Attorney Marketing Blog

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

— Kurt Vonnegut (from the introduction to “Mother Night”)

Truer words, eh?

Here’s the remarkable part – the thing Vonnegut understood but couldn’t quantify when he wrote those words.

It’s not just the perception of the outside world that bends around our individual games of pretend

Our brains operate on this loop!

Your incredible brain uses feedback loops, run at incomprehensible speeds, to build and store reactions (heuristics, instincts – however you want to label it).

It’s like riding a bike.

You no longer think about it. At one point in your life, you “pretended” to ride a bike. You were NOT a natural at it. You focused desperately on the act of balancing yourself while simultaneously moving the pedals. Every bit of the act was draining physically and mentally until it stopped being pretending and entered the simple realm of “just doing.”

The more you “pretend” (aka practice), the better you become at that task.

It’s as true of riding a bike as it is of success.

I’ve found it is NOT easy to always take a right or best step forward

Fear, insecurity, and doubt steer you to the easiest path

The path of least resistance

And the least reward.

If you “pretend” that each day is going to worse than the last or that your life is filled with insurmountable obstacles… well, that’s exactly what you will find in your life. How can you look for anything else when you train your brain to seek out and find only the worst?

So what are you pretending (practicing) to be every day? Do you make decisions as though you were already more successful than you are today, or are your choices designed to keep you in the status quo?

Pretend Bigger!

Think of where you want to be and act the part

Make choices as though you are already there, because those are the choices that Get You There.

On a related and important note

Who hasn’t heard somebody say “garbage in, garbage out” when talking about the human mind?

It all comes back to the idea of a Feedback Loop.

How you stimulate your mind dictates the results you get from it

So lets up the ante and give your brain the resources it needs to make wise, informed choices for you!

Inspiration. Information. Motivation.

Put it all together…