Summer Skiing: Overcoming Lizard Brain

For years I have tried to use what I call "circular thinking" to examine decisions from as many different perspectives as possible to make sure I have considered all aspects of it.  One of the key components is to try to see it from the perspective of my future self. Because of the myriad of factors in every decision, it is almost impossible get it perfectly right.  Will my future self wish I had asked more questions?  have done the thing anyways? consulted with someone more knowledgeable about the topic? done more research?  Often what it comes down to is "what will make the better story?"

Maybe I am wrong in thinking this because is can lead to paralysis by analysis, which I believe can be caused by the lizard brain or "the resistance." One example I use with my class in describing how I overcame lizard brain, at least in this instance, was skiing on Mt. Hood outside of Portland, Oregon.

While we were visiting my brother in the Portland area in late July, he asked my son if he wanted to snowboard Mt. Hood. He also asked me if I wanted to go.  My son eagerly said he wanted to go. My thinking was much different than his. I thought "I'm not that good at skiing. I know it will be difficult, probably too tough fo

r a person who skis the green runs, even in Wisconsin." and "I don't have equipment; how can I ski?"  After much hemming and hawing, I thought of Seth Godin's writings and talks about the lizard brain and I decided that my future self would not be happy if I missed the opportunity to ski a big mountain in the summer. I decided to rent equipment and go skiing.

For what seems like my whole life I have seen pictures and videos of people skiing in shorts and T shirts and wondered how they could do it since my experience skiing was mostly in temperatures below 20 degrees.   On this day I found out.  It was 70 degrees and many of the good skiers did not wear cold weather gear. I was finally going to live the warm weather skiing experience!

It took two lifts to get to the top, which really freaked me out. When we got to the top, it was like nothing I had seen before!  Blue sky, peaks of other volcanoes in the Cascades--then I saw the black diamond signaling this would be a difficult, if not impossible, outing.  I had never skied a black diamond anywhere before and now I was going to ski one from 9000 feet!

I took it easy and made a hundred turns and wiped out on purpose when I got going too fast, but a half hour later I made it to the bottom to find my brother and son waiting for me. I don't know how many times we did the run that day, but because I conquored my lizard brain, I had an experience I had always dreamed of and will never forget.

If I had chosen not to ski, my daughter and sister-in-law spent their day picking blueberries.

Learning and the Lizard Brain

It is daunting for adults to learn to do something new.  It may be our Lizard Brains making excuses like: we don't have time, money, friends already doing the activity or that we are not the type of person who does that sort of thing. It is hard to overcome a lifetime of consistency to do anything new.  It is too easy to find reasons not to pursue the topic.  We are too busy, and therefore, too distracted to take time to learn it or do it now, but later on we will totally be able to do it. These are the kind of lies the Lizard Brain lures us into telling ourselves.

This summer, as part of the Arete Academy acceptance letter, we have challenged our students to learn something new.  We will recognize what the Lizard Brain is trying to do and head it off at the pass. Sometimes it is easier to do something because someone said to do it. For some people the challenge in the letter is the person telling them what to do.

I cannot ask my students to learn something new, and not do it myself, which means I must conquer the Lizard Brain too. My new learning is going to be fishing.  Every year I say that I want to learn to fish and every year November rolls around and I say, "Man, I was going to learn to fish this year. I was just too busy. I guess next year is the year I learn it."

I don't have any delusions about being good at it, but learning something and giving myself an opportunity to enjoy being outdoors is worth it.