• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

It's Difficult to Reason with the Lizard

It's hard to talk an alcoholic out of his addiction. Hard to get a teenager to see the

consequences of his impulsive actions. Nearly impossible to talk an angry CEO down

from a revenge rage. Last year, a CEO I know was doing a demo for an investor. As part

of the demo, he clicked over to a partner's Web site. There, in living color, in front of the

investors, was an off-color, not-safe-for-work photograph.

The CEO flipped. For three days, he spent virtually all of his time and money trying to

void his company's contract with the partner. All hands on deck. No compromises.

Destroy!

What a waste. He cost his company tons of time and money and goodwill, all to fix a

problem that was too late to fix.

The lizard isn't listening and the lizard doesn't care.

The only hope for our species is that the rest of the brain, the civilized part, will care so

deeply about positive outcomes that it will organize to avoid the lizard, and will invest in

systems that make the resistance less powerful.

The Resistance at Work

"See, I told you it would never work."

You've presented your great idea, and people hate it. They ridicule you and threaten you

and tell you to go away.

Your subconscious speaks up. It says something like, "You should have listened to me.

You really blew it." Or perhaps it says, "I knew you shouldn't have done that."

Who, exactly, is "you"? And whom is this voice addressing?

The voice in your head has revealed the resistance. It is trying to teach the daemon a

lesson, encouraging it to be more careful next time. The lizard hates your genius, and

tries to stamp it out. When you hear this dialogue, don't listen to it. Remember that it

serves as proof of the resistance, and guard yourself even more diligently to ignore it.

The Lizard Goes to School

Of course, the resistance loves school. If school is about obedience, then you can be

soothed by thinking that more obedience is better work, and the resistance is fine with

that. If school is about fitting in, the resistance happily agrees. If school is about

postponing the day you have to stand up in front of the world and put yourself at risk, the

resistance would like to stay there forever.

It's the lizard brain that tells you that you're not qualified, that your degree isn't advanced

enough, that you didn't go to a good enough school. It's the lizard that tells you not to

apply to a great school, because you don't deserve to get in. And it's the lizard that cares

deeply about grades, and not a bit about art or leadership or connection.

The Lizard Goes to Work

You work with people who are totally at the mercy of the resistance. They assist the devil

by being his advocate in meetings. They follow the rule book, even parts you didn't know

about. They love what worked before and fear what might be coming.

Sites like lifehacker.com are stuffed with time-saving, productivity-enhancing tools. In

general, your nervous co-workers avoid these tools, because being more productive just

gets them that much closer to having to actually do something, to ship something new out

the door. And surprisingly, the folks who are always busy filling up notebooks with tips

and tasks are just as afraid. Looking busy is not the same as fighting the resistance. Being

productive at someone else's task list is not the same as making your own map.

The Hard Part About Losing

The reason the resistance persists in slowing you down and prevents you from putting

your heart and soul and art into your work is simple: you might fail.

Of course you might. In fact, you will. Not all the time, certainly, but more than you'd

like.

And when you fail, then what?

My friend JP lost her job. She's amazing at what she does, she deserves to be promoted,

not fired. She brings everything she has to work, every day, and they were so lucky to

have her. But these dolts, they fired her.

Some people would take that as a slap, a cut deep into their soul, a message that they

ought