John Assaraf

Can you get hurt doing this?

Can you die?

Yes.

No, no.

Okay.

Next box.

Can you get mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially hurt?

Yes, no.

If any one of those is a yes, breaks go on, right?

Breaks go on in a nanosecond.

Cortisol is released in the, you know, through the brain to be high, high alert because it's a threat state.

So high alert, heart rate pumps, you know, and blood is flowing to be able to get to the muscles in case you need to run away or fight.

Anger may pop in for protection, which is one of the core emotions.

But let's say that there is a chance that I'm going to fail in the pursuit of what I want to do.

Whether I want to lose weight, whether I want to go and ask that guy or that girl what his or her name is, or I want to ask my boss for a raise, or I want to move up the chain of command in my company and I want to climb the corporate ladder, so to speak, or I want to go raise $10 million for my business venture.

If there's a chance of failure or there's a chance of being embarrassed, ashamed, ridiculed, judged, rejected, abandoned, unloved, hurt somehow, we go into this preservation mode automatically.

Not because there's something wrong with our brain.

It's there to fulfill its priorities.

Safety and avoidance of real or imagined pain or discomfort first.

Behind me, you're going to see I've got Frankie's monster over there.