The Science of Success

Today’s episode is a bit different than a normal episode of Science of Success. We share the incredible "Real Life Story of The Epic Quest To See How The World’s Most Successful People Launched Their Careers” - including a wild journey of hacking the Price is Right, meeting Bill Gates and Lady Gaga, and an epic five year quest to study and learn form the world’s top achievers. This is a topic I’ve dedicated my life to and this fascinating discussion with our guest Alex Banayan shines some new light on one of the most important questions of our lives - what was the inflection point that set massively successful people’s lives on a different trajectory? Alex Banayan is the best-selling author of The Third Door, which chronicles his five-year quest to track down the world’s most successful people to uncover how they broke through and launched their careers. He has been named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list and Business Insider’s “Most Powerful People Under 30.” He has been featured in major media including Fortune, Forbes, Businessweek, Billboard, Bloomberg TV, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, and much more!My passion has been studying the worlds top achievers - Alex took that to another level Alex’s seven year journey becoming obsessed with studying the world’s most successful people Do you know what do you want to do with your life? Are you on the right path?How did Bill Gates, Stephen Speilberg etc achieve epic results so early in their lives?When no one would talk to the world’s most successful people early in their careers - how did they break through?The ridiculous story of “hacking” the Price is Right“The Flinch” - when you become so nervous that you don’t do anythingBreakfast with Larry King The common strategy shared by the worlds top achieversThe world’s top achievers all treat success the exact same way The Power of the Third Door Framework Most people think success is either a function of waiting your turn or being born into it The reason most people never achieve their dream is not because the dream is unachievable but because of their fear stops them from going after their dreamsTop achievers don’t achieve fearlessness, instead they achieve courage Fearlessness is jumping off a cliff without thinking about it, courage is acknowledging your fears, looking at the consequences, and then deciding you care so much about it you’re going to take one step forward anywayFor the world’s most successful people there wasn’t one big single tipping point in their lives - it was a series of incremental small steps that compounded over time When you’re in the trenches building your dream there is no tipping point - it’s all just little steps Everyone tries to over-optimize and wait for things to be perfect. If things are 80% there it’s up to you to jump and close that gap. The founder of TED live’s his life by two mantras:If you don’t ask you don’t getMost things don’t work out The Power of Possibility transforms people much more than giving them the tools and resources to succeed Homework: If you’re looking to find your path, looking to find your passion - Take the “30 Day Challenge.” Buy a notebook, write “30 day challenge” on the front. Every day for the next 30 days you have to journal about the same 3 questions. It has to be 30 consecutive days, it can’t be spread out over several months. Pick the same time of day and consistently do it:What excited me today? What filled me with enthusiasm?What drained me of energy today? What did I learn about myself today?The magic happens on the last few days  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we ask - why you don’t follow through on the things that are most important to you? How can someone facing down near death fail to follow essential health protocols? What causes people to self sabotage? Why is it so hard to follow up and follow through with your goals? We share the important lesson that it’s not about more information - it’s about finding the right pattern of behaviors and habits to match with your desired goal - and building a scientifically validated process to make sure you actually achieve them. We discuss this and much more with our guest Dr. Sean Young. Dr. Sean Young is the Executive Director of the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology. He has previously worked with companies such as NASA and has spoken in forums such as the European Parliament. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Best-Seller Stick With It: A Scientifically Proven Process for Changing Your Life - For Good and his work has been featured across the globe.When we fail to create personal change, is it a question of lack of willpower?Why don’t we follow through on the things that matter most to us?It’s not about changing the person, its about changing the process What is the science behind sticking with your goals?It’s almost never a question of having enough information - smokers KNOW smoking is bad, and yet they keep doing it, people KNOW how to lose weight, but they don’t “A, B, C Behaviors"Automatic BehaviorsBurning BehaviorsCommon Behaviors Not all behaviors are created equal - and not all habits solve certain kinds of behaviors Automatic behaviors happen without conscious thoughtBurning behaviors - things like addictions, “having to do something” having to play video games, having to check your phone, having to text someone, etc. Common behaviors - we are aware of what we’re doing - but we often can’t stick with it because other things come up The 7 Forces of Behavior Change - well documented psychology research The “SCIENCE” Framework - each letter represents a different one of these 7 tools you can use to create behavior changeStep LaddersCommunityImportantEasyNeurohacksCaptivatingEngrained We have to create behavioral and habit change in small incremental stepsThe “steps, goals, and dreams” framework that helps quantify and looks at how to differentiate between steps, goals and dreamsA dream is something that takes more than 3 months A goal takes between 1 and 3 monthsA step takes a week or lessMake change easier for yourself - remove barriers to the behaviors you want to foster and create barriers towards the things you don’t want to do Joe Colombe and the story of building a business around making it easy for consumers What are “Neurohacks” and how can we use them to switch our behavior over time?If you want to create change it doesn’t start with the mind, it starts with the behavior first, and then your mind will follow Rewards sometimes work, but they need to be the right ones. The rewards you use have to be the most captivating First, figure out what kind of behavior it is. Then, determine the right Force of Behavior Change to use on that particular favor. Most powerful Tool for each behavior type?Homework:Step One: What Kind of Behavior Are You Trying to Change?Step Two: Put together a calendar, and take small action steps towards the goals you want to achieve.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we show you how to command your focus and attention. We discuss why many people have the wrong idea of what it means to be productive - and how thinking that you need to boil your life down to spreadsheets and checklists is the wrong way to approach productivity . We share the secret ingredient for true productivity - and look at exactly how you can implement it, practically and realistically, in your own life with our guest Chris Bailey. Chris is a productivity expert, speaker, and best-selling author. His career began by conducting a year-long experiment examining best practices for productivity which is documented in his book, The Productivity Project. His latest book Hyperfocus aims to help readers stay focused and avoid distractions. His work has been featured in The Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, TED, Fast Company, and more!Many people have the wrong idea of what productivity is - and it often leads to implementing the wrong solutions It’s not about efficiency and boiling your life down to checklists and spreadsheetsIf there’s one thing that underlies real productivity is INTENTION We are perfectly productive when we accomplish the things we set out to doIntention is like the “wood behind the arrow"The percentage of the day with which you act with intention is directly proportional to your results and to the quality of your life How much control of attention you have is correlated with happiness, satisfaction, and productivity What is intentionality and why is it so important?Most people manage their time relatively well, but where they massively fall short is managing their ATTENTIONThe novelty bias in our brains causes us to constantly jump into new phenomenon to get our next dopamine hitDeliberate mind wandering is as important as the time we focus on being productive“Not all those who wander are lost” - J. R. R. TolkeinCultivating “unfocus”, mind wandering, and contemplative routines open up space to focus on and determine what’s most important - to unearth the beautiful, brilliant ideas we wouldn’t arrive at otherwiseResearchers found that people who watched 6 or more hours of news coverage about a bombing were more likely to develop PTSD than someone who was actually at the bombing event (Boston Marathon) How do you go about taming your distractions?Does meditation waste time or does it make you more productive?Meditation is one of the few things that gives you more attention and focus for other thingsWhen you have an active meditation practice your working memory increases by up to 30% If you don’t execute on productivity ideas and strategies - what’s the point?Meditation has the best time-adjusted return of any productivity strategy We look at busyness as a proxy for how productive we are when that’s completely wrong. Working on a sleep deficit shrinks your ability to focus by up to 60% There’s a huge amount of guilt, especially in western society, around taking breaks, resting, and downtime - even though these are HUGE components of being highly effective and productive How do you deal with the GUILT of not feeling productive?Set 3 intentions every day, set 3 intentions every week, and set 3 intentions every year Pre-Decisions create intention throughout your day How do you Re-Charge your attention?Habitual tasks create the structure that frees our mind to think freely and wander Homework: What resonated the most for YOU - take action on that? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we explore how to unleash and live in your genius. How do you discover what your genius is? How can you spend more and more of your time doing what you love? We discuss how you can unlock the incredible potential within yourself and avoid the traps that may stop you from getting there. We share the lessons learned from working with more than 20,000 people to help them on their own journeys to genius - and give you the exact strategies and tactics to create a positive upward spiral of genius for yourself with our guest Dr. Gay Hendricks. Dr. Gay Hendricks is the president of the Hendricks Institute and has been a thought leader in the fields of relationship transformation and body-mind therapies for over 45 years. Gay earned his Ph.D in counseling psychology from Stanford and taught at the University of Colorado for 21 years and has conducted seminars across the globe. He is also a multi-bestselling author, having written more than 40 books most recently The Joy of Genius which was released earlier this year!The 2 big issues that human beings faceUpper limit problems Living in your genius People get used to operating at a certain level of success, happiness, etc - we often trip these fears that cause us to sabotage back to the levels we feel we deserveLessons from working with over 20,000 people and 5000 couples Almost everyone, no matter how successful you are, has a lot of potential left to be developed You need to make a commitment to bringing forth your genius. You have absolutely no idea how much potential you have left inside of yourself. It doesn’t matter how bright you are - it’s about making an inner commitment to bringing your genius out. That inner commitment is the first starting place. How Gay went from spending 10% of his life doing what he loves - it took him years to get to 30%, years more to get to 50% - until 20 years later he spends 90% of his time doing what he loves The first thing you need to do is find out if you’re courageous enough to make a heart felt commitment to living in your zone of genius Simple Mantra - “I Commit To Bringing Forth My Genius No Matter What It Takes"You must find 10 minutes per day committed to finding your geniusGenius is addictive and its contagious - the more you do it, the more you want to do it , the more you inspire people with your genius, the more people who get inspired What is the genius Move? How can you do it everyday?What’s a Genius Moment? We are confronted with them every day. A genius moment may look like a problem at the surface, but it’s often actually an invitation to spot your genius There are some things you can control, and some things you cannot control What often makes miserable is focusing on things that we don’t have control over whatsoever None of us have any control whatsoever over the past - the only reason to think about the past is to identify something in this moment that you can do differently True creativity is when you’re expressing your own genius - and when you’re doing it in a way that is inspiring others around you“All of humanities problems stem from not being able to sit quietly in a room” - Blaise PascalHomework: Sit for 10 minutes quietly living with the question of “What is my genius?"If you already know what your genius is - ask yourself “ How can I bring forth my genius in a way that inspires me and other people I interact with?"How and why you can use “Wonder questions” to discover your life’s purpose  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, we explore how you can confidently be yourself - even if you’re afraid of what other people may do or think. We discuss how our obsession with niceness and people pleasing is often a problem and share specific tools you can use to overcome it. We also talk about the power and importance of saying no - and the right way to do it so that you can move away from approval seeking and step into bold authenticity with our guest Dr. Aziz Gazipura.  Dr. Aziz Gazipura is a clinical psychologist and founder of The Center for Social Confidence, which is dedicated to helping others break through their shyness and social anxiety. He is the author of the #1 Amazon best-seller Not Nice: Stop People-Pleasing, Staying Silent, & Feeling Guilty... And Start Speaking Up, Saying No, Asking Boldly, And Unapologetically Being Yourself. Aziz’s work has helped thousands of people through workshops, coaching, media appearances, and more.Do you struggle with people pleasing and being afraid to say no to people?What’s the difference between being nice and behind kind?A lot of the behaviors that we think are nice often come from fear, obligation, or guilt The opposite of niceness is BOLD AUTHENTICITYNiceness is a way of being that is focused on “damage control”- being in a place of “safety mode” When we are focused on being nice our #1 priority is to focus on avoiding possible danger - making sure everyone is pleased If you didn’t care at all what people thought of you - would couldn’t have any relationships - you would be a sociopath“Nice conditioning” - is a pattern that is conditioned into us from an early age. We’re systemically told not to trust our own desires and to instead “do the right thing” and “be nice” Why we’ve lost the ability to ask “what do I want” and how that is dangerousWhy you should be more selfishExcessive niceness is not benign - it’s coming from a place of fear, insecurity, and feeling threatened - and when you’re constantly in that space you are much more likely to experience symptoms of stress, anxiety, sickness, pain and more - TMS - Tension Mytosis Syndrome - from living in  place of chronic stress First become AWARE that it’s OK to say no and that we need to say noTo retrain from niceness to authenticity - it’s about being uncomfortable and discomfort training You live in a cloud of stories and dramatic fantasies about what will happen when you say no - TEST THE ASSUMPTION and see what happens. Why you should do a “social fitness” “warm up” to get out of your comfort zone. Friendly greetings to strangers is a great strategy for this. It’s like launching into orbit - after a few tries, you reach a breaking point where you “pop” into zero gravity and you’re no longer being held back. Niceness is not serving you, it’s not who you are, it’s a safety pattern.This is how you STOP BEING AFRAID TO BE YOUFind 2 opportunities per week to specifically ask for what you want. Then build that muscle, start asking for things that are edgier and edgier and edgier for you. Homework: Make a fundamental decision that you don’t want to be as nice anymore. Write out a short paragraph about why it’s no longer serving you to be the nice and that you are going to do something different. Homework: Pick one thing - what’s the one thing that will be the easiest for you to do that would benefit you and change your life the most? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we discuss a highly counter-intuitive approach to learning that flies in the face of the way you think you should learn and how it might transform your learning process. We explore several powerful, evidence based learning strategies that you can start to apply right now in your life, we explain why you should focus on getting knowledge out of your brain instead of into it (and what, exactly, that means), we share a number of powerful memory strategies you can use to super charge your brain - and much more with our guest Peter Brown. Peter Brown is a best-selling author and novelist. He is the author of five books including Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Peter’s work turns traditional learning techniques on their head and draws from recent discoveries in cognitive psychology to offer concrete techniques for becoming a more productive learner. His work has been featured in The New York Times, American Public Radio, The New Yorker, and more!What teaching and learning strategies lead to better retention of material?The non-intuitive approach to learning that flies in the face of the way you think you should learnThe act of wrestling with knowledge and material is what actually builds learning that sticks3 Big ideas from Brian’s research (1) It's about getting the knowledge out of your head, not getting it in(2) When learning is easy it doesn’t stick. You have to challenge yourself.(3) Intuition leads us astray. We think that simple repeated practice makes it easier to learn, but that may not be the case. You can’t rely on learning that feels constructive. How does memory get stored? How can your lack of understanding about this lead to worse learning strategies?The more connections you make to existing knowledge, the more you are likely to remember something The more complex knowledge that you build and develop the more you can develop complex mental models for explaining and understanding realityVisual markers, memory palaces and mnemonic devices can be very powerful memory techniques They are not about learning, but rather ORGANIZING what you’ve already learned The key to learning is to put ideas in your own words, to digest them, play with them, and think about the application of them - not just to review the text or information you’ve already read. The “forgetting curve” is a mental model that helps interrupt your pattern of forgetting things - and remembering them at just the right time  Mass practice vs mixed practice - and why the feeling of improvement may be misleading your learning efforts Mental effort and persistence towards a learning goal help build deeper memories - literally change the physical structure of your brain and lead to better and richer memories Homework: Look back at your own life and the things that you’ve tackled that were a struggle, and yet you became good at it - use these as examples for how this strategy can work Homework: Read about the science of learning in generalHomework: Create flash card sets or quizzes for things you want to memorize (even if you aren’t a student)  in order to TEST yourself. Practice retrieving information, over and over again. The retrieval is key! Only by doing it can you be confident you know how to do it. Self testing, space it out, and come back later to do it again.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we discuss the incredibly important thing that everyone (including you!) get’s wrong about presence, we explore how to prime yourself for the best performance in moments of pressure and high stakes situations where other people are watching and judging you. We look at the results from thousands of experiments over the last few decades to uncover the fascinating truth about power and powerlessness. And we share the exact strategy you can use to shift your brain into the mode that allows you to view the world as more friendly, help you feel more creative, and make you into someone who takes action. We dig deep into all this and much more with our guest Dr. Amy Cuddy.   Dr. Amy Cuddy is an American social psychologist, author, and speaker. She currently lectures on the psychology of leadership and influence at Harvard University and she and her work have won several awards including being named one of “50 Women Who Are Changing The World” by Business Insider. She is the author of the 2015 best-selling book Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges and her 2012 TED talk is the second most viewed talk of all time. Her work has been featured in TIME, Wired, Fast Company, NPR, and countless academic journals. The incredibly important thing that everyone (including you!) get’s wrong about Presence Presence is a momentary state - its when you are attuned to and able to comfortably express your authentic best selfWhat is does it mean to be your “authentic best self?"Presence is about moments of pressure that come from human interaction - people judging us, high stakes situations throwing us off our games When you are present you become aligned, you become synchronous, you aren’t getting in the WAY of yourself you’re BEING yourself - you believe your story and people hear, feel, and see that in your verbal and nonverbal communication The people who do the best on Shark Tank are the ones who clearly buy what they are selling - there is no reservation, you can hear their belief and their conviction When you’re in a place of feeling Powerful - you see the world as more friendly, you’re more creative, you’re more likely to take action - you view the world from the “approach” systemThe vital difference between what Amy calls PERSONAL POWER and what many people’s traditional understanding of POWER might be.Make peace with the idea of Power - its OK to feel powerful. Power is not just power over others or power over resources - its about feeling that you control your own resources, your own destiny, your own life.You want to feel powerful - you want other people to feel powerful - power is a HUGE piece of your general wellbeing. As you start to feel less powerful, as you start to feel less control, you begin to flip into the “Inhibition System” Focus on feelings of expansiveness and try to prepare yourself before getting in high-pressure situations Often times “Mind-Body” Interventions are MUCH more effective, especially when we’re anxious, than “Mind-Mind” InterventionsIf the body is acting like it’s not being threatened, the mind will often follow into the same pattern How does Imposter Syndrome play into feelings of powerlessness? Homework: Before you go into a stressful situation - prepare by using expansive postures, in private, have good posture, carry yourself with a sense of pride, mind your posture. Notice when you slouch and make yourself small. Homework: Change how you’re holding your phone - sit back and hold your phone up over youHomework: Pay attention to other’s posture. Presence invites presence from others.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Do you feel uncomfortable in conflict with others? Do you experience fear and anxiety when dealing with tough situations? Most negotiation tactics and strategies assume you’re already a master negotiator with nerves of steel - that’s the wrong starting place. In this episode we discuss how you can get comfortable with having tough conversations and build the foundation to become a real master of negotiation - using a simple and easy to apply framework. We discuss how you can deal with tough situations and conflict from a place of poise, curiosity, and confidence with our guest Kwame Christian. Kwame Christian is a business lawyer and the Director of the American Negotiation Institute where he puts on workshops designed to make difficult conversations easier. As an attorney and mediator with a bachelors of arts in Psychology, a Master of Public Policy, as well as a law degree, Kwame brings a unique multidisciplinary approach to the topic of conflict management and negotiation. He also hosts the top negotiation podcast in the country, Negotiate Anything.Should we hide from conflict or should we seek it out and embrace it?Avoiding conflict is human, but it’s not healthyPowerful tactics and strategies don’t matter if you’re unable or unwilling to enter conflicting situations in the first place When people are afraid - their limbic system lights up and their prefrontal cortex is less active - your rational decision-making shuts down and you react more emotionally Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - an action oriented approach to pushing past phobias, fears, anxieties and moreRejection Therapy & exposure therapy - how to build the skillset of mental toughness By forcing yourself into difficult and tough situations - your brain actually changes (via neuroplasticity) and it gets easier over time How do you negotiate with someone and move them out of a negative place / negative emotional state so that you can help get what you want out of a tough situation?3 Step FrameworkStep one is to Acknowledge EmotionsGet Curious with Compassionate CuriosityEngage in Joint Problem Solving / Collaborative Negotiation How do you use the tool of “Acknowledging Emotions"Put it on YOURSELF, not on you “If I was in this situation, I would feel X (frustrated, etc)"Tell me more about what you’re experiencing?The goal is to help them get it out of their system?Then transition to "compassionate curiosity"How can we help you feel more secure?How can we help you solve this problem / situation?Often times people’s emotions will be hidden under a veil of professionalism - exploring the emotional side first helps to defuse themWhen exploring emotional issues - use the past tenseThe power of joint problem solving and joint brainstorming to develop a collaborative approach to solving problems The “copy machine” experimentFalse Belief Negotiations is a zero sum game.There is a difference between conflict and combat. Conflict is an opportunity to solve problems and learn more, there is a big difference. Negotiation isn’t the art of deal making, it’s the art of deal discovery 3 Pillars of NegotiationGet more of what we wantGet less of what we don’t wantStrengthen relationships Even if you don’t get a deal, there is still value to be achieved from a negotiationHomework: Take action - don’t avoid conflict, look at it as something to approach and use it as a Tool to strengthen your skills - find and seek out small conflicts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we discuss how to deal with never feeling like you’re “enough,” show you how to overcome the insidious trap of "people pleasing,” look at the most effective treatments for OCD, panic attacks, anxiety and stress, discover the dangers of “toxic perfectionism” and how it might be holding you back, tell you why “should” is a dangerous word, and much more with our guest Taylor Newendorp.  Taylor Newendorp is the founder and president of Chicago Counseling Center and specializes in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Perfectionism, and Anxiety Disorders. He was worked as a practicing therapist for many years and completed the International OCD Foundation's Behavioral Therapy Training Institute Taylor is the author of The Perfectionism Workbook: Proven Strategies to Break Free from Perfectionism and Achieve Your Goals.What is the myth of perfection and how does it impact your life?You are more likely to grow, thrive, and succeed once you acknowledge and accept your weaknessesThe Five Tendencies of Toxic PerfectionismWhat is the root cause behind the “people pleasing” tendency? Perfectionism can often be genetically pre-disposed if your family has a history of OCD or anxietyPeople pleasing is rooted in the idea that for you to be loved you have to achieve and be successfulHow much of what you’re doing is is because you WANT to or because you feel like you HAVE TO in order to have other people like you?What activities are you doing that you do solely for the approval of others? Would you do them for their own sake?Growth Mindset vs Fixed Mindset and how that impacts perfectionist tendencies Do you feel a feeling of discontent? No matter what you do, no matter what you achieve, do you feel like it’s never enough? Do you keep pushing yourself harder and harder causing stress and anxiety for yourself?How do you deal with self criticism and negative self talk?What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and how does it work?Exposure and response prevention is a highly effective solution to OCD, panic attacks, anxiety disorders, etc Learn and familiarize yourself with the cognitive distortions that are out there and see how they are playing out in your head Understand the connection between thoughts and feelings and how that might be influencing how you’re behavingOne question you can use to challenge your negative thoughts - if you had to stand up in a court of law and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this thought is 100% true would it hold up? When you feel something uncomfortable - avoidance and distraction are the two most common strategies for avoiding discomfortThe more you avoid something the more you increase your anxiety around that fear. The fear grows larger and larger in your brain. The more you face and spend time with your fears, your anxiety dissipates. Dig into and understand the triggers that make you uncomfortable and continually face them to build tolerance and resistance to them Exposure and response therapy creates new neural pathways that reduce anxiety over timeWhat is the relationship between perfectionism and OCD?A lot of people with OCD engage in compulsive behaviors to get a sense that things feel “just right"You should make your goals specific, measurable, and meaningful Mindfulness at its core is about observing yourself, observing others, without attaching judgement to it Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we discuss the surprising science of creativity. We begin with a fascinating look into how your brain create reality around you and assigns meaning to things that often have no meaning at all, then we examine the unlikely relationship between doubt, ambiguity, and creativity. We ask how you can chip away at your assumptions so that you can open spaces of possibility to be more creative, we explore the foundations of asking truly good questions, and examine the way that doubt can be a powerful force for unleashing creative insights and more with our guest Dr. Beau Lotto.  Dr. Beau Lotto is neuroscientist, author, and the founder of the Lab of Misfits. His studies in the science of human perception have led him to work in several fields including education, the arts, business, and more. Beau has given multiple TED talks, has spoken to companies such as Google, and his work has been featured on the BBC, PBS, Natural Geographic, Big Think, and much more!Do we see reality as it really is? Do we see the world as it really is?We have no direct access to the world except through our senses Raw data from the senses is all the information the brain gets Data by itself is pointless - any piece of data could mean literally anythingYou can conflate so many different things from your senses The brain relies on history - on context - to interpret all the information it collects - the history of your life, your culture, your evolution, your family, and much moreYour brain has effectively encoded biases and assumptions that filter and shape your perception of reality We didn’t evolve to see the world accurately, we evolved to see it usefully - evolution didn’t optimize for accuracy, it evolved for utility Because of this conclusion we can constantly update and adapt our perceptionsYour brain does not create meaning by passively receiving content - it makes meaning by physically engaging with the world We think of creativity as putting two things that are far apart together - of a eureka moment or moment of insight - for YOU these ideas are far apart - the creative person is making the next logical step of assumption Creative people are making small steps to the next most likely possible. The key to creativity is to CHANGE what’s possible and change your perceptions and assumptions of what’s possibleNothing interesting begins with knowing - it begins with not knowing, it begins with doubt, it begins with a questionThe need for closure, the need for certainty is so strong that we constantly need closure Awe and wonder are also key skills to embracing uncertainty. When you experience awe and wonder you feel connected to the world, you feel curiousFind out what you care about, have the desire to shift/move/change, and ask the right question - then engage other peopleHow do we celebrate doubt? How do we chip away at our assumptions so that we can open spaces of possibility to be more creative?A KEY to asking good questions is to Doubt what you assume to be true alreadyHomework: Take ownership of your own biases and assumptions. Engage in a person you care about with a question of your assumptions next time you have a conflictHomework: Go from A to “Not-A” - Let go of reflexive meanings. Take a cold shower and feel the cold water, don’t attach the significant of uncomfortableness - just feel the coldness as neutral.Homework: Change the meaning of what’s happened in the past (which will change your assumptions and perceptions). The brain is a time machine - we can never change what happened, but we can change the MEANING of what happened. You can change history of your past meanings. That’s what therapy does.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.