How many times have you set your self a goal to achieve something you've never achieved before; you've been highly motivated and really excited at first but in short time, you find you give up or quit? There is a small almond shaped organ in your brain called the Amygdala, which must share some of the blame.

The Amygdala is a small almond shaped set of nuclei that sits in the brain. Its job is to send out certain chemicals to the body when needed, that cause you to feel fear, anxiety, doubt and even depression. You may be wondering why on earth Mother Nature would equip us with such an organ; let me explain.

The Amygdala is alerted by other parts of the brain when you are in a situation that may be detrimental to your health or well-being, or that is not in line with what you want. As was the case with early primitive man, the Amygdala would send out chemicals to the body when danger was present such as a large carnivore, thus creating a sense of fear and hopefully preventing man from proceeding or getting any closer to the danger.

In modern day man the process is exactly the same; when we walk into the garden shed or a small walk or crawl space we are ever watchful in case a big spider is going to surprise us with their presence; the Amygdala is causing us to feel this way. However the Amygdala knows when we are out of our comfort zone in any aspect of our life and acts accordingly.

Being out of your comfort zone can mean all sorts of things. Just as you feel uncomfortable walking through a small dark garden shed, you can feel just as if not more uncomfortable doing something you've never done before, such as a new job, career, learning to invest, new diet or exercise program, giving up a bad habit, and so on. In fact, anything that you attempt to do that you've never done before.

To give you an example, one of the biggest fears we have is talking in public. Because we have a self-image of someone who is unable to speak in public, whether it is because you've never done it before, or you've tried it once and stumbled, it is a situation we'd rather avoid. The Amygdala is the very organ that is pumping your body full of fear as soon as you even accommodate the thought of speaking in public.

The list goes on: making cold calls, asking the boss for a raise, cutting out bad foods, doing exercise, saving money, creating a business, asking a person out for a date and so on. Whether its rejection or just plain having to change our ways, our comfort zone is being pushed by the Amygdala.

Because we don't like the feelings we feel when out of our comfort zone, we will make excuses and avoid the change. How many times have you done this?