D Is For… Decision!

Contributed by A. Catherine Noon

“Just do it,” Nike famously said in their successful ad campaign that became a catch-phrase for motivational talks everywhere.

But what happens when you can’t “just” do it? And I don’t mean a physical inability, either. I mean, when your brain just won’t let you?

Think I’m kidding?

Our brains are incredibly powerful organs, so much so that we don’t yet understand everything about them. But the field of trauma treatment and recovery, as well as our growing understanding of neuroplasticity, tells us that the brain can literally change itself over time. We can literally change our brains. And what’s more, that unless we believe that change is possible, our brains, literally, won’t let us change.

Let me explain.

Say, for example, you want to get a job as an astronaut. You journal about it, cover your home with pictures of space, read everything you can about being an astronaut, even go to astronaut conventions and stalk Neil deGrasse Tyson tickets for every chance to see him speak. (Seriously. There’s a ticket site for that.) But. You’re not a pilot, you’re not in the best physical shape in your life, you don’t know any science or math, and you get woozy on really fast roller coasters.

Your brain knows that stuff. It knows that you aren’t a pilot, aren’t in the Air Force, don’t know any actual astronauts, have poor vision, and are “over the hill” for being in peak astronautly condition.

Your brain is no fool. Your brain just will simply refuse to believe this.

And therefore, it won’t happen.

Let’s try another example. Let’s say you really, really want a cookie. You love cookies. You have cookies in your kitchen, right there ~points~. Your cookies are waiting, calling your name. All you have to do is to walk into your kitchen, open up the container, and mack down on that luscious, chocolatey morsal…

Excuse me, I’ll be right back.

See how easy that was? Your brain knew it was a possibility.

So what does this have to do with decisions?

As we work on doing hard things, like getting in shape, writing a book, and overthrowing the patriarchy, we learn to approach the outer edge of what we believe is possible. That’s where decisions come in. That might look like not buying the cookies in the first place. That might include talking to a friend about your cookie (or Neil deGrasse Tyson) obsession. (Sorry, Neil!) That might even include working with affirmations, but adding the words, “I am learning to…” in front of them. One thing about our beautiful brains – they love to learn. So if we give them opportunities to learn, they will work their little brainy hearts out doing it.

And this brings me back to the astronaut thing. Just because we, ourselves, may not realistically become an astronaut, doesn’t mean we can’t fill our lives with astronaut-y things. What’s wrong with going to see deGrasse Tyson speak? Reading everything you can about math and physics and science and engineering, oh my? Nothing’s wrong, that’s what.

All we need to do now is, decide.

So. What do YOU want?