authors note: sorry for late. this shit wasn't even supposed to be my topic but the dots were taking too long to connect and I kept derailing so I kept some of what I wrote and chose a simpler topic. to be quite shamefully honest this is the first time ive written my own original thoughts down for a few hours straight since ChatGPT came out. I was also teaching someone to screen print at the same time. forgive me.
Every single day you have ever lived, you make seemingly simple decisions. Some days you are more in control than others, maybe because you're not feeling very disciplined, but especially for your early years since you simply cannot make certain decisions yet. An individual of greater ability and wisdom hopefully decided to nurture and take care of you. Your mom wiped your ass, and your dad decided you needed a big breakfast with a glass of milk. But you still took an action. You either drank the milk, or you wailed at the sight of your pacifier until your elders made the choice for you.
Then one day, in the middle of a highschool biology quiz you look around the room. Most of your peers have their face down scribbling in their answers. Others are dumbfounded by the quiz, instead counting the tiles on the ceiling.
You come to an epiphany. One day, every single person in this room, including you, no longer had to consciously think about their everyday actions. You no longer have to consciously think about which fingers grip your pencil. You no longer have to consciously eat breakfast. You no longer have to consciously wipe your ass. You have done these actions so many times that your subconscious takes over. Through hundreds of repetitions of consciously taking a shit your brain essentially flips on autopilot for the entire activity. This autopilot is just your brain using energy more efficiently. The same applies to your hobbies. Cranking 90s in Fortnite becomes automatic after enough repetitions. There is no longer a need for your conscious energy to be wasted on simple tasks. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of your daily actions end up taking on this same principle. Your behaviors form into habits that stack onto each other like building blocks. Your brain knows that when you wake up, it's time to brush your teeth, eat breakfast, drive to work, eat lunch, and mindlessly continue this routine until you go to bed. Sure you have cues of hunger and monetary gain that motivate you to make most of these decisions, but habits are far more linked than you may realize. Of course we still have free will, but in a way we are all still slaves to our behavior patterns that we have accidentally engraved in our subconscious mind.
Stick with me here. If you imagine the universe in itself as one giant living being, you can see this same energy saving principle in effect very clearly. Fingerprints are eeriely similar to the rings of a tree trunk, the roots of a tree closely resemble the veins on your arm. Given enough repetitions of evolution the universe turns on autopilot for biological formation and these similarities ensue. This aligns with The Principle of Least Action, which states that "the path taken by a system between two points in space and time is the one that minimizes the action. (In simple terms, nature often follows the most "efficient" or "optimal" path). I do not want to derail this too hard by mentioning the universe as a living being, but I just want to further reinforce the notion that repetition often leads to efficiency.
But here is where I think it gets really interesting.
Religion by itself is a topic for another blog, but I am still going to dance around it. For many religions praying is a very common practice. You repeat a mantra in faith it will bring you some change or as an act of worship to a higher being. For this blog, I'm focusing on the former. This is an extremely conscious and one-pointed activity. Your attention is focused completely on the mantra at hand, and your subconscious wanders, visualizing the stated mantra in relation to recent events. It could be a wrongdoing you feel remorseful of, or hope for good fortune and health for you and your loved ones. The end goal is ultimately the same; for a higher power to help you become the person you wish to be. However, for some others like myself who are not religious, mantras can still be commonplace.
A couple years ago I started repeating to myself, out loud: "I will succeed with Wojo. I will succeed with Wojo. I will succeed with Wojo. I will succeed with Wojo." To this day, the first dozen repetitions still cringe me out. However with enough conscious focus of visualizing myself doing specific tasks like creating graphics, designing clothes, doing photoshoots, getting sales etc, the mantra is spoken with more and more confidence. Even if my motivation is low, at the end of my repetitions, my confidence that I will succeed with Wojo is unwavering. I have came to the conclusion that I will succeed through the actions I have visualized, and my subconscious is skewed just a little bit more in my favor. In other words, it's a little push for my conscious to make productive decisions. And for what it's worth, it works. I make a decent living off of Wojo and I plan to continue to do so.
Some call it praying, others call it manifesting, and others, affirmations. The point is, nobody can deny the impact it has. You are consciously repeating an action, in hopes of purposefully reprograming your subconscious.
I don't expect you to have read this and had your mind blown.
All I want you to do is start repeating your goals out loud to yourself when you are alone.
Firstly, sit in silence.
Think of just one metric of personal success you hope to achieve.
It could literally be anything. Just make sure you can imagine yourself completing the task with as much detail as possible.
For instance if your goal is to workout everyday, repeat to yourself every morning "I will go to the gym at 11AM" (more specific=better).
At the same time, visualize yourself driving to the gym, pulling into the parking lot, stretching, doing a bicep curl, etc.
Only stop repeating the mantra when you are 100% confident that you will complete the task at hand.
Try this everyday for a week straight and observe how your desired task becomes easier to complete.
Or don't. I dont really care it just works for me. It's just another penny in the fountain.
P.S. Happy birthday N8 !!!!!!!!!!!
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