Entrepreneurship requires the most self-reflection, which means the most growth. You have to face every self-sabotaging behavior. You have to confront every fear that tries to tell you that you aren’t good enough, or that you’re not worthy of doing what you’re doing. Where do you start?
Bob Proctor, the famous author, philosopher, and CEO of the Proctor Gallagher Institute says ”change your thoughts, change your results.” To change the negative self-talk and self-sabotage, we must understand how the mind works.
Our mind is the CPU of our whole body. Before we put something into action, it is first sent to our brain for a response to follow. According to Bob Proctor’s research, we can change our minds’ thinking capacity to improve our life. “You have a superior power within you that surpasses all circumstances.” From the results of his study, our brains can change if we understand. Bob Proctor uses imagery to show how our minds are separated, though no one has seen it. We have the conscious mind at the top half of our brain and the subconscious mind at the bottom half of our brain.
The conscious mind is responsible for thinking and reasoning. It is where you affirm what you want and where to invest your efforts. The sensory factors and our intellect are housed in this top half of the brain. The conscious mind shows us the reality of what is actual and what to focus on. Focusing on your imagination will help you build something great. Not all data is accepted; some will bounce back, especially what you do not intend to do or hear.
The subconscious mind, unlike the conscious mind, accepts all data. It does not know how to reject. This is the part where you need to affirm a thought to become a habit. Therefore, if you have a dream, you need to continuously tell your subconscious mind what you want to focus on until it becomes a norm and then bring it into reality. If you can understand this, then you get to know that you are what your mind is.
The thoughts we have are actually habits. These habits might be self-made but are mostly inherited from other people. Thus, some people have the same habits and beliefs. Awareness is the first step. When we are aware, we are open to understanding.
The word subconscious literally means below awareness. This level of the mind is not the easiest to understand. Needless to say, it has tremendous power over perception and behavior. The function of your subconscious mind is to store and retrieve data. Your conscious mind commands and your subconscious mind obeys. Your subconscious mind is an unquestioning servant that works day and night to make your behavior fit a pattern consistent with your emotionalized thoughts, hopes, and desires. Your subconscious mind is like a huge memory bank. Its capacity is unlimited and it permanently stores everything that happens to you.
The thing with your unconscious mind is it’s very powerful and can, without your awareness, direct the course of what you do in your life. Your memories, your beliefs, and your fears become reality through your subconscious mind. Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich is very clear in explaining the subconscious mind. Unemotional words do not influence the subconscious mind. You will get no appreciable results until you learn to reach your subconscious mind with thoughts or spoken words that have been well emotionalized with belief. Your subconscious mind recognizes and acts only on thoughts that have been well mixed with emotion or feeling. Your subconscious mind is the gatekeeper of your comfort zone.
If you don’t feel you are good enough or worthy or capable, you won’t be attracting abundance. This is powerful and life-changing. Now that you have an awareness, you can understand that your awareness will allow you to confront your self-sabotaging behaviors as the place you start. You are in control of your whole body, just through your mind.
Unfortunately, you can’t just flip a switch and change your thoughts. It takes time, attention, and practice. However, the more you pause and think about what you feel, want, and need, the more you can experience the life-changing benefits of self-awareness and the thoughts recorded in your subconscious.