Make no mistake: you are built for the kill. Your body is a prime example of Nature’s creativity and success. Add the advanced brain and not even the sky is the limit – as you already know!
The question is: how to wake up those potentials?
Easier than you think. It’s about leveraging you innate defense mechanism and your
Thus, you have to learn how to control and exploit extraordinary potential of one of the most advanced transformation processes in the nature – men’s defense mechanism.
Why defense mechanism? What’s so special about it?
How did you feel the first time you sat behind the wheel of the car?
But, something else happened in that moment.
Your hearing improved; your pupils expanded, allowing better sight; your reflexes were on the edge, and your brain was working overtime, coping with the immense amount of stimuli, coming all at once.
What happened was a single unbelievable metamorphosis of once relaxed body. It switched into survival mode – the mode of the killer.
When in that mode, you are capable of pulling astonishing things. Things beyond imaginable. Things you never would believe they are even possible.
And yet, against your
It was your defense mechanism that made such a fast adjustment possible because it allowed
fast creation of memory blocks and subsequently additional synapses in your neuronal network, expanding your potentials on account of that new experience!
In each of those situations, your brain switched your body into the pure survival mode.
That’s why you felt that shivery feeling in your legs after that first kiss. The surge of different hormones, adrenaline in particular, acidified your muscles beyond limits.
But that was an automated response, triggered by your autonomous nervous system. All you did, consciously, was exposing yourself to that particular stimulus.
What you want to achieve is relative control over that same mechanism, to utilize it when you want.
If you remember, with every passing hour behind the wheel of the vehicle, your body reactions gradually calmed down.
You got used to it. It wasn’t unknown
That’s right. First kiss triggered the defense mechanism. Because, that’s basically the only thing we have to deal with the unknown or unexpected.
Brain doesn’t distinguish positive from the negative on the first encounter. It has yet to learn to distinguish one from the other. Already a second kiss, occurred the very next day or even that same night, triggered the entirely different set of chemicals. You felt more secure in your abilities as a good kisser.
That’s why we need to become experienced in some field to operate with ease and utmost efficiency. It happens when additional connections between our two cerebral hemispheres are built.
But then again, why did you sit behind the wheel of the vehicle in the first place?
You knew, deep inside, that driving a car cannot be a natural environment for you. Yet, you
Why? What pushed you out of your comfort zone in that single moment, when you decided to learn how to drive the car for instance?
Again, it was part of your defense mechanism!
Sounds illogical because we are used to perceive our defense mechanism as something solely built to protect us. If that would be truth, you would never sit behind that wheel!
That might be the case with women, who are less likely to expose themselves to unnatural environment and potential danger.
Their defense mechanism is constructed a bit differently. That’s why the majority of female drivers suck
In our case, we’ll choose “fight” response, more frequently than “flight.” In case of women, the former will be the most common reaction.
Ever wondered why is that?
It has to do with the quantity of the specific chemicals released in our bodies when our brain anticipates potential danger or even uncomfortable situation.
We, the men, receive far larger doses of dopamine and testosterone then women. And it’s that dopamine and testosterone that makes us cocky motherfuckers who’ll rarely step back and cave in. It’s more likely that we’ll engage, no matter what!
That’s why we hunt while they wait. That’s why we fight the wars while they stay in shelters. There are always exceptions from the rules, but generally speaking, that’s the nature of the things.
Our male brains got used to the fact that, when situation demands, our bodies can indeed perform on extreme levels, unachievable in normal situations. That’s what makes possible for the men to conquer their fear and do some mind-blowing stunt!
That fear isn’t gone. It’s there, all the time. Whoever jumped from the perfectly good airplane can confirm that the fear is a constant companion, no matter how many jumps we did so far. Whoever stood on a night watch, keeping his brothers in arms safe, can confirm that fear is always there, keeping the lone watcher awake and on the edge.
And it’s that “fear” that hides the secret
You want that fear because it’s the only thing that keeps you on the edge. Only when fear exists, defense mechanism will get activated and remain in function until the source of the fear is gone.
As time goes by, your brain will decrease the intensity of the response. And that’s what you ultimately want. You want the controlled fear.
How to train your brain for something like that?
Easy. Step outside during the darkest night, while wind is blowing and leafs of the treetops are making noise. Close your eyes. You’ll feel how your body shifts from the comfort mode to a survival one.
It’s a primordial fear of the darkness, common for every living human being, whether they’ll admit it or not.
In the same time, it’s the best “training ground” to learn how to control the fear and subsequently your response to it.
Focus on those changes occurring in your body. Listen to your heartbeat and monitor the breathing rate. Feel the surge of adrenaline.
Let yourself to the fear entirely. You need the experience, don’t forget that.
Open your eyes. Slowly, your brain will start forming a distorted image of your surroundings. Pupils will widen to the maximum. Image will become clearer by the minute.
As it’s happening, you’ll sense the gradual decreasing of intensity of your original response. Your body will calm down a bit. Not entirely, but enough for you to start thinking clearly while remaining under the influence of your defense mechanism.
It’s that “middle stage” you want to master, where your cognitive functions are not blocked entirely by your brain while in the same time, your body can perform on much higher level than usual.
Your initial reaction to the stimuli (darkness and scary sounds) knocked off the biggest part of your working memory. That’s why people under the influence of fear appear lost and clumsy. They turn into monkeys because brain shuts down their neocortex and activates limbic parts in order to enhance the potential of the survival mode.
Because, you do need to become raging animal if you want to survive some life and death situation.
As you’re getting used to the situation, you become more comfortable in your environment. That’s when you brain starts decreasing the intensity of the response.
Take animal handlers for example, lion tamers in particular. They are known to end up dead frequently because they get used being surrounded by one of the most fearsome animals on the planet. When shit hits the fan, all of the sudden, it takes time for their brain to re-activate the survival mode because it doesn’t anticipate the danger anymore. By then, it’s too late.
What’s the purpose of that “middle stage”? How can that help you achieve anything you want?
What are the three most distinct reasons for underachievement?
First is definitely fear. Fear from fail. Fear from situation itself. Even the fear from success, no matter how odd that might sound to you.
Second is time. It slips like desert sand through your fingers. Once lost, you cannot retrieve it or earn more of it. It’s gone forever, leaving you with one less day to live and achieve your goal.
Third is energy. More accurately, endurance and perhaps strength, depending on the nature of your goal.
Faster you move, more time you save. But there’s a problem. High dynamics consumes large quantities of energy, meaning that you’ll most likely knock yourself out of the race rather fast. That brings you right where you started.
But if you utilize your defense mechanism, things will turn out differently.
The average amount of mass (weight) Formula 1 driver loses during a single race is 10 pounds (5 kilos). He moves swiftly and with outmost precision, pulling one stunt after another, until he eventually wins the race.
All that time, he’s in the state of readiness. His defense mechanism is making sure that he doesn’t make mistake because it will cost him his life. That process consumes energy like nothing else. Just imagine an hour and a half in survival mode. Imagine the number of calculations his brain is executing and the rate under which those calculations are made.
Is he frightened? A bit. It’s more positive excitement, created under the influence of high doses of dopamine. With every passing circle, his brain is releasing additional doses of that highly addictive reward chemical.
But it wasn’t like that when he first sat in that ridiculously small, yet diabolically fast vehicle. His first laps was minutes slower than now, when he’s champion. He was overtaken by the sense of fear since he lacked the essential experience.
Over the course of time, and after frequent exposure to the situation, his brain got used to the stimuli and his response to the situation got re-adjusted. He’s still under the influence of fear, but on a much smaller scale. Cortisol got switched with the dopamine.
First time he drove the formula, the only time he felt the dopamine effect was the moment he got out of that damn thing in one piece. In that moment, winning was not something he was thinking about. How to get out of this alive was the thought in his head.
Nowadays, he’s all about winning no matter what! It’s that dopamine and testosterone overexposure, that modified his basic survival instinct. That’s why race drivers fall in the category of cocky motherfuckers, willing to take on Chuck Norris if he provoke them.
That’s what you want to achieve. You want to expose yourself to the unpleasant situation and keep pushing the limits. As soon as you get used to the environment, you impose new dynamics, breaking through the newly established comfort zone.
In time, what happened to our Formula 1 winner, will happen to you –
Overexposure to dopamine and testosterone will alter/modify your defense mechanism and you’ll become one cocky bastard, capable of pulling all sorts things with ease and with just a healthy dose of fear to do it safe and sound.
Just don’t go on safari in Africa. You might be tempted to take on the lion. Ain’t no way in hell to tell how that would turn out.
