Paleo

Did you listen to the episode of Creative Pep Talk I highlighted in the roundup last week? In it Andy argues that we may think we are a failure when we don’t achieve our goals. What we fail to realize, though, is that there is a strong part of our subconscious undermining us because it’s more focused on survival than on goal achievement. It’s simply human nature to self-sabotage. This discussion paired well with two books in my current rotation.

First is Simon Sinek’s Leaders Eat Last. Surprisingly for a business book there is a lot about paleolithic humans, human biology, physiology, and neurotransmitters. I’m not far enough into the book to know how these fit into Sinek’s thesis, but it’s probably something along the lines of “human beings have biologically inherent traits that work against us in modern times, so we need to learn to utilize them or ignore them in order to succeed and lead.” I will report back when I know for sure!

The other book, which I’m sure influenced Andy as he developed that episode of his podcast, is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. If you’ve read the book you know that Pressfield explains throughout how we can overcome resistance and achieve creative endeavors. We can do it now just like our ancestors did before us; “defeating Resistance is like giving birth. It seems absolutely impossible until you remember that women have been pulling it off successfully… for fifty million years” (p. 57).

This recurring theme I stumbled across synchronistically is comforting to me. Knowing that my struggles are not solely mine, they are universal, gives me the faith that they won’t last forever. That they can be defeated and happiness lies ahead.