WEBVTT - Brain Hacking 101: New Habits for a New Year 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to blow your mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.280 Works dot com. Okay, he wasn't a stuff with where 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.720 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and Julie Douglas. 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.840 You know, Julie. We're in a new year, essentially a 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:24.320 new studio, whole new set of rules and a Since 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.360 this new year, everybody is talking about, uh, you know, 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:29.040 what you're gonna change, how this year is going to 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:31.160 be different. Last year, we're just gonna go to write 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:35.279 that one off. But this year, this is the year 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:37.559 it's gonna happen, or this is the year it's not 0:00:37.600 --> 0:00:42.000 gonna happen, I swear. Okay, blank slate, Folks, how are 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:43.360 you going to fill it in? What you're gonna do, 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.440 what you're gonna change? Yeah, we have an artificial news 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:51.560 start going virtue of the calendar. So so yeah, what 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.560 what does it take to change behavior? That's the big question, 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:56.840 And a lot of people have put in the other 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:58.600 two cents on this. A lot of people have sold 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.800 their two cents um this to a public that is 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:06.600 ever interested in changing themselves for the better. Well, first 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.600 of all, there's that three weak myth that persist, this 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.440 idea that in order to change a habit or make 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.000 a new one. All you need is twenty one days 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:19.479 consecutive days, and boom, there you go. You are now 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:24.440 going to be a Mandarin expert or some other uh 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:29.240 jiu jitsu warrior of knowledge and something. Yeah, which, of 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:31.200 course is ridiculous when you pair it up with the 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.760 with the other addedge, you hear a lot about ten 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.000 thousand hours, isn't it? The ten thousand hours towards something? 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:38.680 And you'll be you'll be, you'll be great at it. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:42.199 Ten thousand hours a good bit longer than twenty one days. 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.400 But where does the twenty one days thing come from? Well, 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.320 you start trying to track it down, you kind of 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:49.720 lose your path in the in the history. But it 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.120 seems to have grown increasingly popular back in the nineteen 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.520 seventies due to a self help book called psycho Cybernetics, 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:00.600 which sounds like a good source. Who wouldn't trust the 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.960 bettering of their their their their their humanity to a 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.680 book called psycho Cybernetics and from the seventies, from the seventies, 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:10.079 which I'm just I haven't looked it up yet, but 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.239 I can already imagine that the cover to that book 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:16.080 because I have looked at some nineties books on self help. Yeah, 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:18.679 and again that's where this idea came from. The self 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:20.520 help book said, hey, just twenty one days, that's how 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.160 it takes. But as we're going to discuss, it's much 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.920 more complex than that, and we'll get to an idea 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.880 of what it takes in terms of days the consecutive 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:32.200 amount of time. But before we do that, let's talk 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.840 about the habit loop and what's happening inside of our brains. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:40.080 New York Times business writer Charles Doig says, habit loops 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.480 they contain three parts. Okay, First, there's a cue or 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:47.359 a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:52.000 mode and let a behavior unfold. Okay. Second, he says, 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:56.040 there's the routine, which is the behavior itself. And then 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.720 the third step, he says, is the reward, something that 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:01.560 your brain likes that helps it to remember that habit 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.520 loop in the future. So, like an example of this 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:07.600 would be the trigger. What's setting this off is, oh, 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.320 I feel kind of low energy in the afternoon, and 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.200 then what should I do? All Right, the automatic behavior 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.440 is I should go and have a soda. I'm gonna 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.800 have the big sugary grape soda. And then the reward 0:03:16.919 --> 0:03:19.440 is I feel at least a temporary boost due to 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:21.959 all that sugar in my body. Right, And if you 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.240 keep doing that over and over again, eventually those cues, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.520 those environmental keys will start to work on you. You know, 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.200 maybe it's three o'clock and you're tired and you need 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.280 that break, and you get that. You look at the 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.120 clock and you see that three o'clock, and that becomes 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:37.520 one of the cues that adds up in this database 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.720 of I want the soda. Yeah, it's time for the soda. 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:42.880 The soda. Time to to press the hot key on 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.480 soda behavior. Now, in part, we can trace habit making 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:50.240 back to the basil ganglia, which also plays a key 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.920 role in the development of emotions, memories, and pattern recognition. 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.160 So decisions meanwhile, though, they are made in the prefrontal cortex. 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:01.920 And this is really interesting is as a behavior becomes automatic, 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.520 the decision making part of your brain goes into a 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.200 kind of sleep mode. Yeah, And and in this the 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:10.840 basal gangla is essentially it takes the behavior and turns 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.440 it into an automatic routine. It's essentially a hot key, 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:15.440 you know, like like when you're using Photoshop or any 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.440 other program, you have that hot key like you know, 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:19.599 it's all control or whatever. I used to have a 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:21.960 bazillion of a memorize when I was using in Design 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.040 for a Living and uh, and so you just go 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.560 to this automatic behavior, all right, just push these these 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:28.480 quick keys and we'll do some sort of automatic function 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:31.200 on the page you're working on. Uh. And we do 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:33.040 that in our lives. We do that when we as 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:35.760 we're driving to work, as we're trying to navigate the 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.360 hallways of our house without you know, busting our elbow 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.920 and something. Well, Android says that there's a real boon 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:44.920 to us when we do that, because, in a sense, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.800 your brain starts working less and less, and he says, 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:49.880 the brain can almost completely shut down. And this is 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.279 an advantage because it means that you have all of 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.200 this mental activity that you can devote to something else. 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.600 It's why you can listen to stuff to bow your 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:01.080 mind while walking to the bus stay and while driving 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.760 to work, or while doing you know, data entry in 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.480 an Excel spreadsheet. Right. So, because it's all this has 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:11.240 become habituated and wrote and routinized, and we need all 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:14.200 this stuff, right, we need this kind of predictability. But 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.440 of course the problem becomes when we want to change 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.520 that behavior. And he says that if you want to 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.839 change it or create a new one, you have to 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.400 gain those three aspects. You have to gain that trigger 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.440 or that queue and know that it could be boredom 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.480 or that you're tired, and acknowledge that that is the reason, 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.280 not just at three o'clock and it's time for that soda. 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.080 You kind of have to break it down and kind 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:38.520 of goes slow mo with your thinking. Um. He also 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:42.080 said that you have to disrupt the routine and the reward. 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.839 You have to figure that out too. You have to say, okay, fine, 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.279 this might give me a temporary lift, but how gross 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.160 am I going to feel a half hour later when 0:05:52.160 --> 0:05:54.800 all that sugar is sitting in my belly? Um. And 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:56.919 then he also said that you can replace that reward, 0:05:57.040 --> 0:05:59.640 so instead of having that soda, you can take a 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.240 walk exactly. Yeah. And this was really helpful to me 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:05.719 when I quit drinking, actually, because I had noticed that 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:07.920 between hours of six and eight pm at nine that 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.000 were sort of my witching hours, and I would go 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.200 and work out instead of reaching for a glass of wine. Uh, 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.279 and that's replaced that reward for me, and it disrupted 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.560 the routine. So it was really helpful. Yeah. I mean 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:21.960 he stress that with a lot of things are related 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.080 to behavior. A lot of it is just realizing the 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.200 patterns of behavior, being able to look in the mirror 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.400 and and be self aware of what's going on. And 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:31.120 you have to remember we've talked about this a lot 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:34.040 before that these are neural pathways that once you did 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:36.239 just have it over and over again, they become really 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:41.360 grooved in your brain. Okay, so that is a pathway 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.360 that's easy for those signals to trot upon. So if 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:46.279 you do it less, then it becomes you know, the 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.960 strength of those pathways decreases. It will always be there 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.120 because you created the pathway. Yeah. And and ultimately it's 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:57.080 creating new behaviors. Forging new pathways, it's easier as opposed 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:58.760 to getting rid of old ones. I mean, you can 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:00.359 think of it, think of it in terms of, all right, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.520 you have a road between two cities, and what are 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:05.360 you gonna do. Are you gonna shut down one road 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.760 completely and then build another one that you're gonna You're 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.280 gonna build an additional road and then you're gonna sort 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.000 of and then and then that new road is going 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.560 to replace the old one. If you just cut off 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.120 the road, then how are we gonna get where we're going? 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:18.520 How am I going to deal with the the trigger 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:20.840 effect of needing that soda in the afternoon. I like 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.920 that idea that there are parallel paths and that's how 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.760 you replace the one after a while, and you kind 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.000 of put the detour signs on the other one. It 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.760 always exists with the detour signs. Yeah. Um. And that's 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.440 one of the problems with any sort of habit that 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:37.120 you pick up again a bad habit, is that as 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.120 soon as you you engage in that behavior, those pathways go, oh, 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.600 I remember this road. I haven't taken it in a 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.200 long time. And like you said, the environment is a 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.160 big thing. I like if I if I I don't 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.160 know why I chose the soda habit. I haven't actually 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:50.480 had a soda in for every but it's a good, 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:51.880 good model because I know a lot of people have 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:54.720 this temptation. Uh So in this case, in this example, 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:56.800 I'm drinking sodas in the office. So the office is 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.560 the environment in which this behavior has become ingrained. So 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.880 one thing that actually helps is stepping outside of the environment. 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.080 That that that that that makes this behavior acceptable. Now, 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:11.000 changing your environment is not a cure all, but it 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.440 can disrupt some some of that that routine. And that's 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:16.960 why going on a vacation is often cited as a 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.240 good example of a of a time to to try 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.400 to break away from a routine. And it's also why 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.080 vacations are often really comforting because we're breaking away from 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.000 a number of routines, even if they're not necessarily you know, 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.120 bad for us. Maybe they're just you know, you're you're 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.319 free from some of the change you weren't even aware of. 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:34.880 It was so much easier to slow down in that 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.000 automated behavior, look at it and say, oh, why am 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.120 I reaching for this? Why am I doing this? You're right, 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.920 because you don't have those environmental triggers. Now, there is 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:48.560 a kind of average of days, at least in one 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.800 study that shows that there are certain habits that you 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:56.920 can pick up good habits. Let's say and sixty six days. Now, 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.719 this is the average of days that it took participants 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.600 to have a behavior become automatic. This is a study 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.839 led by Philippa Lally and she's a psychologist at University 0:09:07.880 --> 0:09:12.160 College London. So we are talking about this length of 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.040 time varying anywhere from eighteen days to two hundred and 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.400 fifty four. Sixty six was just the average, and some 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.360 habits were talking about drinking a bottle of water after 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.040 lunch turned out to be a lot stickier, only took 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.920 fifty nine days on the average, because that's how difficult 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.800 is that? Now you're just tipping the bottle. But what 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:35.839 about doing fifty sit ups each morning? Much harder ninety 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.280 one days. So other findings were that missing a single 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.559 day did not reduce the chance of forming habits. That's 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:45.240 good news. In a subgroup, it turns out took a 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:47.520 lot longer than the others to form their habits, and 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.520 this suggests that some people are habit resistant. And of 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.200 course other types of habits may take much longer than 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.560 make you know, two fifty four days for instance for me, 0:09:57.760 --> 0:09:59.640 the sit ups that would that would be like three 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.360 sixty five days for me. So what about you, what 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:04.760 would be the easiest thing and the hardest thing? Like 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.320 what would take you eighteen days? And what would take 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:10.720 you two? Well, I guess obviously something I enjoy doing Um, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:13.240 a lot of people who who write are aware of 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.520 this hundred words a day thing where the idea is, 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.800 all right, your life is busy, but you really want 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.360 to work on you know, that novel, or work on 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:22.520 short stories, or write a little poetry, so you just 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:24.520 make sure you take out time, just carve it just 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.240 a sliver of time to do one hundred words, just 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.200 you know, open up your your word document, you know, 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.000 grab a notebook. One words, then you can move on. 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.160 So that would probably be easier for me, just because 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:38.760 obviously the reward, the reward is also in doing it. 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.040 It's something that I enjoy doing, and so that would 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:42.640 be something would be easier for me to do. And 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.559 you already have a huge writing muscle, yeah, exactly, so 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:48.960 that one would be an easy Also I'll have to 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.080 do is open a document or or grab a pet 0:10:51.200 --> 0:10:53.599 but uh, one of it would be much harder. And 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.400 one that I also would very much like to do 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.000 would be, you know, to do yoga on a much 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.360 more regular basis these days. But for that, obviously I've 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.520 got to carve out a much larger piece of time, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.800 like you know, at least twenty minutes ideally like an hour. 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.839 I need to either go to a space where I 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.280 can do the yoga or find a space both uh, 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.120 both physical and mental in which to do it every 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.160 day or a few days a week, and it becomes 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.160 increasingly complex. I read that if then statements help with 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:23.880 this because a lot of times we'll say we want 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:25.360 to do this, but when we find reasons not to 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.840 do things. And the idea is that instead of finding 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.439 those reasons not to do it, you say to yourself, 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:34.720 if it's Monday and it's noon and I have thirty minutes, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.040 I'm going to go to X space and do yoga, 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:40.480 and that that becomes more of an action item in 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.760 your brain as opposed to a plan. Really well, it's 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.560 like a program, you know, because it reminds me like 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.360 the settings in email, if you've ever looked at that, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.319 where you can set things like if this, then that 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.880 then X. So yeah, it's like and essentially that's what 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.840 we're talking about, reprogramming the self to incorporate new actions 0:11:58.160 --> 0:12:01.199 or in some cases a limit other actions or choose 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:03.680 one action over another. Of course, all of this require 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.520 self control and will power. And we'll take a quick 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.079 break and when we get back, we're gonna talk about 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:20.840 this muscle of self control that we can cultivate for ourselves. Okay, 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.000 we're back and you're going to talk about you roll 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.000 a self control and will power because of course you 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:29.199 can't just have this um then like moment with your 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:32.240 brain where you slow everything down and you examine how 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.520 and why you're doing things. You also have to have 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.800 the will to change that habit. Yes, and we've we've 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.720 podcasted exclusively on will in some past episodes before and it's, uh, 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.800 it's a fascinating topic because it's, like most things in life, 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:46.360 it's not quite what you think it is when you 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.559 actually stop and examine. Willpower is not a set level. 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.520 It's not like you know, playing Dungeons and Dragons where 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.280 you you roll the dice and you have that that 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:59.280 set number that that you may modify with some magical 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:02.800 spells here. And it's it's something that that fluctuates throughout 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:04.880 the day based on where we are, where our attention 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:06.960 is that, what our diet consists of, what kind of 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.640 uh stimuli we're exposed to. And the good news is 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.960 that it is a behavior and not something that's hardwired, 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.480 so it can be changed. In fact, in a two 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:21.000 thousand meta study of self control Mark Moravin and Roy F. Baumeister, 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:23.319 we've heard from him before. They set out to answer 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.240 the question does self control resemble a muscle? And yes, 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.319 they say, if willpower is like a muscle, and muscles 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.960 can get stronger over time training, will power similar can 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.920 be trained and strengthened. And they found this and that 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:40.200 meta study. In addition, Australian researchers Megan Otan and Ken 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.760 Chang looked at this question and they took a group 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.280 of people through a customized two month exercise program. What 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:48.480 do they find. Well, of course the people got stronger, 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:52.400 um they developed more muscles, but they also found that 0:13:52.440 --> 0:13:57.280 their behaviors there, their self control, their willpower changed with 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:01.320 the addition of the actual physical muscles. Yeah, this is 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.200 pretty amazing and that they throw out the example there's 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:05.880 like a like a pebble in a lake. There's this 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:09.240 ripple effect. You start in selling willpower into one area 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:12.800 of your life and it actually bleeds over into other 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:16.640 areas of your life because the overall willpower level increases. 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.000 I was thinking about this in the context of the 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.920 bit we found out about how a full bladder can 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.920 actually help with willpower at least you know, temporarily, because 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.320 if you have a full bladder, your brain is suppressing 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.600 the urge to p on yourself essentially, and as a result, 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.680 it is suppressing everything else. So not just you over 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.560 eating at the buffet, but controlling your bladder and perhaps 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.720 not having a cigarette at that very moment. It's why 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:51.120 drinking more water is such a no brainer for for 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.320 for New Year's resolutions, because more water good for your body. 0:14:54.360 --> 0:14:56.640 You're mostly water anyway, right you can, you can line 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.080 up all the health and ifit's there, but your bladder 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:00.920 is going to be more full more of the time, 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.720 thus allowing you to better suppress other temptations in your life. 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.480 There you go. That's a tip right there. More water, 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:09.840 all right. So let's talk about the specifics of the 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.640 study we're talking about again a two month period in 0:15:12.680 --> 0:15:15.040 which the participants hit the gym three times a week, 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.760 and before, during, and after the exercise, the group was 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.280 tested on a visual task that measured will power via 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.120 distraction and thought suppression. Now, after two months, the air 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:27.880 rate went down for the group from twenty three to 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:30.840 twelve percent, so, in other words, they were able to 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.640 not pay attention to those distractions to be more focused, 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.560 and they had that decrease in their brain just sort 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.800 of going willy nilly about things. Yeah. And the crazy 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:43.520 thing too, is that when I first started reading some 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.760 of those thinking, all right, the other areas they're gonna 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:47.200 be affecting their life, It's going to be like, oh, 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:49.120 well they ate a little more broccoli or something easy 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.800 like that. But now the the improvements that they saw 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:56.200 related to stuff like cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption. He'll be eating, exercise, 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.240 and household chores. So I mean the fact that cigarettes 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.720 and alcohol were also affected things that you often think. 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.400 I was having their talents a little deeper into the 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.920 psyche um to see to see those areas affected as 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.760 well by this ripple effect. It's really encouraged. Yeah, And 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:14.400 the behavior was all over the place. It might be 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.400 that someone missed appointments a lot, in which case they 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:20.280 found that a person went from missing an appointment every 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:22.320 day to like once a week, or in the case 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.800 the cigarettes down from fourteen cigarettes a day to just three. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.920 That is amazing. Yeah. Alright, So coming back to the 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:31.040 old idea that we talked about at the beginning of 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.840 the episode, the idea that I apply X amount of 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:37.440 time towards something, towards a new skill, a new discipline, 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.520 a new subject. I can become an expert. I can 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:45.920 make this my own, I can own this content all right. 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:48.600 Because if you think about someone being a master of 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.080 their universe, you typically think of like Ben Franklin or 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.040 Leonardo de Venture. These are people who were true poly mass, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:59.960 who could attack new topics, consume them, and by habit 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.200 they could do this right now, Some people would say 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.560 that that was the dreds. The world was much smaller, 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.360 that there are a fewer tones to go through and 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:11.160 become an expert. Now we have so much more knowledge, 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.440 so it's a lot more difficult. And you could say 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.280 that in some senses are our willpower, our ability to 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:20.000 really concentrate has been deluded by all of this knowledge. 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:25.840 But it remains that if you do something, namely repetition, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.120 that you can still learn new things and you may 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.600 even become an expert. And you know that ten thousand 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.480 hours that Malcolm Cloud will always talks about, that's a 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.120 possibility in there too. But if you just want to 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:41.480 sort of pick up guitar or you know, stop smoking, drinking, 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.760 all of these things are available to you. You just 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:51.200 need to document it and uh repeat wash, repeat, yeah, 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:54.240 making making a pattern of it, regularly consuming it, be 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.400 at a hundred words a day, be a guitar lessons, 0:17:57.520 --> 0:17:58.920 or be it. Hey, here's a good one. You can 0:17:58.960 --> 0:18:01.199 listen to a new episode of stuff to blow your 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.240 mind every day for a year. I think we have 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.560 enough now, oh dear, oh yeah, And you have to 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.359 document it. This is the important part. And this is 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.800 where we bring up Karen X Chang. Okay, she is 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:13.800 kind of the I think the best example of this 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.479 kind of muscle flexing of self control. Now, she not 0:18:18.560 --> 0:18:20.960 only was a program manager of Microsoft Excel. At the 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:23.160 same time that she was doing this full time job, 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:24.960 she decided, oh hey, I think I want to teach 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.359 myself computer graphics. She did within a six month period, 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:30.520 and then she got a new job as a designer 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.679 at Exact, this is a startup in San Francisco. Along 0:18:33.680 --> 0:18:36.399 the way, she taught herself all sorts of things like 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:40.680 guitar and she began to realize that she had a 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:46.200 process in place that could allow her to enjoy and 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.400 explore all the things that she found fascinating. And she 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:53.679 started a website called give It one dot com and 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.639 This is based on her own video that went viral. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.200 Some people may be familiar with this, in which she 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.040 taught herself to dance in a year and every day 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:08.080 she documented herself and it's a great video because it 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.359 starts out with her doing these sort of awkward popping 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:12.600 looks like I'm doing right now but you can't see, 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:17.360 and then she becomes this beautiful fluid dancer after three 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.159 d and sixty five days. So what what did she 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:23.800 give it? A hundred off? Well, the idea is that 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.280 one hundred one hundred days is something that a person 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.600 can sort of do like that what she did, although 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.480 sort of three sixty five light right. So in other words, 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:36.239 you pick a project, you document yourself. Every day you 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:38.119 upload a video. I think there's only like ten to 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.520 fifteen seconds of the video that shows on the site, 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.040 but you can see real progress after a number of days. 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:46.560 And that's one of the things that she says is 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:50.040 really important in trying to learn something new or do 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:52.760 something that you not just document that you do it 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.440 over and over again, but that you can see where 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.359 you're going with this. Yeah, and so the YouTube us 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:03.199 of YouTube here achieves that also is a great documentation system. Yeah. So, 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.040 I mean, if anybody's interested, I would say check that out. Um. Personally, 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.200