an example of a success.
By Lynn | November 12, 2006
Several years ago I began to wonder if there might be a way I could turn around all of the effort advertisers have put into conditioning me to be receptive to their marketing and use that training to my advantage. What would happen if I could control even a few of the messages I receive every day? What if there was a way I could insert advertisements to myself into my environment?
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