Fear – our brain could be playing games – 4

Most people talk about how our brain has evolved from the reptilian brain over multiple millinea. Most other animals didn’t have the real estate in their heads to allow for their brains to grow and evolve. Human beings had the real estate and therefore we have been able to evolve. Zebras a hundred thousands years back looked exactly the same as they do today. Human beings a hundred thousand years back and now are totally different.

Now this evolution doesn’t mean that the oldest part of the human brain – the lizard brain – does not exist. It still does. As in lizards its main function is to preserve the life of the lizard. And it believes that it can do it by conserving energy. So whenever you take into a direction where it needs to expend energy, it dissuades you by giving you resistance, by throwing massive negative ideas at you to make you feel scared.

Yesterday I wrote about being fearless versus being reckless.

Being fearless does not mean an absence of fear. It means that when you see resistance, or when fear throws its head up, you realise that there could actually be something worthwhile in that direction. Its just one way for your brain to give you an indication that there’s something new, which it has not encountered before and therefore you need to take a judicious call and move forward.

Your brain is a habit forming, pattern recognition system. If it cannot see a pattern it throws up alarm bells that it will need to spend more energy to do work and therefore it should be avoided because it has to save that energy for your survival. Anytime you learn something new this is what will happen till the new becomes old.

Without being reckless, welcome the fear as a sign of progress for yourself and move forward.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Fear – our brain could be playing games – 3

Fear, Human Brain, Risks, Worry

I have written multiple posts on this topic, the last being on 14th September, because there was I time I used to be scared of so many things. Its taken me a lot of effort to reach this stage where I do take considerable amount of calculated risks.

As I have read more about the functioning of the human brain, more I have started to believe that all fear is actually created because of our brain.

Now I will like to clarify one thing being fearless and being reckless are two different things. So I am trying to become fearless day – by – day. I am not becoming reckless.

What’s the difference. An example of being reckless – If I am driving and I see a truck coming right in front of me, I won’t think its my brain playing games and go straight for the truck . Thats what deer do in the night when they see headlights. I will take evasive measures to move out of the direction of the truck.

As Seth Godin talks about in his book “Linchpin ” Trying to become fearless is not about not having fear but more about being unafraid of things that one shouldn’t be afraid of.

Our brain plays games in making us fear things, which in general we should not be fearful of. Doing a client presentation or making a phone call. Nobody is going to come and shoot you. But in case you are in front of a person who’s pointing a gun at you, then you need to be afraid, real scared. Trying to pull the gun away from her – that will be reckless.

Till next time then don’t have fear but don’t be reckless either.

Carpe Diem!!!

Living abundantly

Abundance, compounding, dreams, Financial Independence, Human Brain, mindset

I keep talking about getting financial freedom or financial independence and how you utilise the magic of compounding to help you get financially free. However compounding is a very very long term game.

While you should be investing, it does not mean that you stop living your life Today. It does not mean scrimping through life. I was telling one of my relatives today, on this same philosphy, that you should learn to live abundantly . What is the point of having money which you save all through your life, but you yourself never enjoy it.

If you’re scrimping to save everything, so that you have something in the future that you will enjoy, then by the time you reach the age when you think you can enjoy, you will be too old to enjoy.

That’s why I mention, that you need to save also for your dreams and tick of the things on your bucket list while you are saving money. I have a huge bucket list of my own, which keeps growing. So while there’s some amount you are investing for the long term, you also need to have a fund to achieve various dreams that you have. And when you hit that target you need to actually go out and do that activity to achieve your dream.

At the moment because of the Covid restrictions, we cannot travel out of India, I am right now active every weekend exploring different countries on YouTube and listing out what I will do when restrictions get removed. Not sure in what shape and form travel will be allowed but I am still putting things on my bucket list.

Now your dreams could be making a boat, or weaving a carpet or going on a hike, take your time to do these activities. Because when you achieve your dreams, it helps improve the performance of your brain. If the brain performs better you actually achieve more and you get more abundance overall. You trick your brain by living abundantly and therefore get more abundance. Its a mindset issue. I am not taking about taking loans and living out of your means. However I am definitely asking you to invest money for your short term dreams, mid-term aspirations and long term goals, instead of only long term goals.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Welcoming constraints

constraints, creativity, Fear, Human Brain, possibility thinking, problem solving, Uncategorized

I have written multiple times before how I used to be scared when problems came my way.

One of the first people to influence me against being scared was the writing of Jay Abraham. One of the things that has stuck in my mind is one statement – the bigger the problems you solve, the more you can earn.

Over the years, as I have matured the ability to handle challenges has also changed but still there are times when constraints baffle me.

Realizing that its the rain which tries to create all our challenges has helped me in managing the thought process around handling constraints.

A book that I found useful with a good set of tools for welcoming constraints is A Beautiful Constraint by Adam Morgan and Mark Barden.

While a lot of people will talk about looking at the positive side of things and about, thinking out of the box etc. This book gives practical tools which if you use make your brain actually look for options and find solutions.

The more I read about the challenges that we face, the more I realize its our brain which creates mountains out of mole hills.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!