You have more than 2 million bits of sensory information around you to process at any second. You are only capable of processing about 140 of those bits.

These 140 bits are the same basic bits we are conditioned to experience. Because of this what we look for, we find.

Do you see conspiracies? Are you held down by The Man? Do people look down on you for no reason? Do you believe you will never understand music theory?

Have you ever wanted something like a specific pair of shoes, a type of jacket or make and model of car? Do you find that once you decide you want that item, you see it around a lot more than before? You have given yourself a different focus - or filter - to perception.

However, most of our focus points are buried in our unconscious mind. We see things as we are conditioned to see them by our life experiences and environment. The good news is we can recondition ourselves. Change our filters to be more in tune with our wants and needs.

Say you grow up in a place where most people are struggling to get by. You learn certain focus patterns and embed them into your consciousness. Maybe you see poverty around you and your focus points are built on that. The occasional experience you get with wealth might be negative or stressful:

    - Your landlord looking for the rent money.
    - The boys on the block looking to jack someone with money.
    - The dirty looks that wealthy people seem give you.
    - Getting easy money by selling drugs and poisoning the people around you.
    - People in fancy cars drive like jerks

All these ways of seeing wealth determine what filters your brain will use when thinking about wealth. Remember not all of them are conscious.

Now on a conscious level you say you want to be wealthy. But subconsciously, you are thinking:

    - Having a lot of money is stressful for those around you with less
    - Money makes you a target
    - People with money don't give a shit about regular folk.
    - Money is the root of evil
    - I don't want to be a jerk driving a fancy car

Now say you grew up in a wealthy environment. Your subconscious perception would be completely different wouldn't it? The rich kid lives in the same reality as you, but sees it differently.

Do you think the impact on Diddy's son getting a Maybach (with a driver) for his 16th birthday, is more or less powerful than the ghetto kid getting a used Honda from his hardworking mother? It's pretty much the same event, but two very different perceptions depending on where your minds at.

The reason why this is important is because your subconscious has much more control of your potential and motivation than anything else. Getting wealthy with so much negative belief around money will make getting rich much harder for you (if thats your dream).

Maybe subconsciously you think "rich is bad", so your subconscious makes a decision for you: Be bad and rich, or stay good and poor is what yoru subconscious believes.

Consciuosly are you a good or bad person? If you say good, then your conscious and subconscious may be at odds and guess which one wins?

I'm using wealth as an example, but this applies to anything you really desire.

For example, do you see people with a higher sense of morals and ethics as "goody two shoes", "square" or "suckas"?

People from Tupac to Napoleon Hill and other great thinkers of all time basically have said the same thing - "What you believe, you can achieve", "You will become are what you truly think you are", "The universe sends back to you what you put out to it".

But remember, it's not only your beliefs but your actions. If you act like a thug you're going to be treated and live like a thug. Is that what you want? If not, then don't act like a thug!

I've been a programmer for a long time and I used to dress very casual. Most programmers don't deal with the public and don't need to dress up. I wore a lot of jeans, polo shirts, sneakers everyday. I would never be caught looking like a preppie jerk.

One day I read that you should dress for the position you want in life, not the position you have. I started wearing different clothes. A nice pair of slacks and a long sleeve button down shirt. Some clean leather shoes. I looked at what my bosses were wearing and emulated that. It worked. I soon got promoted and in less than a year I was making double. Not only did I gain more money, but more respect. I was able to drop the belief that I would become a preppie jerk and improve my life. Maybe some peers see me and think I'm a preppie jerk, but I know I'm not and it feels good to be seen as the professional I know I am. it wasn't all about the outer change either. I would get up in the morning and see myself as a more professional person on the outside and on the inside.

Trust me, if you are young and think you have it all figured out, you will learn someday that you don't. Sometimes our beliefs limit us and when they do, we have to adjust them in order to get to the next level. Take my advice and try to understand this now rather than later because it will not get easier and you won't get that wasted time back.