Mind Drama: The Struggle Is Not Real!

Life Coaching Tip:  Your primal brain will do whatever it takes to keep you from leveling up, including freaking you out with scary stories or exaggerating the effort that is needed to accomplish your goals. Remember, your dream is worth whatever time and effort it takes to realize it, despite what your dramatic primal brain wants you to believe!

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I haven’t been walking at the lake much these days, and honestly, I’ve been a little salty about it. My morning walks are important to me, and so it’s disappointing.

I’m working on managing my mind around this disappointment though because the reason my walks have come to a halt is the two sweet puppies we welcomed into our family this month.

Now of course I knew that adding these babies into our household would require a lifestyle change, but I just assumed I could take them on my morning walks.  Each are light as a feather, and so I assumed I would just carry them until they could walk.  I imagined showing them the world right from the start – so fun!

But what I didn’t realize is that it isn’t safe for puppies to go to the park, or really outdoors at all, until they’ve had their vaccines.  And for Mocha, who was a bottle-fed baby, this is particularly true.  And so, I’ve been indoors every day for the last few weeks, except for weekends when my husband can give me a break.

The good news is that Mocha received her shots last Thursday, and so she is good to go!  BUT… Ginger, came home on Friday (YAY!), so three more weeks of indoor living for us!

The purpose of me telling you all this is not to whine, because I completely understand that there are far worse problems in the world, and I am extremely grateful for all the blessings in my life (including my two lil’ puppy blessings, for sure!).

The real reason I am writing about my indoor woes is because I noticed just how unreasonable my thoughts can get.  And I’m guessing I’m not the only one here, am I right?

You see, I KNOW that a few weeks of indoor living and a few more months of helping our puppies adjust to our household is the small price I must pay to have what I want: two loving, well-adjusted dogs who add as much joy and fun into our lives as we hope to bring to theirs.

And although this minor investment of time and effort is hardly a big deal in the big scheme of things, my primal brain is throwing a temper tantrum.  Oh, how she despises effort and change!

“Noooooooo,” she warns me in an overly dramatic fashion.  “This is bad.  You know how special your walks are to you.  What if you never get to walk again?”

“This is so disappointing!  I mean, we knew there would be changes to make but this is ridiculous.  You already missed out on so much thanks to the pandemic. And now it’s summertime and you can’t get this time back!”

True confession, this is where my brain has been going, major case of FOMO!

But I am on to myself, thank heavens!

When these defeating thoughts try to hijack my brain, it only takes a millisecond for me to make a thought shift, because all I have to do is look at my darling little pups!  Watching them play together, cuddling with them, helping them explore new things…. Nothing beats these times!

And it’s so funny, because I’ve had these little ones on my vision board, like pictures of puppies that look exactly like them for almost a year.

“Please Tracy”, I tell myself, “Stop the nonsense! There’s no suffering going on here.”

I’m sharing this with you today because this can happen to the best of us.

I see it all the time with my clients, and it’s one of the reasons why working with a life coach can be so helpful.  It can be hard to see through our own BS when our primal brain is working against us.

For instance, consider the goal of weight loss.  It’s so common for people to focus on the “misery”, like not having pizza or ice cream, having to take the time to plan and prep meals, getting up early to hit the gym before work (oh, the suffering) …

And as a coach, I encourage my clients instead to focus on the sweet results of reaching their weight loss goal such as better overall health, increased energy, and fitting into those sexy jeans.

This is just one example, but it can be true no matter the goal.  And the bigger the dream, the more dramatic the primal brain can be.  She’s quite the buzzkill and a master manipulator.  She’ll do whatever it takes to keep you from leveling up, staying “safe” in your comfort zone.

And so, if you have a big dream in your heart and fear has been holding you back from acting, remember my dramatic puppy story and don’t let your primal brain freak you out.

Keep your eyes on the prize and continue moving forward.

Your dream is worth whatever time and effort it takes to realize it.

I mean, the journey could actually be fun.

Seriously, the struggle is NOT real, I promise.