The Hard Things are the Right Things

Why do we sabotage our efforts to stick with them?

Image Credit: Writer’s Own

I recently noticed how much I’m worming my way out of doing hard things. What was the last hard thing you tried to worm your way out of? Perhaps the trip to the gym this morning? Doing your expenses? Taking on more responsibility at work? Starting your own business?

Luckily, I’ve found both of us a scape goat 🐐 or rather, a scape lizard 🦎 .

Enter: lizard brain

As I started writing this article, my lizard brain decided it wanted cereal. I entertained pleas from the rational brain “we usually eat breakfast at 8am, it’s not even 7am yet” “we’re writing, not eating” “eating before exercise doesn’t feel good” … and now I’m alternately typing and shovelling down handfuls of cereal before 7am. Such is the power of the lizard brain.

What is the lizard brain? Where thinking, logic and judgement come from the cortex, the amygdala or lizard brain regulates our emotion. It’s part of the limbic system and specialises in short-term decisions. It perceives threats almost instantly, reacting quickly to stop or avoid them. Once it sees the signs, it routes immediately to the reflex-like part of the brain that jumps into fight or flight. This can lead to overreactions.

In case you’re wondering what’s so lizardy about it: the part of the brain the amygdala sends its messages to is the basal brain, and this is the largest part of a lizard’s brain — incapable of rationalising responses. The more active the amygdala, the more we think and act like lizards.

What was the perceived threat that lead me to reach for the cereal? Hard work. In the moment, writing isn’t nearly as easy or as gratifying as a sugary snack. The lizard brain was nudging me towards an instant hit versus a hard slog. And I gave in.

How does it impact us?

Left feral, lizard brain is responsible for some pretty serious sabotage. The amygdala can sometimes be overactive. It reacts not only to threats but perceived threats. Fellow overthinkers, I hear you. Almost everything is a perceived threat, right?! Lizard brain’s ultimate goal is to be happily curled up in bed at midday watching daytime TV with the door locked. No threats there… lizard brain can finally catch a break. This means the lizard brain is hard at work any time you dream bigger than watching old Friends re-runs at 2pm. For me, it recently showed up when I wrote down what I wanted to achieve in the coming years, how I wanted to write more and what new skills I wanted to pursue. “Ouch, that sounds like hard work,” said lizard brain. “Remember the last time we had an idea like this and it failed?” It’s the lizard brain’s job to protect you from being hurt all over again, but we need to learn to override it if we want to take risks and achieve our goals.

Isn’t the antidote self-discipline?

Nope. The lizard brain has sneakier ways of appearing on the scene. Imagine you decide to take the plunge and start your own business. Sooner or later you feel the pull to focus on this full-time, to quit your 9–5, “stick it to the man” and go head-first into building your business. That sounds like a thing people with lots of drive and self-discipline do.

Let’s take a step back: what’s the hard thing about this scenario? Building your business. What’s the easiest thing about this scenario? Handing in your resume. We can all quit our jobs tomorrow — that’s the easy part, the hard part is getting enough paying customers to make a living.

On a mission to feel safe (and watch a liiittle bit of daytime TV), the lizard brain distorts our perceptions. It pushes us to quit our job “yeah! I can do this!” but does not encourage us to do the hard things associated with building a business.

It keeps quiet on those until it’s too late. You never feel excited or motivated to cold-call potential customers after a hard day at the office, instead you focus on what it would be like to quit your job and have the whole day to do it. The day comes, and somehow, you find yourself busy on other things. Lizard brain is doing its best work behind the scenes: subtly shifting your attention and drive to low-risk, low-reward tasks.

Can we fight it?

Fighting makes it angry 👹 . We need to find a way to pacify it, without gratifying it. The lizard brain doesn’t listen to rational arguments. Much like a child mid-tantrum, we need to give the lizard brain something else to focus on. In-the-moment, this can be done by switching our attention to our breathing, occupying the lizard brain whilst giving the reasoning side of the brain time to catch up and bring rational thinking to the table.

We can also pre-empt the moments our lizard brain will be most active and put obstacles in its way. If we know lizard brain will lure us back to bed in lieu of a morning workout, we need to lay some traps: ditch the snooze function, get out workout gear the night before and prep a post-workout reward. Make it hard for lizard brain to refuse.

Occasionally, it works to reason with the lizard brain, but it only listens to one kind of argument: “what’s in it for me?”. Let the rational brain come to the rescue and explain the reasoning behind the healthy choice: “I feel groggy when I fall back to sleep but after a workout I feel good.”

The more our habits become ingrained, the more the lizard brain accepts them and picks other battles. It’s the introduction of new habits that remain the biggest threat.

What can we do when lizard brain takes over?

Despite our best efforts to switch our attention, put obstacles in its way and explain “what’s in it for me?” the siren call of the lizard brain is irresistible — for the record, I’m now halfway through that box of cereal. What now? Reflect, then reconsider.

Reflect: did I want to be doing this right now? Or is this my lizard brain running away from what I really wanted to do? Once you know you’re indulging it, you can disarm it by tuning into different perspectives. What does my gut say? What does my head say? Unlock contrasting perspectives to spark reflection.

Reconsider: examine all available options. Which feels the hardest? Why did we dismiss it? Evernote founder Phil Libin explains the lizard brain shows up in fear-based decision-making, which can be deadly for businesses. He advises us to: “choose among long-term options based on which is the most awesome, not which is the least bad.”

Instead of detailing your plan of prevention, detail your plan of attack. Then set some clear goals and watch your lizard brain try to weasel out of them. If it feels uncomfortable, you’re on the right track.

In a Nutshell

Lizard brain is a natural instinct forcing us to enter fight-or-flight mode. Whilst it’s critical to our survival, it often sabotages our success by tempering our ambition and our risk appetite. The key to overriding lizard brain is to pacify, rather than gratify.

Distract it to give the rational brain time to catch up, reflect on your decision and reconsider the available options, choosing the “most awesome” path, not the “least bad”.

Oh, and forgive lizard brain now and then, it just wants an easy life.

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