Slotralogy 201

Around the time I was learning to use slotralogy in promoting my book, my teenage son was looking for a job. I was telling him about slotralogy, and he used it. And instead of just getting the first job he could find, I suggested he first think about what his ideal job would be, and aim for that, and then use slotras to give himself confidence in the interviews.

A short while later, he told me he’d used slotralogy and landed the perfect job — at Victoria’s Secret! He was the only male who worked there (he worked in the stock room), and I don’t think he’s ever enjoyed a job more.

You can use slotras to give you confidence or any emotion you think would be helpful. You can also use straightforward instructions as slotras. Michael Johnson, the gold medal Olympian and the fastest man in the world at the time I’m writing this, coaches himself before every race. He uses slotralogy, saying things like this to himself: “Stay low. Ease up at the turn.” He practices thinking these things so they come to mind before and during a race. His slotras are instructions and reminders, which is good stuff to think at the right time. He tells himself the best way to run the race, or the particular things he’s working on.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s going through their heads when great athletes are getting ready for an event, now you know what one of them does. And you can use the same method.

Do you have a challenging event coming up soon? Think about what instructions you'd like running through your head right before and during that event. Write out a list of ideas. Pick the best one or two, and shorten them into brief statements.

Now practice thinking those slotras. Practice. Write them on a card and keep the card with you. Two or three times a day, pull out your card. Practice saying those statements to yourself twenty times each while thinking about the upcoming event. Imagine being at the event and thinking those thoughts.

You're not doing this as some sort of magical incantation, and you're not doing it to "influence your subconscious mind." You're simply trying to practice. You're making those particular thoughts familiar and easy to think.

So instructions can work well as slotras. Motivational statements work well too. This work is for people with an important and challenging purpose, so motivation is an important issue. People with easy, unchallenging goals don't need much motivation or determination. But you've got something big to accomplish, don't you? And it's important to you. So making sure you stay motivated is vital.

To make a motivational slotra, ask yourself these questions: What thoughts put the fight in you? What thoughts make you want to try harder? What thoughts fire you up?

When I started promoting my first book and I ran into setbacks and started to feel discouraged, I used to say to myself, "The world needs this!" It made me feel determined and motivated.

Use whatever works.

Practicing those thoughts is really the key. You can have brilliant insights galore, but if those insights don’t occur to you at the time you actually need them, they aren’t worth much.

Think about it. How many times have you gotten a new understanding, but when the time came to put your insight into action, you thought and acted the same way you always have? Why do you suppose that happens? It happens because your new understanding didn’t transfer to where you needed it. You didn’t remember to think the new thoughts (your new insights) when you needed to think them.

You have already-existing thought habits, and that’s what will go through your mind until you create some new thought habits.

How do you create new thought habits? The most basic and simple way is to simply practice new thoughts until they come to mind naturally. In other words, repeat a slotra again and again, just as you would practice a new phrase in a foreign language until it is comfortable and familiar, until it comes to mind easily and naturally.

Another advantage of repeating your slotra every day is that it keeps the new thought fresh in your mind, which means it'll be right there when the right situation arises. Having your new insight freshly in mind makes it much easier to think that thought at the right time, every time. Do that a few times and what was once a startling new insight will become just the way you think naturally.

Read next: How To Change Your Habits Of Thought

This article was excerpted from the book, Slotralogy: How to Change Your Habits of Thought.