Dear Reader,

So… a lot has been quietly brewing in the back-end over the last few months.

My home has basically turned into a Surrealist lab.

There’s an EEG headset on my desk.

A shamanic drum for when I need to drop into "automatic inspiration" trance state.

Brainwave notes scattered on the floor.

Journals, post-its, and voice memos everywhere.

It’s chaotic. But in that delicious, something’s-coming-alive kind of way.

What’s coming alive?

A book

Actually — three.

And an app.

📚 The Book Series: How to Listen

1. How to Listen to Your Mind (Coming later this month!)

2. How to Listen to Your Body (TBD December 2025)

3. How to Listen to Your Soul (TBD February 2026)

Each book is part memoir, part protocol — a toolkit for reconnecting with yourself and tap into the wisdom of your unconscious when life (or capitalism, or burnout, or your inner critic) pulls you away.

It’s about remembering what your mind, body, and soul already know — and learning to hear it again.

(Which is way easier and cheaper than hiring a coach or therapist every time you feel stuck!)

I want to share a raw excerpt from Book 1: How to Listen to the Mind.

The Matrix = Your Mental Models

Your matrix is built from beliefs you didn’t choose, rules you never questioned, and programming installed before you knew it was happening.

You’re operating from mental models you’ve never examined.

Think of your mind like a computer.

You have programs running in the background.

If I say: “After you wake up, you ____________“

Your unconscious fills in the rest without thinking.

For 20 years, mine was: brush my teeth.

For the last 8, it’s been: meditate for at least 20 minutes.

That shift didn’t happen by accident. It was a conscious rewrite of the programming.

Most of the time, we don't question and rewrite the code. We just keep running the same programs—day after day, year after year—without asking:

Why do I do it this way?

Is this working for me?

Is this even my own programming?

It’s not easy. Questioning everything is exhausting. It takes energy, time, and mental space.

And if we questioned everything—”Why do I brush my teeth this way? What are 30 different ways I could brush my teeth?”—we’d never have time for anything else.

We just want one that works.

But everything we've done up to this point—including the most important decisions of our lives—has been built on these mental models.

And just because they’ve worked up to this point doesn’t mean they’re good for us.

It just means they’re familiar.

There's a reason Socrates said "the unexamined life is not worth living."

Because an unexamined life is one where you're running someone else's code—without ever questioning if it's yours.

When we make major decisions based on programming installed years ago—without ever examining whether it still serves us—we stay stuck in the same loops.

If you’re not happy with your life right now, it means the mental model you’re operating from isn’t working.

To get from where you are to where you want to be, you need to change the mental models you're operating from.

As Dr. Joe Dispenza puts it: “You have to break the habit of being you.”

What the Most Successful People Know

The most successful people in the world consciously design the mental models they operate from.

They know:the mental models you operate from determine your reality.

Charlie Munger famously said: “If you master 80 to 90 key models, you can improve your thinking and decision-making abilities tremendously. 80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly-wise person.”

He and Warren Buffett built their entire investment philosophy on consciously examining and adopting mental models from multiple disciplines—psychology, mathematics, physics, biology.

Larry Gagosian studied Joseph Duveen, one of the greatest art dealers of the 20th century, and modelled his approach.

​

Steve Jobs modelled Edwin Land—the mad scientist founder of Polaroid and a true innovator. Land believed technology should serve human creativity, not replace it. Jobs adopted Land's philosophy of merging art and science, which became the foundation of Apple's design approach.

In NLP (Neurolinguistic programming), this is called modelling.

Study those who've mastered what you want to master. Learn how they think. What principles guide their decisions. What mental models they operate from.

But modelling isn't about copying someone else's operating system.

It's about understanding the principles that work—and adapting them to fit your reality.

Just because someone is successful doesn't mean their mental model will work for you.

Duveen's model worked for Gagosian. It would have crushed my soul.

Steve Jobs' relentless intensity built Apple. It would destroy someone who values work-life balance.

So the point is this:

Understand YOUR mental programming first—so you can decide if it's serving you.

Then, if you need to upgrade, you can consciously choose which mental models from others might help.

But you can't skip step one.

You need to see what you're currently running.

And that's harder than it sounds.

Because by definition, your unconscious mental models are… unconscious.

You’re not aware of them.

They’re just running in the background, shaping your reality without your permission.

So how do you excavate them?

How do you make the unconscious conscious?

More on that later 😉

🧠 Five Mental Models To (Consciously) Try:

🔁 The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)

80% of your results come from 20% of your inputs.

Example: A business owner might realise that 3 clients generate 80% of their revenue—while 15 other clients drain their energy for minimal return. They're spending 80% of their time on the 20% that barely matters.

→ What's your 20%? What actually moves the needle vs. what just feels busy?

🔬 First Principles Thinking (Elon Musk)

Strip away assumptions. Break things down to fundamental truths, then build up from there.

Example: Most people assume they need to post daily on social media to stay relevant. First principles: Is that actually true? Or is it just what everyone says? Some find their best clients come from word-of-mouth and deep work.

→ What are you building from assumption instead of actual truth?

🔄 Inversion (Charlie Munger)

Instead of asking "How do I succeed?" ask "How would I definitely fail?"—then avoid that.

Example: Someone burned out might ask: "What would guarantee I stay miserable?" Answer: Keep saying yes to every request, never raise rates, work every weekend. So do the opposite.

→ What would definitely break this? Now do the reverse.

🧓 Regret Minimisation (Jeff Bezos)

Zoom out to age 80. Will I regret not doing this?

Example: Someone terrified to leave their stable career asks: "At 80, will I regret not trying?" If the answer is yes, that clarity often shifts everything. → What decision are you avoiding because you're scared—but will regret not making?

📊 The 37% Rule (From Mathematics)

After reviewing 37% of your options, you've statistically already encountered the best one. So choose the best from that first 37%. Some behavioural scientists say you should apply this to dating. I casually mentioned this to my ex-boyfriend… who has a PhD in mathematics. Let's just say he didn't love being categorised as "part of the 37% sample size." 😬

→What decision are you delaying—hiring, dating, moving—when you've likely already encountered the right option?

With so much love,

Ginny Wan