The document discusses the challenge of managing human instincts, particularly the competitive spirit and other primal urges that can lead to unhealthy behaviors, such as conflicts and overeating. It suggests that instead of battling these instincts with willpower, it's more effective to learn to manage them by setting clear goals and utilizing strategies like journaling and meditation. The author emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between rational choices and instinct-driven actions to foster better decision-making.

1. Don't Fight The Caveman

2. When I was a kid there was a TV show
called, "Wide World of Sports."

3. One of the taglines was that it showed
the "thrill of victory" and the "agony of
defeat."

4. When they showed the "agony of
defeat" part, they showed some guy
coming down a ski jump ramp and
crashing horribly just as he got to the
take off point.

5. Sports have been around for a long,
long time.

6. All cultures from all times have some
kind of sports in their ancient history.

7. Some suspect that as humans slowly
made the transition from hunter-
gatherers to farmers, they still had that
"competitive spirit."

8. To be sure, on the battlefield or on the
playing field, winning is awesome, and
losing sucks.

9. But that's where it ends.

10. Or, rather, that's where it SHOULD end.

11. The trouble with our instincts,
especially the ones for competition, is
we can really just "shut them off."

12. This is easy to understand with
something like hunger.

13. Feeling hungry sucks. Eating feels
good.

14. It's VERY DIFFICULT to simply "not eat"
when you're hungry AND there's
plenty of food around.

15. This is kind of how it feels when you
get into an argument over something
really tiny, but you simply CAN NOT
just let it go.

16. You HAVE to win at all costs.

17. That's that ancient instinct rearing it's
ugly head.

18. We've got a lot of them.

19. We tend to follow authority figures,
even when they're clearly idiots.

20. We tend to follow the crowd, even
when they're running right off a cliff.

21. We tend to eat WAY more calories
than we need, even though we keep
buying bigger pants.

22. Caveman 1, Human 0 !

23. Of course, if you try and "battle" your
instincts with sheer willpower, you'll
lose most of the time.

24. This is precisely why diets fail.

25. You're trying to battle your ancient
drive to eat, which resides in your
VERY POWERFUL reptilian cortex, with
your conscious mind.

26. However, instead of CONTROLLING
your instincts, consider learning to
manage them.

27. Like not going shopping when you're
hungry.

28. Or being able to step back and see the
"big picture" when you find yourself in
a heated argument over which culture
invented the bacon cheeseburger.

29. One thing that can help is having a
CLEAR set of goals.

30. This makes it easy to step back and see
if what you're doing is to satisfy your
inner caveman, or your rational
human.

31. Rational humans choose and pursue
goals, while cavemen and cavewomen
follow their instincts.

32. There are a lot of ways to overcome
those instincts.

33. Daily journaling can help.

34. Meditation can help.

35. Doing visualizations can help.

36. mindpersuasion.com/kindle/