The Success Robot Experiment will increase your awareness and help you to accomplish more in your life. It contains an awareness component and a behavior component. Remember that real results and understanding only come from actually doing the experiment, not from reading. You will be best served if you get a journal and write down your thoughts and progress.
Pick an area of your life that you want to change, something that you want to accomplish. This might be something in your life that you are procrastinating about, a new skill you want to develop or goal you want to reach. Think about all the things you are capable of accomplishing.
Imagine that you acquired a robot that looked exactly like you. Think along the lines of Data from Star Trek or Bishop from the movie Alien. You could program it to do the things you want too. It would dominate. It would be wildly successful, because it would not have the limitations a human has.
Humans, unlike robots, have the unique ability to know what they need to do and not do it. Even when it is in their very best interest, humans find ways to not do things. There is no shortage of information on losing weight, saving and investing money, the long-term effects of certain habits and so forth, yet the percentage of humans who are overweight, die broke or from lung cancer and never read another book after high school are staggering.
The basic reason for this due to the way we develop and the way we use our brains and nervous systems for self-preservation. Our emotions end up being tied to concepts, such as “right and wrong”, “good and “evil,“ etc. We believe in these concepts when we are very young because we are told to and also because of the consequences of disobedience. Oftentimes these concepts exist only to serve other people. Even if we come to understand differently and see past this game, our nervous system still operates on autopilot and “keeps us in line” though our emotions, which can be very powerful (just watch someone experience a panic attack.) If you want to read more about this in detail, read Energized Hypnosis: A Non-Book for Self-Change.
The Success Robot Experiment goes like this:
1) Pick a goal you would like to reach. Could be changing a habit, losing weight, getting in shape, completing school, etc. Write your goal down.
2) Determine the steps and necessary behaviors. You need a solid plan that will take you to your goal. If you aren’t sure, do the research and get help. Your plan should have specific behaviors with a timeline. Write this plan down.
3) Think about how you will feel engaging in those behaviors. Think about where you might normally lose interest, feel bad in some way, or quit. Where are those areas for you in terms of the goal you picked? Where do you get hung up? What happens internally? What do you say to yourself about yourself? Write these things down.
4) Think about how the Success Robot is different from you in terms of #3. Does the robot get stuck where you do? No. Does the robot treat itself poorly and judge itself? No. Really meditate on this, think about all the implications of the differences between the Success Robot and you. Write down your thoughts.
5) Pretend you are the robot, and engage in the behaviors, just as the robot would: This is the key. Robots follow their programs without thinking about them or talking about them or talking about how they feel about them. Your job is to follow the plan (program) you determined above until you reach your goal. Your emotions and anxieties may flare up… plan on it. Engage in your plan and move toward your goal as if you were the success robot.
6) Come up with a way to keep this front-of-mind. Develop a ritual for remembering and reminding yourself. Re-read your journal. Read this article or your plan and journal every morning when you wake up and every evening before you go to sleep.
7) Keep going. Develop persistence. Did the Terminator quit? No. Never.
Accelerating…
Think on these questions and ideas. Meditate on them. Write down the implications of them, and your thoughts in your journal.
If you struggle, hesitate or feel bad/wrong during this experiment, ask yourself “Why would one want to carry the past into the future and repeat their limitations and suffering?” “Who does my being limited serve?” Write down these answers in your journal.
Self-enhancing is a supreme value. Is there any reason not to be the success robot?
Doing what works and succeeding might feel like it’s self-diminishing and dangerous. This is the steering mechanism of the robot. Do you want to serve the feelings, which are from the past and were learned at a young age when you didn’t know any better and couldn’t defend yourself? Or do you want to get what you want?
Do you really want to serve the feelings, which will strengthen the erroneous beliefs they imply? Or do you want to find out what you are really capable of and live powerfully?
Do you want to be a good little boy/girl and agree with mommy/daddy/authority? Or are you smart enough and independent enough to decide what is good for you?
Should I be spending more energy on self-enhancing things than I am?
As you follow through with the experiment, some things might happen. You will either reach your goal or figure out a more suitable one. You will learn much about yourself, your programming and the process of real change. You will learn much about your emotions, the information that they provide and how they are connected to your original programming. You might find out a lot about any chronic anxieties and tensions that you have ignored, both physically and psychologically.
You may also find that you are not your emotions, and that your emotions do not prove the beliefs and concepts instilled from your original programming. As you free yourself from the emotions generated by your original programming (guilt, anxiety, fear, shame) you will be able to accomplish more and truly become who you are.