Change Process, Not Personality (5 — Neurohacks)

How ‘Neurohacks’ can help you stick with a habit

Looking at the title, you must have guessed that this story will have something to do with the ‘Mind.’

If you did, you guessed it right!

Now, what is your guess about this — To make a habit permanent, do we need to change our minds somehow?

For example, if you want to keep up with a new hobby or exercise, and you are not successful, should you change your mind to think differently?

Do you think that if you change your mind, then your habits will follow?

If your answer was a ‘yes,’ then you are talking from conventional wisdom.

Science tells a different story!

What Are Neurohacks?

“Neurohacks: Set of psychological tricks.

Quick and easy ways to reset the mind.

They get people to think about themselves in ways they couldn’t do before.

They get them to keep doing things they weren’t able to do before.

Apply ‘Neurohacks’ to get ourselves to do things we want to do.

And get others to do things that are good for them to do.”

— Dr. Sean Young

Get Doing Not Thinking!

“Lasting behavior change starts with an actual physical change in behavior, not a change in mind.” — Dr. Sean Young

The science behind ‘Neurohacks’ is this:

a. The mind does not tell the body to make a lasting change;

b. We make a small change in our behavior (in the body);

c. And then, let our mind ‘Reflect’ on the change.

This definition is very important…read it again, if you will.

Do you remember this lesson from physics class in school —

Newton’s First Law of Motion (Inertia):

An object at rest stays at rest

And an object in motion stays in motion…

Similarly, our actions will continue to be done in the same state of comfort that they have gotten into.

Any amount of changes to thoughts only will not affect a change.

We have to make a purposeful, small change in our actions.

When our mind sees the difference, it will reset its thinking and help us make the changes regularly.

It will make it easier for you when you find the usefulness of the change.

“Lasting behavior change won’t start until an action has occurred.” — Dr. Sean Young

My Coffee Kerfuffle

An example from my personal experience

I have heard you must not have coffee in the afternoon/evening as it can affect your sleep quality and depth.

I knew I wanted to try it.

But the very thought of doing it made me react strongly because I really enjoyed my 5 p.m. coffee.

So, the battle was raging in the mind.

I could not change my mind to quit my afternoon coffee.

Then, one day, we were out of coffee, and we didn’t have the time to buy it.

I just had a cup of milk instead.

That day, I slept earlier, and I slept splendidly. And it went on for 2–3 days.

I began to love the quality of sleep I got and the fact that I was going to bed much earlier.

Then the milk and coffee arrived.

But still, I continued with just milk or nothing at 5 p.m.

So, the little change in the action informed my brain(mind) of the benefit.

It is like the 5 p.m. coffee craving has magically disappeared.

The mind has adjusted to the advantage of better quality sleep rather than a cup of coffee.

I learned the science of ‘Neurohacks’ just after the automatic habit change, and so I was able to put two and two together.

The relation between the neurohack and my habit change was so evident.

Conventional Wisdom versus Neurohacks

To drive the point further, take a look at these two visuals, which are informed by the teachings in the book ‘Stick With It,’ by Dr. Sean Young.

Conventional Wisdom: Change the Mind → Actions Will Follow

• Behavior change begins in the mind.
• To change your behavior, you need to change the way you think.

Neurohacks: Change Actions → The Mind Will Follow

• Change starts with an actual physical change in behavior.
• The mind reflects on this change and resets its thinking.

Self-Identity: A Key Part Of Neurohacks

Self-Identity: What you think of yourself based on your past actions

How you react or behave in a particular situation is informed by what you think of yourself.

And this is based on how you behaved in similar situations in the past.

Here’s an apt example from the book ‘Stick With It — ’

“Will you finish writing a blog post or stop and have a cocktail instead?

If you usually keep writing a blog post until you finish, you’ll probably finish this one instead of stopping to have a drink…

finishing your blog posts, you have formed a self-identity that you’re a ‘closer.’

Your past behavior shows that you complete your work before taking a break, and you need to remain consistent with that self-image of getting the job done before you play.”

Self-Talk versus Behavior Change

Suppose a person has experienced a lot of failures, and there is a self-identity problem of feeling like a failure; any amount of self-talk will not help change the pattern. And, the next experience of failure will again revert to the failure mentality.

Applying Neurohacks by starting with behavior will help reset the mind so that the person does not feel like a failure anymore.

Dr. Young mentions a good example of this —

“If you want to become a nicer person, instead of telling yourself you’re a good person, simply start helping people in need, and then you’ll become a good person, and that self-identity will make it a lot easier for you to stay a good person.”

Avenues of Neurohacks

There are different ways in which the mind can be reset — through behavior, body movement, physiology and emotions, speech, and thoughts (Cognitive Neurohacks).

If you are interested, you can go even deeper through research in these fields.

My Experience With Neurohacks In My Reading Habit (* * * * *)

This story follows a series — Change Process, Not Personality where I evaluate my habit of reading daily with my son to reach 1000 books. And this is the 5th Force of Science. Go through the series to see the whole story and to find the rest of the forces.

The Force of Neurohacks has certainly played a great role in making my habit permanent.

Just like the science of ‘Neurohacks’ says — making the behavior change will inform and reset the mind instead of self-talk.

I never started off by telling myself that I was a daily reader or that I was dedicated to completing 1000 books.

I simply started off by reading books every day.

The positive experiences that I had with reading every day influenced my mind to keep reading, which caused it to become a big part of my self-identity eventually.

Self-identity mirrors behavior, emotions, speech, and thoughts.

My self-identity was also reflected in my behavior in public, which reinforced it and became a solid part of my habits.

So, personally, I give ‘Neurohacks’ 5 stars (* * * * *)!

To conclude, give this a try — for a new habit you are trying to develop, try taking some small actions and let the mind follow along instead of waging war in the mind.

Make changes in your behavior, body movements, emotions, speech, etc., that are in the right direction, and observe how the mind will follow.

I hope you have enjoyed the story! Thank you for reading!