Tame the Primitive Brain: 28 Ways in 28 Days to Manage the Most Impulsive Behaviors at Work

Week I

You

A First Look at Everything

You can’t process me with a normal brain.

—Charlie Sheen

What is this first week all about? In a single word: you. But then again every minute of every day is, in effect, about you, because you are living it. You experience life in a very personal way; we all do.

For example: Although you didn’t write this book, and can’t take responsibility for the words on the pages, you are, as you read, interpreting those words in a very specific, individual way. You cannot help but bestow your own meaning upon them. Yes, I, the writer, am supplying a stimulus with a specific response in mind for you, the reader. But in the end, your reactions are your own.

That may sound like a bit of a disclaimer. And it is. I have taken responsibility at my end. Your end I leave to you to hold up.

This section, therefore, is not only all about you and how your primitive reptilian brain innately makes initial judgments of everything in your life; it is also about the selfsame way that everyone else’s reptilian brains first see and judge their environments—the places, people, and things that exist both outside and inside of them. By reflecting, understanding, and learning some tips about how your most primitive brain instinctively operates, you will have the knowledge you need to develop the skills for managing the impulsive behavior you observe in everyone else.

By the end of the chapters in this part, you’ll be able to recognize the brain’s most primitive actions, reactions, ...