Subconscious beats conscious

Let me explain this idea by using an important example from my own life. After a car accident, I struggled a lot with posture. My back was weakened and injured, which made it hard to stand up straight.

So what do I do? The thing almost everbody does.

• I kept thinking to myself, all day: “Stand up straight! Shoulders back! And relax!”
• I often looked in the mirror to correct myself
• And then thought some more about correct posture again.

I was extremely conscious about making corrections and changes. And this did not work.

Because what is the effect?

• Your brain is constantly distracted by those thoughts
• You overcompensate or force yourself into a different posture, which is even worse
• It becomes a habit to think about posture, but not a habit to actually have it.

Instead, you should always strive to have subconscious good habits. You do it automatically, and it doesn’t take thought or energy.

Because that is the end goal: your default state is improved, thanks to those good habits. The end goal is not: your default state is constantly nagging about how it should improve.

What does this mean? If your mind constantly thinks about good habits or things you need to change, you’re doing it wrong. It won’t work. It might even be very bad for your (mental) health.

Instead, pick fixed moments every day to practice a new habit. Outside of those moments? Forget it. Don’t even think about it.

Let’s continue our posture example. I finally improved once I did the following:

• Every day, 10-15 minutes of exercises for my back, upper body and abs.
• These exercises weren’t meant for strength or performance. They were simple exercises you could only execute if you had the right posture.
• As such, I didn’t look for “20 repetitions” or “muscle failure”. I tried to have ideal posture for each repetition and stopped once I felt my concentration slip.

After doing this, your body will subconsciously start using the right muscles and correcting your posture. You don’t need to think about it. You don’t need to remind yourself. The body is now strong enough, and it has done enough repetitions with correct posture to make it the default.

That’s the best way to achieve something. By tapping into our amazing intuitive and subconscious powers.

You should surprise yourself once in a while that you’ve completely integrated a new habit, or removed a bad one. “Hey, I guess I can now do X!”