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How can I explain the never-ending irrationality of human behavior?
We say we want one thing, then we do another. We say we want to be successful but we sabotage the job interview.We say we want to be thin but we eat too much. We say we want to be fit but we skip a training session or don't push ourselves hard when we do show up.
The contradictions never end. When someone shows up and acts without contradiction, we're amazed. When an athlete just does the sport, or when a writer just writes the words, we can't help but watch, astonished at the purity of their actions. Why is it so difficult to do what we say we're going to do?
The lizard brain. Or as may be easier to grasp 'the resistance'.

 
The resistance is the voice in the back of our head telling us to back off, be careful, go slow, compromise. The resistance is writer's block and starting jitters and every project that ever shipped late because people couldn't stay on the same page long off to get something out the door.
The resistance grows in strength as we get closer to an insight, as we get closer to the truth of what we really want. That's because the lizard hates change and achievement and risk.
The lizard is a physical part of your brain, the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear and rage and reproductive drive.
Want to know why so many people 'can't keep up'? It's because they compromise, have errands to run, fear the critics and generally work to appease the lizard. Half-ass workouts, middle of the road efforts and the rationalization that goes with them are symptoms of people who work to appease the lizard brain.
The amygdala isn't going away. Your lizard brain is here to stay, and your job is to figure out how to quiet it and ignore it.
Now you know its name. What are you going to do about it?

Abridged from the original blog post 'Quieting the Lizard Brain' by Seth Godin.