How To Detox Your Association Of Ideas

People are always talking about detoxing their bodies. Detox your associations. You’ll notice a much bigger difference in your quality of life.

-Matt Stephens

How do you interpret this quote?

“Detoxing associations” typically refers to making changes in your social circle.

However, there are several levels to this.

The concept we’re about to explore goes way deeper.

Other kinds of associations include:

• The habits we practice
• The environments we frequent
• And the association (combo) of ideas we entertain

If you aren’t getting the results you want in some area, you have negative subconscious associations / assumptions around that topic.

The wrong associations are the ONLY things that can block your blessings.

Once you rewire them, your life goes UP.

You could even go so far as to say “life is a game of mastering your associations.”

Everything rides on it.

• Money
• Relationships
• Happiness
• Purpose
• Health
• Freedom, etc.

Interested in mastering all the above?

Great. So read on.

A Powerful Association Of Ideas Will Change Your Life

Here’s something few understand:

Reality is a great chain of being.

It’s a strict hierarchy.

Everything is connected.

We experience life as a tangled web of associations.

(regardless how disciplined we are).

Every:

• Action
• Place
• Relationship
• Or thought

comes with multiple associations.

These associations craft the boundaries of your experience.

(a.k.a. the fabric of your reality).

They reflect the limits of your understanding.

Let’s look at how to evolve past these limits.

Dissolve Your Limiting Beliefs

A belief is an association of ideas.

It’s a CONCLUSION meant to save mental energy and keep your reality stable.

This can stem from your:

• Ego
• Self-image
• Principles
• Life narrative
• Etc

These items generate your experience.

They are the lenses through which your reality makes sense.

However, they do have their limits.

The edges of your reality are upheld by your limiting beliefs and boundaries.

They are 2 sides of the same coin.

Both repel certain outcomes from the context of those generators.

(Which isn’t always a bad thing).

i.e. crack ruins lives so I won’t smoke crack.

However, this same mechanism can also keep good things away.

• “Freedom is selfish!”
• “Rich people are greedy!”
• “Success is morally wrong!”
• “Playboys are douchebags!”
• “Fitness is for dumb jocks!” etc

These things aren’t always mutually exclusive.

Regardless what you define as success, everything you want to achieve in life depends on making the right associations.

If you don’t, your subconscious will sabotage you.

It repels everything:

1. You resent
2. You perceive as bad
3. You view as incongruent with your social group / identity / life story

How To Reset Your Baseline

When you know how to manipulate yourself, you have to remove certain associations.

Aside from re-arranging the externals:

• Good influences
• Environments
• etc

you want to examine your CONCLUSIONS.

Changing these clusters changes your beliefs.

While new actions and surroundings lead to new thought, new beliefs also create new realities.

The first step is to admit what you want despite your stigmas.

Write it down and make it as detailed as possible.

Picture a world with no limits.

If you could wake up tomorrow, who would you like to be?

Now, who in real life has accomplished this lifestyle?

• Is it Richard Branson, the rebel billionaire?
• Is it Quincy Jones, the legendary musician?
• Is it Hunter S. Thompson, the freelance writer?

Maybe it’s someone else.

Regardless of the archetype, you want to find several of them and read their biographies.

Notice their overlapping coincidences.

See how similar they are to you.

These “puzzle pieces” help fill the missing holes in your mental models, allowing you to draw new conclusions.

As a result, you’ll re-arrange your environment and references to be congruent.

Winning only seems impossible when you’re drowning in weak:

• Habits
• Thoughts
• And influences.

After all, we can’t see past the choices our associations don’t understand.

Why People Get Stuck

Stagnant people are trapped with frozen mental associations.

The key is to re-combine and integrate experiences by assembling them into new packages.

You focus on emotionally relevant fragments so others fade away.

This activates a new current of life force (feelings and thoughts) that unlocks new possibilities.

It updates the subterranean realities that determine what your mind pays attention to (by enriching the mental model).

Seeing these kinds of novel connections is the main feature of creativity.

Conclusion

1. Your mind is a web of associations
2. These associations are the map of your decision making / value system
3. They craft your experience
4. Conclusions keep your reality stable, but they can also keep you stagnant
5. If you aren’t getting the outcome you want, you have to re-package your associations
6. Novel connections activate new life force and new possibilities

Want to absorb a powerful association of ideas?

Read “Twitter Meditations“.

It’s a collection of golden maxims proven to help increase income, develop better relationships, attain greater freedom, and live a better life!

Enjoy.
-M.I.