Adapted from the best-selling book, “The Habit Mechanic“, by Dr. Jon Finn.
Many of us know our goals but struggle to achieve them. Imagine a lighthouse in your brain with two inhabitants: HUE (Horribly Unhelpful Emotions) and Willomenia Power, or Will Power for short. Will Power mentors and guides HUE, who works in the control room, scanning for threats and seeking immediate gratification.
When HUE encounters problems or temptations, it sometimes calls on Will Power for help. When they work harmoniously, HUE stays calm, and you become better at managing stress, building confidence, staying focused and productive, solving problems, and being a good leader and team member.
However, the modern world often overwhelms Will Power, leading to an imbalance where HUE takes over. This imbalance makes it challenging to be healthy, happy, and at your best. Therefore, your first task is to ensure HUE and Will Power work together effectively.
HUE Versus Will Power
HUE operates from the limbic regions of the brain, or the APE (Alive, Perceived, and Energy) Brain, which prioritizes survival. Will Power operates from the prefrontal cortex, or the HAC (Helpful Attention Control) Brain, managing the APE Brain and fostering better habits.
Our habits shape our actions and thoughts. If we focus on failures, that becomes our reality, just as focusing solely on our successes does. Some habits help us be our best, while others hinder us.
We Are Designed to Survive
For 300,000 years, our APE Brain has focused on survival, prioritizing essentials like food, shelter, and warmth. This drive was evident during the COVID-19 pandemic when supermarket shelves emptied quickly.
Our perception by others is also crucial, influencing our social status and peer interactions. Social media amplifies this concern. Additionally, conserving energy is a survival strategy, explaining why we often choose less physically or mentally demanding activities and prefer high-energy foods.
Developing Survival Habits
These survival instincts result in “survival habits,” such as excessive worry, self-criticism, giving in to temptation, distraction, procrastination, and stress. These habits are increasingly problematic in today’s world, wasting personal resources and impeding productivity.
To be at our best, we need to replace unhelpful habits with helpful ones.
Engage in Intelligent Self-Watching
Start by identifying your unhelpful survival habits through intelligent Self-Watching, thinking about yourself systematically to pinpoint unhelpful behaviors. The APE Brain Test, a short Self-Watching exercise, can help. There are no right or wrong answers—just what you think about yourself right now.
The APE Brain Test
Score each statement from 1 to 10, where 1 equals never and 10 equals always:
- I reflect on my diet, exercise, and sleep, and plan to make daily improvements in these areas. Score: ____
- At the end of the day, I always reflect and highlight what went well, and what I can improve tomorrow. Score: ____
- At the end of every week, I reflect on what went well, and plan how I can improve next week. Score: ____
- From time to time, I think about my future. I set long-, medium-, and short-term goals to focus my efforts and achieve major objectives. Score: ____
- I regularly update my yearly and monthly calendar to add important work and life activities. Score: ____
- I recognize when I’m stressed and successfully plan to reduce my stress. Score: ____
- I monitor my confidence levels and successfully build up confidence in areas where it is low. Score: ____
- I recognize when my emotions are unhelpful and can successfully keep them under control. Score: ____
- I successfully plan to improve my productivity levels. Score: ____
- I successfully plan to spend less time dwelling on unhelpful thoughts. Score: ____
- I successfully plan to improve my performance as a leader. Score: ____
Adjust to Be Your Best
After completing the exercise, circle the area where you can make a small adjustment today to help you be your best. Write down one specific action you will take to improve this area. For example, instead of writing “Be less stressed,” you might write “Practice a Daily Reflection at the end of the working day.”
Then, explain why taking this step will be helpful. For example, you might write, “It will make it easier to de-stress, switch off, sleep well, and be at my best tomorrow.”
By doing this exercise, you can identify the most significant challenge(s) or problem(s) your APE Brain poses in your life right now, then start to take steps to overcome that problem or challenge.
Create Your Me Power Wish List
Next, create your Me Power Wish List—a list of all the small new helpful habits you would like to build and changes you would like to make based on your APE Brain Test results.
Remember, it’s only realistically possible to make one tiny change/build one tiny new habit at a time. This is a wish list for a reason: nobody has the resources to make all the changes they want at once.
To help you build new habits, Dr. Jon Finn has created over 30 “Habit Mechanic Tools,” which have helped over 10,000 people supercharge their motivation and build better habits in areas such as sleep, diet and exercise, stress management, confidence, productivity and focus, performing under pressure, leadership, and team performance. You can learn more about them in his new best-seller book, “The Habit Mechanic”.
