Once upon a time, I allowed my brain-chatter to forecast my future. This is the equivalent of using a lag indicator in business; a scorecard for where I’ve been – not where I’m going.
Seen as a record of the past, you can use brain-chatter like any other historical document. Repeat it or learn from it.
Last week, when I was tired, I heard the voice of my younger petulant teenage self: “I don’t want to… You can’t make me…”
My brain had gone back to the past to help me cope with the future (ha ha). When my resilience is low, and I’m not paying attention, I am easily led astray. It is in that moment that I have a duty of care to self. Lead or lag?
It’s a choice: Create your future or create frustration.
If you have dreams, goals and aspirations, they won’t be filled by following your brain. You need to lead your brain. Your brain needs attention, instruction and training.
“Any human could be the sculptor of his own brain.”
Santiago Ramon y Cajal, Nobel Peace Prize
Your brain also needs time to catch up to your new reality.
The way you think is a habit, and just like any habit, it takes time to break and think differently. Remember, lead indicators signpost the way to a new future, AND they need action in the present to make them your reality.
Here’s the opening
You have an opportunity to unhook yourself from the past; from your brain-chatter; from cultural ‘norms’ and standards; from the choices you’ve made based on unconscious ‘truths’.
But to do so requires you to slow down and look within. You can only convert those truths into content that supports your goals once you ‘know them and own them’.
In the 1800s, American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
I choose my filters based on utility. I create my future using conscious choice.
When you want to live with freedom; when you want to live for the experience of life, it comes with 100% responsibility for everything that shows up. That’s the deal.
Sound tiring?
Here’s the kicker
As part of the deal, you get to choose where you commit your energy and where you don’t.
When you learn how you operate, you can choose the decision-making process that works for you. Then you get to implement it every day in order to find your own answers. They replace the brain-chatter and create lead indicators for the future.
Lead your brain and be free to create life your way.
As the ‘chaos’ around us continues, choose your view and plan your own adventure for life.
