{"id":143876,"date":"2025-04-17T09:40:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=143876"},"modified":"2026-01-22T13:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:35:22","slug":"upgrade-your-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/upgrade-your-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Upgrade Your Mind: Vishen Lakhiani on Lifelong Personal Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Does your mindset need a do-over? Does your worldview<\/a> truly make you happy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vishen Lakhiani helps people achieve their personal and spiritual development goals<\/a>. In his book The Code of the Extraordinary Mind<\/em>, he writes that\u2014just as you can keep upgrading a computer\u2014you can continuously upgrade your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading to get Lakhiani’s strategies for lifelong personal growth<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Upgrading Your Mind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lakhiani\u2014who started his career in Silicon Valley\u2014says the human mind works a lot like a computer. As such, you need to regularly upgrade your mind in order to stay current and optimize your mental performance. He therefore proposes a continuous, lifelong process of personal development focused on two areas: your mental hardware (beliefs) and mental software (habits). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: Many people before Lakhiani have described the brain as a computer<\/a>, although they usually mean it more literally. In Determined<\/em><\/a>, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky says that everything we do is the result of our brains taking in countless pieces of information, processing that input, and calculating a result<\/a> (the action we decide to take at that moment). In Sapolsky\u2019s metaphor the brain itself is the hardware, and a person\u2019s beliefs would just be one part of the software they use to interpret what\u2019s happening.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first area of improvement is your beliefs<\/em>. Continuing the computer metaphor, Lakhiani refers to beliefs as your mental computer\u2019s hardware: What you believe determines what you can do, just like a computer\u2019s components determine which programs it\u2019s able to run.<\/strong> So, after you \u201cupgrade your hardware\u201d by overcoming a limiting assumption<\/a> or adopting an empowering belief<\/a>, you\u2019ll find that you can do things you previously thought were impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second area of improvement is your habits<\/em>, or your mental software. This is all about finding practical ways to improve your life by overcoming bad habits and adopting good ones. The software metaphor emphasizes that improving your habits will be difficult, perhaps impossible, if the improvements you try to make go against your beliefs.<\/strong> For example, if you want to lose weight but don\u2019t believe that you\u2019re capable of cutting back on eating, you\u2019ve created a self-fulfilling prophecy: You don\u2019t believe you can eat less, so you won\u2019t eat less, so you won\u2019t lose the weight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Alternative: Start Updating Your \u201cSoftware\u201d First<\/strong>

Lakhiani\u2019s computer metaphor falls short in this instance because, while there\u2019s no program that can change a computer\u2019s hardware, it is <\/em>possible to start updating your beliefs by changing your behaviors first. In The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck<\/em><\/a>, Mark Manson says that the best way to make a positive change in your life is to just get started<\/a>\u2014and, if it\u2019s something difficult or intimidating, then start small.

So, you don\u2019t really need to believe that you can totally change your eating habits in order to get started on doing so. Instead, make just one small and simple change, like bringing a salad to work one day instead of a sandwich, or skipping dessert for a night.

That one action will have two important effects. First, you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s possible for you to eat healthier, meaning you\u2019ve started to update your beliefs as Lakhiani describes. Second, that small success will motivate you to keep working toward further successes, meaning that you\u2019ll be more likely to want <\/em>to change your eating habits. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Empowering Yourself<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to constantly update your beliefs and habits, but Lakhiani also says that it\u2019s important to do so in the right ways. Specifically, to update your mental models<\/a> in ways that make you feel powerful and self-assured. There are two separate categories to concern yourself with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first category, and the more obvious of the two, is how you view yourself. The author suggests that you practice self-empowerment by taking a few minutes each day to remember what you love about yourself.<\/strong> For instance, maybe you\u2019re a hard worker, or a kind and generous person, or you have really attractive eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also think about things you\u2019re proud of doing. This could be something as impressive as winning a prestigious award, or as mundane as offering a ride to someone who needed it. In short, anything that helps you remember how great you really are will improve your self-image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: The scientific term for self-empowerment is self-positivity bias<\/em>. In simple terms, this means that you have a largely favorable view of yourself, emphasizing your strengths and positive attributes over your weaknesses and flaws. Some psychologists suggest that self-positivity bias has a number of evidence-based mental and physical health benefits<\/a>, such as lower stress levels, boosted confidence, and increased motivation.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second category, which is equally powerful, consists of your mental models about how the world works. However, these external models can be harder to update. This is because doing so involves thinking about what you\u2019ve observed and learned, then filtering through those observations to find useful, empowering insights. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, young people may think that you have to be wealthy or attractive to find a great romantic partner. However, by thinking rationally about the couples they\u2019ve personally seen, they\u2019d realize that people of all different economic classes and body types can and do end up in happy relationships. With that update to their worldview, they could then realize that it\u2019s also possible for them <\/em>to find such a relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counterpoint: Even False Beliefs Are Powerful<\/strong>

Beliefs about the world in general fall under the category that life coach Tony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within<\/em><\/a>) calls global beliefs<\/a>. These are universal beliefs about your life or the world as a whole, such as believing that you\u2019re an intelligent person or that people are generally good at heart.

Notably, whereas Lakhiani emphasizes developing more accurate beliefs about the world to empower yourself<\/a>, Robbins argues that it doesn\u2019t really matter whether global beliefs are true or not\u2014they\u2019re powerful motivators as long as you believe <\/em>they\u2019re true. This means you can adopt empowering mental models of the world even before gathering enough evidence to \u201cprove\u201d to yourself that those models are accurate.

For example, one common mental model is the idea that people who work hard will be successful. Adopting the belief that hard work pays off will motivate you to work hard and keep trying to reach your goals<\/a>. Conversely, adopting the belief that hard work has no benefit will only lead to feelings of helplessness and despair, because it implies there\u2019s nothing you can do to improve your situation. Therefore, one could argue that it\u2019s better to believe in the value of hard work<\/a> whether or not that belief is objectively correct, because it makes you feel empowered rather than hopeless.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Evaluating Your Progress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Lakhiani promises that your life will improve in numerous ways as you continually update your beliefs and habits. However, it\u2019s likely that some aspects of your life will improve less than others, and you may still find yourself dissatisfied in some ways. To help correct this imbalance, the author provides a rubric for assessing the various areas of your life, so that you can give extra attention to updating relevant beliefs and habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this evaluation, Lakhiani wants you to rate each of the following aspects of your life on a scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied):<\/p>\n\n\n\n