The Inner Propaganda That Shapes Your Life

Hi there,

What’s the Story?

Life is good and busier than ever. Between client work, travel, book writing, and exciting, behind-the-scenes projects, it’s full steam ahead right now. A few more weeks and we’ll be back to the Changing Minds Podcast— the best season yet! This week’s video on YouTube with Phil M. Jones is an interesting one, exploring why absolutes shut down conversations.

In the meantime, I’ve got something a little different for you, a deep dive into a topic that’s come up again and again lately… and one that I believe has the power to change lives. Let’s jump in.

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The Inner Propaganda That Shapes Your Life

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes 20 seconds

Let me tell you something that most people don’t realise:

Your greatest enemy isn’t out there. It’s not your job. Not your relationships. Not even in your past. It’s the propaganda campaign being run inside your mind.

Every single day, your brain is trying to convince you of things. Some of it’s true. A lot of it isn’t. And most of it? Most of it goes unchallenged. The stories you sell yourself become the beliefs you buy into, and those beliefs shape everything. How you feel. What you do. What you allow. What you become.

That’s why I do what I do. Because I’ve seen what happens when people learn to take control of their inner propaganda machine. I’ve lived it.

Let’s rewind the tape for a second.

I was 14 years old when I fell into a deep depression. I was dealing with stuff I didn’t understand. I didn’t feel good enough. I didn’t think I belonged. It felt like I was broken in some way. But even back then, I was obsessed with trying to figure things out. I remember watching a documentary on hypnosis, and it cracked something open in me. I thought, “That’s what I want to learn.” I wanted to understand how the mind works, how we change what we believe, and how we break out of our suffering.

So at 17, I became Europe’s youngest hypnotherapist. I didn’t stop there. I went deep into Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Then psychology. Then neuroscience. Then, behavioural economics. Over the years, I trained in everything from negotiation at Harvard Business School to digital persuasion at MIT. And I became obsessed with one big question:

Why do we believe what we believe?

That’s what I’ve spent my life studying. And what I’ve come to realise is this: the most powerful beliefs are the ones that feel like facts. They don’t announce themselves as beliefs. They whisper: “This is just the way it is.” And that’s what makes them dangerous.

So if you want to create real change in your life, you’ve got to become the propagandist-in-chief of your mind. You’ve got to learn how to shape your thoughts instead of letting them shape you.

That starts with understanding a few key things:

1. Beliefs aren’t Facts. They are Decisions.

Most people think beliefs are just things we’ve “discovered” about the world. But really, they’re decisions we’ve made, often unconsciously, based on experiences, emotions, and the meaning we’ve assigned to them.

You weren’t born believing you’re not good enough. That belief was built over time. Maybe someone said something to you. Maybe you compared yourself to others. Maybe you failed at something once and drew the wrong conclusion.

But you decided to believe it. Which means you can decide on something else.

2. Every Belief Serves a Purpose, Even the Bad Ones.

One of the most counterintuitive ideas I teach is that even the beliefs that hurt us are trying to help us in some way. That voice that says, “You’ll mess it up”? might be trying to protect you from failure. That inner critic? It might think it’s motivating you.

Once you understand that, you stop seeing your inner saboteur as the villain. And you start seeing it as a misguided part of you that needs new instructions.

3. Language is the Vehicle of Belief.

You don’t just feel your beliefs. You speak them. You think in them. You narrate your life with them.

So pay attention to the language you use, especially about yourself.

“I’m just not that confident.” “I’m too old to change.” “I’ve always been like this.”

These aren’t facts. They’re phrases. Scripts. And once you hear the scripts, you can rewrite them.

4. Your Brain isn’t Wired for Happiness. It’s Wired for Survival.

This is where neuroscience kicks in.

Your brain’s number one job is to predict what will happen next so it can keep you safe. So it builds models of the world based on your past. And then it uses those models to guess what’s coming.

The problem? If your past was full of disappointment, pain, or failure… your brain will predict more of the same. It’ll see threats where there are none. It’ll default to fear. It’ll expect rejection. And then, here’s the kicker—it’ll often act in ways that make that outcome more likely.

That’s why we sabotage ourselves.

Because we’re trying to be “right” about a prediction we made long ago.

5. Real Change Happens When You Update the Prediction.

The good news? Your brain is plastic. Not made of plastic. But neuroplastic. Meaning it can rewire.

When you challenge a belief, when you gather new experiences, when you step outside your comfort zone and survive… You update the prediction.

That’s how confidence is built. That’s how identity shifts. That’s how new beliefs are installed. Not in one giant moment. But in hundreds of tiny ones.

6. Your Thoughts Are Not the Problem. Your Relationship to Them is.

We all have negative thoughts. The difference is how we relate to them.

When you hear a critical voice in your head, you’ve got a choice. You can believe it. Argue with it. Or observe it. Like, “Interesting. There’s that voice again, telling me I’m not good enough. Wonder where that’s coming from today.”

Detachment isn’t denial. It’s awareness. And awareness is the first step toward freedom.

7. Boundaries are Belief Protectors.

Let me say this loud and clear: the people you surround yourself with matter. If you’re constantly around people who belittle you, drain you, or make you question your worth, it becomes very hard to build new beliefs.

Boundaries aren’t about being cold. They’re about being clear. They say: “Here’s how I treat myself. Here’s what I accept. Here’s what I won’t.”

You train others how to treat you by how you treat yourself.

8. Antifragility is the Goal.

It’s not about being positive all the time. It’s about being antifragile.

That means you get stronger under pressure. That you can handle life’s punches and come back better. That you embrace the idea that you can acknowledge what’s hard and still move forward.

Resilience is bouncing back. Antifragility is growing because of the bounce.

And when you cultivate that, you become unstoppable.

There’s more I could say. I could talk about belief loops. I could talk about the power of metaphor. I could tell stories of clients who went from stuck to free in ways that still blow my mind.

But here’s what matters most:

You are not broken. You are not your past. You are not your thoughts.

You are the thinker of your thoughts. You are the editor of your inner script. You are the architect of your belief system.

So take control of the campaign. Run your inner propaganda. And build a life worth believing in.

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