Have you heard of the Central Governor Theory? It’s something that can help you. It’s supported by good evidence and can revolutionize your life.
Understanding the Central Governor Theory is a great way to persevere through difficult tasks. Persevering through difficult tasks, either physical or intellectual, is one of the best ways to achieve personal fulfillment and develop your capacity. You have far more capacity than you realize.
What Is The Central Governor Theory?
The Central Governor Theory says that we have developed physiological and emotional responses that are far too crude. Meaning your body and brain are too conservative, it is too cautious about running out of resources. So it sends you signals like pain signals or fatigue signals, like, this is hard you should stop signals, far before you are actually running out of resources. Anything that’s resource intensive.
When you’re running, your Central Governor is inducing muscle fatigue and inducing pain responses far before you are actually running out of resources. You still have a ton left in the tank.
If you’re doing something hard for the brain, which is very glucose intensive, there is a similar thing going on. And the best way to develop your critical thinking skills is to push through difficult tasks like math problems, and rigorous thinking until you achieve a deeper level of understanding.
But Don’t Stop
Your brain may be telling you, you should stop, this is hard. But actually, you can develop the ability to override the Central Governor just by understanding the Central Governor. You can slowly develop that capacity by continually pushing through bit by bit. And then not only do you develop your physical capacity and your intellectual capacity, but you develop this meta capacity to override the Central Governor.
However, there is a caution. Some people have developed the capacity so well, like ultramarathon runners, that a small percentage of them have negative outcomes. You don’t want to go to the other extreme.
The point is understanding that your conscious mind can tell you that these physiological responses are being too conservative. They’re being too crude. But in reality, you have a lot left and can persevere to get that sense of fulfillment and get that physical and intellectual high.
You have much more capacity than you realize.