How can I explain the never-ending irrationality of human behavior?

We say we want one thing, then we do another. We say we want to be successful but we sabotage the job interview. We say we want a product to come to market, but we sandbag the shipping schedule. We say we want to be thin but we eat too much. We say we want to be smart but we skip class or don’t read that book the boss lent us.The contradictions never end. When someone shows up and acts without contradiction, we’re amazed. When an athlete just does the sport, or when a writer just writes the words, we can’t help but watch, astonished at the purity of their actions. Why is it so difficult to do what we say we’re going to do?

The lizard brain.

via Seth’s Blog: Quieting the lizard brain.

I’m in total agreement with Seth and Merlin Mann in regards to the quiet, mysterious, and often counter-productive power of the lizard brain.

I like how Seth has given the power a name: The Resistance.  The Resistance is what makes you do things other than what you really want to do.  The Resistance works through almost every aspect of our reasoning and emotions, from fear to really good excuses.

I just bought The War of Art that both Seth and Merlin recommended in their recent podcast. Reading books is something that The Resistance loves to do, as it serves as a form of procrastination.  Well I did it anyway.

One point for The Resistance.

This entry was posted by Buster on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 12:31 am. It is filed under Responses. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.