(Look at that tree clinging to a tiny piece of dirt in the middle of a rock wall. It isn’t supposed to be able to do that. There is barely enough sunlight in that narrow ravine, nor is there sufficient water on the side of a cliff. Good thing the tree doesn’t believe that. It believes it has the right to grow wherever it wants to. And it likes this precarious ledge just fine.)
I hear so many people say “I can’t” and then they give me the reasons they can’t.
Too old.
Too in debt.
Not good enough.
Wrong gear.
Wrong town.
Wrong year.
Wrong economy.
Too much competition.
And it makes me feel like grabbing them and yelling in their faces “NO, you are justifying your belief because you and your brain will forever want you to be right!”
That’s what our brain does. It is our best friend and worst enemy but it is not malicious in any way. It wants us to be right.
If we believe something, we want to be right in that belief. Our brains will look at the world with the tendency to prove how right we are. Its primary purpose is to help us justify our rightness.
So if we believe we are too old to do something, our good and trusty brain will look for things real and imagined to help prove that our belief that we are too old is absolutely correct.
We can call it selective bias, but it goes farther than that.
It permeates everything we do, say, think, plan, and execute.
If you think you are too old to ride a motorcycle, then you will find all the reasons old people shouldn’t ride motorcycles. You will point out brittle bones and lack of strength.
If you think you can ride a motorcycle at 70, you will ride one and prepare for the things that may happen because of lack of strength or brittle bones. You compensate by hitting the gym, eating right… and riding that beast!
When you are scared, the bias of being right becomes even more important.
Changing jobs is a scary thing to do.
Our brain starts telling us all the things we need to hear to make sure we are right about how stupid it is to think we could be a professional artist or designer or writer.
The brain finds every tidbit it can piece together to help us prove we are right.
No steady paycheck.
No health insurance.
No stability.
No corporate safety net.
Too many competitors.
Too many horror stories about how others failed.
And on and on it goes.
And believe me, the brain is very good, extremely good at making sure our fears are justified, and our beliefs are absolutely correct.
But in truth, nothing above is true for any given person. Not true as in forever true. Not globally, universally true like physics.
What if you decided that you have had enough of the corporate cube and that you were pretty goddam sure there was a better way to live and work.
Then the brain starts looking for ways to help that belief become true for you.
Where once were obstacles, you see opportunities. Your brain makes sure of that.
It wants you to be right.
So much of what we think is wrong with our lives is really how we have decided to believe in what we think we believe in. And our brain has selected what we need to see to validate every part of our argument for what we believe.
Wanna be a full time creative?
Change your beliefs. Tell your brain you want out of the cubicle and the 9-5 crap and you want freedom.
BELIEVE IT.
And your brain will start to work showing you how right you are in your belief that you CAN do what you want. You CAN be a creative and make the money you need to make. There ARE ways to live the life you want to live.
I truly believe you can be whatever you want to be.