The following is a transcript from a speech:

“Let me ask you a question. You ever feel like your brain has a mind of its own? Like you want to do one thing but your brain clearly has other plans? Of course you have, we’ve all had that experience. It makes you feel crazy sometimes, not like insane but not exactly sane either, somewhere between, like “unsane”. You feel conflicted inside, like maybe you’re not the only one in there, like there’s another person or other people in there with you, and sometimes, they’re the one making the calls.

It’s like the movie ‘Scream’. The babysitter’s at home and thinks she’s alone. She starts getting threatening calls from the boogeyman. So, she calls the cops to tap her phone, and they call back later and say, “We traced the call. It’s coming from inside the house. Get out now!”

But you can’t get out, you live here, you’re the owner. Right? So, what do you do?

Well, it’s been said that, “the evolution of the brain not only overshot the needs of prehistoric man, it is the only example of a species with an organ which it does not know how to use.”

“Good afternoon everybody. How’s everyone doing? Good? Great! My name is Doc Barham and I want to thank you all for being here. I realize your time is valuable and my time is short so think of this as a brief overview which I’ll be happy to elaborate on the next time I come back. So with that said, let’s get to it. Shall we?

Sir, what’s your name? Dave? Pleasure to meet you. Dave, let me ask you? What would you think if I said, “You’re amazing, you can always get yourself to do what you need whenever you need to. No matter what, you take action, get it done, 100% of the time.”
What would you think?

Look at Dave, “You talking to me? Obviously, you don’t know me very well.”

Well, let me ask you this then? In fact, let me ask ALL of you:
What would you do if you knew how to do that? How to make yourself think and feel exactly the way you need to achieve whatever you want? Really, what wouldn’t you do? Whatever you put your mind to, right?

Now, what if I said there’s a simple, practical way to do exactly that. To turn your vision into action and your action into results. Because that’s the single greatest key to success: being able to consistently motivate yourself to take action in the direction of your goals until you achieve the results you want. From your smallest desire to your biggest dreams, personally or professionally, that is the key.

What I mean is, in that moment of choice, for whatever reason, you can’t always motivate yourself to make that “right” decision so you do what you need to. Like always following through on tasks or goals or projects, or all those New Year’s Resolutions. How many of you don’t even bother with New Year’s Resolutions anymore cause you know you’re not gonna keep them? Or, maybe you can’t stop yourself from doing what you shouldn’t be doing. Like smoking or drinking or eating too much or spending money you don’t have on things you don’t really need.

Either way, we always end up paying the price and feeling lousy later on. Thinking, “Why can’t I do this or why can’t just stop that? What’s wrong with me?” It can be any area of your life where you’re not taking complete control.

And it’s true. We don’t know how to run our own brains. We never learned and we didn’t come with an Owner’s Manual. We know how to use our brains to do a lot of different things like reading, writing, arithmetic – the three R’s, right? But we don’t know how to RUN our own brains, how to take control of its functioning so it does what we want. But there are people who do know how, and the truth is, in today’s world, if you don’t learn to run your own brain somebody else will. Advertising is a great example of people who’ve learned to push our buttons in just the right way so we buy their products, even when we don’t really need them!

So, what do we do? Well, we can start by understanding how our brain works.
And the first thing to understand is this phrase: The map is not the territory.

What that means is you don’t experience reality directly. What you experience is your perception of Reality. That’s a crucial distinction. And where we get into trouble sometimes is when we confuse our subjective experience for objective reality. We confuse OUR perception of things for “what really is”. And when we do that we mistake the map for the territory.

The way your body works is your five senses take in information and transmit it to your brain which then organizes that information in a meaningful way so you can function in the world. The job of your brain is to make order out of chaos. It “makes sense” of things. And it does so by creating an internal representation like a movie or “map” inside your head about your experience of the “territory” out there, and then files it away in memory.

What’s this? A ball point pen, right. Now how do you know that? Because you have a map or memory in here that contains the information you know about this object. If you didn’t have that reference, you’d have nothing to compare it to and wouldn’t know what it was. Make sense?

But since your brain can only process a small fraction of the information it receives, it has to choose what information goes into making that map. And what it chooses is what you’re paying attention to. “Reality is what you attend to.” You’ve heard the expression, “you get what you give?” Well, what you get in life is what you give your attention to, what you focus on, more importantly, what you’ve learned to focus on. Watch the Jerry Springer show and you’ll see nothing but people who’ve learned to focus on how they’re not responsible and somebody else is the source of all their problems in life. That and a few other things, right?

Let’s try an experiment: I want you to look around the room right now and try and remember everything that’s blue. Now, close your eyes, and with your eyes remaining closed, tell me everything…that’s green. See how much easier it is to remember what’s blue than green? Cause that’s what you were focusing on? Now imagine if what we’re talking about isn’t just colors but your beliefs?

Because your most powerful maps that tell you what’s important and what to focus on are your beliefs. Your beliefs act like filters for your perception and experience. And ultimately, it’s your beliefs that determine how you respond and what actions you take in life. Because your beliefs become self-fulfilling prophecies in the form of your behavior.

So then why can’t we always get ourselves to do what we need to? Four reasons:
The first reason, like I said, is when we mistake the map for the territory. Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. And when we mistake the map for the territory that’s exactly what we’re doing, because when we believe that’s just the way things are about a situation we tend to do what we’ve always done, even if what we’re doing isn’t working.

And that leads us to the second reason: sometimes we have maps that are less than effective for getting us where we want to go. If you’re driving and you want to get around Los Angeles, but you’re using a globe, well you’re using a pretty ineffective map to get you where you want to go, and more than likely you’re gonna find yourself lost and frustrated pretty quickly, especially if that’s your only map. Now, if you stop and pick up a Thomas Street Guide for LA then you’re gonna reach your destination a lot more easily. Notice I said “more easily” not easily. Let’s face it it’s still LA.

The third reason is that most of your maps operate unconsciously; they’re out of our awareness and run like little automated programs. If you’ve ever driven to work and suddenly realized as you were pulling onto the lot that you have no idea how you got there, then you know what I’m talking about. That’s why it feels like your brain has a mind of its own sometimes, especially, when you’re trying to change, because your brain tends to do things the way it’s always done them. It does what it’s learned to do and continues to run the same old program, until you give it a compelling reason to change.

Which brings us to the fourth reason: our maps are driven by two things: pain and pleasure, specifically, your “perception” of what’s painful or pleasurable.

If you want to get in better shape but you have a map that says eating right and exercising is a drag or limits your freedom or somehow you’re losing out by doing it then you have a map that says, “losing weight and getting in shape is ultimately more painful than not doing it.” Clearly then, you have an ineffective map. Now if you give your brain a compelling reason by changing that map and associating more pleasure and payoff to eating right and exercising and more pain to not doing it, then you’ll find your brain learns and changes relatively quickly. You change your thinking and your behavior follows naturally.

So to recap, remember:
1. The map is not the territory: It’s your perception not reality you’re dealing with.
2. Sometimes we have ineffective maps: We have beliefs that don’t support us for what we want to do or who we want to become.
3. Our maps are mostly unconscious: They’re out of your awareness most of the time and run like automated programs you’ve learned.
4. Our maps are driven by pain and pleasure: That’s the way your brain is hardwired.

So, if you want to consistently turn your vision into action, and your action into results, here’s what you do: here’s the technique in four steps.
Know what you want and, more importantly, get clear about what you must believe to achieve your goal. Then, make a plan of action for achieving that goal.
2. Next, look at what belief or beliefs you already have that are limiting you or holding you back. Then associate enough pain to that limiting belief – realize all the negative consequences, all the negative outcomes that old belief has cost you in your life, is costing you now, and will continue to cost unless you let it go – til you feel it so strongly that your brain realizes it has to change.
3. Then associate as much pleasure as you possibly can to your new belief – see all the positive payoffs you receive and will continue to receive by holding your new belief, and again, do it til you really feel it. Do that, and you’ll find your brain chooses to do exactly what you want and your behavior will follow naturally and easily.
4. And last, practice. practice, practice. And before you know it you’ll be on your way to and taking complete control and running your own brain.”