It’s Show Time..
You are about to schedule a life-changing meeting. You are about to release a product or masterpiece you have been creating for months. You are about to give a speech in front of one hundred of your colleagues. You are about to publish a blog post you have been working on day and night.. Are your palms sweaty yet? It seems the closer your launch/release is, your fear grows with more intensity.
The Lizard Brain
Seth Godin frequently references the Amygdala, also known as the lizard brain. The lizard brain is that little section of your brain composed of resistance, doubts & fears that makes it’s grand appearance right when you are about to launch. Any time we are ready to do the great thing we have preparing for, the lizard brain slithers up to scare.
Is it good enough? Am I prepared enough? Will the people like it? And we hold back.
Will the lizard brain go away? Never. But your goal: to suppress it.
“The lizard brain isn’t going away. Your lizard brain is here to stay & your job is to figure out how to quiet it & ignore it” – Seth Godin
Keep it Down, Amygdala
You have prepared endlessly, you are more than ready. What are you waiting for? SHIP. You have to remind yourself why you are here and how much work you have put in to get to this point. We all want perfection, but if we don’t ship, we won’t learn and we won’t mold. We won’t thrash and we won’t progress.
We need you to launch, speak or dominate the interview. Your fellow creatives have your back and want you to make (and keep making) the world a better place. Remember that there are not a lack of ideas, the final execution is the problem. Again I tell you, SHIP.
“If your mindset is that you ship.. it is in fact an obligation. I have had many, many, many products. The vast majority of the things I have written or created, organizations I have built.. fail. But the reason that I have managed success is just because I keep shipping. And if you are proud of what you ship and you ship on time and on budget, you get to do it again. And then you get to do it again.” – Seth Godin
For further inspiration check out Seth’s speech “Quieting the Lizard Brain” below.
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