#62: Train Your Brain with John Assaraf

Hala Taha:

[00:00:00] You're listening to young and profiting podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host Hala Taha and on young and profiting podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life.
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[00:01:00] profiting podcast today on the show we're joined by John Assaraf one of the leading mindset and behavior experts in the world.
John is passionate about brain research and brain retraining. His latest book innercise is a comprehensive guide to science-based mental and emotional techniques that can strengthen your mindset and unlock the hidden power of your brain. John is not only a mindset expert. He's built $5 million companies written two New York times.
Bestselling books is an international speaker and was featured in eight movies, including the blockbuster hit the secret. In this episode, we'll get an understanding of the science behind the law of attraction. We'll uncover the difference between our conscious and subconscious brains, and we'll learn about innercises or brain exercises that can help bring our conscious and subconscious brains into alignment.
Hey, John, welcome to young and profiting podcasts.
John Assaraf: Hey

[00:02:00] Hala. It's great to be with you.
Hala Taha: We're very excited to have you on the show. You are quite an impressive guest. You've had five multimillion dollar companies under your belt, including real estate, software, brain research, and life and business coaching. And you're also a best-selling author and speaker who has appeared on movies and TV shows like the secret and Larry King live.
And I think a lot of people know your name. They know who you are, but I don't believe that a lot of people know about your backstory your early years, unless they've read some of your books or listen to some other podcasts that you've been on. I wanted to start off this podcast talking about your childhood.
Understanding where you come from, because it really helps us understand why you're so passionate about the work that you do and why you're so good at helping others. You spent the first six years of your life in Israel, and then you moved to Montreal Canada. So first, could you just talk about what life was like as a child in Canada who moved from a foreign country who could barely speak English or French?

[00:03:00]
John Assaraf: Sure. What was really interesting is my father went to Montreal from Israel because he and my mother were tired of raising their children, in war torn Israel. And they just wanted a better life for my brother and my sister and I, and that was all fine and dandy until I got to Montreal as a six year old kid, I was actually five and a half and I spoke Hebrew, which was my mother tongue, but I didn't know the language.
And I was put obviously to into grade 1. And there was about 50, 60 kids in each classroom from every walk of life and myself and a few other kids just didn't understand the language. And the teachers really couldn't teach us the alphabet and teach us, what we needed to learn. And my father was already working as a cab driver.
So even when I came home, I had nobody to teach me. English or French. And so I fell behind very quickly. And by the time I was in grade two, obviously I was

[00:04:00] starting to learn the language a little bit. By the time I was in grade four and five, I was a year and a half, two years behind all the other kids.
And so I was extremely mischievous, got into a lot of trouble bugged the other kids. I was bored and I had an enormous amount of energy, which I still do today. And so I just got into a lot of trouble. I just fell behind and it didn't feel like I fit in. And I started to feel for the first part of my life.
Like I wasn't really smart and I didn't fit in and kids made fun of me and I got into fights. And so it didn't start off really well when I was a kid.
Hala Taha: Yeah. And so from my understanding, when you were 19, you met a really wise businessman, his name was Alan Brown, and he took you under his wing and essentially changed the direction of your life.
It's a really powerful story. Would you share that with us?
John Assaraf: I would be, before I was 19 from the age of basically 13 to about 18 or so, just

[00:05:00] almost 19, I was involved in a small little street gang that brought in drugs from Florida. We did breaking an entries. We were doing a lot of illegal things with counterfeit money just a small little gang doing illegal things, trying to survive.
And it was all the misfits of the neighborhood. And I was getting to a lot of trouble detention centers. Run-ins with the law, run-ins with, other little, little gangs. They weren't like, the gangs that we hear about today, but there were little gangs, not protecting turf, but basically doing things to survive.
And have money in our pockets and try to fit in. And I was getting into so much trouble that my brother said, Hey, why don't you come and visit me? I was living in Montreal. Kennedy so why don't you come and visit me in Toronto, Canada, which was about 350 miles away. So I took the train, went to visit him and he said, listen, I've arranged for a lunch with one of my clients.
And my brother is a tennis pro. And he used to play on full circuit when he was doing his early twenties and then started teaching tennis.

[00:06:00] And he had a client by the name of Alan Brown, who was a very successful entrepreneur, real estate developer had real estate offices. He was very into personal development and philanthropy and being a great dad and husband, et cetera, he was like a model human being.
When you met him, he was kind and in shape and very wise. And at lunch, that my brother arranged. Mr. Brown asked me, and again, I was 19 years old. This was in beginning of April, 1980, which is going to be many years before a lot of the listeners that were born, but the story will still make sense.
And I was 19 and he says to me, he says what are some of your goals? And I said, my goals, I want to have a job that I can, make enough money to move out of my parents' home. I'd like to eventually buy a car for myself. I want to have enough money to go out and party and have fun. He says, okay that's all the basic stuff that, any 19 year old, what would want her 20 year old or 30 year old?
Is that,

[00:07:00] what are you some of your bigger goals? And I said, Mr. Brown, I don't have any bigger goals. And so he gave me this document on that, and it was a 1980s goal-setting guide. And when I opened it up, it had. I don't know, probably about 10 pages and it's okay. At what age do you want to retire? And I'm like what?
The F right? Like I'm 19. I jumped, just getting started, forgetting how to retire. He says, how much net worth do you want to have? What kind of home do you want to live in? What kind of car do you want to drive? What kind of charitable work do you want to do? What kind of clothes do you want to buy? What kind of fun and experiences do you want to have?
And I was like, Mr. Brown what am I supposed to do with this? This is all like pie in the sky dream stuff. He goes, that's right. He says, all goals. Start with a dream and imagination. He says, please fill it out. So I was, getting a little beside myself. I said, fine, I'll fill it out. So I wrote down. I want to retire by the time I'm

[00:08:00] 45, with $3 million net worth.
I want to live in a beautiful home. I want to have a private jet. I want to travel on yachts. I want to do this for charity, for my parents. And I want to have Italian clothes and a Mercedes-Benz and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I wrote out all of these materialistic things and I gave it to him. He says, ah, that's great.
Cause these are all doable. Where'd you get these ideas? I said I just, I saw them on the TV show lifestyles of the rich and famous, which showed how rich people live. And I sees, what's great. The good news is I've achieved every one of these things. I know how to do it. This is what I'm going to ask you a question.
And the answer to this one question will determine whether you will ever achieve any of this stuff. And in the back of my mind, I was thinking, yeah, sure. One question is going to answer whether I could do this or not. And I said, sure, go ahead. And so he says to me, he says, son, are you interested in achieving these things or

[00:09:00] are you committed to achieving them?
And I sat there thinking for, I don't know, three, four seconds interested or committed. And I had no idea what it meant. So I said to Mr. Brown, what's the difference? And he said to me, he said, son, he says, if you're interested, you'll do what's easy and convenient. If you're interested, you'll keep using your stories and excuses.
And the fact that you came from Israel, didn't speak the language and you fell behind and you weren't smart enough or good enough. As as your crutch, he says, if you're interested, you'll keep reinforcing this story. This notion these beliefs about why you can't and you'll keep using your circumstances, your conditions and your family and your friends and all that stuff as your reasons why you can't and won't, he says, but if you are committed, You will do whatever it takes to upgrade your knowledge, to upgrade your skills, to develop the

[00:10:00] beliefs and the habits and the discipline to become the type of man who can achieve every one of these very achievable goals.
So he looked at me, piercing his eyes into mine, says, so son, are you interested or are you committed? And I felt like the hair standing up, on the back of my neck. And I don't know what caused me to do this Hala. I said, but I said to him, Mr. Brown, I'm committed. And he said to me, great. And he reached out his hand and he says, in that case, I will be your mentor.
Hala Taha: Wow.
John Assaraf: I'm like, yeah. I said wow. And then I said, can I swear?
Hala Taha: Yes, of course.
John Assaraf: What the fuck does that mean? Cause it's like nobody ever mentored me I didn't even know what the word meant at the time, but he said to me, he said, son, that means that I will take you under my wing and I will show you how to do this.
Not just tell you,

[00:11:00] I will show you. And I shook his hand. I said, awesome. I said then what's next. He says, good. You live in Montreal, which is 350 miles away from here. And I need you to move to Toronto where I live and where I worked, where I have my companies. I go move to Toronto. I don't know anybody in Toronto.
I don't have a job. I don't have money. I don't have a car. He says, there you go. Look how fast you're coming up with. Why you can't? I said I understand you're saying that, but I don't have any, I have $60 in the bank. I'm making 65 cents an hour at the factory that I'm working in. I live with my parents.
He says, I understand. But make the commitment first, then figure out how next.
Hala Taha: Yeah,
John Assaraf: I said fine. I'll move to Toronto. And I was scared shitless and my brother was sitting next to us. He says, okay, Johnny says, you can move in with me for a while until you get settled. I said, great Mark. But Mark, I don't have a job.
I don't have any money. He says listen, I can help you a little bit. Maybe dad can help you.

[00:12:00] Maybe our assistant can help you. And so long story short, I said, okay, I'm moving to Toronto. Then Mr. Brown says that's number one. This is number two on April the 20th. There's a real estate course at Humber college that I want you to enroll in.
And it's $500. I said, what? I can't go back to school. I hate school. I failed English. I failed math. I don't have $500. He goes, oh, there you go again. Look how fast you went to. Here's why you can't. I said, Mr. Brown, I understand, but I don't like school. I didn't do well in school. I'm not a really good learner.
I'm not as smart as the other kids. And I only have $60 in my account. I can't pay for $500 for a course. And he says like I said before, make the commitment first and the decision first and then use your brain to figure out how you can. I said fine. Okay. I'll do it. And

[00:13:00] so my brother said, I can lend you a hundred bucks, then maybe mom and dad can help you.
And maybe we should so it could help you so long story short Charlene Ford listening is. I made the commitment to move to a city. I knew nobody except for my brother and this man. I made a commitment to go back to school, which I hated from nine to five from April 20th, 1980, till June the fourth, 1980.
I moved three weeks later, I went to school and then I got into real estate school. I passed the test and Hala, the reason I can share this story with you and the dates. So precisely is on June the fifth, 1980. I got my real estate certificate because I passed the test and I passed the test without cheating, which is how I got out of high school.
So it was the first time, really in my adult life where I actually. Made a commitment to something I follow

[00:14:00] through, regardless of how hard it was mentally and emotionally and physically and financially. And I did something that raised my confidence level and my certainty level on myself. And then I got into real estate, even though I knew nothing about business, about selling, about marketing, about doing anything to do with real estate and legalities and finance.
And so I share that story and thank you for asking. To share with people that the how to achieve anything comes after you make the commitment to the outcome.
Hala Taha: Yeah. It's a really great listen to everybody who's listening. Are you merely interested in the life you desire or are you actually committed to it?
Because anything that you want to accomplish really requires focus and attention and action. So I love that lesson. Let's dig into this mentorship a little bit more. He not only was like a point in time mentor. This guy like took you under his wing

[00:15:00] for years. And to me that seems like a really rare thing.
How did you get him to like you so much where you were able to maintain that relationship, where he was investing so much time in you, even though, he had his own business, his own family, his own life. You essentially got him to invest so much time in you. How do you think that happened?
John Assaraf: First and foremost, I only worked under his Metro ship for a year. Secondly, he didn't invest so much time in me. He created an infrastructure for me to follow. So let me explain once I got my real estate license, then I became a real estate agent for him with zero salary, not a nickel and what he did, he says, okay, let me give you a framework for how you're going to make money in real estate and be self-sufficient.
And so he put me on a very specific schedule.

[00:16:00] Everyday. When I came in the goal document that I actually had written, he had me rewrite it out in more detail. So I had the goals. Then he had me read a, what would I need to believe? In order to achieve those goals, even though those beliefs weren't true right now, but somebody who was achieving those goals, what would I have to believe?
I wrote those out. Then he said, what do you think you'd need to do every day? If you want to earn, let's say 30 or 40 or $50,000 a year. And I really didn't know. So he helped me with what you'd have to make about a hundred calls a day. You'd have to learn a script of what to say when you're making a phone call, you'd have to learn the objections.
If somebody said no, or yes. What would you say next? And so what he had me do was he created a framework for me to come into the office every day. And on my way into the office, he had me listen to my goals because he had me record them on an

[00:17:00] audio cassette back then. So I would put the cassette in my car and I'd listened to the goals
that I wanted to achieve. I would listen to the beliefs that I needed to have every single day on the way to work. I would listen to them every single day while I was driving. I would listen to them, but he also gave me some cassettes to learn about selling and marketing and real estate. And so he had a library of personal development and real estate specific
information that he had me train on for 2, 3, 4 hours a day while I was driving while I was at work. And everyday when I came into work, I had to review my goals. I had to run my fingers across my goals. I had to repeat the affirmations. I had to close my eyes and see myself becoming the person capable of achieving those goals.
So I use visualization and affirmations and mindfulness. He had me become aware of

[00:18:00] my negative self-talk, he had me become aware of the excuses that I may be using. So back then, This was really not understood by science, but astronauts did the same things. Navy seals later on started to use this. And what we've discovered since now, the company that I run now is called NeuroGym in the brain
research we do is he didn't know this, but he was helping me develop the neural networks, the patterns in my brain that were required and needed in order for me to follow through with the behaviors. And so every day I was upgrading my knowledge, my skills, my beliefs, my vision of myself, and replacing the old vision of not being smart enough or good enough, or worthy enough with the wrong beliefs and disempowering ideas that I had about myself and what was possible because

[00:19:00] of my circumstances.
Hala Taha: Yeah. So let's dig into the science behind the law of attraction. We have something in common. We both learned about this when we were 19, the differences, I learned it with like movies, like the secret and reading books from Abraham and Esther Hicks. But you learned it and didn't know exactly what you were learning.
You didn't know. I think the law of attraction is a phrase that probably happened after you learned it.
John Assaraf: That's correct.
Hala Taha: And you've been studying this for a long time. So what's the exact science, like why is it true that our beliefs can actually become reality? Like how does that actually happen? Because a lot of people think this is like pie in the sky type of stuff.
John Assaraf: It is pie in the sky stuff. When people don't understand the law of attraction. Now, a lot of people think that, law of attraction is, you think positively about something you feel positively about something and all of a sudden it materializes on your front door, or or in your bank account.
And that's the furthest thing from the truth.

[00:20:00] Now the law of attraction is more in tune with what Nikola Tesla uncovered around the law of resonance and frequencies. So if you think about, a tuning fork, if you think about how does a tuning fork work, right? Or or how is it that you can hit the A4 40 key on a piano and 10 feet away, the chandelier vibrates, how is that possible?
And it's possible because of resonance. And so in the universe that we live in, we know that every human being, every desk, every chair, every computer, every light is energy. And so energy that's on the same frequency is in resonance and things that are in resonance. They don't attract as a magnet works, but things that are in resonance are the exact same thing that

[00:21:00] happens when you tune your radio to let's say 95.1, you're locked onto that station, not 95.0 and not 95.2 at 95.1, let's say there's rock and roll music.
But just to the left of that at 95, it might be classical music. And just to the right of that at 95.2, there might be punk rock. So when you are locked and loaded with your mindset, your emotions, your gut, and your behavior around a vision or a goal that you want. You are in resonance. And what happens when you are in resonance and you're locked and loaded, is your brain deletes and distorts all the other frequencies or channels, just like a radio does.
And then only the things that are in resonance with the station that you're on the vision, you're on the goals that you're

[00:22:00] on are what and what sees you, does that make sense?
Hala Taha: It does. How would we begin to start to put the law of attraction into practice? Like it's for somebody who's never done this before?
What are some simple ways where we can start to change our daily lives so that we put this into practice?
John Assaraf: You first have to start off with clarity of of vision. So if you were an Archer, what's the thing that you have to learn. If you're an Archer. First you have to learn on how to focus on the bull's eye.
Right, whatever it is that you're trying to hit, you have to learn how to block out everything else because all of your attention needs to go on the target. So first you have to start off with, what is the vision that you have? What do you see? Is it clear or is it confusing? Is it organized or is it chaotic?
So first you start off with a vision for the

[00:23:00] target and that's step one. Step number two is what are some goals that you can have on your way to achieving the vision? That's two number three is what do you need to believe about yourself or about. The vision that you want to achieve. Write that down.
Number three, what emotions do you need to activate in order to be in a positive, constructive emotion, energy in motion to help you achieve those goals and that vision that's number three, number four, what habits do you think would help you achieve the goals that you have? What habits? So what daily habits, weekly habits, maybe hourly habits would you need to have that would make those

[00:24:00] goals really be more probable instead of possible.
Probable instead of possible. So that's part, that's the first part of it. And then the question is this, and I want every pay close attention to what I'm about to share with you. If you're thinking of any goal that you have, whether it's spiritual health and wellbeing, whether it's emotional, mental, physical, whether it's a business goal, or career goal, whether it's any goal that we have in health, wealth, relations, career, business, fun, or experiences, the how to already exists, right?
The how to do X or Y are already exist. Unless you're trying to colonize Mars. Most people who are listening right now, don't really need to be innovative.
Hala Taha: Yeah.
John Assaraf: So all of the how to the strategies, the tactics all of that exists already. So your lack of knowledge or a skill is the least of your concerns right now, because all of that already

[00:25:00] exists.
You can read about it, you can buy a blueprint for it. You can get coached for it. You can watch a YouTube video and you can Google it and you can get all the how to, so let's take care of what has to happen before the how to, so let's get our beliefs in line. Let's get our emotions in line. Let's get our habits in line.
And that is really the precursor to all of it. We can get the alignment, the coherence between all of of it. That's when we activate the law of attraction. So the movie, the secret we talked about, to think, believe in you'll achieve. No. That's not true. All right. There's the law of Goya that I teach as well.
The G O Y A.
Hala Taha: Yeah, we're very familiar, we had David Meltzer on the show. And he talks about that as
well. Yeah.
John Assaraf: David's a student and a friend, so the law of Goya is all about, get off your ass. And you have to do the right things in the right order at the right

[00:26:00] time. And so there's a lot of people who are getting off their ass, but they're not doing the right things or in the right order or at the right time.
And I always like to give people a visual of a safe. So let's say you had a safe in front of you. Somebody gave you a safe and there's $10 million in the safe, or there's a, the greatest recipe in the world for X in the safe that you can get access to. And they give you the combination. The combination is the number 7, 13, 29 and 77.
How's that, but they don't give you which order. Okay. The numbers need to go in the safe. You try 29, 77, 13 7. No, it doesn't work. Okay. 7, 13, 29, 7. He said, no, it doesn't work. You could be working really harder for a really long hours. And unless, you know what the proper way is to put the numbers in the common nation, in the right sequence, you could be working

[00:27:00] really hard, but you are not going to open up the safe.
So what I always like to suggest to people is all of the, how to already exists. Why not find out what is the how to, be innovative after the right sequence and the right things to do. And this is where knowledge and skill comes into play in the absence of knowledge and skill. We have doubt. When we have doubt, we activate the stress and fear centers in our brain, which deactivates the motivational centers in our brain and deactivates the motor cortex in our brain.
So we don't want to take action. So we procrastinate and do everything else. That's easy versus doing the things that might be a little bit harder. That's going to take us time to learn that we do not yet know.
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Yeah. Honestly, I would encourage everyone to rewind the last 10 minutes and listen to everything that he just said. He just gave you so many gems of how you can start to put your life on track and, accomplish the things that you're really interested in doing.
So I would definitely encourage you to listen to that over again. I got a chance to read your book innercise and I think this is a great segue into

[00:29:00] that book.
John Assaraf: I hope you enjoyed it.
Hala Taha: I did. It was really good. And I'd love to cover some of those things on the show. So let's first talk about the brain and what an extraordinary Oregon that is.
So in your book you say it's one of the most complex life forms on the planet. Can you help us understand why our brain is quote-unquote three pound miracle?
John Assaraf: I think everybody that's listening right now can appreciate the genius that's within them, a hundred trillion cells working. Hopefully in harmony to keep you alive and to make sure your DNA doesn't unravel.
But if you think about the miracle that our brain is, it's really an organism as opposed to an organ, right? So this organism is growing, in new neural networks. It's learning, it's adapting, it's changing. And it's able to be our electromagnetic switching station that allows light in through our eyes. And it's able to decode and

[00:30:00] decipher a spectrum of light to help us survive and live.
And then, through our physical senses, our other four physical senses of hearing and smelling and tasting and touching to give us this ability to navigate this physical world that we live in. But then we have intuitive factors as well as it picks up the vibration of the field of energy that we're in.
Not only that's near us, but the field that we are entangled in so that we can actually think of somebody who might be halfway around the world. And then all of a sudden they call us and we go, wow, that's a miracle. How did that happen? That's called entanglement. We're all entangled from the beginning of time, which is a little bit more complex of a topic, but we have this brain that is processing 400 billion bits of information per second, and as deleting and distorting, most of it, and only making us aware of what

[00:31:00] we absolutely need to be aware of.
And so, it's really this complex orchestra, that, that has a cheerleader within it and a fire chief within it, and an Einstein part of it and a Frankenstein's monster part of it, and then a critical part of it and a thinking part. Then the imagination part, it's this cacophony of incredible genius and wisdom.
That's been evolving for two and a half million years since homoerectus first walked on earth with a highly instinctual and intuitive part, an emotional part to develop next. And then an intellectual part that developed above that. And think about our brain, we can't take 10 or a hundred billion dollars in replicated yet.
Hala Taha: Yeah. It's so fascinating. And something that really stuck with me in your book is the fact that you mentioned that we all have the same brain, we're all lucky enough to have this amazing brain Einstein, Jeff

[00:32:00] Bezos, Elon Musk, everybody has the same structure of their brain and the same 85 billion neurons in their brain.
I think just being aware of that and realizing your power, your inner power is really important.
John Assaraf: And one of the keys, to understand is this right? There may be somebody listening saying, yeah, but my brain is different and the truth is no, it's not, but maybe your understanding of your brain and your skill and how to use it better.
May not be as good as it can be. Now here in lies a choice. Do I want to learn how to use my mega super unbelievable. Biocomputer better. Yes or no? Yes. Great. Then what are the first steps? First step I think is pick up my book innercise and it'll help you. But more than that is to set aside the notion.
Okay. That you can't,

[00:33:00] because we all can learn because when we're saying, can I learn this? The answer is your brain is the most powerful supercomputer in the world. So of course you can learn this, but as soon as you say, I can't, your bio-computer says, okay, let me make that real. Now, if you said in the past, I couldn't, but now I'm open to learning how your brain says, oh, okay.
Then I'll help you. It's a simple binary decision. It's like switches on switches off that we have to remember, we hold the key or we have the ability to turn the switch on or off to get our brains to work for us or against us. Why not use the most powerful tool to help you be healthier and wealthier and happier and wealthier and more giving and all that stuff, because it's all right here and available to us.
Hala Taha: Yeah, totally. Let's talk about evolutionary biology. This is a topic that we've

[00:34:00] talked a whole lot about on young and profiting podcasts. How our brains have evolved to keep us safe and efficient. We have instinctual and automated responses that keep us out of harm's way. And that's great for running from a lion or swerving to avoid a car crash, but it can also lead to us running our lives on autopilot.
And we end up being a collection of habits that we might not even be really consciously aware of. So can you give us an idea of the downfalls we run into with our brain on autopilot?
John Assaraf: Sure. When we talk about this organism, it has a hierarchy of how it operates, right? So again, I want every to remember.
One thing is you have a brain, you are not your brain. In my view of the world. In my view of humanity, there's an intelligence that's beyond the brain that can actually use the brain better. We can talk about that later, but if you just

[00:35:00] take a look at the brain and we think about the evolutionary process, there's one thing that the brain is focused on every nanosecond of your life.
And that is survival above all else. That's number one. So that's right up there with oxygen survival. Number two is avoidance of pain or discomfort. So we do whatever we can to avoid any mental pain or discomfort, emotional pain, or discomfort, physical pain, or discomfort, spiritual pain discomfort, financial pain or discomfort.
And it is highly evolved. Okay. To automatically move away from that third, it does all of this. While trying to conserve the most amount of energy, just in case something in number two happens that is serious. And so that's number three and then number four, it seeks pleasure. And so it seeks, to feel good pleasure.
So the

[00:36:00] hierarchy of everything that our brain does follows that methodology. Now, why is that important for us to understand? And it's important for us to understand, because it learns everything based on our experiences, the emotions we've had around those experiences, whether they're real or imagined whether we have had those experiences ourselves, or we see it in others.
And so when you have an idea, let's say it's an idea to, you start your own business, to start your own podcast, to just start doing something that may be something you're not doing right now, initially you get excited and the release of dopamine in your brain happens. If you share it with your friends, Hey, I'm going to do this.
I wanted this. I'm going to start this. I'm going to go here. I'm going to do that. You get excited, they get excited. You released the neurochemicals of whether it's, dopamine, serotonin,

[00:37:00] oxytocin, all the feelgood, neurochemicals and you're excited, but right in the very, very next second or day or two or three days, your brain says, Hey, but what if you fail?
Your brain says if you fail, you're going to be embarrassed. You're going to be ashamed. You're going to be ridiculed or you're going to be judged or you're going to lose money and guess what? Money for us is food and survival and an ability to take care of ourselves and do things. And so your brain then says, hold on a second.
Let's alert. Okay. And create the stress response and let's put the brakes on and let's procrastinate a little bit just in case. So there are these biological factors that most people are unaware of because it's happening in billions of seconds. And so you have this goal in your dream, but you really don't ever take consistent.
Inspired action towards, you take, one or two or three steps, and then you

[00:38:00] stop you, you start and stop procrastinate. You come up with all the reasons why you can't, you start to rationalize, which means you start telling yourself rational lies. They seem logical as to why you're stopping, but this is the brain's protective mechanism, just in case there's any real or imagined danger, that's going to affect your comfort zone or your survival.
And so from an evolutionary perspective, your brain is doing exactly what it should be doing. It's in a protective modality all the time. And so what we have to learn how to do is to become aware of our feelings, our thoughts, our emotions, our behaviors, which drive our results or the lack of behaviors, which are causing our results.
Now, in this aware state, we say that awareness is what gives you

[00:39:00] choice and choices what gives you the freedom? So in a very low level operating brain, okay, we're in a consistent reactive state for comfort and survival, but in a more hyper aware state, a little bit more advanced to that we can now become aware.
And in that awareness, we can override the automatic trigger and move into action and be in a safe modality and learn how to manage risk. And we become better equipped to manage our emotions.
Hala Taha: I think it's really important. So people really understand this to get a sense of the difference between our conscious and subconscious brains and really what happens when they become unaligned.
And to also understand that most of what happens in our brain happens at the subconscious level, like 95 to 95% of

[00:40:00] brain activity actually happens at the subconscious level.
John Assaraf: That is correct. If we were to take a look at what does our brain do and how does it work? Our conscious brain, as you mentioned, is a response for imagination.
It's responsible for choosing this or that it's responsible to give things meanings. It's responsible for us being able to tell ourselves we're tired, let's go to sleep et cetera, but our subconscious brain is keeping your DNA intact right now, digesting your food. It's allowing you to see and delete or distort anything you don't need, but only pay attention to what you do need.
It is the power grid, the power center of you and me. And yet, most people don't know how to operate it. And like I said, we have a brain, but we haven't been given the user's manual for it. And I've been studying this for over 40 years now and what is the user's

[00:41:00] manual? So I can use the conscious part of my brain properly and the subconscious part of my brain properly.
And once you start to realize that you have a lot more control than you ever had because you're not your brain. This is the most incredible thing to think about is I have a brain, but I'm not my brain. It's like you have a heart, but you're not your heart. You have hands, but you're not your hands. You can start to use the tools better.
And so our subconscious brain doesn't know the difference between something real or imagined your conscious brain does, but your subconscious brain doesn't. So if you can impress a new belief into your subconscious mind, if you can impress a vision into your subconscious mind, whether it's a vision of you being, healthier, or you being in a great relationship, you earning more money, you having the job of your dreams.
If you can envision it and impress that into the subconscious mind, not one

[00:42:00] time, but hundreds of times, then you can start to create that neural network and pattern. And then your subconscious mind then goes to work. At making that a reality and something that I like to use as a visual. So people understand this even better is imagine if we're sitting in a movie theater and we're watching a movie and there's some, some things happening on the screen that we don't like, does it make sense for us to get up, go to the screen and spray paint the screen to eliminate what we don't like?
Of course not, it would make sense if we don't like what's on the screen to go back up to the projection room, to get the whether the DVD or whatever the movie's playing through and change the script on the DVD. So that the projection would be different. That's exactly how our brains work. We don't see the world

[00:43:00] as it is.
We see the world as we are conditioned to see that we're projecting our beliefs in our experiences and our values onto the canvas and screen of the world. And it's a very odd shift that people have to make to understand reality that way. And so we achieved the results that we are conditioned and wired to achieve, not what we're capable of achieving.
So we don't earn what we are capable of achieving. We earn what we are conditioned to earn.
Hala Taha: No, that's brilliant. I just wanted to go back to your Alan Brown story, where he made you repeat the same things everyday. Repeat your goals every day. It's relates to this in a way where you're forcing your brain to think that's true.
That's reality because you're conditioning it and repeating yourself. And that's why affirmations work, right?
John Assaraf: Correct. Affirmations work because an affirmation is nothing

[00:44:00] more than letters that form words, the form sentences. And when you and I, and everybody who's listening were born,
we didn't have one belief about ourselves or what was possible. We didn't have one idea of what we could achieve in our lifetime or not in any area of our life. We came as a clean blank slate, and then we developed, our beliefs around what our parents or grandparents or teachers or siblings believed.
And guess what, if those beliefs were empowering, constructive, unlimited beliefs. Awesome. You don't have a challenge, but if you grew up or develop these disempowering limiting beliefs, you will not achieve more than your beliefs will allow you to.
Hala Taha: Yeah, so we love practicals and how tos on young and profiting podcasts.
Are there any innercises that can help us bring our conscious and

[00:45:00] subconscious brains into alignment and agreement?
John Assaraf: Absolutely one of the best tools. And one of the things that to all of my students do, we have something called an exceptional life blueprint. And so taking them back to what Alan Brown did with me, 40 plus years ago, we have all of our students create their exceptional life blueprint.
And so what does that mean? It means that they create the vision for their life by writing out a story. And the story simply starts off like this. I'm so happy and grateful for the fact that, and you write a story in present tense of the kind of life that you're living, where you're living, how much fun you're having, how you feel, who you're engaged with, what a difference you're making in the world, how much you're earning what kind of clothes you wear, what kind of car you drive, what kind of charities you help you write a life story and then,
every day, you

[00:46:00] sit after you've written it on your computer or you print it. Like I have both. And you recorded onto your smart device, whether it's your computer, your iPad, your iPhone, you sit and you read it as you put your right fingers across it, and then your left fingers across it. And then you close your eyes and as you listen to it, you feel it.
You see it. You imagine it. Now. Some people listening might, might think that's stupid. That's crazy. But let me give you another visual. I want you all to imagine that you're sitting at your favorite tea shop, coffee, shop restaurant, whatever, with a friend talking. Out of the corner of your eye, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks having a discussion, whoever you like, whatever your favorite Hollywood actor or actresses and they're talking.
And then they look over at you. And then whoever that person is from Hollywood comes up and says, Hey, we were just talking about this new movie

[00:47:00] script that we want to film in about a year. And we just saw you and you look perfect for the role. Would you consider coming to Hollywood? And we will equip you with the best actor coach in the world.
A few of them, as a matter of fact, we will help you learn everything you need to know about the script. If you like it. And about what you need to do to play this role. And if you say, yes, we'll pay you $10 million. Now, how many of you would get excited? Even though you have no acting abilities, you don't have the beliefs that you're good.
You might even have fears that you might screw it up. But if they put a team around you and said, we will teach you everything you need to do to learn the script. How many of you would say I'd be open to that.
Hala Taha: Everyone.
John Assaraf: Yeah. So let's say you said, yeah, that would be awesome. What would be the process of taking a piece of paper that somebody

[00:48:00] else wrote?
Not even you, what would be the process to learn the script? Would you read it like one time and go, okay, I got it. Let's film. No, you'd read it hundreds of times you practice with other people. You'd look in the camera and you'd practice on camera. And if you did that enough time, you'd eventually know the script by heart.
You'd eventually feel comfortable in front of the camera. You'd eventually be able to film. And if you practiced, for 30 days, 60 days, 180 days a year, a whole year, would you be much more comfortable in a year practicing a little bit each day where you know this script it's within you, when to raise your voice or lowered, when to get fricking angry right now.
Okay. Or be so happy this unbelievable, oh my God, Hala, this is off like that. You'd be able to on-command and

[00:49:00] on-demand do that. Let me share something with all of you listeners when the script in your head, the new one is greater than your current script with all of the beliefs and all of the habits that you have when the new script is greater than the old one, that's when your life will change.
And that's when you'll start to achieve the life of the new script.
Hala Taha: That's amazing. And just to play devil's advocate, what are the proof points behind this actually working?
John Assaraf: When you develop the beliefs around the goals that you want to achieve the beliefs set up the lens by which your brain sees the world and you in it.
When you develop the beliefs around this and the skills and the knowledge you activate the motor cortex of your brain, the imagination center of your brain, the deductive reasoning center of your brain. You activate all of the needed components from a neurological perspective

[00:50:00] to match the belief. And so let's take this back one step and say, why do 85, 90% of all lottery winners lose all the money after they win it within three years?
Why do homeless people who are put in a really nice environment, leave the environment or ruin it? And the answer is because your outer world, the world of results will never exceed your internal map of reality. And so our outer world is a direct reflection of our inner world. And so what we have to understand is there's a quantum physics laws at play, quantum mechanics, laws at plays, in addition to the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, et cetera.
And so when we start to upgrade our coherence factor, if it's true that everything that you and I

[00:51:00] ever want is already here then, is it possible that we can take our brain and tune it into the station of our vision and our goals, whether they're, like I said, physical, emotional, mental, financial, spiritual, is it possible that it's all here?
And the answer, of course it's all here. We're just uncovering layers upon layers and layers of the frequency, energy and intelligence. That's already within us. And all around us because we are in this quantum field of energy.
Hala Taha: Yeah. Let's stick on that for a second. I know we're running against time, but you mentioned previously that we have a presence beyond our brain. What did you mean by that?
John Assaraf: A lot of people talk about spirituality. Now, I don't partake in religion. I was born Jewish, but I liked the culture, but I don't believe in organized religion the way most people

[00:52:00] do. So when I think of the spiritual intelligence that's within us, and I think about, can I become aware of my thoughts?
Of course I can. Can I become aware of my emotions? Of course I can. Can I in a meditative state and maybe, different states, whether it's using psychedelics or, whatever other means or whether it's chanting or holotropic breathing, can I in one form or another realize that I am not my body.
I am not my organs. I am not my cells. I'm not that stuff. But all that stuff is a part of me, and the answer is yes. And so my belief is that the universe that we live in is highly highly intelligent. You can't even come up with words of how intelligent it is, but if you took a glass of water from the ocean

[00:53:00] and you moved it 2000
miles inland, you'd still have some of the ocean water. So whatever it is that created you and me and the nine planets and allow them to spin a dizzying speeds in an elliptical fashion around the sun, as the universe, the Milky way, galaxy, excuse me, is moving at one and a half million miles per hour.
We're not just flying off of earth. That intelligence not only created us, but it's within us. That's the spiritual intelligence that's already within every one of my cells, that started to coalesce billions of years ago from the furnace of a star. So is it possible that I can tap into that intelligence?
And the answer is, of course it's possible. And one of the best ways to tap into it

[00:54:00] is through a meditative practice where you can start to realize, wow, I can get into this calm, relaxed state where I could be hyper aware and with practice, I can actually disappear and meaning the physical body basically disappears
and I become one with everything that created me. Now, for some people they might think I'm smoking crack, but others go, yeah, I know what you're talking about. But I challenge the people who don't believe what I'm saying to do your research, educate yourself, find out a little bit more about this idea that I just shared and do your research, do a little bit of self-discovery.
Where you can transcend your thoughts, emotions, feelings, sensations, behaviors, and in that quiet, calm state,

[00:55:00] your heightened of state of awareness will help you realize I am more than I think I am. We are really all connected. And I can tap into this universal intelligence at will through a variety of different practices that I may not be practicing right now, here, lies how to use your brain better.
Because if it's true, that it is the most powerful organism in the known universe. And if it's true that all of our brains work the same, then it's also true that the best operators of their brains will achieve the greatest success in every area of their lives.
Hala Taha: Amazing. Honestly, this was such a great conversation.
One of the, my most favorite conversations I've had all year. So thank you so much. The question I ask all my listeners before

[00:56:00] they leave is what is your secret to profiting in life?
John Assaraf: Oh me, what's my secret to profit in life.
Hala Taha: Yes, it can be professional, financially, but profiting in a broad sense.
John Assaraf: The stage that I'm at in my life is how much can I give to others so that they could be happier, healthier, wealthier, more comfortable with who they are, more loving, caring, kind, more in touch with what it really means to say that we are really all one.
I know it sounds, either metaphysical or like a cliche, but I know that to be true at the deepest sense of every one of my hundred trillion cells. And so I want to give as much as I can before I die of my knowledge, my money, my lessons, my failures, everything so that I can somehow in

[00:57:00] some way, make somebody's life a little bit better to live.
Hala Taha: That's awesome. And where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you do?
John Assaraf: Thank you, Halla. I'm on Instagram every day. I post quotes and ideas and thoughts and videos there. And it's @johnassaraf. Every Tuesday, I do a Facebook live and I'm starting to do Instagram live as well at nine o'clock Pacific time, 12 o'clock New York time.
My company is called NeuroGym, but our website is mindneurogym.com, mindneurogym.com. And we post a lot of blogs and a lot of videos. We have a lot of brain training and success events for free, and we have a lot of brain training programs, but if you go to mindneurogym.com to go what I'm doing from a business perspective
and then @johnassaraf on Twitter and my Facebook fan page for those on Facebook, that's great, but I also have a YouTube channel. So I'm all over social media.
Hala Taha: You can't miss him, it's John Assaraf. I'm going to stick all the

[00:58:00] links in my show notes. So you guys have them and I'll be posting a lot of his content on my LinkedIn page.
So you guys can learn more. John, again, this was an awesome conversation. I haven't enjoyed a conversation like this in a while, and I have so many more questions. Hopefully we can have you back on for part two.
John Assaraf: We'll do it again.
Hala Taha: Yeah.
John Assaraf: And by the way, thank you so much for preparing so much. One of the reasons I wanted to go above and beyond for you is because you were so well-prepared in doing your research.
And so I am not surprised that you've got a killer amazing top podcast because the leader's amazing. So congratulations to you.
Hala Taha: Oh! Thanks, John.
Thanks for listening to young and profiting podcast. Follow YAP on instagram @youngandprofiting and check us out at youngandprofiting.com. If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to write us a review or comment on your favorite platform.
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[00:59:00] sure to share this podcast with your friends and family on social media, you can find me on Instagram @yapwithhala or LinkedIn, just search for my name, Hala Taha. Thanks again to video Husky, the sponsors of our show.
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