Giving the conscious a job to be done

This belief that our conscious mind is powerful and that we can control ourselves through conscious effort - let me know how that is going for you.

The unconscious does the work, the conscious gets to veto. And then only sometimes.

From Timothy Gallwey I learned this trick: Give the conscious mind a job to be done in the area of where you want to focus. That lets the unconscious get around to doing the real work.

His example was learning how to catch a ball: Instead of consciously trying to do what is impossible, notice and then say out loud what direction the ball was spinning. This gives the unconscious the space to figure out how to catch on its own time.

Your unconscious is powerful and needs to know what to focus on. Then it will get on with it.