Why and how to use FEAR to build habits and achieve your goals
As I was researching achieving goals, and setting habits I stumbled upon the most informative 17mins video by Chase Hughes, which comprised science and common sense.
I subsequently fell down a rabbit hole, popping out the other end with a far greater understanding of the brain than I had at school and how it can determine success.
This video provided me with a perspective on what I have done right, and why. Additionally, and more importantly, where I can make improvements going forward.
He provides a concise dialogue packed with useful information. There is no waffle with this guy. Details on where to find him at the end of this.
Let’s start with the sciency stuff….
Sciency Stuff — The Triune Brain Model
The Triune Brain Model was developed by neuroscientist Paul MacLean in the 1960s and describes how the brain developed in three stages during evolution. Of course, like many theories, there are people who disagree.
When you research the composition of the brain you will be met with numerous articles, some say 3 parts, others as many as 17.
That said, for this piece, I’m looking at the Triune Model which notes the three stages as:
- The reptilian brain (Brain stem) covers everything we can not consciously do
- The mammalian brain — the animal brain — doesn’t comprehend language and works from visual images, pain reward and fear.
- The neocortex essentially means cover.
We are going to concentrate on the mammalian part of the brain. This is where we make decisions but it doesn’t understand language, as such, we can not speak to. To communicate to this part of the brain we have to use visuals and emotions. To embed our goals we need the mammalian brain to believe that these goals are important to us.
This concept can be best conveyed when we think about a car that we would like to purchase, we research and find images of the car we want. Then, all of a sudden, you see it everywhere — you will have noticed this, maybe not with a car but something else. This is your mammalian brain signalling out that particular thing believing it is important to you, hence it is bringing it to your attention. If you seek negativity your brain will continue to find it. This can explain why some people seem to draw opportunities to them — they are looking for it, and luck rarely is the reason.
This is called the Reticular Activating System — what our brain thinks is important it will seek.
A teaspoon of discipline is all it takes
Chase provided me with an alternative perspective on the meaning of discipline. He describes it as “At that moment you are placing your future self’s needs ahead of your own. The benefit in the future is more important to you than the reward in the present”. I have never really thought of discipline in this way. I have always had pretty good discipline but never from the viewpoint of doing something for my future self.
He goes on to note that most failures can be attributed to future self-neglect. Deciding on fast food over healthier choices, then getting upset when you jump on the scales. Putting off an assignment until the last minute, results in unnecessary pressure.
Do you put your current desires first? Or do you consistently think of your future self?
Like it or not what you are doing right now is either setting yourself up for failure or success in the future.
Now to turn discipline into a habit you simply need to be disciplined at the beginning, you then draw on FEAR to make it a habit. When you see people consistently go to the gym or consistently put out content they are not displaying discipline they are showing a habit. They used discipline and FEAR to build a superhighway of neurons by consistently doing something over and over this forms your habit.
So good news, a teaspoon of discipline is all that it takes to build a habit — but we have to combine it with FEAR.
How to use FEAR to build your superhighway to form habits and make them routine
Of course, FEAR is an acronym, I am not suggesting you live in fear!
- Focus — making something so important to yourself that you are present and focused — think vision boards or keeping a picture of that car you want in your office or as a screen saver
- Emotional involvement is required to make the actual change — remember the mammalian brain needs emotion to understand something
- Agitation — mixing things up to make the mammalian brain pay attention. to recognise that things are changing
- Repetition — the more you do something the stronger the neurons will bond together — building a superhighway which in turn becomes automatic.
Therein lies the process of turning a habit into a routine, a part of your life. You no longer have to rely on constant discipline.
A hack that can actually work for you — How to hack your mammalian brain
- Make your goals visual — induce the reticular activating system
- Make your goals emotional — By having visuals in constant view you can build an emotional attachment to the goal
- Change your routine — introduce agitation — get up earlier, mix up your day where you can — send the signal to your brain that shits about to change
- Build your superhighway — repeat over and over until your actions become automatic
A guide to the type of goals should you set
During the video 4 main categories are described and impact each other. Within these you can have 3–4 goals:
- Brain — if your brain is not healthy then quite frankly this will impact every other goal you have
- Body — it’s your vehicle to achieve the goals. You carry out every goal with your body — look after it
- Business — for me, this is more focused on my side endeavours and what I want to achieve
- Behaviour — where you focus more on yourself, do you need to schedule time for a certain goal, do you need to hire a coach? Building your mindset and constantly improving. Do you need to carve out more family time or time for yourself?
1 essential tip to achieve your goals — Beyond the science
Just one tip is offered here — Journalling. You can not manage what you can not measure.
Record your daily habits, routines, and thinking i.e. are you thinking of your future self. A journal that contains your everyday life will bring you awareness and the more awareness you have the more control you will have over your behaviour. Make it visual, emotional, sensory-rich, and repetitive.
Measuring for some people is a given — but let’s take a quick look — are your pages as visual as they could be?
- Do you have additional sensory-rich visuals around your home?
- Can you pull together a visual 2022 book, piece of paper, or pinboard in a place where you always look?
I know for sure I could do with some more visuals added to my pages and potentially my office.
Some great books to put all of this into action:
Lizzy, Purple Blaze, Ritual, Trifecta, and Riven
How does this compare to my own goals?
On reviewing my goals they can pretty much be fitted within these main headers.
- Brain — Some are interlinked such as the learning goal, this would be keeping my brain active, as well as contributing to the business goals. That said, I think I need to be more specific and list out want to learn.
- Body — I have a new exercise routine first thing in the morning. I also keep an eye on the amount of water I have and whilst I am not strict on food I do ensure that I eat a balanced diet without feeling like I’m on a diet (dieting has never worked for me). I may look to introducing more meat-free days.
- Business — for me my aims cover what I want to achieve personally with my writing, product building etc. I may look to bring in some work goals or focus areas
- Behaviour — represented by my 24hrs — in particular, the time I want to spend on writing, learning, and product building. Additionally, I am looking at courses that will help me improve over the next year.
Do you want to bring more FEAR into your life?
I would love to have a conversation about these ideas, I find it fascinating.
If you also feel this way and want to chat then head over to Twitter and send a DM or alternatively email purplereset@gmail.com
Research — further reading: Chase Hughes https://www.chasehughes.com/