Book SummaryThe Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change, by Shortform

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change

Ever intended to change a habit, only to find yourself attempting new behaviors and reverting to old ones? It's a common struggle many relate to.

Many authors have tackled this subject. While they take different approaches, they agree that habits are unconscious decisions—that is, they’re decisions you make without actually thinking about them. The only way to change these unconscious decisions is to address them at their source: your subconscious mind.

In this Master Guide, we’ll explore the role of the subconscious mind in...

The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change Summary Part 1: Why the Subconscious Mind Is Key to Habit Change

Many authors agree that habits are unconscious decisions that influence many of your daily behaviors. However, their opinions differ on the extent of this influence:

• Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit) asserts that unconscious decisions steer more than 40% of your daily behaviors.
• James Clear (Atomic Habits) argues that this influence extends to over 50%.
• Developmental biologist Bruce Lipton (The Biology of Belief) suggests that these unconscious decisions drive 95% of your daily behaviors.

Though the numbers may differ, the conclusion is clear: Habits significantly influence your behaviors and have an enormous impact on your life. When your habits align with how you want to live, they impact your life positively. However, when you're entangled in habits you'd rather avoid, your life is controlled by negative influences. This impact can take a negative...

The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change Summary Part 2: Why Unwanted Habits Are Difficult to Break

In the first part of this guide, we explained why your subconscious mind creates and relies on automatic routines. In this second part, we’ll clarify how this reliance makes it difficult to break free from unwanted habits.

While automatic associations and routines (we’ll refer to both as “routines”) offer many benefits, such as keeping you safe and saving your mental energy, Duhigg points out a significant drawback: Your brain permanently stores these routines.

LePera adds that once your subconscious mind creates and permanently stores a routine, it categorizes it as a part of your internal makeup—when your subconscious mind must make a decision, it uses the routine like an instruction manual instead of appealing to your conscious mind.

Maltz points out the problem with this setup: **[Your conscious goals often differ from your internal...

The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change Summary Part 3: It _Is_ Possible to Change Your Automatic Routines

Since your subconscious mind permanently stores and resists any attempts to change your automatic routines, you might be wondering if changing your habits is even possible.

In sum, yes: While you can’t delete unwanted automatic routines from your mind, Duhigg argues that through self-awareness and conscious control, you can override them with new automatic routines that align with the habits you want to practice.

In The Law of Success, Napoleon Hill explains that your subconscious mind is malleable and adapts to reflect your habitual thoughts. This means that, by consciously controlling your habitual thoughts, you can retrain your subconscious mind into alignment.

Murphy clarifies why [taking control of your thoughts can retrain your subconscious...

The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change Summary Part 4: Align Your Subconscious Mind With Your Chosen Habits

Now that we’ve established that you can change your automatic routines by aligning your subconscious mind with your chosen habits, let’s explore how to do so. Many authors emphasize that cultivating a positive attitude is key to achieving this alignment.

Hill suggests that cultivating a positive attitude helps overwrite unwanted automatic routines with more productive ones. He explains that your attitude toward life determines the nature of your habitual thoughts—that is, whether they’re negative or positive—and the overall impression they make on your subconscious mind. This impression then influences your ability to act in alignment with your chosen habits.

Murphy adds that your subconscious mind operates according to your expectations: If you cultivate a positive attitude, you’ll naturally form positive expectations about adopting your chosen habit, and your subconscious mind will amend your automatic routines to reflect these expectations.

Let’s look at...

The Master Guides: Rewire Your Subconscious for Lasting Change Summary Shortform Resources

For more advice on reprogramming your subconscious mind, see the following Shortform guides:

• Atomic Habits, James Clear
• Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins
• Becoming Supernatural, Joe...

Shortform Exercise: Think Positively About Your Chosen Habits

Let’s practice training your subconscious mind to create new automatic patterns. In this exercise, you’ll think positively about the habits you want to adopt.

Reflect on new habits you’d like to adopt. Write down one of these habits and briefly explain why you want to adopt it.