Today’s Thought Splash: Dominating My Lizard Brain!

I first heard of the lizard brain concept in Seth Godin’s latest book “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?“.  Seth explains that:

The lizard is a physical part of your brain, the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear and rage and reproductive drive. – Seth Godin

Lately, my lizard brain has been working overtime.  It’s been screaming telling me I don’t have what it takes to be a blogger, micropreneur, or thought leader.  It goes on and on saying that I don’t have enough charisma, I’m not creative enough, and that people will laugh at me.

The Lizard Brain

The Lizard Brain

The lizard brain’s goal in life is to make sure that you and I go unnoticed.  Being unnoticed is a survival technique that has worked in primitive times and still works today (to some degree). But going unnoticed isn’t going help me become a successful micropreneur and blogger, so for the last several months or so I’ve been training myself to control my lizard brain.  Making sure I don’t let it make any of the decisions.

Steps I’ve taken to dominate my lizard brain:

  • Understand when it’s rearing its ugly head and calling it out.
  • Acknowledge the uncomfortable feeling and press forward anyway.
  • Review past conquests with the lizard brain for inspiration.

When the lizard brain said don’t write this post because it’s too transparent and it will make you look vulnerable.  I pressed through anyway.  And when it said nobody cares what you think about the lizard brain because you’re not Seth Godin, you’re nobody.   I pressed through again. That’s how it is every day, every hour, every minute I try to do something to move towards my goals and step out of my safe zone; the lizard brain is there and every day, every hour, and minute I have to fight it. The good news is that it does get easier with practice!

Today’s Thought Splash: Dominating My Lizard Brain!