What do you want? A new career, to travel, a new car?

When you want, your mind starts fizzing with ideas. The feeling of excitement grows as you entertain the possibilities and then… you start thinking.

“What should I do?” “Will it be worthwhile?” “I don’t have… the credentials, money, time.” Fear and doubt creep in.

Say hello to your inner conflicts. The mental tug-of-war between what you want and the psychological blocks getting in the way.

We all have struggles within our inner world. Comparisons, contradictions, choices, shoulds, musts, expectations, and beliefs are just some of the inner world challenges that lead to opposing feelings of inner conflicts. Some inner conflicts are more debilitating than others, but one thing is constant: they all revolve around what you want.

Wanting in the brain consists of emotional, cognitive, and motivational processes that kick us into action. Kent Berridge, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, explains that “wanting in the ordinary sense of the word” is a cognitive form of desire. Desire is the feeling part, and wanting is the thinking part, but wanting also invokes motivation, empowering us to work towards an outcome or goal. 

Wanting is a universal human experience. When our wants don’t align with our perceptions, we struggle and engage in inner conflict. So, how do we get what we want while minimizing the feelings of opposition? I’ve broken down the process into four books in the Get What You Want series.

A Guide to Inner Conflicts is the prequel book,  free when you sign up for my newsletter. It identifies different inner conflicts and how they manifest in our lives. The first book combines the psychological skills I teach to help you become more successful with your inner conflict daily thinking. The second book, The Want Mindset, outlines the psychology and neuroscience research on how wanting works in the brain and how you can harness it through mindset practices to get what you want. The final book, Your Inner Voice, dives into the research of inner speech and how to use your inner voice to apply the psychological skills and mindset practices from the first books in the series. 

In this series, you’ll gain the tools to identify and manage your inner conflicts, comprehend the workings of ‘wanting’ in the brain, cultivate your own ‘want mindset ‘, and utilize your inner voice to effectively apply psychological skills to get what you want.

Beth E. Lee, MBA, MSc leads The Intentional Mind as a Researcher, Writer and Psychological Skills trainer.

With an MSc in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health from King’s College, London, and a Psychological Coaching Certification approved by the British Psychological Society, Beth delivers training within primary schools, universities, and organisations.

If you’d like to know why psychological skills are so important to her, see the about page in the link below. Make sure you follow her on social media to learn more of her research, day to day writing, and training activities. 

Updated weekly, you’ll find Beth’s posting of research, articles, stories, news, and events here.