The 4 Processing Modes You Don't Know About

(And Why Most People Die at Mode 1)

Your biggest problems aren’t caused by circumstances.

They’re caused by the processing mode you’re using to interpret those circumstances.

For six years, I processed every Friday through the same mental filter: life is happening TO me, and I need alcohol to cope. Different weeks. Different stressors. Identical response.

The pattern didn’t change until the processing mode did.

Most people spend decades running the same mental software they installed in childhood. They upgrade their phones yearly. Their processing mode? Untouched since the age of twelve.

How Processing Modes Actually Work

Your mind processes reality through layers of interpretation. Same circumstances. Same event. Four completely different experiences depending on which layer is active.

In 2020, Paul Mort taught me a framework that explained why I’d been stuck despite “working on myself” for years. He broke down how we operate at four distinct processing modes. Not personality types you’re born with. Modes you move through as you evolve.

I’ve adapted it based on what I’ve learned since, but the core insight i learned from him.

When I first heard this, everything made sense. Six years trapped at the lowest mode. Two years clawing my way to the second. The last few years discovering what exists beyond.

Here’s what changed everything: You can’t solve a Mode 1 problem with Mode 1 thinking. The solution exists at a higher processing mode than the one that created the problem.

The Four Processing Modes

Mode 1: Life Happens TO You
Everything is external. The world acts, You react. Blame lives here. So does helplessness.

Mode 2: Life Happens BY You
You take responsibility. Your choices create your reality. Control lives here. So does exhaustion from forcing everything into existence.

Mode 3: Life Happens THROUGH You
You stop forcing and start flowing. You become a channel for something larger than your individual will. Alignment lives here.

Mode 4: Life Happens FOR You
Everything serves your growth. No victims. No villains. Just data. Peace lives here. So does unshakeable resilience.

You don’t climb these modes once and camp at the summit. You move between them constantly. The work is recognising which mode you’re processing from and consciously choosing to shift upward.

Here’s how each mode actually operates in your mind and life:

Mode 1: Life Happens TO You

At Mode 1, you’re being driven. Your responses are automatic. Your emotions hijack you. Your circumstances define you.

This was me for six years.

Every Friday, life “happened to me” and I needed alcohol to cope. Stress happened to me. Difficult clients happened to me. Uncomfortable emotions happened to me. The drinking wasn’t my choice in my mind. It was my response to a world constantly throwing problems at me.

You have reasons for everything and responsibility for nothing.

Traffic made you late. Your boss made you angry. The economy made you poor. Your genetics made you fat. Your co-workers made you anxious.

Everything wrong traces back to something outside your control.

The victim mindset isn’t a personality disorder. It’s a default processing mode running unconsciously in most people.

Society actively reinforces Mode 1 thinking. Every news cycle. Every social media feed. Every conversation structured around who’s to blame for what’s wrong. We’re swimming in victim consciousness and calling it awareness.

Most people live here. They die here. Never realising they were running software designed to keep them powerless.

Mode 2: Life Happens BY You

Something shifts. You realise you’re creating your circumstances through choices. You take responsibility. Your actions have consequences. Your decisions shape outcomes.

This is where I landed when I got sober in December 2021.

I wasn’t drinking because life was hard. I was drinking because I chose to drink. The stress existed. The difficult clients existed. The uncomfortable emotions existed. But my response? That was mine.

Mode 2 is a massive breakthrough. A real lightbulb moment. You start your business instead of complaining about your job. You begin training instead of blaming genetics. You create boundaries instead of tolerating chaos. You make deliberate choices instead of unconscious reactions.

But Mode 2 has a trap nobody mentions.

You’re still operating from force. Pushing. Controlling. Making things happen through sheer willpower. It works. But it’s brutally exhausting.

I built a seven-figure recruitment business at Mode 2. Forced every relationship. Controlled every outcome. Pushed through every obstacle. White-knuckled my way to success.

It worked. I was also running on fumes.

Most “successful” people get stuck here. They’ve transcended victimhood but they’re still at war with reality. Still trying to control outcomes. Still operating from “I’m making this happen” instead of allowing what wants to happen.

They build businesses that require their constant intervention. Relationships that demand their constant management. Lives that collapse the moment they stop pushing.

Mode 2 thinking says: Work harder. Optimise more. Control everything.

Mode 2 doesn’t ask: What if I’m forcing something that doesn’t want to exist?

Mode 3: Life Happens THROUGH You

This is where you stop forcing and start flowing. You’re no longer pushing your agenda onto reality. You’re discovering what wants to happen through you and allowing it to emerge.

At Mode 2, you decide what you want and force it into existence through willpower.

At Mode 3, you become aware of what’s trying to emerge and let yourself be moved by it.

You’re not the originator. You’re the instrument.

Confused? Let me break this down further, with my newsletters as an example…

I’m not a neuroscientist. Not a psychotherapist. Not a researcher. Every concept I write about came from somewhere else. Books I’ve read. Mentors I’ve learned from. Paul Mort’s mastermind. Steven Peters’ Chimp Paradox. Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work on neuroplasticity, Steven Kotlers research on Flow, the list goes on...

None of these ideas originated with me.

I’m just the vehicle they pass through.

What I write is my perception of what I’ve learned, filtered through my experience, translated into my language, delivered to you. The knowledge existed before me. It’ll exist after me. I’m not the source. I’m the channel.

When I’m writing on Monday mornings and the words just flow without effort, I’m not creating. I’m translating. The ideas I’ve absorbed from hundreds of books, thousands of hours of mentorship, years of systematic experimentation, all of it moves through me onto the page.

I don’t sit down thinking “what should I write?” I sit down and ask “what wants to be written?”

Completely different question. Completely different experience.

When I’m running through hour 22 of an ultramarathon and my body knows exactly what to do without my mind micromanaging every step, that’s Mode 3. Not because it feels easy. Because I’ve surrendered control to something that operates beyond my ego’s interference.

At Mode 2, you’re the driver forcing the car where you think it should go.

At Mode 3, you’re being driven by purpose, calling, alignment with something larger than your individual will.

You become a vehicle for wisdom. A translator of concepts. A messenger, not a messiah.

You stop asking “how do I make this happen?” and start asking “what’s trying to happen through me?”

The shift is subtle. Most people don’t get it, but for those who do, the results are profound.

Mode 4: Life Happens FOR You

This is the hardest mode to reach and maintain. At Mode 4, you become genuinely unstoppable. Not because you’re invincible. Because nothing can faze you anymore.

Everything just is.

No good. No bad. No right. No wrong. Just information. Just experience. Just reality unfolding exactly as it needs to for your evolution.

You’re prepared for disaster because you know disaster is just another teacher. Every adversity contains opportunity. Every breakdown sets up a breakthrough. Every obstacle is curriculum designed specifically for your growth.

My Mile 75 mental collapse at Hardwick Hall? Not failure. Data about what my mental framework needs to strengthen for the next attempt.

Business client leaves? Not rejection. Filtering for better alignment with people who actually value the work.

Writing to 300 subscribers instead of 30,000? Not proof of inadequacy. Foundation being built properly without the pressure of expectation.

At Mode 4, you stop labelling experiences as “good” or “bad.” You stop dividing life into “things I want” and “things I don’t want.” You recognise that everything serves your growth if you extract the lesson instead of resisting the experience.

When you process from Mode 4, you access true inner peace. Not because life becomes easy. Because you stop resisting what is. You stop fighting reality. You stop demanding the universe operate according to your timeline and agenda.

You become unshakeable.

Nothing can knock you off centre because your centre isn’t dependent on external circumstances. Your centre is the recognition that everything is happening for your evolution, even when it doesn’t feel like it in the moment.

Most people never reach Mode 4. It requires surrendering three things humans desperately cling to:

The need to control outcomes.
The attachment to how things “should” be.
The story that some experiences are good while others are bad.

What you lose is the version of you that suffered by resisting reality.

What you gain is the version that flows with it, learns from it, and becomes unbreakable through it.

Where You Actually Are Right Now

Look at your biggest problem. The one keeping you up at 3am.

Ask yourself: What mode am I processing from?

Life happening TO you? You’re looking for someone to blame. The problem exists because of someone else’s actions, the system, the economy, your circumstances.

Life happening BY you? You’re trying to control the outcome through force. You’re pushing harder, working longer, micromanaging every variable.

Life happening THROUGH you? You’re allowing the solution to emerge. You’re asking what wants to happen rather than forcing what you think should happen.

Life happening FOR you? You’re asking what this situation is here to teach you. What capability it’s developing. How it’s serving your evolution.

Same problem. Four completely different experiences depending on your processing mode.

Your circumstances don’t determine your experience. Your processing mode does.

Most people never make this connection. They think changing circumstances will change their experience. They get the promotion, the relationship, the body, the bank account, and discover they’re still processing from the same mode that created the original dissatisfaction.

New circumstances. Same processing mode. Same results.

Shift the mode. Watch everything change without changing anything external.

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The free section above showed you the four processing modes and why most people never escape Mode 1.

The paid section below gives you the complete protocol for shifting modes in real-time.

Upgrade to access the Daily Processing Audit, the Mode-Shift Protocol for each mode, the 30-Day Processing Shift system, and real-world applications from business and ultramarathon breakdowns.

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Your 4-Processing Mode Shift Protocol (Premium Content)