Mastering the Mindset
Mastering the Mindset
It's Time To Reprogram
Why is changing habits so hard? The answer is in understanding how your mind actually works. When you try to change, you're likely focusing only on your conscious thoughts. Unfortunately that only accounts for a very small percentage of you actual cognitive activity. The real game changer? Your subconscious mind. I processes the majority of your decisions without you even realizing it. Let's talk about why this is extremely important to recognize and take hold of for your future success!
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I'm in mistakes goals. I bury my clocks because it take time. I gotta go. I already know if I want to grow, you reap what you sow. That be the case. Planting my seeds and water my base. Yeah, I made mistakes. Yeah, I know you grow in your garden, but watch for the snakes, the people that act like you, crazy but trying to stay far away. They don't think it's possible. I think it's possible. That is just hate if they hate themselves because they on the shelf.
Speaker 1:Why you create a life that you love, a life that you love, yeah, loving the fact you improving yourself. Decided that you would not settle, decided that you got the drive to do it. The road got bump in your foot on the pedal. You go up a level. You turn up whenever it's time for you to go put in that work. I know my worth. I know it ain't gonna be easy. Yeah, I know it hurt. My thing is for sure yeah, until they put me in this earth before I ride in that hearse, I'm chasing my goals. I'm chasing my goals. Yeah, love and affect you improving yourself. Decided that you would not settle, decided that you got the drive to do it, to go got punk and good foot in the gutter. I'm chasing my goals.
Speaker 1:All right, and welcome back to another episode. Thank y'all so much for being here. Uh, if you are watching me on youtube, you know what to do. Go ahead and like and subscribe to my channel. If you are listening to me on the podcast platform, you know what to do. Go ahead and like and subscribe to my channel. If you are listening to me on a podcast platform, you know what to do. Leave me a review. Those things help me out a whole lot. Also, you know what to do. Please become a supporter of the show. You can choose the monthly amount it can either be three, five, eight or $10, and you can cancel at any time. But why would you ever do that? Let's go ahead and dive in. So this is going to be a really good one. I'm excited to give you this one. I think everybody needs to hear this.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about how to reprogram your mind to find that success you want, and let's talk about, let's look at the science and psychology behind it to see how and why this stuff works. Now, before I get started, you're here because you understand that if you want your life to be different, that you have to be different. And the key to change and achieving that success, in whatever era you want it in it, comes down to you being able to change your mind, to reprogram your mind, to create the life you want. Your thoughts, your habits and your beliefs are the driving force to the actions you take. I must say it again your thoughts, your habits and your beliefs are the driving force to the actions you take, which in turn is going to determine your life, the outcomes, the success or lack of success. And by understanding the psychology of this and the science of this mental reprogramming, we can take charge of it. We can take charge so our future don't look like our past, at least the negative parts, the shortcomings, right, the failures, because you're not listening to me, because you want the future to be the same as the one you had in the past, you want it to be different. And if you want it to be different, then you have to be different. And the fastest, most efficient way to be different is to reprogram your mind and I know the word reprogram might throw you off a little bit like in terms of a computer, right? I'm not saying that we robots and our brains ain't complex and layered right. That's not what I mean, but let's talk about it and I'm going to give you some proven techniques in science and psychology to help us get through this.
Speaker 1:And before we talk about how to change the mind, let's first understand the mind a little bit better before we talk about it. So what is this thing that we're trying to reprogram? So the mind it really exists in two parts. There's the conscious mind and then there's the subconscious mind, conscious and subconscious. The conscious mind this is the part of our brains that's responsible for things like our day-to-day thoughts, decisions, actions, right. And the subconscious mind it stores things like memories and your habits, your beliefs. It also brings up thoughts without you even being aware that they're coming up, and let's dive into both of them a little bit deeper so we can understand it all a little bit better.
Speaker 1:So your conscious mind is known as your thinking mind. It's where we process most of our information and make decisions from, and the conscious mind accounts for approximately five to 10 percent of cognitive activities. Did you catch that Only five to 10 percent of cognitive activities come from conscious thinking? Kind of hard to make sense of that, right? How is it only responsible for only five to 10 percent, like. I know what the hell I'm thinking. I know my thoughts. How the hell do all my thoughts, my conscious thoughts, the ones I'm aware of, how do they only account for 5 to 10 percent? And this is why so many of us struggle.
Speaker 1:When we try to change habits, we think all we got to change is our conscious mind around it, which is only 5 to 10 percent of the things we actually think about. So what that means is for those habits to change. It's going to take way more than what we think. We're not focusing on our subconscious mind, and I'm sure you've been there, done that with this right. It's going to take way, right. And then after a while, after you sit a while and your thoughts start to sink in and you start to think like man, can I, can I, can I really do this? This is going to be hard. Then those limiting beliefs start popping up, then those fears start creeping in. Doubt shows up. That's the power of your subconscious mind, your subconscious limiting beliefs, the doubts you tell yourself. The thought itself is conscious, right, but the subconscious makes you unaware that you keep doing it. That is even there.
Speaker 1:To begin with, your subconscious mind has to be changed. It's 95% of your cognitive activities and it operates automatically. It stores our beliefs, it stores our habits, our memories and, most importantly, it's responsible for regulating emotions and performing the majority of our daily tasks. Our subconscious mind. It really has a large impact on our life and it's important to think about reprogramming it in order to have lasting change. And that's what I'm going to give us some techniques for. Because, look, our conscious mind. It wants to do better, it wants to be successful, it wants a better life, it wants you to be a better parent, it wants to give you the best outcome in life. Right, it wants you to live the life you want.
Speaker 1:But let me give you some numbers to think about. So your conscious brain, right, your conscious brain processes about 40 bits of information per second. Your subconscious brain studies show a range from 20 million to 400 billion bits per second. That's every second, every day. 20 million to 400 billion per second, per day. Those are all the things that you ain't even thinking about. It's your brain reacting to certain things immediately. It's your brain reacting to situations immediately. A good example of this If you ever see somebody get pranked and then you watch somebody jumping behind a trash can and then the person getting pranked ends up punching him in the face.
Speaker 1:That wasn't a conscious decision to punch that person. It was this immediate reaction that the brain made for them to do that. How about this? You ever drive home and it's your normal route from work. Right, you know the streets. You'll drive them home from work. You ever notice that sometimes you get home and you don't even remember how you got home. You forgot the whole car ride, right? You look up and you're like damn, I don't even remember driving home. Right, you didn't even need to have driving skills in your conscious mind and you got all the way home.
Speaker 1:Your subconscious reacts and then your conscious mind has to catch up to it. Like right now, as you're sitting here listening to me, maybe you driving, maybe you working out or cleaning, whatever you're doing. If I told you right now to focus on your right thumb, go ahead. Focus right now on your right thumb, your right thumb. And now you focus on your right thumb. Right, but were you focused on your right thumb before? No, probably not. But does that mean that there was no input coming from your right thumb before I told you to focus on it. No, there was definitely input coming from your right thumb. It's just that your subconscious mind was paying attention to it and your conscious mind wasn't paying attention to it. Your conscious mind is listening to me right now. Your brain was processing information from your right thumb the whole time. It was just filtering it out because you were focusing on something else, like if I were to say, focus on your butt in the chair right now, or focus on the temperature in the room, or focus on how often you blink, or focus on the sun on your skin Right, or the light from the window.
Speaker 1:Your brain is constantly processing all of this other stuff, but you're not paying attention to it, right? Usually we're not. There's other stuff but you're not paying attention to it. Right? Usually we're not, and what we need to do is to get better at changing, and our brain is being able to filter out what we want to filter out and to not pay attention to those things like fear and limiting beliefs, and filter in the things we do want to pay attention to. And so what this comes down to is something that's called let me slow down.
Speaker 1:What this comes down to, what this comes down to is something that's called neuroplasticity, and if you've been listening to me for a while, then you definitely have heard me talk about this before. Neuroplasticity is. Let me sum it up for you. So science has proven that our brains are not hardwired. Our brains have the ability to change and adapt to certain circumstances, and this ability and process of adapting and changing is called neuroplasticity. It means, basically, our brains can form new connections, and so the question is if we can adapt and change our brains. The question is that I want to talk to you about today is can we rewire it? Can we rewire our brains for success? The answer is yes. Yes, we can, but we have to be clear on our thoughts and our behaviors and habits. They need to change in order to change our lives. Just knowing about this stuff and having a better understanding of what neuroplasticity is, that alone won't make a difference. It's the change that matters. So by being consistent and persistent and repetitious with the stuff we talk about and practicing these patterns over and, over and over again, your brain will eventually start to adapt and change.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about a couple of techniques for reprogramming your mind. The first one is called cognitive restructuring. Cognitive restructuring is used in cognitive behavior therapy and what that is. It involves identifying and recognizing an irrational thought and replacing it with a thought that you actually want and I've talked about this before in a couple of episodes, before this one, but the same way. Your subconscious mind will immediately react and your conscious mind catches up. You have to identify what that thought is, what that thought was that your subconscious mind threw in there, and then your conscious mind catches up and says, okay, hold up, wait a minute, I don't like that thought. And then you replace it with a better thought.
Speaker 1:And studies prove that cognitive restructuring actually works. They use it to treat psychological disorders like depression and anxiety and OCD obsessive compulsive disorder Right, and if it can be used to help with those kind of things, don't you think you can use it to help you with your negative thoughts? One hundred percent, yes. It can be used to change your negative belief patterns and fears. You can reprogram yourself to think more positive, to think about the things that you do want and how you're actually going to get them. So, instead of all the pessimism and self-doubt, stop, and to stop being so negative and speaking down to yourself.
Speaker 1:Like I always say, you can't control your first thought, but you can control your second thought, your first thought. Unfortunately, that just pops up from your subconscious, right. Then you have a reaction to it as your brain catches up. But that second thought requires cognitive decision making from you, like, ok, I noticed what I just said to myself. Now I have to change it to something that I want. I have to do this a lot, we have to do this a lot, we have to do this a lot, and a perfect example that I have of this lately is with this grant that I won a few months ago, and the purpose of this grant is to support me in writing my hip hop play.
Speaker 1:And when I first started, I was excited. I had all the ideas, all these ideas of what I wanted to look like, how many people I wanted to be in it, the type of lyricism I was going to approach it with the style of beats I was going to choose. I did all this visualizing and I realized, well, damn, it's been a couple of months and I haven't actually written much. I'm like, ok, boom, I'm doing the thing I talk about on here, how I talk about being busy versus being productive, how planning something and researching something, that's not actually being productive, right, because I haven't actually taken any actions. I'm OK, all right, well, let me take action. And I decided to take the action and I sat down to write and crickets, crickets, crickets, crickets.
Speaker 1:I was stuck. I didn't know where to start, didn't know how to start, and my negative thoughts started getting loud. I started saying, damn, this is hard. I don't know how to start. I don't know where to start. Damn, I'm nervous. Did I bite off more than I can chew?
Speaker 1:And there was some time that I was just stuck and I had to replace all those thoughts and remind myself that, yes, you did win this grant. The fact that you won this grant means that folks thought you were capable, that, yes, you are talented. Look at your track record. And, most importantly, yes, it is hard, but it's supposed to be hard. Why? Because I've never done this before. I'm learning as I go and I'm becoming the kind of person, the kind of artist, who can write a hip hop play. And these moments right here, right now, these are precious. This is the journey, and I got a hold of those negative thoughts and I just focus on taking actions. And it's been going way better. I can truly say that I'm getting so excited with the material I'm coming up with, with the things I'm writing, but I had to again take control, let my conscious brain catch up to all that and replace those thoughts.
Speaker 1:Anyway, we have to replace those thoughts, the ones that pop up in my unconscious mind. Right, the cognitive restructuring model. They call this the three C's. You catch it, you check it and you change it. So think of your brain like a garden, right? If you got all the good stuff, which we all do, right, the flowers, the vegetables, whatever, inevitably there will be weeds. Those weeds are going to grow and as much as you try, try, they're going to pop up. No matter what, those damn weeds will always come. If you ever had a garden or seen somebody with a garden, you understand weeds always come and when they do, you got to pull them up out of there, pull those weeds, plant those seeds, bars, and it's a constant thing that you have to do, right? So that's the first thing.
Speaker 1:The second thing you have to do is visualization. Yes, visual, vis, vis, vis. Hold on Visualization. I realized I never knew how to say that word. Visualization. Wow, that read almost whooped my ass. Visualization. And let's be real, I know that this can sound corny or fake, like, ok, you close your eyes, you think about what it feels like to achieve your goals and then your goals will come true. Ok, yeah, that's right, but does it actually work?
Speaker 1:But what it involves is creating mental images of desired outcomes, goals, situations, right, what you want your life to be, and an easy example of this is at the gym. I use this example all the time. It's even written on the walls. In almost every gym you go to Some version of visualized success. It's on the walls In football.
Speaker 1:One of the things our trainer used to tell us was the exact same thing. When we get to that very last set and your muscles are burning and it's hard and you don't know how you're going to finish it if you can even get all the reps in, what he would say is close your eyes, see ourselves doing the set, completing the set, to see ourselves pushing up that weight and I'd be damned if it didn't work. It really did work. Next time you go to the gym, try it and it really did work. Next time you go to the gym, try it and I bet you end up doing more than you think you could and it won't be as hard as you thought it was going to be.
Speaker 1:Anyway, create that mental image of the desired outcome and the important part of it is you have to know what it is you want so you can be able to go after it. What it looks like, what it feels like, what the day to day-day tasks look like, what are the steps. See yourself completing those steps. Visualize yourself putting in that work, and the more you do this, you start to brainwash yourself into believing that it's possible, which in turn is going to increase your motivation and your commitment. Plant those seeds in your mind, because the more you see yourself doing it, the more your brain will connect the feeling of it actually being possible. If you can see yourself doing it, then you can see the possibility of it happening. Seeing yourself, visualizing yourself getting there, your brain is going to see this store that in your subconscious, which again is about 90 to 95% of your brain activity. So brainwash yourself and studies show that this works.
Speaker 1:There was a study done in the Journal of Applied Sports Psychology and they found that golfers who practice visualization techniques. They saw significant improvements in their performance and what they did is a pre-performance routine, right so before they went out and shot around the golf. They had them sit and visualize for 15, 20 minutes, had them visualize that they will make every put and what it will feel like to make each and every put on each hole. And the golfers who did the visualization exercise had the most improvement in their putting compared to the ones who didn't. This stuff works. It just did so. That's the second one, number two. It just did so. That's the second one, number two visual, visual, visualize, visualize. Goddamn, this is embarrassing. Visualization, visualization. Let's move on, ok.
Speaker 1:The third one is affirmations which, I know, again, can seem corny or hippie or whatever you want to call it, but what they are is basically positive statements that you repeat to yourself to help reshape your subconscious about yourself. And the key to this is you have to do what's called habit stack, meaning you have to make it a habit as a part of your daily routine, your morning routine. Maybe you do it every time you brush your teeth, maybe you do it as you're laying down at night when it's time to go to bed. It's the last thing you do before you go to sleep. And again, studies show this works. Studies show that it leads to improvement in self-esteem, it lowers stress. It improves your overall well-being.
Speaker 1:The Journal of Psychology, the Journal of Psychological Science, is a full name. The Journal of Psychological Science found that people who engage in self-affirmation activities had increased activity in the areas of the brain that associated with self-referential processing. The hell does that mean? Self-referential processing means thinking of yourself versus thinking of the outside world. Thinking of yourself and bringing attention directed inwardly towards the self as opposed to the external world. So instead of worrying about all those external things, you focus on yourself more, evaluating yourself, evaluating the way you step out in the world, into the outside world, which made it easier for them to start changing their brain. So, again, research made it easier for them to start changing their brain. So, again, research shows it Affirmations can have a big impact on your mental state and can contribute to a more positive outcome in your life.
Speaker 1:So let's get brainwashed to be more positive, to get your mind operating in the mindset that's going to be more conducive to finding happiness and success. And we do this with one cognitive restructuring changing those negative thoughts right. You can't control your first thought, but you can change the second thought to visualize God damn it. Visual visualizations she showing your brain that it's possible, visualize doing it and what it looks like and feels like. And three affirmations, positive statements that that you have a stack, that you repeat it on purpose and make it a habit and you repeat it over and over and over again and eventually you reshape your conscious, you reshape you. You reshape that part of a conscious about yourself, you reshape that part of a conscious about yourself, and that's the formula. And the best part about all of this is that it ain't like you need to pull out a laptop or take notes or write down a bunch of stuff. You can do this all in your head. It takes only a few minutes, right? So why not? The science shows it works. Like I always say, I'm on a journey with you. I try and give you all as many examples as I can of how I use this stuff in my daily life and how it works, and I know it works. It does so. Let's get it, let's get brainwashed. That's what I got for you today. If you like this episode, please share it with somebody, somebody that can benefit from this, somebody who is a friend or a family member, somebody who has goals and is trying to improve their lives. And also, please, become a supporter of the show. You can choose a monthly amount. It can either be $3, $5, $8, or $10. You can cancel at any time, but why would you ever do that? Let's go ahead and get to this music.
Speaker 1:The song we're writing out today is Soul Food. Let's ride out. Yeah, you see, people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. People will never forget how you made them feel. Rest in peace, maya Angelou. She always kept it real. See, I wanna make you feel it deep down in your soul, like a home cooked meal.
Speaker 1:I'm talking soul food. I'm talking high quality, like whole foods. I'm talking. You don't need no mood ring for you to see, I changed my whole mood because I had to. It's some things God let me go through because I had to, reflecting on my life. See, I got this soul food. I wanted fast food. I should have put a seat belt around my almonds and cashews. The way it drove me nuts.
Speaker 1:Right now it's a feast. Too. Afraid of the famine made me eat too much. Hopefully I don't speak too much. As our eyes close and heads bow Supposed to be grace. It sound like prayer.
Speaker 1:Damn, I'm stressed out. Please forgive me, but I've been stressed out. Lord knows I've been stressed out but I keep smiling, poking my chest out, my navigation broken cause I can't find the best route. Ain't nothing stopping I stay goin' my closet, pullin' my best out. I'm glad you came. I hope you hungry, let me pull your chair out.
Speaker 1:I made some soul food, yeah, some food for thought. Don't be rude, don't throw salt. My name ain't food. Keep it out your mouth, I know. You see I got sauce. I'm from the booth. That's hot sauce. I stay true to myself and keep it a hundred. Something that can't be. Ain't no beef or gravy, don't forget. It's take three. I stir the pot like jambalaya and that's work to my auntie, cause I been feeling hungry. Now I'm feeling hangry. I feeling like I'm the tightest.
Speaker 1:Some of y'all got the itis, like you, eating barbecue, chicken, macaroni with a side of baked beans. Yeah, they sleeping on me, chip on my shoulder, eating good. So I keep it on me. I made my own lane by myself and ain't even lonely like what up. I had to pull some bread out to buy some greens on fresh out, because I need a blunt as long as a dreadlock.
Speaker 1:I feel like I'm a psychic. I know I'm making your head now. I know I really need to stay focused. Just let go and let god christmas came, I pull out the bourbon. This ain't for no eggnog and for no soul food. Yeah, and I hate being broke with a passion.
Speaker 1:Had to hustle. I made it happen. Every time I start making cabbage or collard greens or mustard greens, I turn up. Yeah, I used to trust everybody had to break the habit. Nowadays, if I don't know you, I don't trust you. Like potato salad Nowadays it don't take much to be small things that make me happy.
Speaker 1:I just want some fried chicken wings and red beans made by my granny. Rest in peace to my granny. Rest. Rest in peace to my granny. Rest in peace to everybody I ever lost in my family. Rest in peace to my mama.
Speaker 1:Some things in life just gotta happen. I probably need therapy. At least I'm aware of it. That's why I sound like a vent when I'm rapping. I probably should talk about shit when it happen, for whatever reason. It don't feel manly. I need some soul food.
Speaker 1:I'm in the kitchen. I wanna cook for ya. I'll even do. Stay a while. You see me with a smile. Don't mean I'm weak, so don't try. Ain't nothing sweet but potato pie. Speaking of pie, I need me a slice. I'm talking financial stability. I'm done with humble pie. I'm just a humble guy. I gotta switch up my energy. I gotta get my head together, cause I don't know what they got into me. I can't let quarantine get to me, starting to get to me mentally. It go to my head. Somebody make me a plate. I'm going to bed but I'm still thankful. You better thank the Lord for your daily bread, cause you got a soul and you got to feed the soul. It got to stay fed and wash it down with some Kool-Aid. Guess what flavor? You know it's red. Who got the dominoes? Who got the spades? Uno, you know I pled. You don't know how. You better not sit down, no-transcript.