Because Your Brain WILL try to Sabotage you
An insight into Self-doubt and Self-sabotage and how to minimize them
Could you take a guess at how many times I have thought of writing articles like this that could help me connect with and possibly help people like you and me, but didn’t? Maybe a million
Can you recall how many times you have wanted to make friends, speak to a new person, or even someone you knew but perhaps hadn’t seen in ages and ended up not doing it? That would be about ‘Infinity times’
We all go through experiences where we think of doing something but end up not doing it. Sometimes, our intuition, or as I like to say ‘alter ego’ might suggest something to us. Most times, that thing is out of our comfort zone; something that we normally wouldn’t do. When we are prompted to do that thing by our ‘alter ego’, it can’t exactly tell us what the next step to take is (for example it can suggest quitting your job but can’t tell what next to do). But once we hesitate to do that thing, our brain figures that it must be harmful or we wouldn’t be hesitating. So, it comes up with a quintillion reasons not to do that thing.
For Example: Imagine someone in a relationship that is toxic to them, platonic, or otherwise. One is meant to quit that relationship, isn’t it? But the brain could come up with a stupid reason like ‘but you know we will be having our yearly get together with the rest of our family,’ or ‘taking a camping trip’ and end with ‘why screw up such a lovely moment?’
Anything not tied to ‘the familiar self’ is perceived as discomfort to the brain and the human brain hates discomfort, so, it protects us by giving us reasons (incredibly silly at times) why not doing that thing is the better decision.
So, what can we do to avoid being sabotaged by our own brains?
Research shows that it takes about 5 seconds or less for our brains to sense a suggested action as a threat. ‘Simple but not so easy’ solution — make a move before 5 seconds run out because once it does, it becomes less easy to do it. Counting to 5 and then taking immediate action is one way a lot of people use to get themselves to take action. (Check out ‘The 5 Second Rule’ by Mel Robbins)
Sometimes, the proposed action isn’t one that can be done immediately (e.g resigning from your job). In situations like that, we might not be able to prevent our brain’s defense mechanism and one way to cope in that situation is to thank our brain for its opinion and go on with it anyways
These solutions are not so easy (i.e. they are easy) but once used enough times, they become easier and open new pathways to endless possibilities.
P.S: It is not a question of ‘if’ your brain will sabotage you because it will. Rather, it is a question of when. So, let’s be ready to escape sabotage
