Thread by @ericpengcoach

Our brains are prediction machines.

The more feedback we get from the world, the better predictions we can make.

The more we shut ourselves off from the world, the more delusional we become.

"A system that ignores feedback will eventually be shaken to pieces by repeated violent contact with the environment it is trying to ignore."

— John Gall, The Systems Bible

A fixed mindset despises feedback. Feedback is a threat to one's identity.

A growth mindset values feedback. Feedback is fuel for growth and change.

Our brains are machine learning algorithms.

Our algorithm heavily weighs our initial data set: our childhood.

If we experienced a traumatic childhood, we're more likely to shut ourselves off from the world.

We continue to see the world as we did as a child.

"Being traumatized means continuing to organize your life as if the trauma were still going on—unchanged and immutable—as every new encounter or event is contaminated by the past."

— Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

"Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think."

— Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

"For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present."

— Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

To change, we must gain self-awareness and self-knowledge.

We must confront our past to understand our present.

We must let go of our past and forgive both ourselves and those who hurt us in order to move on.

We must realize that we are no longer that child—we are safe now.

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."

— Joseph Chilton Pearce

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

— George Santayana