Day 24 — Prediction Machines, Brains, & Future Selves
Blogtober — Day 24… “Hear my voice soar!!!”
Today I finally resurfaced from a mega-crap week of low sleep and recovery. My WHOOP showed less than 7 hours of sleep most nights and a below average HRV and RHR (heart rate variability and resting heart rate). I was depleted. Tired. And finally, after the longest time of strong mental attitude, mood and energy… I was in the pits.
Largely from that pinched nerve or muscle in the upper back and neck causing me pain, strain, and poor sleep. But finally, today, I managed a solid 7h 30 mins of sleep. My recovery was back in the green.
My recent self-enquiries into how to get better sleep after working so late and going to be so late, resulted in the readdition of a daily magnesium drink twice per day. Also I added resonance breathwork with biofeedback two nights in a row which caused me to yawn much earlier than I usually do. That’s usually the sign I’m ready for sleep… last night it happened again. On yawning, that’s also a sign the magnesium may be helping melatonin production which is the sleep onset chemical.
This morning I told myself, “Well, I was always going to return to green”… but then I countered myself with,
“Well, how do I know that? What if my recovery, HRV and RHR and sleep got worse, and worse and worse? That IS possible you know!?!”
Indeed… and while I’m a pretty resilient bugger in the fact that I usually take stress on board, get depleted, but eventually resurface and get back on track the sleep, recovery and Super Froth Rob train.
The question then becomes, “how do I get back to Super Froth Rob faster each time?” as well as, “How can I absorb the impact of these stressful scenarios so I’m not so knocked out of kilter, and thus won’t need so much time for recovery?”
Great questions. Love them. Love this self conversation I’m having with myself. And I know you’re there too. This is still a two way street. I know I’m being watched. I know someone is reading this. However, this writing is for me, today, to work out thoughts, to process recent events, to gain a better understanding of the world, and…
…to sharpen my prediction machine.
Yes, my prediction machine.
Now I feel like I’ve entered explain mode. Could be interesting, even to test out if I can do it justice.
So, essentially, as homo sapiens we have the capacity with our forebrains to envisage multiple future scenarios and take action based on the probability of those actions taking place.
Think betting everything on the 100–1 outsider, versus the 2–1 favourite.
Logically, according to the data, the action to take is as clear as day.
However, those odds are based on prior performance. Think of Michelle Payne, the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup, one of the world’s most prestigious horse racing carnivals. She was in fact, the 100–1 racer. How little did they know?!
The past doesn’t always need to equal the future.
If there’s anything I’ve gained over the years from personal development seminars in NLP, TimeLine Therapy, Hypnosis, SportsMind, etc, is that sentiment.
However, it’s so easy to trip up on expecting more of the same as that is how our prediction machines work.
“This happened last time, so expect more of the same.” Heck, some even go looking for it and unconsciously attracting it! YIKES!!
That where the “future self” concept from Jeffrey Hodges really shines. I invited Jeffrey to run a 1 day Sports Hypnosis workshop in Cairns for the launch of his SportsMind Hypnosis book and program. In the workshop attended by myself and many of my sporting clients at the time, Jeffrey offered us two ways of living.
We operate either with a “past referential” or “future referential” orientation.
Brains largely run the “past referential program”. All current behaviours are guided by the past. Those behaviours and choices create more of the past. Now there’s nothing wrong with having more of the great stuff. Certainly helps with certainty, but damn when does anything new happen? EEK!! But what about the crap and shit we don’t like from our past but the brain keeps on creating in our lives as “that’s how it’s always been!?”
Whereas brains which run a “future referential program” end up guiding current actions which support the creation of future. All decisions, perceptions and thus actions are filtered via that imagined future… not to make the post reoccur again, and again, and again.
Fascinating to think this through… and Jeffrey would suggest connecting to our “future self”… that self who has accomplished, created, done, has, is that self we want now. Then we can imagine having conversations with that future self to guide us.
What does my future self always say to me? The same thing over and over again.
