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

by Steve Peters

Chimp, the Human needs to speak to it and use logic to reassure the Chimp. Some people’s Chimps don’t perceive any threat and therefore they have little, if any, reaction.

Anxiety typically occurs when you don’t make a decision. It is a perfectly natural response from your Chimp showing that it is healthy. The answer therefore is to make a decision or reassure the Chimp!

For example, if you have to give a public speech, you may experience gut-wrenching feelings and gross anxiety as the moment approaches. This is because the Chimp has gone into FFF because it senses danger and

is saying to you that this is a matter of life and death and you need to run away. Therefore, by thinking emotionally, it has a catastrophic reaction in order to make you safe; the reality is that it is not life and death but the Chimp does not know this. So when you are about to get up and speak, the Chimp, for many of us, is typically going hysterical and saying, ‘What are you doing? This is a terrible danger and you are walking straight into it. You may lose your life.’ If you, the Human, try to reassure the Chimp then it still comes back at you with, ‘What if I look stupid?’, ‘What if I make a mistake?’, ‘What if it goes wrong?’ And so it continues. The Human, by contrast, is saying, ‘This is just a speech,’ ‘I can deal with criticism,’ ‘I can only do my best,’ ‘Stop overreacting and stop getting things out of perspective,’ and so on. With these examples, we can

begin to appreciate the struggle for thinking between the C...

Like instincts, drives are in-built, they are there from birth, but they don’t require a trigger or stimulus. As drives are necessary for survival, their compelling nature makes them difficult to resist.

The inner Chimp’s drive for food is very healthy and normal. However, we are not

in the jungle but in a society and the strength of the eating drive becomes inappropriate. It therefore needs to be contained and managed carefully. Many people, men and women alike, suffer horrendously trying to manage their Chimp’s eating habits and it can cause terrible distress with weight control problems. If the Human understands the consequences of overeating and being overweight but is happy with this, then there is no problem between Human and Chimp. When the two disagree there are significant inner battles taking place.

This helps to explain why most inner Chimps become anxious when they are unsure or in unfamiliar territory. It is a very natural reaction from their Chimp, warning them of potential danger. It is, however, inappropriate and unhelpful most of the time. It also helps to explain why many people search out hidden meanings from things that are said to them because their Chimps are searching for potential threat. The Chimp is insecure by nature.

For example, in men the right amygdala (an emotional centre in the brain) has more right-sided brain connections. Whereas in women the left amygdala has more left-sided brain connections. This helps us to understand where a lot of our emotions come from. It is also to help a significant number of people to appreciate that many of the emotional features within themselves that they may not like are not coming from them but being imposed on them by their Chimp.

when people show empathy or guilt this Centre will light up because it receives an increased blood supply and uses more oxygen to function. This demonstrates that it is activated. This Centre contains the unwritten rules of Humanity.

The real chimpanzee works on impulse and lacks emotional control.

Humans have the potential to control impulse and emotion that the inner Chimp is throwing at them. The inner Chimp has little self-control and demands immediate gratification whereas Humans can delay rewards and can choose not to work with impulse and emotion.

Managing your impulsive, emotional Chimp as an adult will be one of the biggest factors determining how successful you are in life.

Sense of purpose

Humans work best when they have a sense of purpose. It doesn’t seem to matter what it is, as long as there is one! Without a sense of purpose the H...

Achievement and satisfaction These are two qualities that the Human seems to be fulfilled by. Generally, achievement and satisfaction are dependent on the sense of purpose. They ca...

Two different personalities We will look at your personality, and how it can be changed, in greater detail later in the book once we have a full picture of the entire psychological mind. Here I just want to remind you that there are two distinct personalities in your head: you and your Chimp. They operate via two different brains, which are trying to work together. They may have similar personalities or they may be very different. If one of them gets control of the decision-making then this personality will dominate and this is what you will present to the outside world. Recognising the two different personalities will help you to understand yourself better and also to manage each of them to ...

You, the Human, have a personality, agenda and

Humanity Centre. You think logically and work with facts and truth.

• Your Chimp has a personality, agenda and Jungle Centre. It thinks emotionally and uses...

The Chimp is an emotional machine that will hijack you, if you allow it to. It is not good or bad: it is a Chimp. It can be your best friend or you...

In order to implement changes in your life it is important to recognise the differences between the Chimp and the Human, in terms of agendas, thinking and operating methods. Look back at situations that have happened during your day and revisit them and work out the different ways that the Chimp and Human could have handled them.

Remember that the Human will choose to establish the facts and then gain perspective

before reacting.

Relate the way your Chimp reacted to typical Chimp operating and then consider how a Human response would have been more appropriate. Use this chapter as a ...

Time spent thinking The amount of time you spend reflecting on how your mind is operating, the more likely it is that you will improve your future functioning.

The golden rule is that whenever you have feelings, thoughts or behaviours 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.

Remember that Chimps like to go on how they feel to decide on future actions, whereas Humans tend to go on what needs to be done and also how they will feel at the end of the day when they look back on how they used their time. These are two very different approaches.