DON’T BREAK
THE CHAIN
DISCLAIMER
I’m neither expert on neuroscience nor PhD on human behavior.
My ongoing journey: try, fail and retry
Our Brain
Human brain weighs 2% of our body weight, but consumes 20% of our energy sources
Brain is so energy efficient, repeated activities considered as important,
Brain makes them habits to consume less and less energy -> autopilot (subconscious mind)
~45% of our decisions in a given day are habitual
The Habit Loop
Dopamine provide intense feeling of reward
Brain doesn’t care about if it is good or bad
“...make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy.”
William James
https://medium.com/@navin346/notes-from-the-book-the-power-of-habits-charles-duhigg-2010e51bc0d9
Awareness
Awareness is the key to learn new habits and get rid of bad habits
Of those who make a New Year’s resolution;
~50% abandon their New Year’s resolutions within a month
Only 8% of people actually achieve their goals
Reasons for failure
Action
Don’t Break the Chain by Jerry Seinfeld (modified by Baris Ozcan)
1
Set your goal
Learn a new habit
2
Identify smallest step
The smallest step you can take to reach that goal
3
Divide by 2
Just do half of it
4
Do it every single day
Sunny day, cloudy day, happy day, sad day, energetic day, tired day
We need cues to trigger
We need cues to trigger
We need cues to trigger
We need rewards at the end
We need rewards at the end
Don’t Break the Chain Calendar
You can set daily, weekly, monthly goals
You can create multiple chains
https://go.itsociety.org/dont-break-the-chain
Breaking the Habit
Habits are so so strong, hard to break
Bored
Watch Netflix
Dopamine
Play Guitar
Get out of Comfort Zone
Too much comfort makes your brain sleepy
Unknowns makes you nervous, keeps you awake.
Push yourself with goals that will take you out of your comfort zone
Do this together, keep each other motivated and accountable
References
Thank you.