5 WAYS YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS MIND IS SCREWING YOU AND KEEPING YOU FROM WHAT YOU WANT
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Your subconscious mind is a powerful machine. Don’t think it’s controlling your life and keeping you from becoming who you want to be? Think again. Here are 5 ways your subconscious mind might be keeping your from following through with ‘doing what you know.’
1. IT ASSOCIATES PAIN TO TAKING RIGHT ACTION ON A CONSISTENT BASIS
RIGHT ACTION=following through, doing what you know around nutrition and training.
On a subconscious level, our minds are wired to avoid pain, and also wired to seek out ways to gain pleasure. Both physical pain and pleasure, and emotional pain and pleasure. It is the basis behind our survival. If the burner is hot and gives us physical pain, we avoid it in the future. What’s called a NEURO ASSOCIATION is made between a hot burner and pain. To your mind, hot burner = pain. This is a fantastic system! Now we don’t have to think about whether to put our hands on a hot burner! However, like a virus infested computer, sometimes it can go ‘mad’ and screw up.
You see, your subconscious mind doesn’t care about your goals. It doesn’t care that you want to become fit and physically vibrant. It doesn’t care about anything other than survival. As long as you’re surviving, all is well to your subconscious. So you can imagine what happens when you go do some sprints right? Your subconscious does its job and starts making evaluations and associations. It starts evaluating, without you knowing by the way, “does this mean pain or does this mean pleasure?” When you let your subconscious win, every human being on planet earth will associate pain to sprints. Their subconscious mind would go something like this: “sprints are painful! must we do them to survive? is there anything chasing us? NO????!!!! screw this, sprints equal pain, therefore don’t do them.” Now you have a new association that doing sprints is painful and as this association strengthens, it gets harder and harder to consciously ‘drag yourself out there’ to do them. It takes more and more willpower, and eventually you just quit. You don’t know why consciously, you just ‘don’t like them.’ Well the reality is you subconscious functioning took over and is now controlling your life in this particular area.
2. IT DOESN’T ASSOCIATE PLEASURE TO TAKING RIGHT ACTION ON A CONSISTENT BASIS
We will do much more to avoid pain then we ever will to gain pleasure. However, when your subconscious mind associates pleasure to something, you better believe you will have no trouble taking action. It won’t take will power. You’ll love it. When you love something does it take motivating yourself to do it? If you absolutely love chocolate cake, do you need to pump yourself up to eat it? ha….yeah right. This is called DESIRE. Screw temporary motivation, Transformetics is about gaining new DESIRES. What this really means is getting your subconscious mind to associate pleasure to taking right action. Remember, RIGHT ACTION=following through, doing what you know around nutrition and training.
When you take charge of your subconscious mind and get it to make new pain/pleasure associations, all of a sudden you take right actions on a consistent basis, and in a relatively short period of time, you have a new life. It no longer takes motivation, you can ‘just do it.’ This is what gets me excited. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this. I take great pride in seeing this process happen within people. People come to me and exercise and proper nutrition takes will power, and by the end, they LOVE exercise and proper nutrition. It no longer takes will power. Why? They have updated their subconscious mind to associate pleasure with right action.
3. IT HAS LIMITING BELIEF SYSTEMS AROUND TAKING RIGHT ACTION
Belief systems have much much much more to do then what religion you subscribe to. In fact, there are 2 types of beliefs: 1. global generalizations and 2. conditional generalizations
1. Global generalizations are statements like “life is fun.” Is there someone you can think of that has this global generalization stored up in their mind? Personally I know someone. He probably isn’t even aware of this global generalization, but it’s there. How about this: “exercise is hell.” If you have that global generalization stored up in your subconscious belief systems are you going to exercise on a regular basis? You know the answer is NO. Especially since your subconscious mind is wired to avoid pain. “Hell=pain, therefore don’t do it.”
2. Conditional generalizations are statements like “if I buy a new shirt, then I will be happy.” Do you know someone who is a compulsive shopper? This conditional generalization is probably stored up in their subconscious belief system. Are they aware of it? Probably not. It’s just there and they ‘just like to shop.’ There’s a rhyme and reason behind what people do. Usually in the form of belief systems. What if you have this stored up in your subconscious mind “if I exercise, then I’ll feel tired.” Are you going to exercise on a regular basis? You know the answer is no. Nothing could be further from the truth, yet “if you tell yourself a lie over and over, you’ll begin to believe it.”
So look, your subconscious mind is a belief creating machine. Literally. It is continuously storing up beliefs about life, exercise, cake, couches, people, coffee cups, you name it your subconscious mind has probably got an evaluation about it. It is programmed to EVALUATE and store those evaluations as beliefs. You’ve gotta start to understand this, and begin the process of peeling back the layers and making NEW CONSCIOUS EVALUATIONS. This is the process of forming new beliefs that will propel you to take RIGHT ACTION.
4. IT HAS A VALUE SYSTEM THAT ISN’T IN ALIGNMENT WITH TAKING RIGHT ACTION
Values are states of being that you have linked up as pleasurable. We consistently meet our own values. Let’s say you were a little kid and you drew the most amazing stick figure of all time. It wasn’t that you were more skilled, but by total luck and chance it just happened to be a bit better then the other kid’s stick figures. What happened? You got some praise for it, you got props, your subconscious brain said “wow! being creative equals acceptance, props, and praise, therefore being creative equals pleasure.” Well guess what, you now have a new value system. You VALUE being creative. When you value something, you follow through. It’s as simple as that. If someone’s number 1 value was creativity, you better believe you’d find them in a park drawing, or on a computer with photoshop.
The issue is this, your values were probably created arbitrarily through your personal surroundings and environment growing up. If your parents gave you props for being creative, you probably value creativity. If you parents gave you attention for being the ‘black sheep,’ you probably value being the black sheep. Are you aware of it? NOPE. You just react. When an opportunity arises to meet your values, you’ll take them without hesitation.
Here’s an idea: how about we consciously create OUR OWN FREAKING VALUES. Stop living the scripts of your arbitrary past. Start creating yourself however you want.
If you HIGHLY value health, fitness, and the feeling of vitality, are you going to take RIGHT ACTION on a regular basis? There’s no doubt about it.
5. IT HAS PERSONAL SUCCESS BARRIERS THAT ARE THWARTING YOUR PROGRESS
This is a concept that is so hidden from your awareness it’s scary. It took me long time of self contemplation to gain awareness of this within myself. This quote (which was falsely attributed to Nelson Mandela but actually came from Maryann Williamson who wrote this book that I happen to currently be reading) probably encompasses your subconscious success barriers better then anything I know of:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
WHY ON EARTH WOULD WE ALL BE ASKING THIS QUESTION? We ALL do. I don’t care who you are. The reality is your subconscious mind doesn’t want you to ‘rise the ranks’ of societal status. Becoming a leader takes energy, effort, and it’s dangerous. Humans are social creatures. Our survival is literally based around our ability to relate with one another. Stick a single person in the middle of the dessert and he’ll surely die. Stick a group of people in the middle of the dessert, and they’ll build Las Vegas. Humans evolved in tribes. We’re not like a snake that totally does its own thing. We depend on the tribe for survival.
All tribes have an unspoken leadership system and an unspoken status hierarchy. Wolfs have the alpha male and female. Gorillas have the silver back. They are the ‘top dogs.’ The leaders. The highest status. And there is a ranking system below them. What happens when a beta wolf thinks to himself “I’m sick of being a beta, I want to be the alpha.” He has to FIGHT and RISK his very survival. What happens if he wins the alpha and replaces him? Now he’s RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENTIRE PACK. This takes a lot more energy then fending for himself. Being a leader, being quote unquote ‘high status’ takes ENERGY. Our subconscious mind is wired to avoid expending excess energy. Humans are NO DIFFERENT in our tribal behaviors. We evolved as tribal creatures complete with unspoken hierarchies of status and leadership much like a pack of wolves, or a group of gorillas.
So what’s the point of all this evolutionary and animal comparison talk? Whenever you’re self improving your subconscious mind is probably going to try to stop you. After all, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? We are biologically wired to have success barriers. Know this, and start to overcome them with your conscious awareness.
Hope this helps you on your journey towards health, fitness, and self-actualization.
Sam
Man, this used to be a problem for me. The subconscious mumbling. After a while, I took a tolle-ean step back, listened to it on runs (“It's cold, you don't have to do as well”, “You have a slight cough, don't push yourself your hardest”,”You had a good time yesterday, today can be a rest”) and then annihilated it.
My question: Now that I deeply enjoy pushing myself, hard, I find myself trying, with some difficulty, to find a healthy balance between sensibility and balls-to-the wall effort.
Example: Sprints. My mile time is getting cut, really fast, though every now and then, I'll push myself so hard I'll puke from lactic acid buildup or lack of oxygen. Chundering all over the track does say “badass”, yes, but it also seems counterproductive.
Pushups. I'll do hundreds every day. I'm trying to get to 10,000 as fast as I can. I never experience any great pain or anything like that, not like when I'm training chest at the gym, but is such daily pushup practice a benefit, or a detriment, to my overall growth goals?
I want to push myself as far as I can, but at the same time, I don't want to allow my subconscious mind to sneak in and prevent me from the glory. I want a balance between the two; common sense without subconscious sabotage, and gut busting workouts.
Any thoughts? Hundreds of pushups every day ok? Thanks Sam & Nico.
“Now that I deeply enjoy pushing myself, hard,”
YES!!!! You've had the emotional 'click.' This is the single biggest hurdle for people. Congrats.
It sounds like you've gotten almost addicted to pain here. You've associated pleasure to pushing yourself beyond limits. This is a good thing. However, you want this to be coupled with effective STRATEGY.
Doing hundreds of pushups is a good way to hit 'body failure' (see the Know What To Do Training Section). However if you're looking to get a bigger chest, this may be counter productive. To get a bigger chest for example, it's just as important to rest as it is to train.
SO first thing is you need to define what your visions are. If you're like me, I'm doing this ultimately for self-actualizaiton by becoming the best ATHLETE possible. I'm not in this for bodybuilding necessarily, yet I do do some bodybuilding type workouts. I'll give a specific example of what I did last week:
Monday: Chest in the gym (muscle failure)
Tuesday: Jui Jitsu (body failure)
Wednesday: Back in the gym (muscle failure) followed by box jumps til failure (body failure)
Thursday: Jui Jitsu (body failure)
Friday: 30 minutes of jogging (steady movement) followed by a few 30 second sprints (body failure) followed by Arms and Shoulders in the gym (muscle failure)
Saturday: Jiu Jitsu (body failure) followed by legs (muscle failure).
This was a SOLID week of pushing myself everyday. Yet it was also effective strategy. I got the most out of every day, both for health and fitness.
What's your schedule and resources like? I'll help you set up plan.
Just googled box jumps! I'd never thought of incorporating that kind of exercise into my workouts before; to be honest, I'd never heard of it. Strategy's definitely the part of my fitness regimen that's lacking; I'm on a five day split, legs/arms/back/chest/shoulders, rest a day and repeat. Running of some form every day. Just trying to cover everything, not much strategy. I used to run an hour every day, half marathons weekly, but stopped that when I found out about anabolic/catabolic states and smartened up.
My vision's pretty much just like yours. Self actualization, on all levels: vitality, mentality, and physicality. I want to be the best athlete possible, with the attendant physique as well. I definitely want to build more muscle. You might not be in it for the bodybuilding only Sam, but that banner pic on the playground, haha, that's pretty cool. Visible strength like that subcommunicates a lot of good things.
Schedule and Resources? I'm a member at a local gym, and work bartending hours that allow me to work out hours and hours each day. I'm up for ANYTHING, the more challenging the better.
Oh, and thanks so much for the previous DailyBurn recommendation. It's been a huge help in tracking variables. You guys are owning it with this fitness stuff. The principles behind the practice; brilliant. My bench has already gone up 30lbs after watching your chest vid a few weeks ago.
We are kindred spirits. :)
Gaining muscle and getting more athletic is really about getting your body to produce the right hormones. You want as much HGH (human growth hormone) and Testosterone as possible. When you go to exaustion, you are sending a signal to your body to amp up the HGH and Test. or you'll die. It's a survival mechanism. So what I would add to your workouts to amp up results are what we call “body failure” routines. These are ways to get your entire body toward failure. When you do this, you send that signal to your body to release more of the good stuff.
THEN, on top of that, you're breaking down individual muscle groups with your “muscle failure” workouts (what you're currently doing). This will yield maximum results for the natural athlete.
So box jumps are a way to get your body to fail. Trust me, stack that thing up pretty high and jump up and down it 20 times and your body will be screaming. When you get that feeling you know you've gotten your body to 'send in the troops' (hgh and test.). Now you're in an anabolic state. That coupled with proper nutrition, and you can't help but add muscle mass.
So specifically, I would add some body failure routines to your regimen. At least 2 or 3 times a week. I would start off doing 5 sprints. 5 sprints where you sprint as far as you possible can until your body simply can't sprint anymore. Repeat 5 times. Sprints are the easiest, and probably the most effective way to hit “body failure.” Start doing these at the END of a weight training session, or in replacement of one. Once you've done this for a week or so, and you know what it feels like to hit body failure, you can begin to get creative with ways to do it.
let us know how it goes.
Hey Arnaut – Sam’s thrown some awesome feedback your way. The only thing I would add to it is to check around your local area and see if there is a CrossFit gym. It sounds like you’d benefit form something like that. You could even do your own CrossFit workouts – jump on youtube and look them up. Also, there’s TONS of info all over the web on CrossFit, including workouts and what to do and how to do it. I think you’d really like it, just based off what you’re saying.
Keep it up man – Sounds like you’re on your way!
Interesting browsing. I’m finding out all I can about mind power as I want to use the power of the subconsciousness to change things.