Latest / Do You F*cking Mind? / The Neuroscience of Making a Habit and keeping it

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The Neuroscience of Making a Habit and keeping it · Do You F*cking Mind?

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello, beautiful beans, and welcome to the podcast episode of Today.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: So this is going to be I would imagine a
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: long episode. I don't know if I have to break
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: it up into two. I really hope I can just
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: do this as one big episode. I just have so
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: many notes, So that's why I think it's going to
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: be a big episode. But honestly, let's just pace ourselves
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: we go through it. If I need to break it
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: into doo, I'm going to do it. Or I can
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: just lean into those podcasters that do those crazy long
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: episodes and just become one of them. Anyway, this is
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: another neuroscience podcast episode, you guys. I'm giving the people
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: what they want. They want more neuroscience. This is the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: neuroscience of making and breaking a habit. We're going to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: talk about what are habits. We're going to be talking
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: about different patterns that you have to get into to
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: get into a habit. We're going to be talking about
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the actual neurochemistry, what's going on with neurotransmitters, what's going
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: on within the wiring of the brain when you're forming
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: a habit and when you're breaking a habit. We're talking
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: about how to completely eradicate a habit, well, can you
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: completely eradicate a habit? And what does that look like?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Extinction of a habit? All kinds of things. There's just
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: so much that I want to talk about, so there
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: is really not going to be time for a life update.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to be doing that shit today. So
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: what I do want to say before we get into
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  Speaker 1: this episode, because there's a lot to get into, is
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: that if you can really delve deep into this episode
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: and take all the notes and really listen to it
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: if you need to, and really pay attention to what
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: it is that I'm saying, you can completely change kind
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of where the needle is pointing to where your life
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: is headed. I believe that habits really do make up
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: who we are as people, and going to get into
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: that in a little bit, but I think it's really
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: important the good and the bad habits. There are habits
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  Speaker 1: that we have made for ourselves that we didn't make intentionally.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: There are habits that we just kind of fall into
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: for many different reasons, and there's habits that we really
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: have created for our selves that really help us out,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: but for the good or for the bad. I really
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  Speaker 1: believe that habits are responsible for a big chunk of
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: your future and where your life is headed and the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: way that you are going to experience your life. So
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  Speaker 1: this is a really really important episode if you're someone
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: that's like, I need to start taking control of my life.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I need to start doing something now so that way
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: my life looks different in a year's time, in six
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: months time, in three years time, whatever the timeframe may be. Okay,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: so it is a very important episode. Take what you
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: want from it, grab pen, grab a paper, get comfortable,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: settle in, or just like pause and record all these
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: voice notes to kind of get you in the zone.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I want you finishing this episode already ready to take action,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: ready to change something, not something that you say, oh
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: maybe i'll listen to it in a week's time and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: then action. Then. I want this to make you feel
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: like you know you have something already at your disposal
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: that you can do something with. That's the point of
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: this episode. Okay, let's begin with what habits. So habits
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: are a copetitive behavior, not necessarily a big goal, although
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it can be. So you can have a really big
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: goal of like a particular health goal or a fitness goal,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: and part of that is having like a daily or
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: a three to four time a week habit of exercising
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: or of doing certain things around your health. So there
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: can be a big goal tied to it, or it
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  Speaker 1: can just be a habit that you don't really think
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: about the big goal, like brushing your teeth, even though
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: really the big goal is oral hygiene, but you're not
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: really thinking about that as being the big goal. You
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: just think, I don't like short term, I don't want
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  Speaker 1: dirty teeth. I'm going to brush my teeth every morning,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: every night, whatever. Okay, So there's there's going to be
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  Speaker 1: small actions that we do consistently, some that are tied
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  Speaker 1: to a big goal, some that are not. Habits also
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  Speaker 1: don't really feel that significant in isolation for the most part,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: but collectively they really define kind of how you live
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  Speaker 1: your life. And like the quote from Aristotle, we are
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  Speaker 1: what we repeatedly do. I want you to really think
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  Speaker 1: about habits as kind of your reputation. It's something that
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: you can't lie about. It's something that you can't buy, borrow,
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  Speaker 1: a steal. You either do it or you don't. You
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  Speaker 1: either have a habit. You either have a habit of
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: doing that thing or you don't. And that's what builds
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  Speaker 1: up people's reputation. I think I have a whole episode
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  Speaker 1: about reputation. But whether it's good or bad. Are you
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  Speaker 1: someone that's always on time or you're not? Being late
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  Speaker 1: once doesn't change that, and being on time once also
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  Speaker 1: doesn't change your reputation. That's why this repetitive thing is
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: what makes a habit a habit, what really builds on
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: your identity. And then also, like talking about identity, habits
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  Speaker 1: are part of your identity who you are, and if
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: you want to change your identity, it's important to look
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  Speaker 1: at your habits and what's going on there, and that's
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: going to be the real thing that's going to help
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  Speaker 1: you kind of have an identity rebrand and all of that.
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  Speaker 1: Habits also determine your physical health, how much knowledge you consume,
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  Speaker 1: how much time in your life will completely go to waste,
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  Speaker 1: how happy you are. They play a big role in
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: the state of your mental health, in how calm or
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: regulated you feel or not, and fucking the list can
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  Speaker 1: go on. To be honest, and yeah, even disorganized people
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  Speaker 1: have habits. They just it doesn't feel like a habit
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  Speaker 1: because you might not have created it intentionally. But a
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  Speaker 1: lot of things that we do. Even if it's a
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  Speaker 1: bad habit is kind of you know, it is a habit.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: It's something that you get into whether you like it
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  Speaker 1: or not. Okay. Now, most habits are formed by default,
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  Speaker 1: and then there's going to be the habits that you
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  Speaker 1: actually intentionally create that don't feel easy at the start,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: but then become this habitual way of being. So, but
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: they're formed by kind of what you're exposed to. Your environment,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: your routines, the people around you where you live. You know,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: your upbringing will play a big, big role in the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: kind of habits that you do, unless you actively are
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: choosing to change that. Okay. So because this environment, the routines,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: the people around you really kind of have a really
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: heavy influence on your habits, it often is a lot
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: easier to start a new habit or to build a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: whole new habits when you move house or where you
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: change cities, or where you change jobs, or you move
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: away from certain people or closer to other people that
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: you know display the habits that you want to be,
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  Speaker 1: you know, taking on board because this pattern of being
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: has been disrupted, and when something is disrupted, it's easy
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: to start something fresh, start something new. That's why a
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: lot of people say, oh, well, when I move cities,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I finally became that confident person that I wanted to become.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Because you're kind of like breaking that circuit. It's kind
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of you're snapping into this conscious, conscious awareness of your
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: reality instead of being on autopilot. Now, before the whole episode,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: I would like you to do a little bit of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: an exercise where you write down, like so this can
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: be more of a practical exercise where you can write
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: down the habits that you want to break, the habits
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  Speaker 1: that you want to start, and also the habits that
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: you want to maintain or you're already doing it, but
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: you want to be doing it better basically, And then
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I want you to assess this is important and it's
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: going to play into this episode. Which if these habits
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  Speaker 1: feel natural to you, good or bad? The bad ones
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  Speaker 1: normally do feel natural, Otherwise why the fuck would you
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: do them? Which ones feel out of character and something
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  Speaker 1: that you feel like you need to overcome something in
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  Speaker 1: order for it to feel like it is within your character?
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  Speaker 1: And I want you to look at which habits are
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  Speaker 1: ones that you enjoy even if they're difficult. Which are
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  Speaker 1: ones that require it's such a crazy amount of effort.
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  Speaker 1: So that's why it's so kind of disjointed and why
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  Speaker 1: you can never really maintain a proper pattern with that habit.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes it's on, sometimes it's not. Which ones feel automatic. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is important when we're talking about the formation process
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  Speaker 1: of a habit. Okay, now, how long does it take
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  Speaker 1: to form a habit? This idea of twenty one days
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  Speaker 1: to make a habit? Twenty one days to form a habit,
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  Speaker 1: that's the minimum. Twenty one days is the mida. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I think technically eighteen days is the minimum. There's like
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: studies that were done. I was also listening to an
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  Speaker 1: episode that Humanman did ages ago on habits, and he
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: cited a study about how long it takes. And I
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: don't know the exact study, so I'm quoting human and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: citing study, but this is around. It was like eighteen
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  Speaker 1: days was the minimum, and something along the lines of
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  Speaker 1: like eight months was kind of on the longer end.
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  Speaker 1: And why is there such a big range of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: days versus eight months? And that's kind of how long
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  Speaker 1: it takes to form a habit. That's a really big
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  Speaker 1: amount variation that we're dealing with here. So this variation
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  Speaker 1: actually comes from how difficult is that habit to put
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  Speaker 1: into place in the first place, how much does it
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  Speaker 1: conflict with who you are, your environment, and your energy levels.
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  Speaker 1: So if you're doing something that kind of already plays
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  Speaker 1: into kind of your personality, like say, like I like
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  Speaker 1: to exercise, right, so I say I decided that my
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: habit was to start some different kind of exercise, but
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  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of bringing it in in addition to me.
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  Speaker 1: Or like, let's say my habit was I need to
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  Speaker 1: start doing five minutes of stretching after my workouts. It's
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: not that hard to do because I'm already doing the workouts, right,
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  Speaker 1: So that probably could take me just eighteen days and
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: then before I know, I'm never missing out on a
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  Speaker 1: stretch session. Okay, But if your habit is I going
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  Speaker 1: to start working out five days a week when you've
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: never exercised in your life, that will explain why you're
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: not going to just form that habit in a ten days,
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  Speaker 1: where it's going to take a whole lot longer. And
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of other reasons that can play
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: into it. But it's not just twenty one days to
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  Speaker 1: make a habit. There's many, many, many factors that kind
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  Speaker 1: of influence how long it's going to take for it
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  Speaker 1: to be formed. And a habit is formed when it
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  Speaker 1: no longer requires this significant mental effort. Okay, because all
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: of us can do all these things. It's not about
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: are you capable or are you're not. We're talking about
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: things that we're already technically capable of doing. It just
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: comes down to what is a habit something that we're
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: just going to do. It might require some effort, but
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: where you're like, oh no, it's just part of who
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I am. Of course I'm going to do it, even
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: if I'm not really in the mood. It's just may
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I have to do it. Okay. Then I want to
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: touch on this conflict identity. Okay, so I will talk
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: about the brain and the neurological kind of mechanisms behind
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: habits in a but you want to look at habit
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: as being identity. Something that really becomes a habitual way
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: of being has to tie into your identity. This is
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: why language is very, very important when it comes to
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: your habits. If you're not willing to look at your
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: language and your self talk or how you describe yourself
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: to other people, even if it's funny, even if it's
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: a joke, then you're missing out on a big chunk
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: of habit formation. It has to be part of your identity, okay,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: or about how you talk about yourself. I know I
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: always bang on about be very stinge with what you
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: identify with, and I do die on that. I'll die
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: on that hill because a lot of the time we
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: identify with things that don't actually serve us and hinder us.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So if you say I'm not a morning person, I'm
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: not a morning person. I'm trying to set my alum.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: It's examined, but I'm not a morning person. Your brain's
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: going to listen to what you're identifying with. It's not
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: going to listen to what you want out here. It's
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: what you're saying, I am this, this is me, this
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: is what I identify with. Okay, so you need to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: start to change that language. You don't have to lie,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: but don't say things that are going against what you
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: want to become. Your brain actually really does listen to
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: these things, and it is there's data to back that.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: It's important. Okay, don't say someone, oh like I hate exercising,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I hate exercising. Okay, maybe you hate the exercises you've tried.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Maybe you haven't tried doing it in a way that
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: feels conducive to who you are and making you feel good.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Maybe the exercise you've done have always felt like a punishment.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: But maybe there is an exercise out there that you
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: could that's palatable. You might not love it, but it's palatable. Okay.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: So you will resist behaviors and habits that contradict who
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you are. Okay, You're going to try it for a bit,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: it's going to feel like a fucking mission, and then
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: you're going to reject it. Then you go again. It
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: is constant cycle of attempting to start something and then
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: dropping the ball again and again and again and never progressing. Okay.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Another thing before we go into the brain and how
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: haveit's work in the brain is uncertainty plays a really
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: big role. Okay, So again back to the episode I
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: did a couple of weeks ago about the neuroscience of
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: self control. I talk about this uncertainty and this battle
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: that goes on in the brain. This also plays into
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: habits as well. If you haven't listened to that episode,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: definitely go check it. Out if you are thinking, let's
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: say I want to exercise in the morning, okay, and
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: it's just this, Yeah, I want to train in the morning.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I'd like to train in the morning. I haven't said
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: what I'm going to do. I haven't said what time
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do it. I haven't said where, what, who, what,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: like all the all the bits and pieces. Is it
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: going to be before this or after this whatever? Okay?
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: So then I wake up in the morning and there's
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: too many fucking balls in the air, right, I haven't
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: made a decision. So now I'm like, it's a bit cool.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Oh oh, maybe I'll just do this further. And then
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I'm arming and a ring, pacing up and down. I'm
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: not here nor there, fucked around, And then by the
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: time it comes to the crunch, I'm like, maybe I'll
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: just exercise this afternoon because I'm feeling like I'm a
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: little bit strapped for time. I come down, and all
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the excuses under the sun. Before I know it, I've
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: just wasted time. I haven't done if I'm not going
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: to train, I haven't done anything other than training that
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: would have been beneficial. So I've done nothing. Okay, So
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: this is why uncertainty is the enemy of making a
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: habit of having self control of everything. All you have
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to do is make a decision, and you don't. I'll
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: get to this, but the habit doesn't have to be
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: at the exact same time, in the exact same way
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: every single day for it to become part of who
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: you are. And I'll tell you why in a moment.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: But if i go to bed at night and I've
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: decided I'm going running tomorrow morning before I do X
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: y Z, and I have my outfit ready and my shoes,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and I said, I'm gonna aim for a five k run.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Anything more than that great, but five k's is what
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I'm doing, and everything's ready to go. I wake up
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: in the morning, there is no uncertainty. Yes, there might
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: be certain days where something happens out of your control
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and you end up not being able to go for
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: that run, but in general, everything's set up ready to go.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: You wake up without having to make a decision. It's done.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: The decision is done. I'm up, I go bang, it's
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: out the door. That uncertainty thing, this battle of do
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: I do I not? You have to pay really really
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: close attention because that's going to be the make or
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: break you being able to follow through with a habit.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Mind you, I'm going to get into breaking a habit
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: later in the episode. We're talking about making a habit
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: right now. All right, now, let's talk about how habits
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: actually work in the brain. So the key brain regions
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: that are involved. You want to look at circuits that
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: link together in the brain that creates our behaviors. Okay,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: We've got the basil, ganglia, the straatum. This is parts
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: of the brain that reinforce learning and automatic behaviors. Okay,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and it's activated by kind of larger cortical areas within
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the brain. So first we need to intentionally be doing something.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: This is when we're trying to create a habit. Okay,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So we want to be intentionally doing something the part
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: of the brain that's responsible for this decision making, and
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: then it's going to influence these other regions in the brain.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: So this is kind of these circuits that are involved.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And the more you do it, the more you're connecting
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: these circuits with this decision and then learning and automatic behaviors,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the parts of the brain that involved with learning and
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: automatic behaviors. Then eventually it's becoming it will become more
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: of an automatic behavior, even if it always requires some
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: effort like for some people exercising. For me, I will
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: exercise most of the time, let's say, five days a week,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: four to five days a week, and there are times
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: where I'm really not in the mood and I really
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: do have to summon up, you know, the energy to
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: go and do that thing. But overall, it's just something
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: that's kind of ingrained enough in me that even if
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not in the mood, I'll still for the most part,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: go ahead and do that thing. Okay. Now, this pathway,
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: this cortico straatal pathway, is involved in learning and performing
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: habitual behaviors. Okay, you've got the prefrontal cortex, which is conscious,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: you're conscious thinking, you're forward planning, your executive function, and
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: this is really active when we're first learning and new behavior. Okay.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Then we've got the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the ventro
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: medial prefrontal cortex, which is deciding if this is going
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: to be a good or bad idea, or is it
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: going to be worth it? Is this behavior going to
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: be worth it? For me? Again, all that higher order
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: process thinking, and then once we decide yep, I'm going
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: to be doing this thing. Then this pathway starts creating
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: kind of a bit of a habit formation, all right,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and then we have neurochemicals that are very heavily involved,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: which I'll go into in a second. But you want
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: to look at a habit loop as this queue or trigger.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: So once we've learned like we're going to do this thing,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: it's going to happen, and then we get it consolidated
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: in like the habit formation and memory and all of that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: We've got the queue and the trigger. Then you've got
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the routine or the action, and then you've got the
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: reward or something that's going to reinforce that behavior. I No,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: it's really easy to look at that as when you're
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: looking at bad behaviors. So, for example, the queue or
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: trigger of smoking, Right, let's take smoking as an example,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: or let's take the phone as the example. Using it
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: like phone usage, the queue is a notification going off.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: The routine is to go and reach for your phone. Okay,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: you're going to go reach for your phone every time
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: that thing goes off. And then the reward of the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: reinforcement is that dopamine that we get in anticipation of
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: opening up the phone and seeing this notification. Okay, then
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: if you want to look at it as in more
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: healthy behavior, let's say it is like meditating. The queue
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: could be, well, I'm winding down at nighttime, and I
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: normally meditate throughout the night, so I know that I
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: always meditate after I've done this kind of things, but
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: before I do these things. So that's the cue. The
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: routine is the actual action you meditate, and then the
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: reward is feeling calmer, more regulated, whatever, and then that
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: reinforces this desire to then repeat that behavior again in
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: the future. Okay, So even this is what I want
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: you to pay attention to, even with quote unquote bad habits,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: there's always going to be a reason why we repeat it,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: and that is the reward and the reinforcement there. For
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: everything that we do, there's going to be some kind
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: of a reward, even if it then hurts us later,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: like obviously addictive behaviors and stuff all that shit. Now,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: there is this conscious to automatic shift in the brain.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: So when you first learn a behavior, you've got the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: prefrontal cortex which is very, very heavily involved. This is
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: conscious thinking effort decision making, so specifically that dorso lateral
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: prefrontal cortex and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, all of that. Okay,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: then when we start bringing in the basil ganglia and
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the straatum and all these mid brain regions, once that
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: gets heavily connected, and once we're doing that behavior more
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and more and more repeatedly, it becomes faster, it becomes easier,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: there's less of a cognitive load to do that thing,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: it becomes more automatic, and then eventually that behavior no
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: longer requires that much conscious thought to at least to
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: initiate the behavior. So if the habit is to sit
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: down for an hour and study, of course you're going
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to be requiring a lot of conscious effort and cognitive effort,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: But the initiation of that habit doesn't require much effort
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: at all. Okay, So that's what we want to That's
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: the focus is like how do I start doing that thing?
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Because we all know that it's like the gaining of
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the momentum, that's the hard thing. If we were able
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: to have the ability to start that thing with all
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: the things we want to do in our life, we
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: could then carry on that task and take over and
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: do that hard thing. Probably not that not that much
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: more effort, you know, it's just the starting that is
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: the hard thing. Okay. And this is because the reason
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: this happens where it becomes automatic and easy is your
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: brain likes to conserve a lot of energy. So first
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: it's going to be like no, no, no, that's too
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: much work. It's too much work, it's too much work.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: But then if you keep saying, now I'm going to
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: fucking do this thing, and I'm fucking doing it again,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm doing it, then the brain's like, all right,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: this is obviously necessary. It does what it's taught. And
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: so then it thinks, all right, well, if this is
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: going to happen, it starts strengthening, strengthening, strengthening, giving resources
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: to that region for the brain, because again it doesn't
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: like to put too much effort into things unnecessarily. And
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: then it thinks, all right, well, I can't avoid this.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: It's going to happen. It's going to happen. I'll give
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: all this energy. And then eventually it then subtracks that
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: that subcontract that job to the subconscious mind. So then
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: it allows a subconscious mind to take over instead of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the conscious mind having to do all this work all
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the time. Let's look at the neurochemicals. This is very
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: important to pay attention to. The neurochemicals is going to
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: give you an insight into when in the day you
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: should be doing certain things, depending on how difficult it
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: is for you. Okay. So there are going to be
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: neurochemicals and hormones that are highest in the morning when
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: you wake up, and these are literally associated with getting
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: you up an alert in the morning. That's why it
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: is that way. And then of course you're going to
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: have different hormones and neurochemicals that are more active at
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: night to encourage you to fall asleep. So we get
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: that nice healthy kind of Cicadian rhythm sleep wake cycle. Now,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: cortisol being one of the most prominent ones and something
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: we want to kind of lean into when it comes
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: to doing habits that require more effort. Okay, So this
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: is this cortersol awakening response that you get that spike
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: shortly after waking up, and then you get this increase
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: in levels of other neurotransfer is like dopamine and also
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: noauroper nephrin Okay. So this awakening response you get, you know,
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: it's like an alarm clock kind of you get this
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: increasing cortsol just as we're waking up, or very very
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: soon after we're waking up. It's kind of building from
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: like three to five am. It starts building building buildings
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: that way. Where this is mind you, This is people
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: that like, once you get like a nice healthy sleep
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: wake cycle, some people are like, I don't fucking feel
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: that way. But that's because your sleep hygien may not
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: be intact, okay, But this is how it's shoots, like,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: this is the aim. Hey, you want to get your
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: brain to be you wake up and you've got this.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: This the highest amount of cortisol that you're naturally going
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: to produce within the day. This is obviously not including
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: times when you're under insane amounts of acute stress. That's different.
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: But overall, this like natural surge of cortsol in the
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: morning because you want to wake up, you want to
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: be alert, you want to be ready to do the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: shit that you need to do in the day. Then
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: we've got nouroper nephrin. So this is part of your
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: arousal system. It's preparing your brain to function. So it's
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: helping increase alertness, it helps increase focus, and it is
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: highest during waking up, you know, in the morning and
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: throughout the day, but then it starts to dip the
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: more the closer and closure that you get to fallding asleep.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Then we've got dopamine. Like we all know this as
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: like the addiction chemical or the motivation chemical, but it's
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: also you know, your willingness to do things as well,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: and it's also involved in movement and all these other things.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: So of course highest in the morning, and it peaks
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: kind of just before the end of your sleep, okay,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: but then it remains really high upon like waking to
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: drive this alertness throughout the day. Then we've got serotonin,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: So this is affecting your mood stability. It's contributing to
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: your alertness in the morning, and then that contrast with
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: kind of lower levels during your rem sleep. Morning light
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: exposure is really really good for stimulating this nice release
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: of serotonin production and that that's what helps you feel
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: kind of calm and focused, and you get that nice
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: kind of serotonin throughout the day. Histamine is also important.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Histamine is what keeps our brain alert. Histamine in the
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: brain specifically plays a very different role to histamine in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the body. Okay, we look at histamine like antihistamines, things
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: that you know, respond when we're having analogic reaction to something,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and then you get like the swelling, the sneezing, the redness,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: all of that. Histamine is responsible for that in the body,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: but in the brain it's responsible for keeping you alert.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: So that's why the first generation antihistamines, which we're able
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: to cross the blood brain barrier, make you drowsy, okay,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: because while they're shutting off histamine in the body, they're
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: also shutting down the histamine production in the brain, and
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: histamine is responsible for keeping you alert. So then of
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: course it's doing this like it's got a double whammy effect.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: You're like, yeah, okay, it's taken away the sneezing, but
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: now I feel really drowsy. That's why they like, don't drive,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: don't operate machinery, because you're gonna be drowsy. Second generation
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: antihistamines no longer can cross the blood brain barrier. They're
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: a little bit more advanced. Some people don't find them
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: as effective, but they don't make you drowsy at least
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: because they can't get into the brain. And so it's
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: not affecting your alertness at all because it doesn't do
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: anything to the histamine in the brain, just outside of
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: the central nervous system. Okay, so histamine, yeah, really good
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: during these like peak waking hours where we can be
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: doing things. Then we have a set of coline. So
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: this is active during rem sleep and wakefulness, and it
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: helps the brain switch to this conscious state and sustained alertness.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And then so you want to look at morning, we've
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: got quartersold dopamin eu open efferent histamine, and then at
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: night we're looking at melotonein adenacene, which is kind of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: like that sleep pressure. I was talking about denacene like
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: one or two episodes ago, and then gabba as well
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: for relaxation dopamine. To return back to dopamine, it's not
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: just about pleasure. Dopamine is about reinforcement and anticipation, among
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: many things. Dopamine is kind of like this like amazing
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: molecule that does all this shit, but one of the
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: things it does is reinforcing and anticipation. And when you
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: are engaging in a rewarding behavior, whether it be three
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: effort or whether it be through more like addictive reasons,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: dopamine is going to be released, and that neural circuit
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: is going to be strengthened. So whether we're talking about
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: a chemical addiction, a behavioral addiction, or like a fucking
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: habit that actually makes you feel good, you're going to
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: get dopamine all in different levels and different spikes at
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: different amounts, but dopamin is involved and it's going to
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: be strengthening that neural circuit, and then over time you
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: kind of learn to expect that feeling of a reward. Now,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: really important to note is that dopamine will start firing
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: before the behavior, just before kind of in anticipation of
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: That's why it's like it's your willingness to do things.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: If you get that spike of dopamine, it's because dopamin
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: is telling you I have to go and get that thing.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: That was the reason that happens is for survival. You
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: want sex, for example, So you're going to get that
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: spike of dopamin just in anticipation. So then you go
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: and follow through with that behavior, same as like eating,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: same as doing all these things. So you're going to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: get that spike of dopamine before, like that feeling of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: dope mein is before you even begin the doom scrolling.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: You're not feeling as you foric scrolling as when you
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: do of like that release of like ah, when you
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: open your phone. Okay, you like that that feeling of
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: wanting that drink before you take the first sip, or
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: wanting that cigarette before you you know, you light up
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the cigarette. You're pulled towards that behavior, and that pull
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: is this dopamine, you know, interaction that's going on. You're
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: not necessarily craving the action so much, you're craving that
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: predicted feeling that you're going to get just before that
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: anticipation is really where it's at. So we know that
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the brain leans these loops through repetition, and it becomes
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: easier and more automatic the more we do it. It
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: feels really difficult at the start, but the more we
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: do it, the more it becomes a part of who
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: we are. Your brain leans patterns, not intentions, So we
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: need a pattern of repetitive behavior for it to learn.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: And you don't choose habits in the moment. You are
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: executing what has already kind of been put in place,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: the structures that have been put in place, and then
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: you go ahead and execute that. That's why it's really
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: difficult to you know, when if every day, if you're
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: really indecisive, and one date it's this and one date
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: it's that one, it's never going to be a habit,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: is it. Now let's talk about activation energy. This is
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the effort required to start that thing, to begin that behavior.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: And if it's it's like you want to, it's kind
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: of like the barrier to entry is what I like
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to call this activation energy. How big or how little
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: is that barrier to me doing that thing? If it's
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: too high, you're gonna avoid doing it. It's too hard,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: it's too much, it's too far from my personality, it's
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: too far from what I actually like doing. Everything about
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: it is just not something that appeals to me in
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: any way, shape or form. Nothing about it appeals to
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: me except maybe the outcome. But is it worth? Is
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: the juice worth the squeeze? No, it's fucking not, So
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to do it. The barrier to entry
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: is way too high. If the barrier is low, you're
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: going to do it and you're going to be able
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: to repeat it. Okay, So we're looking at how do
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: we rejuice this barrier to entry. How do we, you know,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: get that activation energy to be the lowest amount possible
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: for us to still take action and do that thing.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: This is where you really need to look at how
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: you've structured the behaviors that you're going to do and
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the habits that you want to get into, and these
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: goals that you have, and you want to decide what
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: is the barrier to entry, because that's going to answer
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: there will be the answer as to why you haven't
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: been able to stick to a habit or stick to
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: a goal. And a big barrier to entry is that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: it doesn't align with my identity. That's a huge one.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: You know, the actual act of getting up early in
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the morning might not be that hard once you're awake,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: but because you're not a morning person, I'm not a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: morning person, and then your whole life is based around
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: the fact that you're not a morning person in your
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: nighttime and you'd sleep hidden and all that stuff that
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: it is going to be really fucking hard to execute. Okay,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: So you want to look at it as the initial
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: mental and physical effort required to start a new habit.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: The lower you can bring that down, the more likely
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: it is that you're going to start it and maintain
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: that habit the habit. Okay, so you're overcoming this inertia
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: and you want to turn this initial action into a routine,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: something that can be repeatable. Okay, So let's give a
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: bunch of examples that you can be doing. Write these down, guys,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: write them down. We've got make it tiny. So we
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: want to start with a version of your habit that
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: requires the least amount of effort to start. Okay. Number
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: two redesign your environment. I'm going to be talking about
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: environment in a moment, but just as in a nutshell,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: you want to rearrange your surroundings to kind of reduce
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: that friction for good habits. Okay. So for example, like
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: I said, if I get my outfit ready and if
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: I have everything set up ready to go for me
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: to go on that run, it's way more likely than
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I'm going to follow through because I don't have this
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: indecisiveness that's friction. I don't have this all these other
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: temptations that I could be doing instead, Like the decision
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: has been made enough, prepped everything and it's ready to go.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: And on top of that, maybe I've set myself up
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: for it not to be too big a run. If
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: I'm just starting out, maybe at the beginning, I'm just
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: trying to get out of the house for five mornings
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: a week or three mornings a week, so maybe it's
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: just get my running stuff on and walk for you know,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: one k and then come back and that's you know,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: this is all the barrier to entry. I'm getting at
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: lower and lawer and lower. The other one is habit stacking,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: which is where you compare a new habit that you're
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: trying to do with something that you already have that's consistent. Okay,
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: then you want to also look at consistency over intensity.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: It feels like this is when I say to people,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: especially if you're doing something like let's say it's writing
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: a book orse or you know, starting a side business
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: and this and that, sometimes we get all excited being
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: like I'm going to take a weekend off and I'm
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: going to take the whole weekend and I'm going to
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: be focusing so heavily and I'm going to get all
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: And that's all well and good if you have this
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: crazy motivation to do all this work on a weekend,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: by all means, do it. But then the issue is
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: that after that big weekend. Then we drop the ball
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: and we don't revisit it at all. So if your
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: option is consistency or intensity, or always go consistency because
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: at least you're chipping away. At least it stays constant.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: You don't have to every time you revisit it's like, oh,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: where was I? What was I doing? And get back
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: in the So you're doing it regularly enough that it's
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: easier for you to kind of, you know, feel like
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: it's natural and normal for you. Then you want to
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: look at reducing kind of steps or reducing complexity. The
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: more complex of behavior, the higher this activation energy. So
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: make it easier. If you're signing up for the gym,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: but the gym is a twenty minute drive away, and
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: then you're like, oh, I don't want to do the drive,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: but I wouldn't mind the gym, how do we make
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: it easier? Pick a different thing to do, Like again,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: like if there's too many steps to do that thing,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: at least when we're starting off, we're less likely to
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: do that thing. Reduce the steps then, depending on what
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: you're doing, because this is not applicable to all the things.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: But that five minute rule that I have said to
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: you about procrastination in the past. You can do this
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: with habits as well. So make at least the starting
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: of the habits take five minutes, no more than five minutes.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: If you want to stay on for longer than five minutes, please,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: but you should be able to do part of it
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: in five minutes. So that way, you say, worst case scenario,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I'm dedicating five minutes to this thing. So, like I said,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: put your shoes on, walk outside, do a love of
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: the block, come back in. That's five minutes, right, But
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you've gone and done thing. You've gone, and that kind
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: of that oomph to get yourself out there and get
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: you started has already happened. And for the most part
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: most people will be like, well, fucking already here, I
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: might as well do a bit more. Okay. It's the
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: starting that is hard, and that's what we all have
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: to realize. It's the getting out of bed in the
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: morning that's difficult. It's not being awake at six am.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Once I've like, you know, once all these like neurochemicals
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: have kind of spiked when they're supposed to spike. Okay,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: it's just the beginning of that thing. So if I
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: can reduce the barrier to entry. If I can simplify it,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: remove steps, remove complexity, that is going to give me
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: the best chance to you know, succeed in this thing.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: Another one is look at the setup of how you're
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: doing it. So instead of this, I'm going to run
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: five kilometers, it's I'm going to run on calmeter and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: see how we go. But that's what I'm setting out
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: to do. Okay, So you want to instead of thinking
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: about this crazy outcome that I have to achieve, it's
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: about I'm just going to get out there and do something.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Something is better than this big goal that I've got
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: to be focusing on at the end when we're starting out. Okay.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: And then really important, which I'm about to go into
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: immediately after this, is use catalysts. Okay. This is big
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: things that already aren't difficult for you to do in
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: your life, that's already part of who you are, and
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: try and tag on new behaviors and new habits to
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: that thing. There's going to be certain things that you
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: do in your life that are not that hard for
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: you to do. It's part of who you are that
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: can really form the foundation for you to add many
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: other things on and you can kind of look at
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: it already, like pay attention todays that are really really
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: good for you, Like what's a day where you wake
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: up and everything is flowing well and you're feeling really good.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: So I'll use myself as an example. My catalyst habit
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: would be exercising in the morning. I'm gonna use that
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: example because of I'm using it. Okay, So I get up,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: I go for my run. Okay, what else is happening
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: when I do that main habit because the get up
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and going for a run I actually want to do.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I actually really enjoy doing it. Everything about it I love. Okay,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: maybe not the final few k's of the run. It's
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: a bit it's hard, but I really love it. I
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: love getting outside, I love seeing other people running. I
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: just I fucking love it. Okay, So it's not really
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: that hard for me to do. So that's an easy
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: one for me for me to select. But when I
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: do that, I also don't go on my phone for
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: easily the first three hours of the day as far
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: as scrolling social media, not scrolling because I feel like
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I'm in the zone. I'm in the fucking zone. I
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: don't do it. Before the run because I need to
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: get myself ready. I don't do it during the run.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: And then after the run, I'm having a nice breakfast.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Then what else do I do? I have a nice
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: feeling breakfast. I'm someone that in general doesn't isn't hungry
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: in the mornings, but I like to have something with
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: you know, good amount of protein in the morning because
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to up my protein and in the morning
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: it's well blah blah blah blah blah blah. Would I run.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: It's easy if for me to come back feeling hungry
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and I feel nice and nurish, and I have a
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: good serve of protein. Okay, So I've done that, tick
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the phone, the breakfast with protein. Then because I'm thirsty,
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: I come home and this is where I also remember
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: to take my creatine. Okay, tick creating. I've done that
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and I don't even have to think about remembering it.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: It just happens. And then another thing that I do
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: is that I am more likely to be quicker and
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: me more efficient in how I'm getting ready and not
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: waste time in between things because I've spent time in
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: the morning to so notice how but just by one
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: behavior you're able to tag on all these other behaviors. Okay.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Another one could be Okay, that's a bit more complex.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is that I'm able to do
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: all these things that I would love to do regularly,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: and they kind of just happen by default, just because
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: I'm leaning into one behavior that, yes, it requires effort,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: but it's not this mental like oh for fox, like
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this thing. It's something that I already enjoy.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: You could also do it for something that you automatically
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: do regardless, like look at brushing your teeth. We'll fucking
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: brush our teeth right, So you could have your vitamins
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: or your medication or whatever next to your toothbrush. If
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: you're someone that's like I always fucking forget to take
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: my vitam do right next to your toothbrush. Okay, bang,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: that's like that catalyst behavior that we're looking at. One
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: that you're going to do no matter what, and then
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: you put that other thing next to it, and you
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: just now from now on you just do it together,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: or you're just more likely to do one thing and
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: then the other. Another one is if you are someone
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: that can get up early and then when you do
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: get up early, you're going to make your bed. You've
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: got time to make your bed because you work up early.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: If you work up late, the bed making the bed
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: is at the bottom of the list because you're rushing around. Okay,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: you're rushing around, you're trying to get your shit. And
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: then you leave the house and then you come back
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: home and you're like, oh, the place is a mess
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: and the bed doesn't matter, and it does affect you.
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: You think it doesn't, but deep down it's kind of
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: this niggling thing of like the house is a shit
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: show and the bed's not even made. Okay, So always
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: think the habits like attracts like good habits are going
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: to attract more good habits. Bad habits well likely will
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: attract more bad habits, or at the very least will
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: attract more of the same. Okay. So, like I said,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I get better food choices, more productivity, more hydration, less
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: phone us. Plus I've done the run that I wanted
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: to do. There's all these things that I'm able to
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: do based off this one major habit. So I want
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: you to look at habits or look at behaviors in
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: your life that are good for you, and they don't
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: have to be like that has to be so fucking
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: good for me, but not one that's like an addictive
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: negative thing. So you could be reading, right, you might
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: love reading. What things? That's good for you. Okay, it's
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: good for your brain, it's good for you never system
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: Reading's great, okay, But what can I link around the reading.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: What if I decided, okay, I want to read thirty
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: minutes every day, but now that I'm reading thirty minutes
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: every day, maybe that's at the same time that I read,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: I could have this tea with this fucking shit in
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: it that's good for me and whatever, and I can
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: drink that tea or I can have this whatever water
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: that has the stuff that I need. Maybe after I
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: do this reading, I can also tag on whatever. So
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: you can start to see how you can build on
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: these like catalyst you know, actions in your day or
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: behaviors or things that you do, or habits that already
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: exist within your day that you can make really work
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: for you tenfold, not just that one thing in isolation.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: They really can help form your day. And then you think, well,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: I like doing that. Instead of just doing it once
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: a week, maybe I can do it five times a
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: week because I can then tag all these things on
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna forget. And then I'm not actually
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: wasting time by doing it five times a week because
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: I'm becoming more efficient by default. So even though maybe
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: I tell myself I don't have time to read, maybe
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: because I'm getting so efficient with all the things that
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: I tag on and have these really good habits and
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: behaviors in place, it actually serves me really well to
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: then have that reading, so I do all the other
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: shit as well. Okay, So we want to be choosing
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: habits that are achievable, right, that don't feel so heavily like.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: It's not so like, oh my god. If I do this,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: then all these other things have to fall into place,
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: and all this it's got it has to work in
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: your favor, and it has to create momentum. Okay, please
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: avoid habits that you absolutely fucking hate. And if you're thinking, well,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I need to do that thing, but how am I
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: going to do it? Then you've got to again reduce
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: the barrier to entry and find things that are similar
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: that you're more likely to carry out. Let's talk about
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: your environment when putting together a habit Okay. Our brains
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: are really wide to respond to automatically to familiar surroundings. Okay.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: So that's why I say when you're like, change things
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: up when you move around, when you move cities. Even
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: when I've spoken to you guys about changing the location
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: when you're studying, it can actually really help. If I'm
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: hyper distractable at in my living room and I'm trying
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: to study, then I need to change my location, and
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: it's going to snap me out of this behavior, whether
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: I need to leave the house and go to a cafe,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: go to a library, whatever it is. If I surround
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: myself with people that study that are also studying, I'm
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: probably going to study a lot better because it's just
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I'm absorbing that kind of energy because of the people
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: that I'm around. Okay, Contextual cues okay. Habits are driven
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: by cues. Okay. So location change, like looking at people
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: around you, triggers around you. So I want you to really,
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: really really pay attention to your environment, because it's all
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: well and good to try and change the behavior. But
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: if your environment's not going to change, it might be
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: way more of a struggle than you give yourself credit. Okay,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: So what can you do. Maybe if you're someone that's like,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I want to start doing all these routines and doing
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: all of this, but I'm living in this particular sharehouse
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: where everyone is, you know, really slow in the morning
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: and really lazy, and really there's a really okay, fine,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: you don't have to move out. You don't have but
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: how can I change my behavior? Maybe I leave the
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: house super early, get to work super early, work out
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: around that, do everything out of the house, and then
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: come back in once I've done all the shit that
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I need to do. That's an example. Another one could be,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: you know, the people that you hang around with. Maybe
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: you're spending way too much time with people that you know,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: enforcing these habits that you're trying to break out of.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: But in reality, the more you surround yourself with people,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: it's really so it's like an uphill battle. And then
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: you've got this other group of friends where it's going
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: to be a lot easier because you're hanging around with
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: people that you know are a representation of what you
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: want to become. And then you think, okay, maybe that
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: as far as environment goes, maybe that's going to help me. Okay,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Like I said, with the studying with the environment changing
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: your location. But the environment plays a really, really, really
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: big part. That's why if you're someone that feels like
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: you're stuck in a run and you have the means
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: or like the hundreds of people that have written to
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: me in my head noise episodes saying like I just
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: want all this change and like maybe I move cities,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe move move, Okay, because it's going to be a
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: lot easier if firstly, if you want to move and
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: if you have the means to be able to do
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: so and have that experience, I highly recommend it because
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: this is a really good opportunity for you to break
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: many many circuits that's going on and for you to
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: start something brand new in your life. Okay, Now, design
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: for ease. This is another thing about your environment that's
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: going to really help you, like healthy choices, like what
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: are you placing like when you wake up, what are
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: you putting on the counter in your kitchen? What are
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: you putting right at the door with your sneakers and
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: your outfit? Like you've got to look at your environment
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: as set your environment up for you to have cues
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: all around you for you to succeed, for you to
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: follow through with that behavior that you want to follow
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: through with. What does my room look like when I
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: wake up? If I tidy in my room just before
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: going to bed, at least just like the bare minimum,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: then I'm probably going to wake up feeling a lot
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: more excited about my day. Then if I wake up
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: and I see piles fucking clothes all over the place,
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: and then I'm already in like a slump, and then
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: i might as well to hit the snooze and go
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: back to sleep. Okay, So your environment is really going
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: to set the tie. So you have to set yourself
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: up to make that habit or this new behavior system
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: of behaviors more likely to happen. So an example that
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I could give you is you if you want to
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: build a reading habit, when you've made your bed, you
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: place the book on your pillow, the book that you
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: want with the book make in it on your pillow.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: So when you go to bed, you're like, Oh, I
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: could go my phone, or I could just read this
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: fucking book that's right there, and it's exactly the book
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: that I want to read, and I'm actually into it.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: If you're looking at being on your phone less, put
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: your phone in a place that's not within arms reach.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Even if it's in the same room, it's not within
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: arms reach. Just the action of having to get off
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: out of your chair, you're way less likely to be
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: scrolling mindlessly because there's that extra thing that you have
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: to do. Your environment, guys, your environment really set it
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: up to help you and not to hinder you. Okay. Now,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: environment changes work because in summary, it removes triggers, it
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: forces conscious decision making, Okay, and it also breaks these
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: automatic patterns that you kind of are trying to break,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: and you have it there to help you. Now, the
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: next thing I want to talk about is timing, energy,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: and neurochemistry. So based on everything that I spoke about it,
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: but the neurochemicals involved in making and breaking a habit.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Just before, you will realize that there's habits that require
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: way more cognitive efforts than other habits that you do,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: the ones that I really want to study for an
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: hour in the morning. I really want to study for this,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: I want to read more, I want to exercise, or
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: whatever the fucking habit is that you want to start doing.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: You will realize that you are, based on what I
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: told you, you are way more likely to be able
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: to execute that thing the earlier in the day that
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: you do it. I understand that you might say, but
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: I work early, But the fact is a fact, whether
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: you can do it or not. I can't change that,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: nor maybe you can't either. But what I'm telling you
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: is that you are more likely to do that thing
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: in the morning versus in the night based on the neurochemicals.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: And you know, when we get that spike in the
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: morning and then when we get that kind of tapering
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: off at night. That's just how we're wired, whether you
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: like it or not. Okay, So if you can take
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: advantage of that, take advantage of that. And you might say,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: but look at all these people that exercise at night, Okay, yeah,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: some people. Yeah, of course. Firstly, some people like exercising
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: at night. So that doesn't really you know, play into
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: that because if you like doing that thing, then it
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: doesn't really matter if you do it later in the day,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: right because you enjoy it. So it doesn't require this
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: like this like willpower and effort to do that thing. Okay. Also,
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: some people have gotten into a really good habit where
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: there's really low barriers to entry, so they just do
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: it after work and that's where I recommend you putting
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: everything up just spoken about in practice. If you need
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: to do certain things that require effort in the evening,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: but whenever possible, do it in the morning. This is
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: where your cortisol is at its highest, like natural nice
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: wave of cortisol, your alertness, you'renauropenephron, you're feeling alert ready,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: you're dope men everything, you are primed and ready to go.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: So if you can really harness the mornings or the
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: first half of the day to do the difficult things,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: then you will find it's going to be a lot
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: easier to kind of ride that wave of neurochemicals to
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: help you do that thing. By the time the day
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: is done, not only around neurochemicals at a different state
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: to where they were in the morning, you're not going
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: to feel as motivated. You're also going to be fatigued
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: from the day. You're also going to have decision fatigue,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: which is just we have kind of like we've got
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: a bit of a quota. Okay, everyone's different specifically on
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: the number, but there is this decision making quota that
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: we have, Okay, on decisions that require conscious effort, it's
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: a cognitive kind of and then you get more and
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: more tired as the day progresses. Making a difficult decision
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: or one that requires a lot of focus is going
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: to be harder in the evening after a whole day
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: of making decisions, then it would be in the morning.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: So you really want to look at that, you know,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: the networks and the chemicals involved in making a habit
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: and in like the day and how the twenty four
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: hours kind of plays out from a neurochemical standpoint, and think,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: how can I harness this tonight in my favor? Okay,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: So that's this with timing, do the harder things earlier.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: You're going to have less decision fatigue, higher dope men availability, cortisol,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: aure adrenaline, everything I just spoke about, better executive function.
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: And then the more you do it, the less energy
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: it's going to require. That's why you could become someone
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: that's like, yep, I'm someone that exercises all the time.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: I've been doing it every morning, every morning, and then
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: once you enjoy it, once it's not such a fucking pain,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: you can then move it to the afternoon. It's going
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: to become such a part of who you are that
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: if you then need to shift around and move it around.
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: That's perfectly fine, okay. Now, which which brings me to
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: the next point, which is can you be doing something
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: at a different time every day and it still be
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: a habit. Yes, you can. I actually think it's to
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: your benefit to do that, because if your habits are
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: way too rigid, then one thing that throws you off
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: throws the whole list of habits off. Okay. Obviously you're
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: gonna have morning habits that are specific to the morning,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: and evening habits that are specific to the evening, like routines.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: But as far as like I want to study five
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: days a week of whatever, that should be relatively flexible, Okay,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: same as exercising. You know, there's going to be certain
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: things that do require flexibility and some that are time
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: dependent that you're like brushing your teeth. You're not going
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: to brush your teeth at one pm randomly after not
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: having brushed them in the morning, Okay, I would hope not. Okay,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: So I really want you to look at if something
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: works for me and it's not that much effort and
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I can trust that I will do this thing, then
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: I can move it to like in the day, if
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: I go on holidays, Am I still going to do
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: that thing? How flexible is this habit that if I
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: go and spend Like, for example, my sister, she is
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: so big on exercising, working out training that no matter
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: where we go, no matter what city she's in, she's
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: already looked up what gym she's going to go to
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: and what classes she's already signed up. And then we
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: get there. She could get there late at night, five am. Bang,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: she's at the class like she's die hard. Okay. And
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: that's someone that has crazy flexibility with that habit of exercising,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: like she will make it work no matter where the
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: fuck she is because she loves it. It's not like
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, okay, sometimes she's not the mood to
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: do it, but it's such an habitual way of being
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: for her that she's like, it's just again, she doesn't
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: have this do I do I not shuld I. It's
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: a non negotiable. It just happens. And because there is
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: no back and forth, there isn't this friction in her mind.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: It just happens. She just does it. She makes it happen,
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: She books it, and it makes it happen. Okay. Kind
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: of like this is so on a tangent and not
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: it at all, but kind of like when you're planning
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: a trip, you can talk about it forever, talk about
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: it with your friend, or you know, maybe we could
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: do this, Oh, we should do this, we should, we should,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: we should Oh, but then maybe not this time, maybe versus.
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: Just stop this back and forth. Do one thing that's
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: going to make that trip happen, and then you have
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: to make the rest happen. Like Live, my best friend
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: and I we're going to Shri Lanka for five days
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: together at the end of this week. You have no
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: idea how excited I am. Live and I have never
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: gone on a trip just the two of us. We've
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: gone away with friends and stuff, but given that we're
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: best friends, it is diabolical that we have never gone
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: on a trip just the two of us away. But
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: we're doing it. We're going to Shri Lanka, no children,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: no partners, just the two of us. And a few
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: months ago we spoke about that. We're like, oh God,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: and then literally that day we thought we need to
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: book it now because if we don't book it, we're
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: going to be talking about this in a year's time.
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: In two year's just never going to happen. So we
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: just found a weekend that were like, yeah, well we're
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: both for let's book it. Booked it. Just booked the flights.
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: That's all we did. And then now that the flights
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: are booked, we don't have to book the combination that day.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Then we can book all the other shit. But it's
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: going to happen. We know it's non negotiable. Now the
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: flights are done, got to do the rest, okay. So
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: that's another example of you know, if you're thinking about
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: starting a course, but there's too many factors, book the
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: fucking course. Okay, book it in a few months time.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: If you can't do it right now, but it's locked in,
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: then you make it happen. Okay. So that's why this
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: and I've gone on a tangent. I've returned back to
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: this idea of you know, friction in the mind and indecisiveness.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: But this is another example as to why decisiveness can
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: really help you out. So yeah, same time every day. No,
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: it does not have to be. If we can make
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: our habits as flexible as possible, they really are a
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: part of who you are. If they're super super super
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: rigid in the moment that you change your environment or
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: who you are or I mean, or where you are
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: and what you're doing or a holiday or this or that,
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: and you just drop that habit all together. Then it
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: means that it's quite a flimsy habit and it's not
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: really that fully locked in, which is not the worst thing.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: It's okay, but it's good to identify which ones are
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: flexible and you can move around and it's still going
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: to stay, and which ones are not going to stay
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: and why is that? And can we do something about that? Now?
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: Sleep and neuroplastic is huge for habit creation. When we sleep,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: we get this consolidation and stabilization of something called long
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: term potentiation. I think I did a fact on long
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: term potentiation in the first year of my podcast, a
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: brain fact, and this is LTP long term potentiation, and
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: this is the cellular mechanism that underlies ultimately a kind
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: of neuroplasticity, and this is learning and memory. You're getting
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: this long term kind of connection going on with particular
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: networks within the brain, and you're getting these pathways strengthened.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: In a nutshell, Okay, we do have something called long
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: term depression, and that's where you're weakening those pathways. But
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: right now we're talking about long term potentiation. And when
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: we sleep, you get that stabilization of LTP. You get
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: where your synaptic changes are consolidated these pathways and stuff.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: The brain is reorganizing information. You're consolidating memory in your sleep,
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: you're also flushing out debris. So when you're trying to
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: change your habits and this and that again, I will
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: fucking beat this dead horse until it's dead again. You
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: have to focus on good sleep. Okay, how can I
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: improve my sleep, even if it's one tiny thing, even
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: if it's going to bed half an hour earlier, even
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: if it's like one thing that if you've got shit sleep,
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: and by shit sleep, I mean not just waking up
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: all the time throughout the night. You might sleep throughout
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: the night but then wake up still feeling exhausted. You
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: want to start looking at minor things. And one of
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: the smallest ways to change your sleep hygien but it
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: really makes a difference, is just use your bed for
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: sleep only if you're a bad sleeper. Some people are
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: good sleepers and they can read in bed. But I
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: don't want you to be obviously scrolling in bed. If
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: you're going to scroll, so be it. I can't twist
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: your arm. I can't force you not to, but don't
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: do it in bed. So that way you start associating
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: bed for sleep, you get a deeper sleep. There's little
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: things that you can be doing without being mother Teresa,
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: and all your behave is being perfect because even the
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: behaviors that I recommend you do, I slip up too.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: We all do, okay, But start thinking of what are
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: things that I can do to really start cleaning up
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: my sleep because the better your sleep is, the better
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: it's going to be for you to put these habits
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: into action and for it to become a habitual way
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: of being and become a new part of your identity,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: not something that you keep wishing and hoping for. Sleep
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: is the gold, the gold in all of this, okay,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: So really pay attention to your rest, your recovery, your sleep, everything.
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: Without sleep, obviously, your learning is way weaker, your cognitive
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: function is diminished, and your habits are not going to
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: stabilize the way that they would with really good sleep.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: So that is making a habit, and I feel like
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: I absolutely have to turn this into a two parter
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: are because now I'm going to go into the neuroscience
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: of breaking a habit, but that's going to be in
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: part two of this episode, so yeah, stay tuned for
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: part two that's going to come out soon. Thank you
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: so much for listening to today's episode. Re listen to it,
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: write everything down, Write down what kind of sung out
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: to you, what you think is going to be the
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: thing that helps you, and then stay tuned for how
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: to break a habit because I think they go in
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: hand in hand. A lot of the time, making new
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: habits really comes down to how can we break these
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: old habits that are really not working for me? So
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: good times. That is all for today's episode. As always,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: remember bekind to yourself, become to your brain, especially when
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: you're trying to make a habit and new habit. Don't
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: take shit from anyone, and especially don't take shit from yourself.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: Don't it