Hardwired for Survival: 10 Tricks Your Brain Uses to Keep You in Mediocracy

A few weeks ago, I had a particularly interesting incident. It felt as though just as things were going well — they were going too well — and they couldn’t have been going so well.

Something had to go wrong.

As so it did.

Although consciously, it made no sense. I knew something was off.

It was as though when everything is well, my brain went into panic mode and began searching for something to fix or watch out for.

Eventually, it would find what it was looking for.

I was thinking about potential reasons why this was happening. Things like belief systems, biological factors (stress, hunger, pms, anxiety), habits etc.

I met up with my cousin for dinner and he mentioned Metallica’s new single called Hardwired [to Self-Destruct.]

And then — it clicked.

Our brain is biologically hardwired for survival. It’s scanning for dangers while tending towards safety and self-preservation.  Which is why it’s challenging to be that extraordinary person you know you are. Your brain is hardwired to certain survival tendencies — which are very much exploited by our society — and keeping you in mediocracy.

How so?

Your brains’ biological tendencies along with misguided belief systems create a recipe for tricking you out of success and into the safety of mediocracy.

Because of the way society is constructed. Our parents — and our parents’ parents — and our parents’ parents’ parents have beliefs that don’t serve them. And guess what? — they pass those on to you. Before you are able to filter them out or refuse them.

From the moment you are born until about the age of 7, you absorbed information in totality without filters. You had not yet developed the ability to compare and choose whether to accept or reject information.

So there it goes. All directly into your conscious and subconscious mind, which is programmed for survival.

Here are 10 tricks to look out for when your brain is trying to keep you “safe”.

1. Your brain wants to go on autopilot

Your brain eats up a lot of energy to think. So to conserve energy, it learns repeated actions and puts them into autopilot. The way you walk, brush your teeth, your routines, the words you use. You get the idea.

To create the habits that provide you the most value, consciously think about what you want to do and do it. This will take an increased level of self-awareness.

Note: it will also take a lot of energy to change and develop new habits, and it will make you uncomfortable. Your brain will want to stop you. The idea is to keep going until the desired habits go into your brain as autopilot.

2. Your brain will lead you away from pain and towards pleasure

When trying to create a new habit or pushing towards a goal, your brain will notice you are expending energy or creating pain and try to protect you by stopping you.

It will create distractions, cravings, thoughts that dissuade you, tiredness, sleepiness. Anything to move you back into a comfortable, pleasurable space.

Now, this brain tendency is especially powerful when combined with beliefs that don’t support your goals. You will literally create a reality around you that supports your beliefs and your brain will do its best to lead you back to what is safe, and usually what is your mediocre life.

3. Your brain uses comparison as input for reality

It’s pretty straightforward. If you go from standing in an arctic tundra that’s below freezing, to standing on the beach on a chilly day, that beachside breeze feels much warmer than if you were to arrive there from the desert.

This is a VERY IMPORTANT brain trick to notice. It’s the reason, your new job was awesome at first or your new love was incredible at first. Your brain begins to get used to the similar reality input and the stimulation levels caused by contrast will be decreased. This is yet another way your brain protects you from expending energy.

In order not to get used to the beautiful things in your life and take them for granted, gratitude practice is the most powerful habit. Every day, think of 1, 3 or 10 things that you are grateful for. It keeps your brain in check. Extra points for writing down what you are grateful for.

4. Your brain creates setpoints

Going hand in hand with your brain being on autopilot, your brain creates setpoints for everything in your life. Your health, wealth, body, etc.

The trick is to change these setpoints, and not just by meeting them, but by completely blasting through them. For example, if your best record in running was to run for 15 mins and you run for 15 mins. it will feel like a lot of time. Remember your brain determines reality by using comparison.

But let’s just say you pushed yourself to run for 30 mins that day. Now 15 feels like a halfway point. It no longer holds this place of “extreme” in your mind.

Same goes for wealth. Is making $1000 in a day a lot of money to you or is it way below your setpoint? Is waking up at 11 am normal for you or did you just miss half the day? It’s your setpoint.

4. You are hardwired for survival

Meaning you will do things based on fear and looking for danger. The need for survival is heavily exploited by society. Society puts ideas of scarcity and struggle in our minds. The world is not built that way. Just look at nature. There is so much abundance in the world.

However, when you sense a threat you will go into survival mode out of fear, causing you to do many things that you would not do if you were in a loving and peaceful state.

Your brain will always be on the lookout for what is wrong in order to protect you. Keep that in mind because seeing only what is wrong creates the wrong attention and perception of the world around you. You will also manifest this kind of world around you, reinforcing the idea.

So, consciously focus on what is good in your life.

5. You don’t know what you want

Because you are wired for survival you are more cautious when it comes to taking risks because who knows, you could die.

People call this the fear of failure. It’s more like the fear of being rejected and/or dying. If you start a business and it fails, you lose your money end of on the streets are rejected by those you know and love and may die.

When you don’t try things you don’t have the experience of them. So you make up stories in your mind. Scenarios of potentials that you are too afraid to experience. Your brain cannot tell the difference between real or imagined so you will have these thoughts and potentials over and over again in your mind and they won’t go anywhere.

Take conscious action towards what you want. Take a dance class or take a trip to a place you may want to move to. Make it happen or you will wonder about it endlessly and confuse yourself.

6. Your brain finds what it’s looking for — or creates it

Within your brain, you have a system called your Reticular Activating System or RAS. Your RAS regulates your cycles of sleep and alertness. It also controls your attention and filters nearly all information that enters your brain.

When you are looking for something in particular, your RAS will filter inputs to help you find it. Whether it’s a certain color in the room or a small scuff on the walls of your house, chances are you will notice it if you are looking for it.

Even if it’s not there, your brain will sometimes create the thing it wants to find. If I told you the room smells like pizza because I brought pizza for you and you really believed me, you can almost smell it as you expect the scent of pizza to be there at any moment now.

There is also the possibility that your expectations of an incident or thing will also attract this into your life through manifestation or The Law of Attraction.

To read more about Law of Attraction and the 12 Universal Laws, CLICK HERE.

7. You are a social creature

We are connected energetically and socially to each other. Countless experiments have been done on the herd mentality or people doing things because other people are doing them. This is called social proof or what some people call sheep behavior.

The challenge about escaping the mediocracy of the rest of the populous is that you begin to experience loneliness and pain that goes with being different and your brain will try to get you back to being included with everyone else. that way is more comfortable, they will accept you and you are more likely to survive.

In fact, social rejection has been known to kill babies. No seriously, and plants too.

8. Creative energy is also sexual energy

Just when you are about to create something, that same energy also tends to go sexual and society exploits us for it. Remember you are here to be yourself and to create, which is how you provide value.

However, your creative energies are used up through sex. Especially in men.  Ejaculation takes up incredible energy for men. Fortunately for women, orgasms do not take energy away like it does to men.

Keep that in mind when you get inspired… and turned on.

9. Logic is valued over imagination when it comes to reality

When you have an experience over and over again, your brain will attribute it to reality rather than to you creating this reality with the signature of your vibrations.

10. Your food and lifestyle don’t support your brain or optimal function

Given our present global conditions and food systems, finding nutrient-rich, uncontaminated food has become a challenge. The soil is depleted of nutrients, fish and water have heavy metal poisons, food has chemical poisoning and genetic alterations (GMO).

Combine that with a sedentary lifestyle, inside office conditions, stale air, EMFs, no sunshine, cubicles or offices away from nature and you have a recipe for your body to expend a HUGE amount of energy to protect you and keep you healthy.

The reason why this is a brain trick is that you have no idea why you are so tired and your brain is just trying to fix everything “backstage” without you knowing how pesticides, GMOs and EMFs are affecting you.

In some cases, people get ill when consuming a food additive such as MSG. Personally, I get headaches strong enough that will stop me from eating that food completely. Unfortunately, for many of the above, they are not enough of a threat on their own to such a strong alert in your brain.

Death by 1000 cuts.

These countless influences take bits of your energy and remove your ability for optimal thinking and functioning.

So, do yourself a favor and create a healthy lifestyle to support your brain and body. It’s pretty basic. Exercise, good rest, clean eating and going out into nature.