Don’t Ever Quit Advice That’s Never Wrong

 

A mom crouches down to speak advice to her childOkay, a mother’s “don’t ever quit” advice is good advice that’s never wrong. So what else is new?

Well, according to all the personal development/self-help trainers out there, not very much. They’ve all been telling you the same thing for about the last 100 years or so. But in today’s world you need more than that.

A lot more.

See, what all the great personal development leaders seem to enjoy talking about is how your continued persistence will lead eventually to success. Good stuff for sure but what I’ve noticed is that when promoting advice like this it can trigger one great unanswered fundamental question:

What exactly is persistence anyway?

This is a thorny question but it begged to be answered.

For one thing, in today’s parlance it’s not always referred to as persistence. It’s sometimes better known as “grit”. But let’s first look at what the dictionary says about the word “persistence”.

Dictionary definition of "persistence" only describes its usage in language but that is not enough. It does give a definition as far as how to use the word “persistence” in language but says nothing else. It remains a mystery as to it’s source or it’s true nature. When I look up the definition of “grit” it’s pretty much the same thing:

grit: noun

the courage and determination that makes it possible for someone to continue doing something difficult or unpleasant

I mean, it’s okay if you’re happy to just know how best to use this term in your writing or speaking, but as far as understanding it on a deeper level, it won’t cut it.

And when I say “deeper” I mean it.

For me it took a little time – about two decades – to get it as close to being right as I could bring it. Because along the way other seriously big questions were raised as well.

Questions like:

  • What is the actual nature of persistence and determination?
  • Can these attributes be taught at home or in a classroom?
  • How can we make it so that either of these show up more often ?

The answers to these questions are not what you’d expect. Persistence as it turns out, is not a simple two-dimensional object like the words on this page are. It’s not a theory or a rule either. It’s neither a science like math, physics or cosmology.

Teacher in a class of studentsThat’s why it’s a bummer to teach in school. It’s a three-dimensional drive of pure energy but that’s only the short answer. You need and deserve a lot more – and that’s exactly what you’ll find in my new book

3D book cver rendering for The Gut Brain Balm  The Gut Brain Balm – How the strangest brain ever made saves us from death by stress.

It’s coming soon. Stay tuned.

More Power to you.

David's signature in look-like handwriting

Building self confidence is easy but making it stick…not so much

There’s something I know about you that may shock you. 

It’s something that is so crazy and off-the-wall strange that you might refuse to believe it. 

And I wouldn’t blame you at all.

I hope you’re sitting down because here it is:

You have an extra brain. 

Remember, I told you it was crazy? When I first heard of it I thought it was too. Until, that is, I found scientific evidence from a doctor that backed it up

But what on earth has this to do with building my self-confidence?

Good question. Glad you asked.

Let’s start with discussing what exactly we’re talking about when we talk about self-confidence.

According to Wikipedia “Self Confidence” is described as: 

Confidence comes from a Latin word ‘fidere’ which means “to trust”; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in one’s self. 

Trust is a huge factor in building self-confidence and I’ll have more to say about it in a minute. But first let’s be clear on what we’re talking about. 

In my view there are two kinds of self confidence:

  1. Work Mastery – This is confidence that comes from having a high degree of proficiency at a task. This could be anything from playing a musical instrument to being an expert at landscaping. Most people who have been at a job, profession, or doing any particular thing for a long time have this type of confidence.
  2. Social Serenity – This is when you feel comfortable when communicating, working, or just being around other people. You have a comfort level that draws people toward you because you seem sure of yourself and what you stand for. This is generally the most sought after type of confidence. 

Obviously the first type of confidence, Work Mastery, is the most common so for our purposes here we’ll be referencing the second type, Social Serenity, whenever the word “confidence” is mentioned.

If you go online you’ll find a number of remedies for low self esteem or lack of confidence. You’ll see free tips to get you started on building your self confidence. Almost all of them will tell you that it will take persistence to get the job done. In other words, their message is: It will be a long long road.

So, you might see results after you’ve completed the course, read the books, attended the seminar, and contemplated your existence while sitting quietly in a lotus position on a mat by yourself for twenty minutes a day over six weeks or so.

But here’s the good news:Confident person with arms up in triumphant gesture with words describing various positive qualities

  • feeling good about yourself
  • having a sustained self esteem
  • finding the strength that you can trust yourself
  • feeling confident in your abilities 

All the above becomes quickly possible, or not, depending if you are

  1. Aware that you have a second brain in your gut that can be optimized to work with the one brain you’re familiar with, AND
  2. That both of these different brains can be optimized to work together to give you more pronounced insights.

Remember you have not just one but two very different brains in your body. 

As a human being you do two things everyday all day: you think things and you feel things.

And now we know you have a separate brain for each of those two tasks. The one in your head is a thinking brain but it can’t feel anything. There are no pain receptors in the cortex at all.

The other one is in your gut. It’s much smaller but it’s not designed for thinking much. It’s a feeling brain. It feels everything from your greatest joys to your deepest sorrows… and everything in between.

It’s extremely sensitive to pressure. Which is how it does it’s job of managing the complicated work of the digestion process so incredibly well. Of course, that’s not all it does.

If you want to speed up the process to building self-trust and be blessed with an immutable confidence on an ongoing basis your second brain (AKA: your gut brain) is the place to go.

Now, in case your wondering, we’re not going to abandon the head brain. Certainly not. We need both brains working in concert to be able to think and feel at the same time. That way we can experience the good vibes of the gut brain and use that to suppress the noise that the head brain is in the habit of creating. That way we can check the decisions we’re thinking about while, at the same time, see how we feel about them before we put them into action. I call this…

Collaborative Intelligence 

But why do we need this? 

One big reason is to distance yourself from all the negative self talk that’s holding you back. Remember, it’s critical that you need to see that you can trust yourself. That you’re worthy of success. To arrive there means that you must first build a rock-solid self belief. If you can do this your self confidence will soar.

The big question, of course, is how?

The key is to know the truth. The truth that you have been successful your entire life. That kind of truth is powerful stuff. But it’s only found by examining the one thing that backed your success in any achievement you’ve ever had. It’s called your GRIT (better known as the gut drive of persistence).

I have two acronyms that I want you to remember from now on. 

  • GRIT — Gut Recall Increases Traction  
  • GRIT — Gut R ecognizes Internal Truth

Why are these important? Because of a critical finding made by researchers over forty years ago and reported in a book which sold over three million copies back in 1978. It was titled “In Search of Excellence”.  It appears that the old adage ‘Nothing succeeds like success’ turns out to have a sound scientific base…

Researchers studying motivation find that the prime factor is simply the self perception among motivated subjects that they are in fact doing well.

…mere association with past personal success apparently leads to more persistence, higher motivation, or something that makes us do better.

Ya, “something that makes us do better”. I love that. They didn’t have a clue as to what that “something” was but today, after all this time, the answer to that question is coming into focus. And you my friend are going to reap the greatest rewards because of it. That is because you now know about that extra brain in your gut. Knowing this can make a big difference in how you can develop a self confidence that never leaves you.

More power to you.

David 

PS: Want to know more about how you can use your dual-brain system to acquire a through-the-roof confidence and a rock solid self-belief that never leaves you? 

Then go here and learn more about the HERO Tour now.