If Change Were Easy, Everyone Would Succeed

It seems that some changes happen easily,  Other times, change is quite difficult to achieve. Even when we know the change is good for us, there is difficulty; and, many times, no change acquired.

How is it that we can change our cell phones when new models are available, yet we can’t change our diet? How is it that we can buy a newer car, even when we don’t need a newer car, yet can’t seem to find time to exercise most days? We all know how important it is to manage stress daily, yet most of us never do it at all.

Change happens based on what we’ve done in the past. If we have no history of an event or experience in our lives, then change is relatively easy to achieve. The control mechanism built into our brains has nothing to compare it to and will not fight you to succeed. If we have victories in certain things, then we continue to triumph with similar new opportunities.

However, if we have failed at something, repeatedly; then change is almost impossible to be permanent. That control mechanism in our brains is our subconscious mind. Its prime directive is to see that no harm comes to you. Harm can be physical, mental, emotional, etc.

Our subconscious brain reviews everything we’ve done in the past and applies a simple formula – no harm, then it will not interfere. Let’s say you need to lose more than a few pounds. You’ve tried several diets in the past and failed each time. Your subconscious mind sees those failures as something not to happen again.  It doesn’t want you to fail again, so it will do almost anything to prevent your future failure again in that area – dieting.

Your subconscious mind does not know the difference between real and imagined. That is how you must tackle past failures. Build up a reservoir of imagined victories on losing weight, for example. Over time, your subconscious mind cannot make an outright judgment whether dieting will fail or succeed. It will not interfere with you next dieting challenge.