Using our Subconscious for Success

Our book “Become the Boss of You” emphasizes the significance of leveraging the power of the subconscious mind. An essential and practical tool we highlight is effective time management. It is noted that most of us naturally develop time management habits and routines as we navigate through life. When encountering new challenges, we think, plan, and execute tasks accordingly. These behavioral patterns are established early, influencing our beliefs and emotions toward our life scenarios. Once our routines are perfected, they operate automatically, guided by our powerful subconscious mind.

Time can be cruel. It does not discriminate based on the quality or happiness of our lives. Since time marches on, how can we harness the transformative capabilities of our subconscious mind? Can it empower us to become the masters of ourselves? We strongly affirm this possibility, advocating for the untapped potential of our subconscious mind to guide us toward success.

Why We Adore Stories

Great stories captivate us because they narrate a transformative journey. Consider two iconic characters, Dorothy and Frodo. By the end of “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy evolves from a scared girl chasing her dog in a storm to a courageous individual. Similarly, as the Middle Earth trilogy concludes, Frodo transcends from a content hobbit to a hero facing monumental challenges.

These stories resonate with us all as we navigate our unique life journeys. The trials, victories, and personal growth depicted in these narratives strike a chord within us, often on a subconscious level. This underlying connection is universal, even if we are unaware of it, making us feel understood and connected.

Harnessing the Subconscious for Happiness

For many, happiness is intertwined with love and relationships, fundamental to our social nature. In “Become the Boss of You,” a crucial aspect involves reflecting on love and friendship during nightly journaling sessions. Your journal is not just a space for writing but a sacred space for unabashed honesty and self-expression, overriding doubts from past conditioning. This practice empowers you to take control of your happiness.

Journaling can unlock the potential of the subconscious mind. By documenting your aspirations and thoughts, you will witness your subconscious mind unraveling complex emotions and desires. This process leverages the written word to empower you and align your subconscious with your objectives.

The book explores techniques to engage the subconscious mind, such as visualization, affirmations, prayer, meditation, mindfulness, gratitude, and goal setting. Once considered unconventional, these practices are now supported by scientific evidence and embraced by professionals across diverse fields.

In addition to the methods outlined in the book, personal utilization of self-hypnosis techniques can enhance the subconscious mind’s influence. These diverse practices tap into our potent subconscious faculties, offering invaluable support in realizing our ambitions.

While the book provides comprehensive guidance on leveraging these tools, here are five impactful techniques to kickstart your journey of harnessing the formidable subconscious mind, as detailed in our book.

The Crystal Ball Game—In the Book, I shared journal notes about a game-playing technique I use to engage my subconscious. In one example, I am journalling about the tool of my awareness. The example is below.

Example of journalling notes from “Ishall Dogood” – “I believe I am becoming more aware. I know these crystal ball sessions are my subconscious interacting with me through the projection of another entity, but it works for me. I used Ben Franklin’s idea about being aware of my surroundings. I am seeing things that I missed before. I am also starting to get out of my head. I’m more present. I believe I am beginning to listen to others better, and they appreciate it.”

There are many examples of the Crystal Ball in Become the Boss of You that you will find helpful and fun. You can use this game or make up your version to help engage the subconscious and brainstorm ideas and plans for practical application.

2.) Counting on the subconscious to help you prioritize – In the book, we talk about procrastination and possible ways to combat it—one way to shed the attitude that we always need more data. We have to make decisions at some point without endless digging. More data doesn’t make much difference at some point in the process.

To combat this tendency, we suggest that when you are stuck on the idea that you might need more information before acting or can’t decide on an item’s specific priority, put it on your to-do list as a “B” priority. Don’t make it an “A.” priority just yet. By getting it on the list and keeping it on it daily, you force yourself to look at it. I have found that in time, the subconscious mind will help you with the data or determine if it is an “A” priority, a “C” priority, or if it falls off the list ultimately.

3.) Using play and fun to engage the subconscious when journalling— “Become the Boss of You” asks the reader to journal because it frees inner powers, including the subconscious mind. Some can experience awkwardness when journaling if they are new to it. We encourage you to dream and have fun with your journaling. Having fun and using our play circuits can invoke the subconscious mind to get our desires onto our daily lists.

4.) Deep-dive journalling — The book illustrates deep-dive journaling. You take your topic, or central idea, and think of it as the trunk of a tree. As you journal and allow your mind to associate, it will travel from the trunk to a main branch of the central idea. Sometimes, it will travel to other branches from off that branch and occasionally even get to a leaf.

However, there will be times when you realize your thoughts are no longer related to the trunk. At that point, it is best to look at the topic or the trunk and get your mind back to the central idea. This association process allows the subconscious mind to help us by providing information we may have missed in our hustle and bustle of the day.

The question is always, how far from the main trunk do you want your mind to go? The balance between the benefits of free association and staying on track is a decision you have to make for yourself. On certain nights, allow yourself more free-wheeling. On other nights, you may want to stick closer to the trunk of the main idea. For example, if your central idea is gratitude, you may think of what a horrible person your ex is; you are probably off the tree altogether.

5.) Use the Socratic Method – This is the last method we will share today. Socrates is remembered for his method of questioning students to teach them to think. The neat part about this method is that it assumes that much of the knowledge is already in the student. I will contend that it is the same with us. When you need to break through, ask yourself questions in your journalling time.

You may have to wait for the answer but ask the burning question. Circle any answers that are not relevant to your topic and move on. This way, you can return to the circled thoughts later for inspiration. This allows your subconscious mind to start pondering it for you. Treat your subconscious like Socrates treated his students. The answer is already there. It just needs to incubate and express itself.

Socrates used this method to develop Western thought. It can also help us with less grand things like figuring out how to fit an exercise routine into our lives or the next steps in a specific part of our development. If you are stuck, Ask! Here are other pointers that can help as you use the Socratic method to involve your subconscious mind as you journal and take things to the next level.

• Ask yourself open-ended questions. Don’t write, “Can I?” Write, “How can I?” Avoid closed-ended questions like, “Is this the best or that the best?” Let the creative subconscious do its work. Say, “What is the best way to get this done?”
• Over time, you can have a dialog with your subconscious. Write as if your subconscious self is a person in the room with you. Try to keep the questions coming as part of the dialog. Here are some examples:
• “I noticed I made progress on the marketing piece we discussed last week. What do you think about my progress on my marketing project?” Then, write whatever comes to mind.
• If you are wondering if you should build another project, circle, “What do you think about my time priorities being balanced for my project and my marketing piece?”

In closing, never lecture the subconscious. Be friendly to yourself. If you lecture your subconscious, you are lecturing yourself. Be nice to it and ask it for help.

Peace, Ishall Dogood

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Interesting reading and source materials:

The source material below includes a few articles on visualization, affirmation, prayer, meditation, mindfulness, gratitude, and goal setting.

1. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/giving-thanks-can-make-you-happier
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/affirmations