The expected reaction when someone without any specialized knowledge encounters a bear is pretty straight-forward… RUN.

Now I’m not looking to get into proper “bear-escape” techniques but let’s just assume that a fictional character, let’s call him “John”, encounters a grizzly bear while out on a hike and decides to run.

What happens inside John’s body?

He sees the bear and he freezes. All feeling in his body disappears and he instantly turns and run…. What he doesn’t realize or even think about is that his central nervous system has released adrenalin into his blood which is making his muscles stronger. His body has also directed all oxygen and blood flow to his musles and has shut down all unnessary systems for survival in that moment.

John can run faster than he ever has in his whole life.

He races through bushed and uneven ground.. he twists his ankle and doesn’t even notice it. He literally can’t feel his body. He can’t feel the pain in his lungs from gasping large breaths of air, he can’t feel his thighs and calve muscles contract.

He’s unstoppable (well, as long as the bear doesn’t catch up… :))

Why Did John React The Way He Did?

One word: belief

He reacted based on the belief of what would happen to him if he didn’t run.

Did he have to think about it?

No.

It was a completely internal reaction. His body and instincts took over based on the fear he believed.

What if it wasn’t actually a bear but a person dressed in a bear costume? As long as he thought it was a bear, his body would have the same reaction.

Imagine what we could do if we could harness that kind of physical reaction to achieve our goals?

We can, we just need to associate enough pain with NOT achieving our goals.

We’re All Human and We All Value Leisure

Sometimes our subconscious minds need a jolt to break us free from complacency.

I recall Anthony Robbins citing an exercise where a person writes down, in perfect detail, exactly the negative consequence that will come of not taking action toward their goal and encourages participants to really focuses on feeling and experience the pain of the outcome. He then encourages his students to do the exact same with their outcome if they achieve the goal.

The result is a mental internalization of a new belief that should help guide your central nervous system to drive you in the direction of your goal.

Obviously this won’t happen overnight… but with repeated use of this practice, it makes logical sense that the subconscious mind will start to believe what you’re visualizing (since it can’t tell the difference between something real and something imagined)   and will adjust your course.

Please share this with someone who you think would benefit from reading it.

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