Befriend your brain
Do you make New Year Resolutions? Can you remember any?! Have you ever kept one? I don’t make resolutions but I do love the chance to sort of reinvent, draw a line under something and consider what I might want to do differently. Actually, I think that ‘objectives’ is a better word - ‘resolution’ sounds heavy and difficult and stern…
Most people focus on physical health - actually a very sound choice because it’s been shown to be a good training ground for other aspects of life as well as being important for happiness.
In this post I’d like to share some professional, scientific opinions on how we can create great habits and set goals successfully. Not pop psychology on how to trick yourself into losing weight or running every day but diving into the science of how our brains work and how we can get alongside that.
I’m going to use the ideas and research of two scientists here: Dr Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist and professor and Dr Kelly McGonigal, lecturer and health psychologist, at Stanford University, USA. Links to their work and my sources at the end of the post.
Naturally set up for success - we are wired to reward hard work
Dr Huberman explains the reward loop of the human brain - when we accomplish milestones or even just feel that we are on the right path, we get a dopamine hit, which makes us feel good, happy, proud, elated, satisfied. He explains that setting milestones or smaller goals really does work because it allows us to self-reward when we reach them, which fuels the next stage and gathers momentum as we repeat the cycle. In this way, we can learn to associate the hard work with feeling good rather just being hard.
Reward yourself - create internal motivation
This feel good reward loop isn’t created by the external world unless we learn to attach it to external factors (eg likes on Instagram!). We need to learn to reward internally because the external rewards have been shown to be less effective and, are usually outside of our control - they can disappear any time! Ask yourself why you are committed to this objective to return to your purpose and generate self-reward.
Sorry, there’s no secret key that makes it all easy
Dr Huberman also says that changing behaviour or learning something new is bound to involve some agitation, so we should expect it to feel hard at times. There’s no secret key to accomplishing something without some stress but if we understand that challenge is part of the reward loop then we prepare for it and deal with the hard parts better. Mood follows action so getting stuck in is the best approach. Work hard, keep going, understand that difficulty is a part of the process of making it and getting rewarded. Repeat!
A happier approach to making ‘resolutions’
Dr Kelly McGonigal says that we should approach our ‘resolutions’ like this:
Think about what kind of joy you’d like more of in your life (for example connection, creativity, play, hope, mastery, vitality, adventure) not what you think you should do or what the outside world/other people are telling you
Now consider what kind of action/behaviour is consistent with that vision
Now imagine it’s the end of next year (Dec 2021) and ask yourself what you are grateful that you decided to change, take up or make a habit
Back to those physical goals like losing weight or getting fit, I agree with her when she says that movement is definitely one of the best gifts you can give yourself when you find the kind of movement that brings you joy. I also agree with her statement that moving your body is natural and so exercise of some kind is for every single person - you just need to discover the type that you enjoy.
If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you already have a movement practice of some kind but maybe there is someone in your life you could encourage to try and find their ‘happy making sport’…
I hope you found something in this post helpful, even if you weren’t preparing to make New Year Resolutions at all! Below are the sources I used to get this information, and it’s definitely worth checking out the resources yourself, I found them very inspiring, clearly articulated and well substantiated.
Thanks for reading!
Change Your Brain: Neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwQhKFMxmDY
Dr Huberman’s research work
IG for some cool little videos on practical neuroscience
https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab/?hl=en
The Joy of Movement book
http://kellymcgonigal.com/books
Kelly McGonigal wants you to fall in love with Movement
https://www.richroll.com/podcast/kelly-mcgonigal-491/