Are we really rational and logical?

When I completed my NLP and Hypnosis Practitioner Certification, I learnt about how our mind works and, its impact on our thinking and decisions we take, which ultimately impacts our lives. It helps us in understanding working of our mind, which is extremely relevant in modern day context. Understanding this also helps us in understanding people, the way they think and how we can influence them as a leader or at individual level.

Our mind can be divided into two parts, conscious and subconscious mind. Conscious mind is very small (10%) whereas subconscious mind is very large (90%). Conscious mind receives information from our five senses and processes it, saves it in our subconscious mind for future reference. Conscious mind is logical and rational, does all the thinking and decides upon actions. Information is saved in subconscious mind for future reference. This information is saved in form of images, feelings, smell, taste and sounds. For example, when you see a cat, how do you know it is a cat? Because when you saw a cat for the first time as a kid, your mom told you it was a cat. When you see an orange, how do you recognize that it is an orange? When you came across orange for the first time, someone told you its orange. Do you remember its taste? colour? And how you feel when you peel it or eat it?

You pass by McDonald and you see a burger, you remember the burger, its taste and the feeling. You stop and buy even when you are not hungry. One important thing to remember is, conscious mind processes the information and is saved in subconscious mind. But once it is saved, you cannot change it at conscious level. For example, it is impossible for us to see a tomato and imagine it is a mango.

As we grow in our lives, we keep on receiving information and is being saved in our subconscious mind for future reference. This reduces load on our conscious mind and it can process new information (remember? conscious mind is very small). Subconscious mind plays a huge role in formation of habits. When you are learning to drive a car, you struggle, try to remember where accelerator, clutch and gears is and when to press what. But as you practice, all this information becomes automatic.

Our conscious mind gets tired and we go to sleep. Subconscious mind works 24 by 7. Dreams which we see, also come from our subconscious mind. Subconscious mind notices all the movements or actions that are required frequently and are saved in it. All the sports played, are played at subconscious level. There is no thinking time, only reaction time. More than 95% of what we do every day is controlled by our subconscious mind.

In other words, more than 95% of our actions are our auto responses and less than 5% of our actions are thought over, that too based on the information we already had.

One interesting thing about subconscious mind is, it also stores emotions, but they are felt at conscious level. For example, think about a movie which you saw last that got you emotional. Even though you know that the movie is not real, you feel those emotions. If the movie was sad, you felt like crying, some of them are almost at the verge of crying, some actually experience tears rolling over their cheeks. If the movie had a happy ending, you felt happy.

Most of the events that happen in our lives have some emotions attached to it, some are weaker, some are stronger. Our beliefs, our thinking, our decisions taken in the past have emotions attached to it. Emotions are saved in our subconscious mind and subconscious being large, emotions will overpower our logic.

In one of the sessions, one of the participants shared, ‘I was admitted during COVID in XYZ hospital. I was in critical stage. But somehow, I survived. Even today when I pass from that hospital, I get shivers and I tell myself I won’t go there again’. Another participant shared a similar yet different experience, ‘I was admitted during COVID in ABC hospital. I was in critical stage. But I survived. Today when I pass from that hospital, I have smile on my face. I thank the hospital and doctors who gave their best to save me’. Similar experience but different feeling and conclusion!

Our senses have very limited capability. This may sound strange but our vision is limited. We can’t see lot of things. Our ability to hear is limited too. Our ability to smell is limited. Our ability to feel is also limited. For example, an owl can see in the night. Bat can listen to the frequence we can’t. We can’t smell like hyenas, or even dogs. But even with these senses with limited capability, the information received by our senses are huge and cannot be processed by our conscious mind. So, it deletes the information that is not required. It reduces the load on the conscious mind. For example, let’s say, a single mom and a boy are on their scooty. While they are driving, a middle-aged handsome man is driving a Mercedes with his beautiful daughter sitting next to him reading a book. They both stop at a signal. There is another poor boy riding an old bicycle. They are all at a signal and there is a traffic police standing quietly. What did the boy notice? obviously the young girl in the Mercedes. What did single mom notice? The middle-aged rich man. She hardly notices the young girl. What did the bicycle rider notice? He noticed scooty and wished he too had one. What did the traffic police notice? Whether passengers in the Mercedes were wearing seatbelt, riders of scooty wearing a helmet. Same information received by many but received differently by everyone. Everyone would narrate this incident differently. Their subconscious mind focused on what was important and rest of the information was deleted. This is how perceptions are formed.

We all are living in the world of perception. The interesting part is, no human being can see the whole thing in totality yet what we see and understand, we believe is right. Everyone has seen the same information but they have understood it differently and yet everyone believes, they are right and rest are wrong.

As human beings, our ability to learn is better than other animals. However, this ability has a drawback. You accept others’ belief as your own easily. If your mother says ‘Maths is difficult and you have to really work hard if you want to pass’, you start believing that maths is difficult. Remember, the information is coming from an authentic source (your trust levels are very high). Beliefs are formed and we are emotionally attached to our beliefs.

Something that does not match our beliefs, we discard it as false or untrue or try to tweak that information to fit with our belief system. This is called distortion.

We are emotionally attached to our beliefs. Anyone who tries to challenge our beliefs, faces immediate denial and outburst. Just for example, we believe Sachin Tendulkar (God of cricket) is the best batsman ever. But if someone says, Babar Azam or Ricky Ponting is/was the best batsman ever, we would immediately become defensive and would face angry outburst.

These single-track thinking is the main cause of failure, for individuals, communities, organizations, societies and the countries.

There were many organizations who were successful and even market leaders at one time, but they don’t exist anymore. They believed the demand of products they manufactured, the services they provided would never cease. They were blind to the change of customer preferences. They were unable to see the changes in the market which others could see.

When we talk about countries, Germany was blinded by Adolf Hitler. Nepoleon influenced France. We are seeing a trend across the world. Opinions are formed, information is being twisted and served to the common man. Half-truth, one-sided view points are being presented to common man. Common men in ignorance, are ending up supporting that is detrimental to them, their society and their country. Threat of World War III is looming large over the entire humanity.

Climate change is the biggest danger humans are facing. Earth is being damaged and destroyed, natural resources exploited steadily every day. Capitalism and Marketism is destroying human wellness every day. Anyone is hardly worried.

When we talk about individuals, you will find people in all walks of life who refused to change and faced the consequences. We all have been rigid in our beliefs and some point or the other. One incident that taught me about my rigid beliefs when I was in sales. This was somewhere in 2007. We had launched a residential leadership workshop which was costing more than 1.5 lakhs per seat. It was a substantial amount at that time. We were given the task of selling this workshop. I believed it would be impossible to sell this workshop. I didn’t try. One of my clients, came to know about this workshop through an advertisement and called me. They had couple of nominations. We lost an opportunity.

Celebrities and politicians are often supported and protected because of their halo, their image. Their followers believe they cannot do anything wrong.

In every profession, it is important that we change, improve, develop, grow, acquire new knowledge and skills. Amitabh Bachchan still works and has remained relevant because he was ready to change. He was getting older and director producers wanted him to still play a hero. He took a break, reinvented and came back stronger, doing better roles. Sachin could score 100 centuries because he kept on improving himself.

Solution is improving self-awareness. Being self-aware about our beliefs and thinking, is the key. Be aware of your beliefs, your opinions and your thought process. It is not always about right or wrong. If a belief doesn’t match with yours, doesn’t mean it is wrong. Be ready to listen. Be ready to listen to others with an open mind, that may contradict your beliefs. You will understand others perspective. At least you will know their thought process. People at the bottom of the pyramid actually interact with the customers, client, dealers and retailers. Their experiences are really important but often don't reach the top.

Practicing meditation, being mindful surely helps in improving self awareness.

We can educate our children, make them aware. Making people aware is another step we can take, to build that awareness.

We can also develop that habit of asking questions. Don’t assume any information to be true. Don’t accept any information circulated on social media as it is. Do your own research before forwarding. Do it from multiple sources. If you are unsure, don’t share.

Try to see the larger picture. When you focus on some parts, it gives us distorting facts. Fitting those small bits of information in larger context helps us understand situations better.

Finally, your time is valuable. Spend your time and energy wisely on those things that matter most. Don’t just try to find answers to everything. Focus on relevant stuff.

Once we believed, earth was stationery and the sun was revolving around the earth. Then we moved to sun being stationery and planets revolving around the earth. Now sun is also revolving around the supermassive black hole at the centre of our milky way galaxy. It is not about right or wrong. We are evolving, knowing more.

Thank you for reading.

#sanjaybgoel #apolloleadership #subconsciousexploration #improvingselfawareness #askingquestionsisimportant #mindsetshiftmatters #rationalthinking