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THE BODY OF YOUR DREAMS TELESEMINAR UNEDITED TRANSCRIPTS

PART 1: MOTIVATION AND MINDSET

TOM VENUTO WITH KACPER POSTAWSKI

WWW.BURNTHEFATMP3.COM

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: Alright, everybody. Welcome to the four-part teleseminar with

Tom Venuto, master bodybuilder. This is Teleclass #1. We’re going to be talking about

Mindset today. Welcome, Tom. How are you doing?

TOM VENUTO: Excellent, thanks.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Great. We’re going to open up the line just for a second and

say hello to everybody. So once you hear the beep, say hello. Hello, everybody.

[CALLERS SAY HELLO]

I really want to acknowledge you guys for being here today. We decided to do this tele-

class together, because we wanted to deliver something truly outstanding to those of

you who really want to take your health and your body to the next level over the next

year, and over the next 90 days, which would be even better. So before we start, I want

to tell you exactly what our mission today is, and our mission for the four-part telecast,

so you’ll be joining us for the next three to four days. Our mission really is, as you’ve

read on our letter, on our website, is to give the strategies, the mental tools and the

other tools you need to really take your body to a level that you, before, didn’t think was

achievable. You’ve tried before and it didn’t work, or maybe you already have, but you’d

really like to maintain. So without further ado, I want to invite Tom to this call, and ask

him first, for those of you who don’t know him-- Tom, we’re going to ask you, what are

you really about and give us a quick bio of you, and a quick story of how you got here

today, and what it is you really do. We’d like to find out.

TOM VENUTO: Thanks, Kacper. Well, I have been bodybuilding and working out now

for 22 years. I’m 36 years young right now, and I first picked up a barbell when I was 14

years old, after I saw Arnold in a movie, “Conan and the Barbarians” and I saw him on

the screen and I could not believe a human being could look like that, and I was

absolutely fascinated with the idea that we could take our bodies and sculpt them and

mold them to look however we wanted to. And the very next day after I first saw him, I

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went out and bought his book and I started on his training program. I have never

stopped since. I haven’t taken more than one week off in 22 years.

Over that period, I’ve competed in bodybuilding 26 times. In the beginning, it started

being about me, seeing how far I could push myself. But after a while, you start doing

this and you start to feel the need and the urge to share what you’ve learned with

others. So it was only natural when I went to college, I got a degree in Exercise

Science. I went out and got two certifications and I went to work in health clubs as a

personal trainer. Then shortly after that, I started getting involved in a something a little

bit different. I started to do personal coaching, because that allowed me to work with

more people all over the country, all over the world actually. By telephone, by long

distance, coaching people long distance, where I would design their nutrition and

training programs but I wasn’t actually in the gym training them.

And then, not too long ago, the Internet came out and I found that I could reach even

more people. So I took what I was teaching people in my coaching programs. I put it

into the form of a book, and then later into the form of an e-book. At that point, I was

reaching people in over 100 countries. And just last year, I made a commitment that I

would find even more ways to reach more people and to reach people in different ways.

Some people like to read. Some people are best if they’re coached in person or on the

telephone, or some people are more auditory and they want to listen. That’s what has

led us to this point and to this call right now.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Thanks for saying for that. For those of you who don’t know

Tom, his website can be found at www.BurnTheFat.com. We’re speaking with someone

today who hasn’t put down the barbell and the workout schedule since he was 14. Now

most of us, like me, can’t motivate themselves to actually start working out for one

month consistently. So this first call that we’re going to be doing, Tom and I talked about

this and Tom shared something with me that totally blew my mind. Because it is so true.

You know, everybody in all these fitness books, all the coaches, they all give you all

these strategies. How to do a nutrition plan; how to work out properly, do the special

amount of reps and repetitions; but very few people actually tell you this one critical

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aspect. And I think it’s an 80/20 rule, Tom? That we talked about. That 80% of your

success will come from 20% of what you do; and 20% of what you do in working out is

really your mindset. Again, 20% of success for your body, Tom says, all the

technicalities of it. You know, how to actually build a proper workout plan; how to get the

nutrition plan for yourself. But the 80% that most people miss is how to actually build a

mindset, so that when you’re actually in your bed and you’re warm and cozy in the

morning, you actually get up and get to the gym. How do you do it so that when you’re

at the gym, you stay motivated and a month down the road, you’re still working out? So

I wanted to ask you, Tom, why is mindset so important? Why do you have to have the

actual toolbox in your head to get that straight, before you actually go to the gym and

pick up the dumb bells?

TOM VENUTO: Well, you have to start working on the inside before you can work on

the outside. One of the biggest challenges people face sticking with a diet or an

exercise program is not the technical details. It’s just being able to get yourself to do it

and being able to get yourself to do it consistently. It’s not what you do every once in a

while. It’s what you do every single day that counts. This is one of the biggest

complaints people tell me is, “How do I stay motivated?” Motivation starts with your

mindset. Mindset is so important because it’s like the lens through which you see the

world. Two people can see the exact same situation and see two totally different things.

Two people can have the same setback. They can have the same injury. One person

sees nothing but what they can’t do and they see a setback; the other person sees a

challenge and an opportunity for growth and for learning. So it’s your mindset and your

attitude that sets the stage for either your success or your failure. And particularly, when

it comes to mindset, understanding how the subconscious part of your mind works,

because that’s where all your behavior comes from.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Exactly.

TOM VENUTO: When you’re struggling with, you know what to do. You have the “how

to” and you can’t get yourself to do it, the trouble is usually on the inside. It’s the

subconscious program. It’s negative programming and that program is controlling your

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behavior. And 99% of the things you do every day are habit and most people are just

literally on autopilot. Unfortunately, they’re using the subconscious mind in the reverse

direction and negative habits are controlling their behavior. So you begin on the inside

by putting the programming in your subconscious mind and then the behaviors start to

come out of you automatically, positive behaviors.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: And a lot of people in the self-improvement game talk a lot

about mindset, but they don’t talk about habit. One brilliant thing that Tom is going to

share with you guys today is-- He gave me a brilliant example when I was talking with

him on the phone, a few days earlier, about a torpedo on autopilot and how we’re all

really set on autopilot to believe really negative, self-destructive thoughts that actually

keep us off course. And those things actually prevent us from succeeding with our

bodies, taking our level of health to the next level. We’re going to be sharing with you

guys some stuff to help you change your programming. So with that said, let’s move on

to how to actually change our mindset to be successful with our bodies.

But before we do, I want to give you one insight, because, Tom, you made me think of

this. Any problem you have with your body, with your finances, with your relationships,

with anything in your life, any area of your life. I want you to write this down, because it

will change your life. Any problem you have is never really a problem. It’s actually a

symptom and it’s not a problem but a symptom of what’s going on underneath. It’s

exactly what Tom just said. You’ve got to start on the inside first before the outside. If

you have a lack of money in your life, it’s not a problem. There’s something inside of

you, some kind of negative programming that’s stopping you from achieving that. Is that

right, Tom? Do you agree with that?

TOM VENUTO: Absolutely. Another way to look at that is cause and effect. Everything

that’s happening in your life, from your health and your body, to your finances, your

relationships, that is an affect; and all those affects can get traced back to their causes.

And the causes are the actions and the behaviors you take, but that can be traced back

further and the true cause is your thoughts and what’s going on in your head.

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: Exactly. So Tom and I are both fans of Tony Robbins. For

those of you who have heard of him, you probably know what we’re going to be talking

about. We’re going to throwing a lot of neurological programming terms at you, but don’t

worry. We’re going to explain all of them and they’re going to serve you. The first point

we want to share with you guys is how to you set goals properly? I talked to Tom, and

he said the biggest challenge with most people who have set out to change their bodies

is they have no idea how to set goals. Now a lot of people in the self-improvement game

talk about goals all the time, and you guys must have heard of setting goals. But Tom,

what is a goal that is actually set poorly and what is a goal that’s set effectively,

purposely on target? And what’s actually the importance of setting a goal for your body?

TOM VENUTO: Well, let me start with the last thing you mentioned. Let me start with

the importance. The Importance of setting goals and setting them properly is because

that’s how you change the programming in your mind.It would help to give you a

description of the two different levels of mind, so you could understand this better.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Sure, go ahead.

TOM VENUTO: You have two parts. You have a conscious mind and a subconscious

mind (some people call it an unconscious mind). The conscious mind, that’s your

thinking. That’s the thinking logical, rational mind. When you talk to yourself during the

day, that’s your conscious mind. Below that there is a level, a much deeper level, called

the subconscious. The subconscious mind is where autonomic functions of your body

come from and where automatic behaviors are generated. It all takes place below the

surface and you don’t realize it’s happening. It’s not conscious.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: This is like the outer pilot that runs us on a daily basis.

TOM VENUTO: Exactly. On autopilot, is exactly what it is. Now most people don’t

realize that they’re running on autopilot, because it’s unconscious. If you think about

everything you do on a daily basis, the majority of all the behaviors are habits and a

habit is an action, pattern or behavior that is fixed in your subconscious mind. When you

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get up in the morning, you do certain things and it’s a routine, and you don’t have to

think about it. It’s not conscious, it’s been turned over to subconscious control. These

things include your eating behaviors all day long. Some people just reach for food

without thinking about it and they don’t think about it until afterward, and it’s like, “Why

did I do that?” The good news is you can be a slave to your habits or your habits can be

your servant. You can change the programming in your subconscious mind, but it does

not change unless you put effort into it and you do it consciously. You make an effort to

change. It’s not going to change automatically. It’s literally programming. It’s like

programming a computer, because your brain is a computer. It’s the most amazing

computer. There is no man-made computer anything like the one that’s right between

your own ears. You have to program it intentionally.

Now here’s where the goals comes in. The importance of goals is, setting goals is one

of the first steps in programming your subconscious mind. Your subconscious is kind of

peculiar in many, many different ways. When you set a goal, if you set it improperly, you

can be programming your mind for the exact opposite of what you really want. First of

all, when you set a goal, it has to be stated positively. What I mean by that is you have

to set a goal for what you want, not for what you want to avoid, not for what you want to

get rid of. Now, when we’re thinking about weight loss, what is the first thing people

usually set a goal for?

KACPER POSTAWSKI: “I would like to lose weight.”

TOM VENUTO: Right. I want to lose weight. But you didn’t say what you wanted.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: No, you just say, “I want to lose weight.” That’s really

interesting, because you’re still focusing on weight. So every single time you say, “I

want to lose weight,” you’re saying, “weight, weight, weight. I want weight.” There’s

actually a very interesting study. I think you might of heard of this, that the brain doesn’t

actually notice negative words like, “no” or “lose” or “don’t” or “not.” It just actually hears

the, “I want weight.” We’re actually saying, “I want to lose weight.” What your brain, your

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subconscious is actually receiving is, “I want weight.” So you’re constantly repeating

that to yourself.

TOM VENUTO: Yes, that’s totally true. Yeah. The brain cannot process deletion. You

also bought up another good point. The brain is also very peculiar in the way it takes

things literally in interpretation. “I want to lose weight,” and your brain could interrupt

that as “W-A-I-T.” I want to lose, “wait.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Wait. As in, “I want to wait” you know, for this thing to happen,

instead of take action. Okay?

TOM VENUTO: There’s all kinds of ambiguities. Again, you cannot mess around when it

comes to programming your mental computer and putting a target into your brain. You

need to get very, very specific about exactly what you want and you want to put it on

paper and write it down. Write down what you want to weight. Not how much you want

to get rid of. It’s okay if you begin scribbling on a piece of paper, a goal worksheet, and

the first thing you say is, “I want to lose 20 pounds.” But rephrase it to what you want to

weigh. And then once you have that down, continue to make it even more specific. The

more specific your instructions, the better your subconscious mind is going to be able to

carry them out. The more vague you are, the more you’re going to flounder.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: So Tom, why don’t we do this right now on the call? This is a

four-part process Tom is going to share with us. This is the first part, so setting goals

positively is number one. You just said it with you guys. Really making them focus. Is

there anything else we can know about setting them?

TOM VENUTO: Yeah. You’re going to put a deadline on it.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Put a deadline on it, okay.

TOM VENUTO: Yeah, there’s an old maxim, “Work always expands to fill the time

allowed.”

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: Work always expands to fill the time allowed.

TOM VENUTO: And time pressure can be very motivating. The only catch here is, when

it comes to a weight loss goal or a goal dealing with your physiology, about changing

your body, you have to set the goals intelligently. I’ve always taught to go slow, steady,

fat loss, one or two pounds a week. If you have a lot of weight to lose, it may two-and-a-

half, three pounds a week. But you need to set a goal to lose it slowly and then set your

deadline in accordance to that, but you must have a deadline. So set a sensible, a

sensible deadline, but you must have a deadline on your goal.

And there’s one other step when you write your goals, that you absolutely, positively

must do. This is where most people have stopped already. Most people think they’re

finished here. They’ve got a goal and made it specific. They put a deadline on it. They

even put it in writing. “I’m done.” No, you’re not done. Another thing that’s very peculiar,

or interesting, however you look at it, about your subconscious mind, is your

subconscious mind is very, very easily programmed when you surround the goal with

emotion. And the more intense the emotion, the more you’re going to press that into

your subconscious mind. Now, one way that you can pull the emotion out of that goal is

to ask the question, “Why do you want it?”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Why do you want it?

TOM VENUTO: And you could ask, “Why is that important to you?” What that’s going to

do is it’s going to draw your values out of you, and the values are emotional. Now, when

you’re writing down this goal, if at the end of that goal statement, you add the reason

why you want it, it becomes so much more powerful and impactful to you. It becomes

the type of thing that it doesn’t require willpower. It becomes something that you want to

do. You know you need to do it and you must do it and you’ll carry it out more.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: I mean, you don’t have to actually scramble yourself out of bed

every single morning and go against your will. It something that just happens.

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TOM VENUTO: You’ll leap out of bed automatically. And you jump on the Stairmaster,

because you know why. You know why you’re doing it.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: This is one thing that’s totally revolutionized my life and I totally

agree with Tom. How would you like to honestly not have to procrastinate anymore?

That’s the biggest thing that I want to help you guys with on this call. How do you make

it so that you actually jump out of bed? You leap out without asking yourself, “Do I really

want to go on the treadmill today? And lift those weights?” It’s such a big part. No.

Let me give you an example from my life. I was dead-- If you look at anybody, not just

me or Tom, who’ve achieved anything great in their life. It doesn’t have to be significant

with the world, just in their own life. Whether it’s making a million dollars, or growing a

business, creating a amazing relationship or changing their bodies so that they finally

feel like they’re really proud of them. You know, the muscles are bulging and you feel

healthy every single day and vibrant and your energy’s so strong. They have that

reason why. They have that emotion.

I was dead broke working at a gas station. I was making about $8.00 an hour and I was

working with people that would put me down every single day of my life and I felt totally

horrible. And one of my goals was to become a millionaire, to grow a business that

would stream(?) me financially for the rest of my life. And I tried that many times before

then, but this one time got so powerful for me, I actually envisioned it in my life, and

actually having that. And I said to myself, “Why do I want it?” Well, my reason wasn’t

just, “Because I want more money.” As Tony Robbins says, “Have a dollar, now you

have more money.” I was very specific. I said, “I want a million dollars. Why? Because I

will not stand to be treated this way as a human being. I stand for a lot more. I can give

a lot more of myself to other people.”

And I actually had this vision, this huge emotion of having all these beautiful people

around in my life, once I’m wealthy, and a huge house, and a business, and a nice car,

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and everything is going great. I’m traveling around the world sharing my knowledge to

people. I’m on telesemiars delivering my soul to you guys. This is about one year ago.

Today, I am completely financially free because of that. I just said to myself, “This is got

to happen, no matter what.” And that was my driving force. The emotion was so strong.

I mean, there were a million things in my way, that any other person would look at and

say, “This is not achievable.” But I did it because of that one thing. So if any of you have

really tried to change your body before and you really got excited only to stop at one

point, it’s probably because the reason why wasn’t strong enough. Most people, when

they set out to make a body goal to lose weight, what’s their real driving force? From

your consultations, before you actually transform them? What do they say to you?

TOM VENUTO: Well, usually, they don’t know until we probe into it. They have to give it

some serious thought. Sometimes they’ll just say, “I want to lose 20 pounds. I want to

weight ‘X’ amount of weight.” And the question is, “Why?” Usually if you dig deep

enough, you’ll get something related to family, a lot of times. “I want to be a good

example for my kids” and “I want to be around for my grandchildren.” “And I want more

energy so that I can keep up with my kids.” “I want my husband to be able to look at me

and say, ‘I love your body’ and be able to say back, ‘I do too.’”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Exactly. Wow. We just went over “the why, the when, and

what,” and talked about how to set a goal specific. Is there anything else we need to

know about setting goals perfectly? Exceptionally well, before we move on, Tom?

TOM VENUTO: Another step is everybody, using their mind, can run through mental

movies and visualize. Because your brain things in pictures, not just in words. Your

brain doesn’t even know the difference between a vividly imagined experience and one

that really happens. So when visualize yourself having already achieved that outcome,

you are literally, again, programming your subconscious computer. But the key is to see

yourself already there, as if you had already achieved your goal, or visualize yourself

taking the action steps, moving towards your goal and visualize yourself enjoying the

rewards.

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: So play the movie out every single day.

TOM VENUTO: Every day.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Yeah. That means, if you guys just take one thing out of this

call, that one thing, of seeing that emotion for your goal, whatever it will be, you’re going

to be successful and you’ll have more value from this than anything else you’ve done

before. So we’re going to write down your goal specifically, but we could come back to

that. Let’s move on to the other part of this. The whole torpedo thing you told me the

other day. Cybernetic programming. You talked about how people actually sabotage

themselves because of their habits. How does this work, Tom?

TOM VENUTO: Your brain is an awesome machine. It is a goal achieving cybernetic

mechanism. Whatever you program into your subconscious mind, you will achieve it.

Whatever target you put in there, you absolutely will hit it, if you have programmed it

into your subconscious mind. It’s not just a fleeting conscious thought. A cybernetic

mechanism is something you might be familiar with. The thermostat in your home, the

autopilot on a commercial airline. I like the example of a guided missile or a torpedo,

because in that case, there’s a specific target. The torpedo seeks it out.

And the question you had asked me the other night was, “Why do people sabotage

themselves?” And it’s because they don’t understand the nature of your cybernetic

mechanism in your brain. Now a torpedo is a cybernetic mechanism. There is literally a

computer onboard, just like you have a computer onboard between your ears. What

would happen if you did not put a target in it and you drop it in the water?

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Well, it used to be like that in World War II. They wasted a lot of

torpedoes.

TOM VENUTO: It’s just going to go around in circles or it’s going to sink. There’s no

telling what it’s going to hit. It might blow up something that you didn’t want blown up. It

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might turn back around and blow you up. You have to program a target into it. So you’ve

programmed the target. What happens is when you drop it in the water and it starts off

heading towards this target, something happens. The currents change and so all of a

sudden the torpedo is off target. It’s not heading towards the goal. The cybernetic

mechanism-- What a cybernetic mechanism is, that it recognizes you’re off course and it

makes an automatic shift in course and now it’s back on target. But then, soon enough,

you hit more currents and you’re off target once again. You’re not heading towards the

goal.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: So it’s actually off target 90% of the time. You’re just correcting

all the time.

TOM VENUTO: Yeah. So it kind of zigzags its way to its goal. But if it was programmed

in the computer, it always will find that goal. It’s going to hit that target.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: And most torpedoes and guided missiles usually hit their

targets. How does that apply to the cybernetic mechanism in our minds? And how does

it apply to changing your body?

TOM VENUTO: Well, you may say to yourself-- You may wake up one morning and

look in the mirror and say to yourself, “Ah, I need to lose 20 pounds. I’ve got to get in

shape.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Exactly.

TOM VENUTO: And so you think that you’ve set a goal and so you start exercising, and

you go on a diet, and you begin to change your behaviors and you start moving towards

losing 20 pounds. But what happens is you do something to mess it up. You sleep in

and you go off your morning workout. Or you said you were just going to have a few

bites of cake and you end up having six.

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: I think everyone had that experience, where they really get

totally motivated. They have that reason why, but then, you know, one day, it just

happens to all of us. We wake up and, “Oh, screw the gym today. Let’s go watch TV in

the morning.” And what happens then?

TOM VENUTO: You know sabotage yourself and gain back whatever weight that you

lost, and you’re off track. And you’re scratching your heads trying to figure out, “Well,

what happened? I said I wanted to lose weight.” Well, the problem is you did not

program, “I want to lose 20 pounds and weight ‘X’ weight.” You didn’t program that into

your cybernetic computer, into your mental computer, into your subconscious mind.

Unbeknownst to you, what is programmed in your mind is, “I am a fat person.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: I am a fat person.

TOM VENUTO: Or whatever negative programming that you have been bombarding

your mind with for weeks and months and years and you continue to reinforce with

negative thinking. Where you set out to achieve one thing, but you sabotage yourself

with negative programming. So what actually happened-- Here’s what actually

happened, this is the catch and this could completely change your life, if you get this.

What happened was, “I am a fat person” was programmed. That was the goal. “I am a

fat person” was the goal. So you started exercising. You went on a diet and the moment

you started making progress, the cybernetic mechanism in your brain recognized that

you were off target, making progress and losing some weight and beginning to eat

better and exercise was actually off target. So the cybernetic mechanism in your brain

makes a course correction, that was the self-sabotaging behavior. It was automatic

behavior that came from your subconscious mind because of what you had

programmed in your mind. And now you lose the progress you made and then you’re

back on target. You’re back on target towards, “I am a fat person.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Wow, that’s true. Look around your room, guys. Look at every

single item in your room, whether it’s a shelf, a lamp, a laptop computer, like I have in

front of me, or your phone, the kids, your wife, your husband. Every single part of your

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physical life, if you think about it, was once a thought. It was once a subconscious

impression. If you look at everything. Before you got a shelf in your room, you probably

had the idea of putting that shelf in that room. Before you put a picture on the wall, you

got that vision of seeing that picture there and you said, “Oh, that might be a good idea

to put that picture there” and you did it. Right? That’s exactly what Tom’s talking about

here. We all have our visions for our life, these programs that run subconsciously. So

whatever state your body’s in, it’s actually a result of a target you set for yourself, but

rather unconsciously, whether it’s the amount of times you work out and the food you

eat. How you look right now is exactly as a result and a symptom of your cybernetic

programming. Is that what we’re getting to, Tom?

TOM VENUTO: Yes, absolutely.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Yeah. So how do we change that? Because everybody goes

through-- They get so excited and then they get self-sabotaged because what your

brain is actually telling you is that, “Oh, well, you’re not really a bodybuilder. You’re

actually a fat person most of the time, so you should become a fat person,” (or a skinny

person, if you’re really skinny.) So how do you take it to the point where you’re actually

programmed with your stuff, because we’d all to look like you. Because everyone has

seen your picture on the website. How do you get that programming embedded in you

so that you are constantly doing this effortlessly and your brain is taking you towards

actually being healthy, vibrant, energetic?

TOM VENUTO: You begin changing the programming with-- I like the word

“awareness.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Awareness. So step one is you’ve got to be aware? Right?

TOM VENUTO: That is a very, very key word. The awareness of what’s actually going

on, how your mind works and how your behaviors are created and what’s actually going

on to create the results and the behaviors you’re getting in your life. It’s a matter of

awareness. We already went over the first step in changing the programming and that

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was setting the goals and setting it properly and getting very associated with the reason

why. That was the first step. It was already done.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Why is being aware crucially important and as I remember you

once said, “Are we all like zombies? Are we really not really aware of what we’re

doing?”

TOM VENUTO: Well, it’s interesting that you say and say that word “zombies” because

we are a victim of our habits. We can be a victim of our habits, or we can make a habit

serve us. But most of the behaviors-- Every action, every day, everything you eat, your

exercise habit is running on automatic pilot, and what you want to do is-- When you

want to make a change, you have to become conscious, consciously aware of what’s

going on before you can make that change. You have to be conscious in the moment

and each moment-- You need to recognize moments of decision.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: So you’ve got to really become aware, because you’re making

decisions on a daily basis. You’re doing things that you’re not even aware of. So step

one is you’ve got to become aware of the programming before you actually change

something.

TOM VENUTO: The other thing you can do is-- I like to call it “creative bombardment of

your subconscious mind.” It really is programming. It really is what goes into your

subconscious is programmed. And you can either take charge of it and program your

own brain, or it’s going to get programmed. It’s going to get programmed by society. It’s

going to get programmed by other people. It’s going to be programmed by indecision.

You have to become aware and take conscious control over the programming. Take

that goal statement that you wrote out and you put on paper and read it constantly. I like

to carry a Goal Card with me. I like the Goal Card. This is a concept I learned from the

Success Coach. His name is Bob Proctor.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Bob Proctor. I’ve heard of that guy. Yeah.

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TOM VENUTO: And Bob Proctor taught me something about repetition and the

subconscious mind that absolutely changed my life. A lot of people poo-poo the idea of

affirmations and repeatedly reading their goals. They’ve heard it before. But what they

don’t realize is that one of the most absolutely, positively guaranteed way to program

your mind is to take a goal, write it down every single day, and read it every single day.

And as you do it, you can go through that visualization process. You can associate with

the reason why and see yourself as already achieving that goal.

I not only write down my goals every single morning, and I not only read them twice a

day. I take the number one goal that I want to work on, at any given moment. I have it

on a Goal Card, in a little plastic, like a credit card sleeve, and I carry it with me

everywhere I go. I am naked without my Goal Card and I’m constantly focused on it.

And what you focus on over and over and over, you’re going to move toward, because

that’s going to begin to become programmed into your subconscious mind. At the very

least, I would recommend that twice a day, you take the goals that you’ve put in writing.

You read them first thing in the morning, visualize it and do it again before you go to

sleep. And those are key times because your subconscious mind is more impressible

when your brain is in that relaxed alpha state.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: So repetition on a constant basis. Now some people may be

listening to this and go, “Oh, that’s so simple.” It’s really simple, but it’s extremely

powerful. If you think about it, how many times a day are you bombarded with the

message, into your subconscious mind of, “I am a fat person” or “I am a skinny person”;

“I’m an unhealthy person.” If you think about it, every single ad that you see about

bodybuilding or creating a better body or a better life, all it’s telling you (if it’s a TV ad,

an advertisement in a magazine), it’s always telling you, “you’re not good enough.”

What’s really embedded in you is, “Yes, I want to look like that person.” But actually the

response that happens to you when you’re looking at a beautiful model in a magazine,

what’s actually happening. Your subconscious is telling you, “I’m not good enough. I

should be looking like that.” But the main message your mind is getting is, “I’m not good

enough.” If you get that repeated in your mind every single day, it’s no wonder most of

us are unhealthy. The question is how do we change the cybernetic programming?

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There’s one more step. Step one was you’ve got to become aware of what’s really

going on. Step two is you’ve got to set a target for yourself; and step three is you’ve got

to celebrate. Let’s talk to Tom about this. Why is it important to celebrate something,

Tom, before you actually change your programming?

TOM VENUTO: It’s just simple reinforcement. Every time you achieve a goal, you

celebrate it and reward yourself, and you can also keep a list of all the little goals, even

the little ones, that you’ve achieved. And those all become resources. It becomes a

motivational tool, and you can celebrate that. If you feeling your motivation starting to

slide, sometimes you just focus on the negative, and if you take a look at all the things

you have achieved, all written down on one page, that can completely change your

state. It becomes a resource for you.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: A lot of people might be thinking, “How am I going to use that

on a daily basis?” The answer is you have to celebrate every little thing you do. Right?

Every small achievement. Like we’re talking about a major goal, like me becoming, you

know, 150 pounds of muscle, where I weighing 130 right now, that’s going to take me at

least a few months to achieve.

TOM VENUTO: You can do it on the scale of by the workout. In fact, that’s the way that

I use it. You can create a whole list of PRs (Personal Records), every single time that

you go in the gym. You can have goals, not just for, “I want to weigh 120 pounds” and “I

want to weight 150 pounds, have 9% body fat.” You can have behavioral goals, more

action steps for what you’re going to achieve in the gym. And it’s lifting a certain amount

of weight, doing a certain amount of weight for a number of reps, doing a workout

you’ve never done before. And over the course of months and years, it will absolutely

stun you at how many of these little goals you hit on the way to reaching your bigger

goal. And every time you hit that, you celebrate and reward yourself, and write it down

on a list of achieved goals, and that is very, very, very motivating. Appreciate it.

Appreciate these little steps along the way.

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: And celebrate it. Celebrate in a way of, you know-- It might be

something small, like patting yourself on the back, smiling, or sharing that success with

somebody else in your household. And if people aren’t supportive of you, you’ve got to

find yourself a friend who you can actually celebrate that with. Put in a good word. I

want to talk about it for a second. You said, “Reward yourself,” so like naturally

rewarding yourself, would be a good idea to get a piece of cake and just indulge in it for

an hour?

TOM VENUTO: Well, you hit on a very, very important point. Too often, we don’t give

ourselves permission. We don’t tell ourselves, “It’s okay to reward yourself and enjoy

yourself.” Some people allow themselves, they call it a “cheat day” or “free day.” I think

a really good philosophy when it comes to this is a 90/10 rule. Meaning you’re going to

create a plan that has all the “how to” and we’re going to talk about that in the other

calls, exactly what to eat and how to train. You’re going to have a plan, all sketched out

in writing as to how you’re going to achieve this goal. And you don’t have to be perfect.

You can’t be perfect anyways. Allow yourself that little bit of leeway. Give yourself a little

bit of wiggle room. When you give yourself permission and allow yourself, in advance, to

have those rewards, it takes so much pressure off of you and you’re avoiding the, “all or

none” syndrome. Whereas, if I’m not perfect, on my back all the time, I might as well not

be on it.”

I mean, how many times has that happened to you? You mess up your diet once, and

it’s like, “Oh, I blew it. I might as well at the rest of that pizza and the rest of the six

pack.” And then you’re so far off bat, you know, the next day, you just can’t get going

again. If you say, “Well, it’s pizza night. I’m allowed to have that. I hit all my goals this

week. This is my reward and this is how I’m going to celebrate.” When you’ve allowed

yourself that in advance, then all the pressure comes off and you will get good results

from that.

Now depending on the level of your goal, you may have your own rules. For myself, I

have a 95/5 rule. I eat 6 small meals a day, that’s 7 days a week, that’s 42 meals. That

allows me 2 free meals a week. I have whatever I want. If I’m going to compete, I don’t

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cheat at all. Those are my personal rules. But that’s only for a short period of time, like

8 weeks or 12 weeks before a contest.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: That’s one thing that totally sabotages me. I’m sure, I mean, if

you’re looking at this right now, you probably might be having an “Ah-ha! Moment.”

There’s a feeling, it’s like a guiltiness when you’re actually indulging in a pizza when you

have a workout plan, that you’re not supposed to be eating or doing. It’s really bad

programming because what’s happening is you’re reinforcing that belief in your mind,

that you’re a fat person, or you’re a unhealthy person. But we can rephrase that.

Knowing this, you have the right to reward yourself. You can tell yourself, “I am a

healthy conscious person on a mission to change my body and I’m consciously making

a choice to give myself this reward. I have to celebrate my successes.” That’s great.

That totally works.

Again, these three steps: changing your cybernetic program. You’ve got to become

aware of what’s really happening in your subconscious mind. What are you gravitating

towards and where it is you really want to go? But what is your programming? You have

to actually see what’s going on. You become aware, like, “Oh, that’s what I’m doing.”

Number two, is you have to have a target and it must be continuously repeated in your

mind. You can’t just set a goal and put it aside and say, “Okay, that’s good.” Those

goals never really get achieved. Think about something you’ve had in your life, you

have right now, that you had to work hard to get; or it seemed impossible but you have it

now. It could be a relationship, someone you really wanted to be with but you thought it

was impossible. Now they’re in your life on a daily basis. A lot of money-- Maybe you

have gotten it. You know, a car. Maybe you have the body of your dreams. But if you

think about it, it’s something that you thought about on a daily basis that became true for

you.

So you’ve got to repeat it and the Goal Card is a great example. Take whatever goal

you worked on today, laminate it. You don’t even have to laminate it. You don’t have to

be as fancy as Tom is. Keep it in your wallet or in a pocket near your butt, where you

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know it’ll stick, and celebrate it. Step three is celebrate. You have to actually feel and

reward yourself.

But let’s do an exercise quickly, that Tom and I planned. Take a piece of paper, a blank

piece of paper, a notepad or whatever. And I want you to draw a line down the middle.

Let’s do the left side first. On the left side of this line, on this piece of paper, simply write

down, write down what programming you think your mind is taking you to. And the way

you do that is you go back to a time where you were trying to change your body or you

just made a decision but you never got going on it. What are the things you tell

yourself? What is the number one thing you tell yourself that stopped you? To a lot of

you, that might be, “I don’t have the time.” So just write this right now, as I’m telling you.

Write down on the left side what is it that you tell yourself on a daily basis, on a regular

basis that stops you from achieving what you have, what you want to get to. And that

might be, “I don’t have the time.” Or “My kids are, they’re my main priority. I can’t leave

them there because I have the time, and I don’t have the time, I can’t leave them with a

babysitter.” Or it might be “the gym is too far.” Or, you know, “I worked out 3 days last

week. I can take 5 days off.” Or it might be, “I’m a fat person.” Or “I’m just lazy. I don’t

have the willpower.” Whatever it is you tell yourself, I want you to write them down. Get

at least 2 down. That is your programming. So for the next 30 seconds, really just

thinking, “What is it that stops you?” And write it down.

Okay, once you have the left side, I want you guys to quickly-- On the right side of the

piece of paper, write down what is your target? Again, whatever goal that was on that

Goal Card, just rewrite it again, so you’re repeating it again on the card, whatever it is

you wrote down. Write it down again. We’re practicing this right now so that you can

practice it an take this tool into the real world later on. Write down that Goal Card goal

on the right side of your piece of paper. Again, you don’t have to even use this just for

your body. You can use this, all these tools we’re giving you guys today, you can use it

for any part of your life to really take it to where you want it to be. To repeat it on a daily

basis; become aware of what’s stopping you and then celebrate it, and you’ll be there in

no time But most importantly, you have to have that emotional “why” that we talked

about.

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Your homework for the last part, I want to give you guys, is-- Write this down. Keep an

inventory-- Tom said this to me, keep an inventory of all the self-talk and all the things

you tell yourself on a daily basis. By this, I mean, whenever you get a thought in your

mind that stops you from where you really want to go, I want you to actually become

consciously aware of it. And you’ll notice the more and more you think about this, you

become more aware. You’ll be walking down the street and you’ll be like, “Oh, look. I

should go work out now. It’s time for my workout.” And you’ll tell yourself, “Well, I don’t

have the time. We’ll have to go there instead.” And you become aware of this right

away; whereas, otherwise, you wouldn’t have even become aware of it. You would have

let it slide by you and stop you from where you really want to be, doing what you’re

supposed to be doing.

And the next part is, something called the worries and consequences. Tom, I know you

took this from Tony Robbins, the pain and pleasure concept, or some part of NOP. Why

don't you give us a little intro of what this is and how it works.

TOM VENUTO: Sure. Many, many years ago, when I first got introduced to Tony

Robbins’ concepts, he was looking at the subject of motivation and why people do the

things they do or don't do things that they should do.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Yeah.

TOM VENUTO: And he commented that all human behavior is motivated by one of two

things: pain, avoiding pain or gaining pleasure.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Avoiding pain or getting pleasure. So in other words, every

single thing you do on a daily basis is to avoid pain or gain pleasure. Right?

TOM VENUTO: Yes, now when I first heard that concept, it made a lot of sense and it

really resonated with me. When I worked with that concept a little bit more and just

changed the language a little bit and kind of morphed it into something that I started to

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use and I have used many, many, many years as a motivational, as a very powerful

motivational technique for me and I started teaching it to my clients. And as you saw,

rewards and consequences, which is different, just a different way of looking at pain and

pleasure.

Now we talked about the importance of conscious awareness of what you’re putting in

your mind. But, I mean, what do you do with the programming that’s already in there in

the meantime and it’s generating these behaviors automatically and you don’t realize it?

Well, the next level of awareness is to become aware of your behaviors when they’re

happening. Become of your behaviors right in the moment. Your day is filled with

moments where you can make a decision that’s either going to move you forward or

backwards.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Give us an example of this decision. What you just said is

every single day, we have moments that really alter our destinies that we’re not even

aware of. It could be a one-second moment. Let’s get some examples, Tom.

TOM VENUTO: It starts the second you open your eyes in the morning.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Yeah.

TOM VENUTO: When you open your eyes in the morning, you can hit the snooze

button and go back to sleep.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Yeah.

TOM VENUTO: Or you can get up and you can get on your treadmill.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Yeah.

TOM VENUTO: And you have these moments, thousands of them, hundreds of them

throughout the day and throughout the week. And every one of them is moving you

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forward or backwards. Now before I talk about specifically rewards and consequences,

what you have to realize is this has to become a part of your mindset. This is something

you want to install in your brain. There is technically no such thing as maintenance. You

may be maintaining your body weight but that’s more a matter of you taking action to

offset the forces that are pulling you backwards.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: So there’s no such thing as maintaining.

TOM VENUTO: That’s right. When you’re faced with these decision points, you can take

an action, a positive action; you can take a negative action; you can do nothing. It’s

indecision. And every decision you make moves you forward or backward. Your task is

to start to become consciously aware of these moments. Recognize them when they’re

happening. Maybe, after you’ve gotten up in the morning, the next thing you do is you

saunter over to the refrigerator and you open it up and you’re faced with a decision.

There’s a dozen doughnuts in there and there’s egg whites and there’s oatmeal in the

cupboard. We are so programmed, whatever you grab in the morning, it’s usually just

automatic. When you still have that old programming in your mind and your behavior is

being driven by that, what you need to do is make a conscious effort to recognize these

moments and stop and pause for a moment and think before you act. And what you’re

going to do in that moment when you think is you’re going to weigh the rewards and the

consequences of that decision. It’s like coming along the path and you just hit a fork in

the road, and one fork is going to take you a step closer to your goal and one is going to

take you a step away from your goal. You’re not going to keep going on the same path.

You’re not going to stay the same.

This is an opportunity. This is a golden moment. I call this an “MOD” (a Moment Of

Decision). Now what do you want to do at that moment? Why do people make bad

decisions? Sometimes they’re just completely on autopilot, or if they stop and think

about it, what’s going on in their brain, is they flash a quick picture, like a slide of the

reward they’re going to get from eating those doughnuts. Then the reward is that instant

gratification, “Umm, this is going to taste good.” It’s a quick, a quick snapshot in the

mind. If you were to stop yourself in that moment, and ask yourself, “What are the

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consequences?” And instead of just flashing a quick picture of “What are the

consequences?” Which the quick picture might be, “Oh, it’s no big deal. I could-- You

know, I’ll make it up. I’ll do some extra cardio.” Turn it into a mental movie and play it

and let it run. Play a movie and see what the consequences will be over time. Expand

your time perspective. Stop for a minute and what are the future-- So what are the

future consequences? And you can get pretty ridiculous with this if you want to. I mean,

it’s your brain. You can do what you want with it. You can take that out 3 months,

6 months. You know, in your mind, your brain works very, very quickly. You can run this

movie out and you can see yourself....

KACPER POSTAWSKI: I’m used to it right now, particularly out of my life, for my body. I

was trying to really gain weight a few months ago and I was on a program. And it got to

the point where every single morning I had to make myself a protein shake to really get

the protein I needed to build my, build my muscle. So I’m standing in front of the

kitchen. I have two options. I can eat a sandwich with processed ham on it or I can go

and spend the time to put the powder in the mixer; put the egg white and the flax, flax oil

in there and I’m making the decision, so I’ve got to stop and become aware. What could

I see in my mind? Think of the consequences of the negative decision first and play that

movie out in your mind. What could I see to make me really feel that pain?

TOM VENUTO: Well, you can say to yourself, “This food is building material and this

food is fuel. Now this is building material. What I eat I am literally going to become. You

are what you eat is literally true. So what is this mash of chemicals and preservatives

and artificial colors? It’s a like Frankenfood, this processed meat. This is going to turn

into the cells of my body,” and then keep running it out. “Well, what’s this going to mean

to me, in terms of my goals? Well, I want to gain muscle and I want to be able to walk

on the beach and feel confident.” And now you’re seeing yourself being skinny and

actually maybe you start putting on some body fat. And then you can keep playing the

movie and run it out even further and start to think about the consequences on your

health.

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Now you can start to see yourself in the doctor’s office getting the results of your tests

and your triglycerides are sky high and your HDL is low and your LDL high. Your total

cholesterol is high. And your doctor is looking at you and saying, “Your body fat is too

high and you’re a candidate for cardiovascular disease.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: I can feel that right now, as I’m talking to you. I feel my heart’s

going to stop.

TOM VENUTO: You can run it out even further. You can then imagine yourself laying in

a hospital bed and your family is standing around you and your wife and your son is

standing around the bed and you’re on the verge of death. And at that moment, you’re

thinking about, “This is a result of a lifetime of decisions that I made.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Wow.

TOM VENUTO: Now let’s go back in time. Go back in front of the refrigerator. You’re in

the kitchen again.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Okay, I’m back. I can go further and realize...

TOM VENUTO: Do you want that processed-- How much do you want that processed

food now?

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Not really as much. I see my grave in front of me and that feels

crappy.

TOM VENUTO: Now, that’s only half of it. A lot of people are more motivated by the

negative consequence than the positive consequence. We didn’t even talk about the

reward. What are you going to gain by making the right decision, by eating the right

thing in that moment?

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: I’m going to feel great that day, that day to actually achieve my

goal.

TOM VENUTO: And play it out even further. What’s going to happen then?

KACPER POSTAWSKI: I play it out even further. Where a week later, I could be

stepping on the scale and I notice I gained two more pounds and I go the mirror and I

see, you know, that it’s actually kind of adding on there. I’ll take it even further. A month

later, I’m in bed with my fiancé and she’s saying, “Oh, my God. You’ve gotten a lot

bigger.” This is exciting.

TOM VENUTO: Oh, yeah.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Things are happening in the bedroom that haven’t happened

before.

TOM VENUTO: Oh, yeah. And other people are noticing. “Man, you’ve been working

out. You look unbelievable.”

KACPER POSTAWSKI: And I can totally feel that in my body as we’re doing that. Let’s

do it further. I’m in Hawaii. I’m walking on the beach, you know, I’m running down the

beach and I feel great. And it’s like a Aloha girl is waving to me and everything’s good

and I feel totally like proud of my body. I feel totally safe and sound spiritually in my

body. I don’t feel the sense of-- I’m pretty comfortable with my body right now, but it’s

not like a bad or an outstanding level. It’s just comfortable. But I feel pretty much from

now, I can totally feel like, “Man, that’s outstanding.” That’s what it’s really all about.

Right?

TOM VENUTO: The real power in this is-- This is what we call a Motivational Propulsion

System, because you are being pushed and pulled. You are moving towards something

you want and you’re moving away from something you don’t want and you have just

made yourself consciously aware of both of them. That is powerful motivation.

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: Wow. Motivation. Motivation Propulsion System. I totally love

that. You guys should write that down. Think about this. I mean, what Tom’s saying is

really true. We have decisions on a daily basis (right?) that affect our destinies in every

single way. People think that it’s really a long period of time that shapes your destiny,

but it’s really the small decisions you make on a daily basis, whether it’s booting up your

computer and doing work or sitting on your couch. Or going and making that protein

shake versus eating a ham sandwich. I hope you guys wrote that down. I mean, that’s

brilliant. Before the end of this call, Tom, do you have anything else you want to share

with everybody?

TOM VENUTO: Yeah. A couple of things I’d like to close with. Over the next three calls,

we’re going to be talking about a lot of very specific pinpoints, “how to” information.

What to eat specifically; how to train specifically; how to gain muscle and lose body fat.

But the first step before the “how to” is “the what, the when and the why.” And I just

want to emphasize how important it is to get those three W’s first, before you even think

about the “how to.” You don't need to know how yet. You need to know what you want

first and begin the process of programming that into your subconscious. After you have

got the goal (the what, the when, and the why), then you can start to worry about the

“how to.” Because if you are too focused on the “how to” before you have “the what, and

the when, and the why,” you are going to get caught in paralysis by analysis. Yeah,

you’ll be like the deer stuck in the headlines and you will just keep collecting more

information and you’ll need everything to be perfect before you start.

You’ll need all of the “how to” in the advanced before you even take the first step. But

when you set that goal, you get “the what,” you get “the when,” and especially you get

“the why” first. You’re setting yourself up. You’re setting your mindset and setting the

stage for success.

And the last thing I would want to add is the purpose, the true purpose of a goal is not to

get something. It’s to become something.

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: To become more of who you really want to be and grow as a

person.

TOM VENUTO: Exactly. It’s about growth. It’s about the process. It’s about developing

the discipline and developing the character.

KACPER POSTAWSKI: Wow. Thanks for that. Everybody around you. Look at

anybody-- Maybe this is part of your life, that really wants something but for some

reason, they just can’t get started on it. It’s because they don't have that “why” in

motion. And we wrote down exactly why you want something; but I want you guys to

work with me. We wrote down what you wanted, but I think we should really enforce

everybody on this call right now-- It’s not force. Kindly invite everybody to just write

down a date, this year, of when you want the goal. Let’s just all write down a three-

month goal of when you actually want this for your body. Because that’s so important.

Right? Once you have “the what, the when, and the why” (the emotional buildup), the

“how” becomes so much easier. You don’t need to go to all the self-improvement

classes, read all the books in fitness to become a fitness expert and do it too slow.

Maybe you’d do it to become a fitness expert. But to change your body, you don’t. You

just need to know the emotion. You need to feel it inside.

Let’s do that. Let’s write down now, a good date. So today’s February, March, April. I’m

going to say for my body, May 1st is going to be the goal that I’ll set for myself, for my

body, and to be there. I’m going to a Tony Robbins seminar tomorrow in Florida, so he’s

going to kick my butt too, to motivate me to actually take my body to the next level. And

with everything Tom’s shared with you guys today, I think it will be a lot easier. So once

again, this has been great, Tom. Thanks for being on this call with us. It’s been truly

incredible. Again, most people focus on the “how to” but it’s actually this part that you

need to get down pat. Inside your mind, inside your spirit, feel that emotion. It’ll take you

to where you want to go. Thanks again, Tom.

TOM VENUTO: Thanks. It was a great call. I want to thank everybody for being with us

tonight. And we’re looking forward to three more awesome calls.

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KACPER POSTAWSKI: Exactly. Once again, thanks to everybody for being on this call.

I’m going to unmute you again and say goodnight.

[EVERYONE SAYS GOODNIGHT]