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The Personal Growth Letter

Don’t believe everything you think [FIRST NAME GOES HERE] ⛔️

Published 8 months ago • 2 min read

Hey Reader,

Here's something you might not know yet: Your brain doesn’t want you to be happy, it wants you to be safe. 🥰

So when we make decisions, we naturally lean toward safer options that make us feel good.

Here’s what investor Naval Ravikant writes:

“If you have two choices to make, and they’re relatively equal choices, take the path more difficult and more painful in the short term.
What’s actually going on is one of these paths requires short-term pain. And the other path leads to pain further out in the future. And what your brain is doing through conflict-avoidance is trying to push off the short-term pain.
By definition, if the two are even and one has short-term pain, that path has long-term gain associated. With the law of compound interest, long-term gain is what you want to go toward.
Your brain is overvaluing the side with the short-term happiness and trying to avoid the one with short-term pain.”

Luckily, knowing how your brain works means you can make it work for you.

Most importantly, allow yourself to process negative emotions and fears in silence without rushing through.

So many of our mistakes and wrong decisions are based on hurry and fear. Negative emotions are part of life, but you can take your time to process them, so you can draw meaningful conclusions and avoid toxic patterns.

Start journaling to get your thoughts out of your mind onto a piece of paper, speak up when you don’t like how you’re being treated, and talk things out instead of brushing them under the carpet.

Your emotions deserve attention, but they shouldn’t hold you back.

The busier and more stressed we are, the easier it is to end up in fight-or-flight mode. Think of it like going shopping on an empty stomach: You inevitably make wrong decisions.

You want to clear your mind before you tackle important problems and decisions. This includes making space and taking time to process negative emotions.

To your success,
Sinem & Philip


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The Personal Growth Letter

by Sinem Günel & Philip Hofmacher

Subscribe to fluff-free, actionable, and inspiring ideas to help you become your best self and build a life you love.

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