How can I change my behaviour?

How can I change my behaviour? I just watched a fascinating TED talk by Neale Martin about habits. He explains that inspiration and thoughts are not enough to change our behaviour.

We have the illusion that our conscious brain is in control, but that is just not the case. Our unconscious brain is in the driving seat. If we want to make lasting changes in our life the trick is to train our unconscious mind.

The oldest evolutionary part of our brain was around in the time of the dinosaurs. It controls our autonomic bodily functions and also behaviour, but it happens at a subconscious level.

The next evolutionary leap was the limbic region, which arose in mammals. There are evolutionary powerful attributes that come form the limbic region that defeat everything we try to do consciously.  Our limbic system allows us to remember things. The hippocampus stores and retrieves those memories. Most memories are stored unconsciously and automatically, and it is the amygdala that decides what we will store. The amygdala processes strong emotions, and those are the experiences we remember.

We can make either rational decisions, or emotional decisions. Emotion is telling you what is important, so do not ignore it. If you don’t make an emotional connection with someone you won’t be remembered.

Our unconscious brains also make judgements constantly, and out conscious brain doesn’t know where they come from.

The next evolutionary leap is habits. They allow us to carry out behaviours without consciously thinking about them. The neocortex is slow, lazy and unreliable in comparision to the subconscious brain.

To catalyse change we need to change our behaviour. As we repeat the behaviour the habit gets stronger. Discipline is the only way to be successful, by training our subconscious brain. We need to disrupt old habits and then create new ones, and Martin shows us how to do that in this talk.

Project 365

I set up this website after deciding that I want to build a more creative life for myself, so I can give up my job and be in control of my own destiny.

I have set myself a goal of publishing an article on my website every day this year, to document my journey from employment to self-employment.

The name I chose was Project 365 because I see this as a year that I have dedicated to learning and self-development, as I countdown to freedom. It started on 1st January 2021, so I have 229 days to go!