Multiple Self Theory Explained 🧠

Learn how to create the "self" you desire! (10 min read)

TL;DR Summary:

• Thinking, Feeling, & Acting

• Where Your Identity Comes From

• Why Change is Hard

• Multiple Self Theory

• Becoming a Hero

• State —> Story —> Strategy

• Learning How To BE

How You Think & Your Identity

The way we think is an interesting topic, and it’s what we will be focusing on today.

95% of the thoughts you have daily are the same as the ones you had yesterday…

Your Mind, Brain & Body are in constant communication with one another.

This means, as your Mind & Brain are thinking, it causes your Body to feel a certain way.

The inverse is also true, when your Body feels a certain way it causes your Mind & Brain to think certain things.

So what does this mean?

Well, if 95% of your thoughts are the same every day, that also means 95% of your feelings are the same.

And since our thoughts & feelings are what decide our actions, this also means that 95% of the things you do, or the actions you take every day are the same as well.

Finally, if you’re thinking, feeling, and acting in the same way, day after day, your brain is firing and wiring neurons together the same way every day.

These patterns of feelings, thoughts & actions that we fire & wire together constantly eventually become our identity.

This identity makes it easier for our brain to predict our behavior, but it can also limit our ability to grow!

By 35 Years Old

The statement “I am…” is telling your Mind this is “you” which it remembers as part of your identity, and then predicts later.

By the time we’re 35, this identity has become like walking, you don’t have to consciously even think about it anymore.

By this time, your Mind & Brain can very accurately predict what “you” would do because you’ve wired the same feelings, thoughts, and actions into your subconscious.

This is because your New Brain is a prediction engine.

It takes all that it’s learned over time and then predicts what to do next with that information.

When people say that your subconscious controls 95% of your daily behavior, this is what they are talking about.

This can be a powerful mechanism when used the correct way, but it can also turn against us.

One of the easiest ways to see this is by examining our language. As we’ve talked about, language creates our reality.

Saying, “I am burnt out.” vs. “I feel burnt out.” are two very different sets of neurons firing and wiring together.

This can create a vicious cycle, and it shows up in more areas than just burnout.

Any emotion or thought that we identify with “I am…” can start to become who our Mind predicts we are.

The longer we identify with these types of things, the harder it becomes to escape this identity.

Addicted to Emotions

Why is that? Dopamine is released when we get something right. It’s a reward for our brain for getting the prediction it’s trying to make, correct.

If you identify with anger when you feel anger in your Body, your Mind gets rewarded for being correct, and dopamine makes that path more pleasurable to travel down in the future as well.

In this way, we literally get addicted to the emotions that we’ve wired into our bodies over time, which create the same thoughts, which create the same feelings, which create the same… You get the point.

This becomes the basis for future predictions of our behavior and identity.

This is what makes change so hard. We are fighting against our own subconscious identity.

This means the 5% of your thoughts that are conscious have to fight against the 95% of your thoughts & feelings that are subconscious.

The Thermostat

This subconscious identity acts very similarly to a thermostat.

How many times in your life have you decided you were going to change something to only fall back into the same old pattern of behavior eventually?

Why is that? It’s because your subconscious identity is at 68 degrees.

When your conscious mind comes up with a strategy to change, you may get the temp up to 70, 80, or maybe even 90 degrees through sheer willpower and determination, but what happens eventually?

A vacation kills your workout routine and you don’t pick it back up when you’re back.

A pandemic causes you to drink again but you don’t stop when it’s over.

Your 68-degree subconscious identity brought you back down to 68 degrees because it chips away at your conscious strategy daily.

This fall back to 68 degrees creates an emotional state in your Body that your Mind is familiar with, and you get that addictive dose of dopamine for predicting your identity correctly again.

This cycle happens over and over again, which reinforces the story in your subconscious that you’re a 68’er, and nothing can change that, it’s your identity.

This is the power of your identity. It can be brutal, but it can also be liberating

Multiple Self Theory

Understanding how this works is the first step in changing the way you try to achieve change in your life.

To change, you must change your identity. You must become someone else.

By becoming someone else, you can trick your Mind & Brain into predicting something different than it always does.

This sounds nice, but don’t people get institutionalized for that kind of thing?

No, in fact, you do this all the time, you just don’t pay attention to it.

Your Mind & Brain are always predicting what you would do, but they’re aware of where you are, or the context that you’re in as well.

For example, I bet you act differently around your family than your friends?

Or what about the difference between how you act at a party, vs how you act at a church?

We all have multiple selves that we use all of the time, we just aren’t aware of it.

This concept is called Multiple Self Theory, and it is at the core of our Hero Creation Process here at Rewrite & Rise!

This works because our Minds don’t know the difference between the real world, and our imagination.

“I Am a Genius”

Try this right now.

I want you to take a moment, sit back and say out loud, “Hi, my name is _____ and I’m a genius!”

Try again, louder this time!

Now, pretend you’re introducing yourself to someone. Imagine shaking their hand!

What happened? I bet you’re sitting up a little straighter, and what do you feel?

Zoom into your body, as you said you were a genius, what did you feel?

Maybe a little funny or silly, but also more…

Prestigious in a way too, after all, your brain has been asking itself, “What would a genius do?” for the last few seconds.

By changing your identity in this way, you can take on the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, of anyone or anything that would help you achieve what you’re trying to achieve.

State Story Strategy

How is this possible? Well, think back to our earlier example of your conscious mind trying to change.

The process it tried to use was:

It tried to start waking up early (Strategy), but your “I’m not a morning person” identity pulled you away from getting up early eventually, which reinforces the Story in your Brian/Mind that “I’m not a morning person.”

This then creates a shitty State in your Body, which rewards your Mind for predicting your identity correctly and we’re right back in the cycle again!

However, by changing your Identity, you can reverse this process.

Just like when you said you were a genius, and you “felt” differently, these new feelings create new thoughts, which can then create new actions & results!

Now instead of going Strategy, Story, State, you can go

For example, say you want to get up earlier, so you become “Rocky”.

Now when your alarm goes off your new identity says, “I am Rocky.”

This changes your State right away and creates the Story that you’re unstoppable, and with that kind of Story, any Strategy works.

Since Strategies are actions, that means you were firing and wiring new neurons together as you got up early.

This highlights new pathways in your brain for reward, which reinforces the Story that you’re unstoppable, which causes your Body to feel unstoppable, which means you think “I’m unstoppable”... Again, you get the point.

You’ve now put this process on your team, you aren’t helpless in the pursuit of change any longer because you can create a new identity!

Creating Heroes is something I do with every single one of my clients, it may seem a bit oversimplified here because it is haha.

I generally work with people to build these new identities over 84 days!

If this is something you’re interested in, feel free to book some time with me below.

“Be More.”

The secret behind this process is learning how to BE.

Before you were trying to DO, so you could HAVE what you wanted to BE.

Meaning you were forcing yourself to get up early, go to the gym, etc so that you could have the state of being you wanted.

However, by changing your identity, you can go from Doing —> Having —> Being to

Being —> Doing —> Having

This may seem a bit Kum-Bah-Yah to you, but think back to what we talked about today!

By becoming a hero, like Rocky, your state of BEING changed, you felt unstoppable & you told yourself you were unstoppable!

By BEING unstoppable first, you were able to DO the things you needed to do, like get up earlier, so that you could HAVE the life or result that you want!

This is how powerful your identity is. This self-concept is at the core of everything we teach at Rewrite & Rise, and where our tagline “Be More” comes from!

That’s it for today, I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson, and until next time… Live Heroically! 🧠