Your brain is a liar.

It is inaccurate and not at all trustworthy when it comes to evaluating your success or failures.

It is negative and fear-based most of the time.

When you rely on your brain to dictate how you live your life, it will be a miserable one.

Here is why:

You have a personality that was created as a child to protect you, always creating shenanigans.

You have a thousand-year-old brain that was evolved to make you survive, not happy.

So if you want to reach any goal such as losing weight, saving money, getting rid of anxiety, or being a better parent, you have to manage yourself every day.

This looks like:

1. Feeling ALL  of your feelings.

2. Journaling so you can see how ridiculous your thoughts are.

3. Having an external person, you trust to evaluate your success rather than the part of you that says it’s never good enough.

4. Practicing self-acceptance and forgiveness every day, so you have the energy to get up and try again. 

I have another tool that works very, very, well for my brain. And it is call data-charting. I am a spreadsheet junky.

When you can look back over a month of your thoughts, you will see the ingrained patterns you would otherwise miss without journaling them on paper.

When you can look at a month’s worth of your daily choices working toward your goal, it shows you so much.

It shows you where you are rocking it out and where your potential downfalls are.

It shows you the patterns of thought that are sabotaging your success or creating success.

Without this data, your brain may say, “You aren’t getting anywhere!” and when really, you are doing great! 

Or your brain may say, “I am doing so well. I can’t believe I’m not getting closer to my goal!”. When, in fact, you aren’t doing what you need to at all.

When you continue to do this work for a long period of time, it teaches you that what is going on in your life is pretty neutral. Whether you succeed or don’t succeed, you are worthy.

If you are fat or thin, anxious or calm, rich or poor, creative or doing nothing, it really doesn’t make or break anything. 

It’s just a way of life. 

It is just a neutral habit you are choosing every day. 

So take a stab at journaling or habit tracking, and you will see how “full of it” your brain really is.