Mind Hacking 

How to Change Your Mind for Good in 21 Days 

Sir John Hargrave 
 

Book Overview 
Have  you  ever  wished  you could reprogram your brain, just as a hacker would a computer? In this 3-step 
guide  to  improving  your  mental  habits—using  plenty  of  clear  “computer-related  terms  should  resonate 
with tech-savvy readers, including those resistant to typical self-help fare” (​Publishers Weekly)— learn to 
take charge of your mind and banish negative thoughts, habits, and anxiety—in just twenty-one days! 
 
A  seasoned  author,  comedian,  and  entrepreneur,  Sir  John  Hargrave  once  suffered  from  unhealthy 
addictions,  anxiety,  and  poor  mental  health.  After  cracking  the  code  to  unlocking  his  mind’s  full  and 
balanced  potential,  his  entire  life  changed  for  the  better.  In  ​Mind  Hacking​,  Hargrave  reveals  the  formula 
that allowed him to overcome negativity and eliminate mental problems at their core. 
 
Through  a  21-day,  3-step  training  program,  this  book  lays  out  a  simple  yet  comprehensive  approach to 
help  you  rewire  your  brain  and  achieve  healthier  thought  patterns  for  a better quality of life. It hinges on 
the  repetitive  steps  of  analyzing,  imagining,  and  reprogramming  to  help  break down barriers preventing 
you from reaching your highest potential. 
 
By  treating  your  brain  as  a  computer  and  mastering  Hargrave’s  mind  hacking  formula,  you,  too,  can 
create  a  positive,  permanent  shift  in  your  thinking,  leading  to  personal  and  professional  triumphs  in  all 
areas of life. 
 

KEY POINTS COVERED IN THIS SUMMARY: 

1. Mind hacking in a nutshell -​ Why mind hacking is possible 
2. Attention economy ​- How to invest our attention to our benefit 
3. Mental loops -​ The most powerful mental loops running our lives; 
how to identify mental loops for reprogramming 
4. Reprogramming our brain -​ 3 ways to reprogram our thought 
pattern in order to succeed in life 

1) Mind Hacking in a Nutshell 

 
We  all  have  a  lot  of  thoughts,  we  all  think  about  certain  things.  But  if  we  want  to  be  able  to 
hack  our  minds,  we  need  to  develop  the  awareness  of  our  thinking  process.  We  need  to 

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become  aware  that  we  are  ​actually  ​thinking  of  something.  That  is  meta-level  thinking,  a  step 
above our normal thinking. 
 
When  we  are  aware  that  we  are  actually  thinking  of  something,  we  are  able  to  extract 
ourselves to a higher level. 
● We see ourselves getting angry or mad 
● We see ourselves feeling happy or excited 
● We see ourselves visualizing (or not visualizing) a goal 
 
All  this  meta-level  thinking  is  a  requirement  for  us  to  be  able  to  hack  our  minds.  We  need  to 
develop and increase our awareness. 
 
Mind  hacking  boils  down  to  understanding  what  the  faulty  patterns  are  in  our  thinking  and 
what we need to improve. 
 
So  if  there  are  some  bugs  and  negative  patterns  in  our  thinking,  we  can  actually  look  at  them 
and fix those bugs.  
 
We can change our own thinking. We can become better.  

We are beyond our mind 

 
We are not our mind.  
 
We  are  not  the  angry  person.  We  are  not  the  sad  person.  We  are  not  the  pessimistic  person. 
Rather,  we  are  just  being  angry  right  now.  We  are  being  sad  right  now.  We  are  being 
unproductive right now. We are not performing at our best right now.  
 
As  soon  as  we  realize that we are not our mind -- that we are actually beyond our mind -- then 
we can change anything in our life.  
 
That’s mind hacking in a nutshell. 
 

2) Attention Economy 
 
We  are  all  living  in  this  attention  economy,  in  which  for  every  bit  of  attention  we  pay  to 
anything, it’s like we are giving away money. This is because ​attention is like money​.  
 

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What  happens  for  most  people  is  that  they  give  their  attention  to  the  negativity  around  them 
and to things they cannot influence. 
 
Every  time  we  do  that,  we  are  paying  money.  We  are  losing  money  because  things  like  those 
are not an investment. They will not return to us anything of value.  
 
In order to use our attention properly, we need to redirect our attention.  
 
We know we are investing our attention money well when we are thinking about things like the 
following: 
● Our goals  
● Our projects 
● Positive things 
 
When  we're  thinking  about  the  bad  things,  on  the  other  hand,  obviously  the  money  we're 
making is going down. Such correlation is very strong.  
 
Still,  the  highest  investment  we  can  make  in  our  attention  is  to  be  able  to  do  meta-level 
thinking, which is to think about our thinking, to put our attention on attention itself. 
 
One  of  the  highest  investment  activities  that we can ever do is meditation, because it allows us 
to  train  our  brain  to  think  about  whatever we want to. And the more we train our attention, the 
more we can direct it to the things we truly want rather than the things that we don't want.  
 
That’s how we play in the attention economy. 
 

3) Mental Loops 
 
Mental  loop  -  any  repetition  that  forms  when  we  are  thinking  about  certain  things  again  and 
again 
 
Most  of  the  time,  we  are  running  mental  loops  by  default.  We  are  thinking  some  things  over 
and over again without really understanding.  
 
But  once  we  develop  this  meta-level  thinking,  we  become  aware  of  these  mental  loops  that 
we're  running  in  our  lives  --  though  it  is  actually  our  mental  loops  that  are  mostly  running  our 
lives. 
 
The most powerful mental loops we run in our minds: 
➢ our self-image  

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 ➢ our view of the world 
 
Seeing  ourselves  as  a  winner  in  any  endeavor  is  a  very  powerful  mental  loop.  If  we  see  the 
world  as  though  it’s  constantly  tough  or  is  not  helping  us  in  a  certain  cause  --  it’s  also  a 
powerful  mental  loop.  The  difference  is,  the  latter  would  pull  us  back,  while  a  winning 
self-image would move us forward. 
 
The quality of our thinking is controlling the quality of our lives.  
Our mental loops are controlling every single thing we do.  
 

Identify Your Mental Loops (The 5 Why’s Exercise): 

 
1. Identify  something  that  you're  struggling  with  right  now  (may  be  business  or  career  or 
anything you’re working on). 
Example:  
2. Start  asking  yourself  the  WHY  question:  “Why  is  this  this  happening  right  now?”  And 
find an answer.  
3. Ask  the  question  again,  in  relation  to  the answer you just found. And again answer that 
question.  
4. The  idea  is  you  answer  this  question  5  times.  What  you'll  find  is  that  the  fifth  answer 
will  tell  you  exactly  the  mental loop. Sometimes, the fourth answer will already reveal to 
you the mental loop. 
 
This  is  also  called  the  Toyota  methodology.  As  you  dig  deep  into  your  thought  processes,  you 
will find those answers. And once you find the mental loops, you can now debug them.  
 

4) Reprogramming Our Brain 

 
So  far  what  we  have  learned  is  that  it's  possible  to  see  what  we're  thinking  and  to  develop  a 
meta-level awareness.  
 
Knowing  such  possibilities,  now  we  can  change  the  faulty programming in the super computer 
in  our  heads.  We  need  to  remove  those  bugs  so  that  we  can  operate  our  brain  at  maximum 
potential.   
 
Here are the ways to reprogram our brain: 
 
1.  ​Write​.  Research  claims  that  writing  leads  to  large-scale  changes.  To  reprogram,  write 
specific thought patterns again and again.  
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● Writing  can  reprogram  our  thought  pattern.  ​Affirmations  are  an  example  of  this.  In  the 
book  ​How  to  Fail  at  Almost  Everything  and  Still  Win  Big,  Scott  Adams  talks  about 
how  he  used  to  write  his  affirmations  all  the  time  and  how  that  changed  his  thought 
pattern  and  belief  system  to  make  him  rich  and  to  become  a  cartoonist  -- even though 
there was no evidence to believe that he would ever become a cartoonist.  
 
● Writing  can  change  our  behavior.  Research  has  found  that  just  by  keeping  track  of  the 
food  people  eat,  they  can  lose  twice  as  much  weight  as  those  who  do  not  keep  any 
records of what they eat..  
 
● Another  thing  we  can  do  to  change  our  behavior  to  make  sure  that  we  ​take  action  on 
our  most  important  things  that  we  need  to  move  forward​.  We  can  do  this  by  writing 
down the things that we will do and that will cause us to change our behavior.  
 
2.  ​Repeat.  ​This  means  repeating  whatever  the  new  thought  pattern  we  want  over  and  over 
again. 
 
In  ​Think  and  Grow  Rich,  ​Napoleon  Hill  says  there  is no end to this kind of repetition where we 
are trying to reprogram ourselves to a new way of thinking.  
 
Once  we  repeat  those  thought  patterns,  we  begin  to  notice  opportunities  coming  along 
accordingly. 
 
Repetition  is  like  laying  down  the  tracks  in  our  mind.  The  Grand  Canyon  has  tracks  that  have 
been  laid  down  over  there  over  millions  of  years  because  of  the  water  that  has  been  running 
there.  As  the  water  kept  running  more  and  more,  the  tracks  caused  by  it  keep  getting  etched 
deeper and deeper.  
 
Such  is  what  repetition  also  does  to  our  bran.  If  we  want  to  change  our  thinking  pattern  to 
something  new,  we  need  to  lay  down  new  tracks  of  thinking.  Over  time,  as  we  repeat  it  well, 
our brain will start to think in this new way automatically. 
  
3 Ways to Do Repetition 
 
● Reminders​.  This  can  be  as simple as writing down the new mental loop that we want to 
install  and  putting  it  where  you  will  see  it  everyday  (can  be  your  monitor,  your 
screensaver, your bathroom mirror, etc.)  
 
The  word  reminder  is  composed  of  “re”  +  “minder,”  like  coming  back  to  your  mind.  So 
just keep your important reminders all over the place.  
 

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 ● Don’t  break  the  chain  (the  Seinfeld  method)  -  Whenever  we  repeat  that  new  thought 
pattern,  we  cross  it  out  everyday  on  our  calendar  and  never  break  the  chain  of  that 
thought pattern.  
 
● Silent  recitation  -  Silently  telling  ourselves  that  mental  loop  over and over again with as 
much feeling as possible.  
 
3.  ​Imagine​.  Probably  one  of  the  most  potent  ways  to  reprogram  our  brain  is  to  visualize  that 
new way of thinking and being.  
 
Imagination is one of the cores of mind hacking and here are ways to make it work: 
 
● See yourself accomplishing that goal.  
 
There was a UCLA study of 3 groups of students:  
- Group 1 was asked to visualize getting good grades. 
- Group  2  was  asked  to  visualize getting good grades and were asked to visualize 
specific times when they will work.  
- Group 3 was a control group which did not do any visualization.  
 
What they found was very interesting.  
- Group 1 and Group 3 scored very similar grades.  
- Group 2 scored 8 points higher.  
 
This  goes  to  show  that  visualizing  getting  the  good  grades,  working  hard  towards  it, 
accomplishing  the  goal,  and  the  specific  difficulties,  are  very  critical  in  reprogramming 
our brain. 
 
This  is  something  that  Gabriele  Oettingen  also  talks  about  in  the  book  ​Rethinking 
Positive  Thinking​.  which  is  the  WOOP  methodology  used  in  a  2001  research  study  of 
students going after a big goal.  
 
There were 3 groups of students in the study: 
- Group  1  was  to  only  think  of  the  positive  benefits  of  accomplishing  the  goal  of 
the group.  
- Group  1  was  to  only  think  about  the  negative  difficulties  of  accomplishing  that 
goal.  
- Group  3  was  to  think  of  both  the  benefits  and  the  difficulties  of  accomplishing 
that goal. 
 
Of  course,  the  third  group  had  the  best  results. That's the key: ​we have to visualize the 
problems, the challenges on our way, and ourselves as a winner.  
 

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 ● Change your behavior​. The way to change our behavior is by using ​tiny goals​.  
 
Psychologist  and  author  Richard  Wiseman  conducted  a  study  of  5,000  participants 
trying to achieve big goals.  
 
The  key  finding:  ​People  who  break  down  their  goals  into  a  series  of  small  goals, 
instead of one giant goal, are far more successful.  
 
They were specifically even more successful if their subgoals were concrete, measurable 
and  time-based.  That's  what  we  want  to  be  able  to  do:  break  down  our  goals into that 
specific formula.  
 
Another guideline for breaking down your goals is the acronym L​ .A.S.E.R​. 
L-L​ imited - small 
A - ​Achievable - something you can accomplish 
S-S ​ pecific - specific and clear 
E-E ​ valuated  - something you can measure on a daily or weekly basis 
R - ​Repeatable - something that can be turned into a habit 
 
When  you  have  a  LASER-focus  subgoal,  you're  much  more  likely  to  change  your 
behavior, accomplish your goal, and change your programming over time. 
 
Related Books: 
● How to Fail at Everything and Still Win ​by Scott Adams 
● Rethinking Positive Thinking b
​ y Gabriele Oettingen 
● Think and Grow Rich ​by Napoleon Hill 
 
 

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