How To Automatically Rise To The Challenge, Construct A New Identity, & Realize Your True Potential (Before You Die)

TLDR

Here's what we are exploring today:

• Why the hell do you default to living below your potential?

• Instead, what if you—automatically—stepped up to life's challenges?

• What's the connection between your identity and your behavior?

Let's dive in.

Habit of Inferiority: Stop Defaulting To Your Program

The legendary American philosopher William James—a.k.a. “The Father of American psychology”—noted that human beings have the tendency to live far within our limits.

“[Man] possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum,” groans William.

William says that in every conceivable way, man persistently shrinks his life “like the field of vision of an hysteric subject.”

This is not always a conscious choice, but most often an inveterate reaction—one which is so firmly rooted that it’s nearly impossible to change.

William calls this “the habit of inferiority to our full self.”

How does this habit look in the real world?

When life challenges you, you back down—automatically.

The 11-time New York Times bestselling author and peak performance expert Steven Kotler provides perspective, “James’ point is that the reason we’re not living up to our potential is that we’re not in the habit of living up to our potential. We’ve automatized the wrong processes.”

So, why the hell would you automatize being inferior?

Well, your biological programming wants to conserve your energy.

It prioritizes your survival over your potential.

And although you have a choice to override this programming, retreating to safety will become your default way of being, so long as you tolerate it.

In the ruthless words of former Navy SEAL, motivational speaker, and bestselling author David Goggins, “You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.”

Let that sink in.

So, if you have mastered the habit of inferiority, surely you could construct a habit that would help you realize your potential, right?

Let’s turn back to Steven Kotler to help us unlock the promise of realizing our true potential.

Habit of Ferocity: Start Rising To The Challenge

In Steven Kotler’s book The Art of Impossible, he presents an extraordinary alternative for you: the “habit of ferocity.”

“This is the ability to immediately and automatically rise to any challenge,” says Steven, and to instinctively “lean in” to life’s difficulties—before you can second guess if you should rise up or not.

Steven notes that anxiety inside the brain looks like obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) when viewed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques. Anxious brain activity is confined to a small neurological network with “a tight thought loop, the brain running circles around itself, with no way to stop and no new solutions.”

So, if you don’t automatize ferocity—the habit of rising to the challenge—your brain will engage in a sort of death cycle.

“Sooner or later,” remarks Steven, “you’ll trip over your own fear.”

Now then, what are the benefits of automatically rising up to the challenge?

One, you save time.

And two, you lighten your cognitive load, which is the weight of the information being processed by your brain in any given moment.

Here’s what ferocity looks like in action.

You spend more time battling “in the arena” than wondering if you should get in, or stay in, the arena.

And, all that precious energy is re-allocated from protecting yourself towards creating yourself.

And of course, the major promise of habitual ferocity is discovering who the fuck you really are—beyond your inferior habits and conditioning.

So, let’s summon the master of habits—James Clear—to make sure that happens for you.

Build Your New Identity Through Small Wins

First, what is a habit?

Off the crisp tongue of James Clear—author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits—“a habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically.”

Now, let’s expand on this.

A habit is a demonstration of your identity.

Said differently, what you do is a demonstration of who you are.

Therefore, if you want lasting behavioral change, you must reconstruct your identity.

Otherwise, you might occasionally act like a badass, but if you still believe that you’re a floppy little shrimp, you will inevitably tumble down to that level.

So, how do we make our actions congruent with our identity?

James advises, “Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.”

But before we get practical, let’s get etymological. The word “identity” stems from the Latin words essentitas, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly. Literally, your identity is your repeated being.

In other words, you become what you repeat.

So, your work is to repeat small actions that result in microwins—both of which align with the type of person you have decided to be.

Then, do that over and over again.

But be warned. Acting bold in a single instant won’t necessarily change your identity.

Rather, it is this consistent stacking of small wins that ultimately makes your new identity undeniable.

Small wins might appear insignificant within a 10-minute timeline.

However, over decades, it will generate a critical mass of energy that can shift the trajectory of your life.

James sharply attests to this, “You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”

Like almost everything in the human experience, this habit of stepping up to challenges is a muscle that can be sculpted with practice.

And better yet, it can be automatized (just as your habit of inferiority used to be automatized).

Finally, you want to get to the point where you act ferociously without even thinking about it.

That is precisely when you will know that you have forged a new identity.

So, where are you defaulting to backing down from life?

The first step is always awareness.

Next, who do you want to be?

Powerfully make that decision.

Then, start stacking those small wins to sculpt your new identity.

Strength & Love, Connor

P.S. If you are reading this, I would like to take you out for some ice cream. Send me a note and let's make it happen.

Join The Compass Program

Join my (free) online group program called Create Your Compass, starting in February. You will:

• Develop self-awareness through deep reflection

• Articulate a vision for the person you've always wanted to be

• Create a self-guided musical meditation track with healing frequencies 

• Learn how to re-create yourself through meditation

• Generate heart-brain coherence—using a biometric device from HeartMath Institute that measures your heartwaves in real-time

• Integrate your vision into your actions

• Create a self-fulfilling prophecy

Reply to this email or schedule an informational call with me here. *Remember, the first 3 people to sign up will receive a free HeartMath meditation device to use during the program!

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