The Growth Mindset Book Podcast: Mindset Mastery Chapter by Chapter

Harnessing Your Mind's Potential: Transform Beliefs and Shape Your Reality

• Michael Fox • Season 1 • Episode 6

Share episode

Send us a text

Unlock the secrets to harnessing your subconscious mind and watch your life transform. Ever wondered why two people can react so differently to the same situation? This episode promises to enlighten you on how deeply ingrained beliefs shape our unique responses. From the thrill or fear of public speaking to the way we handle feedback at work, understanding these subconscious patterns is key to personal growth and aligning our actions with our true goals.

We dive into the hidden influence of external suggestions—how the media we consume and the people we interact with can subtly shift our perceptions. But fear not, you can guard your mind with strategic "firewalls" to keep negativity at bay. We explore the power of the conscious mind to reject limiting beliefs and the profound impact of reframing our thoughts to foster a healthier self-image. By recognizing and addressing beliefs that spark emotional responses, you can cultivate a more empowering mindset and reshape your reality.

The episode concludes with inspiring personal stories that demonstrate the ripple effect of mindset shifts, especially within family dynamics. Discover how auto-suggestion can be a powerful tool for personal change, influencing not just your life but also those around you. A touching narrative on parental influence sheds light on how adjusting one’s mindset can positively impact a child’s behavior and emotional health. Join us in this journey of self-discovery and empowerment, and embrace the transformative power of your mind.

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Growth Mindset Book Podcast. We're on episode seven and if you're still with us I'm grateful. I am hoping that you're getting a lot of value and you're sharing this with other people. I want to give a shout out to two people that supported our show. One is Kyle Schenck and the other is George Simon. So thank you, kyle, thank you George. I appreciate the support of the show. Let's go back to the book. We are on page 29, at the top of chapter two, and we're starting right here.

Speaker 1:

Different reactions to the same suggestion. It is true that different people will react in different ways to the same suggestion because of their subconscious conditioning or belief. Let's talk about this for a second. Let's use a few different examples. One a manager has two different people on his team. He has to assign them the task of doing a public talk in front of a group of 50 people. One of the two people is super excited to do it and the other is shaking and nervous and terrified of what's about to occur. What's the only difference between the two of them? And that is their subconscious conditioning or belief. One might have a belief I'm not good enough. What if I make a mistake? What if people look at me in a weird way and the other may be saying I can't wait to share. I have so much to share. I can't wait to provide people with this information and make a difference in their life. Same situation, two different sets of subconscious programming. So, again, identifying what our programming is and what some of our limiting beliefs are is very helpful when it comes to determining what we need to do to get more of the things that we want in our life.

Speaker 1:

Let's use another example. Someone comes to you and says I have this great investment idea for you. I heard that this stock is going to go through the roof. I heard that this stock is going to go through the roof. That same idea is presented to your friend. So the two of you will respond to that based on your beliefs. You may not want to take risks and may be nervous, may have been burnt before in the past when they've given you other ideas like this. You invested and lost money. Therefore, your belief is this is probably not true, this is probably not going to happen, and in the past I've lost money, so there's a good chance that I might lose it again and I don't want to take that risk, whereas the other person may be super excited. This is great. This is an opportunity. When I take risks, I have the opportunity to make money. I'm willing to jump in and do it Again.

Speaker 1:

Two different people, same situation, different set of beliefs. Which is wrong? Which is right? Neither is wrong or right. This is just information to get us to understand that when we're looking at a specific situation, it is our subconscious programming, the beliefs that are controlling everything.

Speaker 1:

Let's look at one final example. You and your friend are at work. You and your friend own a business one of the two. You get feedback from someone that works with you. The feedback is we're not really happy with what's going on. We really would like to see some changes. How you're going to respond to that situation again is based on your conditioning in the subconscious mind or your beliefs. If you have a belief that I'm open to feedback, every time I get feedback, I can make the product, I can make the business better and better. If you have that belief inside, then you're going to love getting feedback. However, if you have a belief inside that you're not good enough and someone gives you that feedback, the way you're going to respond to it is very different. It is true that different people will react in different ways to the same suggestion because of their subconscious, conditioning or belief.

Speaker 1:

Now we've used three different examples to make it clear. Let's jump back to the book. For example, if you go to a sailor on a ship and say to him sympathetically my dear fellow, you're looking very ill, aren't you feeling sick? You look to me as if you're going to be seasick. According to his temperament, he either laughs at your joke or expresses a mild irritation. Your suggestion fell on deaf ears in this instance because your suggestion of seasickness was associated in his mind with his own immunity from it. Therefore it called up no fear or worry, but self-confidence. Let's pause for a second Same thing we were discussing in the three examples prior. Here is a sailor. He knows he's been on many ships before. He doesn't get seasick. So the suggestion that he might be seasick because he has a look on his face doesn't affect him at all because he knows deep down in his subconscious, his belief is I never get seasick when I'm on a boat. Therefore, again, no fear, worry or instead what he's experiencing is confidence. Yeah, I'm fine, everything's good. But again, if you said that to someone else who hasn't been on a boat before and is worried that they may get sick on the boat, and you suggest to them that they're looking pale and they're not looking good, then what's going to happen is they're most likely going to respond in a negative way, especially if they have these negative beliefs. Got it Good, let's continue. All right Back to the book.

Speaker 1:

The dictionary says that a suggestion is the act or instance of putting something into one's mind, the mental process by which the thought or idea suggested is entertained, accepted or put into effect. Let's pause and talk about this for a second. How do these beliefs get formed in our mind? Again, we have senses. We see, hear, smell, taste and touch. If I take someone and I put them in front of a television that's playing Fox News or CNN and it's all negative news that's coming at them all day long. It's coming through their senses. They're seeing it, they're hearing it, they're feeling it. What's going to happen to that person? What will be their experience of the world? Their experience will be this world we live in is not a very safe and good place. If we take another person and that person spends their day volunteering and helping other people, they'll see the world in a very different place, because what they're doing consistently is helping, and what's coming in through their senses is smiles and people being happy and people being grateful. Therefore, their experience of the world is very different. Again, this all comes from our senses.

Speaker 1:

The only way that something can get into our subconscious mind is through our senses, through our seeing, our hearing, our tasting, our touching all of those and our smelling. If we block out our senses, in other words, if we put up firewalls up in place I put a firewall in front of the television set if I don't do that, then it can't make its way into my subconscious mind because it must come through my senses first. These firewalls we have the ability to set these up in all different locations in our life. Example what about a negative person that we deal with consistently, someone that we don't like? They're always pointing out the negative Then let's not be around that person, let's not get together with them, and if we do, we'll make it brief to the point and move on and get out of there. That's setting up a firewall. So if you look at the areas in your life where messages are coming in in a negative way, we have to think to ourselves how can I block out from my subconscious mind, how can I block out the different senses? What can I do to set it up so that I win instead of losing in the situation, instead of losing in the situation, and that will protect any suggestions from the outside world coming into our inside world. And we know whatever it is that's going on on the inside of us is ultimately what we're going to experience on the outside. So we're going to really want to protect what we allow to come inside of us.

Speaker 1:

Let's go back to the book. You must remember that a suggestion cannot impose something on the subconscious mind against the will of the conscious mind. In other words, your conscious mind has the power to reject the suggestion given. Again, let's repeat that your conscious mind, where you do your thinking, has the power to reject the suggestion given. In the case of the sailor, he had no fear of seasickness, he had convinced himself of his immunity and the negative suggestion had absolutely no power to invoke fear. The suggestion of seasickness to the other passenger called forth his fear of seasickness. Each of us has his own inner fears, beliefs, opinions, and these inner assumptions rule and govern our lives. A suggestion has no power in and of itself, except if you accept it mentally. Let's pause here and discuss this. If you look at the last two sentences of what we read, it says Each of us has his own inner fears, beliefs, opinions and their inner assumptions rule and govern our lives, and their inner assumptions rule and govern our lives. A suggestion has no power in and of itself, except if you accept it mentally.

Speaker 1:

I want you to think about this for a second. If I come up to you and I say you look just like a pink elephant, would you be affected by what I just said to you? And the answer for most people is no. That's ridiculous. I would laugh. It has no meaning. If I came up to you and said why do you have such green hair? And obviously your hair isn't green Would that have any impact on you? And again, the answer is no, because you know your hair isn't green. Therefore, it would have no impact. You don't believe that your hair is green. You don't believe that you're a pink elephant. You don't have an opinion that you're a pink elephant. You don't have an opinion that your hair is green. However, if I come up to you and I say you're such an idiot. Of all the people I've ever met, you're the dumbest person I've ever met. Well, some people that might not affect, but if you have a belief inside of you that you're not smart enough or you're not good enough and, by the way, 99% of all people walk around feeling like they're not good enough, and, by the way, 99% of all people walk around feeling like they're not good enough Even the top, top, most elite people making tons of money still walk around with the feeling that they're not good enough, especially in some area of their life.

Speaker 1:

Again, if we have that belief that we're not good enough or we're not smart enough, when someone says you're a stupid idiot, how do you think we're going to react? Obviously, we're not going to react. Well, because it's triggering a belief that's stored in our subconscious mind. But what we want to start paying attention to is when we get emotional and upset about things. It's a great indication that inside of us there is a belief that exists that we need to work through and we need to work on. And it's identifying that belief that is really powerful thing to do, because once you identify it, then the next time something like that happens someone says something negative to upset you. You can realize oh, one of the reasons why I'm getting so upset is because I have a belief inside that I'm not good enough or I'm not smart enough.

Speaker 1:

Let me give a different message to my subconscious mind Instead. What I'm going to do here. I'm going to say I am good enough, I am smart enough, I'm really smart. And you can think back to examples in your life where you were really smart, where you did really good things, where you were more than good enough, because everyone has examples in their life of that, proving that that belief is false. So we're going to use the power that we have, which is are we going to accept what someone says is the truth or are we going to question everything we hear? When we question it, we're using our conscious mind to question some kind of thought that someone else shared and it came in through our senses and we stop it and say wait a second, that's not true, they've got their own stuff going on. I am a very smart person, I am more than good enough, and therefore we stop ourselves from feeling and getting emotional, because if we go the other route and we buy into what they're saying and we don't question it. What do you think we're going to be experiencing? Consistently? We're going to be experiencing upset, hurt, anger, worry, fear, depression, all those negatives. They're all going to come from these limiting beliefs that we have inside. So the key is that we're going to start becoming aware of the fact that we have these beliefs, these limiting beliefs that are stored inside of us, that are in control of our every move. Got it? We were just talking about limiting beliefs, these things that we believe are true but really aren't true.

Speaker 1:

I'm wearing a shirt If you're looking on YouTube and it says you matter a lot. And the reason that I wear that shirt is one of my best friends took his life. He didn't believe he was good enough, he believed he didn't deserve to live and therefore he took his life. So I wear this shirt and I hope you're looking at it and if you can't see it, because you're looking at it, and if you can't see it because you're listening on a podcast, take this in you matter a lot.

Speaker 1:

God, a higher power, whatever you want to call it that's got this power in the universe decided that you are important enough to come into this world. So, no matter where you're at currently, the message that I have for you is that you are more than enough. You are absolutely incredible. You have this divine power inside of you. We've talked about it. It controls all the systems of your body. That in and of itself, tells you how powerful you are. Maybe it's time to start having a new belief. Instead of I'm not good enough, it is. I am amazing, exactly as I am. I am part of divine intelligence, and you repeat that to yourself enough. What's going to happen in time is you're going to believe it. So let's go back to the book and we're going to talk about the story of how he lost his arm. This is again the power of the subconscious mind at work. Every two or three years, I give a series of lectures at the London Truth Forum at Caxton Hall. This is a forum I founded a number of years ago.

Speaker 1:

Dr Evelyn Fleet, the director, told me about an article which appeared in the English newspaper dealing with the power of suggestion. This is the suggestion a man who gave to his subconscious mind over a period of about two years. He said I would give my right arm to see my daughter cured. It appeared that his daughter had a crippling form of arthritis, together with a so-called incurable form of skin disease. Medical treatment had failed to alleviate the condition and the father had an intense longing for his daughter's healing, and he expressed his desire in the words just quoted above. Dr Evelyn Fleet said that the newspaper article pointed out that one day the family was out riding when their car collided with another. The father's right arm was torn off at his shoulder and immediately the daughter's arthritis and skin condition vanished and skin condition vanished.

Speaker 1:

You must make certain to give your subconscious only suggestions which heal, bless, elevate and inspire you in all ways. Remember, your subconscious mind cannot take a joke. It takes you at your word. Let's talk about this for a second. Do you believe this could be true? In other words, do you believe that whatever you're consistently thinking about or saying out loud, if it's not good, could potentially come to fruition? I want to give you a couple of other examples of how this plays out.

Speaker 1:

One think of your child. Now. Your child may be good in school, but think of a child that's not so good in school and they feel like I am not good at math. Every time they have a math test they prepare, and in their preparation they keep thinking to themselves. I'm not going to do good on this test. I never do good on my math test. I'm not going to do good on this test. I never do good on my math test. I'm just not good at math. What do you think is going to happen when they sit to take that math test? Do you think they're going to excel or do you think they might not do so? Well, of course we all know the answer to that because we know, if we're consistently giving ourselves negative feedback, that it will come true. This is an extreme example.

Speaker 1:

In the book. The guy says I give my right arm. But the thing is, our subconscious doesn't understand that we're joking around. So it did in that situation. It gave his right arm so that he would have his daughter be healed.

Speaker 1:

I want to tell another personal story, a personal example of this. I want to tell another personal story, a personal example of this. When my son was growing up, initially he was struggling with some anxiety. His mother and I were going through a divorce and he had a lot of negative energy headed his way from both of us because we were both worried and concerned. But I'm only going to talk to me for a second what I would do when I would start to see him get anxious. I would get very anxious because I didn't want to see him suffer, I didn't want to see him in pain, I didn't want to see him feel bad. And so when he wasn't feeling anxious, I would be thinking in my mind oh boy, I hope he doesn't feel anxious today. I hope he does well in school today. What if he struggles? What if I'm going to get that phone call? I wonder if I'm going to get a phone call from school that he's struggling. And I had such nervous energy that when he was around me, what do you think he was picking up, which we've discussed prior to this, what thoughts do you think he must have picked up from my energy? Even if I wasn't saying anything out loud being around him, he was going to start feeling anxious because I was feeling anxious.

Speaker 1:

So whatever we're thinking about consistently, whatever we're speaking out loud consistently, our subconscious is going to deliver us more of that. Again, that's the law of correspondence Whatever is within will show up without. And that was a great example. It's incredible because when I started to do work on myself not on my son's anxiety, but on myself and my anxiety. With his anxiety, guess what ended up happening? I started to calm down, I started to be more peaceful, I started to be more in line. And guess what happened with him? His anxiety leveled off and he started feeling better and he was able to get past it. So we have this power and we have this ability. Let's use it to help take care of ourselves.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's go back to the book. We're going to talk about a topic here that's one of my favorite topics. It's one of the most powerful tools that we have at our disposal that we can use anytime to help us get more of what we want. So let's go back to the book, we'll read it and then we'll discuss how auto-suggestion banishes fear. Illustrations of auto-suggestion. Auto-suggestion means suggesting something definite and specific to oneself. Herbert Parkin, in his excellent manual of auto suggestion, records the following incident. It has its amusing side, so that one remembers it. A New York visitor in Chicago looks at his watch, which is set an hour ahead of Chicago time, and tells a Chicago friend that it's 12 o'clock. The Chicago friend, not considering the difference in time between Chicago and New York, tells his New York friend that he's hungry and that he must go get some lunch. Auto-suggestion may be used to banish various fears and other negative conditions.

Speaker 1:

A young singer was invited to give an audition. She had been looking forward to the interview but on three previous occasions had failed miserably due to the fear of failure. This young lady had a very good voice, but she had been saying to herself when the time comes for me to sing, maybe they won't like me, I'll try, but I'm full of fear and anxiety, let's pause. I'll try, but I'm full of fear and anxiety, let's pause. If she's telling herself when she's going to go into this audition that I'm going to try, but I failed before and I'm full of fear and I'm full of anxiety, what do you think is going to happen in that audition? You know the answer. I don't have to tell you it's going to go bad, because that's how she's showing up. She's suggesting this to her subconscious mind and her performance will be right in line with those fears, doubts and worries.

Speaker 1:

Auto-suggestion is one of the most powerful tools that we have at our disposal. Again, in simplistic terms, what auto-suggestion is? One of the most powerful tools that we have at our disposal? Again, in simplistic terms, what auto-suggestion means is it's a self-suggestion that we make to ourself. Also suggestions that come from the outside that we allow in through our senses and don't block out with our firewall. Those are also auto suggestions. They're auto suggestions because it's a suggestion from the outside that we let come into our conscious mind and allow it in, we don't block it out. So whether we're suggesting something to ourself like I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I always get anxious, I always fail at these kinds of things, that's auto-suggestion. Or we listen to that negative person in our life tells us that oh, you always mess things up, you can never do things right, and we let that come in through our senses and allow it. Guess what's going to happen? That's auto-suggestion.

Speaker 1:

And auto-suggestion influences our subconscious mind. The beauty is we have the power to use auto-suggestion for ourselves, to give ourselves suggestions of what we want in our life in the present tense. It's important to put it in the present tense because, again, our subconscious mind thinks in present, it doesn't think in the future. It doesn't think in the past, it hears everything in the present tense. So if I'm worried or anxious, what I can say to auto-suggest to myself is I am feeling more and more at ease as each moment passes, I am feeling calm and peaceful. As the day progresses, as I take deep breaths, I feel more calm. These are all auto-suggest suggestions. These are things that we're saying to ourself.

Speaker 1:

I want you to think for a moment, while you're in your car or you're watching this YouTube video what are some suggestions that you tell yourself on a consistent basis that aren't helping you get what you want?

Speaker 1:

Again, in what we were just reading in the book, this young lady, who has a very good voice and probably would excel if she auto-suggested in the proper way, is auto-suggesting I've failed before. I'll try, but I'm full of fear and anxiety. What are some other examples of these negative suggestions that you give to yourself? Maybe something like if I try, I'll fail. If I try, I'll fail. Imagine saying that. You probably heard someone say that. If we say that to ourselves, what is the likelihood that when we go to try to do that thing, whatever it is, we're going to have success? We're not going to have success. We're suggesting it.

Speaker 1:

Our subconscious mind says your wish is my command and therefore we get the results in the outside world based on the suggestions we're making internally. Do you get the power in this? I really want you to get it, because the words that you're speaking out loud, the words that you're thinking in your mind, have all the power over your life. If the results outside are not like you want them to be, if the money in your life isn't where you want it to be, it's because you're using words on a consistent basis. You're having thoughts. You're speaking out loud things negative about money. I can never make it. The inflation rates keep going up, the stock market's down. Everything seems to go wrong whenever I invest in money or whenever I invest in the stock market. These things that we're saying, these things that we're thinking, are causing our actual reality in light. Is this making sense?

Speaker 1:

So my assignment to you is that, as you're driving now, I want you to really take a few moments and think about one of the key negative things that you consistently say to yourself, and I want you to flip it and I want you to say something positive. So if you're saying something like I'm not smart enough, you can now suggest to yourself I am extremely smart, I can figure things out really easily when I set my mind to it. I can always figure something out and just keep repeating that over and over and what you'll find is you'll start to believe that over time. Okay, so we're going to end on this note here and I want you to practice this in the car. Or if you're watching this YouTube video, practice it right now. Don't turn off the video and then go back to doing something else. Don't pick up the phone in your car and do something else.

Speaker 1:

Take a few moments and really think to yourself what's one thing? If I could just change one thing that I consistently say to myself, what could I change it and how can I change it for the better? And how can I say it in present tense, as if I'm already experiencing it? Example I am good enough, I am smart. That's a present tense statement. It needs to be in present. It's not I will be smart eventually. That means you're not right now. You are smart, I am smart, I am caring, I am loving. All of those things are in present tense.

Speaker 1:

So practice that, do it and I promise you, if you do that consistently, you'll start to notice changes on the outside. But until we do that one thing auto-suggestion again, which we'll get into more next week, again, which we'll get into more next week you won't have things change, because what you're doing is you're auto-suggesting automatically in the negative, on a consistent basis. You're automatically saying things like I was with my son when he was struggling with anxiety oh no, what if? What if he's feeling anxious? What if I get that phone call from school? What if he takes the test and he starts to get nervous and struggles? What will he do? And all of that negativity created in the outside world.

Speaker 1:

Exactly what was going on in my mind? I would get the phone call from school saying, yeah, he kind of had a little bit of a panic attack while he was taking a test or he's struggling, and all those things that I was thinking about were actually happening. And what I didn't realize was it was me who needed to change. I needed to change the way I was thinking, I needed to change the way I was feeling and then magically, he started to change as well. It's an interesting thing, but that's the way that it works. So until next week, have an amazing rest of the day and practice what we talked about through auto-suggestion. Have an amazing day and remember you matter a lot.

Head Shot

Michael Fox

Host