Are you hardwired for failure or success?

Are you designed for success or failure in the face of change? First let's look at how your human brain is wired to play it safe and fit in with your tribe more than stand out.  

Fitting in with the crowd makes you feel like you belong, you're safe, comfortable and avoiding risk. Everything stays the same.

Until...you realise you don't want things to stay the same. You don't want to play by the rules and you'd rather innovate, advocate for change, or share your expertise/creativity to make the world a better or more beautiful place. If this is you, YOU are a change maker. 

Who me? Yes, that's right. Change makers come in all forms, from community builders to world builders - and world record breakers too!

Originally from Sydney's Northern Beaches, former pro-surfer Laura Enever grabbed headlines this week when she broke the world record for the largest wave ever paddled into by a woman! Imagine how many waves Laura has paddled and been dumped by in her lifetime of surfing?

As a person on a mission to impact, innovate or change the world through sharing your expertise, you need to maintain a state of change. Since change feels hard, the part of you that needs to be developed is that feeling of being unstoppable. Even experienced innovators don't feel this way every day, and as you change your efforts it feels very unnatural, uncomfortable and a bit scary.

The proven method that works takes into account the fact that your brain is wired to keep you safe and avoid change. When you want to achieve change, focus only on the small steps you can see in front of you. Direct your energy and attention to committing to the process, not outcomes.

This method far outweighs the value of measuring your 'progress' because the results of change take time.  taking small steps over and over, will lead you to mastery and inevitably to the outcome. If you focus on the progress too early, all you can see is tiny steps, lots of mistakes and no big breakthrough. So let go of the outcome and ride the wave.  

“Once you go you can’t pull back. It felt like an eternity dropping down that wave." 

Change is very messy when you actually achieve a breakthrough too! As Laura shared, after riding the biggest wave of her life, “I looked up and saw the height of the wave coming down on me. It exploded on me. I was underwater getting thrashed around but I had a smile on my face. I couldn’t believe what I had just done.” reported Fox Sports 

The good news for you is, change makers are not a different breed of human. They've just practiced those tiny steps so often, their brain, body and life force energy are now wired to believe they CAN do what it takes to break previous levels of success or impact on the world.  

If you know you're ready to take the first step you can start with increasing self-awareness on your current beliefs and identify both the helpful beliefs and the ones that could be holding you back. Start here

And to find out more about how to be featured as a change maker and amplify your message, increase your influence, impact and income for your organisation, read more here

Leigh White is a Media Expert of two decades and personal transformation and energy coach. Leigh founded and contributes to impact-driven organisations and has dedicated her professional life to guiding change makers to live an inspiring, fulfilling life while driving positive change in the world. Read Leigh's story here

Extra reading:

You can read more about Laura Enever's record at The Guardian

If you enjoyed this article and want to read more on why our brain loves the comfort zone and keeps us safe visit this article from Psychology Today website.

Blog image credit Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash