When shopping at a grocery store for the first time, your brain is completely alert and focused. Your conscious mind is actively looking for everything on your list.
Through a process of trial and error your brain will learn the most effective way to take action. Over time as you continue shopping at the same store it gets easier to find everything you need on your grocery list. You can stop using your conscious mind and start to make decisions with little thought or awareness.
This is why stores reshuffle their products at least once per year. They know most repeat customers are on autopilot. Changing the store layout is the best way to force customers to go down every aisle so they can buy more products. 1
The fact is when our conscious mind is not forced to work our actions are controlled by our subconscious mind. Our automatic mind is always creating habits through repetition which allows us to process information quickly and without much effort. Our brain can then focus on doing new tasks since routine tasks become easier to do. This is how we master the world around us.
Scientists estimate that up to 95% of our brain’s power is controlled by our subconscious. It is constantly retrieving data, storing it, and processing it.
This is why we spend most of our lives doing things we barely think about.
Our Data Bank that Stores Everything
Our subconscious mind is a huge data bank with unlimited capacity that stores everything that has ever happened to us.
Your brain is wired by every thought, belief, and habit that is stored in your subconscious. Anything you think and do in life depends on that wiring.
According to world-renowned expert on self-talk Dr. Shad Helmstetter, most of us have received negative programming that is now hard-wired into our brain. And those seemingly harmless words we have accepted as true “build up inside our subconscious minds, word by word, and thought by thought, eventually creating a brick wall of failure we often don’t see, much less how to fix.”
In Helmstetter’s book What To Say When You Talk To Your Self he writes:
“During the first eighteen years of our lives, if we grew up in fairly average, reasonably positive homes, we were told “No” or what we cannot do, or would not work, more than 148,000 times. If you were fortunate, you may have been told “No” only 100,000 times — however many, it was considerably more negative programming than any of us needs.”
Your success or failure in anything is dependent on what you tell yourself and what you accept from others to be true. To create lasting change, you need to first get rid of any negative programming and rewire your brain for growth.
The Power of Your Subconscious
All your beliefs, memories, experiences, habits, and skills are stored in your subconscious mind. It is your data bank that controls your daily life as you eat breakfast, drive to and from work, go shopping, brush your teeth, and sleep.
Your automatic mind is always at work creating new habits through repetition. This allows you to process information quickly and without much effort. It is also how you master the world around you. And why you spend most of your daily life doing things you barely think about.
All of your self-limiting beliefs are also stored in your subconscious mind. These beliefs are thoughts that you affirm over and over again and take to be true.
You created most of these negative beliefs without knowing it during your childhood. And these thoughts affect who you are and what you do every day.
The reality is your subconscious mind is designed to repeat past behavior and avoid change. If you don’t believe you can change and grow, you will probably not take any action.
Start by Capturing Every Thought
The best way to grow your mind and master your habits is to first learn how to capture every thought and not treat them equally.
Your thoughts are the beginning of everything you do. All your beliefs, actions, and habits start with a thought. And together they become your destiny.
Thoughts –> Beliefs –> Actions –> Habits –> Destiny
Any negative self-talk that’s telling you why you can’t do something or that you are not good enough to do it needs to be captured and analyzed.
Negative thoughts get in the way of learning and hold you back from reaching your full potential. By carefully monitoring your thoughts, you can rewire your brain for growth and overcome self-limiting beliefs that are holding you back.
Start by identifying any self-limiting thoughts during your day: “You are never going to change! Why try when you always fail? This is a waste of time.” This kind of self-talk comes from the negative programming that you received during your childhood and is now a part of your fixed mindset.
Unfortunately, everyone experiences self-doubt and insecurity but you can’t move forward when you believe in thoughts that hold you back.
Pave the Way for Future Learning
Your programming, what you tell yourself and what you accept from others to be true, will affect everything you think and do. To create lasting change you need to remove any negative programming and rewire your brain for growth.
Make a conscious effort to capture self-limiting thoughts, stop them, and replace them with more empowering thoughts. Tell yourself “there is no such thing as failure only learning” and “I believe in myself” to overcome negative self-talk.
Your mindset is your superpower and learning how to get rid of limiting beliefs is key to achieving your full potential in life. What you think will determine your success and failure in anything you do.
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Footnotes
- But mostly, it’s about getting customers to go down every aisle. Jeff Campbell, Why Do Grocery Stores Change the Layout?[↩]