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Do you come across a dilemma of having two different opinions about the same thing in your mind? At that time you can feel two voices in your mind, one is saying YES and another one is saying NO. You are confident about one voice, which is your inner voice as a human but not sure about another voice. That voice is of a Chimp, which is within you only.
Every entrepreneur feels this before beginning his or her entrepreneur journey. One voice is in support, while the other is in opposition.
The Chimp is an emotional machine within us that thinks independently from us. It is not good or bad, it is just a Chimp. To know more about a chimp, just read ‘A Human & A Chimp ! – Why Do We Do Things We Don’t Want to Do?
This chimp is so powerful that many a time we as a human surrender to it. My chimp is working in favor of me to do morning work-out. As a human, sometimes, I want to skip the workout but the chimp wants to see me as a fit & healthy person, it tells me to do the exercise and I simply follow it. The opposite is also true for an individual, who is not fit, but wants to be fit as a human. He wants to go on a morning walk or do any other work-out, but his chimp is not supporting him. As the result, he is not consistent in his morning routine.
The chimp may work in our favor or it may not. Below excerpt to understand the power of chimp is from the book ‘The Chimp Paradox’ by Dr. Steve Peters. This book provides enormous clarity to understand the mind in a scientific & practical way.
Recognize the in-charge
The first step is to be able to recognize who is in control, the Chimp or the Human. You can ask a very simple question that will give you an easy way of recognizing who is in charge.
Key Point
The golden rule is that whenever have you feelings, thoughts, or behaviors that you do not want or welcome, then you are being hijacked by your Chimp.
The very simple question, therefore, is to begin with ‘Do I want…’ and then finish the sentence. For example: ‘Do I want these feelings?’ or ‘Do I want these thoughts?’ or ‘Do I want to be behaving this way?’ If the answer is ‘no’ then you are in Chimp mode and if the answer is ‘yes’ then you are in Human mode.
Here are some examples:
- You are worrying about something. You ask yourself, ‘Do I want to worry?’ If the answer is ‘no’ then it is not you worrying but your Chimp. You now have a choice to manage your Chimp and stop it hijacking you.
- Something has happened to make you angry. You may agree that an injustice has been done and therefore your Human agrees with the Chimp. You want to do something about it but you don’t want to be angry, as it is an emotion that is upsetting and unpleasant for you. Therefore you ask, ‘Do I want to have this angry emotion?’ If the answer is ‘no’ then it is your Chimp who is feeling this way. You can now thank the Chimp for the emotion but let it know that you do not want to feel this way. However, you will be taking action to address the situation that caused your Chimp to be angry but will act via the Human in a calm manner.
- You want to do something but you have feelings that are stopping you. Here the Chimp could just be refusing to engage. For example, you may want to catch up on emails or get some work done and the Chimp is giving you negative thoughts or emotions that are demotivating you. You ask, ‘Do I want these indifferent and negative feelings?’ The answer is ‘no’, therefore you recognize that they do not belong to you, the Human, and can now manage the Chimp to get rid of them.
Everyone is different, so what is right for one person may not be right for the next. There are no right or wrong answers. Only you can learn to recognize the difference between your Chimp and yourself but you need to learn to do this, as it is critical if you are going to manage your Chimp.
Some typical thinking
There are some typical Chimp phrases worth watching out for that will give away when it is thinking for you.
‘But what if…?’
‘But what if…?’ is the Chimp’s favorite way to open a question.
‘But what if it goes wrong?’
‘But what if I can’t do it?’
‘But what if the sky falls down?’
The Chimp very often unsettles you with ‘what if’ questions. Occasionally the Human asks ‘what if’ questions but these are usually constructive in order to plan rather than useless worrying about things that often can’t be controlled or may not even happen.
‘But I feel…’ or ‘But I don’t feel…’
‘But I feel tired so I won’t do it.’
‘But I feel lacking in motivation therefore I can’t start.’
‘But I feel concerned that bad things might happen.’
The list is endless. Basically, the Chimp is going on its feelings and then suggesting how you should act or what will happen because of those feelings. Again, the Human may agree with the feelings that the Chimp is offering when they are logical and wise. For example, if you have come down with a flu bug then it is probably wise to say, ‘But I feel unwell so I had better not start digging the garden.
All information goes to the Chimp first
The process is always the same as you go about your daily routines: in every situation and action, all input goes to the Chimp first. The Chimp then decides if there is anything to worry about. If there is no concern then the Chimp goes to sleep and hands over to the Human. If the Chimp is concerned, then it will hold on to the blood supply in the brain and will make its own decisions on what is going on.
The Human and the Chimp both think in the here and now and both interpret situations as they happen. The Human interprets things in a calm and logical manner. The Chimp interprets things in an emotional manner.
The Chimp and the Human can work effectively together. The Chimp with its instincts and drives can keep us safe and healthy. It can tell us when to eat and sleep, and warn us of danger and how to deal with it, or when there is something it would like to engage with to fulfill its own desires. It is the norm for most of us to run on emotion throughout our day and there is nothing wrong with this. Problems arise when the Chimp gives us a suggestion that is not appropriate and we then allow it to control us and don’t know how to stop the Chimp from dominating us.
Why can’t we take the power off the Chimp and make decisions?
The simple answer is that the Chimp is more powerful and acts more quickly than the Human. A real chimpanzee has five times the strength of a human. In the same way, you can think of your emotional inner Chimp as having five times your strength. Therefore, you must learn to manage the Chimp if you are to be the person that you want to be.
When you go about your daily routine the Chimp continually scans for danger and if it perceives any threat, or gets worried or concerned, then it refuses to release control of your thinking. It now works with emotion to deal with the situation. You, the Human, can recognize this but are often powerless to do anything because your Chimp hijacks you and you are left with unpleasant emotions. We can see this happen on a brain scanner with the blood supply being used by the Chimp and the Human trying to get control. The inner battle between Chimp and Human is on! The Chimp is five times as strong as the Human so the Human has no chance if it is just a battle of strength.
Key Point
A chimpanzee is five times as strong as a human being. Similarly, your emotional Chimp is five times stronger than you are. Don’t try to control it, manage it. You need a management plan!
