The Need To Survive

In the Story Brand Book, Donald Miller says that our brains are designed to help us survive. Our brains need to take in a lot of data daily, including advertising. It’s amazing how our brains process this information and decide what is essential for us at that moment.

Paul Reber, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, explains at www.scientificamerican.com that a human brain’s memory capacity is roughly 2.5 Petabytes, which translates roughly to over two and a half BILLION megabytes of information. 2.5 Billion!

The amount of information our brains capture is astonishing. For instance, the human brain consumes 34 GB of data daily just from ads alone. That alone is enough to overwhelm a typical laptop. But in addition to those ads, our brains must also process additional data such as colors, sounds, objects, intentions, movements, and textures. The list is endless. 

Every moment you are awake, your mind consumes this information. And even when you are asleep, your brain is still hard at work. Continually processing and crunching this data over and over and over again. Determining with each piece of data, what is needed, and what is vital to your survival.

The Path Of Least Resistance

When it comes to our brains, the thing to know is its function is to help us survive. Survival. That is the keyword. We must survive. Even though you may not be consciously thinking of survival, your brain is always searching for the least path of resistance and constantly working to burn the least calories it can to survive. 

Always looking for order and sequence to conserve calories. When something is confusing or doesn’t make sense and requires us to “think” more and use more calories, our brains send a response and tell us to move on. 

As an example, think about yourself. 

Have you ever been looking at a website that didn’t make sense right away or was overly complicated? You know, one that you just don’t “get it?” So what do you and I commonly do? We keep on scrolling.

When it comes to the internet, you could say that when the “going get’s tough,” your brain automatically orders us to move on. Next! 

Our brains are always busy, even when we’re not working. We daydream to make sense of things. We use stories to remember information. So when people come to your website, they are thinking about what’s in it for them and how the information can help them survive. You need to consider how this affects the message you use when promoting your business.

You are not the hero. Keep reading.