bezvn

Yeah, his book (How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big) is also great on this topic.

He talks about how he changed bad habits/implemented new ones. But also on using affirmations for bigger goals. Very interesting book.

That's interesting, pretty similar to this in a way.

All I know personally is that through repetition, behaviours/habits become more ingrained into your identity.

It could be something to do with neural pathways getting 'deeper' the more a certain behaviour is repeated?

Anecdotally, this method has worked well for me for a bunch of habits (like social media addiction, exercise, diet etc.) for a 2-3 months now.

Definitely recommend grabbing a pen and paper and giving it a try for 10 minutes with a habit you want to change!

I'm really starting to think that the physical body (which contains the animal mind) is really just an advanced self-learning AI that improves itself by pattern recognition. And of course our consciousness (the self aware part) is what can steer this AI more precisely.

It's almost like a stubborn mule (your physical avatar) and a rider (your self aware consciousness).

The mule just wants instant gratification, while the rider wants to get up the mountain. So you have to work with the mule, by providing instant gratification that gets you both up the mountain.

I'm not sure if you've read much about neural plasticity - where behaviours get programmed into the brain like a trail path. The more the trail gets walked on (repetition), the deeper and more permanent it becomes.

But I don't think the animal mind understands logic that well, so you can program it through repetition, hence making it more "real".

I've been hearing a lot about this book lately. Added to my reading list.

These concepts definitely aren't new, probably as old as humans. But I wonder who in history harnessed these methods to 'maximise' themselves really, really well?