This entry is a follow on from a previous blog entry. If you haven’t already (and so this entry makes as much sense as possible) It’s worth reading the initial entry in this series here.

Something strange happens when you understand there’s a chimp in your head.

You slowly but surely start to recognise the behaviour of the chimp and the behaviour of the human.

You don’t catch all of it (it would be tough to do this) but you do start to gradually understand when the chimp’s in control and when the human is!

The frustrating thing is that there’s not much you can do about giving the chimp so much control.

The chimp in your head is about 5 times stronger (and quicker) than the human.

However there is certain actions you can take to train your chimp to behave in a slightly more rational way which doesn’t involve neither the human or the chimp but using the third part of our brains, according to Dr Steve Peters (Olympic coach, psychologist and writer of the chimp paradox) definition, the computer.

Our mental computer contains all our ‘rules’. It’s the part of our brain which, using input from the monkey and the human, provides guidelines for the chimp and human to live by.

However most of our computers contain loads and loads of rules.

There are useful rules. There are rules which are defined by your beliefs, ambitions and experiences. However there are also “the gremlins”.

“The gremlins” come from a bunch of different places including our experiences (and our mental reaction to them), input from the chimp and on rare occasions, input from the human.

And once a ‘rule’ is in the computer the chimp and the human ‘check in’ to the computer regularly to see if their action behaviour makes sense to the rules (or the gremlins) stored in the part of our brain which contains the rules of our life.

Therefore the most straightforward way to change behaviour is not to fight with the chimp (which is 5 times stronger than the human) but to change the computer.

This is done by challenging your existing perceptions. Thinking deeper about particular subjects and understanding more about the reality (as opposed to the assumptions) around achieving financial security.

Once you start to read and understand more you’ll start asking more questions, engaging in internal debate and (as long as you continue the habit of reading more and taking the time to think about what you’ve read) it will eventually change your ‘computer’ and allow you to better govern your chimp

Interestingly Ghandi had an understanding of this process and put it in a fantastically eloquent way in this quote.

So,

Thoughts become words.

Words become behaviour.

Behaviour becomes habits.

Habits become Values.

Values become Destiny.

Whilst you could argue that Ghandi’s quote is too theoretical, too philosophical to be practical. However in my next entry in this series I want to show you a specific example of how controlling your money by providing specific rules to your computer can help you manage your financial affairs.