Behind the curtain is…
The unconscious mind
I will keep constant watch over myself and - most usefully - will put each day up for review. For this is what makes us evil that none of us looks back upon our own lives. We reflect upon only that which we are about to do. And yet our plans for the future descend from the past.
Seneca
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
Carl Jung
The devil is in the details. Better yet, the devil is in the data. We’ve recently talked about brain plasticity; this makes it plain to see your brain is wired to make the same decisions easier and new ones harder. If you constantly track your tendencies, you can find where you make bad choices, perhaps unknowingly and out of habit, based on the outcomes generated. By changing your inputs and measuring your outputs, you’ll find what is making a difference. Scientists are having trouble understanding consciousness, much less the unconscious mind. I’ve discovered through deep thought and red-stringing that many decisions and coping mechanisms developed from my childhood traumas. When you’re more in tune with the deepest layers of your psyche, the awareness brings about change because your decisions aren’t being influenced by the fight-or-flight responses your body has developed and inevitably will still experience.