“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent van Gogh
There’s neuroscientific truth in this. This is the same brain hacking we use in Lego Serious Play: “Think with your hands.” And of course, Nike’s famous “Just do it.”
We hate to fail, and our elementary brain is brilliant in coming up with the strategy of not doing it in the first place, so we don’t have to experience failure.
The achiever in us will have the strength to override this command from the lower brain, and think with the higher brain that we’re up for the challenge and failure is welcome. However, convincing ourselves to take action already consumes a lot of energy.
One strategy to free ourselves from the mental energy drain of rationalizing, motivating and planning, is to just get started – even mindlessly.
