Got A Problem? Let Your Subconscious Solve It

I am often asked, “What is your favorite People Tool?”  My answer changes from day to day because I have many favorites.  If you want to make your life easier, however, then try “Stuff It into Your Sub.”

When I was a freshman in college I read one paragraph in my Psych 101 textbook which presented an idea I have used with outstanding success ever since. I have to admit that in college my primary goal was not to learn anything. I just wanted to get the best grades I could, with minimum effort. Yes, I was lazy. I still am, though my wife, Daveen, says I should say I am “efficient,” which sounds much better. But I must have learned something along the way, not by mastering entire books, but rather by remembering and using those ideas that seemed useful to me. This was one of the best.

Simply put, the idea I found in Psych 101 was that your subconscious (your “sub,” not a sandwich) can solve a problem for you without any further active conscious effort. If you need to solve a question but can’t come up with an immediate answer, all you have to do is “stuff” the information and the problem into your “sub.” Then revisit your sub in an hour or day or week to see what your sub has come up with.

While this solution is not infallible, it certainly helps me most of the time.

Originally the idea appealed to me because it was easy. I didn’t have to think. It was like sending my car through a car wash.  My car went in dirty and came out clean. Of course, the sub is even better than a car wash because it deals with big problems and—best of all—it doesn’t cost a dime.

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 The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness. The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.

—Carl Gustav Jung

Modern Man in Search of a Soul 

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Here’s an example. My wife, Daveen asked me to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco to see our daughter Ingrid present her final report in a college class. I wanted to please Daveen and I wanted to support Ingrid. But I don’t like driving eleven hours round trip, and I wasn’t sure I could afford to take a full day and a half away from work. When you’re lazy (I should say “efficient,’ I suppose), deadlines have a way of catching up with you. So I stuffed the problem into my sub. Here’s the solution it came up with: Daveen drove both ways because she wanted to deliver a car full of something to Ingrid. I flew both ways.

When I wrote my first book, People Tools, I paid close attention to how I solve challenges in my life. When my process was clear but the name of the tool was not, I simply stuffed the “People Tool” into my sub, which has given me many chapter titles that I have used.

To be efficient, and solve a problem which baffles your conscious mind, just Stuff It into Your Sub.

Alan