Your Biggest Enemy (1): Conscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious

Who is the biggest enemy you have to overcome in your journey to financial freedom?
Let's remember that money does not make you rich. It is financial intelligence that makes you rich. Since YOU are the one who can help you gain financial intelligence, and no one can stop you from doing so (intelligence is probably one of the most personal asset), then it is very obvious that YOU are the biggest enemy for yourself.

You may think this sounds like some corny quotes from mangas like "you must defeat yourself before you defeat others", but let me explain.

Most people should understand the concepts of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. However, it is important for us to know how these minds work in real life.

Suppose you are planning to buy some stocks. You have done your homework in the company. The company has good management, solid bottom line, and has always given out good dividends. You see a very good opportunity that you can buy the stocks, earn some good dividends, and can potentially sell some of the shares and earn some awesome capital gains in a few years. Your conscious mind understands very well that making the investment is a good idea. However, just when you want to buy the stocks, there is this little voice in your head, saying things like "that's a lot of risk", "how do you know the company is not hiding something", "the market is so uncertain, don't take the risk", and so on. This is your subconscious mind talking! When people try to push themselves outside of their comfort zone, very often their conscious mind and their subconscious mind DO NOT work together and WORK AGAINST each other. Those who succeed often cross this barrier to defeat the little voice in their head, while those who fail will listen to the little voice and stand still.

Oh, don't mistaken that your subconscious mind can be dominated by fear only. It can also be dominated by greed! Recently I have been talking to my manager and he described those "glorious" days back in the dot com bubble. He talked about how everyone in his company just day trades in the morning at work. The company produces nothing and just the mere existence of the company and the publishing of news would make the share price goes higher and higher. The employees in these companies GENUINELY BELIEVE that they will day trade for a few years, and after that they can exercise their stock options so they will all retire. What insanity! And I refuse to believe that these very smart people cannot intellectually comprehend that something is wrong and this won't work out. I have to believe that it is their little voice in their head convincing them the party will last forever!

And if you let your subconscious override your conscious mind every time (no matter the subconscious is in the form of fear or greed), you have lost all of your conscious mind. Therefore, the best word to describe you is unconscious.

This concept of conscious, subconscious, and unconscious is not only related to the development of your financial intelligence. It is related to everything in your life. We all have experienced the conflict of our conscious mind and unconscious mind. When we have an exam in school, instead of studying, we tell ourselves that "I can study more efficiently after a nap", "I need a break from all this work", and so on. When we want to make a needed phone call, we tell ourselves "the other person may be busy", "I will call tomorrow at a better time", and so forth. Our conscious mind knows very well the thing needs to be done, but our little voice is stopping us from doing what's needed!

The problem with most people is that they don't even notice there is a little voice in their head. If you want to overcome your little voice and make it works FOR you instead of works AGAINST you, you must first notice the voice in your head, and identify what it's doing. The reason the subconscious mind is so powerful is because it does everything in stealth! If you can identify the little as soon as it starts ringing in your head, you FORCE the little voice to come out to the conscious mind, and your conscious mind will have a chance to override the subconscious mind (not saying this is an easy battle, but it CAN be done!).

In the next article of this series I will talk about the success cycle and the problem you will face if you do NOT try to overcome your little voice. Stay tuned!