I was not a smart kid.

I wasn’t particularly gifted in math, science or any other subject.

And I always admired the people around me who seemed to just intellectually flow in everything they did. Life seemed so effortless to them.

But I quickly realized that whining wouldn’t help.

So with not a whole lot else to do, I spent most of my time following my curiosity. Reading books, listening to podcasts and experimenting with different teachings.

And the further I followed it, the more my life started to change:

• My mental functioning and grades shut up

• I could connect to people and build relationship like never before

• The energy to purse interests and projects suddenly appeared

And today I’m quite humorously often told that I’m smart or knowledgeable.

And it always makes me look back to a time when I was completely clueless.

(Which I’m sure I still am today)

Following my curiosity taught me an invaluable lesson most people never get to learn.

I have it to thank for most things in my life. Health, mindset, relationships etc. (It’s also the reason you’re able to read this letter).

Looking back, I don’t know where I would be had I not listened to that quiet whisper from within.

Because even if I didn’t realize it then, what I’d stumbled upon was something much deeper than just following your interests.

The role your mind plays in your destiny. And how to actually have a say in it.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves…

So let’s set the scene.

You’re Stuck Because Your Mind Is

Most people don’t use their mind.

They get used by it.

Because they never make any effort to develop the program that runs their life, they get stuck in an eternal cycle of staying the same.

They desperately fight for just a sliver of improvement, but are always pulled all the way back by an invisible force enacting its will over their lives.

And so they become slaves to the fates their minds determined for them.

Your mind is the computer program that runs your life.

• Fears

• Goals

• Focus

• Values

• Interests

• Creativity

• Discipline

• Personality

• Intelligence

And whether you’re aware of it or not — it’s programmed for a specific outcome.

And whether you like it or not — that is what you’re moving towards.

You can try to fight against it by educating yourself, applying willpower and working like mad.

But like a hummingbird in the midst of a tornado, you only have so much control. How much you flap your wings doesn’t really make a difference. Because the tornado always has final say.

When you try to go against what your mind has in store for you — you run into the problem of trying to run a life on a mind that can’t run it.

A person might tell himself to start going to the gym 6 days a week. But because his mind is lacking in discipline, energy and commitment — his self sabotage and excuses eventually get their way.

Another person might try to start a business, but his lack of creativity, intelligence and focus makes him a replaceable commodity and his business fails before he’s even started.

Just as you can’t run a moon landing on a gameboy — you can’t run your wildest dreams, ambitions and goals on a crappy mind.

If your life isn’t as good as you want it to be — your mind is simply not as good as you think it is.

Your life is only as good as your mind allows it to be.

This is why the perspective most people hold is so dangerous and destructive.

They see the mind as something out of their control — as something set in stone.

That you’re born with a set amount of IQ, a limited quantity of creativity and a determined degree of focus. And that there is nothing you can do about it.

And so they put all their focus on their external life. Their career, relationships and so on. But because their minds still functions the same, because it’s still programmed for the same behaviors, it always leads to an eternal cycle of staying the same.

So simply put:

If you want a better life in any way, shape or form:

• Health

• Career

• Happiness

• Relationships

You need to first create a mind capable of running that program.

If you don’t, you’ll always live as a slave to your predetermined fate.

Because you’re fighting your mind in an infinitely outnumbered position.

You’re fighting the 95% of your mind that’s the subconscious programming with your 5% of consciousness.

You’re a hummingbird desperately trying to direct the current of a tornado. And it won’t work.

If you truly want to change where you’re going, the tornado has to change directions. You have to develop, shape and program your mind according to what it is you want.

But you have to start treating your mental limitations as actual problems.

As obstacles that can be solved with enough time and the right knowledge. Not as facts of nature impossible to influence. Not as something you have to just work around.

• If you’re not as intelligent as you’d like, you can change that.

• If you’re not as focused as you’d like be, you can change that

• If you’re not as disciplined as you’d like, you can change that.

Mental obstacles are just as real as physical ones. And they’re the bottleneck to everything you want to do in life.

And so the only logical path for intelligent people is to become even more intelligent.

The only thing for people who want more out of life — is to develop their minds.

The question is just, do you want it badly enough?

Your Mind As A Tool

Neuro-plasticity:

"The ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury.” - Oxford Languages

You are only stuck if you choose to be.

Because the mind is plastic. It’s always been that way and it will always be that way.

Neuroplasticity is proof that your mind isn’t fixed. That it’s capable of developing, becoming more efficient and growing.

And it’s really the key to everything you want to do in life:

• Learning new skills is how you advance in your career, do great work and create business

• Mental sharpness is how you become charismatic, build relationships, lead and inspire people

• Creativity and open mindedness is how you see the bigger picture, solve your personal problems and design the life you want

It isn’t too much to say that your potential is directly correlated to the extent of which you’ve mastered your brain’s ability to change and rewire itself.

Because it means learning to steer the tornado you find yourself in, to turn it into a part of you. And to end the eternal struggle between you and your programmed mind.

That was a mouthful (but you know, mentally).

To put it another way, fluidity of mind is true freedom (as we talk about here).

Because it’s how you get to choose the life you want to live.

If you master neuroplasticity, the art of changing your mind — you have for all intents and purposes — mastered life.

But why have so few people mastered the art of changing their minds. The art of of life?

To understand that, we need to first understand neuroplasticity itself.

The Keys To Your Mind

Changing your mind is difficult.

Because growth and development are expensive processes:

• Building neurons

• Creating new circuits

• Constructing myelin sheets

It all requires a lot of energy.

And so the art of changing your mind is all about unlocking more energy and putting it to use.

And it always follows the same 3 steps:

1. Stress

2. Adaptation

3. Reinforcement

Let me paint you a picture.

Stress of any kind forces your brain to adapt. Whether it be good or bad.

And if the adaptation is successful at solving the problem, your brain becomes flooded with neuro-chemicals like dopamine.

This reinforces the adaptation and build new neurons, connections and myelin sheets

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re a musician, trying to learn a difficult guitar solo.

You strain your brain to the point of sweating and feeling light headed. Your fingers are flying off the fret board and finally — you manage to get it.

This floods your brain with dopamine and makes you feel good. But it also reinforces the circuit that was active during your practice (by building stronger myelin sheets). Your brain grows stronger and the guitar solo becomes cemented into your head.

Your brain has now grown and developed to include that solo.

Awesome.

But what did this process require?

1. The mental and physical energy to strain your brain

2. The energy and building blocks for new neurons, myelin & the release of dopamine

3. The belief that hitting the guitar solo was possible.

It all comes down having enough energy and the ability to use it.

But the energy you need exists on 2 levels. This is what most people miss and the reason they never truly learn the art of changing their minds.

The mind exists on 2 levels.

• Mental

• Physical

(The software and hardware)

And to develop your mind you have to focus on both.

It’s not enough to just improve the functioning of your brain. Because your programming will always determine the limit to which your physical energy can be used. Your mindset will determine your access to energy.

The most notable example is the victim mindset:

The problem with believing that the mind is fixed, is that it’s a self fulfilling prophecy. Because when you believe your mind can’t grow, it won’t allow the energy to do so. Because if it’s impossible, why bother? You see, your mind is sneaky like that.

This is the problem with the perspective we talked about in the introduction. Because even if you have the energy required for growth, if you don’t believe it’s possible, you can’t use it.

In the same way, it’s not enough to just change your programming. Because the ability to grow doesn’t matter if there isn’t any energy to do so.

The psychologist is overly obsessed with the software and the health bro is overly obsessed with the hardware.

And none of them gets the most out of their minds.

As with so many other things in life — the solution is holistic.

You need both enough energy and the ability to use it.

Take away either and you’re stuck living out the predetermined fate of your subconscious mind.

Which is no way to live.

So let’s solve that.

Building A Better Computer

Your mind is a computer.

Literally.

It’s the most complex computer on the planet earth (as of now).

And just like upgrading a computer — developing it involves 3 parts:

• The software

• The hardware

• The cooling system

Because the software will always be limited by the hardware.

And the hardware will always be limited by its ability to cool down.

(This will make more sense as we go through the steps).

But now, let’s dive in.

The Hardware

This is the most important point.

Because without a good hardware, any code is useless.

Your hardware is what creates the resources necessary for growth:

• Energy

• Nutrients

• Neuro-chemicals

And what it all boils down to is increasing your body’s and brain’s metabolism.

Because:

Higher brain metabolism = More energy = Control over your life

And your best friend in this pursuit is a protein hormone called adiponectin. It serves many different roles in the body, but is especially prevalent in promoting neuro-plasticity and regulating brain metabolism.

Other important points are:

• Improving your blood flow to increase the delivery of glucose, oxygen and nutrients to the brain.

• Building your metabolism with diet and strength training

• Boosting levels of BDNF (the brain’s growth factor)

And to cover all these mentioned bases, there are 5 levers you should be pulling:

• Fix your diet - Get rid of metabolic friction (linoleic acid, inflammatory foods). Get enough calories, protein, strong fats (butter, tallow, gee), antioxidants (berries), minerals and vitamins (download cronometer & turn it into a game)..

• Go to the gym - This will increase your metabolism and release BDNF (fertilizer for your brain).

• Do your cardio - This will increase your blood flow and the amount of nutrients, glucose and oxygen delivered to your brain.

• Get your sleep right - This is the foundation for your mind. Sleep is when the most amount of mental growth takes place. Don’t skip out on it.

• Leverage photosynthesis - Get out in the sun during mornings, afternoons and evenings. This will improve your metabolism and awake your whole brain and body.

I’ve made letters on all these topics in the past (see links).

So instead of repeating myself, I’ll let you explore the ones that peak your curiosity on your own.

Pulling these levers on a regular basis will serve as the foundation for unlocking your mind.

You mist get this right before you get into writing better software (if you want it to actually work).

The Software

This is where we really start getting into it.

The point of improving your software is to unlock and use the physical energy you’ve created with your hardware.

And the way you do that is by writing better code.

The point is to redirect the wild tornado you as a humming bird have found yourself in. To become one with it and make it worth with you instead of against you.

And there are 3 steps for going about that:

1. Detach

2. Write

3. Reinforce

Let’s dive in.

1. Detach

How to improve your mind:

Stop trying to improve it.

Whenever you’re tinkering with the mind, there’s a problem you can’t get around:

”How do you improve the mind with the same mind that is in need of improvement?”

If you’re stuck inside your mind, by definition, you can’t change how it works.

Just as a computer program doesn’t just randomly improve itself, your brain won’t either.

So to develop and change your mind — you have to first get out of it. You need to escape from the code and gain access to the keyboard of your mind

So how do you do this?

Meditation.

Why?

When you’re meditating, you’re detaching yourself from your preprogrammed thoughts and emotions.

And instead of being the little hummingbird in the tornado, you’re watching it all go on from the outside. And that’s where you actually have the power to change things.

Because when you’re thinking, you’re inside the programming.

And in the same way that you can’t lift yourself off the ground or pull yourself up by your own bootstraps — you can’t change, develop or grow your mind from within your mind.

So how do you actually meditate?

(Because most people get this completely wrong).

There are 3 levels of meditation:

1. Observing

2. Observing & directing

3. Observing the observing & directing

(It’s a very meta technique)

As you get better, you’ll start moving up the levels.

A meditation session (that will actually make a difference) is around 20 minutes:

• Sit down

• Close your eyes

• Watch your thoughts & emotions without judgement

• Don’t think about the past, future or even present

• Just be

As you move up the levels, you can start to let go of the thoughts you don’t want. And then finally, become aware of awareness itself (but that’s really high level stuff).

(I talk more about this in the letter ”the only obstacle is your mind (how to master stress & anxiety)”)

A simple way to stick to a mediation habit:

I’ve always had trouble meditating consistently

First you had to find the time, then you had to block out all distractions and then just the act of sitting still for 1/3 of an hour.

The anxiety that I could be doing something better was killing me. (Which ironically destroyed my ability to meditate)

But one day I went on a walk to get away from it all. And as I strolled along, I forced myself not to think about the things stressing me out. After a while, I started to appreciate my surroundings more and more.

A sense of calm and happiness rushed over me and a realization dawned on me — I was meditating.

My point is, meditation can be done wherever you are. Just let yourself float into the current reality.

Appreciate and acknowledge wherever you are:

• On walks

• When lying in bed

• When cooking food

• During your workouts

• When doing the dishes

• When talking to friends

You don’t have to become a buddhist monk to meditate

It’s something that can (and should) be daily life.

2. Write

With a clear mind, you unlock the ability to influence its structure.

Because once you’ve gotten out of your mind access to the keyboard — you can start to rewrite the code you’re living by.

There are 3 really powerful ways to do this:

• Thought reconditioning

• Self hypnosis

• Visualization

Trust me, I was very skeptical to these as well.

But there is a lot of research in its favor.

So keep an open mind.

Thought Reconditioning

You are not your thoughts.

They are the results of your subconscious programming.

And so the first thought that comes up in a situation is a result of just that. It’s not you. And if you never notice that that is so, you can never work change how your mind works. And you will always be its slave.

This is why we started with the importance of detachment..

Because when you learn to notice your programming, you can consciously create new thoughts to rewrite the program. You can change the way you think.

• If you’re a pessimist, you can train your brain to be an optimist.

• If you’re depressed, you can train your brain to be happy and fulfilled.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say that your plans fell through.

You tried to land a new job but fell flat on your face.

Your first thought may be that you’re incapable, useless and good for nothing. Causing you to sink ever deeper into your; current, interpreted, sorrow predicament.

But if you catch yourself, you can replace those thoughts with your own.

It was a learning experience, I’m one step closer to a better job and I’m now more prepared than ever for the next interview.

You’re now changing the program of your subconscious.

You’re influencing where the tornado is moving and taking control over your life.

Reality is simply a matter of interpretation

Self Hypnosis

To change your programming — you have to understand how you were programmed.

The program you’re running was instilled in you as a child.

From the time 3 months before you were born to the age of 7, you’re in a hypnotic state where you’re absorbing every piece of information you see.

Because if you didn’t, you would just never learn anything. If you had to question the validity of every piece of information you saw — you would never get done.

But this causes problems down the line…

Because if you grew up in a dysfunctional situation (which we all did to greater or lesser degrees) your programming isn’t as good as it could be.

Furthermore, relying on your preprogrammed mind to carry you to your dream life is a bad bet. Because it just won’t happen.

But just as you were in a state of hyper learning when you are a child, you can access that same state to change your programming today. (Even if it isn’t to the same extent).

The hypnotic state you were in as a child was a brain pattern of "theta waves”.

It’s brain activity that’s just below consciousness.

When you’re in that state, you’re a literal sponge to new information.

So logically, by promoting theta waves — you can accelerate neuroplasticity. And at the same time, learning and the reprogramming of your life.

Here are the 3 easiest ways:

1. Consciousness transitions

2. Deep meditation

3. Flow

1. Consciousness transitions

When you switch states of consciousness, you have an amazing opportunity for learning.

When you fall asleep, there is a brief window of time when your brain is going crazy with theta waves.

And by taking in information during this window, you’re shaping your brain and promoting neuroplasticity.

This is the reason behind all the ”learn the entire French language as you sleep” videos.

It has some logic to it, but it’s pretty overblown.

The window is pretty brief, and to get something out of it — you’ll have to do it daily for a couple of weeks.

Another way of taking advantage of this is to take a nap while playing a self help affirmation video.

It sound really fricking stupid, but it actually works.

2. Deep meditation

Point 2 for meditation.

When in deep meditation, your brain is creating beautiful patterns of theta waves.

As opposed to regular meditation, this requires you to sit down and close your eyes:

• Sit down

• Close your eyes

• Observe every inch of your mind and body

• Repeat a line of thought you want to internalize

• Keep it up for at least 20 minutes

3. Flow

Have you ever:

• Written an essay in 2 hours?

• Had a conversation last 3 hours?

• Read an entire book in one sitting?

That’s flow.

The optimal human experience.

In that state, your mind is all theta.

You’re calm and relaxed. Yet highly focused and attentive.

And it makes for a wonderful combination for learning and neuroplasticity.

I won’t go into too much detail here because I’ve already written extensively about it in ”the ultimate goal of life is flow”.

But I’ll give you some pointers.

When you want to train your brain to internalize something:

• Block out all distractions

• Have a clear goal for what you’re using the information for

• Choose an information source that matches your skill level

• Take notes on every big idea or concept

• Repeatedly stop and see how much you remember

(These are all plays on the rules of flow from the book ”flow” by Mihaly csikszentmihalyi).

Visualization

Your mind is a self correcting goal seeking machine.

It will always strive to achieve the goals it’s been programmed with.

And that goal is your self image.

(Which is identical to your ego or identity)

The tornado of your subconscious will always move towards your identity, towards who you think you are. So to redirect the tornado and change the outcome of your life, you have to set a new identity.

The problem is that your identity is determined by your past experiences. So at first glance it seem as though you’re destined to repeat the same behaviors and get the same outcomes you’ve always got.

But there is a way forward.

A fact about the mind I find very funny is that it can’t tel apart imagined and real experiences. This opens up a great opportunity for writing the code of our minds.

By vividly imagining and visualizing an experience, you eventually set that as your self image. And your subconscious will begin to steer towards that identity. And you as the humming bird get to catch a free ride.

Think about how you decide to do anything.

First you create a little character of yourself and run a simulation of what you want to do. Then you see how it plays out, and if it’s favorable, you go act it out.

So here’s how to use this in your favor:

• Sit down

• Close your eyes

• Vividly imagine all the details of an experience you want to happen

• Continue for 20 minutes

• Repeat daily for 21 days

Here’s an example:

Let’s say that you want to eat healthier but have trouble abstaining from really tasty food.

You would sit down with your eyes closed and vividly imagine your favorite junk food. Let’s take the example of some MMs. Really try to imagine the colors of the room, the texture of the bag and the feel of the candies. Feel the temptation to open the bag and the smell filling the room.

Then imagine yourself taking the bag, throwing it in the trash and walking away.

Then you repeat the exercise until you start acting it out in the real world. This will create a positive feedback loop until you have no problem eating healthy at all.

3. Reinforcement

Let’s recap where we are.

• We’ve learnt how to detach from our mind with meditation

• We’ve learnt how to write our code with thought reconditioning, self hypnosis and visualization

The only thing left is to reinforce the adaptation we want to occur.

Because if you don’t, all the effort you’ve put in will be rather useless. It will still make a difference, but it won’t change your mind profoundly.

This is where dopamine comes into the picture.

Dopamine is the great reinforcer.

Too put it simply, if you poor dopamine onto your brain, you reinforce, strengthen and make the circuits more efficient. The same goes for nor-adrenaline (adrenaline inside your brain).

You can think about it evolutionarily.

Let’s say that you’re out picking blueberries to feed your tribe.

After spending some time picking, you begin to notice a pattern. You start to recognize how the blueberry plant looks and in what places you usually spot it.

When you later apply this knowledge and succeed in finding more blueberries, you get a rush of dopamine. It feels good and your brain become better at spotting blueberries.

So if you’re intelligent, this is how you would use it to your advantage:

First…

Stress your brain to the point of failure:

• Forcing yourself to remember what you read

• Practicing the skill you’re trying to perfect an extra time

• Stretching your brain to try and weave together big ideas with writing

Then…

Spike your dopamine and adrenaline to reinforce the adaptation:

• Cold shower

• Go for a hard run

• Drink some caffeine

• Eat some natural sugar

Then it’s just a matter of sleeping to really cement the adaptation and repetition.

The Cooling System

When your mind is working at full capacity — you need a way of cooling it down.

Because neglecting recovery is how you get burnt out and lose all your creativity and productivity.

Which isn’t something we want.

With that being said, there are a few ways of cooling down your mind.

The most obvious one is rest:

• Sleep

• Meditation

• Going for a walk

• Staring at your wall

• Listening to some music

Think of rest as turning off your computer and letting it cool off.

The 2nd way is through nootropics.

These are supplements and tools that make your mind more efficient. They also reduce the friction of mental activity meaning you won’t have to rest for as long.

You can think of it as the fancy cooling system built into your computer. Fans, water-cooling, etc.

I’m not a huge fan of taking prescription drugs or unknown compounds for this.

So this list will be mostly focused on natural compounds and tools.

Here we go:

• Caffeine - Caffeine boosts mental energy and dopamine sensitivity. It blocks adenosine receptors making you more alert and boosting cognition.

• L - Theanine - L theanine is natural compound found in green tea. It proves GABA which calms down your angsty neurons and creates sort of a calm focus. Personally, I drink a pot of green tea everyday.

• Brahmi - Named after the Hindi idea of God, brahmi has been shown to improve memory, learning and cognition. It’s long been used by Hindi gurus when they needed to memorize very long scriptures.

• Ashwagandha - This herb works on your HPA axis (the stress center) and inhibits cortisol release. It therefore makes you very calm and mentally balanced. But if you overdo it you can become so calm and relaxed that you don’t get anything done. So remember to keep a balance (and you shouldn’t take it daily for over a month).

• Creatine - This chemical found almost exclusively in animal products, literally makes vegans smarter. And even though you may be eating a lot of red meat, chance is that you need more to see the cognitive enhancing effects. My recommendation is to take 5 grams daily for as long as you live. But try it out.

Making Friends With Your Mind

Your life is only as good as your mind allows it to be.

So instead of engaging in the self fulfilling prophecy of seeing the mind as fixed…

Learn to change, unlock and develop your mind:

• Improve the hardware with nutrition, sunlight, exercise, sleep,

• Improve the software with meditation, thought reconditioning, curiosity, education, self hypnosis, visualization and leveraging dopamine

• Improve the cooling with rest, nootropics, walks and socialization

If the mind was fixed, you would have no free will.

But because it isn’t, you do. Because everything that exists is.

Don’t fight your mind, make it your friend and work with your biology.

Never against it.

And with that, I want to thank you for your time my friend.

Don’t miss out on future posts and get some exclusive goodies from time to time by signing up to the newsletter down below.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Simon Frisk.