You Become Aware of Your Daily Actions AFTER You Take Them

Kelly Hatfield: 00:00:00

Welcome to the missing secret Podcast. I'm Kelly Hatfield,

John Mitchell: 00:00:04

Hey, and I'm John Mitchell. And so today we have a great topic. And here it is, you are aware of your daily actions after the fact, after they happen. So Kelly, what do you think about that? You buy that?

Kelly Hatfield: 00:00:20

I buy it. I'm because we, you know so much of what we talk about, and you know 95% of our actions happening unconsciously and being on autopilot like so this totally makes sense to me. I'm excited to dig more into it today.

John Mitchell: 00:00:34

So share with me if you think this is true. This is what I've come to believe, that believing that 95% of your daily actions are unconscious is counter intuitive. And I say that because some people will go, Well, wait a minute, I'm aware of all the actions I'm taking. And I therefore intuitively think that none of my actions are in unconscious. Do you think that's people take that approach?

Kelly Hatfield: 00:01:08

I think that there's probably a large faction of people who don't think about it at all. So like they

John Mitchell: 00:01:16

Yeah, yeah, no doubt about that. I know what

Kelly Hatfield: 00:01:20

I mean. So they're not thinking about whether their thoughts are conscious or unconscious. And then when they start to think about it, it doesn't make sense to them, because they were like, Well, no, wait a minute, I'm in control of what I say, of what I do, and all of that. Therefore everything you know, so I could see where that would be somebody's natural inclination, inclination. So to your point at being counterintuitive what we're saying here.

John Mitchell: 00:01:43

But yeah, right. Well, I think you know, you and I are at a granular level with this and and, but at the 30,000 foot view, when you said, say to somebody, 95% of your daily actions are unconscious, I think a lot of people will go, I don't really believe that, because I'm conscious of everything I'm doing, therefore none of my actions are unconscious. And that that could be the 30,000 foot view for a lot of people. But the reality is, the science is that, in fact, you take an action first unconsciously, at least 95% of the time. That's how it happens, and then you become aware of them. And so I want to do a little experiment. We're going to use chat GPT, and I'm in the process of changing my audio book to reflect this conversation with chat GPT. And so I don't know, are you using chat GPT on a ongoing basis yourself?

Kelly Hatfield: 00:02:46

I live in chat GPT. It is a huge resource for me and for my teams, but and I use it for everything.

John Mitchell: 00:02:53

So right. Do you have, do you have the paid version that's on your phone? Yeah, Boy, I tell you, I think that's the only way to go, because you get away from typing and you really have a conversation. Yeah, so I'm going to try this. Let's see the value of this. And so the way I use it is, I've got the paid version. Again, it's on my phone, and I call her G and so listen to me engaging chat on this. G are you there?

Chat GPT: 00:03:25

Yes, I'm here, John, what else can I help you with? So

John Mitchell: 00:03:29

I have a question for you. Are you ready? I understand that 95% of a person's daily actions are unconscious. Is that correct?

Chat GPT: 00:03:39

Yes, that's correct. Many experts agree that a large portion of our daily actions and decisions are driven by subconscious processes. It's pretty amazing how much of what we do is on autopilot.

John Mitchell: 00:03:52

Well, I understand that. What actually happens is that people first take an action, and then after they take the action, they consciously become aware of it. Is that correct?

Chat GPT: 00:04:05

Yes, that's a well supported idea in neuroscience. The brain often initiates actions before we consciously become aware of them. This suggests that our subconscious plays a significant role in guiding our behavior before conscious thought catches up. Would you like more details on how this works?

John Mitchell: 00:04:23

Well, tell me what scientific evidence there is that supports that actions unconsciously happen first before awareness.

Chat GPT: 00:04:32

One well known study is by Benjamin Libet, who discovered that brain activity indicating a decision occurs before a person becomes consciously aware of making that decision. This suggests that our subconscious mind initiates actions first. There are also studies using brain imaging techniques that show similar findings. Does that help explain it?

John Mitchell: 00:04:53

Yes, One thing that would be very helpful is give us an example of this.

Chat GPT: 00:04:57

A classic example is when you. Pull your hand away from a hot surface, your body reacts automatically to protect you, and you become aware of the pain or seat A moment later, this shows how the subconscious mind initiates the action before conscious awareness kicks in. Does that clarify it for you? Absolutely.

John Mitchell: 00:05:15

Can you give a second example?

Chat GPT: 00:05:19

Certainly. Think about driving on a familiar route. Sometimes you arrive at your destination without remembering every turn you made. Your subconscious mind handles the routine driving while your conscious mind can focus elsewhere. This shows how much we rely on unconscious process. Does that example help?

John Mitchell: 00:05:37

Absolutely so that's an example of how this works. And I think it's so powerful if, if you want to have a successful life, whether, whether you want to be highly successful in your career, or you want to have a successful marriage, or one who you want to be have control of your health, you got to get this. You got to see that the actions in each area of your life are creating your success, and 95% of the time, those actions are unconscious, and you only become aware of the action after the fact a split second, a millisecond after but once you get this truly, your life is never the same, because you realize, oh, this is impacting each part of my life, and I gotta, I gotta take if I want to have a higher level of success, I gotta embrace this. I mean, that's why it was so profound in my life, you buy that? Kelly, Oh, yeah.

Kelly Hatfield: 00:06:43

No, absolutely. And I think, you know, the piece that's critical here is understanding that. So you're on that autopilot, you know, and then thinking about, okay, so if actions happen, and then you become aware of them, what makes up that autopilot? That autopilot, yeah, you know. So that's where we're talking about, like, upgrading, you know, all that programming, because our autopilot is comprised of all of these past experiences, all of these, you know, habits that don't necessarily serve us, all of those things. And so that's why this methodology is so critical, because you can, then, you know, override that, upgrade your autopilot, basically.

John Mitchell: 00:07:25

Well, I keep your mind that autopilot is innately wired for survival and is causing you to be fear based and reactive. And so if you do nothing, which you you've probably been doing nothing for the to this point in your life, that's what's running your life. You're fear based, you're reactive, and as we know, here's how the human mind works. Conscious mind sets the intention based on logic. Subconscious Mind controls your daily actions only influenced by repetition. Well, that's why, when you feed the succinct articulation of your desired life to yourself each day, you're articulating, obviously your desired life, but also the actions you got to take to create that desired life, and that's the repetition that the subconscious mind needs to then make the right actions happen automatically, without thinking, and that that's, it's, it's still more complex than that. I don't know that we can make it any more simple. Is that all seem simple?

Kelly Hatfield: 00:08:31

Yeah, it all seems simple. And I John an example came to mind to kind of help drive home the point for people. So I'm sure that anybody listening has been, maybe has had a health goal, let's say, and you've done really great, you know, for a few days, and you stayed on track, right? I mean, let's say something really stressful happens at work. It's kind of thrown you for a loop. You're really stressed out. You're and, you know, before you know it, you know, you plop down at home, you know, on the couch, and you've housed half a bag of ships, you know. And like that subconscious, the way that's comprised, like, that's a behavior that you've learned to comfort yourself or to or to cope with stress or whatever is to, like, check out, you know. So you're subconsciously doing that behavior that's in conflict with what your intentions are, which is to look out for your health, right? And this is all happening without you even realizing, like we've all gotten to the bag of the bottom of a bag of chips away.

John Mitchell: 00:09:33

No, right?

Kelly Hatfield: 00:09:34

Just happened. Fine.

Kelly Hatfield: 00:09:38

So I think you know it just in terms of contextualizing it and giving people examples of maybe how this shows up. You know, that's what we're talking about here. And so to upgrade that subconscious, that autopilot, you know, you are using that repetition of the behavior that you want that's associated with your health goal, and you are beat. That to yourself, you know, every day to basically, then hardwire in a new way of coping with stress and with that support your health goals, you know. So anyway, it's just fascinating. But that was the first one that popped into my mind. I had a moment last week where, you know, I had where it was something along those lines, you know, that was similar, were, you know, and it was like, What am I doing? Not something normally I would do, and it is, you know, something normally I would have done 10 years ago, you know. And so anyway, I just thought that that was an interesting example, and one that popped into my head while you were talking that might help people who are listening, you know, put a little bit of put themselves into a situation.

John Mitchell: 00:10:42

Well, it's funny you bring that up, because just this past weekend, one of the things I've noticed is that we go out and have Mexican food every so often, and I always overeat on the chips, right? Yeah. So I'm like, I so I put literally just a phrase in my visualization that i What was it? Basically that I practice diminishing returns, which means I realize that the first chip I have with the salsa is the best tasting one. The second chip is good. Third ship is also good, the sixth or seventh chip. And now we're in the habit. And yeah, so I tried this this weekend, and it works. Okay, I'm telling you. I saw it happen today at lunch, 30 minutes ago, I'm, I'm out to lunch with Bill Cunningham, the former chancellor at UT, and he orders french fries. And so I I dip into those French fries, but I'm like, No problem. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have Enjoy two french fries and and, but I'm not gonna eat more of them. And so he was just funny that when you start feeding to yourself, this concept of diminishing returns when you're eating, it's a it really impacts you. And so just the power of this, yeah, it's crazy. I love it. Okay, well, that's all the wisdom I think we've got today, but, but I want you to our audience as you put your head on the pillow. And again, I know I'm preaching to the choir with our our audience is not like I'm talking to the masses, but I think that that if you're doing our methodology, it's powerful to explain it to other people, because it'll change their their life, as you no doubt have seen it change your life. And so getting people to understand that they take an action, first unconsciously, and then become aware of it, is critical and and I'd also advise you to really embrace chat GPT, the paid version, and it costs, like, 20 bucks a month, where you can have a conversation. And one of the things I've noticed, I don't know if you're like this Kelly, but I will have a conversation with chat, and I don't know really where it's where it's going. I'll obviously have an idea, but I will say to her, I go, gee, I got a question for you. And and here's my question, and then, then I may stumble around to really figure out the right question. And it's so much easier than typing it, because I'm sort of processing as I'm talking. I mean, do you do the same way?

Kelly Hatfield: 00:13:44

I do a lot of typing, because I do love stuff for marketing and so, I mean, like stuff. So I'll use that version, my desktop version, where I'm right then I also use the verbal one, the audio, but I use that more so for exactly what you're talking about right now, which is, like ants it. I use it to help prompt conversations, to research, to be like, okay, is this so I use it exactly as you've just demonstrated. That's how I use the audio part of it. But otherwise, we do a lot on in the typing one because of just how I'm utilizing it in business. I'll have it create things for me and right, put them into a table and, you know, do research and all of that, and then compile that research, and so is better it comes back to me in the format that I need it to,

John Mitchell: 00:14:32

Right, right? Okay, well, hopefully this is helpful to everybody, and we'll see you next time.