Brain Tricks

I haven’t written a blog for my 9 month anniversary for the “No Sugar, No Flour and mostly no Corn… Project”.   And it’s almost time for the 10 month anniversary blog!  And I still haven’t written a single word.  Until now.

My topic was going to be on how to get excited about a long term goal that had become ordinary… because that’s how I’ve been feeling.

And then, I saw an article entitled “Learning to combat your Brain’s brilliance which can have devastating effects on important long-term Goals”. (by G. Ciotti)   (see link below…I want you to read mine first…)

In that blog, I learned I had a brilliant brain because I’ve done every one of the things that were mentioned in the article! And I’m motivated all over again, though in a different way!

Here are the points that were made:

Your Brain,

1. – can hurt your goal when you fantasize about the end results too much.  While being positive about the future can be beneficial, too much fantasy can have disastrous results. Why?  Because it causes us to celebrate success in the here and now and fails to alert us of potential problems along the way. Because in our mind, we’ve already made it!
2. – procrastinates on big projects by envisioning the impending huge workload.  Procrastination begins to set in as you find ways to ‘skate’ around the hard work and trick yourself into thinking you’re busy.
3. – will abandon ship at the first signs of distress.  It can convince you that all is lost!
4. –loves mindless busy work disguised as progress; it loves menial work which may or may not have anything to do with the goal.
5. –isn’t good at “winging it” when it comes to planning…ever.

I bet you’re wondering how my brain could have tricked me like this, right?  Let’s start with my Coach for Better Health blog.  I started out strong early in October – with both written & video blogs, letting you know of my progress with the No Sugar & No Flour Experiment.  I monitored each morsel of food carefully and either wrote about it or told you about it.  I realized I was eating too many corn chips, so I deleted Corn from the experiment.  But not completely, because I couldn’t see going for the rest of my life without popcorn.  I let you know of each and every infraction… oh wait!  There weren’t any!

These days though, I’m looking ahead to September 23^rd, positive that I’m going to make it and have been worrying about what’s going to happen when I reach that goal.(celebrating success before the success)  So much so, that I’ve not paid as much attention to what secret sugars could be lurking in the bottles of dressings or sauces. (too much work)  I can pretend the sugars aren’t there… I’m not diabetic, after all! (skating around the hard work…)  As for the corn?  I’ve had some chips… and some corn… but not at the same time, and the goal is MOSTLY no corn, right?! (1^st signs of distress- should I even bother?)  As for the blog?  Well, I DID write a blog for Paradise MedSpa…I’ve been SO busy!  Plus, I hurt my back so I’ve had to watch a lot of HGTV to recover… (absolutely no planning! (brain tricks #1, #2,# 3 & #4…  oh, #5 too!)   

Wow.  I didn’t realize my brain was THAT brilliant.  Because at the time, the rationale made perfect sense!

So, what am I to do?

I think it’s important to start with #5…  Plan, plan, plan.   For someone like me who’s always liked to ‘fly by the seat of my pants’, this doesn’t come naturally.  But each day, write down what’s important to complete by the end of the day.  Remind yourself of the over-all goal, but be motivated by short term goals, like making sure you got all your servings of vegetables, or that you drank enough water for the day. And at the end of the day, take time to appreciate your accomplishments – they are worth celebrating!

When you get a chance, check out the link below.  It gives great handles on how to out-trick your brain!  It’s motivated me to discover new ways to out-wit myself…

http://blog.http://blog.bufferapp.com/how-our-brains-stop-us-achieving-our-goals-and-how-to-fight-back