Change Your Brain

Pentagon strategists have worried for over a decade that the development of a super missile would weaken America’s dominant influence in East Asian waters. The recent revelation of a new “smart missile” developed by China has caused great concern for the U.S. and its naval carrier fleet.
What makes the missile so lethal is its accurate guidance system. It’s reported that the Dong Feng 21D (DF-21D) missile can be launched from the land and hit a moving aircraft carrier 900 miles away. The Chinese have had missile technology, but their accuracy was ineffective until President Clinton sold them three Cray supercomputers as part of a trade deal, which the Chinese used immediately to develop their missile capability.
The news of the power of a self-correcting guidance mechanism awakens the half-century old knowledge of the power of our own internal guidance system. When Dr. Maxell Maltz published his ground-breaking book Psycho-Cybernetics in 1960, he provided further evidence of the mind-body connection to attain one’s goals. As a cosmetic surgeon, Maltz was confused by the reaction of his patients after surgery. Even though he transformed their external looks to make them more beautiful, he found that their inner self-image was more powerful when it came to seeing the results of his work. In fact, many of his patients reported that they did not see any changes when they looked at themselves in the mirror. His research brought him to the realization that our limiting beliefs determine our actions and results; therefore, in order to change our lives, we must change our brain – or how we see ourselves in our mind’s eye.
The term “cybernetic” comes from a Greek word which means literally, “the steersman.” Like a missile guidance system, our bio-mechanical brain acts as a servo-mechanism to “steer” us toward the results we expect, and those results are determined by our strongly-held beliefs and values.
A cybernetic refers to a control-and-response mechanism to keep things in their comfort zone or on target. Using a missile as a metaphor, let’s look at three aspects to our own servo-mechanism. This can be summarized by the acronym: RAS, for Result, Action, and Self-correcting. First, the Result must be known. You must identify the target or goal that you want to reach. For the DF-21D, the result would be to intercept and sink an aircraft carrier. For you, it might be to lose weight, make more money, or find romance. To lock onto your target and get the result you want, you must be clear about your objective, or you must know what exact result you expect.
The next step is to take Action. A missile must have some type of propulsion system to move it in the general direction of the target. If your result is to reach a certain weight, then you must take some action such as eating better or exercising regularly. To make more money, you must take action by offering greater value to your employer or customers, and to find romance, you need to take action by meeting more people and socializing.
The third thing that must happen is to have an accurate guidance system that is Self-correcting. A guided missile requires ongoing feedback using a global positioning system, radar, sonar, or heat preceptors to relay its relationship to the target and determine any course correction. Individuals trying to lose weight use their sensory organs and external measures, such as a weight scale, measuring tape, or comments from others, to provide valuable feedback so they can stay on the correct course.
So if it is as easy as knowing your result, taking action, and self-correcting, why do so many people not achieve their goals? The reason is because you must have a self-image that sustains your efforts. Your brain must change how you see yourself in your mind’s eye so that you establish a new comfort zone, or set point.
A simple cybernetic example is a thermostat that is used to maintain room temperature. If it is too hot the air conditioner kicks on and when the temperature drops below a certain standard, the heater turns on. Our psycho-cybernetic mechanism is a self-correcting autopilot that will always kick in to steer us back to the internal image and beliefs we have of ourselves. In other words, if you want to change on the outside, you must first change on the inside.
If your self-image sees yourself as fat, poor, or romantically challenged, then your behavior will align with your beliefs to ensure that you maintain that self-image. The reality is that you are none of these as long as you believe in yourself. So what if you’re overweight now or you struggle financially? Your current reality does not have to be your future fate. You are a human being who is fully capable of changing your situation – if you believe you can.
For effective change to occur you must have a vision of what you want to become, and reinforce the beliefs that will turn your vision into reality. You must create a new comfort zone and new patterns of behavior in order to take sustained action towards your new self. You have the power to “reprogram” yourself for greater success and realize more empowering results.
A new discovery has revealed that neurogenesis, the process of making new brain cells, does not stop with adolescence, but continues throughout your life span. No matter what your age, you can change your brain by creating new neural pathways. Next week, I’ll discuss how a small part of your brain, about the size of your little finger, is your key to open the doorway of your mind and truly change your brain.