The RE(a)D Fox 2011

You Need This Book To Get What You Want
Mark Palmer & Scott Solder

Well to be honest the book started off on a good note but I lost interest very easily and quickly.

When I first got the book I didn't like the title and what it suggested. I dunno, just thought it meant using psychology rather than true and good intentions to get what you want.  Further reading and I started to understand it and it made a lot of sense.  It was mere dynamics of how the brain functions and using that knowledge you could get what you want.  So I got into it but at this point I feel like  following such rules can make life dull.  All you really need is actually good intentions and a good heart and the rest will follow.  I have decided to continue reading since there is no knowledge that is not power.  Learning how the brain works and all its weird dynamics can be amazing too.

Some of the things I have learnt already :

If you try something three times and it does not work you got to find another way.

I learnt about Internal dialogue.  How to understand your internal dialogue and change it to a more positive one.

How to overcome fears and teach your brain to understand that the actual fear is a manifestation of a conceived notion by the brain of something that has not happened yet.

How making a pros and cons list can bring to surface the unconscious mind which has already made a decision where as the conscious mind seems to procrastinate that decision based on logic, environmental factors, people and preconceived logic.

Breaking the habit.  Realising that a habits give you certain benefits and trying to get the same benefits by forming new and positive habits and replacing the old ones with these can help you overcome destructive behaviour patterns.

Autopilots - we have an internal mechanical thinking processor that automatically performs tasks to give way for us to focus on other things.  These autopilots do not understand logic or reason so sometimes bad autopilots are formed.  Finding out which autopilots are useful and which are not can help you to be more productive.

 

Chapter 05: Autopilots

Your conscious brain can process up to nine seperate bits of info comfortably at any one time. Your five senses are constantly processing loads of info all the time.  The other part of your brain, your unconscious process at any given moment two million bit of information per second.

So what do autopilots have to do with this...

The info revealed tells us that our brain processes masses bits of info whether we are asleep or awake.  Part of its job is to carry out automatic behaviour - blinking, growth of hair and nails etc to even the fact that you are able to balance on two feet.

There is so much happening in your brain  that it has to be selective to what it chooses to focus on and what it leaves you to do automatically.

Bad autopilots for eg.  smoking every time you finish a meal, creep in when you are not looking. 

There was a woman who once said, "I'm hungry for balance...I'm hungry to do something other than work."  The more she worked the more she needed to balance her life with something else.  In her case it was food.  She eventually starting putting on weight and reached 108 kilos.

If you think about her choice of words were HUNGRY for balance.  If you really think about it you can be desperate for balance and hungry for food. Her use of words tells you a lot about what's going on in her mind.  her brain made an unconscious connection with food as a substitute antidote to her work.  Ultimately she understood that eating that bag of crisps would not big good for her but autopilots don't understand logic or reason.

So this woman started dieting.  eventually she got to a comfortable weight again when guess what?  When she was thin enough she slacked off on the dieting and started putting on those pounds all over again.

It was only when she discovered what was really going on inside of her, her mind she began to win with not only her battle with weight but the whole war.

"I'm hungry for balance....I"m hungry to do something other than work."  The result was that she changed her attitude to losing  weight.  She stopped using food as a balance against her work.

This woman is Oprah Winfrey.

SEPTEMBER 2011 - EVOLUTION THEORY Chapter 2

MARK PALMER & SCOTT SOLDER - You Need This Book TO GET WHAT YOU WANT

So as I mentioned before if you want something and you have tried three times already and it hasn't worked find another way!

Do things differently. At least once a week try doing something differently even if it is something simple like going to work but using a different route.

Next step is understanding your internal dialogue.  Best time to do this is perhaps in the morning.  Jot down what's on your mind.  It can be absolutely anything, even if it is just something random, like a song.  The next day, if what you have written down is not useful change the thought to a more positive one. 

To overcome your fears...

Think about the thing you are not looking forward too... once you got the mental picture, freeze it.  There are various methods that you can use but this is the one I have chosen.  Make the visual black and white in your head. Imagine that it is being projected on a cinema screen. I like to add large black pixels and distortion lines running across like the old skool cinema projectors did.  Make the screen smaller and smaller till it is far away.

This is how it works or helps.  If you are afraid of flying. the actually fear you have is off the plane crashing.  So if you think about it, your visual picture of the plane falling to it's destruction has not occurred or in other words it isn't real. It is YOU creating this visual.  Trying to change the mental pic to a more positive one can be difficult.  So by making the scenario in your head as though it is all just one big made up movie you are teaching your brain as to what is real and what is not. Simple. 

Okay so September was a like an electrical surge....

To sum up things...

our land lady sold our flat and forgot to mention it to us.