Lizard Brain

Dream Acheivers

Garth Beyer

I can go on and on about different ways you can advance your career, improve your life, find love, make money, follow your heart, achieve your passions, and live the life of your dreams. Wait … I do go on about all of that. I try to simplify everything and make each lesson short and focused, yet it’s still not short enough. Now there are too many quick lessons. So for all you stragglers, all you movers and shakers, all you who want success simplified, I am going to tell you the two actions you need to take.

Everything you want, your dreams, the life your heart and mind both want, can be achieved by practicing these two actions. These metaphorically-successful-twins are two actions that teach you absolutely everything you need to know about becoming a success in your passion.

The first is to make a list. Hell. Make two or three. My great friend Michelle Welsch calls it a list for dream chasers.

I’ll share my list sometime. I made it just over a year ago. One of the items is to have a book of poems published. The catch is that I want to have the same number of poems as Oscar Wilde … + one. He would respect that.

Similarly, my list of 100 things is actually 110. I’m that kind of guy.

Number 1: Make that list.

The second action is my favorite. It’s closely related to the first. It requires dreaming, fantasizing, feeling strong emotions, and getting lost in the feeling of achieving something. Yet, this second action also appeals to our amygdala, or lizard brain. It’s the single best action you can take to punch fear in its face, to kick shyness in the head, to slap hesitancy from the collection of reactions you can have.

The second action is to get/give your phone number to the opposite sex.

Yes. That means you have to talk to them, introduce yourself, find a way to connect, get them to laugh, create or give something fun and unforgettable, and make a one minute to one hour conversation remarkable.

If you have this skill – rather, collection of skills – you can get a number, you can get a buyer, you can get a partner, you can get a team, you can get a deal, you can get anything you want.

Note: Congratulations if you already have a romantic partner. That doesn’t mean you are exempt from this action. If you end up getting a number, toss it, collect it, or save it for a rainy day. (Yes that last one was a metaphor.) If you don’t like the intimate idea of giving your phone number, give your email, or business card. Make a friend, you never know what kind of connections they will have or what ideas someone new can spark in you.

Number 2: Get/give your number

If you take these two actions, practice them, make them your daily prayer, and integrate the lessons from them into any area of your life, I guarantee you will excel. I bet all my earnings, all my writings, and I’d love to also bet my soul, but someone may already have it (it could be you)

 

Stay Positive & Do The One Two

Garth E. Beyer

You Really Don’t Want To Do What You Love

Garth Beyer

I’m getting a couple of articles published on Under30CEO. Meanwhile I am beginning to write for the Clarion (school newspaper). Also, I attended the PRSSA kick off event tonight and will be going to the Madison chapter of Society of Professional Journalists next week. This is the life of a person going into PR. I want to schedule the meetings with those who lead these organizations and others, I want to be a critical part to the clubs and organizations progress, and I want to connect with everyone I can so that I can learn everything they know.

Secretly though, I don’t want to. I was nervous about submitting the articles to Under30CEO, it took me over a week to convince myself to email the chief-in-editor for the Clarion about a position, I thought I missed the PRSSA event and simply shrugged with a tad of self-dissapointment, and I’m still telling myself that I’m going to the SPJ meeting to connect with people; I don’t need to be connected with someone before I go. To be straightforward, part of me didn’t want to do any of the things that I love doing!

We all want to do what we love, our passion, what makes us most happy to be doing. Yet, even those things make us put on our brakes, question our reasoning, evaluate the risk, let nervousness prevent us from action, and remain passive while the lizard brain takes control. Doing what you love is hard work and though you may want to do it, you will always also not want to do it.

My motto is that you’ll never get anywhere if you don’t do at least one thing a day that you don’t want to do.

Remember, you may not love what you do – and that’s okay, it’s not the point – the point is to love having done what you did more than anything in the world. Eventually, you’ll grow to love doing the things you both do and don’t want to do. It’s about creating habit. Keep doing what you don’t want to do and you’ll end up loving every minute of it.

 

Stay Positive & Commit To Never Skip A Day

Garth E. Beyer

Personally, at the end of the day I will be happy no matter what as long as I did something I didn’t want to do because I know I’ll have made progress whether it appears right away or not.

Shutting Fear Out … In New York

Shutting Fear Out … In New York

Garth Beyer
We may have liberty, but we still have a lizard brain

Who has heard about the lizard brain? No one? Well I’ll have to change that.

The lizard brain is what makes us not do what we say we are going to do. It’s what stops us from checking tasks off our to-do list, it stops us from writing the book we want, stops us from sending that application in, it stops us from living a meaningful, adventurous, exciting life. The lizard brain can also be referred to as the Amygdala, the part of our brain which registers fear. This fear has a voice and it tells us to compromise, to play it safe, to stay where we are comfortable. This reference to the lizard brain was coined by Seth Godin, author, marketer, and revolutionary starter.

During this mass media age, I believe Seth Godin to be one of the most insightful and helpful authors to us digital natives. Seth Godin has written more than 14 books that have all been best sellers and translated into over 30 languages. He writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything. Even if a five-mile wide meteor struck the earth today, you could still say that Seth Godin has made a larger impact on society.

You may think this author is important because you imagine him to be the motivating type. He is no more motivating than a rock. He is however a person who can bring you to understand why you do what you do, rather, why you don’t do what you don’t do. He explains in his most infamous book, Linchpin¸how the closer you get to delivering something, to accomplishment, to taking a risk, the harder the lizard brain works to stop you.  This ability, to make us aware, is what makes Seth Godin so important.

If it’s not clear already, Seth is an idol of mine. Heck, I flew out to New York to see him and wrote about that experience here. Seth has taught me how to build a tribe, inspired me to keep shipping, and has helped me realize the inner workings of my brain and ego in such a simplistic manner. I continue to read his books and build off his ideas and will do my absolute best to get a one-on-one interview with him over the holidays because I am planning a trip to NYC. I truly owe it to Seth for getting me to where I am today. (HT to Seth Godin)

Side note: If anyone has someone they can introduce me to through email/phone/person that either lives in New York or has other contacts in New York, I would greatly appreciate it. I plan on spending the summer in New York to find an opportunity to become more of a writer and to connect with some of the most brilliant minded people. Michelle being one of them, she’s something special! Thank you!

 

Stay Positive & People Help People, Who Help People, Who Help Other People, Who Help More People …

Garth E. Beyer