Let's Get It Started (Black Eyed Peas). Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ (Michael Jackson). There are probably countless other songs about getting it started. It's a new year, and we here at Inner Matrix Systems are ready to break the seal and Get. It. Started! At the beginning of any journey it's of the utmost importance to have belief in the outcome. You have to see it in your mind's eye. You have to feel it in your nervous system. And as we know here at IMS, belief is a choice. Belief is trained. And you have GOT to train it, because when things get tough, you'll need it.
Suppose I handed you an envelope and inside the envelope were tickets for an all expenses paid trip, 10 days anywhere in the world. All you had to do was pick the place, book the tickets, and make all the arrangements. Short of physically restraining you, is there anything I could do to slow you down or stop you from making those plans? My guess is, it would be top of mind right up until you stepped onto the airplane. You’d be hitting that Duolingo, boning up on your Italian, or your French, or your Punjabi, you’d be researching hotels and resorts, you’d be booking day trips, you’d be telling everyone within earshot about all the things you’re going to do.
On the other hand, suppose I gave you an envelope and inside the envelope was a congratulations note on your new promotion. All you had to do was earn it. Land the new account and the job is yours. Is there anything I could do to stop you from procrastinating and rationalizing all the reasons why you're procrastinating? You’d be spending your days on edge, in a constant state of panic. You’d be counting all the ways things could go wrong. You’d be placing unreasonable demands and expectations on the people around you.
There are obvious benefits to spending 10 days in Maui or Crete. Time with family or friends, adventure, new experiences. There are also obvious benefits to getting a promotion. More financial security, upward mobility, a sense of accomplishment and pride. So why do we react so differently to each scenario? We might be tempted to say there’s more potential downside to going after a promotion. We could fail, we could embarrass ourselves, we could let down the people around us. But there’s just as much potential downside to traveling. The flight could be delayed or cancelled, the hotel could turn out to be a real pile of you-know-what, we might get sick or have a medical emergency while in a foreign place.
It’s not about the downside. But it’s also not about the upside. It’s the difference in how we perceive a vacation as opposed to a promotion. And it’s about the emotional attachments we bring to each. For most people, a vacation, regardless of the destination, has a huge emotional component. It means camping trips with mom and dad, summers with grandma and grandpa. Vacation means feelings of love, joy, and connection. What’s there to not look forward to? But a promotion, even with all its potential upside, presents a challenge. And our nervous systems are hardwired to be very wary of a challenge.
Let’s say you’re an early human, living in a tribe somewhere on the plains of Africa. Food supplies are running low and you’re preparing to go on a hunt. You could be gone for weeks, living off the land, knowing you can’t go home until you have a store of meat on your back. There will be predators, rival tribes, possible long stretches without food or water. It’s not something to take lightly. From the moment you step away from camp, your nervous system goes on full tilt, looking for threats around every corner.
Flash forward a hundred thousand years or so, and your nervous system is still looking for threats around every corner. Going for the promotion is going on a hunt. Instead of landing game, we’re landing the account. As far as the nervous system is concerned, they’re the exact same thing. If we screw up the promotion, the tribe won’t eat. Every obstacle or challenge on the way to the promotion is a black mamba hiding in the grass, or a poison-tipped spear in the hands of an enemy. Anything we perceive as a challenge, whether it’s that promotion, or losing 30 pounds, or repairing a damaged relationship, the nervous system is going to light up with warning signs. The difference between making the promotion happen and letting it slip away is in how we react when those warning signs start flashing.
The good news is, we can let the nervous system do its thing, but we don’t have to let it call the shots. See, while the nervous system lives deep in the ancient part of our brains, we also have something called the prefrontal cortex. That’s where we take the feelings generated by the nervous system and try to interpret what those feelings mean. Now, we could spend the next couple hours analyzing all the reasons why we interpret those feelings the way we interpret them, but that’s for another blog. For our purposes here, let’s just understand that if we can recognize feelings like fear and anxiety as just the nervous system’s way of saying, Hey, there may be danger ahead, then we can also decide how we want to react to those feelings.
Something I’ve found that almost all successful people have in common is the ability to believe in an outcome. Which makes perfect sense when you think about it. You can’t build the Brooklyn Bridge if you don’t believe you can do it. The challenge is maintaining that belief no matter what “threat” presents itself. Knowing, without a doubt, that you’re coming home from the hunt with enough to fill everyone’s belly. Feeling the fear and anxiety, but recognizing that you can use it to your advantage.
Sure, going after a big promotion can be scary. Starting anything new can be scary. But it doesn’t mean there’s anything to actually be scared of. It’s just the nail biting mother called your nervous system, telling you to take a sweater if you’re going to go out. Understand that, then turn your focus back to the outcome. Believe that the promotion is yours. Or that you can run that marathon. Or that you can have rich, fulfilling relationships in your life. Hey, if I handed you those free tickets, you’d have no trouble believing that you’re going to spend 10 days sitting on a white sand beach. Why not take on a challenge with the same mindset?
So, are you ready to get something started? Doesn’t matter what it is, it’s never too late to start. Ask yourself, Is my belief unshakable? If you're wondering...let's train it. Join us for a Power Series weekend where you can pick a space in life and get that belief system tuned up. Because you can get from where you are to wherever you want to go, you just have to believe you’re going to get there. Click HERE to learn more about the Power Series and sign up today!
