Most everyone knows what the unconscious mind is. For those that don’t, it’s the mysterious area in the brain where “repressed” thoughts & emotions go.

It’s the most powerful force in us.

Unconscious in this way doesn’t mean “not awake,” such as being asleep. The unconscious mind is outside of your own perception, yet it exists.

The unconscious mind can be accessed through dreams, meditation, hypnosis, word repetition, visualization, and a few other strategies. The real question is though: how much does it really control your life? 

In my experience, too much. In fact, the unconscious dominates your reality. For today’s post, we shall investigate the true impact the unconscious mind has on your life, and how to change that.

In part 2, we will cover where the unconscious mind is and the shocking effects it also has on your health.

Note: This is not medical advice. The author is distributing information acquired through the study of work from John Sarno, Steve Ozanich, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, & Bessel van der Kolk. 

The Impact Of The Unconscious

The conscious brain contains what you actively feel, think, and comprehend. Actively think the thoughts “I am amazing” and you are working within the conscious brain.

The unconscious on the other hand can’t easily be heard, felt, or seen. It is theorized that unconscious beliefs & emotions long to “strive to consciousness,” or are the “framework” for your life.

I believe this to be true based on my own personal experiences, perspectives, & research.

The Unconscious At Play

For example, logically speaking it’s actually quite easy to make money online to travel the world. First you learn a digital skill (1-6 months), then you sell it & practice it (2-6 months), then you pack your bags and enjoy the world (whole process takes 3-12 months realistically).

Time & time again I meet people that say, “oh that’s so cool, I’d really like to do that!” Then they don’t.

I theorize the reason they don’t is because of unconscious limiting beliefs. By not taking action on this dream, they avoid unconscious fears.

If your desire to suppress negative unconscious feelings is greater than your desire to confront them, you will unknowingly seek paths to fulfill this desire. Many people say they want to travel the world, but they haven’t read one book on the subject.

Others read & read & read & read & read…. but never sell. They get stuck in a loop of living through fantasy, instead of through reality.

When they aren’t “making it happen,” their unconscious beliefs are not threatened. We are raised in a particular way that says “traveling the world is for the rich & lucky.” Even though this isn’t true, challenging a belief is quite difficult, so people avoid direct action.

They go to university, get a job, get married, work for retirement, all hoping that one day they can “travel the world.”

Logically, such a behavior is insane! Why not just do what you want? With our new understanding of the unconscious, staying poor, sick, and unhappy suddenly become explainable. People hold unconscious beliefs about life that are replaying over & over again.

My Experience With Changing Unconscious Beliefs

As someone currently “traveling the world,” I can attest that changing unconscious beliefs is ridiculously hard. The brain is an efficient machine. It seeks to automate (create patterns) to reserve energy.

This is actually brilliant. Most of our lives are habits, which is good so we can save energy for when we need it. We can change our habits, and our beliefs, but we should only do so one at a time due to the extreme difficulty.

From start to finish, it took me about 10 months to travel the world, give or take a month. I also had a snowboarding accident that shaved off 1-2 months of effective work in between.

Now, did it actually take me 10 months? If I would’ve worked as efficiently & effectively as I could’ve, NO. The hardest thing was over-coming limiting beliefs. The hardest thing is actually doing what you know you’re supposed to be doing.

The brain, in its attempt to protect unconscious beliefs, is sneaky. I often found myself doing “work for the sake of work.” That is, I was reading books I didn’t need to read, or doing work that wasn’t actually helping me move towards my goal!

If I had to do it again from scratch, I estimate 3-5 months is what it would take to get me where I’m currently at.

Identifying with your beliefs and assuming them to be reality is dangerous. Life is abundant in opportunity, and scarce in time. Belief identification leads to a perceived abundance of time (ie. I’ll do it tomorrow) & a scarcity of opportunity (because you struggle acting on opportunities).

Changing Unconscious Beliefs

I’m not an expert at this. I’ve got my own struggles. I’ve achieved a certain degree of success, but I’m finding I have “success barriers” that are preventing me from going even further.

Routine is the enemy of success. I decided once I achieved my desired goal I would take a break for a short while. Since then I’ve fallen into a routine, and the longer I stay in the routine, the harder it’ll be to break into a new degree of success.

Based on previous experiences, here’s how I did what I did to change my unconscious beliefs:

Small, Habit-Based Goals

It’s very easy to do a lot when you’re motivated. Unfortunately, you won’t always feel motivated. When I first started out, the goal was 30 minutes of work per day before lunch.

After a few days it became an hour, then stayed at an hour for a week or two. You can do more, but setting the minimum is important. On days when you don’t feel like working, just achieve the minimum!

This is building the habit that will help you achieve your new goal. Again, be slow. Too many times I see people (myself included) trying to do too much at once.

Remember, habits exists to reduce energy consumption. Building new habits requires energy short-term until they “settle.” If you try build too many habits or work too hard, you will be at an energy deficit!

Start small, work your way up. Focus on the daily habit you can do. It’s okay to go above & beyond (in my case working more than 1 hour per day of “travel the world” work), and I often did, but for days you don’t feel motivated, it is okay to do just the minimum. 

Visualize, Affirm, Repeat

If you truly want your goal, you should be able to set aside some time in the morning & night (1-5 minutes) to affirm what you want, that it’s possible, and visualize it.

Soon this will begin happening naturally. I recommend reading “The Science of Getting Rich” & “Think & Grow Rich.”

Thinking in a Certain Way helps you get rich because it opens you up to the possibility. It isn’t some magical woo-woo thing. All possibilities already exist, it’s just  a matter of opening yourself up to it!

You can also print posters, change your background, etc. to create visual images all over your room, workplace, phone background, and laptop background. This helps you remember why you are doing your goal.

Ask WHY?

Knowing your why really helps solidify things too. Before working on my goal, I wrote 100 reasons why I wanted to succeed in traveling the world while making money online.

Whenever I didn’t feel motivated, I’d pull out my sheet of paper and read through my list. It didn’t take long before I was motivated again.

The problem with school, university, and most jobs, is they don’t have a “why” or “reason for success.” There isn’t a clear reward!

If you know why you’re working so hard, and what the reward is for doing so, it will be no problem to put in the effort.

Having An Action Plan 

You need a clear & concise action plan to measure success. Not all work is created equal. There is effective work & ineffective work.

If you waste your time doing ineffective things, you will think you’re moving closer towards your goal, when you really aren’t. The brain is tricky like that. Fantasy, work for the sake of work, and receiving validation from others tricks yourself into thinking you’re actually successful.

Don’t try to get the world’s validation for achieving your goal before you’ve achieved it. It’s okay to have accountability, but I wouldn’t post about every small thing you’ve ever done.

After making a simple, bad website, lots of people will post it for the world to see on Facebook. Their friends & family will then validate it. The person feels good, like they’re actually accomplishing something, but they aren’t.

When it comes to money & travel, results matter, not validation.

Accountability

Find someone in a similar place as you that is motivated to succeed also. I had a friend and we’d regular update each other on success strategies & how things are going.

We could each try different things, then share what worked. This helped us both succeed more, and stay accountable.

Admitting to a friend that is working on succeeding that you didn’t put the work in is difficult.

Remember, accountability is different from validation. Accountability means you’re being held to legitimate work, not getting validation & praise for saying you’ll do the work. 

Doing What You Know Needs To Be Done

So, you’ve read through everything, now what? Do it!

Lots of people (myself included) will set up accountability partners, read books, set to-do lists, set goals, visualize, but then they will never actually put the work in. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s more common than you think!

Me & my other friend (who also got to travel through the world) realized that 80-95% of people in success Facebook Groups were complete bullshit. They were talking n’ dreaming, but never put in real effort.

Deep down, you know what really has to be done. If you created a clear action plan, and have a clear goal, then you should know what you need to truly do.

Don’t do random work. Don’t do random BS. Do exactly what you need to do that’ll bring you closer to your goal.

This is easier said than done. It’s insanely difficult. Like I said, I’ve achieved a certain degree of success, but upgrading is difficult. In fact, downgrading would be difficult too! I am “vibing” on a certain wavelength. Changing wavelengths is hard.

The Truth About The Unconscious

The truth is: the unconscious controls your life. Most of your life is habit. You are repeating yourself day and day on end, week and week, month and month, year and year.

Some habits are easier to see than others. Some are difficult to notice because they are long-term (things done over a month long period or longer).

At the end of the day, we must realize the unconscious brain owns us. It is far greater, far more powerful, far more “knowing” in our life than the conscious brain.

It is too much for consciousness to actively now at once, hence the term “unconscious.” You don’t know its there, but now you do.

Change the unconscious, change your life.

-Michael

In Pt. 2 we will cover WHERE the unconscious brain is and other shocking effects.