Don't Let the Brain Prevent You From Your Goals

Don't Let the Brain Prevent You From Your Goals

Today is a huge day! New Macbook Pro’s were released! It’s Steve Jobs Birthday! It’s my five-year anniversary with my fiance! Zomg! To you, my dear reader, this information may be of little relevance to you. But what follows is.

This month I’ve set a goal to do 5000 burpees. For you math wienies, that’s just about 180 burpees a day. A burpee is an exercise where you quickly drop to the ground like you’re going to do a pushup and then burst into the air like an excited cheerleader. They really suck; your legs should feel like battery acid was pumped through them if you do them quickly enough. I have 810 left.

Last week I was hit with a multitude of unexpected problems related to my various consulting projects. This last weekend I had to attend a conference from Friday until Sunday afternoon. Early this week I didn’t feel the best. My typical routine is to go to the gym every morning and do 300 burpees along with some weight-lifting. I didn’t go into the gym at all this week, I thought I’d do more at home if I just focused on burpees. I overslept today, I haven’t done one burpee yet today.

Do you see what’s happening? My brain is making small excuses as to why I shouldn’t achieve this goal. The brain wants to be comfortable. It likes to try to tell you why you shouldn’t do a task that will help you be successful. Your brain is trying to protect you.

Seth Godin call’s it the Resistance:

The resistance is the voice in the back of our head telling us to back off, be careful, go slow, compromise.

Next time your brain is trying to prevent you from achieving, force yourself to persevere.

You might also enjoy:

  1. Negativity, Fear, and the Lizard Brain
  2. Embrace Discomfort
  3. If Only

-JP

If you made it this far, you should follow me on Twitter.  

-JP


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