The Willpower Myth

When I work with clients I know that their goals are very much influenced by the power of the mind. Its not just about being consistent with the correct exercise and eating the correct diet with the right amount of calories for your size to enable you to shed body....most important is your MIND SET and this is the key to bringing it all together so that you can achieve this goals... This is where the coaching part comes in.

The nice thing about this little metaphor is that it allows me to point out the absurdity of the whole concept of "willpower" in the sense of the conscious mind overwhelming the subconscious with a show of brute force. Seriously, just imagine the chimp wrestling the elephant. Where's the "brute force" of the chimp? The elephant's just going to sit on him and the game is over. That, by the way, is exactly where every diet ends when supported by willpower alone. The subconscious is a powerful part of your mind. You can control it through persuasion but not with brute force.

The Elephant, the Stick and the String

In Indonesia, elephants are used in construction work because they are so powerful and yet obedient. All day long the elephant moves hundreds of tons of stone and wood and at night he is taken to his bed of straw and tied up. Do you know how big the rope is required to hold an elephant? It's just a little string tied to a stick driven into the ground.

You see, when the elephant was very young, he was tied with the same stick and string -- and he was too little to pull free. For the rest of his life, he remembers this and never questions the superior strength of the little stick and string. Think about it.

What are you really capable of? To be blunt, you have no idea. Your limitations are defined by childhood experience -- and bear no relation to your adult capabilities. Like the elephant, you are emotionally tethered by childhood ideas. Most of your adult personality is just a protective cage built by a scared child. What would you give to have the power to redefine yourself?

Now for the good news: you're not just an elephant, you're also part chimp! That could have sounded better but never mind. Your mind has a small, clever, conscious aspect that gives you the ability to reprogram your entire mind. That's right, your conscious mind (the chimp) has the ability to completely re-write and take control of your entire mental reality.

This ability defines humans -- it makes us the most flexible animals on earth and it allows us to train our minds to do amazing things. From playing concert piano to extreme sports, the vast power of the mind is tapped by this uniquely human capability.

Ok, so what does all this have to do with weight loss?

Remember, the elephant learns and repeats patterns of behaviour that are taught to it -- so the real question is "how to teach the subconscious". Here's the simple single trick that people need to understand. If you understand this simple principle then you can be the master of your own mind. You will also understand why our educational system doesn't work (but that's another article entirely).

Our subconscious mind ignores most of what we tell it because we bark at it in the wrong language. The language of the subconscious mind is EMOTION. Using the barometer of our emotion, the subconscious mind is able to determine the importance of any particular behaviour. For example, say that you're trying to learn a new skill. You're working hard to learn but you are not enjoying the task and your emotions are saying "this sucks, I wish I were elsewhere, how much longer is this going to take?" Well, it's going to take a lot longer because you're broadcasting to your subconscious mind the message "ignore this activity, just move along, there's nothing to see here." What was your emotional state, and how easily did you learn in high school?

It may not feel like it but you're in full control of your conscious emotions. And this is the fundamental method of programming the subconscious mind. It is, without a doubt, a form of natural hypnosis. Whereas traditional hypnosis works by moving aside the conscious mind, emotional programming works by using the conscious mind - but to the same effect.

Now for the dark side: remember how I mentioned that there are three aspects? Body, conscious and subconscious? Well, as it turns out, your body is busy programming your subconscious mind all the time. For example, you're hungry so you bite into a slice of thick cheesy pizza -- at which point your body screams out (on an emotional level) "this is good activity, very very good activity". Food cravings are actually subconscious patterns based on years of such programming.

Thankfully, the mind is fully re-programmable.

Now that you understand the basic mechanics of programming your mind, you can put it into practice right away. What you are going to do is to replace food cravings with exercise cravings. This technique is fun and very powerful because, rather than working against years of food programming, you're going to do some mental Ju-Jitsu and simply translate an existing food craving into a desire for exercise. Magic? It's better!

It's quite simple: first of all you're going to stop eating for a while (non-sugary drinks are ok). This is not a diet plan, we're not yet trying to lose weight. We're just trying to stimulate a hunger response. Now, when you begin to feel the initial sense of hunger, do this:

Breathe in deeply, relax, and feel the hunger -- then don't think of food. Instead, imagine yourself doing sit-ups and absolutely loving it. That's right, visualise yourself hungry and doing sit-ups and let a feeling of joy and satisfaction flood over you. Then return to whatever you were doing.

In a few minutes, when the next pang of hunger comes, repeat this mental exercise. Keep it up for an hour or so and then go have a light snack. While you are eating (especially while you are eating) visualise yourself doing sit-ups and loving it. Associate in your imagination hunger, food, situps and joy.

Hunger, Food, Sit-ups and Joy? She's Crazy

Perhaps, but what you are doing is linking a desirable behaviour to a very well established response pattern. You will be amazed at how you can use this technique to stimulate a deep urge to do sit-ups. The mind is truly amazing.

By the way, after a few days go ahead and give into the urge to do some sit-ups. As you exercise, make sure to continue the emotional feedback by "letting" yourself enjoy exercise. If you feel yourself not enjoying the process, take control of your emotions right away or stop exercising. It's not worth sabotaging your work to burn a few extra calories.

Don't push your body, push your mind! Your mind is the only gymnasium that really matters. Eventually, your mind will push your body and you will be able to enjoy the process.

I remember several years ago when I first experimented with this technique. As I started craving sit ups, I realised that doing sit ups would physically relieve any sense of hunger for an hour or so. I thought I had stumbled upon the strangest diet plan ever, the "silly, happy, situp diet". But really, what I had discovered was the ability to consciously sublimate deep cravings to accomplish a desired objective.

The mind is amazing but it just doesn't come with a user's manual. Most of the time it works pretty well on autopilot so we rarely learn to pop the hood and explore its full potential. That's a shame because most of what we want in life -- success, happiness, health, good relationships, the satisfaction of achievement -- these things are all within our reach and the only thing holding us back is, you guessed it, a string and a stick.