We humans come with fantastic hardware but with outdated, deprecated software. Our software evolved in a completely different era than the one we are living in now.
When our software was evolving, food was scarce. It wasn’t possible to conserve it for a long time. That meant we had to indulge in food and consume as much as possible once we find it.
The scarcity of food also meant that we had to conserve as much energy as possible. That meant we had to move as little as possible.
Infant mortality rate was high. That meant we had to have sex in every opportunity to maximize our chances of passing our genes to the next generation.
We didn’t have any security at all. We faced threats to our lives on a daily basis. That meant we had to get triggered in the tiniest perception of a threat and either run away or fight back.
We relied 100% on our tribes to survive. That meant we had to conform to the culture of our tribe no matter how irrational it was.
That’s just a fraction of instincts we have developed throughout our evolution. We pass those instincts to the next generation every time we reproduce.
Those outdated programs don’t serve us anymore. On the contrary, they hurt us. They prevent us from reaching our full potential. They make us sick.
When you have to make a presentation in front of an audience, and your instincts perceive this as a threat, your performance suffers.
If you indulge in high-calorie foods and move as little as possible, your health suffers. If you lose yourself in flashy content on the Internet, your productivity suffers. If you let alcohol or drugs hijack your nervous system, your whole life and your loved ones suffer.
These are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot more going on under the surface. We need to become conscious of the shortcomings of our psyche and learn the strategies to deal with them.
As we let go of those outdated, deprecated programs, more and more capacity is freed up in our minds. Even though our software is mostly obsolete, our hardware is topnotch. As we develop and install superior software, we perform better and better.
To me, personal development is all about detecting and uninstalling those outdated, deprecated programs, and installing new, superior programs that help us realize our full potentials.
That’s why I’m obsessed with personal development, and that’s why you should be obsessed with it too.