In his book “White Bears and Other Unwanted Thoughts”, Daniel Wenger discusses perhaps one of the most annoying, yet fascinating aspects of the human brain:  you cannot dwell on the reverse of an idea.  The simple illustration is one most of us have heard of – “don’t think about a polar bear”.  Immediately, what does the brain do?  Such a thought engages subconscious ‘monitoring’ processes that interrupt the conscious mind with the very thought you are trying to avoid.  This unfortunate mental reality has given birth to an army of psychologists seeking to help people to overcome obsessive behaviors and fears that are impacting their quality of life.  One could think of it as a modern neuroscience’s version of the Apostle Paul when he said “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”

In “Get Out of Your Own Way”, Robert Cooper touches on this painful reality as well. “Focus on what you do want”, he says.  “So direct your mind’s eye to the positive…what you think about is what you get.”  Again, I hear the words of Paul: “…whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things.”

Cooper (and Paul for that matter) encourage us to set our minds on thoughts worth having.  They’re not telling us to live in denial of our weaknesses, but warning us that an unhealthy obsession with them will only make them worse.  This isn’t about ‘meaningless-mental-pep-rally-fluff’ either.  When it comes to the brain, whatever ever has the emphasis, gets the growth – so our thought habits have powerfully tangible effects on the course of our lives.  What fears, what areas of weakness acts as the bait to lure your thoughts down those dark & lonely roads?  When you take the bait, what consequences occur as a result?  For me, the fear of failure disguises itself all to easily as ‘perfectionism’.  How many times have I procrastinated, or even abandoned ideas altogether simply because I just knew the end result wouldn’t be as ‘perfect’ as I thought it could be.  I know that once I go down a particular path, I’ll find later that there were better paths to take.  And the more I tell myself to not be a perfectionist, the more I act like one!  Sound familiar?

In an earlier post, I described how too much information can overwhelm the brain’s ability to make different choices.  Ironic, since I most often try to overcome perfectionism by being “better informed”.  However, after reading about the concept of “decision tempo” (which the Marine Corps uses in teaching battlefield decision making"), I’ve decided that it’s time to execute on ideas – even if they aren’t perfect.  And instead of dwelling on how incomplete the ideas may be, I’m going to continue to probe them and seek “what’s next, what’s better, what’s more”….