The Users Manual For The Brain
A fundamental thinking capability and the key to lifetime happiness is dependent upon how we use our brain to differentiate the present from the past and future. This is a concept that was introduced to me by Dan Sullivan from Strategic Coach and it has had a profound impact on my life.
We either measure our progress up or we measure our progress down. If we measure our progress up, chances are we will live our life with a permanent sense of frustration, defeat and failure. Nothing will ever be good enough.
If we measure our progress down – we will give ourselves every chance of building our self esteem and confidence. All progress is seen as success because we are moving forward.
In the world of positive psychology it is referred to as Silver Medal Syndrome. If we win a silver medal we are often disappointed because we never won gold (measuring up). If we win a bronze medal, we are usually thankful we made it onto the podium (measuring down). There is a great life lesson contained in this theory.
One of the ways that we can increase and build positive well-being, our confidence, feelings of success and self-esteem is to measure our progress backwards and look at where we have come from in comparison to where we are now.
We need to measure our progress backwards from the start because when we do this, all of our progress is seen as success – we are moving forward. Happiness is a process of measurement and is based on how we use our brain to acknowledge our achievements and progress.
We live on this hedonic treadmill- what used to make us happy does not make us happy any longer. As human beings, we are always striving to have more and to be more in all areas of our life.
The only person we can realistically compare ourselves to is the person we were yesterday. If we want to build our well-being, we need to arm ourselves with a set of tools and strategies that allow us to look at where we have come from in comparison to where we are today, so that we build our confidence and well-being.
This is one way we can build our positivity ratio and overall life satisfaction.