4 Simple Yet Effective Steps to Rewire Your Brain

Hi ,
You've done well in life and business yet there's something more, something bigger and better you want to do. Yet despite the desire and no matter how hard you try, there seems to be something that stops you from starting or finishing. Sounds familiar? Mea culpa, I've been there too!

The big idea I'm itching to share in this podcast is that you can rewire your self-limiting stories into empowering neural connections by mirroring your harmful self-talk. I'll unpack this in four simple steps. I can also promise you that it's possible to rewire any mind and you can start right now. Yes, any mind, no matter how old or how stubborn can be rewired.

Before you say to yourself, "maybe later", I reckon I've got a good handle on what your world is like. You're time-poor, under pressure, and fending off lots of competition. One of the biggest challenges we have in our current environment is to have a flexible mind that's uninhibited by our performance-limiting beliefs and stories.

Sure, we can do nothing and follow on with "business as usual" yet the consequences are assured. Same results, lost opportunities, lost income, regrets of not having capitalised on a "sure thing".

However, if you take up the challenge to rewire yourself, some of the benefits likely to come your way will include faster and bigger results. Not to mention increased effectiveness, sharper focus, achieving results you've dreamed of for years, reduced paralysis of fear, minimal procrastination and a sense of contentment.

What are we waiting for? Let's rewire the mind in 4 simple steps.

Step #1: Identify and record your limiting self-talk and stories. (estimated time 60 seconds)

Your limiting self-talk and stories are most likely to pop up when we're either in an anxious or stressed out state. When this happens next time, recognise what's going on and record by writing, typing or dictating the thoughts, stories or beliefs that may be arising.

For example, "I'm never going to be top dog. There's always going to be someone smarter and better that gets ahead of me."

Step #2: Write out the counter evidence. (estimated time 2 minutes)

We want to give our brain some evidence to create an alternative neural connection compared to the one that is preventing us. List as much evidence as possible. The more evidence we can provide, the more we can bring the limiting stories, behaviours and actions out of the subconscious into the conscious so that we can challenge it rather than let it operate on autopilot.

For example, "I beat 27 people to gain my current position. I headed up that project team when no one else could..."

Step #3: Imagine you are directing your limiting self-talk and stories onto a loved one. (estimated time 2 minutes)

If you're anything like me, sometimes, we leave our emotions at home and find that no matter how strong the counter evidence we can find to reduce or stop our self-talk, it just doesn't work. The reason why it's so hard is that there's not enough emotional charge behind the counter evidence to fire the evidence for a more supporting story. In short, an event plus emotion results in a long-term memory. The more we recall it, the more we strengthen the neural connection and, finally, our subconscious automates the decisions and behaviours in order to save us effort. Which is why a self-defeating thought or story perpetuates itself over and over again.

However, when we imagine we're telling these stories to someone we love, the emotional region of our brain fires up and says, "This is totally wrong! How dare I treat my loved one this way by telling them that?!"

For example, I will imagine I'm telling my wife Anna a limiting story such as, “Anna, you're never going to get ahead. There's always going to be someone else who can do a better job than you in dealing with other people, leading them. You don't have the right people skills, not enough techniques or tools to..."

As you can imagine, I'm going to feel pretty horrible speaking to someone like this and the emotional regions of my brain fires up and quite rightly. So I start to refute these horrible accusations and the mind can't help but find evidence and a heightened level of emotion to counter these accusations. In short, it's a reality check as to how destructive our self-talk is and gives our mind the opportunity to forge a new neural connection.

Step #4: List the resulting counter evidence that comes from having the imaginary attack on your loved one. (estimated time 90 seconds)

List the counter evidence and the next time that limiting self talk or story appears, repeat the activity, especially the imaginary attack on a loved one. The more we create and revise the evidence while elevating our emotions, the more we start to strengthen the neural connection and prune away the old unwanted connections of the limiting belief or story.

Conclusion
That's it. You've just learnt one of the most effective, fast and powerful ways to rewire your mind in only 7 minutes..

Remember that the more evidence you keep discovering to counter a self defeating belief or story the faster we can eliminate it.

You can start this today, right now with those four simple steps:

Step #1: Identify and record your limiting self talk and stories (estimated time 60 seconds)

Step #2: Write out the counter evidence (estimated time 2 minutes)

Step #3: Imagine you are directing your limiting self talk and stories onto a loved one (estimated time 2 minutes)

Step #4 : List the resulting counter evidence that comes from having the imaginary attack on your loved one. (estimated time 90 seconds)

I'd love to find out how you go with this technique. Please shoot us through an email with any of your successes or challenges.