Russell Brunson (3:05)
I talk a lot about this. If you've ever been to my selling online event, I go deep in this. But from a standpoint of like helping, like learning how to sell people stuff, right? Because I'm having a conscious conversation with somebody. But if I want to sell them, I'm actually speaking in a way that I'm speaking directly to their subconscious mind because that's what gets them to break their false belief patterns, gets them to move. And you have to understand how to do that. So I have a whole event about that, like in context of selling. But this one, I want to explain it in context for you just understanding your life and why you do the things you do and why you sometimes don't do the things you want to do. Right. And it all comes down to this conscious and subconscious, like how these two minds of ours work. And I'm not going to get deep into like the, you know, the science behind it. I just want you guys, to understand what you need to understand to be successful with it, okay? So the first thing you understand is that, like, by default, when we're born as kids, like, we're blank slates, right? And everything we're learning is patterns. We're learning these patterns, and they get ingrained into our body, into our mind. And that's like. That's the, like, really what's happening. So consciously we decided, like, hey, I want to go do this thing, you know? And, like, I think one of the easy examples to think about is, like, let's say when you wanted to learn a car the first time, right? You jump behind the car and you're consciously have to be aware of all these things, right? Okay, here's the steering wheel, here's the clutch. If you're, you know, old school, like me or like, you know, here's the things, here's the radio, here's that. And so, like, all these things, you're driving, you're trying to stay within lines yous're, like, consciously keep going back and forth, you know, stay in line, stay in line. You know, you go back and forth, you try to figure out where you're going, and you've got a map and you're trying and, like, you're consciously doing all this stuff. That's why the very first time that you drive somewhere, it's really hard. It's a really difficult thing, right? But then what happens is we do it once, we do it a second time, a third time, and a fourth time, right? We keep consciously doing it, but consciously we're doing this thing, but it builds a subconscious pattern, right? And so eventually you jump in the car and you start driving, and you don't even know what's happening. Your brain's consciously thinking about something else. All these things are happening. And your subconscious mind's like, I know how to get into the office. And boom, you show up to the office, right? And you get out of your car. You're like, how did I get here? I don't know how I even got here. Or sometimes you think you're gonna go somewhere else, but then you stop paying attention. Your subconscious mind will take you to where you end up at the office. Like, I was trying to go to church. Like, what just happened, right? Because it's that the pattern's so there. And so all we say is, consciously, I want to go this place. Subconscious mind takes over, the pattern happens, and then, boom, we just go, okay. And so these patterns happen over and over and over again. Like, first Time we do something, it's consciously second time, it's consciously third time. We keep doing it over and over and over again until it becomes a pattern and it becomes part of us, okay? In sports, athletics, a lot of times they call this muscle memory, right? Again, I didn't understand conscious or subconscious back then, but I was competing as an athlete. That's what they said. Like, you had to drill something so many times, it becomes muscle memory. It's just part of you, right? And that's what they're talking about, right? When I was in the wrestling practice, I consciously would sit with the coach, and they'd say, okay, here's how you do a single leg, and you go through. Here's where the arm goes and the other arm, and we walk through all the pieces, right? And then we drill it, and we drill it and we drill it, and we'll drill that same move hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of times, right? It's like, not like, it's not that hard to get the move right. But I'm doing is. I'm taking his consciousness. I'm turning into a subconscious reaction, right? And so I know that, like, when somebody moves this way, right, I'm not thinking, okay, the person stepped here. Now I'm gonna go take a shot, right? Instead, what happens is you've done so many times, your subconscious mind just feels it all sense. Like, there's less pressure, something's opening here, something's moving, and you don't even know what's happening. But, boom, Your subconscious mind, because you've drilled it so many times, consciously, it's become subconscious. Now your subconscious mind just takes it and it happens, okay? And it's really fascinating. And the reason why it's so important, I was doing some studies and looking this up. Like, the speed of our conscious mind versus our subconscious mind. It's like our conscious mind can handle. I think it's like 50 bits per second or something that. Where our subconscious is like 400 billion bits per second. It's insane. In fact, the stat I found, and there's a bunch different stats, they all kind of conflict a little bit, but basically it's 27,500 times faster. That's the speed difference, right? And so when I started wrestling again as an old man, I started going these tournaments. It was crazy because I got out there and started wrestling, and I'd be wrestling out there. All of a sudden, I see the move. Like, there's the move, like, his legs open. But I'm very conscious, right? Because I'VE been doing it. So I was conscious. I go to shoot and I'm like, slow. And by the time I'm like halfway there, the guy's leg's already gone. Because I move so slow, right? That's what's happening when we're conscious, okay? But when you get back to the spot you're drilling, you're drilling, it gets in your subconscious. You're not thinking. You're just out there playing, having fun. All of a sudden it's like, boom. You just go. Because you felt it subconsciously 27,500 times faster. That much faster, Boom. Your brain just subconscious goes. That's why they always talk about, if you're in your head, you're dead. Cause as an athlete, if you're in your head, you're consciously thinking, okay, what do I do now? What do I do now? It's when you get out of conscious and into subconscious. That's when you get into flow state. And you can do so much more because your subconscious so much faster because it's built patterns. And you've done those patterns so many times that just that part of your brain takes over, and it's so much faster than your conscious mind, okay? So anytime you're doing things consciously, that's when you struggle. I see this happening when I'm speaking on stage. If I'm on stage and I'm very conscious, like, I'm like, too slide driven or too much. Like, I get out of the rhythm and it's just hard to explain where, like, I'll get in a spot where I'm doing something and also, like, I don't know what happens. I feel like something else takes over and it's a different experience. I can tell the times that I'm teaching consciously versus subconsciously. When I'm teaching subconsciously, that's when magic happens. People are crying, things are happening, and it's hard to get to that point. But it's just tons and tons and tons of repetition that transitions you from conscious to subconscious. And so it's the key. Now a couple things to note, and this is gonna set up the next part. So it's important to understand this. I had a really good coach one time, and he asked everyone, he said, we're practicing. We're practicing the same thing over and over and over again. He says. He says, what do you guys know about practice? And some of my team's like, practice makes perfect. And my coach was like, well, that's not actually true. Like, what are you talking about? Then why Are we practicing all day? Right? We're trying to get perfect. And he said, perfect. Practice makes perfect. Okay, so this is what happened. I see this every. Actually, every jump, right? I wrestled in middle school, I wrestled in high school. I wrestled at college. I wrestled, like, you know, I trained at Olympic level. Never got to compete at that level, but I trained there. So, like, what's interesting is that that each level, what happens is you come in with your good habits and your bad habits, right? So as a kid, I'm learning a single leg. And, you know, my coaches, my dad, everyone's, like, just trying to get me to actually shoot. Like, just. Just grab. Like, shoot and grab their legs, right? So I do it, and eventually I get better. I get pretty good at it. Cause I've done it so many times, and, like, I have some success. You know, I'm aggressive. So, like, I start winning some matches that way, and it's like, cool. I'm good on my feet, right? I'm good at shooting and taking people down. But then I get to the high school level, and also I go out there and like, I didn't realize this, but I have bad habits. I'm standing too straight, my elbows are out. Like, it didn't affect me at this level because. Because, you know, the kids weren't that good. But the next level, those kids who are better than me, like, they pick it apart, really. Like, you're out of position, you're out of stance. It's really easy to beat me. So, like, I have to go back and relearn the pattern. Like, I have this pattern that I've been doing in middle school, right? I go to. I go to high school, and the pattern doesn't work anymore, right? So I have to break the pattern. I have to redo it. So I have to come back, I have to relearn how to shoot, how to keep my elbows in, how to keep my arms small, how to keep, like, in stance. Like, shoot over. And so all through high school, for the next four years, I'm drilling, drilling, and I'm building this new muscle memory, right? It gets better and better and better. The spot where I get to a certain level, for me, it was like I became a state champ, went to Nashville, took second place in the country. I was really good, right? And then I got a college scholarship. So I go to college, I show up the very first day, and again, I'm a state champ. I'm second place in the country. All American. Like, I think I'm going to just kill everyone I walk in this room with these college kids, and I get destroyed. And it was humbling for, like, what just happened. Like, I'm really good. Like, how are these guys beating me so bad? And I realized just because I had been practicing to that level, but I was out of position in so many places, I didn't know, right? I get the next level, and it's like, these guys are so much better that I can't do things sloppy. My hips are out. Like, little, tiny, little nuances. They changed everything. So I had to go learn how to rebuild these patterns in a way where I could beat the guys to the next level, okay? And so I saw it so much in wrestling. Every single area I'd go to, right? But the key was, like, understanding first off that, like, that just by default, you have these patterns, right? From whatever level you are, okay? Now, obviously, I'm sure I got a handful of wrestlers listening this. Most of you guys aren't wrestlers. Most of you guys are entrepreneurs who are listening. And so I want to liken this to entrepreneurship and just any area of your life, actually, with your family, with your kids, with anyone. We have these patterns. And the patterns started when we were young, right? And we don't remember consciously making these, but they happened, right? And so the pattern, it could be all sorts of things Tony Robbins talks about, you know, when you're a little kid and you're trying to get attention, trying to get love and stuff, and all of a sudden, like, one kid goes and he trips and makes everyone laugh, and he's like, that day, a comedian was born because you saw the pattern. Like, oh, I tripped. They laughed. I'm gonna do that again. And so you start doing funny things, and, like, that's how you get love, right? And someone else, like, they tried a bunch of things and their family wasn't paying attention to them, and they went and they achieved something, right? And all of a sudden, like, they saw they had success achieving, and he's like, that day, an achiever was born, right? It's like, if I achieve something, something's gonna happen. So, like, we start building these patterns that just based on things that are happening, right? As when we're 2 years old, 3 years old, 5 years old, 10 years old, right? We don't even know they're happening. These patterns start happening, right? And a lot of times, these patterns will serve you in some areas of life, and they will hinder you in other areas of life. But you're showing up to your life right now with a whole bunch of patterns that have been programmed, right? It's me wrestling in middle school, doing something that got me through life. Now I'm trying to operate at this level, and my pattern is wrong. It was okay. It was good enough to let me win at that level, But I'm at the next level now, and I just keep failing and failing. And I don't understand why I'm so confused, right? And so that's the first step to understand, is that this is what's happening in our whole brain. There's this conscious thing we want to do, and we're building subconscious patterns, right? And the subconscious patterns, if done correctly, will lead you to the next level of success. If done incorrectly, will hold you back.
