Shakespeare: What if I told you that self-agency—your ability to direct your own life—is a superpower you already possess, but have simply forgotten how to use? It’s a bold claim from neurosurgeon Dr. James R. Doty in his book, Mind Magic. He argues that the source of our success and self-confidence isn't found in external validation, but in the quiet, deliberate act of mastering our own mind. This isn't about wishful thinking; it's about neuroscience. Welcome to the show. I’m your host, Shakespeare, and with me is Emma, a curious and analytical mind who is passionate about leadership and personal growth.

emma: It's great to be here. That idea of a 'forgotten superpower' is so compelling. In a world that’s constantly pulling at our attention, the idea that we can reclaim control from within is incredibly powerful.

Shakespeare: Precisely. And that's our journey today. We're going to explore Dr. Doty's work and how it provides a practical toolkit for achievement. Today we'll dive deep into this from two powerful perspectives. First, we'll explore the science of reclaiming your focus and why it's the true source of inner power, looking at how one teenager learned to tame his own anxiety. Then, we'll discuss the practical art of programming your subconscious for success, turning abstract goals into inevitable outcomes, inspired by one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Shakespeare: So, Emma, let's start with that core idea of 'self-agency.' The book says it's our forgotten superpower. What does that bring up for you, especially as a young person thinking about leadership and confidence?

emma: It immediately makes me think of the constant pressure to react. We get a notification, an email, a comment, and our brains are trained to respond instantly. It feels like we're living in a state of permanent reaction rather than intentional action. To me, self-agency means carving out the space to choose your response, and that feels like the ultimate form of leadership, starting with leading yourself.

Shakespeare: A perfect frame. Dr. Doty would agree. He explains that our brain has several key networks, but for our purposes, think of the Salience Network as the gatekeeper that decides what's important, and the Central Executive Network as the 'CEO' that directs your focus. When we're in that reactive state you described, we're letting external events hijack the gatekeeper. The book shares a powerful story about a young man who learned to take back control.

emma: I'm intrigued. It's one thing to talk about it abstractly, but a real story makes it concrete.

Shakespeare: Indeed. Imagine this: Calabazas Park in San Jose. It's a summer program called F+ Productions, designed for neurodivergent teens, combining outdoor fun with meditation. A thirteen-year-old named Amari is there. He's a good kid, but he's sensitive, and another boy, a fifteen-year-old named Shaun, keeps taunting him with a nickname he absolutely hates.

emma: Oh, I can feel the tension already. That's a classic trigger.

Shakespeare: Exactly. The trigger is pulled. Amari’s nervous system floods with fight-or-flight signals. His amygdala, the brain's alarm system, is screaming. He grabs a hoverboard and raises it over his head, ready to strike Shaun. The moment is stretched taut, on the verge of violence. But then, the program leader, a psychologist named Dr. Lois Prislovsky, calmly steps in. She doesn't yell. She doesn't command. She just asks a simple, profound question: 'Amari, how will this benefit you?'

emma: That's a powerful question. It's not a judgment; it's an invitation to think.

Shakespeare: It is. And because Amari had been practicing meditation and self-regulation in this program, a tiny space opened up in his mind. It was that space between stimulus and response that the philosopher Viktor Frankl talked about. In that space, Amari saw his choice. He lowered the hoverboard... and he started to laugh. He saw the absurdity of it. Then, calmly, he just asked Shaun not to use the nickname anymore.

emma: Wow. That space between stimulus and response... that's everything. It's not that he suppressed the anger, but he chose a different response. In leadership, we talk about emotional intelligence, but this frames it as a trainable, neurological skill. It’s about learning to manage your own amygdala before you try to manage a team or a project.

Shakespeare: You've hit the heart of it. He didn't lose the feeling; he regained control of his focus. He directed his attention away from the raw impulse and toward a more constructive outcome. The book argues this is the foundation of all manifestation. Before you can create what you want, you must stop automatically creating what you don't want—like a fight, or a spiral of self-doubt.

emma: It makes me think of the 'inner critic.' That voice of doubt feels so automatic, just like Amari's anger. The book's idea that negativity is the 'first language of our species' because of our survival instincts makes so much sense. So, learning to focus is like learning a new, more intentional language for your own mind.

Shakespeare: A beautiful way to put it. You're learning to speak a language of possibility instead of a language of fear. And once you've reclaimed that power to choose your focus, like Amari did, the next, thrilling question is... where do you point it?

Shakespeare: This brings us to our second idea: actively programming your brain for success. It's not enough to just stop the negative; you have to build the positive. The book tells an amazing story about this, involving a very famous face and a simple piece of paper.

emma: This sounds like we're moving from defense to offense. I'm ready.

Shakespeare: We are. First, a quick concept: Dr. Doty describes the brain as 'miserly.' It consumes 20% of our body's energy, so it's designed to be efficient. It prefers old, familiar pathways. A new, ambitious goal is like an unknown, energy-intensive task. The brain’s default is to resist it. To overcome this, you have to convince your subconscious that this new goal is not just a fleeting wish, but a vital, high-priority mission.

emma: So you have to 'sell' the goal to your own brain. How do you do that?

Shakespeare: Through two things the subconscious understands perfectly: repetition and emotion. And no one illustrates this better than Jim Carrey. This is the early 1990s. He's a wildly talented but still-struggling comedian. He's living in Los Angeles, and his family life had been marked by immense financial hardship. He'd watched his own father, a brilliant musician, give up his dream for a 'safe' job, only to get laid off anyway. Carrey took a lesson from that: you can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.

emma: That's a powerful motivator. It reframes risk completely.

Shakespeare: It does. So Carrey decides to go all-in. Every single night, he would drive his beat-up old Toyota up to Mulholland Drive, the famous road overlooking the lights of Los Angeles. He would park, look out over the city that held his dreams, and intensely visualize his success. He imagined directors wanting to work with him, people loving his movies. He felt the joy and gratitude. But he knew he needed something more concrete to anchor this ritual.

emma: Something to make it less abstract.

Shakespeare: Precisely. So he took out his checkbook, wrote a check payable to himself, and in the memo line, he wrote, "For Acting Services Rendered." He then filled in the amount: ten million dollars. He post-dated it for three years in the future, to Thanksgiving 1995, and put it in his wallet. It wasn't just a wish; it was a contract with his future self.

emma: That's brilliant. The check wasn't a magical object. It was a tool for repetition. Every time he opened his wallet, every time he paid for something, he would see it. It would instantly trigger the visualization, the feeling of success. The book calls this 'value tagging'—he was teaching his brain, through constant repetition, that this outcome was not just desirable, but deeply significant.

Shakespeare: You've analyzed it perfectly. He was creating a feedback loop. The physical object triggered the mental and emotional rehearsal. And as the book explains, the brain doesn't distinguish between a real physical experience and one that is intensely imagined. He was literally building the neural pathways for success before it even happened. He was making the 'miserly' brain familiar and comfortable with this new reality.

emma: It's a creative hack to make a huge, abstract goal feel personal and inevitable. That's the heart of motivating yourself or even a team towards an innovative vision. You can't just show them a spreadsheet; you have to make them feel the future you're trying to build together.

Shakespeare: And the story's ending is the stuff of legend. Just before Thanksgiving 1995, the due date on that check, he signed his contract for the movie Dumb and Dumber. His salary was ten million dollars. He had manifested his intention, not through magic, but through a disciplined, focused, and emotionally charged practice.

emma: It's an incredible story. It shows that self-confidence isn't something you just 'have.' It's something you build, one visualization, one intentional act at a time. The check was his daily workout for his belief muscle.

Shakespeare: So, as we draw these threads together, we have two clear, powerful steps from Dr. Doty's work. First, we must reclaim our focus from the chaos of our reactive minds, finding that space to choose, just as Amari did with the hoverboard.

emma: And second, we must use that reclaimed focus to repeatedly and emotionally rehearse our desired future, making it so real and familiar to our brain that it begins to work for us, not against us, just like Jim Carrey and his check.

Shakespeare: It's a powerful loop, isn't it? The more you focus on a positive, clear vision, the more self-confidence you build. The more confidence you have, the easier it becomes to direct your focus. It’s a practical, upward spiral.

emma: It really is. It transforms motivation from a fleeting feeling into a deliberate practice. It gives you a sense of control, of being the architect of your own mind, which is the foundation of confidence in any area of life, whether it's leadership, creativity, or even relationships.

Shakespeare: So, for everyone listening, especially for young, ambitious people like you, Emma, who want to build a life of purpose, here is a small, actionable way to start. The book suggests a simple practice called 'Building Inner Power.' It’s a way to begin training that focus muscle.

emma: I love a practical takeaway. What is it?

Shakespeare: Tonight, before you go to sleep, just state one clear, simple intention for tomorrow. It doesn't have to be monumental. It could be, 'I will speak up with confidence in my morning meeting,' or 'I will dedicate 30 minutes to my creative project without distraction,' or 'I will be fully present in my conversations.' Write it down on a piece of paper and put it by your bed.

emma: So you're setting a clear mission for your brain before you sleep, letting your subconscious work on it.

Shakespeare: Exactly. You're giving your brain a clear, simple mission. See how it feels to wake up with that purpose already in mind. It’s the first small step in a long, rewarding journey of mastering your own mind, of finding that superpower you've had all along. And as Dr. Doty would say, that is the real magic.