Freeing Up Your Brain's Processing Power (To Create The Life You WANT)

Your brain is a super-computer. But, even super-computers have a processing speed max. So does your brain. And, when we don't take the crucial steps ahead of time to free up enough processing bandwidth in our brain, then we end up taking actions that do not align with what we want. 

There is a solution though... Hear me out, while I let you in on a BIG secret. You DO NOT want to miss this.

Enjoy!!!

Transcript

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Welcome to the authentic life connection podcast. I'm your host, Seth Lusk. I'm a master certified life coach, author, personal trainer and nutrition specialist. For over a decade, I've been helping people with their dreams and goals for their life and health. I spent many years watching people get frustrated with their journey in life and giving up on taking actions towards their goals. So I dug in deep to find answers to why so many of us face this same frustration and struggle in life. So in this podcast, we're gonna dive in deep on topics surrounding what it means to consistently live a fulfilling and authentic life, where you are unstoppable and taking action towards your dreams and goals. So the only question is, are you ready to start living your most authentic and fulfilling life once and for all? Then let's get started. Shall we? Hey, everyone, welcome back to the podcast. For those of you listening in for the first time, welcome, welcome, you picked a great episode to join in on this week, because this week, I want to talk with you all about something that is so important when it comes to personal development. And I talk about this quite often, it is our biggest power that we have as humans, and that is our deciding power. And I want to talk about a certain aspect of this deciding power and how it plays into personal development, and working with a coach and why it is that I tell you all to use your deciding power in a specific way. And you all might be thinking, Now, I'm going to use it another way. So specifically, what I want to talk about this week, is our ability to decide ahead of time. And I want to talk about the importance of us having a clear vision of our authentic mission in life and purpose, and our goals and true desires. So that we are able to make decisions ahead of time, instead of relying on our brain to make the decision in the moment, which is what a lot of us are doing. And today I want to talk about the reason why this is so important. So many times when I work as a coach, and I'm talking with people who don't yet have a coach or are looking for a coach, I run into this sort of belief, the story, this behavior pattern, where people just kind of want to decide in the moment what feels right. And I advocate very strongly as a coach, in knowing ahead of time, what is authentically important for us and why what our purpose is, what our mission is in life and why. And being very clear on what those things are ahead of time. And I run into a lot of opposition of people thinking, Oh, this isn't really important. And I can just decide in the moment I'll know, I'll know what's right and what's authentic. But based on what I feel like in the moment, and, you know, they feel like this kind of ahead of time work is sort of a waste of time. And people are looking for coaches that are going to teach them things that they can do, like in the moment to make decisions or like to, I don't know, they don't want to do the groundwork. They don't want to do the ground laying foundational work of understanding themselves, and what's truly and authentically important for them ahead of time and creating a clear vision of purpose ahead of time. And I think this is because we live in a culture now that that really promotes this idea of spontaneity and freedom and that we think that spontaneity means, like not making any decisions. And we think that freedom is not making any decisions not planning. And this is really not true because the truth is true. Spontaneity can only happen when there is a plan in place in the first place. Otherwise, the spontaneity is more of just like a reaction. And it's really actually us reacting to old stories in our brain and not being spontaneous at all. And also true freedom does not happen if we don't schedule. What is important for the head of time. Because what I see often happening is people trying to just like, avoid their life and going out and just enjoying pleasure. And you know what hedonistic pleasure and thinking like this is being spontaneous and free in life. But then the whole entire time in the background, there's the story about like, what am I forgetting about what am I missing about, oh, my God, all this stuff is out of control in my life, and they're truly not able to enjoy the moment and a lot of people will just say, Oh, it's because they're not being present enough. They just need to, you know, enjoy a little bit more, eat a little bit more, drink a little bit more, and they'll forget about their problems. But this is not true freedom, my friends, we become slaves, to needing things to give us such a huge dopamine rush that we temporarily forget about all the things that are important for us, that we're actually rejecting and avoiding in the background that we want to be doing. And there's another reason why this is really what I want to focus in on today. Why it is so important for us to plan ahead of time and to decide ahead of time. It's not just because we want to have our whole entire life mapped out, and that we have to follow it, you know, with every dotted eye, every crossed T down to the letter, once we make the plan, that's not the point of it. The point of us planning ahead of time, the point of us seeing ahead of time, what is authentically important for us, not what we think should be important for us, or what we've been told should be important for us, because we're already all out there reacting to those stories anyways, and we see that it's getting us nowhere in life that we actually want to go, when I talk to people all the time about seriously, anytime I bring up to someone, you know, what do you want from your life? The most common response I get is either I don't know, or that's a great question. Let me think about it. And it's sad to me that so few people are clear on what they want out of their life. And I'm just like, why are you wasting your time doing anything else right now, if you don't know that. And it's because we have this idea that if we just continue to show up in the moment and be quote, unquote, spontaneous and free, that we're just going to do what feels right in the moment. And that's going to bring us what we're supposed to have in this life. And what's meant for us will come and lalalalala and all of this BS stuff that we're buying into all for the sake of this idea of having comfort now, and trading our true fulfillment. And our true well being for comfort now. And my friends, here's what I want you to begin to see is that there is another reason why this kind of ground foundational work, needs to be done ahead of time, it needs to be always revisited. That's another thing is that so many of you will think oh no, I already did that. 10 years ago, I did this workshop, and we like wrote about our feelings and our childhood, and like we did the stuff and we did the thing. And like it's all good. Now I know it. And we think that like for the rest of our life, we never have to look at that ever again. But the truth is, the more we experience life in the present, more things get brought up from the past that are stories that are asking us to say, hey, take a look at me here, make sure I'm what you want to believe about life, and that I'm not, you know, going against her out of alignment with your values, and that you're still living in alignment with your purpose and values here. This is something it's Stephen Covey calls it in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he calls it in his book sharpening the saw. And it's so important. So many of you all like because you did a workshop 10 years ago, where you wrote about your childhood and wrote an fu letter to your parents or whatever to your ex and you burned it. And you know, you felt a cathartic release. And then you're like, Yeah, I never have to revisit this ever again. And it's all good, it's healed, it's done. You know, it's just we do it one time, and then it's, it's over, we never have to look at it over again. And that's not how it works. It's not how it works, my friends, it is always going to be coming up, sharpening the saw is so incredibly important. And what that means is we always go back to the foundation. And we make sure that number one, we're clear on the foundation, sometimes the foundation gets clearer and needs to expand because it's clear, and we realize it encompasses more than what we thought it was in the beginning. And then also to make sure that everything that we stacked on top of that foundation, truly lines and that we haven't gotten out of alignment somewhere. And we're now building on top of something that's out of alignment that we were not really sure about if it was an alignment, because we were still a bit unclear about the foundation. So the foundational work, we always revisited my friends, there's never a point in time in which you are too good and too developed. To go back to that foundational work, your foundation is crucial you build a house on a foundation, that foundation has to be inspected every now and then. Because the foundation is what the House sits on, and it will crack it will fall apart if it does not get upkeep and it does not get attention. And we are not sure that it is built clearly and steadfast and that it is supporting everything that we're adding on to the house that we're building on top of it. So you you go back to the foundation regularly. That's why this work is important. And then here is the part that so many of you all look overlook as far as the value of revisiting this and taking the time to regularly revisit this and get super crystal clear on what the foundation is that you're building on. And here's why and not just revisiting it for those of you out there who have just been avoiding it your entire life because you're like, oh, that's I'll just know when it comes because it's what's meant for me right? And you don't even realize that what's meant for you you're not going to have it because you're living from a story that isn't yours anyways. So what's meant for you you're missing out on this this entire time because you're not taking the time to learn who you actually are. You know who you think you are? it'd be based on what everyone told you, including your parents, grandparents, teachers, friends, whatever, and society and all the different messages you get on social media. So what's meant for you isn't coming to you anyways, because you're not even showing up in your life as you you're showing up as a carbon copy of something else that you think you should, because it makes you more valuable as a person. So what's meant for you is not coming. So that's crucial. And you're not going to just in the moment be like, Oh, well, this is what feels right. So it's what's meant for me, it's not how it's going to work, okay. And the other side of this, is that in the moment, if you think, oh, yeah, and maybe it's not going to be so spontaneous. But in the moment, I'll be able to think about it, and I'll see it and it will become clearer. And I'll dig in deep when the moment comes and find it, it's not going to happen. And this is the other side of why it's so important to work with a coach and get clear on this stuff ahead of time, have a plan of action have tools in place to have a crystal clear vision on what it is that you truly desire out of your life, how you're going to get it, what you've decided what costs what investments, you're willing to pay ahead of time, what you're going to say no and yes to ahead of time. Because when we do this, we are freeing up mental bandwidth, that in the moment, when it comes time to follow through on those decisions, is going to be spent on your brain spiraling out of control. And it's disrupted dysregulated central nervous system and Fight Fight, fight flight fight or freeze mode. And at that moment in time, your brain will not have full access to your higher thinking and executive functioning. When we are in that elevated dysregulated central nervous system, which, by the way, in the 21st century, most of us are in on a regular basis, because we are constantly being inundated with messages and opinions and, and perceived threats and things are just always being thrown in our face. And we're being asked to work more and harder and make more and harder decisions all the time. And it feels so overwhelming to our brains because we're not used to that yet. We're not We're not evolved to our brains are not evolved yet to handle that coming at us at such a rapid pace. But our society has evolved to the point where it's coming at us at such a rapid pace. And this is why this work is so crucial, my friends, because in the moment when your brain is in that state of fight or flight, fawn or freeze your entire almost entire emotional bandwidth is going into your brain finding old stories of danger, that it that it felt like it didn't fully protect you enough from in the past that it needs to look out for right now. And make sure that it protects you from even more now. And your brain is going to urge you to do things to protect you from old traumatic stories that have disempowered you and taught you to react to life in a way that doesn't create the life that you want. And if you have not decided and made it clear ahead of time, what you want, and how you want to respond to those kinds of situations, what kind of things you truly want to say yes or no to in those kinds of moments. And why you want to say yes or no to those things than in the moment your brain is going to play you like silly putty in the palm of his hand and get you to do whatever it urges you to do based on some story of what happened to you back when you were 5678 1015 years old. And in the moment it's gonna feel so right and like the right thing to do and then tomorrow morning or the next day or the next day or a week from now or a month from now, you're gonna realize that's not actually how I wanted to respond to that situation. And it's true because you reacted to it you didn't respond to it. And the truth is, we don't have the mental the emotional bandwidth in those moments of intense emotion and urges to access that part of our brain that says Okay, wait, hold on, hold on, let's think about this here. What is it that we truly desire here? What's the bigger picture here? What's the plan here? What is it that we really really want in that moment in time know your brain is like T Rex run T Rex duck T Rex hide T Rex freeze. That's all your brain knows to do. fight flight fight or freeze response not even an option to your brain at that point in time. So if you have not already cleared out the kind of decision you want to make and that that kind of moment and made it so clear that it takes so little bandwidth for you to say Nope, this is the kind of decision I already decided I want to make and your heart is pounding. Your you know blood pressure is rising and you're like oh my god, this is gonna be so difficult. It's gonna be so uncomfortable. And then you just do you do the thing that you know ahead of time you want to do and when why it was important for you. If you are waiting till in the moment to make that decision, you do not have the access or the mental bandwidth to access the part of your brain that creates responses, you only have access to the part of your brain that makes reactions. So those responses need to be clear and decided on ahead of time. So you free up that mental bandwidth, that in the moment, you're not going to need to access a ton of it in order to be able to make that decision, because it's not going to be available to you. It's not going to be available to you in that moment, my friends, and this is why I urge you all to do this kind of work ahead of time. Personal development is not just about learning what you should need and have to do with your life as a matter of fact, is not about that at all. And it's not about learning a bunch of useless information. It's not about sitting around and thinking about hypothetical situations. It is about literally feeling into and deciding. And knowing ahead of time, this is the life I'm designed for. And I want so that in the moment, when all of the stories, all of the mental dramas coming up and filling up and taking up all of that bandwidth, all of that processing power that your brain has, by the way, when I talk about bandwidth, that's what I'm talking about. Your brain has access to X amount of processing power. And when you're in the fight flight fight or freeze mode, most of that processing power is there. It's not in the part of your brain that thinks ahead of time and plans ahead of time and looks at plans into the future. No, that has to be already practiced and thought through and clear and thought about regularly and revisited regularly. And you know, when you make a reaction in the moment, you go back to that and like okay, so how did this how did this align with that? How did it not align with it, and revisit it and revisit until it becomes so second nature to think about in your brain, that in the moment when you are in fight flight fight or freeze mode, you don't need a ton of bandwidth to access that higher thinking that executive functioning in your brain to make a decision to respond to that situation in a way that aligns with what you truly want. This is about literally freeing up processing power in your brain to be able to make aligned decisions in the moment. And stead of relying on the urges of your brain when it's dysregulated to shove you in the right direction, which it's not going to do in that moment in time, your brain is literally thinking about 30 seconds ahead. That is it is not thinking about 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 50 years from now and what impact this is going to have on your life, that needs to be something that you are clear on and thought about and practice thinking about and practice making decisions about ahead of time making decisions that align with this, when you're not dysregulated on a regular basis, so much so that that when you get in a dysregulated state, your brain is geared to make decisions in that direction. You don't need, you know, 50% or 60%, or 70% or 80% of your mental bandwidth to process a thought of what what is what do I want to do here, it's already clear, it's already clear, it's already practiced, it's already thought it's already planned out, and revisited and revisited and reinforced over and over and over to the point that in the moment when your brain is like, freaking out, you don't need a ton of mental bandwidth to know. Remember, this is the kind of decision we want. We already we already decided this, no need to freak out. No need to, you know, worry about am I gonna make the right decision. We know we got it, we got it, we planned for this, we knew it was gonna happen. This, my friends is the power of that foundational work. Stop convincing yourself that it's a waste of time. Because it's not about reacting to your current circumstance. Because reacting to your current circumstance, that's the waste of time. Because what you need to do is go back to the foundation, and build that foundation in the right place so clearly and so strong and so steadfast, that when you are reacting to situations in the moment, they are responses that empower you, not reactions that shrink you back down from your life and cause you to create results in your life that pull you further from the life that you want. And you're going to do that over and over and over again until you've taken the time in a safe environment, a safe space with someone to guide you and show you where your old stories are coming up and forcing you to make decisions in your life that feel like they're against your will and are against your better judgment and aren't bringing you anywhere in your life that you actually want to go. Doing this work ahead of time in a safe space allows for you to free up that mental bandwidth allows for you to reinforce that vision allows for you to have that picture. And that decision ahead of time so clear that when the moment comes and your brain is throwing all of its power into fight, flight, fight or freeze, all you need to access is that really wide, broad, easily trodden, very often used highway in your brain that says this is the direction we're going, this is our purpose. And the reason why that highway becomes clear and wide and visible and easy to travel on, is because you practice doing it ahead of time, not waiting until in the moment, and hoping that your brain brings up the proper reaction, because it won't. And this, my friends, is the power of personal development of doing this work ahead of time of hiring a coach like me to work with you on this before you are in the fiery pits, and the bombs are going off in the machine guns are firing over your head, and you're like, oh my god, what am I do? Before you get to that situation? It's already clear where you're going and why. And you don't have to think about it. You just know, you have access to it. You've created access to it, you have a clear vision. And it's like, yeah, I get that the bullets are coming from this direction. But that's where I'm going, walking straight into the line of fire. Because I said ahead of time, this was the price the investment, I was willing to pay us to walk straight into this line of fire because I know, no matter how many bullets hit me, when it come out on this other side. It's the life that I want to create. And going through this will teach me the skills to continue developing that life I want to create, and my friends, your brain is not going to make that decision in the moment. It's not going to do it. That is something that has to be practiced thought about planned out and decided ahead of time, free up the mental bandwidth, free up your brain to be able to make aligned responsible decisions instead of misaligned disempowered reactions. That's what I'm here to help you do. That's what I've got for you all today. Plan, prepare, be ready, free up the mental bandwidth. I love you all. I can't wait to see what you'll do with this. And I'll talk to you again here next week. Ciao. Thank you for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed the content of this podcast. If you did, please subscribe so that you're one of the first people to know when I release a new episode each week. If you have any questions or if you have interest in learning more about the coaching that I do with my clients one on one, then just head over to my website at WWW dot life coach seth.com that's www dot life coach seth.com there you're gonna have the ability to reach out to me for questions that you might have or to book your free discovery call with me to discuss what one on one coaching with me might be like for you. You can also check out and order your copy of my book to get a taste of what I'm all about as a person and as a coach. I'm so happy that you joined us today and I hope to have you here again next week. So until then, let authenticity be the guide to your most unstoppable and fulfilling journey of life.