Mind Hacking

This is from one of the first chapters called “Developing Jedi-Like Concentration.” :)

John quotes legendary psychologist William James who tells us that the skill of “voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.”

That sounds like Jedi-mind training.

And, as John observes, getting our minds Jedi strong is “the greatest challenge of our time.” (Researchers agree.)

Step 1? Reclaim your attention by eliminating unnecessary distractions.

We chat about this ALL the time. (See Notes on Deep Work, The Procrastination Equation, Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, etc.)

The research is clear: We need to quit paper cutting our attention with needless distractions. Simply turning off the push notifications on your email, for example, can give you a month’s worth of productivity. (Nuts, eh?)

Piers Steel puts it this way in The Procrastination Equation: “Here is a trick that will give you an extra month of efficiency each year. It’s easy to implement, immediately effective, and doesn’t cost a cent. First, go to your e-mail program. Second, disable all the audio alerts and mailbox pop-ups… That’s it, there is no third step. Banishing e-mail notifications will make you about 10 percent more efficient and over a year that translates into one more month of productivity. The best work happens when you engage deeply on a single task. Every time you stop your flow, you have to once again decide to work and then it takes time to become fully re-engaged. Unfortunately, we are conditioned to answer e-mail instantly, responding to the tell-tale ‘ding’ like Pavlov’s dogs. Unless you have a pressing reason, check your e-mail at your convenience, during natural breaks in your productivity.”

Step 2? Retrain your attention by working out your concentration muscles.

There’s a word for that. It’s called meditation.

Only, John doesn’t use that word. He prefers to make it all one big game and tells us we need to play “Mind Games.”

He calls one version of the game “Alien Blasters”: We sit down and concentrate on our breath. When our mind wanders and a thought (inevitably) invades, we blast it with our attention and then watch it dissolve as we go back to our breath.

Each time we do that, we’re re-wiring (/re-programming/hacking) our minds such that we have a little stronger concentration muscles for the rest of our lives. Do that day in and day out for months + years and you get REALLY good at mastering your mind.

Playing these concentration games is THE cornerstone of the whole book.

We head to the gym to work out our bodies. We need to hit the mind gym to work out our minds.

Eat. Move. Sleep. Concentrate.

The fundamentals to our Jedi training.

P.S. I love this pre-Mind Game pep talk: “Mentally tell yourself what you are going to do, e.g., For the next twenty minutes, I will focus on the breath, so that I may develop superhuman concentration.”

P.P.S. John tells us to spend an hour eliminating all the distractions in our lives. Turning off all the push notifications, unsubscribing from unnecessary newsletters, etc.

What can you do TODAY to eliminate some distractions? Take your first step and then have fun optimizing 1% daily.

Want to debug your brain?

We need to replace the negative repeating loops with positive repeating loops. But first, we need to find the bugs.

Best way to do that?

Look for the parts of your life that just aren’t quite working the way you want.

Is it your health? Relationships? Money? Career? Depression? Anxiety? Addiction(s)?

What part of your life is a little off?

Got it? Now dig into that.

What thoughts do you have about that subject?

What negative repeating looping story are you telling yourself?

(Note: Identifying those thoughts requires the ability to sustain focused concentration. Hence, the importance of hitting the Mind Gym and playing Mind Games Jedi-style.)

For example, perhaps your health is off and you say things like, “I hate to exercise.” or “I should be able to eat whatever I want.” or “There’s nothing I can do; I just have bad genes.” or whatever.

Those are the bugs we need to optimize.

One of the cool ways John advises us to do it? Step outside yourself and imagine chatting with someone whose wisdom you really respect. What would they say about your challenges?

Good news: That wisdom is already within you. We just need to consistently tap into it!

Then, we take that negative loop and swap it with the positive one.

“I hate exercising” becomes “Exercise helps me feel energized.” or even (gasp!) “I love exercising!”

So… What’s your old and new?

“_________________________.” becomes “_________________________.”

Awesome.

Our best selves diary. We talked about this research in Sonja Lyubomirsky’s The How of Happiness (see Notes). It’s REALLY powerful.

Let’s do it now.

Imagine your absolute BEST life in 10 years.

You work hard, optimizing and actualizing and rockin’ it living on purpose and giving your gifts in service to the world. You get a little lucky and everything (!!!) falls into place.

Close your eyes. Imagine it.

What’s your life like?

How’s your energy?

What’re you doing creatively?

For fun?

How’s your family?

How’s your bank balance?

What’s your mind look like?

Think about it. Reflect on it. And let’s take the next baby steps in creating it.

P.S. John tells us: “I challenge you to spend the next five minutes picturing what you want your life to look like in ten years. If you can’t invest five minutes thinking about what you want to become, you have to seriously question your priorities. These five minutes could mean the difference between a life of confusion and sorrow and a life of happiness and fulfillment. What could be more important than that?”

P.P.S. <— What he said.

A “Moral Perfection Project.” <— Super inspiring.

Just reading those virtues is enough to inspire you to live with more virtue, eh?!

Franklin worked on each of those 13 virtues throughout his life. He started with a little grid in his diary in which he would give himself either a passing or failing score in each of those virtues every.single.day. Each week he’d focus on a specific one and, over the course of a year, he’d work through each 4 times. Target? Moral Perfection.

As he reprogrammed his mind, those virtues became his “positive thought loops.”

Spotlight on you: If you were going to create your own set of virtues to embody, what would be on YOUR list?

And… What’s the #1 virtue you’d most like to embody?

(For me, it’s areté—the meta-virtue that powers all the others. My positive mental loop that supports it? “I am living with areté.” “I am living with areté.”“I am living with areté.”“I am living with areté.”“I am living with areté.”“I am living with areté.”“I am living with areté.”)

That’s from a chapter on the importance of simulations. (Check out our Notes on Pete Carroll’s Win Forever for more on his philosophy.)

For now, note that it’s all about starting with your ideal (kinda like our best-selves exercise above) and then, very importantly (!), looking at what might get in the way of that ideal performance. (John references Gabriele Oettingen and her awesome research. If you haven’t already checked out the Notes on Rethinking Positive Thinking get on that! Seriously. WOOP!)

Let’s bring this wisdom to life. See yourself having an absolute Masterpiece Day. You’re on fire. Life is great. See it. Feel it.

Next: What’s getting in the way of you experiencing that more consistently? What’s your kryptonite? What little things do you do that trip you up?

And, most importantly, what can you do to debug those bad habits? “If” you feel tempted to do X “then” what will you do?