Your Rider, in “doing its job,” engages in different (let’s call them) operating modes. Just as the ERM is a useful metaphor for understanding how one’s mind works, understanding the different ways your Rider “works” can also be quite helpful in learning how to make it “work better” AND when to appropriately (i.e., to real advantage) enter a particular mode the Rider is capable of engaging.[1]

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Your Rider’s most familiar operating mode is experienced as the (we’ll call it) Being Mode.  This could be described as your default or normal mode, which is a kind of “automatic mode” where you are happily wrapped up (or maybe not so happily) in thoughts and feelings as they come and go, engaging in some ongoing mental commentary (call it “self-talk” or that “intrapersonal conversation”), and – when so immersed – interacting socially with the external world (with all its associated drama, familiarity, and routine).  Being Mode is generally driven emotionally – and that means more than less by your Elephant(!) – and while fueled by various natural desires (i.e., feelings like desire, curiosity, lust, hunger, thirst, and boredom) your Rider (you!) is primarily experiencing the world in one of serial reaction; this is sometimes referred to as “being on automatic pilot.”  Another way to consider it is that in Being Mode, the Rider is pretty much “just along for the ride.”

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Then there is Thinking Mode, a higher level of cognitive, intellectual engagement, in which the Rider is focused on solving a problem, comprehending an event, or trying to better understand an experience.  This mode is engaged proactively and supported by developing different types of thinking, other psychological skills like self-regulation, analysis, and open-mindedness, as well as learning more formal strategies like CBT. 

Thinking Mode is most commonly driven by a need (actually an emotion, like cognitive dissonance, that fuels some kind of desire, e.g., to problem-solve or reconcile) or that particular emotional culprit we call anxiety.  And thus worrying can lead to a kind of “thinking mode” experience that can positively foster concern and appropriate preparation to mitigate or avoid negative consequence; but then… it can also become [even very] dysfunctional as when “the thinking” is dominated and overwhelmed (i.e., as in obsessive ruminating) by the driving emotion (i.e., again, that anxiety, tension, fear).

Another way of engaging Thinking Mode is called mindfulness – which is the Rider (you!) in self-directed focused awareness on what is happening in the present moment with one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

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Another operating mode you are likely familiar with is Learning Mode.  As the name implies, this is a state of directed concentration, is implicitly goal-oriented, and is usually experienced to a rather great extent “egoless” (i.e., one’s sense of self, or self-awareness) is absent[2]).  Learning mode of the volitional type (as in “I want to…”) is driven by curiosity and desire.  Learning mode of the “have to” kind is driven more often by some kind of fear, e.g., of having to avoid negative consequence, disapprobation, or death.

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Another mode that can be engaged is (we’ll call) the Observing Self . This may require some training and practice to understand – because it’s not generally taught to us when we’re young.  It can be described as the Rider’s ability to “step off the merry-go-round of life” and see the world (as in what’s happening on the merry-go-round) from a detached and more objective (i.e., less emotional) perspective. It can be used – and is helpful in understanding and “applying” that element of mindfulness referred to as “nonjudgmentally.” Engaging this mode is actually another psychological skill, and one quite helpful in utilizing cognitive practices that bring about well-being.

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There are other Rider modes you may come to identify, develop their respective skills, and use to effectively meet your needs, manage your desires, and achieve your goals in life. One includes the Inner Lawyer – an ability to argue for and against (a.k.a. disputation) one’s desires and choices. Yet another is the Press Secretary – the skill in justifying our judgments and behaviors, first to ourselves but then to others (e.g., to gain acceptance or avoid rejection).

All of these operating modes could be described as roles that your Rider (that is, you!) engage or “step into;” and, ironically, you do this mostly unconsciously(!) when needed or appropriate.  Each mode or role is also effected – and affected – by the skill and proficiency you develop “in its use.”  This implies that your Rider can learn how to be “a better rider” – and this happens naturally[5] (it’s called “growing up,” “maturing,” and “being educated”) BUT can also happen by proactive intent; that is, you deciding to learn, practice, and develop such capabilities.[6]

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[1] Until one learns “that one can” and “how to engage” different Rider modes, it is something done naturally, or “automatically;” i.e., the mind seems to move “seamlessly” from one mode to another as events and “needs” dictate.

[2] See Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow…

[5] The area of the brain for such “thinking” (i.e., Rider functioning) is the pre-frontal cortex, which generally develops from age 7 to around the mid-twenties.

[6] See Psychological Skills.

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*Elephant/Rider Model: The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt, 2006.