Vince Poscente: The Power Of Subconscious Minds

A public speaker, business consultant, and Olympic speed skier, Vince Poscente believes in the “elephantine” potential of our unconscious minds. Poscente likens the dynamic between the conscious and subconscious minds to an ant and an elephant: In his introduction he leads off with, ”Our minds are separated into two distinct spaces – conscious and subconscious thought. Our ant is the intentional part of the brain, but our elephant is the instinctual, impulsive part of the brain that houses emotions and memories and even guides the body to perform vital functions. While we tend to know our conscious minds – our ants – rather well, we often overlook the power of our elephantine subconscious minds. When we do, unfortunately, we squander a wellspring

However, his most well-known accomplishment was transitioning from a recreational skier to making the Olympic Gold Medal round in just four short years. As an exemplary skier he went on to achieve: 1992 Olympic Winter Games Speed Skiing Finalist, 5 Time National Speed Skiing Record Holder and 2 time National Speed Skiing Champion. Due to the enormous success he was able to achieve in such a short amount of time, Poscente is regarded as one of the country’s leading experts on achieving peak performance. Since the 1992 Olympic Winter Games, Poscente has used his understanding of speed, focus, and expertise in communication to create a successful business career. Poscente is the former VP of Marketing for North Americas largest real-estate investment services corporation. Utilizing the tools he developed to rapidly master the sport of skiing and generate an illustrious business career, he puts them in a lesson plan played out in a short allegory about Adir, the ant or conscious force in the story, and Elgo, the elephant or the subconscious force. Poscente structures the book in twelve main story chapters and an introduction and afterword that helps tie the story into his main purpose for the

He fears he will never see his friends again and wonders where he is. A churlish crow visits Adir when he is in the depths of despair, eats the ant’s hard-earned food, tells him about an oasis and flies away, refusing to say where this haven might be. Elgo, a young elephant, wanders the savannah after leaving his parents. Drought parches the land, so each elephant wanders alone as all the animals compete for water and food. Elgo knows about an oasis and dreams of getting there, but he follows the familiar patterns of migration and behavior of his ancestors for centuries. Elgo can’t break out of his rut; he barely recognizes that he’s in one. After days of despair, Brio, a wise old owl who had been watching the ant for some time, tells Adir that, in fact, he’s on an elephant – and has been on the same elephant for his entire life. Then the ant realizes he could easily rejoin his colony and go back to the safe, but somewhat frustrating life he lived back at the colony. Back home, Adir had supervised a small work team whose members didn’t listen to him no matter what he did or said. Adir has to decide whether to go for his dream – to reach the oasis – or to return to his humdrum life in the colony. However, Adir fears he will never reach the oasis because Elgo continues traveling in the wrong direction. The owl tells