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

by Steve Peters

find the truths that will settle your Chimp down and make it go into its box and sleep.

training your Chimp to understand there are rules for it to live by and that you, the Human, are making those rules.

it may take several repeat episodes of exercising the Chimp for any one problem

keep putting the Chimp back into its box several times for any one problem

We never control the Chimp; we manage it.

may take several repeat episodes of exercising the Chimp

may also need to keep putting the Chimp back into its box several times for any one problem.

don’t provoke the Chimp unnecessarily by making it exercise.

deal with emotion rather than always trying to understand it.

The easiest way of recognising that the Chimp is thinking for you is when either you are becoming emotional or you are calm but have uneasy feelings.

Paranoid thoughts can be dealt with by first recognising that you may have an overreacting Chimp offering you ideas that are too sensitive or imaginative.

let the Chimp express its paranoid thoughts and then see if they still feel real.

the Human can search out facts and evidence not only to support the idea (which the Chimp will agree with) but also to dispute the idea.

establish the facts

third way to manage the Chimp is to feed it bananas. These are things the Chimp wants that are given either as a distraction or a reward.

not a very powerful way to solve problems but in some circumstances they can be a very effective

Blocking the Chimp from thinking can be used in a lot of different scenarios with good effect.

Giving rewards to your own Chimp can be surprisingly powerful.

Common bananas for most Chimps come in the form of praise or approval from other people.

Bananas can be a useful way to manage your Chimp in the short term to get things done,

You are a separate entity to your Chimp. You as a Human have needs just as the Chimp within you has needs.

Chimps like to survive; Humans like to have a purpose.

‘Do I want…?’ is the question to ask in order to recognise if your Chimp is hijacking you.

You are always responsible for your Chimp.

Chimp is five times stronger than you

Nurture your Chimp before you try ...

Manage your Chimp, don’t try to...

Exercise, Box and...

• Normal • Expected • Accepted • Taken care of

Normal to have Chimp outbursts

Expect this to happen

Accept that you are not perfect and this animal i...

Take care of the outburst or activity by app...

Being NEAT means being reasonable with yourself.

think and act automatically for you using programmed thoughts and behaviours.

reference source for information, beliefs and values.

Potentially the Computer is more powerful than the Chimp and the Human because it is the reference source that both of them look to for help and guidance.

the Computer as running at a speed around four times that of the Chimp and twenty times that of the Human.

Autopilot is a constructive or helpful belief or behaviour.

Gremlin is an unhelpful or destructive belief or behaviour that is removable.

Goblin is an unhelpful or destructive belief or behaviour that is firmly fixed and extr...

Stone of Life contains the values...

based on learnt behaviours,

learnt beliefs and automatic programmes.

when we just act with behaviours or thoughts that we have already worked out and can almost c...

Computer is programmed to think and act for us but only with information that we have told it to use.

learnt by the Human and Chimp and put into the Computer.

Autopilots are all the positive, constructive beliefs, behaviours and automatic functioning that help us to be successful and happy in life.

Goblins and Gremlins are more or less the opposite of Autopilots.

Goblins are more or less hard-wired into the Computer and are very difficult to remove,