Success Secrets: Mind-Body 'Links"

Two links from Science Daily:

Body Posture Affects Confidence in Your Own Thoughts
"Researchers found that people who were told to sit up straight were more likely to believe thoughts they wrote down while in that posture concerning whether they were qualified for a job.

On the other hand, those who were slumped over their desks were less likely to accept these written-down feelings about their own qualifications."

Mediterranean Diet Associated with Reduced Risk of Depression
"Individuals who followed the Mediterranean diet most closely had a greater than 30 percent reduction in the risk of depression ..."

Imagine. Thousands of volumes have been written about confidence, positive mental attitude, etc. Yet, what if two of our most basic basic habits, our posture and our food intake, had an overwhelming effect on our entire view of the world and ourselves? One of the key takeaways of this research is summarized in the old adage: "man makes the habits, then habits make the man". Another conclusion might be that the evidence continues to come in that we have responsibility for ourselves. Even such intimate, and seemingly uncontrollable traits as depression, self-confidence, etc, are subject to the influence of self-responsibility. It is we, not our family history, that choose to sit up straight. It is we, not our genetic makeup, or our "class", etc, who are responsible for, potentially, our susceptibility to depression, etc. Imagine if 100 million people switched from therapists and pill-popping to merely sitting up straight and eating right.

I'm no opponent of either psychotherapy or psycho-pharmacology, but it is instructive to remember that, 50 years ago, the "well known fact" that exercise and cardiovascular health are linked, was not well-known at all. In 50 more years, the links between our physical selves and our psychological selves may turn out to be a commonplace assertion.

Certainly we associate confidence with an upright bearing. Soon I will be reviewing D.A. Benton's Executive Charisma: Six Steps to Mastering the Art of Leadership, which devotes an entire chapter to this fact. The chapter heading: "Stand Tall, Straight, and Smile".

Mind Power: Research Confirms Power of Visualization

I have written before about my own and others' strongly held belief in the power of visualization (for instance here and here ). Well, stop the presses. A post in Smart Economy Entitled Mind's Eye Influences Visual Perception details scientific research that has found that, to quote Smart Economy "what we see with the mind's eye directly impacts our visual perception" Smart Economy again: This is the first research to definitively show that imagining something changes vision both while you are imagining it and later on (italics mine).

There is also evidence, apparently, that the longer you visualize, the more your perception is influenced. This research may end up verifying what a lot of people thought was kind of "spooky": all the claims that repeated visualizations, guided imagery, even goal-setting, "treasure mapping", etc. do have at least some basis in scientific research.

"You'll see it when you believe it" May be truer than any of us can have imagined. Please read the entire post.

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Commentary: Major Definite Aim

I recently posted about Napoleon Hill’s concept of the Major Definite Aim, and how my own recent experiences with it have, for me, confirmed its value as one of the greatest success principles. I came across an interesting anecdote in Harold Evans’ book They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators, an exhaustively researched collection of biographies of the inventors and entrepreneurs that , innovation by innovation, created our modern world over the last two and a half centuries.

Leo Hendrik Baekeland was the brilliant chemist who created Bakelite, the revolutionary plastic that transformed industrial design in the first half of the 20th century. He was blessed with superb scientific gifts, and turned down the prospect of professorships in his native Belgium to try his luck in America.

But brains aren’t enough.

At one point facing isolation and ruin , seriously ill, and with growing debts, he was clearly facing utter failure. Then, in Baekeland’s words:

“..it dawned upon me that instead of keeping too many irons in the fire, I should concentrate my attention on one single thing which would give me the best chance of the quickest possible results”

That “one single thing” of course was the Major Definite Aim. Baekeland went on to make a fortune.

The instructive point here is that brains, hard work, or any other talent, are only a single component of the success puzzle. The Major Definite aim focuses the mind, and even the brightest of the bright can benefit immensely from it. We cannot merely work hard (a prerequisite, of course, for any achievement) , but we have to think about how to best focus that work.

One single thing.

So simple. So profound.



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Commentary - Does "The Secret" Really Work?

This post was once a “thought” . Now it’s a “thing”. Thoughts become things every day. Your favorite movie? It was once a thought. Now it’s a thing. That piece of music you love? Once it was a thought, now it’s a thing. Even you yourself very probably are the result of a thought (the love of your parents) which became a thing (you!).

I ask you point blank: what “things” (as in results we want in our lives) were not thoughts first?

So, why do people say “The Secret” doesn’t work, when we turn thoughts into things every hour of every day (or we wouldn’t even be able to order lunch)? I think what they are saying is “there is no spooky ‘thought wave’ that goes out into the universe and moves the pieces around and…voila, there we are in a Rolls Royce, tooling around town with our dream mate”. Or, they might mean…”oh sure thoughts turn into things, but not really cool, amazing things”.

Ok, if you say so. Now, personally, I am quite open to the proposition that there is indeed some kind of energy that does just that, but, frankly, for most dreams and aspirations, it is unnecessary to postulate such a supernatural force, since most dreams that people achieve can generally be traced backwards in time to a series of very simple actions, that eventually led to the result they were seeking. And before the first of those simple actions…was a thought.

I think “The Secret” becomes much less of a “Secret” if it is understood, in part, as a metaphor: no one is saying that thoughts become things with no intermediate step between the thought and the thing.

Let’s say you are age 9 and want to run a big company someday.

The probability that you will success increases s as we take action..

Kid, age 9 wants to be CEO (1,000,000 to 1)
Starts selling baseball cards every day after school (500,000 to 1)
Gets noticed by local merchant who hires him for odd jobs (100,000 to 1)
Scholarship to undergrad where he starts more businesses (50,000 to 1)
Scholarship to business school (40,000 to 1)
Becomes entrepreneur, tries several business, fails (30,000 to 1)
Devotes 18 hour/day building a business (15000 to 1)
Listens to input from everyone, makes his own decisions (1000 to 1)
Develops skills in sales, finance, leadership, product development (100 to1)
Becomes “overnight success” in only 45 years. (Probably a slam-dunk)

When I watch “The Secret” and think about my own life progress I think of the initial “visualization” that impels me to :

Ask others constantly on what to do and how to do it and who to do it with
Research. Buy, beg, or borrow every book, tape, article, or course that can help me
Study. Work it out. Get the concepts down.
Devote huge amounts of time. Big successes take big amounts of time.
Use the feedback from previous efforts to generate new ideas. Then try those ideas. Repeat process over and over.
Try a million possibilities. You have to enjoy the “trying” stage.
Accumulate capital. You need a firm base.
Find experts. It is the peak of hubris to believe you can invent every procedure, do every job, make every decision, know every part of the business on your own.

There is clearly a high probability that “thoughts” will become “things” when we allow the thought to inspire us through the process.

I believe that people think ”The Secret” cannot take them to bigger dreams is because:

1. They don’t realize that this dream may be associated with a long period of work (years or decades) and
2. They don’t understand that often the steps are not known, but have to be invented along the way, as an iterative process, based on incoming data from the previous step.

All along the way in this process, thoughts become things. But a lot of the “things” are mundane things: a concept, a prototype, a business plan, market research, all are “intermediate things” that were once thoughts, leading to the “big” thing…the successful outcome, the fruition of our dream. But all along the way, thoughts were becoming things.

It is particularly important to remember the tenets of the Secret in longer time-frame projects. Often, big dreams take longer. The Apollo program took the better part of a decade. Most large companies (Wal Mart, Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft) are the results of decades of iterative “thought becoming things” with each step growing out of the last. And speaking of big companies, can you imagine a Warren Buffett, a Michael Dell, a Bill Gates not spending most of his day thinking about and acting on what he wants? If we imagine the lives of the greats in any field, it would be hard to imagine they did not spend huge amounts of time concentrating on what they wanted.

And that’s no Secret.

Related Links:

My Success with Affirmations

Obsession

The Unconscious Mind Part 1

How to Attract Good Luck

Visit the Success Books Store

Techtags: The Secret Visualization Goals Achievement

Success Secrets - My "Resonance" Experience Part 1

I have been reading Doug Newburg’s The Most Important Lesson No One Ever Taught Me which appears to be a novelization of his Resonance Model. I have mentioned Newburg’s concept of Resonance in various posts here and here.

One of the ideas of the model, as I understand it, is to note how you feel at different times, contrasting that with the kind of mental state you’d like to have. This concept can be applied in many areas of your life, right up to the BIG QUESTIONS such as career choice, relationships, etc.

I have been keeping some ”Resonance notes” about my energy levels and have found the results to be very fruitful. I have found that , for me, several behaviors keep my energy flowing well throughout the day.

Some of the procedures are:

Keeping hydrated
Eating foods with less preservatives, and especially fresher foods
Mild aerobic exercise during the work day (over and above my regular workouts)


I have also noted more energy and serenity when I :

Am mindful of others’ feelings
Say empathic things
Stay quiet in conversation and avoid “preaching” or “teaching”
Write computer code
Help fellow investors


Conversely, I have identified some sources of major energy drains:

Sugary foods
Overeating
Responding angrily or gruffly to people


Now these areas are only small corners of life. Newburg has worked with “giants” world-class musicians, athletes, surgeons, etc., who practice this craft at a “macro” level. They want, in Newburg’s terms, a “low buzz” of constant energy, and, of course, a rich life being deeply involved in their work. I can now see how one can work at this process, slowly carving out and focusing on those “Resonance moments” when we are engaged, involved ,and at our best.

I will post further on my experience with this concept, and about Newburg’s book as I continue studying it.

Techtags: Doug Newburg Resonance Model Energy

Success Tools - The Affirmation Library

As I was reading Sandra Anne Taylor’s Quantum Success: The Astounding Science of Wealth and Happiness, I was impressed that she chose to end each chapter with a series of affirmations related to the subject of that chapter (confidence, Love, Energy, etc). It occurred to me to begin creating an Affirmation Library based on the affirmations in her book. I have been adding to my computer-based library each day from the affirmations in her book, keeping them in the categories she used in her chapters.

This way, I get to re-read each chapter’s affirmations as I type them into my WORD file, which could help impress their message into my subconscious. These affirmations also allow me to quickly review the messages that each chapter had to offer. And, down the road, I can easily review any or all of the affirmations when I need some for a specific area of my life.

Beyond the specific affirmations in the book, one could further add to one’s Affirmation library by creating specific affirmations for one’s specific life challenges (or successes): anything from a golf shot to a mother-in-law could be included in one’s personal Affirmation Library.

No one should consider distributing copyrighted material, of course, but certainly for one’s own archival purposes, an Affirmation Libray can be extended over a lifetime.

I am already finding that just a review of Ms. Taylor’s affirmations enables me to achieve a serene and positive frame of mind. A nice way to take a break during the day, too.

Related Posts:

My Success with Written Affirmations

The Unconscious Mind Part 1

The Unconscious Mind Part 2

How To Attract Good Luck

Visit the Success Books Store

Techtags: Affirmations Success Unconscious

Success Tools - A New "Twist" on Affirmations

I am going to suggest a new category of affirmation called “Feedback Affirmations” or “Reinforcement Affirmations”. Ever since the time of Benjamin Franklin, the self-improvement literature has suggested that we:

a) Decide what we want then ...
b) Write it down, and then ...
c) Go about our day trying to achieve it.

But there hasn’t been as much literature on reinforcing the desired behavior when we do it. And yet, reinforcement is what instills good habits, and even “hooks” us on repeated success. Certainly, a personal coach or friend can give us a "pat on the back", but how about at the "micro level" , moment to moment, down in the "trenches" where it really counts?

So here is my suggestion:

Pick a habit or goal

In a pocket notebook, write at the top of the page : “I am fulfilling my commitment to _________________ by: "

Then as your successes go forward, immediately write them down as they occur to you.

Example:

I am fulfilling my commitment to better serve my clients by:

1/1/05 Returned all calls within 1 hour
2/2/05 Turned proposal around 3 days in advance of deadline
3/3/05 Chose to help the client make changes instead of fight with the client.

I speculate that the unconscious will then begin to look for opportunities to fulfill those commitments, knowing that we will have the opportunity to write them down immediately. I further speculate that we will find ourselves concentrating throughout the day on fulfilling these commitments, and not just at the time we make the affirmation (i.e. in the morning, etc).

As the commitments get fulfilled, and the successes mount up, this technique may prove valuable, and even create a “virtuous circle” of more affirmations/more reinforcements, etc. as we “catch ourselves in the act of doing something right”.

Related Links:

My Success with Written Affirmations

The Unconscious Mind Part 1

The Unconscious Mind Part 2

How To Attract Good Luck

Visit the Success Books Store

Techags: Affirmations Reinforcement Feedback Benjamin Franklin

Success Tools - Your Intentions for Today

I am continuing to study Sandra Anne Taylor’s Quantum Success: The Astounding Science of Wealth and Happiness, a treasure-trove of personal development techniques. Time and again, she draws a parallel with quantum physics: the observer is a component of the observation. In quantum physics, the results of a measurement are, to some extent, dependent on the intentions of the measurer. Why is this true? They don’t know. Are we picking “one of many possible worlds” when we make the measurement? Are we “collapsing” a probability wave? Speculation continues.

It is easy to see how this translates into life. First and foremost, life is a series of probabilities, not certainties. How we prepare ourselves is, arguably, more certain than when and how we receive the results of our preparation. Even more closely parallel to the quantum metaphor, every single action we take is only one of a vast series of actions that we might take. Every word we utter, every route we take walking down the street, is only one of a myriad of choices we make from moment to moment. But, now we throw the concept of intention into the mix. If we assume that what we see, do, and experience is related to the intention of the measurer (i.e. our own intentions), if we truly believe that the “world out there” is only observable through the lens of our intentions, then the entire concept of our daily intentions assumes immense importance. We are going to see what we look for.

So, how do we “set up the measurement” so we see a world full of fulfillment and achievement?

One specific exercise that I found in Taylor'sbook, seemed to focus on the Intention concept with great clarity. She recommends spending “ a few minutes each morning meditating on or writing about your intentions for that day”. I suspect the results of this meditation would be very powerful, because such an excercise would “set up the measuring apparatus” for our day: what we intend to see, how we intend to feel, what about ourselves do we intend to honor, how and why we will go about our activities. The frame for the picture.

When we think about it, isn’t that what truly great people, people on a mission, people who have grasped their destiny…isn’t that what they must be doing? I cannot imagine a Bela Bartok saying to himself “gee, hope I write some good music today” or a Michael Dell saying “gee, I hope I run the company OK today”. Clearly, they have a rock-solid conviction that then plays out in results. Now most of us are neither Bela Bartok nor Michael Dell, but Ms. Taylor’s exercises very well might inculcate the kind of mindset, that bedrock of clear intention, that produces such towering achievements by those great ones among us.

Do you intend to find out?

Related Links:

Changing our Thought Patterns

Taylor's "AQ" Technique

Techtags: Sandra Anne Taylor Quantum Success Law of Attraction Intention

Success Tools - Taylor's "A.Q." Technique

I have been reading Sandra Anne Taylor’s Quantum Success: The Astounding Science of Wealth and Happiness” and here, I noted a really original technique she used to help erase negative self-talk. Indeed the book is filled with many novel insights on how to re-write those negative energies that seem to be “hard wired” into all of us . I would like to mention another technique that, again, goes beyond more traditional modes of personal affirmations.

In her chapter on ”The Power of Energy” she asks the reader to take a simple 10-question “A.Q.” (“Attraction Quotient”) test which allows you to score yourself on several dimensions of your personality (i.e. “Do you feel optimistic about your future?”). Then , she suggests, you write specific affirmations focused on the weakest-scoring questions in the quiz you just took.

Again, as in the "negative though replacement" technique mentioned in my previous post, this is truly a practical use of affirmations. It is specific to each individual and laser-focused to improve those exact areas in which we may be letting ourselves down.

Needless to say, I strongly recommend this book, and there are countless other techniques here that I have never seen anywhere. I think the “Quantum” in the title is surely justified.

Techtags: Sandra Anne Taylor Quantum Success Thought patterns Affirmations Visualizations

Success Secrets - Changing Our Thought Patterns

I am reading Sandra Anne Taylor’s fascinating Quantum Success: The Astounding Science of Wealth and Happiness and, while this is not a standard “book review”, I want to highlight one very original (at least to me) technique that Ms Taylor suggests, because it seems to be a potential “breakthrough technique” related , but different from , affirmations and visualizations.

It is often said in the motivational literature, that we need to change our thoughts to change our lives, and certainly affirmations (oral and written) seem to have that effect. But how do we change our actual thought patterns? Sure, we can say affirmations throughout the day, but how do we change those reflexive habits of, for instance, judging others, or obsessive worry?

Ms Taylor suggests a two-part technique:

1. Write down the negative thought , such as “What if I don’t get that new job?”

2. Then replace that thought with a more optimistic conclusion, or multiple conclusions:

What if I do get that job?

If I don’t get that job, another will come along

What I like about this exercise is that an actual “erasure”, if you will, of the old pattern, occurs, right at the time we are experiencing the worry, self-criticism, etc.

I believe this exercise really has the potential to change our thoughts as we initiate them. I would guess that, over time, the repeated “canceling out” and replacement of that pattern might result in major life changes.

Techtags: Sandra Anne Taylor Quantum Success Thought patterns Affirmations Visualizations

Success Secrets - More on Doug Newburg

In a recent post, I mentioned an interview with Doug Newburg, and expert on the psychology of outstanding performers in all fields. He has developed a psychological model called the “Resonance Performance Mode” to gain insight into how high-performers think and act, and also how this model can help the rest of us achieve higher levels of excellence in what we do. There is an excellent paper on this subject , Resonance, Leadership, and the Purpose of Life which, it seems, is permissible to read, but not quote. I strongly urge people to read this excellent paper.

Another paper on the Resonance Performance Model , available online, is entitled “The process of performance of youg track athletes: A resonance-based intervention”.

The researchers created a methodology for applying and evaluating the Resonance Performance Model as their subjects (Student athletes) went about their sport and their lives over a period of 10 weeks.

Here are a few points that the study dealt with:

The athletes learned to identify and describe their Dream feelings - - the feelings that they want to feel when they are performing at their best

Though journaling, repeated interviews with the researchers, and other techniques, the athletes were able to more carefully refine the nature of their Dream feeling. They were able to discover what actions (internally, and in their outer world) aided them in achieving those states (such as eating habits, their choice of social situation, etc).

A fascinating finding: The athletes were then able to use this “reflection” technique to change their behaviors so as to be able to get back to the “dream feeling” in their competition more easily. In other words, beyond the technique of “visualization”, these athletes were able to use the “revisiting” of the Dream feeling as a motivation to change their behaviors, moving them more efficiently towards the feelings they were seeking.

To me, it is logical to believe that only a very small part of the population (those with very high abilities in introspection) could achieve this particular feedback loop without being guided as to how to do so. However, the results of such a process in any pursuit of excellence in our lives, could have an exponentially positive l effect on the success of all of our endeavors.

As I mentioned in my earlier post on this subject, this line of thought seems to me to be a step beyond the traditional methodology of goal-setting. Where goal-achieving seems more like working against an “obstacle”, it seems to me that using the re-capture of an ideal state as a motivation tool is the difference between “pushing against” a closed door, and being magnetically “pulled” toward a higher plane of experience. It also seems logical to me that the mind seeks “states” and not “things”.

In my own life, a few years back, I found that every night that I drank alcohol, I woke up either with an upset stomach, or a headache, or even just a “polluted” feeling dragging me around all day. I realized, as I grew clearer on this, that I valued a clear head, and the absence of physiological “static” more than I valued the drink of alcohol. On a given night, I could “project myself” into the next morning, desiring to have that “clear-headed” feeling without impediments to my functioning. So, I don’t drink alcohol very often. I find I can use the “magnetic pull” toward that good “morning” feeling. It doesn’t really feel like “abstinence”, because I am remembering how good I feel in the morning, and also, how bad I feel if I have had a few drinks the night before. I think the “Resonance” process is a good explanation for this. I look forward to some experimental journaling to pull me toward more “Dream” states in other parts of my life.

I must also mention how gratifying it is to see more and more rigorous studies of "success processes" that many of us believed were true, now confrming our intuitions. I recently mentioed some studies of the unconscious here and here.

Tech Tags: Doug Newburg Resonance Performance Model Motivation

Success Secrets - Doug Newburg Interview

As I was reading John Eckberg’s remarkable The Success Effect: Uncommon Conversations With America's Business Trailblazers, I came across his chapter on Doug Newburg, and expert on high-performance, successful people. The newspaper article which was the original source of the chapter is here.

Newberg’s research rings true to me, and provides an understanding of the kind of questions that I have often pondered regarding personal achievement:

• Why did I find my list of highly detailed goals so difficult to look at?


• Why did more general, “intentional” visualizations work better for me?


• Why did I get such a “high”, working at my old career till all hours of the night, and, similarly, why was I so fascinated with my new career that I could write computer code for 14 hours at a stretch, sometimes forgetting to eat several meals?


• Why do rich, successful executives keep working, when they could easily retire to Palm Springs and play golf the rest of their lives?

As I understand Newburg’s work, truly successful people experience a “resonance”. What they love to do inspires them to get better at what they do, and to continue to do more of what they do. A “virtuous cycle”. This is analogous to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of "flow" . I mentioned a similar state in my post on obsession.

The truly successful go where their talent tells them to go. And they do it in their own way: they don’t necessarily micromanage their disciplines and habits, and Newburg’s research suggests that too much rigidity and organization can actually hurt progress.

Success can involve ongoing positive results,(money, recognition, etc.) of course, but Newburg uses the term “profound esthetic happiness” to describe the state of a fully engaged, successful person. They like to win, they hate to lose, but they are really in it “for the love of the game”.

He advises keeping a journal for a couple of weeks, primarily for the purpose of noting down what activities truly engage you even for a moment. The highly successful people respond strongly to that feeling of engagement. They worry less about failing and spend more energy focusing, with great fascination, on what they love to do. They “get lost” in an ongoing stream of attention, punctuated by positive feedback from the results of their actions.

Now, in the interview, Eckberg raises the question, “what if you’re not good about what you ‘resonate’ from?” And, it’s true, there are a lot of lousy golfers and garage-band musicians. But that doesn’t necessarily invalidate Newburg’s thesis that you will probably be most satisfied pursuing activities that you resonate with. Your unconscious leads you to them, because it “knows” you are good at them, or could be good at them. You are going to tend to stick with activities that provide some kind of positive feedback loop.

Newburg’s thesis pulls together a lot of what I have posted before regarding the unconscious (here, and here), affirmations (here and here) and the concept of obsession (here). The model that is emerging is:

• Keep aware of what engages you, if only for a moment


• Experiment with pursuing that area, or related areas


• See if you continue to feel good about the possibilities and/or immediate feedback


• Don’t get to stuck in overly-detailed goals and procedures


• Keep in mind generalized “future pictures”


• Don’t be afraid to work intensively and for extended periods as your interests dictate. Forget about “balance”.

In my life I have indeed experienced several moments of Newburg’s “profound esthetic happiness”. They were not necessarily connected with the highest-paying job, or the most profitable day. These experiences were a feeling of “rightness”, or what Newburg calls a “low buzz of energy”. I strongly feel that such a response is “hard-wired” into us, and that it can be a supreme guide for the direction of our lives.

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Techtags: Peak Performance Achivement Success Doug Newburg Flow

Success Secrets - The Unconscious Mind Part 2

Is science beginning to validate many long-felt beliefs about unconscious creativity and decision making? Consider the following anecdotes (or imagine your own):

We write written affirmations about future success, and they come true over time without detailed plans being formulated.

Detailed plans seem to get “stale” and awkward quickly, while our focused “intentions” seem to take us where we want to go more gracefully, surprisingly, and naturally.

We “sleep on” a problem and wake up with a feeling of certainty about a solution.

We’ve made lengthy lists of “pros and cons”about a decision but we don’t “feel right” about the answer.

A creative director is known for his tendency to wait patiently for a great idea, never forcing it, and brilliant, “out of the box” solutions ensue.

Mozart, in spite of the appearance of rapid composition, actually claimed he was “studying’ his composition during such activities as an evening of billiards.

Scientific progress is often associated with “happy accidents” in which unexpected findings are later perceived to be the answer to a problem under investigation, or perhaps even the door to an unexpected innovation.

In a recent post, I alluded to a fascinating PDF by psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis entitled “A Theory Of Unconscious Thought”, which detailed an exquisite set of experiments he conducted (along with others) to parse out glimpses of the unconscious mind in action. In this research he also tentatively formulated some principles that seem to characterize unconscious thought.

It appears that science is beginning to study seriously these anecdotes about unconscious thought, and is validating claims that the unconscious truly does have awesome information-processing capacity. Furthermore, apparently, in certain areas, this capacity dwarfs the capacity of the conscious mind. I find this research encouraging since the results seem to feel much more "true” or “natural” than the point of view that conscious decision making has all the answers. After all…if I had to use my conscious mind every morning, I might never make it to the coffee pot!

Here are just a few tantalizing concepts that Dijksterhuis has presented in this fascinating research paper:

• The capacity principle: the more variables in the problem, the better-suited the decision task is for the unconscious.
  
  
  
• The conscious mind likes to work from “schema” and therefore tends to pick a single, “most valid” path upon which to build further decisions,. As Dijksterjuis puts it: “During conscious thought we quickly create our own guide to further thought, while “unconscious thought uses information in a (relatively) unbiased way and slowly integrates this into an objective summary.”



• The subconscious weights different decision factors better than conscious thought. Dijksterhuis: “Conscious thought leads people to put disproportionate weight on attributes that are accessible, plausible, and easy to verbalize”.



• Longer periods of unconscious thought appear to produce even better solutions than short periods.



• Unconscious thought is less focused and tends to be more “divergent” than conscious thought. This leads often to a wider range of alternatives and solutions.



• In tasks with many variables, conscious thought seems to lead to less-satisfying solutions than unconscious thought.

All of this data is not intended to marginalize the conscious mind. Dijksterjuis’ research stresses that conscious thought is absolutely necessary for “encoding” the data from which decisions are made: you acquire as much data as you can, before submitting the decision to unconscious thought. He postulates that this "encoding" is one of the reasons that “intuition” and split-second decisions by experts is so accurate: if you have had a lifetime of experience in a field, you have, in effect , consciously “encoded” a large store of information that your unconscious has access to in weighting decisions and producing answers.

One tantalizing conclusion that Dijksterjuis suggests is that the unconscious only produces these results when it has been “encoded” with a goal. Many of his experimental results vanish if his subjects are explicitly told, in effect “there won’t be a quiz”.

But I am wondering if there are many other implications of this theory. Consider the high proportion of Asian and Jewish kids that go on to professional careers after a lifetime of “dinner table talk” about becoming a doctor, say, or concert violinist. Such talk might include references to the achievements of relatives, family friends, etc. Could this “dinner table talk” be encoding a goal orientation into these children such that they integrate incoming experience and data towards achieving those goals, which were set at such an early and impressionable age?

Do self-confidence, or even athletic ability manifest themselves in response to “encoded” childhood goals? And, as adults, can we use the power of “intention” and “affirmations” to encode our subconscious to produce the results we want currently and in the future?

I am no scientist, but it seems to me that we can envision the physical strata of the subconscious as a “neural net” in which the slow buildup of various “voltage potentials” play off each other until a threshold value is reached, which triggers the “solution notifier” neuron, which tells us the answer is in. (I warned you I was not a scientist).

Whatever the physical model, I find that Dijksterjuis’ research encourages me to appreciate the unconscious’ capacity for generating outcomes. After all, I trust my unconscious to tell me when I’m hungry, sleepy, fearful, etc. I trust it to make me move (relatively) gracefully. I trust it to help me program in code that it would be impossible to look up every day…and it seems we are at the “tip of the iceberg” in uncovering unconscious capabilities. My prediction: even more astounding results will come in, including remote cognition and precognition.

Just an “unconscious” guess.

Related Posts :

My Success With Written Affirmations

Scott Adams on Written Affirmations

Techtags: Innovation Unsconscious, Affirmations Intention Ap Dijksterhuis

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Success Secrets - The Unconscious Mind Part 1

I have posted in the past about my experience with written affirmations and of my occasional frustration with more explicit and “rational” goal-setting. It is very interesting to note that scientists are now seriously exploring and testing the results achieved by the unconscious mind.

In a previous post, here, I mentioned the online availability of Harvard Business Review’s “Breakthrough Ideas for 2007”. One of the mini-summaries included the work of Dutch Psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis who has done experimental work on the use of the unconscious mind in decision-making. His findings indicate that there may be provable scientific confirmation of the unconscious mind’s power to solve problems and even produce superior results to conscious thought. He posed problems to his test subjects and gave them the choice to decide the answer immediately, to think about it consciously, or to let the subjects’ unconscious minds work on the problems. His results.:

“… the unconscious thinkers ….. made better decisions, almost without exception, than the subjects who decided immediately or those who consciously deliberated.”

The article goes onto suggest that the conscious mind actually has very little processing power compared to the unconscious, and its main use should be for acquiring the data, not processing it.

In that vein, I have always wondered if I had a “screw loose”, because I often found answers to my problems in a “flash” of inspiration, but very rarely achieved good results from attempting to sit down and think through a problem. This article encourages me to use my conscious mind for hunting for valuable inputs (such a s my work on this blog) and then allowing my unconscious mind to craft some of the solutions. This was standard practise in my previous career, a creative field where I naturally came to solutions through “flahes of inspiration”, and now I see that the possibilities for achieving results in less obviously creative pursuits are also there.

Dijksterhuis has also written a paper, entitled “A Theory of Unconscious Thought”, which is available here.

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Techtags: Ap Dijksterhuis Unsconscious Affirmations

Success Secrets - My Success with Written Affirmations

I consider myself a student of success techniques, and when one of them is working particularly well, I want to pass it on. Currently, I am finding that the technique of written affirmations is working particularly well.

Here is my story. Two and one half months ago I began writing down two affirmations on a daily basis. I wrote each affirmation 10 times. One of these affirmations, concerning bringing people into my life, is working particularly well. The question is, is this an unusual outcome, or could it be expected? I would, at first, try to determine if the outcome (a whole lot of people entering my life) is expected. After all, I am a big fan of networking, and I follow Keith Ferrazzi’s teaching of regularly “pinging” a number of people in my life. But here’s the interesting part: the people calling me and emailing me are not the ones I was pinging!! In fact, they are people who I had “let go of” because it didn’t seem like they wanted to hear from me. I find this particular side of it to be less explainable.

All I know is, it is working, and working consistently.

I will definitely keep writing down affirmations. By the way, I got my idea for returning to this practice (which I had neglected for a while) from a post by Scott Adams, which I reference here.

Techtags: Law of Attraction Affirmations Success

Success Books - "How To Attract Good Luck" Part 3

Here are a few other points from How to Attract Good Luck which I hope will inspire you to explore this book.

Carr repeatedly notes that luck is our reaction to chance based an a host of internal qualities we might have. For instance:

Luck can turn from bad to good in a moment so we have to keep our morale up. If we allow circumstances to beat us down, our optimism, and thus our ability to realize that our luck has turned, will be compromised

Another point Carr makes is that we have to know what we want in life. Otherwise we would not know what a “lucky” event is. You are a lot more likely to spot that used Mercedes-Benz if you know owning one is your dream.

So...what might affect our luck for the worse? Carr can give us some guidance here too. If we are obsessive about the wrong things, we are liable to suffer from a “tunnel vision” effect, and thus miss out on luck. Other might see us as a little unbalanced and not offer us the same kind of chances that they might offer to others. For instance, a workaholic might find himself less “lucky” in interpersonal areas because of his obsession wth his work.

Another factor inhibiting good luck is a misunderstanding of our own abilities: the would-be U.S. Open tennis competitor might not understand that she could be a better coach than a player, and miss such an opportunity. A great programmer at Microsoft might not anticipate potential trouble as a manager. Or a newbie trader might overestimate his investment savvy and lose a lot of money.

Finally, Carr encourages to examine our faculty of judgment. Our judgment, he tells us, can be clouded by our emotional state. Are you too anxious? You might perceive risks as greater than they are. Are you too overconfident..." riding high”? You might lose it all through a misplaced assumption that you can never lose.

These points are only a few in this true gem of a book. A true classic, How to Attract Good Luck should be on every bookshelf. And... good luck!

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Tech Tags: luck ability optimism

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Succes Books - "How To Attract Good Luck" Part 2

This is part 2 of a review of Carr’s How to Attract Good Luck. Carr uses the term “Zest” to describe an attitude: an outgoing, curious engagement with the world around us: people, activities, and ideas. Luck, basically is going to come out of an encounter with something new: a new person, a new possibility, a new thought...and the only way to get those things is to look beyond oneself, with a positive frame of mind.

Carr calls Zest “The Short Cut to Luck”. He reminds us that, to truly take an interest in the world around us, we must get past our own fears, anxieties, and self-centeredness.

Zest means being curious about other people, because you never know how another person might help you. Zest means curiosity about ideas: exposing yourself to new books and new concepts.

Carr also cites generosity as a key to good luck. Why does generosity lead to luck? Carr explains:

The concentrated favorable attention of others increases the probability that they will remember a fact or conceive an idea beneficial to your interests.

There are ways to be generous to almost anyone you meet, beyond merely financial generosity. Do you know a website they might like? An article or book that would help? Do you have a friend or acquaintance they might like to know? A store they don’t know about? Even a word of encouragement or understanding is an act of generosity. Would you go out of your way for someone? Take a call from them if they need someone to talk to?

Carr tells us...it might be a very lucky thing to do. He recounts case after case of strings of lucky events flowing from simple acts of human generosity. A lucky habit to acquire.

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Tech Tags: luck curiosity zest generosity

Success Books - "How To Attract Good Luck" Part 1

A.H.Z. Carr’s How to Attract Good Luck has been in print since 1952, clearly marking it as a classic in the success book genre and certainly worthy of inclusion on the same shelf as The Richest Man in Babylon” or Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. Carr has a remarkably scientific attitude toward luck, and, like many scientific minds before him, expertly strips away many levels of mysticism and metaphysics as he aims at a measurable, repeatable core understanding of how to increase your luck.

Consider a pitch thrown to Ted Williams, the last .400 hitter in baseball. We can visualize the pitches thrown to Williams as the events that occur to us in day-to-day life. As I understand it, Carr would say that Williams exposes himself to more pitches (by not swinging at bad ones) and knows exactly what to do in each area of the strike zone to make maximum use of the pitches that come at him. Certainly chance is involved: how good the opposing pitcher is, the winds and weather, the fielding abilities of the opposition...but...how much actual “luck”? Perhaps less than we imagine.

Similarly, for us non-batters, “luck” is :
1) Knowing what you are looking for (in a pitch or in life)
2) Staying positive about expecting it
3) Exposing yourself to enough events, so that you can reasonably expect a favorable one to occur
4) Recognizing it when you see it
5) Taking the right action, commensurate with your gifts, when you do see the right events come your way.

In Chapter 1 Carr explains that “it is our response to chance...that we call luck”, and the readier we are, the more lucky we will seem to be. Ready can be ready with skills, but one must also be ready psychologically. In other words, if all you are looking for is lemons, there won’t be any lemonade. Carr says of one individual “he is the kind of man whom it is easy for chance to help”.

There are many great stories of musical conductors (such as Leonard Bernstein) who were “lucky enough" to get a chance to conduct as a substitute for an ailing maestro at the last minute. This “stroke of luck” has launched many a career. But “luck” had nothing to do with years of musical studies and development...and certainly luck had nothing to do with being willing to answer the phone! Skill, preparations, psychological readiness, and actual willingness to do the job when it appears ... these factors certainly contribute to any “luck break”. And, as luck would have it, they are factors within our control.

Next...Carr’s discussion of “Zest”

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Tech Tags: luck lucky chance Ted Williams Leonard Bernstein