In the letter Einstein mentions something very interesting,

I am very pleased that you find joy with the piano. This and carpentry are in my opinion for your age the best pursuits, better even than school….Mainly play the things on the piano which please you even if the teacher does not assign those.
That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes.

What Einstein is referring to is the flow state.

Celebrated psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi popularised this concept of flow which is a mental-state highly conducive to productivity.

Flow is the optimal state of the mind when the concept of time dissolves and we become one with whatever is Infront of us it’s an enjoyable state where our ego’s disappear, and we forget who we are.

Flow is the late and great Kobe Bryant taking the game winning shot in the last 3 seconds.

Flow is Tony Hawk doing the first 900 in 1999.

Flow is Conor Mcgregor knocking out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds.

You might have experienced this heightened state of concentration whilst playing video games or your favourite sport.

Remember that Einstein told his son to 

play the things on the piano which please you even if the teacher does not assign those.”

Einstein was known to skip many classes, famously studying Maxwells Equations in his own time. His professor lectures according to him were “50 years out of date”.

The key to success which Einstein shared with his son is to find an application of a problem that interests you so you can stay motivated to practice.

The reason many of us were not interested in school is because what we learned was not fun, it had no application to us.

Trigonometry and projectile motion was only fun to me when my 10^th grade physics teacher allowed us to build medieval weapons. The group which could project a ball the furthest would be the winner.

A couple of friends and I built a ballista, this was the only time physics was ever fun.

Our interests in winning led us to gaining a firm understanding of the concepts, something that would have never happened if we had our noses stuck in a textbook.

If we can make something fun it becomes easier to commit to the process of mastery, it’s only through the enjoyment of an activity for it’s own sake that we can enter flow.

Albert Einstein’s Subconscious Mind Strategy Used Relaxation

We are often bombarded by messages telling us that we are not successful because we do not work hard enough.

Entrepreneurs such as Gary Vaynerchuck and Elon Musk,

Preach the importance of grinding it out and disregarding sleep.

Although this sounds good in theory in practice it can lead to a range of negative health effects.

Fatigue and stress create a chemical cocktail in our bodies which poison us slowly, returning us to dust.

Einstein did not channel his genius by working more hours than other scientist.

He did not grind it out.

Albert Einstein’s subconscious mind rituals involved deep relaxation.

He was known to sleep on average 10 hours a day.

Every day he would go on a long walk a habit shared with other great minds such as:

Charles Darwin, Beethoven, Freud, Aristotle and Steve Jobs.

Einstein even played the violin for several hours stating,

  I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music”.

What Einstein practiced was a form of periodization, fluctuating from periods of highly focused deep work and more relaxing and enjoyable pursuits.

Periodization is a crucial element of Albert Einsetin’s Subconscious Mind strategy.

Periodization is well known in the strength and conditioning world, where if one wanted to get a stronger at a lift such as the bench press they would rotate workouts of high-intensity (often heavy weights and low reps) and more moderate and easier to manage workouts.

Going too hard for too long can lead the body to experience overtraining syndrome, where it get weaker and can lead to sickness.

The mind just like the body needs it’s downtime to work effectively.

Scientist have shown that when we rest, our brains operate very differently, they switch from what’s called the ‘task positive network’ to the ‘default mode network’.

Our brains work differently when the default mode network is activated leading to the different level of thinking Einstein mentioned was the solution to problems.

This default mode network is the reason why many of us get our best ideas whilst in the shower or when lying in our beds before we sleep.

We must treat our minds like a muscle,

After strenuous conscious work we must allow our more intuitive subconscious mind to take care of the rest.

We can do this by going for long walks slowly.

Meditating.

Yoga.

Even lying in our beds doing nothing can be effective.

Imagination was needed for Albert Einstein’s Subconscious Mind

Einstein was well known for his Gedanken-Experiment also known as thought experiments.

Since he was a boy he would use his imagination to envision situations that could not be observed naturally.

His subconscious mind helped deliver answers through the thought experiments.

Answers which filled in the gaps to many of his theories.

This creative imagination gave him an advantage over other scientists who relied primarily on logic and classical education.

Our imagination is a powerful thing.

Before anything can be created in the physical world it first takes form as a vision in the mind.

The Burj Khalifa first took form in architects Adrian Smith’s mind,

The iPhone the smartphone which revolutionised the world first formed in the mind of Steve Jobs.

The concept of Harry Potter which would later make J.K Rowling the first billionaire author was crafted on a 4 hour train ride, a ride in which she had no pen to write down her ideas leaving her mind to wonder.

The art of visualization is a superpower often regarded as a hobby for hippies by society.

It’s not something that is taught in school,

And yet, this is the hallmark of genius.

Have you ever been immersed in a dream that seemed too real?

You likely were in awe at how your mind could create buildings, and elaborate structures.

At how you could run into people with faces and personalities you had never seen before in the real world.

Dreams are thought to be the domain of the subconscious mind.

The same mind which allows you to hold a deep conversation whilst driving without crashing into a tree.

The mind that allows this baseball star to save this reporters life.

This is the mind you will be accessing whilst daydreaming and visualization.

Too get good you will need to practice visualization.

It’s a skill much like riding a bike.

At first you might only be able to hold a hazy image of a 2D shape in your mind but with time you will be able construct kingdoms.

This is the key to all great discoveries, being able to withdraw within before manifesting what you want in the physical world.

This was the last secret and a huge part of Albert Einstein’s Subconscious Mind strategy.

Do this and I promise you will be on step closer to living and dying well.