Brainwash Yourself for Success
12 Jan 2026 · 25 min
Rob Dial explains how affirmations rewire your brain by strengthening neural pathways through repetition. The reticular activating system filters information to match your beliefs, creating self-fulfilling prophecies where what you think shapes what you do and achieve. Affirmations work best when they're true, empowering, and stated in present tense.
Chapters
For small businesses, every hire matters, but time and resources are limited. LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality, helping you find, connect with and screen the right candidates faster. From drafting jobs to AI powered screening interviews and a conversational interface that lets you describe what you need in plain language, you can spend less time searching and more time connecting with qualified talent. Higher right the first time post your first job and get $100 off towards your job posts@LinkedIn.com dial that's LinkedIn.com dial terms and conditions apply.
Get in the game with the College Branded Venmo Debit Card Wreck your team with every tap and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash, a new rewards program from Venmo. No monthly fee, no minimum balance, just school pride and spending power. Get in the game and sign up for the Venmo debit card@venmo.com collegecard the Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank NA Select Schools available Venmo Stash terms and exclusions Apply @Venmo Me StashTerms Max $100 cash back per month Whether
your business has six floors or six employees, Walmart Business has everything you need to save time, money and hassle. You can restock your break room with bulk ordering or bulk up your ordering team with shared payments, and you can get it all delivered straight to your business's door, whether that's on Wall street or Main Street. Walmart Business it's the Walmart you love now for your business. Learn more@business Walmart.com.
Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're the type of person who wants to learn and and grow and improve yourself, I put out episodes four times a week to help you. Because if you can improve yourself, you can improve your life. And that's all we're really looking to do today. We're going to be talking about how to brainwash yourself for success, how to speak into existence, the life that you want, and how to use affirmations to do so. And now I get it. This is when I first heard about affirmations, and for years I thought affirmations are just this woo woo frou frou fluffy thing, and I'm just going to ignore my problems and say that everything's amazing and everything's positive. But really, more than anything else, if you use affirmations, affirmations are probably the most powerful tool that you can use to brainwash yourself. And I'm going to talk about what brainwashing yourself means and how to actually do it today. But the deal is we need to figure out exactly what it is that we want in our life and then speak it into existence. If you know the phrase abracadabra. Abracadabra is not just a phrase of what, you know, a magician says when they pull a rabbit out of a hat. Abracadabra is actually a Hebrew word, ancient Hebrew word that means, as I speak, I create. As I speak, I create. So constantly I am speaking into existence whatever it is that I say. And when you're talking to yourself in your head, you are speaking to yourself in your head. And so, you know, I don't think anyone listening, including myself, speaking to you guys, really understands how powerful of creators we actually are. Like, I think that we are beyond more powerful than we can actually comprehend. Then we know we're powerful and we can create the life that we want. But I don't think we actually truly understand how powerful we actually are and how that we have created the lives that we currently have. Mostly unconsciously we've created them. So if we've unconsciously created life that we have, we why not figure out exactly the life that we want in the future, and then instead of unconsciously living, we actually consciously create it. We consciously speak it into existence and work towards it every single day. And so when you look at affirmations, what exactly are affirmations? They're really simple. They're just positive. Affirmations are these simple empowering statements that basically encourage you to declare the reality that you want to live in. You speak the reality that you want to live in. You don't speak based off of the past, you don't speak based off of the present. You speak based off of the reality that you want to create and you're going to be stepping into. And sure, we can say it's just words, it's just speaking to yourself. But once again, as I speak, I create. Most people are not saying what they want. They're not creating what they want in their lives. They think about, you know, they speak to themselves about what they're worrying about. They speak to themself about what they're afraid of and what they don't like about themselves. And in fact, when you look at neuroscience, when you look at psychology, when you look at ancient spiritual traditions, all of those together talk about the same thing. The words that you speak, especially when you repeat them consistently reshape and shape how you see the world. Neuroscience says this, Psychology says this. Every spiritual tradition I've almost ever seen and read about says this as well. It changes the way that you see the world and the meaning that you give. Everything that happens to you and everything that happens around you, and ultimately how you then respond to everything that happens to you. And so to understand how affirmations work, it's really important to know a little bit about your brain's neuroplasticity and the actual science behind your brain. So I'm not just going to talk about manifesting and speaking into existence and going on the edge of a mountain and declaring, what is that you want? I'm going to actually talk about how sure those things can work, but how when you do it over and over again, it actually reorganizes your brain. And so when you look at neuroplasticity, neuroplasticity is your brain's ability to reorganize itself and form new neural connections throughout your life. This isn't just some people, this is every person. Your brain is always changing. It's always adapting to new information, new things that happen to you. Whatever it is that you feed it, whether it's positive or negative, it's just responding, it's not putting them into categories. And when you repeatedly speak something or when you have certain thoughts over and over again, you strengthen the neural pathways that are associated with those thoughts, which then make you more likely to think that way in the future. And so if you regularly tell yourself, I'm confident, I'm capable, I deserve success, well, then you're going to strengthen those neural pathways in your brain which make you more likely to think that in the future, which means that you can consciously start to think these things. And then later on down the road, those thoughts actually start to become automatic. So your brain begins to associate those words with your sense of self. And then over time, these pathways become stronger and they tend to influence your emotions, they influence your actions, they change the way that you interact with the world around you. That's positive self talk. But on the other side, if we have negative self talk, if we say stuff like, I'm not good enough, I always fail, I'm not smart, whatever it is that you say, it also strengthens, strengthens those pathways, but it reinforces your doubt, your anxiety, your low self esteem, which in turn shapes the way that you think about everything in your life and ultimately how you're going to respond to it. And so what we need to do. I'm gonna keep going back to is consciously choose our affirmations in the way that we're going to speak to ourself. Because essentially what you're doing, when you consciously choose what it is that you wanna say, and you're very adamant about making sure that you speak to yourself this way, you are going to rewire your brain to support more positive, more empowered version of yourself that's going to take action towards the life that you want. And so in order to understand this, you've got to understand this thing that's called the reticular activating system in your brain. And if you go back a couple episodes, a couple of weeks ago, I talk about much, much more in depth about the reticular activating system. But let me give you a real quick overview. The reticular activating system is the filter between in your brain, between your conscious and your subconscious mind. It's basically the bouncer at the door. It decides what information gets through and what information does it. And it's based largely on what you decide to focus on. And so when you use positive affirmations and you consciously decide how you want to speak to yourself, you're basically directing your reticular activating system to pay attention to the things that align with the goals that you're trying to create. And so when you say stuff like, I'm going to be successful, I'm creating an amazing life and we will be right back. Teachers are deep into new units this time of year.
I Excel lets kids practice the exact skills they're learning in class, helping lessons stick and boosting confidence. Heading toward the spring IXL is an award winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning, whether
they're building math confidence, strengthening reading and
writing skills, or reviewing science concepts.
It covers math, language arts, science and
social studies from Pre K through 12th grade with personalized interactive content that adapts to the child's level and PACE.
IXL is used in 96 of the
top 100 school districts in the United States. It's an easy way to support learning as the school year moves into its most important stretch.
Make an impact on your child's learning
and get IXL now and the Mindset Mentor. Listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up at ixl.com mindsetmentor visit ixl.com mindsetmentOr to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price.
Stop paying way too much for wireless just because that's how it's always been.
Mint Mobile exists purely to fix that. Same coverage, same speed, just without the inflated price tag. The premium wireless. You expect unlimited talk, text and data, but at a fraction of what others charge.
I've been using Mint Mobile for about four years now for my business phone
and it works just as good as all of the carriers that I've ever had.
Are you ready to stop paying more?
For what?
Ready to stop paying more than what you have to?
New customers can make the switch today
and for a limited time get unlimited
premium wireless for just $15 per month. Switch now@mintmobile.com mentor that's mintmobile.com mentor upfront
payment of $45 for three months, $90
for six months or $180 for 12 month plan. $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only over 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. Capable device required availability, speed and coverage varies. Additional terms apply. See mint mobile.com Every business is asking the same question. How do we make AI work? For us, the possibilities are endless and the guessing is too risky. But sitting on the sidelines is not an option because one thing is almost certain. Your competitors are already making their move. No more waiting. With NetSuite by Oracle, you can put AI to work. Today. NetSuite is a number one AI, Cloud, Cloud ERP. Trusted by over 43,000 businesses. It is a unified suite that brings you financials, inventory, commerce, HR and CRM into one single source of truth. Now with NetSuite AI connector, you can use AI of your choice to connect your actual business data and ask every question you ever had from key customers to inventory trends. Plus automate those tiresome manual processes. Let's see your competitors try to do that right now. Get their free business guide demystifying AI at netsuite.com dial the guide is free to you. At netsuite.com dial that's netsuite.com dial and
now back to the show. And you start noticing opportunities around you and you start noticing people and places and things that respond to that. It's not that those opportunities suddenly appear out of nowhere. They were always there. But now your brain has been primed to recognize them versus filter them out. And so it, it doesn't let opportunity slip by now because it's focused on looking for those opportunities. And so you're basically controlling the filter of your brain versus once again just unconsciously letting it do what it's going to do. And so this leads to a concept that's known as A self fulfilling prophecy. Real quick, what's a self fulfilling prophecy? When you believe something strongly enough, you, you unconsciously behave in ways to make that belief come true. So if you think I'm a failure, you're going to unconsciously behave in ways to make yourself fail. It is a self fulfilling prophecy. But when you say I deserve success and I'm going to have everything I want one day, you unconsciously start to behave in ways to make that belief come true. And so if you believe you're going to fail, then you're going to avoid taking risks, you're going to procrastinate, you're going to put, uh, not put all of your effort, you're gonna half ass some of the things that you do and that will eventually lead to the failure that you were concentrating on. On the flip side of that, like I was saying, if you plant seeds for success and you say I'm, I deserve to be success, I'm going to be successful, I'm resilient, I'm resourceful, everything that happens to me is for my own betterment and to help me grow and to help me improve. Then you start to build this mindset that makes you more likely to overcome obstacles and to keep working towards that thing that you're trying to create. The more you speak it, the more you believe it and the more that you act in ways that align with that belief. This is your own brainwashing, is what you're doing, your actions and what you do stem from what you believe. So affirmations literally change your beliefs because beliefs are just thoughts that you've been thinking for a really long time. And so if you have negative thought patterns, if you have self doubt, if you have the fear of failure, if you have the imposter syndrome, all of those are deeply ingrained into us. But all of those patterns, all of those ways of speaking to yourself, you learned in some sort of way. And if they were learned, it means that they could be unlearned. They're not fact, they're not set in stone, they could be unlearned. It just requires you to be very conscious and pay attention to what you're saying. And you know, we were all unconsciously programmed in our childhood by other people, by the world, by our own young minds that didn't really consciously know what was going on. Now that we're adults, you're listening to this podcast, you can consciously program yourself to believe what it is that you want to believe. It is time for you and you alone to start to brainwash Yourself, not me, not the government, not politics, not your parents. But for you to sit down and be like, what do I want? What do I believe? Who am I going to be as a human? And I'm going to brainwash myself to believe this and not pay attention to whatever other people tell me I should believe. And so when you use these affirmations, they interrupt old patterns, and then you start replacing old patterns and old thought processes and believing in yourself with empowering beliefs. So, you know, if, for instance, you catch yourself thinking like, I'll never be successful, and you notice that thought come into your head, okay, well, that shows me something I need to reprogram. And I can consciously replace that thought with, I am worthy of success, I'm capable of that, I'm getting better every single day, and I will be successful one day. Over time, this practice starts to weaken the old negative thought patterns and then it strengthens the new positive ones, which is literally the definition of neuroplasticity. So the words, as you speak to yourself affect your relationship with yourself, but it also influences massively how you interact with other people, how you interact with the world. And so if you use affirmations like, I am a supportive, compassionate friend, I communicate clearly and openly and vulnerably with my partner, all of these things start to help you develop healthier relationships and more fulfilling relationships. And when you affirm them, you're more likely to embody them, which then helps you become better as a friend and better as a partner, better as a spouse. And so you have to understand, there's the idea of affirmations and how to actually start doing it. But really what it comes down to is you need to figure out what you want in life and what you don't want in life. And then what you need to do is you need to actually start speaking the things that you want to speak. So then everybody always asks a question. That's nice. Well, then how do I create affirmations? Well, let me give you my exact three step process that I give people and I'll tell you why it works and I'll tell you, I'll give you a bunch of examples of exactly how to make it better and how to keep working on yourself and how to keep speaking to yourself. Creating a perfect affirmation is very simple. I don't like, you know, people that sit outside and they're like, meditate and say, you know, I. The money is flowing freely to me from all corners of the universe. And then you wake up one day and you have A million dollars in your bank account. That's bullshit. We all know that's bullshit, right? It's not about that. What it's about is I'm trying to actually consciously reprogram myself, not just sit around and think that there's just going to be money that, you know, Pluto is going to send me into my bank of America account. So what it comes down to is because when you start to say, oh, I am rich beyond belief, there's we all have a bullshit meter in our head. And immediately we're like, that's Bullshit. I have $12 in my account, so that's not going to work. And so what you want to do is this three step process, okay? Number one, it needs to be true. Number two, it needs to be empowering. And number three, it needs to be present tense. True, empowering, present tense. So let me give you an example of how people negatively speak to themselves. And once you notice that negative thought pattern, if you want to rewire it into something, something different, what you could rewire it into, now don't steal mine. You can't. I mean, you can if you want to. I don't care. But I would prefer you come up with something that feels empowering to you, that strikes a chord. So let's create something that's true, empowering and present tense. Right? A lot of people say stuff like, I'll never be successful. Well, how do we take that? And we change it? Okay. I'm building success through working hard every single day. Okay, that's good, because it's not like I'm successful because you automatically know that you're not as successful as you want to be. It's like I'm building success through hard work every single day. That feels better. I'm working my ass off every single day. I'm not successful yet, but I'm getting there. If you say stuff like I'll never be happy. Well, an empowering change to that would be, I choose happiness and gratitude in my life now, or I choose to focus on what I'm grateful for and find my happiness for what I already have. Whatever it is that strikes a chord for you. If you're one of those people that says, I'm not confident. I trust myself in every situation because trust is the first piece of confidence, right? So I'm going to start working on my trust within myself instead of saying, I'm not confident. I, I trust myself in every situation. If you say stuff like I'm just so anxious all the time, well, that's, that's going to find more ways to be anxious. So it's like I am working on becoming more calm, centered, even in the most challenging moments. So instead of saying, like, I am calm, which you might not always be calm, it's like I'm working on. It's.
It's true.
It's empowering in its present tense. I am working on becoming more calm and centered, especially in challenging moments in my life. If you say stuff like, oh, it's impossible for me to lose weight. Impossible. That's not true. Could it be harder for you than other people? Sure, but you could switch it to, I'm working harder to be healthier every single day. I'm working to create a body that's healthy every single day so that I can live longer for my grandchildren. Whatever it is that strikes a chord with you. If you say something like, I always procrastinate. Oh, I'm such a procrastinator. You'd say something like, I'm working on taking action towards my goals and focusing on doing what needs to be done. If you say stuff like, you know, disempowering, like, I'm not. I'm not really a good girlfriend, if that's what you say. You could say stuff like, I'm working at becoming a loving and supporting partner. I'm working hard every single day to become a better partner for my spouse, for my boyfriend, for my girlfriend, whatever it is. I'm not very disciplined. Right. I am working at becoming more and more focused and disciplined so that I can achieve the life that I want. And you say these things to yourself over and over and over and over again. So there's like a broken record in your head so that you actually start to rewire yourself because repetition is required in order for you to brainwash yourself and in order for you to actually start to change and use neuroplasticity. I'm such a negative person. I'm embracing. I choose to embrace positivity and to try to find the best in every situation around me. I'm not a very creative person. I am more creative than I know, and my ideas flow naturally. I'm not good enough. I am enough. And I improve every single day through my efforts. I'm afraid of failure. No, I'm resilient. And I learn from everything that I fail at. And everything that happens to me is a lesson for me to grow and get better. Now people don't really like me. I'm kind, I'm confident, and I attract supportive relationships. I'm so disorganized I'm becoming more organized every single day, and I'm working on managing my time effectively. I'm shy. I'm not really good at putting myself out there. Well, I'm not really a people person. I am open to new connections and new, meaningful relationships in my life. I'm so hard on myself. I am going to start treating myself with more kindness and find ways to celebrate my success and my progress. Oh, yeah, I can't really make a difference. I am working on making a difference and a positive impact with my actions every single day. Oh, I just have bad luck. I create my own opportunities and attract good fortune with my actions. Do you guys see how it's not like. It's not like I'm just making up stuff that's just complete bullshit. It's like these are things that I'm consciously working towards where it's like, instead of saying like, oh, I'm rich. It's like I'm working hard every day to build more wealth in my bank account, in my life, or to build more wealth in financial stability. Whatever it is that rings true for you, it's got to be true. It's got to be empowering, and it's got to be present tense. And over time, when you do this over and over and over and over again, like I always say, you can't control your first thought, but you can always control your second thought. So when you notice that first thought come in, you change it to the second thought that you want to rewire into your brain. And if you do this over and over again, hundreds of times, thousands of times, tens of thousands of times over the next one year, two years, three years, eventually you'll fast forward, and what was your second thought will naturally start to become your first thought. Because you were in charge of brainwashing yourself, the positive affirmations will actually start to change the way that you think. Your brain will rewire itself. And you'll notice that when it rewires itself, your mindset will change, your emotions will change, your behavior will change. And then challenges that you have now that felt really overwhelming will just be like, oh, this is just an opportunity for me to grow. And those negative thought patterns will start to fade. They'll start to be replaced with more empowering ones with a better internal dialogue. And so it's really important for all of the people that are listening out there to realize how powerful you are. And we have all been brainwashed unconsciously by other people, by ourselves, by teachers, by friends, by, you know, everyone. Else that's around us. It's time for us to brainwash ourself and to decide what it is that we want in our life and and to start speaking it into existence. Because you are much more of a powerful creator than you understand. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please do me a huge favor. Please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in it. Robdale Jr R O B D I A L J R the only way this podcast grows is from you guys sharing it. There's some people out there that have probably listened to like 50 or 100 episodes and you've never shared it. Do me a favor. The way you can pay it forward and everything and help us help the world is to just go ahead and share it. So if you do that, I greatly, greatly appreciate it. And and with that, I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission. Make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing day.
When you invest with FidelityGo, it does all the work for you. So while FidelityGo monitors the markets, rebalances your portfolio and tracks your progress to keep your investments aligned with your goal, you can invest your time however you want, all while paying no advisory fees under 25k. Invest your money, not your time, with Fidelity. Go get started@fidelity.com go Advisory services offered by Strategic Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Brokerage services provided by Fidelity Brokerage, Services, llc, Member NYSE and SIPC.
Get in the game with the college branded Venmo Debit card. Wreck your team with every tap and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo Stash, a new rewards program from Venmo. No monthly fee, no minimum balance, just school pride and spending power. Get in the game and sign up for the Venmo debit card@venmo.com collegecard the Venmo MasterCard is issued by the Bancorp Bank N.A. select schools available. Venmo Stash terms and exclusions Apply @Venmo Me StashTerms Max $100 cash back per
month Whether your business has six floors or six employees, Walmart Business has everything you need to save time, money and hassle. You can restock your break room with bulk ordering or bulk up your ordering team with shared payments and you can get it all delivered straight to your business's door, whether that's on Wall street or Main Street. Walmart Business it's the Walmart you love now for your business. Learn more at business Walmart.
Com.