{"id":37972,"date":"2017-10-17T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T05:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=37972"},"modified":"2017-10-17T00:01:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T05:01:32","slug":"break-business-as-usual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/break-business-as-usual\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Break out of Business as Usual"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether we know it or not, we all rely on a few basic strategies for moving through the social world. Different people adopt different strategies. Some try to be helpful and friendly; others aim for perfection. Some try to be attractive and productive, while knowledge is the goal for others.<\/p>\n

The problem is that most of us have been using the same strategie<\/a>s for too<\/em> long. They worked at some point, but we forget that we are seeing the world through our own unique lens\u2014and that perspective can sometimes be limited. These adaptive strategies become a kind of \u201cprogramming\u201d we repeat over and over again, even when it doesn\u2019t fit the situation we are in.<\/p>\n

Getting Defensive<\/h3>\n

We\u2019ve probably all heard someone describe somebody else (often somebody they don\u2019t like) as having a \u201cbig ego.\u201d And we all know what this means\u2014this person displays an outsized sense of themselves and their own importance. But the ego\u2014or personality\u2014is not the bad guy in this story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Being an \u201cunconscious\u201d person or an \u201cunconscious\u201d leader is actually a fairly normal way of functioning. It simply means the default “programming” you developed to survive in the world ends up driving most of what you do. It becomes business as usual: \u201cjust the way we are.\u201d When this is the case, we are operating defensively, out of a subconscious desire to protect ourselves<\/a> from threatened changes to our “programmed” leadership methods.<\/p>\n

Complicating this defensive process is the fact that our physical brains also get involved. The design of our brains motivates us to react according to biological, wired-in “programming” we often don\u2019t have conscious control over (unless and until we learn our way out of it).<\/p>\n

As neuropsychologist and meditation teacher Rick Hanson states in his book Buddha\u2019s Brain<\/em>, our brains have a built-in \u201cnegativity bias\u201d that primes us to avoid certain experiences but ends up making us suffer in a variety of ways. This bias originally helped us to survive by enabling us to recognize threats\u2014like lions chasing us, or the dangerous possibility of falling off a nearby cliff. But even when we aren\u2019t really in danger, says Hanson, it \u201cgenerates an unpleasant background of anxiety,\u201d which can \u201cmake it harder to bring attention inward for self-awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since negative experiences have the most impact on survival, we get locked into response patterns that helped us avoid painful situations early on. This negativity bias also \u201cfosters or intensifies other unpleasant emotions, such as anger, sorrow, depression, guilt, and shame,\u201d he says. \u201cIt highlights past losses and failures, it downplays present abilities, and it exaggerates future obstacles.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s part of being human to get defensive, respond impulsively<\/a> from a negative filter designed to detect threats to our well-being and get emotionally triggered by things that make us anxious or fearful. When you feel anxious about paying your mortgage or terrified before the big speech you have to give or you throw a fit when someone cuts you off in traffic, you can relax in the knowledge that you are a normal member of the human race.<\/p>\n\t\t