Wise Decisions

Chapter 6Protecting Your Inner Core at All Costs

Our brain exists fundamentally to help us survive and get us what we need and want in life. It is always listening for instructions. Since our inner voice is closest to our command center, the messages and instructions sent by our private voice will likely have the greatest opportunity for impact on the decisions we make. Our inner voice (IV) is analogous to an intravenous (IV) drip directly into the brain.

Advice and instructions are typically sent via words. Words, the meanings they represent, and the frequency of use create a narrative, one that goes from ourselves to ourselves. Every message creates a unique bioelectrical impulse, and repeated messages get the most neurological traction. This happens because a substance called myelin, a fatty sheath that insulates pathways in the brain, coats the most frequently used neural connections so that the electrical impulses can pass more easily and efficiently.

The brain assumes that frequently repeated messages are central to what we really need and want and to our survival, so it doubles down on making sure those messages get through as quickly and seamlessly as possible. If the same message keeps reappearing, the brain assumes it must be important.

So here is the critical question: How do we prevent false, biased, deceptive, contaminated data, and half‐truths, distorted facts, outright lies, and falsehoods of all kinds from getting access to our control center and co‐opting our ...