Why Achieving Your Goals Is Hard Sometimes

Don’t you think it’s quite extraordinary that we are all born with arguably the most amazing tool on the planet? 

A brain.  

It comes with our human package; we don’t even have to pay extra for it.
 
Unfortunately, most people don’t take advantage of it.

We never program it ourselves, we just use it with it's factory settings.
 
You see, our brains are hard wired to do three main things:
 
Seek Pleasure (food, entertainment, sex etc...)
Avoid Pain (physical pain, failure, the discomfort of stepping out of our comfort zone)
Conserve Energy ( Work out? Noooo... let's sit on the couch instead)

To make everything a little harder our brains don’t like change.  See, there is a little part of our brain called the amygdala which interprets change as a threat and releases the hormones for fear, fight, or flight.  Your body actually tries to protect you from change. That is why so many people,when presented with a new idea—will resist it.  
 
To make matters worse our brains have never evolved past the caveman days.

For example....

If your goal is to lose weight, your brain fights you tooth and nail because it wants to eat all of the fabulous tasting food all of the time.  Your brain doesn't understand that you don't have to forage for food anymore. 

If your goal is to run a marathon your brain will tell you not to go on that training run.  Training can be painful, don't do it.
 
If you want to get fit your brain sees working out as the devil itself, it doesn’t want you to exert yourself in case you have to run from danger.(aka lions and T-rex's).  Totally explains why some of us spend a lot of time on our couches.
 
Truly, it’s a wonder anyone ever achieves anything beyond binge watching Bridgerton and eating chocolate cake.
 
But, I have some good news, you can learn to use your brain to accomplish anything you want and you can start with two simple steps....
 
First:  You have to talk to your brain more than you listen to it. 
Remember, you are not your brain, you are a soul with a brain.  Tell your brain what you are going to do.  Tell your brain you can do hard things and that you and your brain will be okay no matter what.
 
Second: More often than not you have to do what your brain tells you not to do.  If your brain tells you not to start that podcast, write that book, take that class, you have to do it anyway.  You have to do the very thing it doesn’t want you to do over and over again. 
 
Programming your brain takes  practice but, the results you create will be worth it!

xoxo