Book

• Atomic Habits By: James Clear

• An atomic habit is a practice or routine that is small and easy and a component of a system of compound growth
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• Bad habits repeat themselves because you don’t have the wrong system in place to change them.
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• Small changes seem unimportant at first but consistency will result in compound results like interest
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• Habits can be seen as the compound interest of self-improvement (1% better example)
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• To get better results focus on the system instead of setting goals
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• You will get better results if you focus on who you’ll become instead what you want to achieve.  
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• Four laws of Behavior change
  • make it obvious
  • make it attractive
  • make it easy
  • make it satisfying.
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• Environment shapes human behavior
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• Outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits
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• Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. 
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• Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy
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• When you finally break the Plateau of Latent Potential, people will call it an overnight success
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• Changing our habits is challenging for two reasons: 
  • trying to change the wrong thing
  • trying to change habits the wrong way 
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• It is a simple two-step process:
  • Decide the type of person you want to be
  • Prove it to yourself with small wins
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• Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.
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• The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them
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• We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: 
  • the close (family and friends)
  • the many (the tribe)
  • the powerful (those with status and prestige).
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• Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper underlying motive
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• Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition
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• We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work
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• Using technology to automate your habits is the most reliable and effective way to guarantee the right behavior
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 The Mensch and the Machine – Episode 8 outline: Habits 3 of 4

Book: You Are Not Your Brain By: Jeffrey M. Schwartz M.D., Rebecca Gladding

• The brain sends  false messages referred to in this book as Deceptive Brain Messages, you aren’t defined by them.
• Example of  a Broadway performer who froze in front of a producer. Since then his brain honed in on all his imperfections and ignored all the positive qualities  (all or nothing thinking)
• It might seem like we have to follow what our brain tells us we can actually work around it.
• Instead of working on the problem we turn to temporary fixes and our brains associate the temporary fix with relieving the problem.  For example an executive who turns to drinking to relieve stress. The brain actually associates the temporary h with drinking as an association and anytime he felt stressed he craved alcohol.
• The mind’s ability to change the brain, called self-directed neuroplasticity.
• Neuroplasticity is the ability of our brain regions and connections to adopt new functions. 
• Example of a woman who suffered from a stroke on the left side of her body.  The right hemisphere of the brain rewired itself to control both sides of her body
• you shouldn’t attempt to stop the deceptive brain messages from arising, instead, the aim is to teach you how to discount the false brain messages.
• Four Steps to change unhealthy thoughts and habits.
  1. Be mindful and relabelling the situation, “I’m having the urge to go on Facebook.”
  2. Reframe the situation: “Checking Facebook reduces my anxiety that I might not be able to complete the work I should be doing.”
  3. Refocus the  situation  by doing something productive like beginning the easiest work task.
  4. Revalue the situation by recognizing that this impulse is just a deceptive brain message, and needn’t be taken seriously.

Keep a notebook of healthy activities. So that you have a list of healthy or fun refocusing activities.

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