Know Thyself

This is a Section of Chapter 1 of the MIND MUTTER MATTERS MOST book by John Usher

"You only study the brain. There is only one version of the brain. I study machines. There is such a diversity of machines." The father of a girlfriend sat back smugly. I was only a youngster starting out my career in Psychology and Human Development.  I knew from a young age that I wanted to study behaviour and the mind. As a kid, I got the others in my class to draw pictures of their families. I then sat and analysed the pictures, giving each child feedback on what I observed. It soon became a talking point in the school with pupils and teachers alike. People, including teachers, would constantly slip me pictures they had drawn wanting feedback.
Did it change lives? I don’t know. What I do know is, it gave me a massive reference database as they would tell me if I was right or wrong as I went.

Embarrassed by my girlfriend's father, I kept quiet and suffered the abuse all through dinner. "You should study something that is a little more complex," he blurted as we sat down in the sitting room to coffee. Straining to keep my cool, I leaned forward: "Reverse Engineering. Have you ever heard of reverse engineering?"

"Oh, that is when an engineer takes a machine that is already built and disassembles it in a way to understand how it was made" came the reply. "He must be good at his job. There are no drawings or diagrams when you dismantle a machine that you want to reverse engineer. It is a matter of learning as you go. It is good to start out with knowing what the machine does. Then the engineer has to figure out how the machine does its job. It is very complex indeed."

"Can anyone do reverse engineering?" I probed.

"No! Only really skilled and advanced engineers get involved in reverse engineering. They must be at the top of their game, experienced and knowledgeable on many types of machines. It is one thing to put together a machine using instructions, guides and diagrams; it is another when you dismantle it with no aide or support." He smiled.

"You see sir, I understand that there are many types of machines, but they all do very simple actions. They all have one of a few simple motions. They move up and down or from side to side. Maybe they hammer, maybe they turn. Some move by fossil fuels driving pistons up and down. Some get there power from electricity or from a pressure source. But the actions are fairly limited even though there applications are varied and many."

The big man moved uneasy in his chair. "What is your point, son?"

"Each person has a brain, and even if in your mind it is a single machine, its working is so diverse from person to person. You think about the world in a set way. I think about the world in a way that is different to you, even though we both use our brains, the common machine, to think.

You see sir, someone that studies the mind is like that Reverse Engineer of yours. The only way to understand the brain in any given person is to study their behaviour, study the outcomes and results of the brain in action. No one has ever seen God put together a brain. There are no guides, maps or diagrams for what I do. Every time I meet someone, it is like your engineer getting a piece of equipment he has never seen before, not knowing what its energy source is, what it is intended for, or how it achieves its outcome with one little difference: I am not allowed to break the machine open and look inside. I have to reverse engineer without ever seeing the actual machine in motion."

Please, understand me; I am not saying psychology and understanding human behaviour is more complex than being an engineer. I am saying is that there are no set rules when dealing with people. You take the rules and knowledge that you have learned and you throw it away, then you try to figure the mind of the person you dealing with, all the time trying to understand, not what people think, but rather, how people think.

Personal Development is currently a lucrative market in the world. It seems everyone wants to take Plato's "Know thyself" as a personal invite to self discovery. As beneficial as that is, it has opened a door that self development instructors, teachers, and life coaches are flooding through. More and more blogs are launched, books published and courses presented each day around self development. Besides porn and games, self improvement has become big business.

It is BIG BUSINESS!  More and more people invest in their own development. Some of the wealthiest people in the world have become rich and famous as self development teachers. The thing that interests me is how the content of these DIY Growth Courses books and videos is that they tell you what to think. The secret of how to think and how the mind functions most teachers keep secret. Why? It’s the "how" that is big business. Many build courses on the what-to-think on top of the all important how-to-think. Such courses are littered with Affirmations, daily programs, group meetings, goal setting techniques and even physical activities, never really sharing the how-to-think. The truth is - the real money maker is - HOW TO THINK!

I am not criticizing the style of approach to self development. The strategy of teaching "what" works! The courses are built on healthy "how" strategies that produce results regardless of whether the participants know details of the technique or not. That is how powerful the "how" techniques are!  The "how" is kept secret, as that is the key to unlocking great potential in each mind, even in your mind. I am also aware that by giving away the HOW-TO-THINK lessons, people will grow independently of the teachers and gurus - or at least that is the mind set.

I like to teach people the HOW-TO-THINK techniques and have done so for the past twenty five years. It is the "how" that empowers people, connects them with their potential, unlocks dreams and desires and puts them within the reach of reality. I intend to layout the "how" in as much logical detail as I can within the pages of the MIND MUTTER MATTERS MOST book.

Teaching the "how" liberates people, sets them free from the need of coaxing and costly courses. Even so, people keep coming back to grow their knowledge and confidence.  Navigating the mental minefields of beliefs, values and emotions is a complex thing to do on your own, giving rise to the need for life coaches and mentors that offer an objective third perspective. Even if you perfectly teach the "how," the need for an objective viewpoint is always needed and offers great comfort.

My approach in teaching self development all these years is to offer the "how" so that people have the freedom of choice and control over their own lives. I strive to offer comfort and a sense of understanding for what an individual may be going through during and after the coaching sessions. Knowing that people have gone through similar situations and still achieved success somehow takes the sting out of difficult circumstances. I will give you many techniques and examples as we progress through this self discovery journey, and you will slowly realize that you are not alone and the potential to reach your dreams is within the grasp of your reality.

I am currently writing the book: MIND MUTTER MATTERS MOST – Harnessing the great power of the Inner Voice. Would you like to pre-order a copy of the book?  Please click here and fill in the form. PRE-SALES ORDER FORM FOR MIND MUTTER MATTERS.  The book will retail for $2.99. Pre-Order will entitle you to a discount voucher. You will then be notified once the book is launched.