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Never underestimate the power of the unconscious mind
People underestimate the power of the unconscious mind. Because of their ignorance this very powerful part of our brain works against us rather than for us. I was reminded of this while musing about Donny Deutch’s quote on failure. He talks about the problem of people setting a goal for themselves NOT to fail.
Brain tingling
A small part of my brain started tingling when I read that, not that there is anything wrong with the quote but something was not right. The tingle which grew into a buzz as I mulled further is about how the unconscious mind works.
Your undercover ally
Maxwell Maltz in Psycho-Cybernetics talks at length about the power of the unconscious mind and how to harness that power in your life. One of the important things to remember is that the unconscious mind does not understand negatives. It can’t distinguish ‘not failing’ from ‘failing’. As a result, if you set a goal for yourself NOT to fail, the unconscious mind only understands fail. It immediately sets a course for fail. It is pretty insidious. Here your conscious mind is laboring mightily at NOT failing while the unconscious mind is undermining it at every step. Since you don’t understand the conflict you have created, you think that everything is going well-until you fall flat on your face. Your powerful and misunderstood unconscious mind took you where it understood that you wanted to go and not where you thought you were telling it to go.
Never set a negative goal
The point is to never set a negative goal or target. Don’t let your unconscious mind take you the opposite direction from where you want because you think it understands NOT. Don’t ever tell yourself that your goal is NOT to fail or not to go anywhere else. Always form a positive goal with a destination you want to reach not the place you don’t want to reach. Target success rather than NOT failing.
Hey Ralph,
Great reminder for me. I tend to think of this concept in terms of the Law of Attraction, but definitely the same thing. I think the two most common ways that we fall into that trap are losing weight and reducing debt. They’re negative concepts that create a lot of conflict like you stated so well today.
Thanks for this.
.-= Carlos Velez´s last blog ..Conscious Me vs. TheInfoPreneur: The $10 Prize =-.
Carlos,
Those are excellent examples. Great to emphasize how easy it is to mess up without knowing it.
Ralph,
Such a simple and straight forward concept, often overlooked when we set our goals. The unconcious mind not being able to understand the negatives – this is a difficult concept for some to understand.
Set goals using the 3Ps – Positive, Personal and Present
Thanks for sharing this.
Regards
Paul
.-= Paul´s last blog ..Forgiveness =-.
Don’t I know it. I wasted so much time working against myself.
I don’t understand why anyone would willingly set a negative goal. That’s weird. All goals should be positive.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..Perception Is Important To Your Blogging Career =-.
OK, playing devil’s advocate just for a second, but how do we know that our subconscious doesn’t understand negatives? We can’t ask it 😉 I’m not arguing with you Ralph. I’ve heard this a lot. I just wondered if anyone had ever sat down and proved this to be true?
.-= Eleanor Edwards´s last blog ..How to procrastinate =-.
Sire,
I think it is like Carlos says, some of our goals are like reducing debt or we think in terms of things we don’t want, like failing a test. Maybe you don’t think that way and that is great for you but I think a lot of us do think that way.
Eleanor,
I am like you. I have heard this a lot and from successful people so I have believed it. Empirically it seems to work for me. Why don’t you set some negative goals and let me know?
Interesting concept. I’m not aware of how I was setting my goals until now. 🙂 It’s better to keep track of the progress from now and then, stay positive. Nothing to lose by cultivating a positive mindset, why not? Thank you Ralph.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
.-= Ching Ya´s last blog ..Art Of Communicating in Social Networks =-.
Ching Ya,
I have been thinking about Eleanor’s comment and it seems to me that you have the best answer. Thanks.
I’m training my unconscious mind using rituals.
It seems to be working, but I took too much on in February. I’ll have to back off a notch and restart.
I agree with your point about not failing. I could probably say a lot about it, but I don’t know how to put it into words.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Saturday Morning Surfing: How’s Your Blog Traffic Lately? =-.
Have you posted on your training. I don’t understand what you mean by rituals. If you have related posts, send me a link. I would love to follow up.
Very interesting. That does make sense on how the unconscious understands failing or not failing and how you would want to tell it the place you want to be, not the place you do not want to be..
.-= Ryan Hanzel´s last blog ..My weapons of choice =-.
Ryan,
I have found that it helps me to be clear in my goals and it seems to be working.
Hi Ralph,
I bought Psycho-Cybernetics over 20 years ago and only recently re-read it. It’s one of my favorite books.
Maxwell Maltz really knows his stuff. I guess as a plastic surgeon, he had to deal with a lot of emotional and psychological issues.
Anyhow, I’ve always thought he was way ahead of his time with regard to the way the subconscious works.
Great post!
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Change Your Thinking Change Your Life =-.
I like the point about setting negative goal. Most of us unconsciously do that, thinking of what we dont want, rather than what we want.
.-= scheng1´s last blog ..My colleague committed suicide =-.
Many times I think it is survivor mentality. If we are struggling at work we focus on not losing the job rather than accomplishing something.
Loved Psycho-Cybernetics. My copy has about 83 different sticky notes and I’m still trying to incorporate all the ideas I got from it.
Liked your point about not setting a negative goal. It’s like that expression that if you tell yourself to NOT think about a pink elephant…all you’ll do is think about a pink elephant.
.-= Steve Scott Site´s last blog ..The Secret of Successful To-Do Lists [Video and Free Template] =-.
Jazz,
Isn’t it amazing the new stuff you find each time you re-read a book?
Steve,
Excellant example.