If I asked you what is holding you back from having a career and life you love, what would be your answer? Would you look to factors at your firm, other people in your personal life, or client demands? Would you name stressors related to kids or finances?
It is easy to point to all of the external factors and look for reasons to explain and justify why something is or is not happening. And certainly, those are contributing factors.
But what if I told you none of those things are preventing you from having the career and life you dream of?
The thing that is preventing you is your brain – and what goes on inside the 6 inches between your ears.
Let’s talk about our brains for a moment. Because your current brain is responsible for blocking your desired progress. And it is also THE tool to creating that life you envision.
So that’s the bad and good news - you are the one getting in your own way AND you already have it within you to create a new path towards that dream life!
When clients work with me, they get brain-based transformation. I’ve been doing this for 10 years. Over the decade, I’ve worked with with a wide variety of clients, from young kids working through trauma to married couples understanding their conflict cycles, to CEOs, to nuclear scientists to lawyers, and Olympic athletes. And I approach topics from the sciences of psychology and neuropsychology – brain-based worked to get long-lasting transformation. I value providing my clients the education on what is happening and why. It helps people understand themselves and take the steps to make changes.
If we are working together, you won’t get a rah-rah motivational speech that pumps you up on the call only for that energy to disappear 20 minutes later. And you won’t get tricky neurolinguistics programming language (NLP) that gets you to feel a certain way temporarily but does not actually promote long-lasting change. No, it’s going in and understanding what is happening in your brain AND us re-wiring your brain together.
See, 90% of your brain is running on automation every day. 90% of all your behaviors, thoughts, decisions, and how you interpret the world is done in your subconscious without your awareness. Soak that in for a second.
The brain has to automate things – it’s like a computer program – otherwise it would be unable to tend to all the big and little decisions of the day in addition to keeping your body alive. Babies are born with just this ability – to stay alive – and then through all the developmental and learning years, these automations are created in our neural networks until our brain is fully formed in our early 20s. All of the automation and the way the brain is wired to interpret the world now, as an adult, is still based on survival first and foremost and what you learned as you grew up. It is constantly taking in new information and experiences, but many of your core beliefs stay the same —- until you do work to change them.
We know from science the way the brain wires success and failure. We can neutralize and erase the automatic negative thoughts, those blocks you have and the current wiring of your brain. We can erase them and create new neural pathways. This is called neuroplasticity, which is your best friend in change. It’s that simple.*
Our thoughts create our emotions, which lead to our actions, and therefore our results (or lack thereof). Over time, repetitive thoughts and emotions create beliefs. But ultimately we are the creator of our thoughts and therefore our results. (This does not mean we can control what comes into our minds, but we can learn how to more effectively deal with unhelpful thoughts.)
Working together, we build networks toward the thing you want – we call this brain priming - to create identity shifts. Our thoughts create emotions, which combine to become beliefs, which then create actions and results over time. We automate these new beliefs into the subconscious. We can see on brain imaging the new neural networks that are created. Isn’t that amazing?! I think so.
So, your inability to move forward thus far in life and do all the things you say you want to do is NOT because you’re not smart or capable, or have a poor work ethic … It’s not because you lack motivation or willpower (which, by the way, both die down after about 20 minutes when our thinking goes back to automation) … it’s because you need to rewire your brain.
And it’s also not your fault because they don’t teach you this stuff in school or work… until you find someone who can teach you and help you with this transformation! Your failure to achieve certain things is not because of all those messages you are telling yourself: I’m not good enough, not smart enough, other people can do it better, etc., it’s because those messages are HOLDING YOU BACK.
Have some compassion and gratitude for your brain, it’s gotten you this far in life. Stop beating yourself up and start dreaming of what you DO want life to look like.
Moral of the story: we need to train our brains to work for us instead of against us.
Are you ready to make some long-lasting transformational changes in your life now or in 20201? Schedule a discovery call… what are you waiting for?
*Simple doesn’t mean easy. It takes effort and work to make the changes you desire, but the investment is worth it!