Category Archives: Instincts

Match Your Goals To Your Instincts

Satisfy Your Inner Caveman

I saw this weird competition once on TV.

A group of high school kids, about fifty of them, side by side, with their legs tied together.

So wherever you were in the line, your legs were tied to the guys on either side of you.

They were all on one side of a big field.

And they had a run a 100 yards.

Each school had a team, and they saw how fast it was.

Clearly, these kids practiced, because they were VERY tight.

If you’ve ever been in a “three legged race” where there’s only TWO people like this, it’s pretty tough.

Especially if you haven’t practiced.

Whenever you have two opposing forces, you can create A LOT if they are in sync, but you can be held back just as much if they are going in different directions.

Humans are goal seeking machines.

We can’t exist for more than a couple seconds without acting. Just shifting in your seat is an example.

And all action is for a purpose. None of it is random. It may not seem that way, but consider what happens when you shift in your seat.

Certain muscles get tired, and they need a rest. Muscles that are more rested decide to take on more weight, and take off weight of the muscles (or muscle angles). The shift has a PURPOSE of increasing comfort, and decreasing discomfort.

Every single goal you have, whether conscious or unconscious has this INTENTION.

Sure, if you completely misunderstand the situation, you may do something that makes everything worse.

But this INTENTION (increase comfort and decrease discomfort) is always there.

Now sometimes we realize that to increase comfort in the LONG TERM, we have to experience intermediate periods of DISCOMFORT.

Like when a caveman sees a tiger. Running away screaming with huge amounts of fear is not exactly more comfortable than just standing there.

But your brain is also MASSIVELY quick. So it CALCULATES all the possible outcomes in the near and medium term future.

In microseconds.

It chooses what will give you the BEST possible outcome given all your options.

Humans have a lot of PRE-PROGRAMMED desires.

Food, companionship, safety, sex, esteem, social status, recognition and validation.

If you try and ignore these, meaning if you try and OVERRULE your caveman instincts with your conscious mind, you won’t usually get very far.

That’s precisely why willpower based diets NEVER work very long.

But when you carefully CHOOSE YOUR GOALS that are congruent with your caveman goals, or at the very least, figure out a way to take your CHOSEN GOALS and put them in the context so your CAVEMAN will ALSO be happy, you’ll have a much better chance.

You can learn and do anything you want, so long the skills you are building are CONGRUENT with your deepest instincts.

Get Started:
Mind Persuasion Ebooks

Which Chair Would You Like to Be Hypnotized In?

Who’s Running Your Show?

There’s a lot of patterns from hypnosis that have made their way into sales.

One of them is the “double bind.”

Milton Erickson, the guy who invented covert hypnosis, and upon which a lot of NLP was based, was famous for this “famous” one.

Somebody would come into his office to be hypnotized.

But since hypnosis requires that you give over control of your mind to some guy you’ve just met, a lot of people are understandably nervous.

So Erickson would say, “Would you rather go into trance in the blue chair or the green chair?

Meaning either choice would end up with him going into a trance.

Salespeople use this a lot. If somebody calls you to make an appointment, they may say, “Which is better for you, Thursday afternoon or Friday evening?” Meaning either choice leads to an appointment, which is what they want.

Sometimes this is called a “false choice.”

You’ll see this crop up in normal life all the time.

One is how humans behave.

We have TONS of instincts that drive our behavior. Take eating for example. No matter what, we have to eat.

But we can choose what we eat, and how much we eat.

Even if you DON’T choose, you’re kind of letting your inner caveman choose for you.

And he or she doesn’t necessarily make the best decisions.

Because your inner caveman can’t really see too far into the future. They can only see what’s right here, right now.

Only conscious practice can you MANAGE all of your instincts, to consciously CREATE a life, rather than going on autopilot.

Even autopilot behavior can be “managed,” but first it must be “created.”

For example, if you ONLY filled your fridge with healthy food, you would no longer need to consciously choose what you ate. You’d just eat whenever you felt like it, but since took the time to PLAN how you’d fulfill your instincts, you’d be better off.

This is just one example, of course.

Think of what you could do if you could successfully manage ALL of your instincts?

One thing everybody has inside them is an “imagination and comparison” machine that is ALWAYS ON.

Meaning that “part” of you is always measuring your current state, and then trying to imagine a better state.

This is why you are always shifting. Always moving. Always have that deep desire.

If you don’t choose HOW you will fulfill your desire, you’re caveman will. Or somebody else will by manipulating that inner caveman.

Back to the double bind.

Are you going to choose, or are you going to let somebody else choose?

Are you going to build your life or let somebody else manipulate you into helping THEM build THEIRS?

Your inner caveman can be your best friend, or your worst enemy.

Which will you choose?

Learn More:
Mind Persuasion Ebooks

Are You An Island Savage?

How To Program Your Subconscious

I saw this pretty lame movie the other night.

About this soccer team that crash landed on an island.

And then descended into “Lord of the Flies” style anarchy.

It was rated less than 5 out of 10.

But it started out with the coach giving the team a warm up pep talk.

It was supposed to be a “foreshadowing” event.

He was saying that humans were designed to be hunters and killers.

That is our true nature.

Of course, he was trying to get them fired up to play their soccer game, not go crazy when they crash landed on the island.

But there IS that dichotomy.

We are at odds with our primal instincts quite a lot.

We eat more than we should. We are afraid of things we shouldn’t be. Many people are unfaithful in their relationships.

We have these super egos that are easy to wound.

All because of our instincts.

You might say that the measure of how “Human” you are, or how “enlightened” you are is how well you not ignore your instincts (since that’s pretty impossible) but how you MANAGE them.

No matter what you do, you’re going to get hungry if you stop eating.

How you manage that hunger will be the difference between a six pack or a spare tire.

You can CHOOSE to eat something healthy, that will satisfy that primitive craving, or you can CHOOSE to eat a couple bags of potato chips.

Naturally, some people are in situations where it’s easier to choose “enlightened” choices.

That won’t change. It’s always been that way. It will always BE that way.

Your job, as a human intending to achieve actualization, is to be able to let your conscious mind work more harmoniously with your unconscious.

Because if your conscious mind is trying to do something, but your unconscious is trying to do something else, guess who’s going to win?

The idea is to MANAGE your subconscious. Be FRIENDS with it. Don’t get angry when your conscious mind is frustrated.

Think of your unconscious as a VERY POWERFUL friend.

If you try to keep them on a leash, THEY will be the ones leading you around.

But when you take the time to TALK TO THEM, in a language they understand, THEY will pull you to where YOU want to go, rather than your inner caveman.

What language do they understand?

Pictures. Images. Feelings.

Create a vivid picture of what you want. Focus on it with intensity and strong emotional power.

Think of that process as programming your ship’s computer with the coordinates to your next destination.

Once you’ve got them programmed it, you just need to put it on auto pilot.

However, many people make the mistake that programming your subconscious happens quickly. Like it’s some kind of Alladin’s Lamp, and all you need to do is mumble a few wishes, and you’re good.

It takes time. It takes dedication. It takes effort. Mental effort.

But it is well worth it.

These will help:

Subliminal Programming

Look Into Your Future

Your Future Is Waiting

Think Long Term

​Making decisions can be tough sometimes.

One way is good, but it’s got some drawbacks. On the other hand, if you do something else, it may be safe, but not nearly as fun.

A lot of things go hand in hand. Often times something good will go along with something not so good. It feels really good to stuff your face in front of the TV. But it doesn’t feel so good the next morning.

It may feel good to sleep in, but when you finally roll out of bed and see that it’s already in the early afternoon, you might not feel so excited.

One economist theorized that humans reached an evolutionary tipping point when we started to naturally think of pleasure out in the distant future, compared to the pleasure now. 

Meaning that lower animals are only driven by instincts. They can’t really plan. Even when squirrels save nuts for the winter, they’re being driven by instincts. It’s not like they fire up Excel and calculate their caloric requirements.

Humans, on the other hand, somehow figured out how to compare doing something now, vs. doing something differently, and then comparing the potential results in the unknown future.

Like maybe in the present a caveman wanted to punch another caveman in the face. But then he’d imagine that guy’s buddies ganging up on him later, so he would plan a better alternative.

They great thing about this is that you can cultivate it, and develop it.

Like any other skill, the best way to do this is to simply practice.

Start small, and do more and more as you can.

For example, consider waking up ten minutes earlier tomorrow, just to prove that you can. This will build up  your “delayed gratification” muscle in your brain.

As you well know, persistence is one of the most important skills for any kind of success.

All the genius inventors, artists, business people, scientists, none of them would have accomplished what they accomplished had it not been for persistence.

Whatever you want, you can get. But getting it WILL take time. It WILL take trial and “error,” or feedback.

So long as you keep your imagination fixed on the distant future, when you WILL be successful, you’ll keep going.

Consider doing something each day that builds up this attitude. Take one thing you’d like to do, or one thing you want to do but know you shouldn’t, and imagine how it will affect your life one year from now.

Spend a few moments thinking about that BEFORE doing it, whatever it is.

Keep this up and you’ll develop a skill few people have.

Which means you’ll be able to get stuff few people can.

These will help:

Wisdom Of Cavemen

Only One More Zebra?

One More Zebra

​One common theme in many stories is a “magic key.”

A key, or map, or answer to a riddle.

Whoever finds the answer gets all the good stuff.

A famous one was Gordian’s Knot. Story goes there was this super complicated knot that nobody could unravel.

Whoever could, would get mad rewards.

So Alexander (The Great) shows up and hacks it in half with his sword.

That’s one way to solve problems! Not much elegance, but certainly effective.

They tell us that symbols that keep popping up in mythology (swords in stones, treasure maps, etc) are there because we have a deep subconscious need for them.

In your day to day life, what is the biggest “magic answer” you might be looking for?

It might be the perfect thing to say to that person you’ve got your eye on. It might be the perfect investment strategy. It might be the one thing that finally gets you unstuck from your rut so you can finally get some.

It can be tempting to slip into the “all I need” mode of thinking. If I ONLY had a boyfriend, everything else would be PERFECT.

If I ONLY had ten percent more money every month, everything would be PERFECT. Etc. Etc. Etc.

However, this is a trap. Because once you get that “thing,” it won’t last long. This isn’t bad. This isn’t some con of life. This isn’t a trick of being human.

This is just the way you are. Built to ALWAYS want more. ALWAYS want to know more, be more, do more, see more, achieve more.

Imagine a bunch of cavemen a couple hundred thousand years ago. “Man, all we need is ONE MORE ZEBRA, and we’ll be set for life!”

Luckily they didn’t think like that. They likely NEVER thought in the “all I need” mode, at least for very long.

We are all descendents of those ancient cavemen who thought in the “tide me over” mode.

They knew a big kill was good, but it was only for a couple weeks, at best.

That one guy or girl you may have your eye on may be GREAT when you get them, but only so you can go out and get MORE stuff next time.

That ten percent raise will feel fantastic when it comes, but only to push you to see even MORE money in six months or so.

If you think in terms of “I only need,” then you’re life will ALWAYS seem incomplete.

But when you think in terms of “tide me over,” your life will ALWAYS have purpose.

Forward momentum. Consistent achievement. Endless growth.

Whatever you’ve got now, get some more.

These will help:

Rearrange Your Brain

Rearrange Your Brain

You Don’t Have To Keep The Default Settings

Some of the simplest things can have the greatest impact.

It’s easy to get into a rhythm. If you’ve ever gone on a diet or started an exercise program, you know what I mean.

Getting started is the hardest part. But once you’ve got enough momentum, it’s part of who you are.

Pretty soon the hour or so you spend at the gym is part of your daily routine. 

But the first week or so, it sucks.

On the other hand, when you get stuck into some kind of negative loop, it can be hard to get out of.

Even if it’s so bad in and of itself, it can be deceptively defeating. If you spend an hour or two in front of the TV, that’s not exactly considered self destructive behavior.

But think of the time you could be spending on other things. What if you took one hour per night, and learned an instrument? After a year or two, you’d have a skill most people don’t.

Even if you mindlessly change channels during the commercials, you’re eating up valuable time. Imagine if you were to spend just the time during commercial breaks learning something, or reading something, or doing some kind of mental exercise, like Image Streaming.

Every hour of TV has about 20 minutes of commercials. If you did image streaming, for example, for 20 minutes a day, you’d increase your IQ by a point or two a week!

Of course, humans aren’t hard wired to always be on the lookout for increases in efficiency.

We aren’t robots!

But the secret is not to be a robot all the time. It’s to simply “take inventory” of how you spend you day. Maybe once every few months.

Once you build in the habit of spending ten minutes per hour of TV time doing something productive, then you can go back to automatic human behavior. 

Only now, that automatic human behavior will be building up some skills or abilities, instead of just wasting time. (Or worse, having your brain programmed with more needless junk you don’t need to buy with money you don’t have!)

They say an unexamined life isn’t worth living. This doesn’t mean that you have to always be a super hyper meta thinker who’s questioning every single step through life.

Just take a look at your daily activities from time to time, and see where you can find room for improvement.

This is a great place to start: