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this for many of you will be the most important podcast episode I've ever recorded and I don't usually ask you to
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do this but in this case I'm going to ask you to please listen to this entire episode if you can and if you have the
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opportunity to do so if there's something in your life that you've struggled with something you've struggled to change that goal you've had
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that you've never quite managed to attain then this episode was made for you I've been inundated with messages
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over the last couple of weeks as we approach the New Years and these messages all seem to express slight
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variations of the same critical question which is how do I make and break habits
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in 2023 our lives are quite simply a manifestation of our habits the things
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we repeatedly do so as many of you have correctly identified if we can change those habits we can make and break
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behaviors take control of our lives and finally achieve our most important goals and in my life
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all of the good things have come after me breaking a habit that's had me trapped in sort of a limiting sometimes
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toxic cycle in my life and so habits and studying how they're made and how we make and break them with Will has been
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one of the most important realizations in my life and in the research of this this particular podcast episode I spent
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weeks researching and reading every book that I could on the science of making and breaking habits and in this episode
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I'm going to tell you everything that I learned everything that you need to know from the most up-to-date scientific research on habits and changing Behavior
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and I do this in the hope that one of you even one of you I think it'd be worthwhile if I I land this effect on
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one of you one of you can change Behavior you've wanted to change and therefore take control of a habit and therefore change your life
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multiple scientific Studies have found that most people give up their New Year's resolutions within a month and
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according to a recent American study of the 41 of Americans who made New Year's
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resolution by the end of the year only nine percent were successful in keeping
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it nine percent that means if you make a New Year's resolution at the start of the Year by the end of the year only
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nine percent of you have achieved it I know this might make you not believe in New Year's resolutions it might make you
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think they're pointless but the study also reveal something that suggests otherwise six months after setting a new
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year's resolution 46 of people who made a resolution were still successful in
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achieving it they still had the good habits going compared to just four percent of people who made a similar
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goal that wasn't a New Year's resolution that's a 1050 increase in the
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probability of you achieving your goal after six months if you set it as an Year's resolution similarly research by
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psychologist John Norcross a very famous American psychologist has found that resolution makers are more than 10 times
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as successful in changing their behavior is people who want to change but don't have a formal resolution now I used to
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be in the camp of thinking that resolutions were an excuse for not making change earlier in the year but
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clearly there is something supported by science and psychology that's happening in terms of an intention setting that's
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actually making New Year's resolutions important but this podcast is not just about New Year's resolutions this is about goal setting generally and
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breaking and making habits and as I said 12 months after you've set that New
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Year's resolution just that nine percent of people are still successful in their resolution so this podcast episode is also about purely making sure that you
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are part of that successful nine percent by giving you all the science and all the information that you need to be part
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of that nine percent almost 50 percent of you will be successful six months after your resolution but most of you
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will fail in the next six months the question is why and I think I know the answer
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[Music]
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pages of books and studies on habits and goals and New Year's resolutions it's clear to me that the first place to
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start is by explaining exactly what a habit is in the most simple way but clearly habits are behaviors wired
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so deeply in our brains that we perform them almost automatically so why do we have habits well they are very handy
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prehistoric devices that our ancestors have given us because decision making and thinking itself consume so much time
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and energy and the truth is if you never made habits you would be spending so much time in mental energy on routine
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things like how do I get to work in the morning or how do I get from the kitchen in my house to the living room in my house and if you used all of your time
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on that you wouldn't have the capacity to solve unique daily challenges many of which Once Upon a Time presented a real
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life or death threat so your brain created habits which are neurological Pathways that fire together so
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frequently and successfully that your brain wired them together to save you time and energy once habits are formed
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they're encoded in your brain forever and this for me was a real
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Revelation from reading through all the research people tend to believe that they can make a bad habit disappear for
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good the science suggests otherwise let me tell you a story about some rats in a
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maze and what this recently uncovered about how we can make and break habits picture the human brain as an onion
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composed of Leia upon a layer of cells most of our complex thinking the things that we really ponder over and the
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things that really trouble us happen on the outermost layers of the brain that's the part of the brain that you're using
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to listen to me right now on the evolutionary time scale the outermost layer was added fairly recently but as
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you go deep inside the brain towards the center of the skull you'll find this golf ball-sized lump of tissues and this
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is called the basil ganglia and this is where all of your habits are stored for
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ease and just so I don't have to pronounce that difficult word again I'm going to call this your habit control center your habit control room and
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because it's a such a prehistoric part of the brain that same habit control center can be found inside the brain of
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rats as well so in order to study the Habit control room world-leading researchers from MIT conducted
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experiments with rats where they monitored the rat's brains and put them inside a t-shaped maze with some
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delicious chocolate hidden somewhere inside the maze the first time the rat was put into the maze it would wander up
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and down the center Isle sniffing corners and scratching at the walls it could smell the chocolate but it
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couldn't quite figure out how to find it when it reached the top of the tea in the Maze it often turned to the right
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away from the chocolate and then wandered left sometimes pausing for no obvious reason at all eventually in all
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the studies the animal found the chocolate but there was no clear pattern
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in the search the wandering behavior that happened before that on the surface it looked like each rat was taking a
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leisurely unthinking casual stroll but when they look at brain scans of those rats at that exact moment it tells a
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completely different story while each animal wandered through the maze for the first time its brain in particular that
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habit control center in the core of the brain was working on overdrive each time a rat sniffed the air or scratched the
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wall its brain exploded with activity as if it was analyzing each new sand each new site in each new sound and although
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the rat looked calm the rat's brain was ferociously processing everything but
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once the rat had found the chocolate once when placed back into the maze the brain activity completely disappeared
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the rat was now on autopilot it no longer needed to process things it no
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longer needed to think a habit had been formed so the habit control center takes
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over seemingly automatically retrieving the stored information on how to get from where it is at the start of the
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maze to the chocolate and as if possessed by the Habit control center the rat glided straight to the chocolate
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without pause in the same way that we all Glide unconsciously to work or to the gym or to that familiar part of the
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house where without thinking every single morning when we wake up without having to consider the directions to get
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there so because the rat was on autopilot its brain was freed up to think about other things so
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theoretically the rat could Glide to the chocolate while also pondering a complex problem it was having it worked that day
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by navigating the maze over and over the rats formed what scientists now call a
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habit Loop and there are three steps in a habit Loop step one is you need a cue
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which in this case was a click sound they played when they dropped the rat into the maze this Q in turn makes the
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Habit control center activate the stored routine and step two is a routine the
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routine for the rats was the walk through the maze towards the chocolate and step three is you need a reward
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which is of course the delicious chocolate at the end of the maze the Q routine reward is the Habit Loop The
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Habit Loop happens to be the same for humans also I've mentioned this over the years before but my father smoked for 30
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years of his life but he only ever smoked in the car never at parties never at home never at work only in the car
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and in all honesty it would really upset me because I think I grew up with this kind of existential feeling or worry
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that my dad was going to die someday because he smoked because I'd heard all you know all the things they say about smoking in the carcinogens and why it's
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bad for you so seeing your father do that was quite troubling for me as a as a young man and I tried I think in
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subtle ways to encourage him to quit but nothing seemed to work until one day
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something I accidentally did led to him making the decision to quit smoking
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forever his Q routine reward habit Loop is a prime example of everything I've said he
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would sit in the car and the car itself was the queue sometimes cues are just context for environment and that cue
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caused a neurological pathway in its brain to begin to fire up in his habit control center his brain and seemingly
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without thinking as if possessed he would automatically reach down into the car door and pull out his packet of
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miniature cigars which was his routine that reached down was his routine like the rats walking through the Maze and
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then he'd wind the window down and light one up and the nicotine which releases a a feel-good chemical in the brain called
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dopamine in under just 20 seconds was the reward Q craving routine reward but
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then one day when I was 18 years old after dropping out of University to build my first tech startup I was
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reading a book called hooked by niril who's a previous guest on this podcast that explains how big social media
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companies and tech companies get their users to form the habit of using their products every day and become addicted
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to their products every day by use using the same habit Loop while I was reading that book I happened to stop off at home
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back in the southwest in Plymouth and I accidentally left it in my father's
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bathroom now for whatever reason like many of us my dad loves to read while he's on the toilet and so he ends up
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picking up the book learning about that habit Loop and finally understanding the cue routine and reward that was causing
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him to smoke and so he went into his car some weeks later he didn't actually tell me this until months after he'd quit smoking he went into his car took the
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cigarettes out and put these miniature lollipops these little Chopper Chopper lollipops in the Cigar Case in the place
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where it was and my father after that never smoked ever again The Habit Loop
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had been interrupted a new less addictive habit had been formed in its place and within that my father's Health
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outcomes had drastically improved going back to the original point about how just nine percent of us will
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successfully keep Honey's resolutions I think the study with the rats the Maize and the chocolate may explain why you've
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probably heard the phrase old habits die hard and from the scientific perspective that couldn't be more true I think this
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is good news feel good habits I think this is probably bad news for your bad habits in that study with the rats
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researchers eventually removed the chocolate and the Rats still ran exactly the same way through the maze the
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researchers went one step further then and poisoned the chocolate with a chemical that makes the brain of the Rat
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experience nausea and the Rats still ran the exact same way through the maze even
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though they stopped eating the chocolate experiencing the reward at the end of it the routine was still the same the queue
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was still the same interestingly the researchers then found a way to interfere with the rat's brain and shut
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off that automatic habit Loop that was causing it to take the left Journey Through The Maze and it worked instead
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of running left through the maze the rats started to run right through the maze but then interestingly when the
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researchers interfered with the rat's brain again and disabled that habit Loop of turning right through the Amaze the
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rats instantaneously went back to the previous habit of running left through the Maze and they did it at the same
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speed certainty and accuracy as they'd done it previously once they'd learned that habit they didn't need to learn the
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old pathway through the maze once again and their brain scan showed that they weren't thinking about it they were back
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on autopilot and researchers were shocked because what this says and I quote the researchers quote the original
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habit had never ever really been forgotten it was always lurking
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somewhere there in their brain and I think ladies and gentlemen this might be one of the biggest misconceptions that
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people have about habits you never get rid of them they're never forgotten you know the
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same is true about so many things in our lives I reflect on that and think about some of the traumatic experiences I've had that evidence remains ingrained in
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our brain because it's useful for us it's like if you go back maybe thousands of years knowing that a lion was something to run
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from was something that was important for your cognition to never forget and this for me also explains why 91 of us
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that saturnia's resolution to form a new habit or to create a new Behavior will fail within 12 months habits can't
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be broken but this is the good news they can be forgotten and they can be
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replaced the scientists in the wrapped maze chocolate study said and I quote these results suggest that the brain can
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quickly toggle between an old habit and a new habit what's really stunning is
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that old habits are totally intact and retrievable in an instant habits can be
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broken they can be replaced but they can't be removed forever so when you think about the Habit Loop
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and the queue routine reward cycle it becomes really clear why 91 of people won't keep their New Year's resolutions
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and why 25 of us won't even keep the resolution for one week because they're old bad habits are still
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there they never die and the same cues are still there in their lives whether it's an
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environmental cue like my dad or it's a chemical cue in the case of my former partner where every time we went for a
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glass of wine she got the craving to go for a cigarette and the routine is of course the same you know the cigars are
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still there in my dad's car door or the the Suites are still there in the draw downstairs in my house and the rewards
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on offer are all the same to an equally delicious and compelling so it's all well and good understanding this and
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even interrupting the Habit cycle like my dad successfully did with those lollipops in the in the car draw but the
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answer to sustaining a new habit is more complicated to get those new neurological Pathways to fire together
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and therefore wire together scientific studies conducted All Around the World in humans and animals say that you need
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just a little bit more one thing we need and all the science was clear on this is we need a
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repetition you've heard this before some studies say 21 days to form a new habit some studies say 66 days the truth is
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and I read a real plethora of research is it seems to depend for some people it
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happens in a shorter period of time for some people depending on the Habit depending on who you are it can take up to hundreds of days to form the new
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habit the director of the University of Oregon social and effective Neuroscience lab Elliot Berkman said since habits
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take practice and repetition to form the same is true when it comes to breaking them in order to break those unwanted
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habits and make new ones whatever they're going to be I'm going to give you the five rules of making and
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breaking habits that have the most scientific evidence to support them from what I've found the things that
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resonated with me the most that I honestly didn't know with these five rules in mind you'll drastically I
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believe drastically increase your chances of breaking any bad habit that you have and making any new habit that
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you desire to have so rule number one stress is your puppet master many habits
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as I'm sure you can relate including smoking or excessive sugar consumption involve the brain's dopamine or reward
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system and dopamine if you understand what that chemical is is a feel-good chemical that transmits signals between
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neurons in the brain the first time you engage in a new rewarding Behavior you
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get a euphoric feeling from doing it as a result of that dopamine release this leads to changes in both the connections
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between neurons in the brain and the system responsible for action and can largely account for why we start to form
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bad habits in the first place or habits that we are we don't necessarily want many of these rewarding things like
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sugar or substances um are powerful and chemically addictive
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as well which means the Habit is even harder to unanchor and our psychological reaction to them in this day and age can
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be linked all the way back to evolution in the caveman days in the cave woman days meat wasn't salted there wasn't
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such a thing is candy or sweets and highly addictive substances like tobacco
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have only been growing in the wild for nearly 8 000 years but it wasn't until about 2 000 years ago that we started
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picking tobacco up and chewing it and smoking it Russell poldrack who's the professor of psychology at Stanford
00:17:42
University says our brains are not well equipped to deal with the big rush one gets from these sorts of things and if
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you just look at the High Street around you humans are quite clearly designed our entire society around activities
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that will give us this habit-forming dopamine response in our brains if you go into a corner shop I can get crisps
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again that releases dopamine sweets adult magazines cigars cigarettes booze and they sell so
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well because they cause that all-important dopamine release in our brain which acts as the reward part of
00:18:14
the Habit Loop so we keep on coming back to the corner shop for more and more and more which means more shops have popped
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up on the High Street catering to that addictive habit Loop and that reward part of the Habit Loop and if you think
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about your High Street most of the shops are selling sugar
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caffeine or highly processed foods for this very reason and I've always
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wondered if highly processed foods like french fries pizzas cheesecakes all of my favorite things milkshakes trigger
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the same neurological habit Loopers smoking or other addictive drugs and new findings published in the journal of
00:18:48
clinical nutrition finally suggest that they do scientists studied a group of
00:18:53
overweight men between the ages of 18 and 35 years old the men were given
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similar milkshakes however one had a high glycemic index and then one had a
00:19:04
low glycemic index the glycemic index is basically an indicator of how fast blood
00:19:10
sugar glucose levels Spike after consuming certain foods carbohydrates such as cookies and baked goods and
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pasta and white bread and white rice all have a high glycemic index they're quickly digested while low glycemic
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carbohydrates which include whole grains and vegetables and fruits and legumes and unprocessed grains are broken down
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in a much slower way four hours after the two groups of men were given the milkshakes they had an MRI brain scan
00:19:36
which analyzed the activity in that reward part of the brain and subjects in the experiment who consume the high
00:19:42
glycemic milkshakes had spikes in their blood sugar levels which then plummeted four hours later and as their blood
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glucose levels decreased those participants developed excessive hunger and their brain scans demonstrated high
00:19:55
levels of activity in a region of the brain which is associated with addiction and this really brings me to a
00:20:02
point from that professor at Stamford where he said you're more likely to do the thing you don't want to do when
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you're stressed out I.E you're more likely to go in search of that dopamine hit in the form of sugar processed food
00:20:15
Drugs porn alcohol whatever it might be if you're stressed out therefore one of
00:20:21
the most unobvious but important things you can do to make a new habit stick and form enough repetitions in that early
00:20:27
phase to make the neurons fire together and wire together is to keep your stress levels low especially in that critical
00:20:34
early phase while you're forming that new habit Loop I.E if you're trying to form a new habit whatever it might be go
00:20:40
to the gym whatever it might be and if you want to be in that nine percent of people that have achieved their New Year's resolution 12 months from now
00:20:46
don't just focus on the habit focus on your stress because high stress levels
00:20:52
are one of the forces acting against your willpower as it relates to habits and I think we can all relate I think we
00:20:59
can all sort of intuitively know that when we're stressed we tend to reverse back to bad habits and that's exactly
00:21:05
why they've proven this over and over again in studies that stressed people make bad choices as they go in that
00:21:11
desperate search of things that will make them feel good in the short term and because of this stress people are very bad at delaying gratification
00:21:19
and being able to delay gratification as I've come to learn in my own life is one of the real keys of achieving any goal
00:21:24
we have in you know life business relationships health or Fitness so what is delayed gratification I've heard that
00:21:30
word for most of my life but what what is it and why is it important what is the research what are the studies that prove the importance of it how do I do
00:21:37
it well the definition of delayed gratification according to science is the ability to delay an Impulse for an
00:21:45
immediate reward to receive a more favorable reward at a later time and and
00:21:50
just on that point of delayed gratification and how important it is one of the most important studies I've
00:21:55
ever read was from the 1960s a famous Stanford Professor named Walter Michelle began conducting a series of important
00:22:02
studies around the concept of delayed gratification during his experiments Michelle and his team tested hundreds of
00:22:08
children most of them between the ages of four and five years old and he revealed what we now believe to be one
00:22:14
of the most important characteristics of success not just in health not just in work but also in life and they called
00:22:20
this this is a very famous experiment so I imagine most of you will know this experiment they called this the
00:22:25
marshmallow experiment I think certain TV shows in America have mimicked this and it's really quite funny to watch I
00:22:30
remember it when it went viral a form of it went viral on social media a couple years ago the experiment began
00:22:36
by bringing each child into a private room and sitting them down on a chair and placing one marshmallow on the table
00:22:42
in front of them the child was then given a choice by the researcher the researcher said I'm gonna leave the room
00:22:48
for a while and I'll come back in and you can eat this tasty marshmallow if you want to if that's your choice but if
00:22:54
you don't want to eat it and you if you don't eat it I'll give you a second one when I come back in so the choice was
00:23:00
simple one treat right now or two treats when the researcher comes back in later
00:23:05
the research left the room for 15 minutes some kids as you can imagine jumped up and put that marshmallow
00:23:11
straight in their mouth they'd eaten it before he'd even left the room others quite hilariously struggled around in their chair and tried to restrain
00:23:17
themselves from eating it but eventually gave in a few minutes later and finally a few of the children did
00:23:24
manage to wait the entire time and this study became known as the marshmallow experiment but it wasn't the
00:23:29
funny reactions that made it famous the mind-blowing and fascinating part came
00:23:35
many many years later as the years rolled past and those same children became fully formed adults the
00:23:41
researchers conducted a follow-up experiment and they tracked each child's progress in a number of different areas
00:23:47
of their life and what they found was astonishing the children who were willing to delay gratification and
00:23:53
waited to receive the second marshmallow from the researcher ended up having higher exam scores later in life they
00:23:59
ended up having lower levels of substance abuse lower likelihoods of childhood obesity better social skills
00:24:05
as reported by their parents and friends and generally better scores in most areas across their entire lives and
00:24:11
importantly the kids that didn't reach for the marshmallow and became successful adults also had much better
00:24:17
responses to stress they were likely less stressed kids and they were probably less stressed adults and it's
00:24:24
interesting to try and establish causation between their clearly stress undermines our ability to regulate impulsivity stress hijacks the
00:24:31
brain and if you're stressed you won't be able to delay gratification you will continue to reach for those marshmallows
00:24:38
and you might not therefore achieve your goals the researchers in the marshmallow experiment continue to follow each child
00:24:44
for more than 40 years and year over year over year the group who waited patiently for the second marshmallow
00:24:51
succeeded in every capacity of their lives that they were measuring in other words the series of experiments proved
00:24:57
that our ability to delay gratification was critical for success in life in our love lives in our work and we know that
00:25:04
stress is a key factor preventing us from delaying gratification you'll see this everywhere in your life I've seen
00:25:10
it in mine if you're able to delay the gratification of buying sweets or desserts or cake or ice cream on your
00:25:16
way home from work that increases your chance of eating healthier when you get home and there's countless other examples therefore and this is I guess
00:25:23
my big conclusion therefore and this is not obvious but at
00:25:28
the start of your journey to creating that new habit you have to focus on the
00:25:34
simple stuff that makes your life as stress-free as possible and those foundations are it's been proven by
00:25:39
science more sleep exercise regularly and opt for stress reduction techniques like meditation or massages or walking
00:25:46
or running or whatever helps you to deregulate de-stress decompress because scientists have shown that that alone
00:25:52
will increase your willpower and drastically improve your chances of cementing new habits and achieving your
00:25:58
big goals in your life and it's funny because most people wouldn't think of sleep as an important factor in
00:26:03
achieving most of their habits but the science seems to be incredibly clear on this according to World leading sleep
00:26:09
expert and neurologist Kathy Goldstein sleep plays a major factor in the success or failure of the most popular
00:26:15
New Year's resolutions for those trying to lose weight or to eat healthier a lack of sleep decreases leptin which is
00:26:23
the hormone that makes you feel full it also boosts something called Girling aka the hunger hormone which increases
00:26:29
appetite promotes fat storage and call causes poor food choices and for those of you like me that have goals
00:26:36
associated with work and becoming better in your work or you want to get a promotion or whatever it might be the
00:26:41
science is clear a lack of sleep reduces your productivity and additionally sleep deprived people in management roles are
00:26:48
described as less ethical not as alert not as motivated and not as cheerful and
00:26:55
for those of you that might want to boost your your social lives a lack of sleep contributes to poor mood markedly
00:27:00
worse social interactions in all of the studies and for those looking to quit smoking like my dad a lack of sleep is
00:27:06
tied to higher rates of nicotine dependency sleep is one of these foundations that we often Overlook and
00:27:12
it's become a huge priority in my life so if you want to make or break a new habit rule number one in my five rules
00:27:19
is to forget all the complicated tips and tricks and hacks and focus on those
00:27:24
Basics you'll succeed if you feel good if you're not over stressed and if you've slept quick one Intel are now one
00:27:31
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last I'd say over the last really it's been about two and a half years it was really um post pandemic how much my
00:28:26
health has become such a huge priority in my life huel has been probably the most important important partner in my
00:28:32
health Journey because I've been in the boardrooms I've been to their offices tens and tens and tens and tens of times
00:28:39
I've seen how they make their decisions on nutrition and that's why it's such a wonderful thing to be able to talk to
00:28:45
this audience about a brand and a product that is so unbelievably linked to my values and the place I am in my
00:28:51
life of valuing the gym exercise movement my mind my breathing and all of those things and most importantly my
00:28:57
nutrition that is the role fuel plays and so every time I get to read these ads I do it with such passion because I
00:29:03
really really believe every word I'm saying and I absolutely love the brand so if you haven't already tried heal and you've been resistant to my my pestering
00:29:09
then give it a go and let me know how you get on rule number two know your cues incredibly important and
00:29:18
often overlooked as we've said previously and as you know I've indicated from that rap maze chocolate experiment but also an example of my
00:29:24
father and my ex-girlfriend habits have three main parts acute a routine and a reward
00:29:30
cues are often just a context where you tend to engage in that behavior so if you want to break a habit step number
00:29:36
one has to be getting crystal clear on exactly what your cues are if you're
00:29:41
aware of it you're empowered to do something about it because the science shows that you're most likely to relapse
00:29:46
to an old bad habit in the context of when you usually perform that bad habit
00:29:51
knowing your cues and your triggers can help you to avoid them and scientists say that if a smoker disposes of a queue
00:29:58
like it could be an item a q item like an ashtray or something like that that reminds them of that habit they're
00:30:05
significantly more likely to give up smoking so with this in mind capitalizing on a major life change can
00:30:11
also help you to break or make unhealthy habits often people think like when you're moving to a new city or starting a new
00:30:17
job or you're you know joining a new social environment we might think that's bad timing to start thinking about
00:30:22
making new habits because we're so busy but science suggests the complete opposite think about it if our cues come
00:30:30
from our environment usually your current environment is full of hundreds
00:30:35
of different cues and triggers your home your commute your dog walk your social
00:30:41
context even your friends collectively all of those environmental factors probably hold hundreds maybe even
00:30:46
thousands of cues and triggers that lead to routines that get you rewards and
00:30:52
those cues and triggers and routines and rewards those cues are holding your bad
00:30:58
habits in place so if you're used to lighting up a cigarette on your way home from work for instance or stopping off
00:31:03
at that fast food spot on your way home from work moving to a new city gives you a chance to break that cue it removes
00:31:09
the queue which means that you can remove the routine and hopefully the reward and that's something that I
00:31:16
that I think about a lot which is whenever I change my environment whether it's moving into a new place or going to
00:31:22
a new city or making new friends or doing something new how can I use that sort of blank canvas as a as a way to
00:31:28
start creating new habits can I put my fitness shoes in a certain obvious place
00:31:33
so that I'm cute every day to go to the gym can I remove the sweet drawer from my house completely and replace it with
00:31:40
a healthy drawer full of vegetables and fruits those kinds of things and also when we go to new places when we spend
00:31:45
time abroad for prolonged periods of time that's a great opportunity despite what people tend to think to really kick
00:31:52
start new habits and to shed old ones rule number three don't focus on
00:31:57
stopping bad habits focus on replacing them it is and I've experienced this over and over again in my life it's
00:32:03
impossibly difficult to actually stop a habit um so I I delved into the science to try
00:32:08
and figure out why and what happens when we try and stop doing a bad habit and the science shows that focusing too much
00:32:14
on stopping something often makes you rebound eventually and do it more we are
00:32:22
action-orientated creatures not in action orientated creatures and some Studies have shown that the more you
00:32:28
suppress your thoughts the more likely you are to think about those things over and over again and therefore revert back
00:32:34
to a bad habit one study done in 2008 on the topic of appetite found that those who suppressed their thoughts about
00:32:40
eating chocolate exhibited behavioral rebound effects where they consumed significantly more chocolate than those
00:32:46
who didn't and I'll tell you what I can relate I can think of multiple times in my life where I've made a pledge to
00:32:52
myself to quit something and because I'm so focused on quitting that thing when I eventually break maybe because I'm
00:32:58
stressed maybe because of another factor I end up swinging so far the other way because I've sort of held myself away
00:33:04
from that thing that I craved and similarly a 2010 study published in the psychological science found that smokers
00:33:11
who tried to restrain their thoughts about smoking ultimately wound up thinking about smoking even more and
00:33:17
this reminds me of a small piece of advice my driving instructor said to me when I was 18 years old 19 years old he
00:33:23
said Stephen the car goes where your eyes are looking if you want to avoid crashing into the cars on the side of
00:33:29
the road don't focus on the cars on the side of the road because you're Veer towards the park cars on the side of the
00:33:35
road so look forward into the distance where you want the car to go and this
00:33:41
seems like a fairly fitting analogy for what we're talking about and for the Third Law of breaking and making habits
00:33:47
you end up doing the thing you're focusing on so don't focus on stopping smoking focus on the behavior you want
00:33:54
to replace it with the director of the University of Oregon social and effective Neuroscience lab Elliot
00:33:59
Berkman who I mentioned earlier he said something which is really really pertinent to this he said if you're a smoker and you tell yourself not to
00:34:05
smoke your brain still hears smoke conversely if you tell yourself to chew
00:34:10
gum every time you want a cigarette your brain has a more positive action-orientated goal to focus on and
00:34:17
this explains why those miniature lollipops that my dad put in the side of the car when he quit smoking was such a
00:34:24
good idea he didn't just take the cigarettes out of the car altogether which might have caused him to rebound and think about them a lot he replaced
00:34:30
them with a new action-orientated habit for his brain to latch onto and focus on
00:34:35
which in his case was of course sucking lollipops similarly scientists suggest
00:34:40
that if 5 PM for example has been linked to that glass of wine that you've been trying to knock for a while
00:34:45
don't just remove the glass of wine from your life instead double down on hydration and make sure the fridge is
00:34:52
stocked with seltzers and cold water and lemon just like my dad did but as I said
00:34:57
at the start of this podcast doing this just once won't be enough forming a new habit takes time and commitment so don't
00:35:03
feel discouraged if it takes longer than you might expect I remember looking at the because I think we've all grown up
00:35:09
in this world where they say that forming a new habit takes 20 something days people have repeated this to be over and over again it takes 20
00:35:15
something days I think when I started doing the keto diet for a little while people said to me just do it for 25 days and you'll be you know the Habit will
00:35:22
stick so I looked into some of the sites around this and a 2010 study published in the European Journal of Social
00:35:28
Psychology found it took an average of 66 days for a behavior to change but as
00:35:33
I said at the start this varies wildly for some people it's 20 days and in some cases it was 250 days so I think that's
00:35:38
largely BS and I think the more important thing is actually going to be revealed in rule number five of these
00:35:45
five rules but before we get to number five which really was a light bulb Epiphany moment for me I'm going to give
00:35:50
you rule number four for forming making and breaking the habits you want to in 2023 rule number four is you need a
00:35:58
better reason to quit neuroscientists have shown that even if you replace a quote-unquote bad habit
00:36:05
with a better one sometimes the original habit will have a much stronger biological reward than the thing you've
00:36:10
substituted it for and if you think about what I said earlier the habit's always going to be there so even if you substitute it
00:36:17
like the scientists said in the rat experiment it can so easily just toggle back it never disappears the pathway the
00:36:23
neurons are fired together they all wired together for example in the case of my dad who I keep mentioning throughout this podcast his brain
00:36:30
obviously knows that the lollipop is not as addictive as the nicotine he's getting from those cigars and therefore
00:36:35
it won't produce the same euphoric neurological feeling in the reward centers of his brain as those cigars did
00:36:41
but this is where the importance of having an intrinsic motivation comes into play and listen an intrinsic
00:36:48
motivation is a phrase any Avid listener of this podcast has probably had me say a lot the word intrinsic is one of my
00:36:55
favorite phrases it's basically a reason for doing something that is genuinely and personally important to you not
00:37:02
something that you're doing for external Rewards or payment we call that an extrinsic motivation and for me and
00:37:08
you've heard me bangling about this um because it genuinely changed my life my reason for getting healthy and
00:37:15
cutting junk food out of my diet was always shallow as I've said before I wanted to have a six-pack for summer so
00:37:22
for the first few months of every single year when I made that New Year's resolution I would work out every single
00:37:28
day and I would eat healthy food obsessively until one of two things happened until either
00:37:34
I got in shape or until summer ended then I would immediately revert back
00:37:41
like those rats who started running left again I would immediately revert back to my old habit of eating junk food and
00:37:48
avoiding any form of exercise and it wasn't until 2020 when a certain virus spread across the world tragically
00:37:54
killing millions of people in every corner of the world that I got to see as the most
00:37:59
imprinting alarming example how fragile health is and how fragile life is and
00:38:06
that's when if I think about it now that's when things changed in my mind I realized like a wonderful
00:38:13
Epiphany that my health and fitness were the most important thing in my life because it is literally the the First
00:38:20
Foundation I've said this before think of it like this table everything you care about sits on this table your career your family your goals all of
00:38:27
your future dreams everything now you can remove any of the things on the table and you still have everything else I can God forbid get rid of my dog Pablo
00:38:33
and I still have everything else on the table I can get rid of my career and I still have everything else that's on the
00:38:39
table but if I get rid of the table everything else Falls I lose everything my health is the table my health is my
00:38:47
first Foundation everything in my life is contingent on it so logically it must be every single day when I wake up in
00:38:52
the morning it must be my first priority and that one realization changed my life
00:38:58
it gave me like this huge powerful intrinsic reason to focus
00:39:05
on my health which was not just six packs and abs and chasing women or whatever it might be and now we sit here
00:39:10
three years later when I'm in the best shape of my life I've managed to kind of stick at it of course I have ups and downs and Peaks and troughs and whatever
00:39:16
else and some days where I'm you know in the draw at 2AM eating too much chocolate or whatever we're all human none of us are perfect and I think it's
00:39:22
important to communicate that um I have all the same struggles you know some days my motivation's low some
00:39:28
days it's a bit higher but if if we zoom out and I think that's the key if we zoom out I've made drastically healthier
00:39:33
choices I'm in the best shape of my life I've cut out a lot of the things that I know are bad for me and that really had a bad impact on my
00:39:40
body and my mind um and that's all because I finally got a better reason and my point here is
00:39:46
sometimes your good habits don't stand a chance because you don't have a good enough
00:39:51
reason like me you want a six-pack and you want it for bad reasons one of my favorite quotes of all time is change
00:39:57
happens when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of
00:40:02
making a change I.E people don't change until it's easier to change than it is
00:40:08
to stay the same and unfortunately this means people sometimes need a real
00:40:15
Health scare they need a death in their family or some kind of other tragedy until they have a strong enough reason
00:40:21
strong enough evidence to make a change and that is tremendously sad it's been the case for me too many times in my
00:40:26
life that I've had to lose something to make a change I've had to lose something to learn the value of it um
00:40:33
for me the events of 2020 were that tragedy I said you know I sincerely hope that
00:40:38
you guys that are listening to this won't need a tragedy of your own to realize what truly matters to you
00:40:44
um or to give you that intrinsic motivation to live more aligned with the with the person you want to be in the
00:40:49
values that you have rule number five maybe the most important I'll let you decide rule
00:40:56
number five and this is again slightly controversial slightly unconventional
00:41:02
is willpower is not enough this is maybe the most fascinating study I read of all
00:41:07
of them because it really made me Ponder and it kind of disrupted my thinking on Willpower and strength and
00:41:13
um mental strength and motivation and it's probably a huge reason why 91
00:41:19
of people don't stick to their resolutions dozens of studies show that willpower is the single most important
00:41:26
habit for individual success and this is true but
00:41:32
for a long time people thought that willpower is a skill that you could develop and that therefore remains
00:41:38
constant Forever Until Mark murovan a PhD scientist argued that if willpower
00:41:44
is a skill then why does it not remain constant throughout the whole day or even
00:41:50
throughout the whole week why does willpower seem to fluctuate he conducted an experiment to prove that
00:41:56
willpower like all of the muscles in our body gets exhausted the more we use it
00:42:01
throughout the day in his lab he did a fairly simple thing he set up one bowl
00:42:06
of freshly baked cookies and then he set up another bowl of radishes and listen
00:42:12
everybody hates radishes including me well you know put them up chop them up put them in a salad maybe I don't hate them they're good for you but anyway in
00:42:18
this example most people would prefer hot delicious cookies than radishes right and the participants in the study
00:42:24
were divided into two groups one group was instructed to eat the delicious cookies and ignore the radishes the
00:42:30
other group was instructed to ignore the delicious cookies and to eat the radishes I know which group I would have
00:42:36
rather been in after five minutes into that experiment the researchers re-entered the room and gave both groups
00:42:43
of people a puzzle but the thing is the puzzle was impossible to complete and
00:42:49
here's what happened the people that had eaten the cookie with their unused reservoir of willpower
00:42:56
because they hadn't had to use their willpower they hadn't had to use their restraint looked way more relaxed when they were trying to solve that
00:43:02
impossible puzzle and they would continue to try and solve it over and over and over again some worked for more
00:43:09
than half an hour before the researcher told them to stop on average the cook eaters spent almost 19 minutes trying to
00:43:16
solve that puzzle before they eventually quit on average now in the case of the radish eaters with their depleted
00:43:22
willpower because they they had to practice restraint they acted completely differently it was a completely opposite
00:43:28
story they vented as they worked to try and solve that puzzle they got frustrated
00:43:34
one even complained that that the whole experiment was a waste of time some of
00:43:39
them put their heads on the table closed their eyes and one of them even snapped at the researcher when she came back in
00:43:45
on average the radish eaters worked for roughly eight minutes 60 less they tried
00:43:51
to solve the problem of the puzzle The Impossible puzzle for 60 percent less time than the cookie eaters before
00:43:58
quitting and when I read this study I was shocked but I'm a skeptic so I tried to think of why this might be I tried to
00:44:03
think of other factors and I thought of maybe it's the sugar maybe the sugar in the cookies are causing them to work
00:44:09
harder but when you look at other studies where there isn't sugar anytime someone's practicing restraint the same
00:44:15
effects are seen willpower isn't just a skill it's a muscle like the muscles in
00:44:20
your arms or your legs and it gets tired and it gets tired as it's forced to work
00:44:26
harder so there's less power left over for all of the other things and since since that cookie study was published I
00:44:31
think in 1998 numerous Studies have built a case for the exact same thing they call it the world power depletion
00:44:37
theory in one incredible example which is almost hard to believe volunteers who are asked to suppress their feelings as
00:44:44
they watched an emotional movie gave up sooner on a test that they did after of
00:44:49
physical stamina than volunteers who watched the film and were allowed to react in whatever way they wanted to so
00:44:57
if you were asked to restrain yourself when you then did a physical exercise people gave up sooner in the physical
00:45:02
exercise in a similar study which pointed at the exact same conclusion people who were asked to suppress
00:45:08
certain thoughts were less able to stifle laughter in a follow-up test which was designed to make them giggle
00:45:14
so if the science here is correct which I suspect it is and willpower is a
00:45:19
limited resource it's really obvious that the more pressure and restrictions and strain you
00:45:27
put on yourself when you're trying to make a new habit and break old ones the less the chance you have of achieving
00:45:33
them the more chance you have of rebounding and relapsing this is why unsustainable crash diets just don't
00:45:40
work this is why anytime you feel like you're depriving yourself of something that you really want you nearly always
00:45:46
end up failing and falling into relapse this is why in a 2014 study almost 40 percent of people so they failed on
00:45:53
their New Year's resolutions because the goal was too unsustainable or unrealistic and 10 said they failed
00:46:00
because they had too many goals this is why it's so important as you think about what goals you're setting to make sure
00:46:06
that they're small enough and achievable enough to become sustainable without the
00:46:12
need for major sacrifice which will deplete your willpower reserves and that is that for me was a real Revelation
00:46:17
because I think about all the habits I've tried to set you know what I'm talked about trying to get a six-pack
00:46:23
for summer think about what I said I obsessively ate healthy food I went to the gym every day for six months my
00:46:30
willpower eventually became depleted and I rebounded rebounded like a yo-yo like you've never seen before and this is why
00:46:36
you shouldn't try and give up every bad habit that you have at the same time this is why less goals increase the
00:46:42
chance of completing all of your goals because with too many big unrealistic sacrifice-centric goals your willpower
00:46:48
will be under tremendous unsustainable strain it will run out you will fail and
00:46:53
it will rebound and this is also why so many psychologists and scientists have found that the best way to create a new
00:46:59
habit isn't by depriving yourself of all rewards that is totally counterproductive according to the
00:47:05
science it's by finding new rewards healthier rewards less addictive rewards
00:47:10
but nonetheless making sure that you still reward yourself in some way every
00:47:17
day along the way and I'm gonna do something that I didn't plan to do I'm going to give you a bonus
00:47:24
rule number six because this point I've been talking about ever since I learned to I think I've been pestering everyone
00:47:30
I saw Jay Shetty earlier on and I I peppered him with it then I saw my assistant I peppered her with it I think the two guys in the room recording this
00:47:36
podcast with me I've peppered them with it as well this is something that I thought was unbelievable because it's so easy it's
00:47:41
so simple it's a it's a one second exercise which the science has shown is tremendously
00:47:49
effective in helping you to create a new habit so bonus rule number six the secret power of posing a question
00:47:58
I'm going to give you one last short tip that I found buried within the scientific research that blew my mind
00:48:04
and blew my mind again so much so that I had to check it was true it's called the question Behavior effect it's an
00:48:10
incredible simple phenomenon in which asking people about performing a certain Behavior
00:48:16
drastically influences whether they do it in the future or not the effect has
00:48:22
been shown to last for more than six months after you ask a simple question you know going back to one of the real
00:48:28
pioneering pieces of research on this a study published in the Journal of consumer psychology says asking the
00:48:34
right question is the key to behavior change so instead of telling someone else what to do or if it relates to a
00:48:40
goal you're trying to achieve for yourself instead of just saying what you're going to do for example if you want to go to the gym
00:48:46
instead of saying I want to go to the gym or I'm going to go to the gym it's way more effective according to the
00:48:52
science to ask yourself or a person a simple question which is are you going
00:48:58
to go to the gym across repeated psychological studies if an individual isn't exhibiting healthy
00:49:04
Behavior if they're then asked a question about that behavior or they ask themselves a question about
00:49:10
their behavior it serves as a reminder of their choices direct questions in their studies influence people to cheat
00:49:17
less to exercise more to volunteer more and to even recycle more and the key
00:49:22
here isn't to ask any question or to ask it in any way it's to ask a question which encourages a definitive yes or no
00:49:30
answer really interestingly researchers found that the question Behavior effect was most effective and most powerful
00:49:36
when the question was administered via computer or a paper and pencil survey
00:49:43
and I guess you're wondering why that works why why isn't it effective to say it to somebody why is it better when a
00:49:50
a medium that can't respond that has a yes or no box on it is more effective than asking your friend or yourself the
00:49:56
same question and there are several theories about why the question Behavior effect works but most people believe
00:50:02
it's related to something called cognitive dissonance cognitive dissonance is where your ideal self the person you want to be
00:50:08
doesn't match up with your real self which is who you actually are so although you might want to be a healthy
00:50:14
person your behavior your actions might not be aligning with that they might not be aligning with the actions of a fit healthy person so someone asks you the
00:50:22
question or if you ask yourself the question are you going to go to the gym today saying no would cause a lot of mental
00:50:28
discomfort to ease your discomfort you're likely going to say yes then once you say yes your prediction that you're
00:50:35
going to exercise that day becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because the question has reminded you of who you
00:50:41
want to be the path to becoming that person are you going to go to the gym today and you've set an intention to
00:50:48
walk that path it's a simple question is a reminder it delivers the path and it
00:50:54
gives you the opportunity to send a clear intention to yourself and to whoever else of what you're going to do
00:51:01
and the reason why this works even more effectively when answering yes or no to the question especially on a computer or
00:51:06
a pen or a paper is because these binary choices in a yes or no box or on a computer or on a piece of paper wherever
00:51:12
it might be don't allow for clarification and excuses both of which
00:51:18
we all know allow us to wiggle away from confronting the reality of who we want to be the path of getting there and
00:51:24
establishing an intention well you might want to explain you know Steve you know I wanna I might say to myself you know I
00:51:29
plan on starting to exercise next month or I'm going to stop sugar next month or I'll go to the gym once my schedule
00:51:35
allows me to do so a yes or no question doesn't give any room to create an
00:51:40
excuse the justification and to deceive yourself you need to commit if it's yes or no you need to commit one way or the
00:51:47
other so the next time you're tempted to make excuses for your behavior and we all do it I do it every day or to
00:51:54
lecture someone else about what they should do differently try this instead try asking yourself and
00:52:00
I did this last night it was 11 30 p.m at night or whatever long day and I'm sat there in my little office upstairs
00:52:06
and I think I know I should go on the Peloton I've not been on the Peloton in a little while
00:52:11
um so ask myself a question said Steve are you gonna go on the Peloton like a bit of a weirdo I replied to
00:52:17
myself yes use it on yourself ask yourself a clear yes or no question about an area of your
00:52:23
life that you're struggling in daily to find motivation and or if you want to help someone in an empathetic
00:52:29
and effective way instead of saying you should quit smoking you can raise the question with them and ask them are you
00:52:34
gonna quit smoking are you going to apply for that new job and ask them only for a yes or no answer if you can
00:52:41
obviously remember to have empathy because sometimes questions come with them
00:52:46
something which isn't revealed unless the person reads between the lines which is judgment and we don't want to we don't want to lead with judgment that's
00:52:52
not a good thing um but raising awareness raising someone else's awareness of their behavior with
00:52:58
this genital confrontation of their ideal self can lead to significant Behavior change so with these six rules here's my
00:53:05
conclusive message to you don't let the statistically High
00:53:10
likelihood of failure with your goals and Years resolutions put you off trying because the science also says that
00:53:17
resolutions are effective set yourself up for Success using the rules in this podcast please tell a friend if you've
00:53:24
got a friend in your life that is struggling with something there's a habit they want to make or a habit they want to break please share this podcast
00:53:30
episode with them and hopefully it'll make change in someone's life you know I
00:53:36
reflect on how that leaving that book at home accidentally had such a big accidental impact and I
00:53:43
give all the credit to my father for actually doing it I accidentally left the book somewhere which I had no intention of helping anyone but he took
00:53:49
that book read it and to think an idea helped him to stop smoking which is a
00:53:55
goal that he had for some people they might love smoking and that's also fine all of our goals are subjective um to think that he was able to shake a
00:54:01
habit that was not good for his health is much of the reason why I'm doing this podcast which is this realization that
00:54:08
one idea could be any of these six principles or something else that we've shared today could have that effect on someone that I'll never meet is the most
00:54:15
rewarding reason for staying up it's fairly late here it's about 10 p.m at night um and doing this podcast so soon before
00:54:22
New Year's and remember and I think this is an important admittance life is all about failing forward you like me in all areas
00:54:28
of your life will stumble you'll hit hurdles life will happen um that's completely inevitable but
00:54:34
hopefully with these principles in mind you can pick yourself back up again and again and again and again and you know
00:54:40
I've had to do this over and over again in every habit that I've successfully formed and the habits that I'm still
00:54:45
struggling to form until such a time when the habits you're seeking to break have been broken and the habits you're
00:54:52
seeking to make have been made and your new behavior is creating the life that you hope and desire to live
00:54:58
this is a never-ending Journey which is something that I've clearly come to learn from my own struggles with forming new habits and breaking old ones but
00:55:05
regardless of the distance differences and distinctions it's important to know that we are all in this together as a
00:55:11
society if you're more happy productive and successful then just buy like a connective karma for us living on the
00:55:18
same planet that will increase the chance of my life being happy more productive and successful we are all in
00:55:24
this together so help each other out pull each other up and have empathy for those that are struggling the most
00:55:30
because as one of my guests said to me on this podcast this year the truth is when we think about that
00:55:37
person in our life that's struggling with a habit if you were them if you had walked their path in their life and you
00:55:42
had their DNA the truth is you'd be doing exactly the same thing so the best way to
00:55:48
demonstrate your gratitude for being more fortunate in whatever subjective regard that you might be
00:55:53
is to lift up those who aren't I wish you all the luck in the world for
00:55:59
achieving your goals this year and in the spirit of the sixth bonus Rule and
00:56:04
because I always end this podcast with a question here's my very binary parting yes or no question to you that hopes to
00:56:10
use the force of the question Behavior effect to help you achieve some of your habits
00:56:16
my parting question is are you going to achieve your goals this year
00:56:22
yes oh no thank you
00:56:28
quick one this episode is brought to you by Mercedes-Benz who recently got in touch to support the driver CEO I'm
00:56:34
becoming quite the fan of electric cars and of course a huge fan of Mercedes-Benz I have one of my own the
00:56:39
Mercedes-Benz luxury electric range known as Mercedes EQ is at the very Forefront of this industry which is what
00:56:46
really stood out to me if you're looking for a business car the sustainability credentials economic benefits General
00:56:52
convenience and high levels of luxury which everybody knows Mercedes-Benz 4 and they're all electric cars are truly
00:56:59
groundbreaking in terms of features their next Generation technology across the range is second to none for example
00:57:05
there's intuitive mbux technology with AI that learns your behavior and keeps you connected to the things that matter
00:57:10
to you not to mention all Mercedes EQ cars offer exemption from the ultra low emission Zone charge and London
00:57:17
congestion charge so if like me you're really excited about all things electric cars and if you haven't checked out the
00:57:23
Mercedes EQ range then search Mercedes-Benz Fleet to see how they can take your business to the next level
00:57:28
could you do me a favor and my team here a favor which is hit that subscribe button we're approaching 1 million
00:57:34
subscribers and when we hit 1 million subscribers we've been working for many
00:57:39
months to do something very big in which you're all invited to I'll reveal that when we hit a million
00:57:46
subscribers thank you [Music]