Throughout time humans have evolved to have a strong bias towards self-preservation. Tribes, clans, villages, walls and moats are all examples of things we have built in order to keep ourselves safe. Leaving your village was risky, because you would be left with your own devices for protection. Humans also evolved to perceive threats and avoid them, such as prey, famine and disease, all in the name of self-preservation.
Humans today still have threats in the real world, but when it comes to performance in business and sport, many of these threats are imagined, and our protective biological hardwiring can really slow us down.
This is what I call mental red tape
When a governing body or large business wants to make a decision they have a system of checks and balances informally described as red tape.
Mental red tape is the evolutionary checks and balances everyone has for self-preservation that negatively bleed over into performance. These inhibitions slow down your ability to flow and be instinctual. They cause you to flinch, hesitate and second guess.
Your brain is hardwired to act this way, but your spirit and body want to be free and instinctual. Your spirit holds the scissors, allow it to cut the tape. Move and act freely, uninhibited and without fear, driven along in spirit.
Braden Bristo’s - The Journeyman’s Path 