Why I Am Going 21 Days Without Food

In 1947, Mahatma Gandhi was an old man. He was 77 years old, feeble and frail, but he had just won a major victory: India had finally received independence from Britain, the goal that Gandhi had been striving toward for much of his life.

The celebration was short-lived.

The new threat was civil war, as rioting broke out between India’s Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh factions, each vying for power within the new government. Gandhi did something clever and courageous: he vowed to go without food — a “spiritual fast” — until peace had been restored within India.

By this point, Gandhi was a beloved public figure: they called him “Bapu,” the Hindi word for “father.” The father of India fasting for peace was a sensational story, and the press eagerly reported on his every move. At his advanced age, the threat of starving to death was real, and the implicit message in each day’s paper was, “Get it together, India, or you’re going to kill Gandhi.”

Gandhi was a mind hacker.

A “hacker,” in the original geek sense of the word, was someone who found a clever shortcut or technique to solve some difficult problem. Gandhi’s ingenious solution to this political quagmire was to do nothing: literally, to stop eating until peace was restored. A mind hack of the highest order.

His example has been copied by many other political and spiritual leaders. Civil rights leader Cesar Chavez went without food to promote nonviolence. Journalist Guillermo Fariñas went without food to promote freedom in Cuba. And the Reverend Al Sharpton once skipped lunch.

What if everyday people like you and me could also achieve these amazing feats of willpower, by hacking our minds? I believe we can, which is why I’m going without food for 21 days.

The Hunger Games

Gandhi ultimately did restore peace to India. In a way, you could say that he achieved India’s independence, and India’s ultimate peace, through sheer mental force. He went 21 days without food, proclaiming his goal, and that act brought about positive, real-world change.

Gandhi hacked his mind to believe that he could do it, and he did it.

While Gandhi is one of my personal heroes, he was also just a guy. I realized after reading his excellent autobiography that he was just a person, like you and me. What enabled this frail senior citizen to endure such a physical ordeal — and how can we harness these same powers? “Forget going without food for 21 days,” you might be thinking, “I just want to drop a couple of pounds.”

Every new year, many of us resolve to change habits, but we first have to change our minds. We have to see the negative programming that’s locking us in place, and rewrite that mental code. If we’re trying to lose weight, or get a promotion, or build a business, we’ve got to first tackle the negative belief — that thought that “I can’t do it” — before we can really achieve success.

We’ve got to hack our minds.

Mind Hacking is Mindfulness on Steroids

Mindfulness is all the rage these days. Silicon Valley executives are training in mindfulness. They’re leading mindfulness classes at the World Economic Forum. Even the New York Knicks have a mindfulness program.

With mindfulness, you’re literally aware of your mind, conscious of what it’s thinking. If I know that my mind is trying to pull me into my phone when I should be paying attention, or to eat that donut even though I’ve resolved to diet, I have a little more power to resist it. If I notice myself tempted to click on this link to Buzzfeed, I can avoid that time-wasting train to Nowheresville.

It is well-proven by science that mindfulness strengthens the brain, reduces stress, improves your relationships, and even makes you healthier. In the business world, mindfulness gives us better decision-making ability, helps us avoid emotional reactions, and can let us rise above petty office politics. (Not to be confused with Tom Petty Office Politics, the new VH1 reality show.)

Mind hacking takes mindfulness one step further, by reprogramming the brain, just like a programmer would a computer.

Mindfulness teaches us to become aware of what our mind is thinking — the negative “thought loops” that cause us to eat too much, waste time at work, or fight with our families. Mind hacking teaches us to reprogram these thoughts, to help us overcome that inertia and move in the direction we want.

I am convinced we can reprogram our minds to accomplish amazing feats — whether that’s losing weight, being more productive, making more money, building better relationships, or starting your own space exploration company (you better believe Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are mind hackers).

Have you ever wondered why it’s so difficult to follow through on New Year’s Resolutions, to build up that willpower? Over the next 21 days, I’m going to show you how. Look for specific “mind hacks,” or mental techniques, that you can start using today, to make mind-blowing improvements in your life.

If I can go without food for 21 days, I guarantee that you can eat a salad once in a while.

You Have Gandhi-Like Power

All of us possess the incredible mental power of Gandhi; we just need to unlock it. You can perform incredible feats of willpower, right now. You are capable of so much more than you imagine. If you’re struggling to make some change or meet some goal in your life, you have the power to crush it, at this very moment. But first, you’ve got to take charge of your own mind.

I believe so strongly in this gospel of mind hacking that I will spend 21 days without food, proclaiming it to all who will listen, like, and share. Perhaps this is a ridiculous idea. Perhaps no one will care. But perhaps something really incredible and awesome will come out of this. The next three weeks will be an experiment, one that you can follow online.

And in the meantime: be aware of your mind. Just like Gandhi, you can become a mind hacker.

Sir John Hargrave is the author of Mind Hacking: How to Change Your Mind for Good in 21 Days, now available worldwide. Click here to continue...