EP8 Recap | Dr. Rebecca Heiss: How our instincts hold us back from being our best self
Our conversation with Rebecca is truly dynamic, we dive into “human instincts” and the power and pull of them. I have always been really interested in understanding our base instincts and instead of vilifying them, I am more interested in working with them, understanding that our instincts have evolved to keep us alive, our job now is to learn how to regulate and temper them, not allowing them to drive us.
In this piece with Rebecca, we discuss our baseline instincts, how to create awareness over them, how to increase our capacity for them and ultimately how to leverage our instincts to create a competitive advantage!
About Dr. Rebecca Heiss
Unpacking the paradoxes of the way humans think is Dr. Rebecca Heiss’ life work. Her research has been designated “transformative” by the National Science Foundation. She taught at the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics and later was recruited to be among the founding faculty members to develop a startup school to nurture entrepreneurial minds and approach learning through impact. She is the founder and CEO of Icueity, a continuous 360 review app providing users ongoing fearless feedback and challenging them to grow in self-awareness. Rebecca’s book, Instinct, is expected March 2021.
Rebecca’s outlook on fear
The scariest thing to me is living a life full of fear. That’s not living. That’s relying on fear-based instinct to make choices for us. I’ve dedicated my life to pushing back on those instincts and leaning into the discomfort. When was the last time you danced without hearing that little voice in your head questioning “what will other people say” and “your hips do NOT move like that!” I ask people to challenge those voices in their daily lives. To make sure we are all making the most of this thrilling life we are so privileged to live. By making enemies of these limiting stories and shortcuts inside our own heads rather than with our colleagues, departments, or our conscious selves, we can begin to test our perceptions, and open ourselves to growth.