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Robin Banks stood in front of a live audience of several thousand people and asked how many had set goals for the year. He expected half the room. Around 3% put their hands up. He asked again, in case they had not heard him. Same answer.
Who is on this episode
Robin Banks is one of the world's leading authorities on Mind Power and personal mastery. He was personally selected, trained and mentored by John Kehoe to teach the internationally renowned Mind Power course, and has also studied under trainers including Tony Robbins. Over three decades he has reached more than 500,000 people across corporate, government, NGO and education audiences worldwide. He teaches a three month programme, deliberately, because as he puts it you do not sow a seed today and expect a tree tomorrow.
What they covered
Robin's starting point is the split he cites between the two minds: about 5% of your life running on the conscious mind and 95% on subconscious belief systems formed in childhood and never revisited. His framing of the conscious mind is as guardian to the gates, because the subconscious cannot tell good from bad and will manifest whatever it is mandated to manifest. The practical consequence for anyone running a team is that knowing about this changes nothing. As Robin puts it, knowledge is not power, it is potential power.
That is also his explanation for why most people never get the career or the life they say they want. They have not answered the only question that matters, which is what do I actually want, as distinct from what society says I should want. And they mistake thinking about it for doing something about it.
"If your goals are not written down, they're not goals, they're desires."
Robin Banks
His sharpest illustration is the friend in New Zealand who knew exactly what she would do if she won the lottery, down to buying her mother a house, and who never bought a lottery ticket. That, he says, is not manifestation, it is wishful thinking. Manifestation is consciously training the brain to focus on what you want, which he does for at least 20 minutes a day, every day.
The focus argument is the one that lands hardest for operators. A magnifying glass moved around in the sun does nothing at all. Held still on one spot, it burns through your hand. Most people's attention is the first version, and he argues the information environment is making it worse, which is why his advice to younger workers coming in is to find their centre first.
"Stop reacting, start creating."
Robin Banks
Imran closes by asking what an organisation can actually measure about a person, and what will always stay invisible. Robin's answer is that your life reflects the state of your consciousness, so the data is what shows up and who shows up. He also makes the uncomfortable version of the claim explicit: if your life is the way it is because of you, and you do not like it, you can change it.
Key insights
- Written goals are rarer than anyone assumes. Around 3% of a live audience of several thousand could say they had set goals for the year, which tells you what to expect from a team you have never asked.
- Focus works like a magnifying glass. Scattered attention produces nothing regardless of how much time you spend. The same effort held on one point is what actually changes the outcome.
- The practice is small and daily, not heroic. Robin asks for 20 minutes a day, and compares it to 30 minutes in the gym for 30 days: there is no version where you do it and nothing changes.
- Expect a delayed reaction and build for it. His own income quadrupled in a month using these practices, while his relationship beliefs took years, and impatience is what makes most people quit before either.
- Robin's test for whether any of it is working is observable rather than self reported: what is showing up in your life, and who is showing up in it.
Watch the full conversation on YouTube, or listen to the audio version on Apple Podcasts.
