Even if you don’t realise it, you have an invisible brain function designed to do the very opposite of what you want a lot of the time. In fact, the more you want something, the more vigorously it exerts its malign influence.
As daft as it might sound at first, it is all about survival, and there is a very high chance that the more you want something, the less of it you already have. That means you are seeking change and, as far as part of the subconscious is concerned, change is potentially dangerous and it will do its best to sabotage it.
After all, what you have been doing up until now has led to a major success as far as the subconscious is concerned: your survival. So, if what you have been doing so far has worked perfectly, why would you want to entertain change?
The thing is that your subconscious is really focused most strongly on only two things. The first is staying alive as long as you can so that you can do more of the second, which is producing and nurturing new people. The fact that you are living in a house that is too small, drive a car that is falling to bits, your furniture has seen better days, and your partner is nagging about a Caribbean holiday does not register as important to the subconscious.
You are still alive. You are a success.
It has a hundred tricks it can play, and the greater the change you are seeking, the more active they become. This is especially the case in business, whether starting one or expanding an existing one.
Doubt is often first and is a powerful bit of sorcery, having you ponder all sorts of obstacles, including that most businesses fail, that you might not have what it takes, the taxman will take most of your profits. You will never get any time to yourself, and people will probably laugh at you if it all goes wrong.
And if you survive the doubt, or simply do not experience it in the first place, the next trick is almost as bad: the total belief that you are about to become a millionaire within the next couple of years, be featured in Forbes magazine, and that Caribbean holidays on your own yacht will be normal.
That second one often leads inexorably back to the first one, doubt, when things do not happen as you were sure they would. Then it becomes important to understand what you could have done differently. Even if somebody else caused it, work out how you could have avoided it. Accept responsibility.
And if you get past doubt, your subconscious has yet more tricks to avoid the dreaded danger of change, such as making you lose your phone, accidentally deleting an important email, forgetting to confirm a meeting, or losing somebody’s contact details.
But there is a way past all of this.
We will not go into the details about creating a business plan, structure, organisation, and future planning, as important as they are, because unless you teach that subconscious a thing or two, it could still trip you up.
There are two highly effective ways you can stop the subconscious getting in your way and instead make it work towards the change you are seeking. You will probably need both.
The first is to write down what you want to do in as much detail as possible. Do not just think about it or use AI, because that is not the same thing. A thought is created in a moment, has no substance, and is gone in another moment. Writing something down gives it reality in your brain, and reality matters.
When you write, you activate different parts of the brain than when simply thinking or reading, and because it takes longer, more neural pathways become associated with what you want and are activated towards achieving it. Handwriting is better than typing because it takes more effort and effort is a measure of determination.
Write what you want, what you are going to do to get it, why that will work, what it will actually feel like when you have achieved it, how your life will be different from what it currently is, and why that matters to you.
It must carry a high degree of emotional energy so that anybody else reading it would immediately understand exactly what you are after and why, and could hardly fail to be inspired.
The second thing is the hardest: persistence. Very few plans work perfectly from the beginning, no matter how meticulous they are. And very few people become an overnight success, whatever they tell you.
The trouble is that when something does not work as you imagined, the subconscious feels your disappointment, assumes it is a threat to survival, and immediately fires up doubt again. But if you look energetically for another way to make it work, it recognises your determination and starts to put ideas into your mind.
That is a very important aspect of becoming successful in business or anything else: staying with a plan long enough to make it work.
Too many people try an idea, feel doubt for whatever reason, implement the idea half-heartedly, fail, then try a different idea. When that fails they try another, and every time they change their plan, doubt becomes stronger until it rules everything they do.
It does not matter what sort of success you are seeking. The rules are the same. Plan it, write it down in detail, know exactly why you want it, and make sure there is a strong emotion attached to it. Then stick with it. Do something towards it every single day, something others can see and something you can feel.
And remember that most people who appear to be an overnight success only become so after many years of preparation, background work, and practice.
Terence Watts is the creator of Brain Working Recursive Therapy (BWRT).