[how to H.A.C.k. Your Goals & Habits]

How To H.A.C.K. Your Habits For The Long-term AND Short-termExactly What Your Brain Needs For Change To StickHow To Speak The Language Of Smarter, NOT Harder

Change: Alter what you do or how you act. (literally means “a different situation”) Transformation: Alter your default way of thinking and acting. Alter who you are being. (literally means “change the form of”)Another way of thinking about it: Are you [shifting/repairing/altering] your actions? Or are you changing who you are…changing your default? Also: Is this addressing the effects? Or does this address the cause?

What habits REALLY are. How to create habits Where short term habits LIVE in the brainWhere long term habits live in the brain

You CAN “teach an old dog new tricks”. Neuroplasticity says that you can change neural pathways and synapses by changing your behavior, environment, neural processes (how you do something), thinking, and emotions –as well as to changes resulting from bodily injuryNot only do we have the ability to change, adapt, and learn, but we can quickly and easily rewire our brain.

Neuroplasticity: The brain-response to changing your behavior, environment, neural processes (how you do something), thinking, and emotions

Change your behavior, environment, neural processes (how you do something), thinking, and emotions Easier said than done right?Let’s see how we can H.A.C.K. the brain to make upgrading your habits EASY.

Short-Term Habits: The Pre-frontal cortex The PFC is responsible for determining, moment-by-moment, which habitual behaviors will be expressedLong-Term Habits: The Basal Ganglia (Striatum) Neural pathways that encode habitual behavior are located deep in the brain in the basal ganglia

“If your prefrontal cortex is modern, cloud-based computing, then your striatum is punch cards fed into an IBM mainframe.”“Your striatum isn’t even conscious and is perfectly fine carrying out bad habit after bad habit with no desire to change.”

(The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

by Alex Korb)

How EASY is it?How FUN is it?Or as I like to say, is it Feasy?

So why does it need to be fun and easy?We are all drug dealers! We all want that dopamine fix!

“Your nucleus accumbens is motivated by what is pleasurableYour basal ganglia (striatum) chooses what to do based on what’s been done before. The only part that cares about your well-being is your prefrontal cortex, and it often gets out voted.“What gets fired together gets wired together”

Particularly true of depression. In a depressed brain, there’s less dopamine activity happening in the nucleus accumbensThe things that used to be enjoyable are not as pleasurableBiggest motivators =Biggest dopamine payoff (habits such as junk food, drugs, alcohol, gambling, risky behavior, etc) The ones which release the most dopamine require less repetition to form.

When stressed, a person turns to coping habitsStress ‘biases’ old habits over new actions.Your oldest bad habits are probably the ones that you developed to cope and distract yourself as a child and are some of the deepest, most ingrained routines you have (mine: nail-biting)To break a destructive coping habit, you can’t “just stop” -- you’re still left with the original stress in your brain and body.Must replace with positive habits (or what I call) positive distractions.

ExerciseMeditation/mindfulness/gratitudeSleepSocial interaction (esp. females!) Ditching perfectionism/unrealistic expectations (from the beginning: just know that you might backslide and that's just your brain doing ‘its thing’)Remove/eliminate the stressor all together!**How I personally use movement now**You’ll get a positive distraction list later on (for now I just want you to understand the concepts)

‘ ’The neurons that fire together become wired together (song on radio, a perfume, a location, an article of clothing)How to make it stick: Make it pleasurable***I sneakily snuck in the 6 senses and how to relax last module. Keep that in mind when thinking about forming new habits. How can you hack your nervous system to fire and wire new habits into your brain so they feel pleasurable? Make it FEASY!

Psychology (Mind): Change your perspective, change your perception, change the meaning. Neurology (Brain): change your brain. Alter a map. Neuroplasticity means that there’s a brain change and it become part of your wiring. (The map changes)Physiology (Body): Change your physical nature.

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Change: Alter what you do or how you act. (literally means “a different situation”) Transformation: Alter your default way of thinking and acting. Alter who you are being. (literally means “change the form of”)Another way of thinking about it: Are you [shifting/repairing/altering] your actions? Or are you changing who you are…changing your default? Also: Is this addressing the effects? Or does this address the cause?

Control: Am I trying to force, coerce, resist, or dominate myself? (literally means “against”)Influence: Am doing all I can to impact myself or the outcome? (Literally means “into, in, on, upon”)Another way of thinking about it: Am I focusing on how I can exercise my personal power, or focusing on what’s not in my ‘control’? Am I focusing on moving towards a solution? Or focusing on resisting a problem?

React: Unconscious, knee-jerk, or mindless thinking, speaking, acting, making decisions. Respond: Consciously or mindfully thinking, speaking, acting, making decisionsAnother way of thinking about it: Am I the driver or the passenger? Am I making a choice, or is a choice being made for/by me. Am I happening to my life? Or is my life happening to me?

Using food here as an example, but fill in the blank with anything, and the same applies…

Tell yourself 'not allowed' to eat

something/anything

Eat it anyways.

Feel guilty

"Dammit I screwed up!"

Start over Monday (or in some cases next

year)

Believe self less and less every time this

happens

Too Much Restriction (The Cycle)

Tell yourself you're "allowed" to eat

whatever

Eat without intention, because it's there, because "you can",

because it's comforting

Feel guilty

"Dammit I screwed up!"

Start over Monday (or in some cases next year)

Believe self less and less every time this

happens

Too Much Permission (The Cycle)

Habits (which ones you consciously chose, which ones you didn’t. The habits you have vs. the habits you want)Actions (are you acting or reacting?)Choices (are you making a choice? Or is a choice being made for you?)Knowledge (you know what you know about yourself, your life, your experiences)TRUTH IS: You know how the story will end. Simply ask yourself: Will I actually do this? Will I actually enjoy this?***This is ‘THE’ Factor when it comes back to earning back your own trust.

Do you believe yourself when you make promises to yourself?How to H.A.C.K. your self esteem?Become a better promise-maker AND a better promise-keeperMake promises you want to keep AND keep the promises you make to yourself

EXPERIMENTS

From Etymology:

action of observing or testing; an observation, test, or trialpiece of evidence or empirical proof; feat of magic or sorcery practical knowledge, proof, example; lesson, sign, indicationto test, try, learn by practical trial or prooffeel, undergo, actual observation; an event which has affected one

Good ol’ Dictionary.com

a scientific procedure undertaken to make a discovery, test a hypothesis, or demonstrate a known fact.

You know what you like.You know what you don’t like. You know what has worked.You know what has NOT worked.

Why not use this ‘recon’ to your advantage to set yourself up for a WINNING Game Plan complete with

WINNING Experiments?

Fun + Easy = Feasy

How To Know You’re Playing a LOSING Game:

You’re not a widget!

You know yourself:

•You know what you like.•You know what you don’t like. •You know what has worked.•You know what has NOT worked.

Every experiment you conduct MUST take into account your current life ‘happenings’, stressors,

spinning plates, energy levels, etc

W h a t y o u d o R I G H T N O W d e t e r m i n e s h o w y o u g e t t h e r e , w h e n y o u g e t t h e r e , o r i f y o u e v e n g e t t h e r e … a n d h o w ‘ t r e a c h e r o u s ’ t h e w a t e r s a r e .

“ H o w y o u g e t t h e r e ” = H o w y o u F E E L w h i l e y o u t r a v e l . *

’ ’What Needs To Happen (needs to be identified):•Where you are RIGHT NOW….but without shame, blame, guilt, comparison•Where you want to be… but with HOPE that it’s actually possible•What’s in between… but with BELIEF in yourself that you can actually do it (how long it would take, how ‘hard’ it would be, what it would take to get ‘there’)

Day 1: $.01Day 2: $.02Day 3: $.04Day 4: $.08Day 5: $.16Day 6: $.32Day 7: $.64Day 8: $1.28Day 9: $2.56Day 10: $5.12Day 11: $10.24Day 12: $20.48Day 13: $40.96Day 14: $81.92Day 15: $163.84

Day 16: $327.68Day 17: $655.36Day 18: $1,310.72Day 19: $2,621.44Day 20: $5,242.88Day 21: $10,485.76Day 22: $20,971.52Day 23: $41,943.04Day 24: $83,886.08Day 25: $167,772.16Day 26: $335,544.32Day 27: $671,088.64Day 28: $1,342,177.28Day 29: $2,684,354.56Day 30: $5,368,709.12

If you were given a choice to receive one million dollars in one month… or a penny doubled every day for 30 days, which one would you choose?

Strategic SprintsLong-Term Living (Care)

RESULTS = Intensity In Relation To Time

RESULTS

INTENSITY

TIME

RESULTS

INTENSITY

TIME

Strategic Sprint: Long-Term Living

’This way of living though…you’re always

getting consistent results!

Short-Term Winning Game = ‘Strategic Sprinting’ (Inside Bubble)Intensity vs. results

Long-Term Winning Game = Long-Term Living/Care ( Real Life Outside Bubble)

Intensity vs. Results

**It’s kind of like interval training**

YOUR Winning Game Plan will focus on your Long-Term Winning Game Plan FIRST…and then intermingle ‘Strategic Sprints’ .

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The state of “survival” is called HomeostasisNot only is your body constantly seeking homeostasis 24 hours a day—it’s also constantly looking out for THREATS that would take your body out of homeostasis. You are a threat-detecting machine. That’s your nervous system’s (your brain’s) main purpose: to detect ‘threat’. Your brain does not care what you look like. It doesn’t care what size jeans you wear, and it certainly doesn’t care how fast you can finish a 5K. All it cares about is sustaining YOU—your life, and the vessel that you use to travel in (your body). It wants you healthy and alive…and if something’s not doing its job, it will make sure that another system in your body picks up the slack and gets the job done! Oh yea, and it would prefer to do all of this with as little effort as possible. It wants to REMAIN unconscious to you—so that you can spend your conscious energy on other things.

Your Winning Game is relative to your flow preference at any given time.

‘Flow Preference’ changes based on circumstances, environment, stressors, priorities.

Remember: Control is a ‘losing game’!

Sooo…what needs to happen (identify it first) in order to start influencing yourself and your life the way you WANT to:

•What you CAN influence•What you CAN’T influence•What you WANT to influence

** THINK: Where am I STILL trying to CONTROL what happens?

Requires/Desires: What you need, what you want. Structure/Freedom: What you need, what you want. Expectations(Agreements)/Invitations: What you need, what you want

You’ll see how this plays out when we talk about creating your own Eat, Play, Love Experiments (just want you to keep this in mind)

Experimenting is the only way to use the ‘recon’ you have from your past to set you up for success in the future. Instead of thinking about it like “going on a diet” or “starting a program”, think about it like you are living your Real World Life…and adding in “Strategic Sprints” to help you get there faster and more efficiently. You know how to “Sprint” already. What you need is a way of living the rest of your life – especially something to come back to AFTER the sprinting Always be thinking about your results in terms of TIME vs. INTENSITY.Before you begin anything, find out your own ‘Flow Preference’ so you can set yourself up for a Winning Game from the very beginning.

Identify + Assess: Flow Preference + Results Recon (Repeatable Tool You Can Always Use Over and Over Again)