16 Jan Repeat Truth Until It Changes You
IF SOMETHING IS IMPORTANT, IT NEEDS TO BE REPEATED UNTIL WE “OWN” IT
Our brains were built to require repetition. If mental exposure to everything were permanent, our brains would be buried by an avalanche of irrelevant information. Can you imagine remembering every license plate you’ve see, the slogans to every commercial you see, and words of every inane conversation you’ve ever overheard?
So, to spare us that mother lode of worthless data, the brain only remembers things that register a footprint in the gray matter. Often, that requires repetition.
Unfortunately, we often remember unimportant things (for unknown reasons), and forget important things. The solution to that unjust reality: repetition.
If something is important, it needs to be repeated however often is necessary to own it mentally; often over and over again. This repetition does two things.
First, it creates deep neurological pathways in the brain allowing us to own that truth on a level that we will not own it without the repetition. There are 100,000 miles of neurological wiring in the brain. When we think a thought, an electrical impulse travels a path along that 100,000 miles.
If we think a thought once, it’s often like walking across the lawn once. It has no permanent impact on the grass. But if you walk across the lawn 100 times, it will wear a path.
In the same way, if we think a thought 100 times, it wears a deep path in the neurological pathways enabling us to remember that thought and to access it easily.
Second, repetition drives information into the subconscious, where the subconscious links it to other things that we already know and where the reticular activating system feeds our brain information it wouldn’t have otherwise. This process creates new insights, revises estimates of importance, and connects dots… none of which would have happened otherwise. This cerebral activity can produce powerful changes in our fundamental attitudes, values and behavior. Through this process, we begin changing from the inside out.
In addition, the subconscious bubbles that mental gold back up to the conscious where we can also intentionally act on it, multiplying its power.
This reality makes a strong case for the value of affirmations. Affirmations are simple statements of truth that capture an important idea. When these affirmations are repeated over and over again, it enables us to “own” that truth mentally, and it drives the truth deeply into the subconscious, where it can have a powerful influence on us.
Recently, we had a three-part blog series on self-discipline. As an example of how to use this process, here are five affirmations that capture the truth of the third part in that self-discipline series which you can use to burn the truth deeply into your brain.
Self-Discipline Affirmations
- Goals: I will write out my goals and visualize myself achieving them.
- Action: I will take realistic steps to reach the goals and I will take “extreme ownership” of them, not accepting failure as an option.
- Environment: I will remove things from my environment that hinder self-discipline and will structure my environment to encourage self-discipline.
- Partner: I will choose friends who help me achieve my goals, and team up with accountability partners when necessary.
- Repetition: I will review my goals and strategy daily, and I will feed my mind necessary truth often enough to sink into my subconscious and change me.
Neuroscience tells us that if we carefully read these affirmations once a day for 30 days, the brain will begin to rewire itself allowing us to own these affirmations on a conscious level.
In addition, it will send this information into the subconscious where the subconscious will link it to other information we already know, where information from the reticular activating system will add to the mix, where new insights will be gained, changing us subconsciously from the inside out.
In addition, as I said, all that mental gold will be bubbled back up to the conscious brain where we can also intentionally act on it, multiplying the impact.
This process can be used with any important subject area. When used with Scripture and biblical truth, it turbocharges our mental renewal process and transforms our lives, just as Romans 12:2 said it would: be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
If you haven’t downloaded it already, I’ve created a 15 minute video with some tips on not merely knowing verses from the Bible, but on repeating them until they change you. You can still get that video for free here: Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You.
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