Social media is curiously addictive. As I write, my hand is poised over the scroll wheel of my computer mouse, and I’m itching to discover what’s going down on Linked In and Facebook.
I find I can’t resist, and I’m not surprised by what I see…
There’s a post on the importance of rethinking your goals, one on how to ‘supercharge’ your business, and another promising that if you’re willing to pay for the privilege, you will learn the secret of living happily ever after.
The internet is awash with this kind of ‘advice’ and trying to follow it all can be exhausting. Even worse, it can make you believe there’s something missing in your life. You blame yourself for not quite measuring up and set off on a fault-finding mission to discover what’s wrong with you.
This isn’t surprising – all human beings behave in unhelpful ways, even defending their own limitations at times. Whenever you do things that don’t benefit you or others, it is usually because subconsciously, you see a situation as threatening. This is simply your brain working in the way it is meant to, by activating your sympathetic nervous system and releasing stress hormones, such as adrenalin and cortisol, into your bloodstream.
Although ‘sympathetic’ may seem an odd word to describe a process that feels so uncomfortable, the mechanism is designed to protect you from real-life danger. It is there to ensure your survival by motivating you to flee from or to slug it out with an adversary.
Of course, you are rarely likely to be in ‘real’ danger in your day-to-day life, though your body may react as if you are actually under attack. So what if you could just relax?
What if instead of wildly searching for the answers to your problems, you had everything you need right here, right now?
Well…you do. It’s called your brain, and it works perfectly. Your brain is the source of all your thoughts and behaviours, and however unhelpful these might be, they aren’t unalterable, and you don’t have to put up with them.
The reason for this is truly incredible: your supposedly ‘fixed’ brain is actually ‘plastic’, meaning it has a natural ability to alter its structure and function. Its 80 billion neurons are each capable of transmitting 1000 nerve signals per second, and of making 10 000 connections with other neurons. Excitingly, when you intentionally tap into this amazing potential and combine it with the power of Functional Fluency, you can’t fail to enhance your experience of life.
Yes, you really can learn to become much more effective in everything you do and consistently get better outcomes. There’s no doubt that you have the power within you to communicate better, have great relationships, AND save loads of wasted energy!
You’re in the driving seat in this whole process. You can actively decide to change some of your less-effective ‘purple pitfall’ behaviours by focusing on ‘golden behaviours’ instead. This means that you will learn to avoid the stress and frustration of behaving according to outdated ‘life scripts’ that lead you to repeat unhelpful behaviours even when you know they don’t work.
Using functionally fluent behaviours consistently over time, means that your ‘plastic’ brain will reshape itself, realigning to form different ‘go-to’ pathways that naturally lead to the better outcomes you are searching for.
There’s no real secret to living a rewarding life, and you probably don’t need another course on how to be happy.
Instead, if you want to discover how to tap into the huge potential of your brain, why not explore The Functional Fluency website, or contact a TIFF Provider today as a brilliant first step towards optimising your brain for a better life?
Dave Brown (September 2022)
