Your Transmission Matters

Yesturday I wrote about the fact that there was a 1 in 4 HUNDRED TRILLION chance that you would be born to the parents you have, with your genetic makeup, at this time in human history.

Today, I'm going to tell you why you keep screwing things up and self-sabotaging without even being aware of it.

Your brain is a fascinating piece of bio-engineering; it keeps us alive with involuntary actions like breathing (because hey, if we had to remember to do this, we would already be long dead), telling us when we need food or water and sleep. So in the bio-mechanical sense, its awesome.

But psychologically, your brain is too dependent on how you feel to be truly effective.
Your brain has two main modes. Automatic, and Manual. Yep, just like a car.
When you switch into Auto, everything is boring. It's the same routine with the same people, the ame food, same work, same patterns and we don't really pay attention to it. Before you know it, ten years have flown by and you didn't grow a single bit. You didn't even get to really live those ten years!
Ever driven to work or to the grocery store and then thought "how did I get here? who drove the car?" that's your brain on Auto.
Manual on the other hand, is the flip side to Auto. It demands you manually tell it what to do: what to think, when to do something, and how. You literally have to switch gears on this one, and really pay attention because if you don't. you'll blow up the engine, metaphorically speaking. It requires you to put in the effort to use your mind as it was intended: to think!

Oh, and there's one other nifty thing you brain has: the Emergency Brake! the Emergency Brake is deployed everytime you transition from Auto to Manual. Anytime you shake up your routine, its there and kills the idea, inspiration or thought you had. It immediately makes you STOP and take the auto-option. Why? because its EASIER on our brains to do the auto thing than to actually think and act on our own at a higher level of functioning.

So, how do you beat it?

Its simple, but it's not easy. You have to stay in Manual, and make yourself do the things your auto-brain doesn't want you too. It means you have to get up out of bed on time and not hit the snooze button. It means you have to eat that apple and not the Crunchy bar your craving. It means you have to start taking yourself seriously and responsibility for your actions because nobody else is to blame for where you're at now and where you're going, except you.

You made the decision to eat that extra chocolate, not call the hot girl from the bar, or take that job. What are the next 10 years of decisions going to look like?