Michael Gervais

Most of us really understand what it feels like to not go for it, to play it safe and in return play it small so that you're not rejected.

And so much so that I think it's one of the greatest constrictors of our potential.

I think that it is a hidden epidemic that we don't talk about enough, but I think most of us really intimately understand what it feels like to not go for it, to play it safe and in return play it small so that you're not rejected, so that you maybe have a better chance of being accepted by other people.

And so much so that I think it's one of the greatest constrictors of our potential.

Well, to our best abilities, when we think about how our brain works, it is optimized for survival.

And when I talk about the brain, I'm talking about the 3.2 pounds of tissue that sits inside your skull, the mass that is chemical and electrical and has tissue and a relationship that gives us our sense of how to navigate the world.

And I'm not talking about the mind yet.

So the mind is the software that runs the hardware, okay?

But if our software is not optimized, if it's not upgraded to meet modern challenges or to work in a way that is aligned with purpose, the hardware is going to run the show.

The hardware meaning the brain.

And go back, you know,

a couple hundred thousand years ago, and if you and I were in the tribe and we were kind of knuckleheads and we would show up and we'd be sloppy with the way that we would handle our business or we were constantly saying stupid things or we were letting other people down on timeliness or performance standards or if we went hunting or we had to go gather firewood or whatever we were doing and it was substandard of an output, the elders of the tribe at some point would be like,

Mike, Mike, I'm so sorry, but you guys got to go.

So that rejection, that kicking out, being kicked out of the tribe was something that was a near death sentence.

And that was a couple hundred thousand years ago.

And now rejection is not a near death sentence, but we haven't changed that programming.

So the brain still responds to the potential of rejection as if it is one of the most dangerous things that could happen.

And that is one of the more unexamined 200,000 year ago programming that we're still experiencing in modern times, but we haven't really brought it to the surface.

And the last couple of years of mine has been to really examine what is this process and how do we work with it?

How can we find some relief and some optimization by better understanding this deeply ingrained programming to fit in, to belong?