Are You Addicted to Brain Crack?
Brain crack is one big reason people don’t realize their dreams.
The mechanism that allowed me to keep suffering my way through my plan, no matter how bad I felt was a little something I like to call “brain crack” (a term coined by YouTuber ZeFrank) .
Brain crack is an idea of something you want that you hide away in a corner of your brain but never do anything about. That way, if ever you feel bad, you can fantasize about what it might be like to do that thing.
“One day” we tell ourselves.
“One day, I’ll start a business. For now, I need to _________.” Fill in the blank with whatever you want, for me it was “learn sales”.
“One day, I’ll start a business. For now, I need to learn sales.”
“One day, I’ll take that course. For now, I need to make money.”
“One day, I’ll find the time. For now, I need to get more information.”
While all those excuses might seem reasonable or even responsible, most often, what’s really going on is that you would rather hang on to hope than find out your idea sucks.
You can keep these thoughts rattling around in your mind forever. Then, if you ever feel down, you can just think “I have this idea that I can execute some time” and it makes you feel superior for a moment. It takes you away from the reality of your present situation and allows you to believe in a future version of you that’s different. Because things will be better later, it's ok that they’re so crap right now.
By getting high on hits of brain crack, we justify our present suffering.
We make it ok to endure a little longer. With our brain crack, we can endure just about anything.
We can get so addicted to the thought of a better future that we’re scared to let the idea evolve into any real action. We clutch the idea close and save it as an ego boost for when life gets us down.
We would rather smoke brain crack than confront our circumstances.
Our idea becomes more addicting as our circumstances continue to degenerate, and we continue to pin more of our self-esteem onto the idea. The more of our self-esteem we have pinned on the idea, the less willing we are to act on it, and the more our circumstances get worse. The more the circumstances get worse, the more we clutch on to our idea and thus, the cycle of addiction continues.
When our ideas get out into the world, they don’t always come up roses on the first try. That’s because they’re not meant to! With brain crack, we think something is supposed to be THE thing that solves all our problems and never makes us feel bad ever again.
But life may just be prodding you in a direction for an entirely different reason than what you imagine. That’s ok. If something inside is telling you “go for it”, listen! Go for it!
Just recognize that it might not always be bringing the outcome you want, and that’s ok. There will always be a lesson in the experience to bring you closer to what you truly want. That’s what important.
There is no end to what we can justify for ourselves with the right amount and type of brain crack.
If you really want something, then you should get serious about it by making firm decisions about what actions to take. Otherwise, stop sedating yourself with brain crack. It will only keep you trapped.
And when you finally let your idea out into the world, it may not live up to your story. In fact, it rarely does.
But it takes you out of “brain crack” mode and brings you to the reality of your present situation. It helps you recalibrate towards what you really want based on reality, not delusion.
Which was something I sorely needed at the time…
This has been an excerpt from my new book, Aimless: The Only Advice You’ll Ever Need to Decide What to Do With Your Life. In the book, I provide instructions for diagnosing if you are currently addicted to brain crack.
If you know someone who’s puzzled over the question, “What should I do with my life?”, please consider pre-ordering a copy now. Cool bonuses available until November 14, 2020.
