When it comes to reaching our goals, and living the life we truly want, our subconscious mind is usually overlooked as a means of helping us to make it our reality.
We tend to pay a lot of attention to the conscious elements of success, for instance, working harder, putting more time in and expecting greater results simply because we have increased our efforts.
But does it really work?
Through my studies and work, I have learned from successful people that to reach our goals, we must regain control of the core values and beliefs buried deep in our subconscious mind.
Our mind is divided into:
- conscious mind – thinking mind – what we perceive through our senses, it has no memory
- subconscious mind – where we store and retrieve data. Its job is to ensure that we respond exactly the way we are programmed. It effectively filters out all unnecessary information, ensuring only the most important and relevant pieces make it to the surface so we don’t feel instantly overwhelmed by data.
- unconscious mind – our highest self, who we really are, our core also called soul/spirit.
REMEMBER: The subconscious mind is very powerful, but without control much of its power can be wasted. Even worse, much of its power can even be damaging. Why? Because we become what we think about.
Here’s an example. Imagine you’re going to be giving an important presentation in front of many new and existing clients as well as journalists at a conference. There will be over 1000 people in attendance and presenting to an audience of this size is a little out of your comfort zone. You’re feeling apprehensive about it. In the days leading up to the show, all of your thoughts are focused on the worst-case scenario, in other words, what could go wrong and how you might fail. Unwittingly, by thinking in this way and focusing on the less desirable outcome you are actually self-sabotaging yourself and your own abilities. Why? Because consistently having these negative thoughts is programming your subconscious mind to get it wrong, to SELF-DESTRUCT.
Your subconscious mind causes you to feel emotionally and physically uncomfortable whenever you attempt to do anything new or different or to change any of your established patterns of behavior. The sense of fear and discomfort are psychological signs that your subconscious has been activated.
Many successful leaders look to continuously stretch themselves and push themselves out of their comfort zones. They typically work according to the strong belief that if they want their brain to go faster, they need to slow down. Why? Because when we are in a relaxed state, we can bypass the conscious mind and go directly to our subconscious mind – where real lasting change occurs.
Successful and happy people make a habit of:
- thinking and talking about the things they want not what they don’t want,
- looking for solutions rather than only talking about problems,
- finding time to meditate, relax or spend time in nature, apart from just working hard,
- being mentally very strong through an increased awareness of external negative influences from their environment. They protect their subconscious mind by minimizing their contact with the negative environment.
If we want things to get better in our lives, we must start changing ourselves to better on the conscious mind level – seeing the positive side of every situation, as well as on the subconscious mind level – by changing our beliefs, patterns, inner self-talk and removing our fears.
How?
Positive Affirmations
When you make a clear, definitive statement about yourself as if it is already true, your subconscious mind takes over and will act in accordance with that belief. Basically, you will literally begin to change the way you think – about yourself, about your private life, work life and subsequently, your reality will change as well.
Visualization
Visualization is a powerful tool which is used to retrain your subconscious mind. It allows you to feel and experience a situation which hasn’t happened yet as if it were real.
Your subconscious mind will want to pull you back toward your comfort zone each time you try something new. Even just thinking about doing something different, can make you feel tense and uneasy.
That is why visualization ourselves as successful helps us to overcome feelings of fear and instead feel more relaxed and confident.
The crazy thing is, if you genuinely believe something is real, your subconscious mind will not be able to tell the difference between imagination and reality.
Many top performers, regardless of their profession, know the importance of picturing themselves succeeding in their minds before they actually perform in reality. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Andre Agassi or Lindsey Vonn are just a few examples who used the visualization technique to win their championships.
What this means is, if you can picture yourself in your own mind being extremely successful, dominating your market and running a phenomenal business, then chances are very high you will.
Zuzana Schwalb (ZS), 19.3.2018
