{"id":1581,"date":"2011-03-01T23:02:39","date_gmt":"2011-03-02T07:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leanmeanvirilemachine.com\/?p=1581"},"modified":"2011-03-01T23:04:15","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T07:04:15","slug":"how-to-perform-inception-on-your-own-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/01\/how-to-perform-inception-on-your-own-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Perform “Inception” on Your Own Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Inception<\/a><\/p>\n

“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed–fully understood–that sticks; right in there somewhere.”<\/p>\n

-Dom Cobb, Inception<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mind Hacking<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of my favorite films of the past year is Inception<\/em>. I’m always a sucker for highly-entertaining movies that also make me think.<\/p>\n

In this film, a team of renegade spies are hired by a wealthy businessman to convince the young heir of a competitor’s energy empire to dissolve the family business. They plan to do this not by brute force, but by literally invading his mind to plant the idea itself into his subconscious, which they accomplish by interacting with him during their shared dreams.<\/p>\n

This act of implanting an idea in someone’s subconscious–subtly convincing them to carry out your will–is known as “inception.”<\/p>\n

While the premise sounds very “science fiction-y,” the underlying idea is based on solid facts about the human mind, cognitive biases, and persuasion. By using similar tactics, you can break free from the endless cycle of “eat less and exercise more” to effortlessly lose fat and build muscle–it’s just like performing inception on yourself.<\/p>\n

The Subconscious vs. the Conscious<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Inception<\/em>, the reason the spies contact the heir in a dream-within-a-dream-within-a-dream is so they can bypass his conscious mind and interact directly with his subconscious. Dreams are the theater of the subconscious, a phenomenon wherein this deepest part of the mind is prominently on display.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, the human psyche comprises the conscious<\/em> mind and the subconscious<\/em> mind.<\/p>\n

The conscious mind is the one we are all familiar with. It is the rational “decision-maker” part of the mind. It is what you use to solve your homework or deal with opportunities or problems at work.<\/p>\n

But when you look at the totality of human behavior, the conscious mind plays only a very small role. It is just the tiny tip of the iceberg in comparison with the subconscious mind, which is the theoretical part of the psyche that performs all of the activities that are outside of your direct awareness. These fall into two categories:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Innate Drives<\/em>–Impulses that you were born with. These human universals include the biological functions of the body as well as drives for food, water, sex, and sleep.<\/li>\n
  2. Conditioned Drives<\/em>–Impulses you have learned over time. These are unique between individuals, but are often characterized by habits that are easy to carry out due to lack of alternatives and repetition. Some examples you might recognize include tying your shoe or driving, but can also include a surgeon’s procedure or a pianist’s performance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The bad news is that we are all stuck with our innate drives. For the most part, these impulses are fixed at birth. The good news is twofold:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. For the most part, we all have the same innate drives. Despite a few outliers, we all came from the factory with “human nature” hard-wired within us. This means that the likelihood that you have something inherently “wrong” with you is slim. My personal pet peeve is the common misconception that humans are wired to be as gluttonous and lazy as possible, and that is the root cause of the obesity epidemic. No, it is not.<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. By creating new conditioned drives–or performing inception on yourself–you can easily take advantage of the human mind’s ability to effortlessly carry out the tasks you desire.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Fortunately, you don’t need an elaborate setup to influence yourself while you are asleep. You can “hack” your own mind to escape the gargantuan willpower requirements of the traditional “eat less, exercise more” approach to weight loss by taking advantage of some well-known cognitive biases.<\/p>\n

      Create Positive Rituals
      \n<\/strong><\/p>\n

      One of the biggest keys to changing your behavior is by creating positive rituals.<\/p>\n

      This is accomplished by adding one new task to your daily life and repeating it for 28 days straight. The keys here are to:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Make the task small.<\/li>\n
      2. Do only one task at a time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        You start by adding something new to your daily routine on day one. It will be difficult and require more willpower than if you just went about business as usual, but as long as your new behavior is small enough, it won’t zap you of all your energy.<\/p>\n

        As the next 28 days go by, this behavior becomes easier and easier to carry out. And by the end, it should be almost second nature to you. On a deep level, you are giving your conscious mind a task to complete. Over time, this task is “delegated” more and more to your subconscious mind, and you don’t need to invest any more willpower into it.<\/p>\n

        It’s the same thing that happens when you take a new job. On the first day, it’s usually a bit of a struggle to find where you are going, but after a month, you can usually drive to work and back on autopilot.<\/p>\n

        So what are some good examples of 28-day challenges that will improve your health and fitness? As I’m sure you can guess, I’d suggest you don’t do anything like “eat only 1,000 Calories every day” or “run for 2 hours daily.” Remember the list of two types of drives that the subconscious performs above? Well, hunger and sleep are innate drives, and while you can “reprogram” the conditioned drives in your mind, trying to change your innate ones is an exercise in futility. It’s much more efficient to focus on the quality of your diet and physical activity rather than the quantity.<\/p>\n

        Here’s a few examples you might want to try:<\/p>\n