We humans have a powerful and immediate reaction when we perceive a physical threat to our lives; we raise and cross our arms in front of our bodies (imagine someone throwing something at us, even if it’s a pillow). The goal of this instinctive reaction is to protect us from a threat to our lives [...]
We humans are very good at protecting ourselves from perceived threats. This reaction is the manifestation of our most powerful instinct—survival—which has developed over billions of years of evolution. This protective reaction has served us well for most of our existence (which began on the Serengeti about 250,000 years ago) when confronted with threats to [...]
In my last article, I described how evolution has enabled humans to adapt to a changing environment to ensure our survival as a species. I also showed how those very qualities that helped us survive can prevent us from thriving and becoming the best version of ourselves. In this article, I will explain how you [...]
How you act on and react to your life starts with how you look at it. I have found that a simple distinction lies at the heart of whether you adopt a mentality of negativity, fear, scarcity, and avoidance or a mindset of optimism, courage, abundance, and opportunity: Do you perceive your life as a [...]
In my last post, I described how we often view situations in our lives as life or death despite the fact that our physical lives aren’t in any danger. The evolutionary-based instinctive response to this perception is the triggering of the survival instinct followed by the fight-or-flight reaction (freeze should also be in there, but [...]
The Saturday Evening Post published my most recent column, Does Our Primitive Survival Instinct Still Work in the 21st Century? Our survival instinct, which has served us so well since we climbed out of the primordial muck eons ago may now be failing us. Why? Because the fight-or-flight reaction that arises in response to a threat [...]
In Episode #3 of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast, I explore the difference between the survival and thrival instincts and their impact on your reactions to crises you may face today. The survival instinct was very effective on the Serengeti 300,000 years ago, but the thrival instinct (defined as the ability to prosper; grow or develop [...]
Episode #2 of my Crisis to Opportunity podcast will explore how the primitive instincts and reactions that have served us so well in crises since we became humans no longer serve us in the 21st century where the crises we face now differ so greatly from those experienced by our ancestors.
Mitchell Gunn with permission In my last article, I explored the first of three holiday gifts that Mikaela Shiffrin gave to young ski racers for the holidays, namely, the power of disappointment to fuel your ski racing efforts. This article will introduce you to holiday gift #2 from Mikaela, the importance in a [...]
An interesting article on the physiology of risk taking. The basic premise is that people are more likely to take risks when calm and relaxed and they become risk averse when under stress. This finding has real implications on performance in sports, business, and life in general.
