How the Mind Works by Derek Kemp

How The Mind Works

How the Mind Works.

Introduction

To create a winning mindset is easier to achieve if you understand how the mind works or more importantly how it stores information.

Once you understand how the mind stores information you will have a much better chance or creating a mindset which drives you to achieve the results you seek and enables you to remove the programs from your mind which hold you back.

In this section we will be discussing the following:

Content

Page No.

The Basic Mind Function.

Conscious and Sub Conscious Mind.

What a Program is and how its Stored.

Think about the mind when playing Tennis.

How to store a program.

How to erase a program.

Why you should erase certain programs.

How to access programs you have stored.

How The Mind Works

The Basic Mind Function.

The human brain is made up of many different areas and is extremely complex. Because of its complexity I want you to focus on a number of specific functions and ignore the rest.

Basically the mind is a very sophisticated computer system which is capable of running hundreds of different programs at the same time.

It runs programs which ensure your heart delivers enough blood to your body to ensure you can operate effectively in every situation you find yourself in. For example you are playing a Tennis match and need to rapidly move around the court, this needs more blood to flow to make your muscles work faster to ensure you return the ball.

Your brain will also instruct your lungs to take in more oxygen to ensure the blood can deliver the oxygen to your muscles so they can operate in peek condition without causing too much cell damage.

These are just two of many functions your brain is dealing with as you play your match, there are many more.

The good news about these activities is the brain does not need your input to make them happen, just imagine if when playing a shot you had to select how fast your heart was beating or how much oxygen your lungs required. This would make playing the game much harder.

How The Mind Works

So the brain is handling all of these functions without any intervention from you the player.

Believe it or not once you have programmed your brain correctly it will control every single aspect of the game without much input from you.

There is a condition which is achieved by some players where it is possible for you to not have to think about any aspect of your game. This is called being in the Zone or in State, Zone or State means the same thing. It means you are totally focused on the game and trust your mind to deliver the result you want to achieve without you having to consider any aspect of your play.

In effect in the Zone means your brain takes complete control of everything you do without consulting you for advice, you being a conscious thought which you have in your conscious mind.

It takes over in exactly the same way as described above for the heart or lungs and delivers what is required to achieve the best result possible based on what it knows.

Now the last statement is very important, let me say it again â&#x20AC;&#x153;delivers what is required to achieve the best result possible based on what it knowsâ&#x20AC;? of course it cannot achieve miracles. A miracle would be having never played Tennis before, you go on court at Wimbledon and win the British open.

How The Mind Works

What you need to do to achieve a high success rate when in the Zone, is make sure that the programs you are running in your mind are the right ones for the task at hand.

Getting into the Zone is a skill in its own right which I will be teaching you later in this course once you have mastered the art of mind control and mind programming to achieve the outcome you are looking for.

Conscious and Sub Conscious Mind.

Before I continue I want you to understand the difference between conscious and sub conscious minds.

The Conscious mind is the part of your mind you are fully aware of, it is the area where your conscious thoughts take place, the place where you have those conversations with yourself.

How The Mind Works

The place where you start questioning the activity you are taking part in. It is also the place where you have plans and doubts which often affect the results of what you are doing. People worry in their conscious mind, they also create pain and pleasure in their conscious mind.

The sub conscious mind is an area of your brain which stores a wide range of programs which control much of your life.

The sub conscious is a place where programs run without your direct intervention.

Over time programs you create in your conscious mind are transferred to your sub conscious becoming habits that you adopt and carry out without knowing.

Another word for the sub conscious area of your brain is unconscious, this means outside of your direct control.

When you dream you are accessing your sub conscious mind, a dream is literally you viewing content stored in your unconscious.

Remember programs stored in your sub conscious will run without the need for you to intervene.

How The Mind Works

racket. This is what you might call perfection, in reality the more effort you put in to creating the right programs for every aspect of your game the closer you will become to perfection.

When a player is in the zone they are tapping directly into their subconscious enabling them to play at their best without the need for a conscious thought.

What a Program is and how its Stored.

A simple description of a program is a set of instruction which when applied create an end result.

So how does this work in the mind? The mind is made up of a very large number of neurons, these neurons have the ability to store information using some form of electrical charge. Although the actual way the mind stores information is not exactly known, the basic principle is that these neurons link together in some way to create a memory of a particular function or event.

The best way to consider this process is to think about a string of these neurons each storing a small part of the overall memory or instruction.

How The Mind Works

The mind remembers by repetition, think about it, when you were born how much did you know, for example a child talks because they hear other people talk. A good example is the language a child speaks, they speak English because the people around them speak English. If they grew up with a Chinese speaking family they would speak Chinese.

It takes time to learn anything and the brain stores the information in neuron pathways, the more times you do something the stronger the path way becomes.

I like to think of these path ways like those across a field, the more times people or animals use the same route to cross the field the more defined the pathway becomes creating a groove in the landscape.

This is exactly how many of our roads were created in the first place, animals took the easiest route to their destination, then man followed the same routes because they were easier to follow, he then drove his animals the same way, rode his horse or drove his horse and cart along the same route and eventually the tracks were covered in tarmac and became the roads of today.

So think of your mind in the same way, a series of tracks or grooves in your mind created by carrying out the same thought or task time and time again.

How The Mind Works

This information is crucial as we create a winning mindset, think about the information you are storing in your mind while playing Tennis, just the simple task of tossing the ball in the air when serving creates a groove in your mind. If you throw the ball consistently in the same place the groove will get deeper and the memory will become more consistent.

So let us now think about this information in regards to the game of Tennis, hopefully you will begin to see why knowing how the mind works is crucial to you winning more matches.

Think about the mind when playing Tennis,

The secret to winning is about playing more winning shots than your opponent, not necessarily playing better Tennis, it is about playing more winning shots. I hope you agree, take a moment and think carefully about what I am saying. You may have a program in your mind which says I can only win when I am a better player than my opponent and I hope you agree with my statement which says this is not necessarily true.

All you need to do to beat someone who plays better shots than you is to have a stronger mindset and ensure you win more points.

If this is true all you need to do is make sure the programs running in your head ensure you win more shots than your opponent.

How The Mind Works

Right now you will have a range of programs or grooves in your mind, some of them will help you and some of them will hinder you.

What I plan to teach you is how to create grooves for the good things which will help you and how to remove the grooves which are holding you back and stopping you win more matches.

How to Store a Program.

I think I have already given you some clues as to how to store programs in your mind, let me remind you.

Programs are stored by repetition, the more times you do the same thing the deeper the groove will become, repetition creates a habit. A habit is something you do without thinking about it, ask someone who knows you well if you have any habits. Then ask yourself if you were conscious of the habit.

Habits get stored in your sub conscious mind, they come from doing the same thing time and time again.

A very common habit is a cough, an itch or a phrase or saying. A common saying right now is You Know, listen to people when being interviewed on the Television and you will soon hear the words You Know being said in almost every sentence.

How The Mind Works

So you store programs in your mind by repeating the same thing time and time again. Hopefully you now know why the Coach encourages you to play the same shot time and time again, they are helping you create a habit or groove.

There is one huge drawback to creating a habit or groove, the brain or mind does not know the difference between a good habit or a bad one, so in its determination to store as much information as possible just in case you need it, your brain will store everything you do, say, think, hear, see, smell and feel. Yes everything.

The more times it senses something the bigger the groove it creates.

Believe it or not, the brain has stored everything you do, say, think, hear, see, smell and feel since your brain started functioning as your body formed inside the womb.

I hope this is making sense and perhaps answers some of the questions you may have about yourself and people you know.

The secret is to tell the brain what you want it to remember and avoid telling it what you do not want to remember when playing Tennis.

We call this process Anchoring, an anchor is a thought or emotion which you attach to the activity you want to remember. The anchor could be a smile, a warm feeling, a short statement like “Yes” or “Great”. It could be a hand movement or similar gesture. Copyright 2013 Sean’s Tennis Academy

How The Mind Works

What ever it is, it needs to be consistent and only used when you want the brain to remember the action you have just taken.

For example, you serve an Ace or play a great shot down the line or perhaps angle a volley into empty space. The more times you reward the good shot the stronger the groove will become.

What happens next is amazing, your mind remembers the complete process and is able to repeat it when the circumstances repeat them self.

You are at the net, the ball is above your head again, without a thought your racket angles the ball into an empty space and you win the point, as you prepare yourself for the next point, you quietly reward yourself with a Yes or Great ensuring the groove is strengthened enabling your brain to play the same shot time and time again.

Take this a step further and practice the shots you want to use either with another player or your Coach, every time you hit the shot well anchor it in your mind, take this a step further and get your Coach to use the same anchor every time you play the shot well.

Warning â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Be very careful, if you start to swear or get annoyed with yourself every time you play a bad shot then you will start to create a

How The Mind Works

program for this shot too. So only reward the good shots and do your best to ignore the poor shots.

How to Erase a Program.

So by now you will have an idea how to create a program which increases your chances of winning, so what about programs you have already installed which are detrimental to your chances of winning.

Oh yes, you will have a number of programs installed that will hold you back, if you completed the questionnaire in month one you will have recorded various programs which pop up on your way to a match, when warming up and when playing. Some of these programs are helpful and others are definitely not.

The problem with negative programs is the brains ability to keep playing them even if you know they are holding you back.

In this section I want you to understand the importance of erasing programs which hold you back and replacing them with programs which help you win more matches.

There are a number of steps to this process, first you need to establish what is holding you back and then decide what you want to replace the negative program with.

How The Mind Works

Let me take you back to the way roads have been created, the more times a particular track is used the deeper the groove it creates and the harder it is to erase.

The good news is, the brain is capable of removing programs and establishing new ones.

First you need to know what you want to remove.

Then you need to establish what you would like to replace it with.

The next step is crucial, you need to establish the signs and signals your mind gives you just before you fall into the groove of a negative thought or action.

You also need to note the thoughts you have about being in a negative groove.

The secret is to consciously note when you are just about to fall into a groove you want to avoid.

Once you know when the event is about to occur, the secret is to think about the activity you want to replace it with and how you will feel when you achieve the new activity.

How The Mind Works

losing points. This will help you avoid falling into the negative grooves.

Here is the really good news, grooves which are unused will heal up. If you have spent time in the country you will have seen the same thing happen. If people stop using a footpath or animals stop using the same track to get from A to B, over time the track or path will be become over grown and eventually return to the same surroundings as the rest of the field or meadow.

The brain will do exactly the same thing, in effect it will heal the groove making it very hard to use again.

Remember you will usually have thoughts and feelings which indicate your approach to the groove, note these thoughts and feelings and when they happen replace them with the thoughts and feelings related to the new winning groove you are creating.

Why you should Erase certain Programs.

I may have already answered this question for you, but it such an important question I will explain it in more detail.

The mind is driven by your habits, if you have a habit which affects your play and you leave it in your mind, because your mind is happy to use what ever you have stored, you will quickly find yourself using the habit. Copyright 2013 Seanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tennis Academy

How The Mind Works

Habits take time to create and the more they are used the deeper the groove becomes, if you just try and avoid a bad habit, before you know it, you will be doing the very same bad thing again.

It takes time to create a new habit, it takes even longer to remove a long term bad habit.

The stronger the good habit becomes the less time you will spend with the bad habit until eventually all your brain will know is the good habit.

How to access programs you have stored.

Hopefully by now you know the answer to this question, do you remember me talking about anchors.

An anchor is an action or emotion you have attached to the program you want to access.

You can access a program by connecting your anchor to the action you are just about to take.

What you are doing is telling your brain which area it should be accessing just by the thoughts you have in your head.

How The Mind Works

Over time you will find the brain only has positive programs related to the activity and therefore delivers the result you want.

Please note, this does not mean you will always win, it does mean you will win more often as your mind uses more and more of the positive programs you have stored.

The deeper the groove the greater chance you have of dropping into it and playing the shot which stands the best chance of winning you the point.

Over the coming months we will be exploring every aspect of the game enabling you to develop more and more positive winning programs which will turn you into a Tennis Match Play Specialist. Conclusion Knowing how the mind works will make it much easier for you to create the programs which enable you to win more. I hope you realise the information I am sharing is not just for Tennis, you can use these same techniques in every aspect of your life, let me give you a couple of examples. If you have children or grand children, remember the process of programming. Think about what you say to them, if you tend to say the same thing often their mind will store the statement and create a groove for it. When a similar situation occurs they will respond in the same way as they do when you say what ever it is you say often. Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s minds can be programmed much faster than adults, the reason for this is simple. Adults will question what they hear more

How The Mind Works

than Children because they have much more experience. A child will just accept it often without the slightest thought. When spending time with Children think about what you say and do, help them store good programs with strong anchors and avoid bad programs by avoiding giving them anchors. Reward good activities and avoid highlighting those you want them to stop doing. Watch out for the signs of boredom and the likely hood of poor behaviour, compliment them when they do good and tell them how they could improve when they do things which are unacceptable. Remember people learn everything by repetition, yes everything. So if you want to learn a new skill or improve one you have already make sure you repeat the activity time and time again and link an anchor to it. Remember an anchor could be a word or words, a feeling, or an action. Linking the anchor to the activity will make it much easier to recall when required. Derek Kemp Mind Coach Author of Creating A Winning Mindset.