Let’s take a trip back to the 1960’s.

Dr Maxwell Maltz, an American plastic surgeon, was busy doing his thing in theatre each day when he started to make some unexpected discoveries.

After a nip here or a tuck there, some of Maltz’s patients would begin acting like different people.

Shy men and women would suddenly become bold and courageous.  Underachieving students would fly to the top of their class.  Salesmen who were riddled with self-doubt instantly became models of self-confidence.

Sure, plenty of Maltz’s patients didn't have transformations like these. 

But what startled Maltz the most was this:

(in his own words)

***

There are certain patients who will insist that “I look just the same as before – you didn’t do a thing”. 

Friends, even family, may scarcely recognise them, may become enthusiastic over their newly acquired “beauty”, yet the patient herself insists that she can see only slight or no improvement – or in fact deny that any change at all has been made.

***

Maxwell put this down to “self-image”.

In a tiny nutshell, this is the idea that our reality is shaped by self-perception rather than by external factors.

Maltz wound up writing a book on this topic called Psycho-Cybernetics.  The book influenced the likes of Brian Tracy and big Tony Robbins.  Today, the book is seen as a precursor to the self-help genre.

So far so good.

But there’s something else Maltz used to talk about.  A maxim I’d suggest is much more practical than the idea that change comes from our minds and not the outside world.

Max's maxim?

Maltz called it “clearing the calculator”.

Before you use a calculator for a tricky multiplication, simple subtraction or to spell a rude word upside-down, you need to hit the clear button on the calculator first.

It doesn’t take a doctor to figure out you won’t get a clear answer if the old equations are still in the way.

And it works the same way with us.

The key to a productive, happy and fulfilling life isn’t piling more strategies, tactics and actions on top of our current strategies, tactics and actions. 

The key to less stress isn’t stacking problems, worries and concerns on top of our existing problems, worries and concerns.

The key to finding clarity and direction isn’t loading more data points and analysis on top of all the previous data points and analysis.

The key is clearing our mental calculator instead.

I don’t even mean spending 17 sessions with your therapist talking about the time you didn’t get picked for the football team.

I literally mean hitting your own mental clear button and starting fresh.

It really is that simple.

Perhaps you think this sounds too simple.

But it all goes back to Maxwell’s breakthrough:

Our experience of life doesn’t come from the outside world.  It comes from our minds. 

And if we can have new thoughts in any moment, we can have a new experience of life in any moment too.

I’ll be talking a lot more about this in my upcoming Subtraction Method training.

A few months ago, I asked daily email maestro John “Bejako” Bejakovic if I could run a mindset training for his newsletter readers.  John said yes.  And we’ve opened up the training to readers of this newsletter too.

The training covers what I’ve learnt about the mind after quitting my banking job in a fit of exhaustion and overwhelm three years ago, then returning to the exact same job two years later and actually rather quite enjoying it now.

The training is free and takes place on Wednesday 6^th November, 11am PST / 2pm EST / 7pm GMT. 

If you’d like to join me:

https://subtractionmethod.com