A bad mindset is dangerous, it’s sneaky.

It'll torment you during the day, and if you think of seeking out a solution it will convince you that it’s too hard to change, that the suffering is merited-the pain is romanticized.

To help you stick with it when your brain whispers, “it’s not worth it,” over and over again, I will empower you with the awareness as to why this happens.

Before I tell you the problem I want to make this disclaimer clear-it’s hard, not complicated-use the tools-it’s simple but it’s hard.

If you want to feel at peace and think you can stick it out, keep reading.

Mindset

Your mindset is a bridge…

On one side you have your beliefs.

Your beliefs want to be expressed.

But to be expressed they need to work their way from where they are (beliefs) to where they want to be (actions).

The path is simple:

Beliefs → Thoughts → Actions

Your mindset is the first arrow. It is the bridge between your beliefs and thoughts.

It’s your mindset’s job to make sure your beliefs get there in one piece.

This brings us to the problem…

The Problem

You have an old bridge.

And so your beliefs make it across…

But they make it to the end bruised, battered, and skewed.

By the time they make it across the second arrow, the message of the original beliefs are no more.

So what exactly is the problem?

Your brain is efficient. If it has to repeat something multiple times, it will form neural circuits in place of conscious focus. You can tell if something has a well-formed neural circuit when it feels like second nature or is a habit. It’s why overcoming negativity can be hard, it’s a circuit within your brain.

This means you can upgrade your beliefs, but still, have your old neural circuits skewing them as they transition to thoughts.

It’s like trying to run the latest IOS on an iPhone 4. The software will never reach its full potential because the hardware won’t allow it to.

Luckily there is a solution.

The Solution

The brain can adapt and change through a process called neuroplasticity.

This means you can change/make new circuits in your brain and is the reason a growth mindset can exist.

You’ll be able to upgrade your hardware to match your software.

Today you are going to learn 4 techniques you can start applying right now to bring peace to your mind:

1. Act Your Way…

“easier to act yourself into a new way of being, than to think yourself into a new way of being.”

Confidence comes from competence.

The best way to grow in any field is by having skin in the game.

Let’s systemize this to make it actionable:

Part 1 is to identify 3 things:

1. How would your ideal self act?

2. How would your bad/current self act?

3. What actions of question #1 is fear keeping you from doing?

Ideal Self

Imagine how you would act if your beliefs were being expressed.

Would you…

• Always tell the truth

• Work hard

• Be happier

• Etc.

Anti-Self

Now picture how you currently act and how you would act if you were ‘worse’.

Would you:

• Be a slave to your emotions

• Be lazy

• Be a victim

• Not do what you should/want

• Etc.

Fears

This is easiest to explain with an example:

First, pick an action that your ideal self would do (you found this in step 1).

Specifically, one that scares you.

Let’s use the example of talking to a crush/having a significant other.

Zoom out and identify some of the actions you have to/should take to achieve this state of being.

In this case, some actions are:

• Talking to people/your crush

• Making eye contact with people/your crush

• Being in the same place as your crush

Take each action and ask yourself:

“Would I/could I do this right now?”

You’re looking to find which actions scare you.

Say:

• Being in the same place as crush

• Making eye contact with the crush

• Talking to people in general

Once you have identified and made note of the information in steps 1, 2, and 3, move on to part 2…

Part 2: Act

Part 1 is about gathering information, part 2 is about using that information to become who you want to be.

Here’s how to do that:

The Ideal self & Anti-self

In steps 1 & 2 you learn…

• How to act

• How not to act

You should try your best to act in alignment with your ideal self (step 1) and try your best to act the opposite of your ‘worse’ self (step 2).

It’s unreasonable to be thinking about how to act every second of every day.

Instead, you should be consciously applying the information you gain particularly in challenging situations-situations where your 'old' self/'bad' self shows itself-these are the situations you are farthest away from being your ideal self.

For example:

If when thing at work get stressful you become irritable, mean, and rude, think about how your ideal self would act and curate your actions to be as similar as possible.

Also, think about how your ‘old’/’bad’ self would act and do the opposite.

This gives you something to chase and something to run from.

Fears

This step is simple…

Put yourself in positions where there is opportunity to face the fears you identified. This is necessary to be able to face your fears.

But how do we make sure you'll face them?

The answer lies in progression, start by facing your minor fears and working your way up to scarier ones.

Let’s say your fears are:

• Talking to people

• Making eye contact with people

Which fear is easier and more likely for you to face?

Let’s say the answer is making eye contact.

Start with short eye contact with people you pass on the streets or in hallways…

Then start holding eye contact in conversations with people you’re comfortable with…

Then people you’re less comfortable with…

Once you conquer your fear of making eye contact move on to talking to people…

Quick “Hellos” as you pass by others…

• Organize your fears from least to most scary.

• Split them into small doable steps.

• Work your way from the top of the list to the bottom

Before we dive in some more…

The Happiness Habits is live! It teaches you how to rid the brain of negative thought patterns and fill it with thriving thoughts of your ideal self. Consider checking it out

It’s free with the tools and the nuances of applications and uses all put into one resource for you.

2. Gratitude

Remember how I said the problem is you have outdated hardware?

Well, this causes you to be drawn away from the present/recent. This also causes the expression of your beliefs to be misaligned.

Gratitude practices work by bringing your attention to the present/recent moment.

It counteracts old pathways from a time gone by bringing your mind to the here and now.

Here’s how to do it:

Identify

Step one is to pick something to be grateful for.

This can be anything…

• The smell of coffee

• The Breeze

• The food

• Etc.

Hold it in your mind by writing down the filled-in statement:

“I am grateful for…”

Feel

Step two is to feel gratitude.

• Close your eyes.

• Take a deep breath in.

• Hold an image of the thing in your mind.

• With each, inhale feel/imagine awe and gratitude flooding your body and mind

• Take long exhales.

• With each exhale feel/imagine negative emotions flowing out of your body and mind

Repeat

Step three is to repeat the first two steps at least three times.

3. Suggestions

Your brain is like an old man, he wants to do things his way.

It likes to make things easy on itself. It does that by taking any common tasks and forming neural circuits allowing them to become second nature or in other words a habit.

This includes thought patterns as well. And is especially true for anything that we consider to be bad. This is because we have leftover hunter-gatherer brain mechanisms from a time when ‘bad’ things meant the possibility of death.

To change how the brain thinks it first needs to be given the possibility of a new way of thinking. But remember your brain is an old man set in his ways. And he won't listen to a word you have to say…

most of the time…

This old man happens to be a morning person, legend has it that if you catch him right upon waking he’ll listen to what you say.

So what do you tell him?

Traits

First, you must decide the traits/verbs you want to embody.

Here’s a list to help you get started:

• Smart

• Strong

• Disciplined

• Happy

• Peaceful

• Beautiful

• Joyous

• Infectious laughter

This is a snippet of possibility. You can embody as much of this list as you wish. You can also embody as many traits outside this list as you desire.

In any case, make note of what you want and move on to step 2…

Frame it in the present

Remember how the brain will make common tasks second nature?

Well if you can trick it into thinking that you already have these traits/verbs in this present moment. It will start to think it’s a common thing begin to make it a habit.

How to do it:

1. Fill in the sentence:

   “Why am I [traits/verbs]?”

2. Ask yourself that question a few times upon waking

You can fit all the desired traits and verbs into one sentence or repeat the question with different traits/verbs as needed.

4. Learn

Your old thought patterns took this route to becoming second nature…

• Something triggers thought (likely environment)

• Brain ignores

• Repeats step one until the brain starts to listen

• The brain sees it as common and forms a neural circuit

Your everyday thoughts were taught through repeated action.

You need a new way, a faster way.

It takes time to go from idea to neural circuit. However using what I am about to show you, you can fast-track the process.

Usually your brain has to figure out for itself what ideas to form circuits for.

Using this method you’re going to tell your brain “start building neural circuits for this”

This is how to do it:

The learning formula:

Practice/study → Do nothing → Adrenaline → Rest

Let’s break it down:

Practice/study

Put aside 15-90 minutes to practice being your new self.

What do you study though?

Option 1:

Employ Strategy 3: Suggestions but after asking the ‘why’ question, go deeper by searching for answers to the question.

Option 2:

Take on tasks that your ideal self would do.

For example:

You chose the trait ‘beauty’.

Think about the images this brings to your mind…

It could be frolicking in fields or gardening.

Whatever it is…do it.

Or perhaps peaceful and joyous is what you chose.

And the image in mind is reading a nice book while sipping coffee.

Go read a book that inspires you while sipping on coffee.

Do nothing

It’s exactly as it sounds.

After your focused bout of learning sit or lie down and close your eyes for 1-5 minutes.

Your brain will replay what you studied backward.

Allowing it to see it from a new angle and start to form connections.

Adrenaline

After doing nothing.

You’re going to spike your adrenaline.

The reason is, adrenaline helps you remember the events leading up to the spike.

Think about how this benefited us in nature.

Imagine hiking through the woods.

There are some broken branches, some scratched trees, and even some fresh dung…

You keep going, noticing these things but without careful attention.

Until you turn the corner and you’re face to face with a massive Grizzly bear.

Luckily you can sprint to safety.

But think, is remembering what happened after the spike in adrenaline important (running away) or is remembering the signs leading up to the dangerous event important?

Anyways that’s just a little fact to share the next time you’re at dinner.

The point is to spike adrenaline:

• Drink coffee

• Do some hard physical movement (not mentally straining)

• Do an ice bath

• Do/think about something scary

Rest

Rest is the time the connections start to form.

There are two ways I recommend resting:

Option 1:

Sleep/nap

Option 2:

NSDR (non-sleep deep rest)

If you don’t know how to do this go on to YouTube and follow one along.

Final notes:

Mindset mastery isn’t a linear path. There will be easy days and hard days.

When you’re tired and the day is creeping by at an excruciatingly slow pace it will be hard to remind yourself “we don’t talk like that anymore.”

But you must, it’s the path to mental freedom.

Stay strong, and do what you have to do when you don’t feel like it.

Your future self is smiling back at you. Thanking you for doing what you needed to do.

That’s all for this one.

Talk to you soon.

- Babbling Mind

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