Want to learn the secrets of top athletes?

If you knew how you could optimise your mind to do whatever you will it to

to get exactly what you want

would you?

Am still in the midst of listening to The Diary of a CEO Episode 215: The Mindset Doctor: The Secret Man Behind the World's Top Performers. 

In it, Prof. Steve Peters talked about our 3 modes of thinking.

The Human, the Chimp and the Computer system.

The Human system is logical and very slow. When you operate in this system, your body and reflexes slow down because you're analysing as you go along. That's good in some circumstances but not in fast moving sports.

The Chimp system is a primitive system although it thinks. It's more than just a reaction and impulsive system but it thinks emotionally. It'll think thoughts which are not helpful such as "Should I go faster at this point? Or should I slow down and conserve my energy?" And then it could make a decision to go faster and then burn out. 

Particularly in fast sports, we'd want to tap into the Computer system. It moves 20 times faster than the Human system and 4 times faster than the Chimp system. It just needs programming. It doesn't analyse or think, its an automatic think. It's like a behaviour that is programmed in and your body knows what to do. Your computer system locks out the other two systems and operates. It's the same computer that drives us to work, or to a familiar track, it can also generate automatic thinking. 

I know what you're thinking, then why not get rid of the Human and Chimp system and use the Computer system all the time?

That's when you got to listen to this podcast. The Chimp system comes with its surprises. There's more to learn about the Human system too. 

Go check out the full episode here.