The Chimp Paradox: The Acclaimed Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence and Happiness

by Steve Peters

We will consider seven different areas to work on: • Your inner mind • Understanding and relating to others • Communication • The world in which you live

Your health • Your success • Your happiness

To help you to understand and visualise these areas better, each will be represented by a planet, some of which have their own moons to stabilise them. The seven planets and their moons come togethe...

Just as the sun is the centre of the physical solar system, your Sun is the centre of your Psychological Universe and represents self-fulfilment and what you believe to be the meaning and purpose of your life. The Sun has the best chance of shining when all of the seven planets in your Universe are spinning correctly and in harmony. Therefore, in order to make your Sun shine you have to work on each area in your life

It is easiest to consider the human brain as a system of seven brains working together. The human brain simplified

Within the Chimp Management model, three of these brains – frontal, limbic and parietal – combine to form the ‘Psychological Mind’ and we will only look at these brains.

The three psychological brains in our model, the frontal, limbic and parietal, are called the Human, the Chimp and the Computer.

Although these three brains try to work together, they very frequently get into conflict and struggle against each other to gain control, with the Chimp (limbic brain) often winning!

Introducing the Chimp When you were in the womb two different brains, the frontal (Human) and limbic (Chimp: an emotional machine), developed independently and then introduced themselves to each other by forming connections. The problem is that they found they were not in agreement about most things. Either of these two brains, or beings, could run your life for you but they try to work together, and therein is the problem. The Human and Chimp have independent personalities with different agendas, ways of thinking, and modes of operating. Effectively there are two beings in your head! It is important to grasp that only one of these beings is you, the Human. The Chimp is the emotional machine that we all possess. It thinks independently from us and can make decisions. It offers emotional thoughts and feelings that can be very constructive or very destructive;

it is not good or bad, it is a Chimp. The Chimp Paradox is that it can be your best friend and your worst enemy, even at the same time. The main purpose of this book is to help you to manage your Chimp and to harness its strength and power when it is working for you and to neutralise it when it is not. Key Point The Chimp is an emotional machine that thinks independently from us. It is not good or bad, it is just a Chimp.

When people have accidents that damage their frontal lobe or where they have a disorder or illness affecting the frontal lobe, their personality alters. Effectively the Human part of the brain stops working and the new personality that presents is the Chimp. Very often, people affecte...

become apathetic or have outbursts of aggres...

The truth is that it is your Chimp, an emotional machine, that is overpowering your Human mind. This starts to explain many things, such as why you worry or why you say things in the heat of the moment and then regret them, or why you can’t stop eating or why you don’t exercise when you really want to but just can’t get your act together.

Having a Chimp is like owning a dog. You are not responsible for the nature of the dog but you are responsible for managing it and keeping it well behaved. This is a very important point and you should stop and think about this because it is crucial to your happiness and success in life. Key Point You are not responsible for the nature of your Chimp but you are responsible for managing it.

you didn’t choose your Chimp, it was given to you and you need to accept it. It has a mind of its own and thinks with original thoughts that are not yours. It is a living machine that is built to serve a purpose, which is to ensure the next generation. It has a personality of its own and it can run your life for you, usually not very well, but it can do it! It is an extremely powerful emotional machine.

Key Point One of the secrets of success and happiness is to learn to live with your Chimp and not get bitten or attacked by it. To do this, you need to understand how your Chimp behaves, and why it thinks and acts in the way that it does. You also need to understand your Human and not muddle up your Human with your Chimp. The Psychological Mind therefore has two independent thinking machines that also independently interpret our experiences. The two beings that think and then interpret • The Human is you, and you live in your frontal lobe. • The Chimp is your emotional machine, given to you

at birth, and it lives in your limbic system.

The third part of the Psychological Mind The ‘Psychological Mind’ also has a storage area for thoughts and behaviours called the Computer, whi...

The Computer stores information that the Chimp or Human has put into it. It then uses this information to act for them in an automatic way or it can serve as a reference point.

Summary key points • The Psychological Mind is made up of three separate brains: Human, Chimp and Computer. • You are the Human. • Your Chimp is an emotional thinking machine. • Your Computer is a storage area and automatic functioning machine. • Any one of them can take complete control but usually they work together.

then interpret it. The Chimp interprets this information with feelings and impressions. When it has got a feel for what is going on, it then uses emotional thinking to put things together and to work out what is happening and form a plan of action. All of this process is based on emotion. Emotional thinking means that the Chimp makes guesses and fills in detail by assumptions that are typically based on a hunch, paranoid feelings or defensive thoughts. The chances therefore that the Chimp will get the right interpretation as to what is happening may not be so good; however, sometimes the gut feeling it has is right. It can only think and act with emotion. The Human, on the other hand, will interpret information by searching for the facts and establishing the truth. When it has done this, it will then put things together in a logical manner using logical thinking and form a plan of action based on this. So logic is the Human’s basis for thinking and acting. Both processes can be healthy, but lead to different interpretations of what is happening and how to deal with it. So whatever you are doing, there are two of you interpreting what is going on and forming an opinion as to what you should do. Sometimes the two of you agree on what to do and there is no problem, but often the two of you disagree. When you disagree, the Chimp is the most powerful and therefore gets control of your thoughts and

actions. However, if you recognise what is happening, and have strategies for managing this, you will gain control of your thinking and then you can act in a logical manner.

Why do I sometimes become so irrational in my thinking? One of the opening questions was: ‘Why do I sometimes become so irrational in my thinking?’ The answer may now be clear. It is not you thinking at all, but your Chimp taking over and thinking for you. The solution therefore is to understand how your Chimp thinks, recognise when it is taking over, and intervene.

Therefore, the Chimp is less predictable than the Human when it comes to decision-making and the process is often irrational. Because of this unpredictability, it is usually unhelpful to let the Chimp think for us, so we need to address it. First we will understand how a healthy inner Chimp thinks.

Understanding the Chimp – emotional thinking The basis of emotional thinking is impression and feeling The Chimp does not necessarily work with facts but it works with what it believes is the truth or with a perception of the truth or, even worse, with a projection of what might be the truth.

The Chimp does not necessarily work with facts but it works with what it believes is the truth or with a perception of the truth or, even worse, with a projection of what might be the truth. It is quick to form an impress...

some impressions ...

Chimp gives us are accurate and helpful, but they can just ...

Your Chimp typically forms first impressions when you meet new people by reading body language.

Chimps are naturally good at judging the character of people, whereas other Chimps are not so good. Chimps like to work on feelings and often start their conversations with ‘But I feel…’ or ‘I don’t feel like…’ Their feelings are very important to them and they usually fail to recognise that all feelings come and go.

Chimps like to work on feelings and often start their conversations with ‘But I feel…’ or ‘I don’t feel like…’ Their feelings are very important to them and they usually fail to recognise that all feelings come and go. Of course, it is good to have feelings from the Chimp and they can be a very useful indication for us to know what to do. However, they are not always reliable and can change quickly.

Human needs to say to the Chimp, ‘I don’t care how you feel we have to do it,’ or ‘I don’t care whether you are in the mood or not, it is not about mood.’ Here are some of the ...

Here are some of the traits of emoti...

Jumps to an ...

Thinks in black and white

Paranoid

Catastrophic

Irrational

Emotive judgement

The Chimp’s basis for making decisions is by using ‘emotional thinking’

When we are thinking with the Chimp, we use ‘emotional thinking’ to piece together our ideas on what is happening. Very little logic, if any, is used, just emotional energy. So the Chimp pieces together its irrational, black-and-white and catastrophic impressions, feelings and paranoia, in an often nonsensical way to draw up conclusions and then a plan of action. The Chimp does not use sound reasoning. It doesn’t take a genius to see that this is not a good basis to work from. Thankfully there is an alternative way of thinking and we can learn to shift the blood

supply in our brains in order to use this alternative. The alternative way is that of the Human. Understanding the Human – logical thinking The basis of logical thinking is facts and truth Humans begin to work out what is happening by first establishing the facts. They gather all the information available before beginning to make plans. Having gat...

Understanding the Human – logical thinking The basis of logical think...

Here are some of the traits of logical thinking Evidence-based

Rational

In context and with perspective

Shades of grey and balanced judgement

The Human’s basis for making decisions is by using ‘logical thinking’

is by using ‘logical thinking’

Logical thinking means that we follow patterns of thinking that are linked and make sense and then reason o...