Hi There,
While enjoying my time here in the NC mountains, I’m getting the chance to read a great book – Linchpin – Are You Indispensable? By Seth Godin.
I thought I’d pass along a few good points from the book as I see so many people come up against their own Lizard Brain on a daily basis (myself included).
These are excerpts from the book (– which overall is a very inspiring read that I highly recommend):
The Resistance: Your Lizard Brain
“The lizard brain is hungry, scared, angry and horny.
The lizard brain will fight (to the death) if it has to, but would rather run away.
The lizard brain cares what everyone else thinks, because status in the tribe is essential to its survival.
The lizard brain is not merely a concept. It’s real, and its living on the top of your spine (a.k.a. The limbic system), fighting for your survival. But, of course, survival and success are not the same thing.
The Daemon and the Resistance (Daemon – a mythological being that is part-god and part-human)
The Daemon is your genius – your gifts – your art that you share with the world.
There is a chasm between the resistance and your Daemon – between the part that wants to be safe and invisible and your daemon which is demanding to speak to the world.
The resistance is afraid. Afraid of what will happen to you (and to it) if the idea gets out, if your gifts are received, if the magic happens.
You can’t beat the resistance – you must seduce it.
So the two parts of your brain (the lizard and the daemon) duke it out. And when put on alert, the lizard brain wins, every time, unless you’ve established new habits and better patterns – patterns that keep the lizard at bay.
The reason the resistance persists in slowing you down and prevents you from putting your heart and soul and art into your work is simple:
You Might Fail.
Of course you might. In fact you will.
Not all the time, certainly, but more than you’d like.
And when you fail, then what?
Successful people are successful for one simple reason: they think about failure differently.
Successful people learn from failure, but the lesson they learn is a different one.
They learn that the tactics they used didn’t work or that the person they used them on didn’t respond.
You become a winner because you’re good at losing. The hard part about losing is that you might permit it to give strength to the resistance, that you might believe that you don’t deserve to win, that you might, in some dark corner of your soul, give up.
Don’t.
Going out of your way to find uncomfortable situations isn’t natural, but it’s essential. The resistance seeks comfort. The resistance wants to hide.
Ironically, it’s those who seek out discomfort that are able to make a difference and find their footing.
Discomfort brings engagement and change.
Discomfort means you’re doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they’re busy hiding out in the comfortable zone. When your uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization (yours or someone else’s) rewards you and brings you back for more.”
Michele here:
My point to sharing this with you is to remind us that when it gets tough, challenging, squirmy and uncomfortable, then it means that you’re probably headed in the right direction – in the direction of sharing your genius, your daemon, your gifts, your brilliance with the world in a way that it’s never experienced before because only you can share your brilliance.
So keep sharing your gifts, even when it’s way out past the edge of your comfort zone.
Life is too short to hide out.
Besides the world Needs your brand of brilliance!
Thanks for the inspiration you all have given to me over the years that keep me coming out of my happy little comfortable cave to keep bringing my ‘art’ to the world.
With gratitude~
Michele
