# 4 Innocent
Mistakes Your Brain Makes To Keep You Safe
#
Napoleon
Hill once said, “The reason man may become the master of his own destiny is
because he has the power to influence his own subconscious mind.”
Your
subconscious mind is a funny thing. On one hand, it wants the best for you. On
the other, its definition of “the best” sometimes qualifies as self-sabotage.
1. Your
Brain Stops You From Questioning Your Own Beliefs
Have you
ever scrolled through your Facebook feed and noticed that almost everything you
see is a reflection of your interests, beliefs and people you like?
Facebook has
an algorithm to show you content that it thinks you’re going to like - and your
subconscious mind does the same thing to your life by drawing you to opinions,
people and places that match your own belief system.
The problem?
It also blocks out anything it considers a threat to your comfortable worldview
- which in turn, stops you from discovering alternate perspectives about life,
work, love and everything that matters to you; keeping you trapped in a
restrictive ‘Reality Bubble’.
Solution: Make a conscious effort to surround
yourself with a variety of opinions and personalities, and stay open to
evolving your own beliefs over time in a way that serves your higher needs.
2. Your
Brain Makes You Lazy
You know
what I’m talking about: Procrastination, jumping to conclusions, not finishing
what you started, stereotyping people and situations without giving it much
thought, etc.
There are
many ways your brain takes sloppy shortcuts to try and save its computational
power - but often at the expense of the greater good.
In trying to
preserve its energy, your brain also robs you of the opportunity to maximize
your productivity, learn new skills, understand others on a deeper level, and
do work you can truly be proud of.
Solution: Create systems that encourage your
subconscious mind to avoid shortcuts. Reward yourself when you finish a book,
for example, and practice daily rituals that prevent procrastination. As you
keep doing this, your brain will build new neural pathways for your desired
behavior, making it more and more effortless as time goes on.
3. Your
Brain Will Blame Anyone But You
One of the
hardest things in life is admitting you were wrong. Why?
Because this
forces you to take an honest look at yourself, knock down your ego a few
notches, and adjust your behavior or beliefs so you don’t make the same mistake
again.
Your brain
would rather not put in this effort, and would much prefer to point to another
person, situation or outcome as the source of the mistake. Just so you can dust
your hands off and say, “It wasn’t my fault!”
Solution:
Constantly remind
yourself that mistakes are normal and can even be healthy stepping stones
towards a better you. Making a mistake doesn’t dis-empower you; what’s
dis-empowering is when you handle that mistake in the wrong way.
4. Your
Brain Traps You In Busywork
Life coach
Brian Tracy often reminds people that the secret to maximum productivity is to
start your day with your most challenging and impact task. Your subconscious
mind, on the other hand, tries to make you do the opposite - which is to set
aside the uncomfortable high-impact tasks in favor of the easy, but ultimately
meaningless ones.
If you’ve
ever found yourself putting off that crucial presentation or phone call until
the end of the day, then you’ll know how easy it is for this to become a bad
habit.
Solution: Keep thinking about that lingering
sense of dread at the back of your mind, when you know you’ve still got that
one big task to finish at the end of the day - and how much better you’d feel
if it was already done.
Adapted : The Blog
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