What is Mind Hacking and how can you make it work for our benefit?
Thanks to the latest findings from neuroscience research, we are beginning to see a massive shift in human thinking and Mind Hacking seems to be playing it’s part in reprogramming our minds for more effective personal benefits.
Regardless of circumstances, age, gender or personal challenges, Mind Hacking can effortlessly change mindsets and lives for the better, from the moment people start using the process and techniques.
As the phrase suggests, Mind Hacking is hacking into the depths of our inner mind, it enables us to identify and eliminate the things that get in our way, slow us down or at times, stop us completely in our tracks.
It then opens up space to unleash more of the untapped talent that resides within each of us and find answers to some of the most challenging questions we face in life and work, e.g.
· Why do I have such a hard time focusing with all these tech distractions to deal with?
· How can I turn down the noise and clear my mind to switch off more easily?
· What can I do to stop my emotions hijacking my moods?
· How can I enjoy life more now and worry less about the future?
· Why do I try to be what others expect of me rather than being my true self?
· I’m very capable, so why am I under-achieving against my potential?
· Where’s the solution for dealing with bad relationships, e.g. bosses, co-workers?
· How can I eliminate stress — e.g. worry, doubt or fear that drags me down so often?
· Should I be searching for my true passion, purpose or vocation in life, like everyone says?
In effect, Mind Hacking is modern day brain training that gives us shortcuts to re-program our way of thinking more easily, thus helping us to achieve our personal aims and objectives in life faster.
The alternative is that we can continue to try to improve ourselves the conventional way, with lots of effort and years of slow learning and progress, continually falling back into old habits like the elastic band that goes back to it’s original shape when let go of.
“The person you will be in years to come will be determined by how well you feed you mind today” Anon
How traditional computer hacking relates to current day Mind Hacking:
To quote one of the most famous computer hackers of all time, Richard_Stallman
“What they (hackers) had in common was mainly the love of excellence in programming. They wanted to make the programs they used be as good as they could be. They also wanted to make them do neat things… to be able to do something in a more exciting way than anyone believed possible and say “Look how wonderful this is. I bet you didn’t believe this could be done.”
Hackers are often seen as mavericks and geniuses that use their creative expertise to circumvent the limitations of a device or a piece of software and are often employed by major organisations to legally find vulnerabilities and improve systems security, against cyber crime in particular.
Mind Hacking is therefore, ethically tapping into and getting around the inbuilt barriers of the most sophisticated computer ever known, i.e. our brain and in particular, the deeper subconscious / unconscious mind that runs much of our lives on ‘auto-pilot’ because of the way it’s been programmed from the past and the fact that it houses our inner-most emotions too.
In Two Minds (see cover illustration)
How often have we said to ourselves or heard others say ‘I’m in two minds about what to do’ and often it’s a choice between ‘logic’ (conscious) and ‘emotion’ (subconscious / unconscious) isn’t it?
By understanding the difference between the ‘two minds’ we are able to re-program some of our thinking to unlock potential from our deeper mind and combine it more effectively with the power of the conscious mind.
“Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change (improve) their minds, cannot change anything” George Bernard Shaw
It means a shift in thinking and this is where Mind Hacking plays a vital part in helping us make effective changes because it gives us the required information to understand how our brain works (not academically but practically) and how to use it for constructive and beneficial improvements in our lives.
One key element in re-training / re-programming our mind is by using the technique of Mind-Hacks to convey a new idea with quick, easy, digestible shortcuts (summary lessons or stories) that can be easily absorbed into the mind in just a few minutes and acted upon immediately to aid our success.
Once received into the mind, they work effortlessly to interrupt the pattern of conventional (programmed) thinking to create new thought patterns, take control of emotions and ultimately, generate more successful outcomes, take the following example:
‘5 Minute Mind-Hack’ №1
The Four by Four Grid
(Courtesy of a story I recall from the late and great Zig Ziglar)
In the 4 x 4 grid below, how many squares are there?
The immediate answer normally given is 16 and I know that for most of you reading this article, 16 is the answer that automatically popped up from your subconscious storehouse of knowledge into your conscious mind.
If you slow down and think however, you will see more squares because the outer rim makes one square, as do the middle four squares within the grid.
Each corner of four also makes up another square and the same goes if you start at the top left of the grid, go along three squares, down three, back three and up three.
There are also another four squares if you look at the middle of each rim, i.e. go in one square from the top left and then just go down two, along two, up two and back two.
In all, there are 30 squares within this grid but how many additional squares did I add after the original 16?
Many of you will have answered with 14 because the difference between 16 and 30 is obviously 14 but this is our pre-programmed subconscious mind in autopilot again, it stops us from actually thinking because we want answers quickly and it duly delivers, but does it?
I never added any more squares, they were already there to see and all I did was bring them to your conscious awareness, no tricks or magic but just an insight on a different way to think and see things.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” Wayne Dyer
Regular exposure to these kind of insights can create quite a collective effect with little or no effort needed to put them into practice, e.g. a weekly mind hack that only enables us to improve our personal effectiveness by 1%, could potentially deliver improvements in excess of 50% over a period of one year!
Ask yourself if you can improve your personal effectiveness or income by 50% this year and you may well balk at the idea but 1%, and then 1%, followed by another and another… no sweat.
It’s an easy way to make significant improvements and was the method used by Dave Brailsford, which earned him a Knighthood, i.e. it enabled him and his coaching team to turn British Cycling into World & Olympic Champions and they termed the process as ‘marginal gains’.
“We are always striving for improvement, for those 1% gains, in absolutely everything we do” Sir Dave Brailsford
In Summary
Using the in-built capacity of our brains with techniques like mind hacks to effortlessly penetrate our minds and help accelerate our success and happiness in life is a choice and decision that only we can make for ourselves but consider this:
“Old ways won’t open new doors so if things are not going as you want them to or had hoped for, try another way” Anon
Finally, Here’s Some Support For You!
As they say ‘Insight without action is worthless’ so at the beginning of March I will be launching a FREE weekly ‘5 Minute Mind-Hack’ to provide short cuts to help people easily and quickly gain new knowledge.
Also, during late spring to early summer I will be launching an interactive online course that will cover the full process and techniques of Mind Hacking Made Easy.
If you’d like to be the first to know about my course when it launches and receive the FREE weekly ‘5 Minute Mind-Hacks’ directly to your inbox in the meantime, just click this link and let me know where to send them to.
Yours Positively,
Reece
Changing Mindsets — Changing Results
Reece’s Business Experience & Expertise
Reece has operated and led businesses across a variety of industries and sectors, adapting and passing on his learning philosophies in each one to create results that have gained him recognition for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Business’ awards in separate companies including FTSE 100. He’s helped grow UK businesses or business units of major corporations from scratch to nearly £20 million in annual revenues and high profit margins; these include a turnaround business services organisation, establishing overseas high tech propositions in the UK and leading top performing sales channels and transformation projects within major corporate organisations.
Originally published at medium.com