No. 20- Interview with Noah St. John

Performance & The Subconscious Mind, Part 20- Interview with Noah St. John
March 30, 2011 by Richard Matteson

Hi,

Exploring the Subconscious Mind

Noah St. John

Why is this blog so good? Because I interview authors and leaders in the self-help field.

This is an afformation (see earlier blog on Afformations)- no typo. It’s a question that presupposes a postive answer. This “invention” came to Noah St. John when he was taking a shower on April 24, 1997.

According to Noah, “When you ask empowering questions your mind searches for answers.”

St. John, who once was a poor kid that lived in a rich neighborhood, has now bought a new house in Akron, Ohio and is engaged to be married. Unfortuately during our interview his fiance’s computer caught a virus that interrupted our interview. Why does my computer work so well? Because I got a new computer!

Noah is the author of the book The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness (Collins). The first three chapters of his book are available for free at http://www.afformations.com/ He’s also put many articles on the web including two about “afformations.”

According to Noah, he studied NLP but that’s not his area of expertise. What he has done is modeled successful people. He’s taken the most successful people and found out why they are so successful. He’s organized this information in his book, The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness (Collins). Some of this information has been covered in my earlier blog on Noah (see blog on Afformations- Presuppositions).

In the phone interview Noah first talked about the things most people want to learn about in this economy: How to make more money; How to increase your income; How to have financial freedom. These are things you can learn more about in his new coaching program he calls “Noah’s ARC.” The link is:

http://www.NoahStJohn.com/results

He also talked in some detail about “afformations” and the “why-to’s.” This blog will cover Noah’s concepts as they relate to musical performance.

One thing Noah stressed was to use afformations to create a positive mental attitude in the stressful moments before a performance. You can ask the afformations, “Why am I such a good performer?” or “Why do I enjoy performing?”

Noah suggested that as a performer you don’t let your mind wander onto negative thoughts instead focusing on empowering afformations. He said, “Your mind can only think of one thing at one time- so it’s best to think about the empowering results you want.”

The difficult process of performing isn’t something that’s easily done alone so he also suggested using a “loving mirror” (bringing someone with you who can give you emotional support).

In his book, The Secret Code of Success, A Loving Mirror is someone who can see you for who you really are, someone who can love and support you unconditionally. While this may sound “touchy-feely,” we all need the loving encouragement of someone like a coach, teacher, or mentor to become all we can be.

Make a list of the people in your life who can offer you unconditional support. Then call them and ask them to help you list your strengths and understand your weaknesses. One of the great ironies of being human is that others can often see us more clearly than we can see ourselves.

Noah commented, “Even boxers have someone in their corner.” Your support system is an important part of being a successful person and performer!

From Noah’s 1999 book, Permission to Succeed , he has created his Permission to Succeed System. This is a quote from our interview about how he helped a pianist named Jim overcome performance anxiety:

Jim came to me because he found my book in a bookstore. His life was at a crossroads. He had performed sold-out piano concerts at Lincoln Center, but hadn’t touched a piano in more than 15 years due to extreme performance anxiety.

After coaching him through my Permission to Succeed System, Jim found the confidence to perform again. He told me that he no longer felt the need to be perfect, but instead to communicate something inspiring and meaningful to his audience. It was a truly fulfilling outcome for both teacher and student.

Learning to “communicate something inspiring and meaningful to his audience” was echoed by several other people in other blogs (see especially the Peter Muir interview about John Diamond), including a blog about my mentor Aaron Shearer, as an important part of the performance paradigm. This is alligned to the fundamental performance beliefs: “focus on sharing” and “thinking right about your audience.”

Thank you Noah for sharing your expertise with us.

More to come….

Richard