Colin Robertson's Blog, page 4

How I Doubled My Creativity and Productivity by Creating Scarcity

I’m a writer without the use of his hands…what am I going to do?

Those were my thoughts as the doctor put my broken wrist into a splint. For the next month, I wouldn’t be able to type.

Being an old-fashioned guy, my doctor suggested buying a notebook and pen. A fine idea, but it doesn’t quite work for writing articles on the Internet. So I came home, opened Google, and searched for solutions to my problem.

I found the answer was pretty quickly, actually—voice dictation software. It allows you to speak into the microphone to type, rather than typing on your keys.

Forget that!

I thought as I immediately rejected the idea of talking to my computer all day.

Last time I tried something like that, it hardly worked. It's not worth the hassle.

So I rejected the idea and continued searching for other solutions. I have no idea what I was looking for, but I was quite sure that any other solution would be better than voice dictation software.

But…I found nothing. I was going to have to talk to my computer whether I liked it or not.

So I did the research, saw how others used it, and was amazed by the praise from other authors who claimed they loved it so much, they never typed at all! I also discovered that one of the best dictation tools was actually installed and available for free on my Mac, so I had nothing to lose.

Okay, I thought, I suppose it doesn't hurt to try...

Getting it all set up was tough at first. I was talking in my usual slang, mumbling words rather than speaking clearly, and getting frustrated when it messed up entire paragraphs. But after about a week of adjusting, I could write an article just as fast as before.

As I continued to adjust, I started speaking more clearly, the software started recognizing my accent, and suddenly I found I could write even faster than I was before.

And after just two weeks with the new software, I was writing about twice as fast!

Then with the extra time at my disposal, I started making the most out of the tool. I found another app called “Automator” that allows you to create voice commands like "begin new article" and it will open up a new word document.

So in addition to writing faster, I was also answering emails faster, organizing my tasks faster, and overall accomplishing more with my time.

This week, my wrist is fully healed, but I have no plans to go back to typing again.

HOW TO ACCOMPLISH MORE THROUGH SCARCITY

Despite this endorsement for voice dictation software, I know that about 0-1% of you are going to be motivated to install your own after reading this. A month ago I certainly wouldn’t have—even if my favorite authors recommended it! (For the 0-1%, check out this beginner's guide).

It’s only because I had to use the software that I realized just how powerful it could be. 

The necessity forced me to see first hand how it could improve my productivity and even my health (I’ve had issues with my wrist from over typing before).

This is the power of scarcity. If you remove options, resources, tools, etc. you can tap into your creativity and find innovative solutions that help you reach your goals more effectively.

For those who don't want to break a bone to see benefits, here are 3 ways you can use scarcity right now to tap into your true potential:

1. INCREASING YOUR CREATIVITY

When I was launching The Will of Heroes back in February, I felt like I was out of new ideas for article topics. My writing felt stale and boring. It was as if I was just repeating the same information over and over again.

I was bored writing articles, so I can’t imagine how bored you were reading them. And anytime I tried to head in a “new direction” I found myself coming to the same conclusions…no matter what. For the first time with Willpowered, I had writers block. I just couldn’t think of any fresh ideas.

What finally broke me out of the creative funk was following the "Louis C.K. Rule." 

This rule states that at the end of each year, you must throw out all the material you covered in the last year. So I couldn't write about anything already on the site, and I was forced to explore new, deeper topics. [1]

The instant I made that decision, I felt a rush of new ideas hit me like a tsunami. I couldn't believe I hadn't covered anything on addiction, fear, failure, or personal lessons like this one. All of these ideas became clear when my mind wasn't clouded by my previous work. 

If you have the courage to wipe the slate clean, remove your options, and force your brain to come up with new ideas, you will be surprised by the creativity you will find in yourself. [2]

2. OPTIMIZING YOUR TIME

The clock struck 1 AM… but I still wasn’t finished…

I was writing some new code for the site in a programming language that I wasn’t familiar with. It was only supposed to be something I worked on quickly before bed at 10, but here I was, several hours later, and obsessed with getting this right.

I was trying over, and over again. But for some reason, it just wasn’t working.

Finally, after yet another failed test, I decided to give myself 25 more minutes until I absolutely had to quit. I knew it would take me at least another hour to figure out the code, so I switched gears to look for any other solutions I may have missed.

And I realized I missed a simple 5-minute workaround solution...all that coding was unnecessary!

After thoroughly kicking myself for the mistake, I finally understood Parkinson’s Law: "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." [3]

I gave myself endless time at first, even feeling noble for doing so because it showed my commitment. But once I created scarcity with my time, I found a simple, easy solution because I had to rethink my strategy.

If you give yourself endless time to work on something, you may waste countless hours focusing on the wrong things. You may not completely throw it out the window like I did, more likely you will spend it on lower priorities that won't create as much value.

If you give yourself a finite amount of time, however, your brain will search for ways to help you make the most of it. That could be by coming up with productive solutions, or by forcing you to work on the highest priority tasks. [4]

3. MAKING BETTER DECISIONS

I am a terrible decision maker. And I hate to break this to you…but so are you.

We all like to believe that we are like scientists; we examine the evidence and make well-informed decisions. Unfortunately, we make most decisions rapidly, through a narrow and biased lens without considering all the options.

This is perfectly illustrated by this forum question used in Dan and Chip Heath’s book, Decisive.

Claireabelle: Break up or not? I don’t know what to do. Every time I go to my boyfriends house or hangout this family, I feel like I’m being judged. 

His sister is very “mood-swingy” towards me. His older brother hates me and calls me a b*tch. His mom is rude and makes insulting jokes at me. I like him, but I’m tired of being judged.

What should I do?

What would you tell Claireabelle to do?

Think about it....

It's probably not hard for you to come up with seemingly solid advice to "break up" or "stay with him." Within a day, 12 people responded with their advice to Claireabelle. The majority of people said to break up with him, and only a couple suggested staying with him.

But think about how much important information isn't provided to us in this short paragraph. 

Does the family act like this towards every new girl? If so, why?

Has she even talked to her boyfriend about the problem? It would be pretty lousy to bring it up for the first time when she's dumping him.

Has she confronted the family members about their behavior? Maybe they are just joking and they have a cruel sense of humor.

Without knowing any of this information, we can make a snap judgment that will affect her life forever. This is called the "spotlight effect." We judge what we see in front of us as the only important information, without considering what might be outside of our spotlight. 

So we miss those key points of relevant information because we don't even think to look for it.

To break out of this trap, ask yourself what you would do if choice of A or B wasn't an option? So if the simple "end it" or "stay with him" weren't options, what advice would you give?

To confront him about his family?

To stand up for herself in front of them?

To spend less time around them?

Regardless of what your answer is, it’s probably much better advice than “stay” or “leave.”

This is called the vanishing options test. If you ever catch yourself with only 2 options, try removing both options and see if there is another solution to the problem. Avoiding this narrow frame helps you gain new perspective and see information outside of the spotlight. [5]

Conclusion

It's amazing what the human mind is capable of when you force it to come up with a solution. When you remove resources, time, or even options, you can see things with a new level of creativity and problem-solving ability.

These are the most effective methods I've found for accomplishing more with less. Whether you're out of ideas, overworked, or stuck on a decision, see if creating scarcity can help you fight through the frustration and perhaps even take you to the next level.

*Sources

How George Lucas Lost His Integrity...and Why it's So Important

"People don’t realize Star Wars is actually a soap opera and it’s all about family problems – it’s not about spaceships." 

Said George Lucas soon after watching Star Wars Episode VII in an interview with Charlie Rose. This was the first time he'd put Star Wars in someone else's hands, and he felt like it had been abused.

“There were two things that have been abused from the original release of Star Wars.

The first was that people thought the success of Star Wars was about special effects and space battles, when there was much more to it than that. So they became obsessed by the latest special-effects tools and no longer cared about the story.

The other thing that got  abused—especially in an American capitalist society—is that studios said ‘WOW we can make a lot of money’ and they did it.

The (stories of Star Wars) were my kids…I loved them, I created them, and I sadly sold them to the 'white slavers' who take these things and...”

As he spoke, I could see the pain and regret in Lucas' expression. Here was an artist who created a universally loved piece of work, and now he believed it was being milked for every penny it was worth by the studio system he always resented.

As a kid, I was a huge Star Wars fan. I greatly admired Lucas for his creativity, innovation, and for imagining any young boys fancy weapon–the lightsaber. But as I dug deeper into the truth behind Star Wars I realized…

Lucas is deceiving everyone… including himself. [1]

THE ROGUE FILMMAKER

Where is the romance, the adventure, and the fun that used to be in practically every movie made?

Those were the questions on Lucas’ mind as he set out to create the original Star Wars.

Along with his good friend / producer, Gary Kurtz, the two wanted to create a homage to the Flash Gordon adventure serials that they used to watch as kids. However, studios believed their ideas were all too weird and risky, so they refused to finance the film. 

This reinforced Lucas' hatred for the studio system. 

He hated that the non-creative executives he met with had the final say on creative decisions. But, he knew the film needed studio financing, so for the next 2 years he wrote for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, revising his screenplays

Finally, 20th Century Fox accepted Lucas' revisions. However, they had so little faith in the movie, that they infamously allowed Lucas to control the merchandising rights. And after filming, it appeared their lack of faith was justified. The first cut of Star Wars was a disaster. [2]

This wasn't good enough. Lucas knew that Star Wars had to be good. He already had the vision of creating a trilogy, so he had to make fans love it enough to convince the studio to finance the next film.

This put enormous pressure on Lucas to focus on every detail when trying to fix the movie in the editing process–pressure which would lead to the spectacular effects that would save his film, and revolutionize the industry. 

Against all odds, the rogue filmmaker proved the studios that doubted him wrong, and created a fantasy world with iconic characters that were universally adored. [3] 

Unfortunately, this was the last movie that the rogue filmmaker ever made.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

With the success of Star Wars, Lucas could see that there was a chance of studios trying to “milk” Star Wars for all it was worth. Being a man of principle, he strongly considered walking away from the series and pursuing other projects.

But he realized, with his rights to all merchandising and sequels, that he could create his own production company. He could gain more freedom from the studios by financing future films with the profits from Star Wars.

And thus, Lucasfilm was born—and so was George Lucas, the entrepreneur.

With that mindset, it was time to start adding to the mythology of Star Wars. So Lucasfilm began building up the myths about its creation, and its creator.

They claimed Lucas had already written 12 star wars stories, and that the first movie was always intended to be Episode IV of this series. Theoretically, this would allow Lucasfilm to continue producing Star Wars movies without looking like they were mindlessly creating sequels just for money. [4]

THE CEO

After the massive success of The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas realized that he was making 3 times as much revenue in toy sales than he was for the actual films. Thus, if he could sell more toys, it would mean more projects for Lucasfilm, and even less need for studio financing.

So Lucas began sharing ideas with Kurtz—who was still his partner—for the third film that would help the company increase merchandise sales. He wanted to add the "Ewoks" and make the film more kid friendly than The Empire Strikes Back.

Kurtz pushed back on these ideas, but to Lucas the ends justified the means. After all his freedom as an artist was at stake!

Tension between them was so bad that Kurtz flat out refused to be a part of Star Wars anymore.

I could see where things were headed. The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It's a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It's natural to make decisions that protect the toy business but that's not the best thing for making quality films....

The emphasis on the toys, it's like the cart driving the horse. If it wasn't for that the films would be done for their own merits. The creative team wouldn't be looking over their shoulder all the time. [5]

In other words, Gary Kurtz left because the films were being “abused” when George Lucas realized, “WOW we can make a lot of money” off of the sale of toys. 

THE STORY "SPECIAL-EFFECTS" TELLER

This all took place behind the scenes. Kurtz didn't speak out about this until over 30 years later. And despite the unnecessary inclusion of the Ewoks, most fans still loved the final episode of the trilogy.

Then over the next decade, Lucas went through a very nasty divorce—keeping him out of the directors chair—but remaining the head of Lucasfilm, he had another amazing success with the Indiana Jones trilogy.

With his life back in order in 1994, Lucas was inspired to write and direct his first film since 1977: Star Wars Episode I. But this time, he would have total control, huge financial support, and new computer-generated imagery (CGI) to help tell his story. 

Lucas loved this new CGI Technology. He loved it so much that every single scene of the prequel trilogy used it. In some cases he even used it to replace actors! The famous Storm Troopers (or "Clone Troopers") weren't played by actors, just computer-generated images.

These special effects were impressive for the time. But unfortunately, the dialogue, the characters, and the story of the prequel trilogy were stale, flat, and uninteresting—even to the most hard-core fans of Star Wars. [6]

It appeared that Lucas had become, “obsessed by the latest special-effects tools and no longer cared about the story.”

HOW LUCAS LOST HIS INTEGRITY—AND WHY IT'S SO IMPORTANT

I apologize if this story seemed like one of the many personal attacks by fans on George Lucas. The man deserves a lot of credit for the creativity, belief, and persistence he showed on a project that nobody believed in.

I also don't think he's trying to deceive us. I truly believe that he believes in every word he says.

I use Lucas’ story because it shows how someone with purpose, principles, and the willpower to see his goal through to the finish, can tragically go down a path to losing all those things–then be in denial about it.

So let's dissect his story to see how we can avoid his fate.

1. HUBRIS BORN OF SUCCESS

Imagine how sweet it must've been for Lucas to see his movie that nobody believed in not only be a success, but be a game-changing aspect of cinematic history.

The pride that he must have felt when he saw the crowds come back again, and again, and again, must have been extraordinary.

People loved his work, and for good reason!

But rather than seeing this love as a result of the time, effort, and care he put into it–he believed the idea that he was a creative genius for making Star Wars. This made him feel as if he didn’t need to work as hard when he returned to directing. After all, he was a genius!

You may not experience nearly the amount of hubris when working towards your goals, but you are just as vulnerable to relying on your talent, rather than your work ethic. This is the downside of focusing on self-esteem, rather than self-control. [7]

It is a great feeling to celebrate great results–but don't forget the reason why you achieved them. 

2. COMPROMISING HIS PRINCIPLES

Once he was believing his own hype, we saw Lucas begin to lose his identity as "The Rogue Filmmaker."

He saw that Star Wars was going to become a giant of pop culture, which meant there was a lot of money to be made by either himself or the studios. Never wanting to allow money to influence his decisions as an artist, Lucas strongly considered walking away.

However, he recognized the money from Star Wars could give him the freedom he always wanted. So he compromised his principles as The Rogue Filmmaker to become The Entrepreneur because the ends justified the means.

This not only made him care about about the bottom-line, but it also positioned Star Wars in his mind as a "money-maker" for future films. So he justified doing things like build a mythology of about his genius and his ideas for the 12 Star Wars stories.

This led him to become the very thing he hated by prioritizing business decisions over creativity. 

There are many instances where the ends justify the means for us. But once you start compromising your principles, you begin to lose the willpower to live up to them. Especially if you lose your sense of self awareness along the way.

3. LOSS OF SELF-AWARENESS AND DENIAL

“I’ve never been that much of a money guy, I’m more of a film guy.”

Despite all of his actions to the contrary, George Lucas never admitted (at least to us) that he was anything other than The Rogue Filmmaker.

He grew up in Northern California during the 60s and claims that has a lot to do with his political beliefs. Before the release of the original Star Wars, he openly spoke out against studios, capitalism, and overusing special effects at the expense of the story. 

And that never changed.

I would like to believe that he isn't just saying this to create a certain public persona. I genuinely believe that he still believes that he is The Rogue Filmmaker, rather than The CEO.

That's why he could justify to himself that he wasn't selling out, he wasn't overdoing it on special effects, and that he really was focusing on writing great stories, and creating great films.

Then rather than admitting the truth to himself, and working hard to earn back the title of The Rogue Filmmaker, he chose to criticize the people who made exactly the same decisions as him.

To prevent yourself from going down this path, use self-monitoring tactics to constantly review the evidence, and ensure you are genuinely trying to live up to your principles through your actions, not your words.

CONCLUSION

The phrase "actions speak louder than words" doesn't give actions enough credit. It doesn't take any willpower for someone to talk about their plans, promises, or principles. It takes extraordinary willpower, however, to live up to them.

I hate to pick on George Lucas. He has done more for the happiness of this world than I probably ever will. The problem is not that he became a hugely successful entrepreneur, it's that he compromised his principles, denied the truth, and lost his integrity by deceiving us.

In your life, be sure to judge yourself and those around you by actions, not words. Because actions truly do not lie.

*Sources

My 5 Best Willpower Strategies After Over 5 Years Research

DUH!

I thought to myself as I was reflecting on the last year. My birthday is coming up this week, so I was taking some time to see what went well, where I made mistakes, and what lessons I learned in the process...then had a sudden realization.

From the moment I first discovered the science of willpower over 5 years ago, I've been acting as my own personal guinea pig. 

Behind the scenes, I am constantly testing new willpower strategies to improve my writing, improve my fitness, improve my success with Willpowered, and simply improve my life.

Meanwhile, I’ve received hundreds of emails from people asking me about which of the strategies on the site work best for me. They were curious about how I apply the material in my life, so they could get a better understanding of how to apply it in theirs. 

So as I was going through my notes, experiments, and lessons over the last year; I realized that of the 337 articles I've written on this site, less than 5% were about how I actually apply all this material! (Not to mention they were some of my most successful.)

Face…meet palm.

I didn't share much because I believed you would be more interested in reading about people like J.K. Rowling, Warren Buffett, or Kobe Bryant. Writers, entrepreneurs, and athletes who have achieved success–not ones like me who are still struggling to reach it.

But with hundreds of questions, and 5 years worth of data to answer them, I decided to start a series of posts where I write exclusively about my personal experiments, my best strategies, and how I apply them in writing, entrepreneurship, and daily-life.

As I continue to write, I will get more detailed, but I will start with the most successful high-level willpower strategies that I have implemented thus far. 

1.    A GREAT PURPOSE

I’ve been an entrepreneur since graduating from college. 

Before discovering the science of willpower, I was a part several startups–including one I cofounded with a brilliant team with all the pieces we needed to be one of the startups to actually make it.

Things started off great. We were learning, growing, and even winning start up competitions. However, after about 2.5 years, we were running dangerously low on cash…it was do or die time.

When we hit that moment, I chose to die. 

Not that I completely gave up. In fact, I believed that I chose to “do” but I didn’t really give it all I had. I worked hard, sure, but when it was time to truly prioritize saving the company by venturing outside of my comfort zone—I came up with excuses why wasn't necessary.

In September of last year I hit that same “do or die” moment with Willpowered. And that’s when I truly understood what it meant to “do.”

Words cannot express how much I love my work. I love researching new concepts, seeing how they apply through experiments, telling the stories of incredible people, and making connections with subscribers.

I simply could not imagine a world where I lost that.

So I pushed my mind, I pushed my body, and I pushed I my comfort zone with every ounce of willpower I could to ensure that didn’t happen. And in the end, the company was saved.

The power of my purpose was the difference between using a lot of willpower, and discovering a whole new level of willpower that I didn’t even know I was capable of.

Your purpose informs your perspective. To me, it wasn’t that hard of a decision to dedicate myself 24/7 to saving Willpowered, because it was worth it. It would require a whole lot more willpower for me to work a 9-5 job that didn’t leave me fulfilled.

It is not what you are doing that drains your willpower, it is why you are doing it.

2.     FIND YOUR “FROG”...AND EAT IT FIRST THING

By far the best strategy that I’ve used to progress as a writer is dedicating myself to writing a set number of words every day.

When I began my journey with Willpowered, I was terrible. And I realized that in order to make it, I was going to have to improve—a lot. So when I began, I dedicated myself to writing 1000 words every day.

This forced me to improve my writing skills, while also building an audience who could rely on my consistency. My daily traffic numbers slowly but surely started to grow, and I began to learn what topics people actually wanted to read about. 

Any success I've had thus far is all founded on this practice…but this was far from easy.

They were plenty of days that I sat down at my desk, opened up a Word Document and stared blankly at the “blink… blink… blink” of the cursor. I didn’t have a clue about what to write. And my mind was doing everything it could to procrastinate.

These important, yet difficult and boring, tasks are known as “frogs” thanks to Mark Twain's quote,

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” – Mark Twain

These are things that you want to procrastinate more than anything, but if you can someone the willpower to accomplish them, you feel great. You feel like a weight has been lifted, and every other task throughout the day feels easy by comparison.

That’s why I committed to writing first thing in the morning.

I learned early on that the only way I was going to get it done is if I got it done right away. If I ever put it off until later in the day, I found I had no ideas, no motivation, and no willpower to sit down and write.

So find ONE practice that will ensure that you make progress every day–and commit to doing it first thing in the morning.

3.   WRITE TERRIBLE FIRST DRAFTS

One of the biggest reasons why we procrastinate is because it doesn’t feel like the right time. This rings especially true for struggling writers. They feel like they’re not at their “creative best” and wait for a time for inspiration to strike.

I felt this every time I sat down blankly staring at that dreaded blink...blink…blink of the cursor.

But then I read On Writing Well by William Zinsser (a must read if you want to become a writer) and realizes my huge advantage—I'm the only one who sees my first draft!

My first draft can look like a five-year-old wrote it and no one will ever know!

Once I understood that, I let go of the pressure to turn a blank word doc into something brilliant. And the goal simply became about getting my ideas on paper. Then I could come back and add structure to those ideas and make it flow on the second, third, or fourth draft.

This concept hasn't just worked in writing, it applies to almost everything:

You don’t need to have a perfect gym session, you just need to go.You don’t need to be perfectly organized, you just need to spend 15 minutes organizing what you can.You don’t need to achieve perfection, you just need to get started.

Almost every time I want to procrastinate something because the timing doesn’t feel right, I simply set a timer and spend the next 25 minutes working on it.

Usually the first 10 minutes are a struggle as my mind wanders and tries to procrastinate. But after that, I’m usually fully focused and immersed in the task.

This is not a perfect strategy, because there are some times when I still feel off and give up after the timer goes off. But even then, I am still 25 minutes better off than when I started.

4. NO RETREAT

One of the big questions that writers and entrepreneurs face is, “when do I quit my day job?” 

It’s not easy to know when the right time is–especially if you have people who depend on you. It makes sense to run a venture part-time until you grow your customers / audience to a point where you can afford to commit full-time.

Sometimes I wish I had taken this path, but I have always been a "walk before you crawl" person...Literally. According to my parents when I was an infant, I started walking before I knew how to crawl.

So I chose to make the leap with 6 months of savings, and no other choice but to succeed or fail. This forced me to learn, grow, and push my comfort zone when it was do or die time–because I had to. That's why I'm still writing to you 18 months later.

This concept of no retreat does not just apply to starting your own business, it applies to any goal.

One of the best ways to ensure I did my long 16-mile runs was to run 8 miles away from home. Because then I had no choice but to run back! There is no way I would be able to run that far with the ease of simply hitting “stop” on the treadmill available.

To overcome my introverted nature, I force myself to attend networking events, give speeches etc.

People are capable of incredible things when they have to sink or swim. Like in my first story, I found a level of willpower I didn’t even know I had when I had no other choice but to use it.

However, no retreat comes at a price. Because I didn't learn how to crawl as a baby, I didn't learn how to put out my hands when I fell. I didn't have the buffer between my head and the floor, so when I fell, I fell hard.

Entrepreneurs inevitably make mistakes. That's part of the process. Just like falling is a part of learning how to walk. By starting before I was ready, those mistakes have made a bigger impact–both financially and personally.

Leaving yourself no retreat is not fun. It’s frustrating, painful, and honestly disheartening to consistently push your comfort zone and open yourself up for failure. Being in that position is not for everybody.

So when leaving no retreat, whether you're pursuing dreams, or running 5 miles away from home, you have to ask yourself if the prize is worth the pain.

5.    LEARNING HOW TO HANDLE FAILURE

Now let's talk about some of those a lot of mistakes I've made with Willpowered.

I've written articles that have made people furious...

I've fallen short on some promises that I wasn't able to keep...

I've made some really bad business decisions that wasted a ton of money...

And confronting these failures it Is not easy.

It's hard receiving genuinely angry emails from subscribers. It's hard giving people bad news and realizing that I let them down. And it's hard realizing that my limited time and money were wasted on an idea that didn't work out.

Whenever we make mistakes like these, our minds are hardwired to turn negative.

This is because our brains are built to find solutions to problems. If I receive an angry email, my brain wants to find the solution to whatever mistake I made. So it will fixate on that negative whether I like it or not.

What we choose to do with those negative feelings, are up to us. Speaking personally, I usually do one of these three things:

1. BEAT MYSELF UP ABOUT IT

Beating myself up is the easy way to handle failure, but it doesn't help anything. Feeling guilty lowers your willpower, prevents you from learning from your mistakes, and bouncing back effectively.

I know all of this rationally. We all know that beating yourself up will only make things worse. But this isn't a rational reaction, it's an emotional one. Which is why some of the time I choose to...

2. IGNORE IT

Another direction that my mind will take when confronting failure is to simply ignore it.

This way I don't need to deal with the pain of guilt, the loss of my pride, and the feeling that I'm a failure. It's very easy to justify doing this as well. There will always be something you can blame for your failure–luck, circumstances, genetics, etc.

This is a much less painful way to handle failure, but few would argue for it as a useful strategy. Because it doesn't allow you to learn from your mistakes and make sure they don't happen again.

3. UNDERSTAND IT

As you probably know well, learning from your mistakes is an incredibly valuable, but it is much easier said than done. Usually, learning from failure involves facing things that you don't necessarily want to confront.

Trying to understand why I got an angry email from someone reading an article, forces me to confront the fact that there may be flaws in my writing process. 

Trying to understand why I made a bad investment, forces me to confront the fact that I may not be cut out to be an entrepreneur.

If I beat myself up, or just ignore it, then it's an isolated mistake and I don't need to confront any questions that I may not want the answer to.

This, of course, makes little sense. If there is a bigger issue, then I should want to learn what it is so I can fix it. But failure is emotional. It hurts. Which means our primitive brain takes over. 

And the primitive brain isn't wired for rational self-awareness, it's wired for emotional self-justification. So it will naturally go down the irrational path of beating ourselves up, placing blame on others, and making us fear vulnerability so we don't feel the pain again.

There's no Silver bullet solution to this problem. Training my mind through meditation, taking a moment for self-awareness, and focusing on the objective consequences, have all helped me handle failure more effectively.

However, Learning how to handle failure is like Learning how to overcome a fear of public speaking–you can't get it from a textbook (and surely not from a blog post). The only way you learn is to leave your comfort zone, experience failure, and realize it's not the end of the world.

I've failed a lot, and I'll fail again (sorry in advance). But failure is a part of learning how to succeed, just like falling is a part of learning how to walk.

conclusion

These are my best high-level willpower strategies. This is a very subjective list and I'm only going off my experience. 

My journey is full of risk, and these are the strategies that help me handle that risk. There may be other strategies that work better for your journey, your priorities, and the destination you want to get to.

So I'd love to know what willpower strategies are at the top of your list? Did any of mine make the cut? Comment below and let me know!

The Incredible Power of the Intuitive Brain—And How to Master It

"What is going on here?!"

Thought the head doctor of Vienna General Hospital in 1846. He had a major crisis on his hands as 1 in 6 women were dying of childbed fever. [1]

The risk of death was so bad, in fact, that women were choosing to take the risk of giving birth at home rather than going to his hospital. Not since the middle-ages had women willfully chosen to give birth at home–especially in a large city like Vienna.

This was an embarrassment. So he was determined to find the root of this problem.

He and the rest of the doctors on staff began brainstorming what could be the cause of the disease. Many had theories such as the poor diets of women in Vienna, as well as the problems with the ventilation ducts in the department.

But a doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis proposed a completely radical theory.

He noticed that all of the doctors that were involved in the birthing process were also doing separate research on dead bodies. 

This was before the discovery of germs, so these doctors didn't sanitize their materials, use gloves, or even wash their hands between working on dead bodies and delivering babies. So they unknowingly carried all of the diseases with them!

When he made this discovery, Semmelweis immediately began requiring that doctors in his department wash their hands before and after performing medical procedures.

After some time had passed, Semmelweis felt that he had enough evidence to Bring to the head of Vienna General and make the hand washing procedures required hospital-wide.

After listening to Semmelweis' theory and evidence, the head doctor not only refused to make the hand washing rules a hospital wide practice, he forbid the doctors in Semmelweis' department from adhering to them!

He simply could not fathom that the doctors were the ones that were killing their patients. So he ignored Semmelweis, and attributed the disease to the ventilation system. Which, of course, led to more deaths and no progress.

FORMING OUR INTUITIONS

Most of you will look down on the head of Vienna General Hospital–and for good reason.

How dare he refuse the evidence and allow innocent women to die!

But the question is…was he just an arrogant or immoral person? Or is it possible that you and I are just as likely to ignore evidence that we don't want to accept either?

Let’s try to understand why this doctor made this decision.

Assuming this man joined the medical field with the purpose of saving lives, we can speculate that he built the idea that his work was doing good for mankind. And at that point in his career, he probably had a lot of evidence supporting the positive impact he had on Vienna. 

He likely saved many people, trained many doctors, and helped create advances in medicine.

So with every year of work, he reinforced this message to his cerebellum or “intuitive brain.”

The intuitive brain is responsible for our ability to ride a bike, for our survival instinct, and for our deeply held beliefs about politics, religion, and principles.

In his book, The Righteous Mind, University of Virginia professor Jonathan Haidt refers to this part of our brain as “the elephant” because it is powerful, difficult to control, and has a great memory. [2]

When you make a snap judgment about someone you meet—good or bad—this is your elephant using years of stored memories of inter-personal relationships to help you understand them and how you should act towards them.

FORMING OUR RATIONALTY

By the time Vienna general was having issues with childbed fever, the head doctor already had years of his elephant believing that doctors are the good guys.

Doctors save lives—they don’t put them in danger.

So when Semmelweis presented his evidence and theory, he made the same snap judgments about it that you would make when hearing evidence contrary to your religious or political beliefs. [3]

Let’s examine why this happens…

When we are presented evidence for or against our beliefs, we believe it is being communicated to our cerebrum–the conscious, “rational brain.”

Most of us think of our rational brain as a “scientist.”  It searches for the truth, examines the evidence, and makes a well-informed decision.  The scientist then informs our elephant about which direction to head with our beliefs and ideas based on the evidence.

What we believe:

However, it is actually the opposite. It is the intuitive brain that determines our beliefs, and our rational brain acts much more like a “lawyer.” It rationalizes why we made our judgments, rather than trying to understand the evidence.

What really happens:

This is seen perfectly with the head of Vienna General. When Semmelweis came to him with the evidence, he didn’t try to understand it, then form a judgment based upon his understanding.

He saw the evidence, formed an intuitive judgment that doctors can't be the "bad guys," then tried to rationalize his judgment by blaming the ventilation system as the cause of death.

THE POWER OF INTUITION

We make subconscious, intuitive judgments about almost everything around us.

When you saw the title of this article, you made an intuitive judgment about reading it. When you woke up this morning, you made an intuitive judgment about hitting "the snooze."

When you read words like:

Inspiration…

Terrorism…

Friendship…

Poverty…

Your elephant reacts to each of those words through years of memories and associations with what they really mean.

And based on the reaction your elephant takes to a particular word, your lawyer will be more likely to see the rest of the sentence through a different lens. This is called “Affective Priming” and it has huge implications for how we see the world and each other. 

In a very popular experiment, researchers showed groups of words like those below and had participants categorize only the second word that’s good or bad:

Flower—Happiness

Hate—Sunshine

Love—Cancer

Cockroach—Lonely

Unsurprisingly, because participants had to respond quickly, it was difficult to categorize the words like sunshine and cancer in the proper category. The elephant was heading in the one direction, and the lawyer had to scramble to find the right evidence. [4]

The same experiment has been conducted to test various intuitive prejudices such as race, age, and social group. You can take it for yourself by clicking here.

When faced with the decision to work on your goals, if your elephant starts heading too far down the path to procrastination, the rational part of your brain will turn into a lawyer seeking justification for doing so.

HOW DO YOU AVOID THIS PATTERN?

So how do you make the best decision and get your elephant going in the right direction?

When I learned about this phenomenon, I immediately believed that if you teach people “how to think” like we do in our top colleges and universities, that will train them to become scientists, rather than lawyers.

Once again, the opposite is true.

The more educated someone is, the more likely they are to act like the doctor. Because their rational brain is indeed stronger, but it isn’t the scientist that sees the benefits, it’s the lawyer. [5]

Rather than being better at understanding the evidence, most well-educated people are simply better at rationalizing their judgments. The best debaters aren't those best at finding the truth, but those best at arguing.

This shows us that we shouldn't focus on turning our lawyers into scientists, we should focus on taming our elephants.

1. BE SELF-AWARE

The first step towards taming your elephant is to simply be aware that it exists.

Understand that you will be powerfully motivated to favor justification over facts when forming your decisions. Those decisions could be as large as your beliefs, or as small as your trip to the gym. Regardless of the decision or implications, your elephant will take the lead.

So take a moment of self-awareness to recognize when this happens, and simply ask why? Why do you think your elephant is taking you in this direction? What intuitions is it basing that decision on and is it really justified?

Being mindful and curious in these moments will shift power from your elephant to your scientist.

2. LEARN HOW TO TALK TO YOUR ELEPHANT

The more chances you get to have those moments of self-awareness, the more you will understand your elephant.

The next step is learning how to communicate with it. 

Understand where it will take you intuitively, and come up with ways you can motivate it to make the right decisions.

Be careful to remain curious in this step and not judgmental of yourself. It is very easy to blame yourself for why you built up your intuitions, but that will only shift power back to your elephant.

3. SHAPE THE PATH

Once you learn how to communicate with your elephant, then it is time to shape your path ahead time to get the elephant moving in the right direction. [6]

For example, one of the biggest struggles I have with my elephant is writing every day.

Oftentimes I sit down in my desk, begin answering emails, checking some marketing numbers, and by the time I'm supposed to be writing comes, my elephant is doing everything it can to distract me, and get my scientist to turn into a lawyer to justify taking a break from writing.

So I use a method called the nothing alternative. Beginning at 8 o'clock, I can either write or do nothing. I can stare out the window or pace around the room, but I cannot do any other positive work until I have written at least 500 words.

This subtle change in my path tames my elephant through sheer boredom. 

Conclusion

Many of us would condemn the head of Vienna General Hospital for blatantly ignoring the evidence and costing the lives of countless innocent women. But, unfortunately, his decision is natural and human. We are not rational–we are intuitive.

Think of your intuitive brain as an elephant. It is powerful, hard to control, and has years of stored memories that shape your judgment. And too often we use our rational brain as a lawyer to justify the elephant, rather than as a scientist to inform it.

You can break out of this pattern by being self-aware of when your elephant takes over, learning how to communicate with it, and shaping the right path ahead of time to make the best decisions.

You cannot silence your elephant–but you can learn how to tame it. 

*Sources

4 Insights That Will Change the Way You See Addiction Forever

I want to introduce you to two people–Christopher and John.

Each of them regularly consumes a potentially addictive substance that he truly enjoys.

Christopher regularly consumes Substance FJohn regularly consumes Substance A.

Both of these men realize that consuming their respective substances is an unhealthy habit, but they proceed to consume them every day, regardless. However, the way these two men consume these substances is very different.

Christopher consumes large doses of Substance F on a regular basis, and he is not very healthy or active in other aspects of his life.

John, on the other hand, only consumes a small dose of Substance A during the week, and occasionally consumes more on the weekends. He also maintains a healthy and active lifestyle outside of his consumption of Substance A.

Eventually, Christopher realized he had a problem with Substance F. So he tried talking to professionals to get help controlling his consumption, but so far nothing has worked. No matter how much he tries, it seems he simply can’t stop consuming unhealthy amounts of Substance F.

The problem has gotten so bad that Christopher elected to get surgery that would actually help him decrease his cravings for Substance F.

Meanwhile, John is quite happy with the amount of Substance A he consumes. He believes that his life is better with Substance A, as it helps him relax after a long, stressful day of work.

Also, there have been several times when John has had to give up Substance A for long stretches, such as upcoming work and family responsibilities. When those times came, he was able to give it up without much of a problem.

Today, despite his surgery, Christopher is still in a big struggle with consuming Substance F. His health has not gotten much better, and he is extremely self-conscious about his inability to stop.

John also continues to consume Substance A every day, but he has no plans of stopping his habit unless he has upcoming responsibilities that require it.

Christopher is former presidential candidate Chris Christie, and Substance F is unhealthy food.John is a friend of mine, and Substance A is alcohol.

Chris Christie has an eating addiction, and John simply has a beer after work every day. [1,2]

WHAT IS AN ADDICTION? 

The topic of addiction is incredibly hard to define–even to scientists who have been researching the topic for decades.

Some believe it’s a disease...s ome believe it’s a choice...s ome believe it’s genetics…

With this article, I intend to show you just how complicated and personal the topic is, and why it cannot be reduced to a blanket statement.

*Note: please read my introduction to the science of addiction article, to get a full perspective on the topic.

I used the examples of Christopher and John because they illustrate several key points:

 Most of us have eaten the same food as Chris Christie at some point in our lives, yet we didn’t become addicted to it as he did.Most of us know someone like John who has a beer, glass of wine, or other drink every day, yet we wouldn’t consider them addicted to alcohol.Even a surgical procedure meant to decrease Chris Christie’s appetite wasn’t enough to help overcome his addiction.Even though John consumes a potentially addictive substance like alcohol every day, he doesn’t have any problem quitting when he needs to.

And the question behind all of these points is why? 

The answers give us 4 profound insights that will change how you think about addiction forever.

1. WHY DID CHRISTOPHER BECOME ADDICTED TO SOMETHING THAT MOST PEOPLE DON’T?

Let’s not kid ourselves, unhealthy food is delicious.

Salty, sweet, savory, rich, creamy…whatever your taste is, eating great food is one of the treats of life—even if it is unhealthy.

Now, I do not know Chris Christie’s entire history or relationship with food, but if his story is similar to that of a typical food addict, he likely sees food differently than, say, I do.

To me, food represents nutrition. I monitor everything going into my body, try to make sure I’m eating healthy, and treat myself from time to time. (I'm not saying my way of viewing food is superior, I'm just showing that we can use the same substance for different reasons.)

For food addicts, it represents something much different. 

Recent research suggests that people who become addicted to food have an emotional connection to it. It represents happiness, comfort, or a way to handle stress and escape to a feeling of bliss. [3]

So even though a healthy person may eat the same food as an addict, the emotional connection they have to the food is completely different. 

It is this emotional connection that makes someone an addict, not the food itself.

2. WHY DON’T WE CONSIDER JOHN AN ALCOHOLIC? 

Almost all of us know a person like John–someone who has a drink every day as a way of winding down and relaxing. We might think that this person has an unhealthy habit, but we certainly would not consider them an alcoholic.

But why not?

First, he’s just drinking 1 beer. If I said he was drinking 6, 8, or 12 beers at the end of the day, that would be a different story. 

This tells us that dose plays an important role in our thinking of addiction.

The fact that he only has 1 beer shows us that he is consuming in moderation, that he has the willpower to say "no."

When it comes to any addiction, one the most underrated factors is dose.

If you eat 1 cookie every day, you don’t have an eating disorder. If you choose to spend your entertainment budget on gambling, rather than going to movies or concerts, you don’t have a gambling problem.

But, this is where gets interesting...

Imagine if I told you that Substance A wasn’t alcohol, it was methamphetamine. 

Would you consider him to be an addict now? 

As his friend, I couldn't help but be concerned. Even if he was just having the equivalent a "beer's worth" of alcohol in a dose of methamphetamine every day.

So why don't we consider John an alcoholic, yet we would consider him to be a meth addict?

We see people use alcohol all around us. We see the 80 to 90% of people who use it without becoming addicted. But the only people we see use meth, are the addicts in the news and on shows like Breaking Bad.

I know this will be hard to believe, but the addictive potential of meth is roughly the same as alcohol. But because it is illegal, demonized, and simply not used by many people, we don't see the 80 to 90% of people use meth without getting addicted. [4]

This is known as "the example rule." We base our thoughts and judgments from the examples we can recall, rather than the actual evidence. [5] 

Since we can think of many examples like John who aren't addicted, his behavior feels "normal." But since the only people who use meth every day we can think of are hard-core addicts, we think John is doomed to their fate. 

This is equal to us believing that everyone who starts having a glass of wine or a cocktail with dinner is destined to end up on the street drinking vodka out a paper bag.

3. WHY DIDN’T SURGERY WORK FOR CHRISTOPHER?

“In moments I go from complete misery and vulnerability to total invulnerability.” 

Recalled Judy, a 36-year-old heroin and cocaine addict when she was explaining why she chose to use drugs.

"I have a lot of issues. A lot of the reason why I use is to get rid of those thoughts and emotions and cover them up.” [6]

Judy had been trying to give up drugs for over two decades at that point. She’d been to rehab, got clean, but it was always just a matter of time before she would start using again. 

Why is this?

If she fought through withdrawal and got the drugs out of her system, shouldn’t the chemicals lose power over her?

The answer is yes. They did lose their power. 

However, Judy may have been clean when she left rehab, but the issues, the thoughts, and the emotional pain she was feeling were still there. And the only way she knew how to deal with them was through drugs. 

This is why surgery didn’t work for Christopher.

He may have decreased his biological appetite, but whatever comfort, happiness, or emotional connection that he has to food cannot be surgically removed. Just like getting clean will not erase Judy’s 36 years of being abused, sexually assaulted, and turning to drugs to find comfort.

This is why addicts are almost twice as likely to recover for the long-term through individualized therapy, rather than through drug rehab centers. [7,8]

Whether the addiction is to sugar or substances, the addict will continue to struggle until they overcome the deeper reason why they turned to the substance in the first place.

4. WHY DOESN’T JOHN GET ADDICTED EVEN THOUGH HE CONSUMES EVERY DAY?

So now that we know more about why people become addicted, let’s explore why John doesn’t become addicted, despite drinking alcohol every day.

As I mentioned in the section on why we don’t consider him an addict, dose plays an important role. The more you increase the dose something, the more your brain begins to anticipate it, release dopamine, and trigger a craving.

Also, especially with alcohol, the more you consume on a daily basis, the worse the withdrawal symptoms are going to be when you stop (everyone who’s experienced a hangover will know this well).

So since he wasn’t consuming a large dose, his potential for addiction was lower.

However, there is a much bigger factor that separates him from the typical addict–what that alcohol means to him.

John is happy. He loves his job, his family, and he drinks beer to enhance his reality–not escape it. 

He doesn’t bury any feelings in his drinking, he doesn’t see it as an escape from his emotional pain, and he values things like waking up early to exercise and being productive at work. Both of which he can’t do if he spends his nights binge drinking.

Because he has his priorities in line, it doesn't require much willpower to say "no." [9]

CONCLUSION

Many things have an addictive potential. Drugs, alcohol, sugar, sex, gambling, shopping… the list goes on. However, 80-90% of people consume these things or engage in these activities without getting addicted.

It is not because 80 to 90% of people have an iron willpower, and the people who do get addicted don't. It is because addiction doesn't come from the thing you consume, addiction comes from the reason you consume it. 

It is a deeply personal and psychological problem that cannot be cured by taking away the substance or activity that one is addicted to–even through surgical intervention!

When I first set out to see what role willpower plays in addiction, I assumed it would be about developing the strength to say "no." But much more important is developing the strength to confront and deal with the real issue behind the addiction.

Until that strength is developed, the addict will continue to indulge and seek their escape.

*Sources

The Frame of Reference—How Your Outlook Affects Your Willpower

Three hundred and fifty miles of pain and suffering.

That’s what Joe DeSena and his three teammates were looking at as they approached the starting line of the 2001 International Raid Ukatak. The Raid Ukatak is an adventure race held in Quebec, Canada, in the middle of the winter.

Despite the challenge, Joe’s team was ready and willing to endure torture.

This was Joe’s first real test of his willpower. He was not much of an athlete, especially compared to his teammates who all had decades of experience, So in order to make it through the race, he would have to rely on his mental strength much more than his physical strength.

The race began with him and his team iceboating down the Saint Lawrence River. It was so cold that they may as well have been in the Arctic. Floating ice would constantly knock into their boat, sending the team overboard and into the freezing river.

Without any dry clothes to change into, they had to simply endure the pain of being wet and frozen. And this was just the beginning of the six-day race! 

After the Saint Lawrence, they hiked for two days in snow that was knee-deep. This was so tiring that Joe needed to ignore every human impulse to stop and rest. He had to silence the shouting of his primitive brain in order to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Then he started to literally lose his mind.

He saw members of his family, he saw fast food restaurants, and he smelled the delicious aroma of a cheeseburger—despite the fact that the nearest McDonalds was hundreds of miles away. He was half mad, and he wasn’t even at the halfway point!

So how did he and his team not only persevere through the next 150-plus miles of the race, but also become one of the first teams to cross the finish line? [1]

CHANGING HIS FRAME OF REFERENCE

To make it through the rest of the race, Joe thought about an explorer named Ernest Shackleton.

In 1912, Shackleton led an expedition of fifty-six men to be the first to cross Antarctica. From the very beginning, the expedition was doomed. Shackleton’s ship crashed into ice hundreds of miles from the shores of Antarctica.

He and his crew spent over a year trying to get home, traveling over 1,000 miles in temperatures much colder than those in Canada, in a place where nobody could help them. Compared to that situation, the Joe's journey to the end of the race didn’t seem so bad.

If Shackleton was able to make it, Joe thought, there’s no reason why we can’t.

When Joe thought of Shackleton, he changed his frame of reference. And doing so vastly increased his willpower to keep going.

HOW A FRAME OF REFERENCE IMPACTS YOUR WILLPOWER

My guess is you’re probably not going to be freezing cold in the Canadian winter anytime soon, so how can you use the frame of reference in your life?

Imagine you come face-to-face with the opportunity to make an impulse $100 purchase.

Immediately, your whole body feels like it’s in panic mode. The temptation to buy seems like it’s too much to bear.  Part of you is telling yourself that you deserve it, another part is reminding you of your plan to stick to the budget this month.

Almost everyone in this situation gives into the temptation. And almost all those people regret it when they get their credit card bill.

However, one study found that participants that faced this dilemma were much more likely to avoid the impulse buy if they asked themselves a simple question.

”Would I accept one hundred dollars to NOT buy this?”

This seems obvious. Shouldn’t everyone realize that saving that $100 is the exact same thing as getting $100 dollars to not buy something?

The answer is no. Because if you believe you are saving $100 you will still consider the impulse purchase as a reward. However, if you shift your frame of reference to getting $100 dollars to not buy that thing, now the $100 is the reward.

So your impulsive, emotional, primitive brain that motivates you to seek rewards now wants you to get that $100 reward for not making the purchase just as badly as your long-term, rational, modern brain wants to you to save it. [3]

WAYS TO SHIFT YOUR FRAME OF REFERENCE

This experiment shows how powerful a simple change in your frame of reference can be. But there are obviously more ways to capture its power than simply by saving money.

Here are some other proven ways to change your frame of reference and increase your willpower:

1. SEE IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY, NOT AN OBLIGATION

Several years ago, I really struggled with developing an exercise habit. I would exercise every single day for a week, then crash–leading me to skip a day, then another, then another…

I would then follow this with several weeks of doing nothing, before repeating the cycle by going to gym every single day again.

I was able to finally break this cycle when I signed up for a Spartan Race. I’m extremely competitive and once I signed up, I wanted to do as well as I could in the race.

Instantly my frame of reference for workouts completely changed. Rather than the trip to the gym being an obligation that I “had to” do, it became an opportunity to get faster and stronger for the upcoming race.

Whatever your goal, you probably set a plan that you “have to” follow. You see working towards it as an obligation and are therefore more tempted to procrastinate it as I did.

However if you can shift your frame of reference to see working toward your goal as an opportunity to learn more, become healthier, and become the person you really want to be, it will require much less willpower to make progress. [4]

2. IDENTIFY WITH YOUR FUTURE SELF

When facing a challenge your willpower, it is very easy to lose sight of the big picture.

Your short-term, impulsive, primitive brain can make it feel like saying "no" to a dessert or impulse purchase will be the end of the world. While also convincing you that saying "yes" to relaxation or staying in your comfort zone will be the key to happiness.

By doing this, it is making it harder for you to see that your future self will feel the consequences of your decisions today (good or bad). That’s why it is so easy to procrastinate and feel like you can always make up for it tomorrow.

However, if you can shift your frame of reference to your future self, it will help you immensely in overcoming your current willpower challenge.

Sticking with my gym example, whenever I want to skip the gym in the morning, I think to myself:

“At 8 AM I’m going to be sitting at my computer, rested, relaxed and starting my work day. At that time, I can either be proud of myself for choosing to go to the gym right now, or regretting the fact that I didn’t."

That simple shift in my frame of reference, allows me to identify with my future self and see the benefits of exercising more clearly. This gives me that extra edge I need to make the right decision and tie up my running shoes.

3. SEE YOUR CHALLENGE THROUGH ANOTHER'S EYES

It is very easy to constantly look inward when it comes to willpower. Whether it is trying to justify taking the easy way out, or motivating yourself to rise to the challenge. This is why taking another’s perspective on your challenge can help you make the right decision.

There are 2 ways you can do this effectively: 

The first, is using the same technique as Joe DeSena by thinking about how a hero or inspiration to you overcame a similar challenge. Thinking about them can give you the rush of willpower and belief you need.

The second, is to think about what advice your friends, family, or a mentor would give you to help you achieve a goal. Shifting your frame of reference to their perspective can help give you more clarity and accountability on your challenge.

For example, an alcoholic will be much more likely to quit drinking if he thinks about how his drinking impacts his family.

Also, someone who tried and failed at something will be much more likely pull themselves together and try again if they think about the advice her best friend would give her. 

The biggest reason why these two methods work, is because they allow you to see your challenge for what it is, rather than what your primitive brain is building it up to be. [5]

Conclusion

How you view a situation matters. If you see working towards your goal as an opportunity rather than an obligation, you're going to be much more likely to achieve it.

If you see your future self as a real person that is going to have to deal with the consequences of your actions right now–good or bad–you're going to be much more likely to ensure they're good.

And if you can see your challenge through the eyes of one of your heroes, family members, or friends, you will be much more likely to see your challenge for what it is and not what your emotional, short-term, primitive brain is building it up to be.

Whatever your willpower challenge, ensure you're approaching it with the right frame of reference.

20 Years of Research on Willpower Debunked! What Changed & What it Means For You

As I read the words, I felt sick to my stomach…

“20 years of research on willpower may have just been debunked.”

They were referring to the concept of ego-depletion which I prefer to call willpower fuel.

Ego-depletion was theorized by Roy Baumeister in 1998 when he did the famous “cookies and radishes” experiment. In the experiment, participants had to use their willpower to resist the urge to eat cookies on the table in front of them, and eat radishes instead.

Afterward, these participants showed significantly less persistence to complete a challenging puzzle than the participants who could eat the cookies. The big idea from that experiment was that when you expend your willpower on one thing, you have less left to take on another. 

It is a resource that gets "depleted."

He and many other researchers then confirmed this theory by replicating the experiment with different willpower challenges, types of “fuel,” and exercises. In total, over 100 studies were published over the next 18 years with similar results.

However, a study was just released claiming there is no connection between “fuel” and the strength of your willpower. [1]

Here's what was discovered, how scientists got it so wrong, and what it means for your willpower.

THE NEW FINDING

In 2007, Evan Carter—a graduate student at the University of Miami—tried to fuel the willpower of participants by using sugar-full lemonade (a popular willpower fuel used by researchers due to the quick spike of energy it provides to the brain).

However, Carter could not find any difference in the willpower of people who drank the lemonade, versus those who drank lemonade with artificial sweetener (which wouldn’t provide any change in blood glucose or energy).

He repeated the experiment over and over again without any significant results.

So he and his advisor started questioning the idea of willpower fuel itself in 2010 by running a meta-analysis of all studies on ego-depletion. After conducting the study he and his advisor found a significant “publication bias."

PUBLICATION BIAS

In this case, a publication bias means that over the near 20 years of ego-depletion studies, the only ones that would make it into published journals are those which confirmed ego-depletion in their participants.

Experiments like the one Carter conducted with lemonade that could not confirm ego-depletion, wouldn’t make it into published journals because the experiment essentially "failed."

So after analyzing the whole body of studies, including those that didn’t get published, he found little to no significant evidence of ego-depletion. [2]

This analysis led many other researchers in the field to challenge the whole concept of ego-depletion, or at least its relative impact on our willpower. This led to the latest study in which they tried replicating all of the ego-depletion experiments with no significant results.

HOW RESEARCHERS MADE AN 18-YEAR MISTAKE

If we accept that ego-depletion is at least relatively insignificant, then the question becomes, how did over 100 studies get this wrong?

Well, as a science, psychology is one of the least “black and white.”

Humans are complicated. There are so many aspects of our thinking and behavior that are left up to interpretation. This interpretation is so varied, in fact, that when one research team tried to replicate 100 psychological experiments, only 40% of them were confirmed! [3]

Let's take the poster-child of psychology, Sigmund Freud, as an example of how interpretation can go awry. Freud had many crazy ideas by today’s standards. These include his belief that all males have an “Oedipus complex” and that all females have “penis envy.”

Amazingly, people accepted many of these ideas at the time. This was because Freud could always explain behavior of people through his ideological framework. He could look to past behavior of individuals and figure out a way to explain it through his ideas. [4]

In the same way, psychologists with the “ego-depletion” framework could always explain the behavior of their participants through that idea. This allowed them to claim ego-depletion was taking place in experiments where there was, perhaps, another phenomenon going on.  

WHAT THIS ALL MEANS FOR YOU AND ME

So what does this really mean? Is the entire Willpowered body of work completely ruined?

Well, unfortunately, some of it is.

My interpretation of the science of willpower has always been a mixture of biological factors (which usually rely on the ego-depletion idea) and psychological factors (which don’t).

Biological examples:What Fuels Willpower?10 Best Foods for Long-lasting WillpowerWillpower is a Limited ResourcePsychological examples:Want Power—How to Tap Into Your True PotentialThe Overwhelming Power of Small WinsThe Extraordinary Value of Identity on Your Willpower

When I first began my research, I probably believed that strengthening your willpower was about 70% biological and 30% psychological. I was here:

 

But as I’ve continued my research, it has become obvious that the psychological factors are more important. At the beginning of 2016, I’d say I was about here:

Today, after spending a full month thoroughly reviewing the new literature refuting ego-depletion, it looks like we’re about here:

Biological factors like what you eat, how much you sleep, and how much mental energy you’re exerting on stressful tasks, still matter. Anyone who goes to work after a poor night of sleep, or tries to exercise after a stressful workday, knows this well.

However, it seems that these biological factors are not as important to your willpower as we once thought they were.

The science today indicates that factors like finding your purpose, having the proper perspective, and breaking your huge tasks into small, manageable chunks are far more important to strengthening your willpower and reaching your goals. [5]

THE CONSEQUENCES OF REFUSING TO BE WRONG

When I learned about the fact that ego-depletion may have little to no affect on willpower, I immediately became emotional. I was angry, embarrassed, and was on the search for any information that would tell me, “it’s okay, these researchers are all quacks—your ideas are safe.”

I didn't want to confront the fact that I was wrong. 

This reaction reminded me of a story that occurred in 1846 at Vienna General Hospital – where 1 in 6 women were dying of childbed fever. [6]

The doctors in the hospital were completely baffled by what was causing the disease. Many had theories such as the poor diets of women in Vienna, as well as the problems with the ventilation ducts in the department.

But a doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis had a completely radical idea of the cause of the disease.

He noticed that all of the doctors that were involved in the birthing process were also doing separate research on dead bodies. 

This was before the discovery of germs, so these doctors didn't sanitize their materials, use gloves, or even wash their hands between working on dead bodies and delivering babies.

So they carried all of the diseases with them, and the doctors themselves were killing the mothers! 

When he made this discovery, Semmelweis immediately began requiring that doctors wash their hands before and after performing medical procedures.

This practice saved countless lives within his department, but it was shut down quickly by the head doctor of Vienna General. He simply could not fathom that the doctors were the ones that were killing their patients.

So he ignored Semmelweis, attributed the disease to the ventilation system, and refused to adopt the new hand washing procedures throughout the hospital. Which, of course, led to more deaths and no progress. 

Embracing THE TRUTH

When I first heard of these studies, I was acting exactly like the head of Vienna General. I didn't want to confront the brutal facts, and my gut reaction was to deny it. 

Being wrong is one of the hardest things for us to accept. We attach our ideas to our sense of self-worth. And if we find evidence that our ideas are wrong, we take it as a personal attack against our character.

So we "fight back" against this new evidence by denying it, discrediting it, or searching for other evidence that confirms our original idea—which a quick search on Google will always provide. 

You must fight back against this temptation. Your ideas are a reflection of your understanding, not your character. 10 years ago, you may have held different ideas than you do today, but would you judge your past self as less of a person of character because of that? 

This new evidence has helped me realize that some of the ideas, strategies, and research that I write about are going to be wrong—and that's okay. All I can do as a writer and researcher is try my best to evaluate the latest evidence and share the findings with you. 

It's okay to not have all of the answers in life. It's not okay, however, to ignore the brutal facts, confirm our biases, and deny the truth.

Conclusion

20 years of research on willpower has been debunked. The evidence today shows that strong willpower relies less biological factors like food, and more on psychological factors like motivation.

When I learned that I was wrong about willpower, I wanted to ignore it, discredit it, and deny it. But being wrong about your ideas in life is inevitable. Your ideas are a reflection of your understanding, not your character. 

The only real hit to your character occurs when you decide to place your desire to be "right" over your desire for the truth. 

*Sources

The True Difference Between Knowledge and Understanding

Destin Sandlin thought the task would be simple.

One of his friends had created something he called, “a backwards bike.” [1]

The backwards bike concept is very basic:

When you move the handlebars to the left, the bike’s tire goes right.When you move the handlebars to the right, the bike’s tire goes left. 

Destin is about as smart as they come, and thought for sure that he’d be able to master the bike instantly.

Here’s what happened:

He couldn’t even get a solid pedal in! And Destin is not alone. He went around the country giving speeches about the backwards bike.

Here are some of the people trying to master it:

 

WHY CAN’T ANYONE RIDE A BACKWARDS BIKE? 

All of these people have knowledge about how the bike works. And the concept seems obvious...we just need to do everything we normally do on a bike, just the opposite way!

However…it’s not that easy—but why?

To put it in simple scientific terms, your memory of how to ride a bike is stored in a part of your brain known as "the cerebellum."

The cerebellum lies at the back of your brain and takes care of things like coordination, balance, and many more implicit functions that you don’t even think about. We would consider our cerebellum as our “intuitive brain.” [2]

*Note: the cerebellum does not include the limbic system or “primitive brain.”

Meanwhile your working memory and conscious movements are stored in a part of your brain known as "the cerebrum."

The cerebrum lies in the front of your brain and takes care of the movements that you are consciously aware of. It is the part of your brain that can express ideas and direct your actions. It is your “intellectual brain.” [3]

*Note: the cerebrum does include the pre-frontal cortex, where your willpower resides.

As I’m typing this sentence, my cerebrum is thinking about the words that I want to put on the page, and my cerebellum is directing my fingers to the locations of each key.

Here is a diagram of how the two communicate and what parts of the body they direct.

 

You can see the delicate balance between these two parts of your brain. And even if your cerebrum knows that you need to do things the opposite way, the messages to the cerebellum—which has years of bike-riding experience—are going to completely confusing.

By the same point, if someone moved a few letters on my keyboard, I would constantly make mistakes, even if I knew exactly where the new letters were!

REWIRING THE CEREBELLUM

So what would it take to change these pathways around? Would it be possible to learn how to ride the backwards bike?

Destin was determined to find out. So he practiced riding the backwards bike every day for months. Trying and failing over and over again—and embarrassing himself in the process.

Finally, after 8 month of slow progress, it finally clicked for Destin!

His cerebellum and cerebrum finally got onto the same page and could keep him moving forward on the backwards bike. His body now knew intuitively how to maintain balance and ride the bike backwards. 

KNOWLEDGE DOES NOT EQUAL UNDERSTANDING

Destin’s conclusion from this experiment was that knowledge does not equal understanding.

Just because you can know something intellectually, you still have intuitive thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are not going to change overnight.

Even if your intellectual brain knows that something is “bad” for you, that doesn’t mean that your intuitive brain, or your primitive brain (which I'll call the emotional brain for the purposes of this article) are going to be on the same page.

Even if you know intellectually that your fears of criticism or vulnerability aren’t justified, that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to will yourself to overcome them 10 minutes before you give a public speech.

And even if read about the absolute best strategy for overcoming procrastination, sticking to a diet, or mastering your productivity, your whole brain will not truly understand its benefits unless you are willing to commit to implementing it for a long period of time. 

KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND

So how do you begin to rewire the parts of your brain to truly grasp a new idea, skill, or strategy?

The obvious answer would be, “repetition, repetition, repetition.” However, you have to think about which part of your brain you need to rewire.

For example, if Destin had simply repeated to himself the words, “Okay handlebars right, turn left. Handlebars left, turn right” over those 8 months, he wouldn’t have been able to ride the bike. 

If he spent his time researching the complex neuroscience of riding a backwards bike, that wouldn’t have helped him ride it either.

The only way he was going to learn was to get on the bike everyday and ride.

Similarly, if you are trying to overcome a fear of public speaking, it’s not going to do you much good to repeat the words, “there’s nothing to be afraid of, there’s nothing to be afraid of, there’s nothing to be afraid of,” everyday.

Nor is it going to do much good to spend all of your time studying, “how to give a perfect speech.”

You need to practice giving a speech in front of a real audience on a consistent basis until your emotional brain feels more comfortable being on stage and gets over its fear.

But, of course, there are instances when you want to practice every day with your intellectual brain.

If you want to design a new bike, for example, riding around on one every day isn’t going to do you much good. Now you are going to have to do things like research complex engineering and design.

So whatever your goal is, think about whether you're going to need intellect, intuition, or emotion in order to achieve it. Then design your practice to rewire this part of your brain, and get ready for the long journey from knowledge to understanding. 

CONCLUSION

Knowledge does not equal understanding. Just because you know that your fears are not warranted, that something is "bad for you," or that a strategy will lead to success, does not mean that you truly understand these things. 

In order to understand, you need to summon the willpower to literally re-wire your brain. You need to practice your public speaking, learn to enjoy things that are "good for you," and implement a new strategy in your everyday life. 

Then prepare yourself for the long journey from knowledge to understanding. 

*Sources

Alison Cebulla's Story of Meth Addiction & Recovery

Hi. I’m Alison.

I live in Austin, Texas. I grew up in Grover Beach, California.

I work as Life Coach and am a Certified Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the world’s largest nutrition school. I am a Huffington Post blogger and speak at conferences in the US and Europe about trust, intimacy, and intuition. 

I am on a quest to always improve my physical and mental health, learn more and share more of what I learn with others. I derive purpose and meaning by ending suffering for myself and others.

And as Colin wrote about in his piece on The Example Rule, I was once addicted to meth.

How did I become addicted? 

Looking back on that time 12 years ago, with all that I’ve learned about myself it’s now easy to see that I was seeking connection with others. Drugs were a medium of connection: they were a ritual experience that helped me talk intimately with others.

The whole process was a ritual: getting the drugs, getting a friend or group together at someone’s home, taking the drugs out, doing the drugs, etc. Then the drugs themselves would facilitate talking, stimulating endorphins that would keep us chatting all night until the sun came up.

I didn’t have another ritual in place for this. I was 19 and was drinking alcohol a little but that one never appealed to me. I did join the Cal Women's Rugby team my freshman year but that didn't give me the deep intellectual talks I was craving. 

Dr. Brian Little says in his book Me, Myself, and Us; that extroverts, of which I’m one, perceive sensory input less.

So stimulants always helped me feel “normal” in my own skin; they brought me up to a level of stimulation where I could comfortably interact with the world. When sober, I felt itchy in my own skin, awkward, and removed.

The when/where/how of my meth addiction: 

For those of you reading this who just cannot even fathom how one might go about using methamphetamine, here are the specifics.

I had been exposed to cocaine in high school and halfway through my freshman year of college at UC Berkeley, I thought it could be fun to seek this drug out again. People are always shocked to hear that I sought it out on Craigslist and found it easily there.

I was finding interesting and exciting people on Craigslist with whom I was partying and was exposed to all sorts of new drugs. I was curious about them all!

One morning after an all nighter of cocaine and MDMA, I needed to go to work (I was a shop clerk at a women’s boutique) and my partner in crime, who was the director of an area hospital, crushed up a line for me.  

After I snorted the line, I asked him what it was. It was methamphetamine. I’ll never forget my thought in that moment, “shit, this is one of the ones I wasn’t going to do!”

I’d just crossed over from party to serious in one line.

Creating an addict

But like Colin says in his Example Rule piece, 85-90% of people who try meth don’t become addicts. My addiction didn’t happen overnight. I didn’t immediately want more. I wasn’t immediately hooked. I didn’t become a drug fiend.  

I didn’t start scratching imaginary scabs off my arms, lose my teeth, or move into a trailer.

But now I knew this thing existed and the line had been crossed. So as I continued to “party” on the weekends, sometimes I would use methamphetamine. It was a lot cheaper than cocaine and the high was about 100 times more intense, lasting for days and taking me to a place of euphoria.

What’s meth like?

Imagine your happiest most blissed out moment. Close your eyes and remember everything about it. Now imagine amplifying that feeling by 10 times, maybe 100 times, even. That’s a methamphetamine high.  

I do not at all want to glorify this destructive drug but the high feels really good.  

How did I go from casual use to addiction?

They say addiction is when something gets in the way of living your life. After several months of casual weekend use, I started to need it to function normally: to be awake enough to show up to class and work.

Taking it on a Monday morning instead of a Friday night: that’s addiction.

My life started to unravel: someone broke into my apartment and stole my laptop and camera, I was failing 2 out of 3 of the classes I was taking, I was feeling more lonely, depressed, and guilty by the day. Other weird stuff started happening and my life felt totally out of control.

What points did I reach to make me realize I had to quit?

My mom sent me a card in the mail that read “I love you and am so proud of you!” THAT is a moment when I felt so much shame about my drug use. “She wouldn’t love me if she knew what I’ve been hiding,” I thought.

I cried every day for a week and used a lot of drugs (counterintuitively) to mask the shame.

I had joined the Cal Women’s Rugby team at Berkeley and practices were becoming increasingly difficult. We did a lot of running and I was out of breath sooner and unable to keep up with the other women on the team. I felt embarrassed!

Failing at school. I had always been a straight-A student and it was a large part of my self worth. I was not allowed to fail!

I just knew “this isn’t me.” No one else in my family was a drug addict and I didn’t identify with myself anymore. My idea of myself was that I was a good student and an important community member. I’d grown up volunteering for community service groups and overachieving in every area.

I felt depressed. After a few months of drug use at regular intervals my thoughts got dark! I was questioning the purpose of life; the shame and guilt were really intense.  

How did I quit?1. I wasn’t afraid to ask for help.

The minute my life started spiraling downward I went to the UC Berkeley health clinic and started seeing a therapist and going to a group for addicts. The therapist sucked, which I can only say now. She’d never been an addict and just did not relate. I left every session thinking “fuck you.”

But still, it was awesome that I knew I deserved help when I needed it. I learned this from my parents. They both saw therapists after they got a divorce so I learned there’s no shame in seeing one.

2. I had the support and love of my parents.

Telling my parents that I had a hard drug problem was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life. They were shocked and disappointed but it never occurred to them to do anything else other than offer their love and support.

I moved back home with them while attending rehab and they trusted me which was a huge gift, and one I didn’t betray.

3. I had a strong identity based on being a successful person.

Much later I would come to see how much of my self worth was based on achievement, which is typical for children born in the 80s. It has taken a lot of work to find self worth that’s not based on external factors.

But this part of my identity was instrumental in helping me not stay addicted to meth. Because my worth relied on my success as a student, it was the stronger of the two identities and I could apply myself to school to feel good about myself.

4. I had a loving therapist who gave me empathy.

I’m not sure what I would have done without Donna from San Luis Obispo County Drug & Alcohol. She just gave me pure love and empathy. She had been a cocaine addict herself and related to me. She never shamed me for my behavior. She saw the good in me and always brought that out.

In her office I felt whole, enough, and capable of greatness. She treated me like a regular human: she never put me down, treated me like a criminal, or said demeaning things. I told her that I wasn’t enjoying one of the classes and she said “then don’t go! Don’t do things you don’t enjoy!” And that was that. No one had ever given me that permission before!

5. 3 month outpatient rehab program that was almost free.

I think I only had to pay $5-$10 for each visit which was about 3 times a week between one-on-one with my drug counselor and the group classes. Thanks SLO County!

My parents would not have been able to pay for me to go to a fancy treatment center so I’m so grateful this nearly-free resource was available. I consider myself so lucky. I’m not sure that all communities have free centers this good.

6. 12 Step meetings: believing in a power greater than myself, a sober community and sober friends, 1 day at a time.

The 12 Steps are popular for a reason! They really work! I never got a sponsor or anything but I went to meetings every week, even though that felt weird, new, and uncomfortable. Hearing everyone’s stories helped me feel not alone.

Not everyone at the meetings were great company but I did make one sober friend and we would carpool to meetings. I had been an avid atheist my entire life so this believing in a higher power was a change. It helped me step away from narcissism and cynicism.

The 12 step program is a lot about powerlessness and that might seem counter-intuitive but it just works! Once you admit powerlessness over addiction, you can treat it with the reverence it deserves instead of pretending it’s not a problem.

7. Desire to be healthy and in shape.

My family members are all in shape and athletic. Going to the gym became my new behavior replacement for drugs. If I felt myself remembering how good the meth was (that pull was strong), I’d go to the gym and get on the elliptical machine for an hour until it went away.

8. Vanity.

I often joke that this was the biggest factor in my recovery. When I was 17 I won a beauty pageant and rode in the back of sports cars in parades waving at patrons while wearing a crown and gown.

After 6 months on meth I was way too skinny, pale, and my face was broken out. I looked hollow and felt even worse. How I looked was important to me. If the urge to use was strong I could fall back on “no, I don’t want to look that gross again.”

9. Boyfriend = addiction transfer.

I was in a codependent relationship with one boyfriend for several years after rehab. He was a great guy and we grew a lot together, but I used it as a crutch in a lot of ways and would get very emotional about little things.

Looking back I see I transferred many of my addictive tendencies to relationship addiction, which was much less destructive than hard drug addiction, and much more socially acceptable. This topic is a whole separate blog post!

10. Moving to Asheville, North Carolina.

Part of drug use for me was exploring new things and having exciting experiences. Moving to Asheville filled that hole for me. I had a new town, new state, and new coast to explore!

11. I got a life.

I attended Unitarian Universalist Church every Sunday and joined the choir, I took organic gardening classes, I went hiking in nature often.

12. Luck factor: having a roommate that introduced me to yoga.

By chance I moved in with a woman who was coincidentally attending grad school to be a drug counselor. Thank you random chance! She managed a yoga studio and hooked me up with a few free classes to try out. This was a gateway to Eastern spirituality, mindfulness, self reflection, being present in my body, and meditation.

“How many times did you try and how many times did you fail to quit?”

This goes to prove Colin’s point in his piece. People have huge misconceptions about drug use. It’s assumed that everyone who tries drugs must fail and fail again on their path to getting clean. For me it just took deciding once.

This same person responded upon hearing this, “well then that makes you an expert on willpower!”  Hopefully my list of factors that contributed to my recovery paints a picture of why I’m one of the ones who used and found it not that hard to walk away.

I know that drug use and rehab led me on the path to coaching and I love my career as a life coach. Rehab taught me that there were new ways of being to be learned that could improve my life. This got me curious about all the habits and mindsets I didn’t know about yet that could give me a better life!

“You mean I can just call a friend when I’m feeling sad instead of using drugs?!” This was a revelation, ”What else don’t I know about?!”

Thus started my path of coping with the mystery that is life. This has now turned into learning more each and every day about how to thrive. Not to simply cope or survive, but to savor and enjoy every moment.

This is a guest post by Alison Cebulla.

Alison works as a Life Coach and is a Certified Health Coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the world’s largest nutrition school. She is a Huffington Post blogger and speaks at conferences in the US and Europe about trust, intimacy, and intuition.

Why You're Deceived by "The Example Rule"—and How to Find the Truth

Frightened for her life, Alison Cebulla jumped out of the way of the car rolling toward her. Then she looked up…

“The car was actually just parked there,” she told me. “It wasn’t moving at all. I was so sleep deprived, I was hallucinating all the time. So I looked like a crazy person.”

This was Alison’s lowest point in her addiction to methamphetamine.

“I grew up in a pretty low-income neighborhood. There were some pretty traumatizing moments such as being sexually harassed on the bus ride home from older male high school students.

I would say the majority of kids with whom I attended elementary school didn't end up graduating from high school. Many of them were young drug users, even if just marijuana and early drinking.

To paint a picture, my hometown feels much like Baja, Mexico: dirt streets or streets without sidewalks, ramshackle homes, all surrounded by big monoculture farmland. My family didn't really fit in—it still baffles me to this day why my mom decided to buy a house there.“

Starting her senior year of high school, Alison fell in with a group of friends who would party regularly. For this group, that meant a lot of drinking.

"There was a lot of marijuana smoking but that never appealed to me," shares Alison. “But towards the end of the school year, I found out my best girlfriend was doing this really sexy-sounding drug, cocaine, so I gave it a try.

I loved feeling alert and also having this taboo secret with my friends. It made me feel important and also sneaky."

When Alison got to college, she felt out of place. She didn’t have the intense study habits of her peers, she didn’t live in the dorms, and she wasn’t used to the urban setting. She found she didn't have good coping skills and remembered how fun it was to connect over drugs and alcohol.

So she once again turned to a crowd who used drugs to find a place of comfort. However, this new group exposed Alison to something she’d never had before—methamphetamine.

She started using the drug regularly, and eventually she couldn’t stop. She would use meth for 3 days straight and feel completely empty and depressed without it. To snap herself out of the funk, she would find herself taking more.

This led to a terrible path of indulgence, addiction, and her life unraveling.

She lost 15lbs because she wasn’t eating.

She was robbed, nearly sexually assaulted, and frequently broke down crying.

And finally her health was so bad that she couldn’t make it through her rugby practice.

Luckily, that moment playing rugby woke her up to the fact that she had a problem. It motivated her to check herself into rehab, overcome her addiction, and never touch meth again.

Alison's story sums up exactly what we think we know about meth addiction—but in reality, Alison is about as far from the stereotype there is.

STEREOTYPE MEETS REALITY

The broad strokes of Alison’s addiction meet the stereotype perfectly.

Girl comes from a low-income neighborhood.Starts experimenting with drugs in high school.Doesn’t fit in with the “good kids” at her college.Begins hanging out with a “bad crowd” of people.Gets exposed to one of the most dangerous drugs, meth.Once she starts, she can’t stop and becomes an addict.Her life begins unraveling as she uses it more and more.Eventually she hits “rock-bottom” and has to get treatment.

But a closer look reveals that she is completely the opposite of the stereotype.

When Alison was in high school, she was a brilliant student. She took multiple college-level courses, got great grades, and had amazing options to attend college.

The friends she was experimenting with opened her mind to a realm of possibilities about what she could accomplish and who she could become.

The college she attended was the University of California at Berkeley—one of the top schools in the country.

And the “bad crowd” she began hanging out with mostly consisted of successful San Francisco neuroscientists who would engage her in the same stimulating conversations that opened her mind to possibilities.

This group, however, didn’t have any knowledge of how to reduce the harms of the drug. Meth is a stimulant that keeps you focused and energized for hours. So because she lost sleep, she had to take more to simply have enough energy to function—leading to dependence and addiction.

For her treatment, it wasn’t as simple as just getting the drug out of her system. What truly helped her overcome her addiction was talking to a therapist who was once addicted to cocaine. She helped her find the root cause of the problem and discuss things she couldn’t with anyone else.

Finally, this experience didn’t ruin her life. In fact, Alison believes it improved it! Because it allowed her to meet people and confront issues she may otherwise not have.

"The biggest thing that I got out of it was being exposed to people I wouldn't have normally been around. It opened up my heart to empathy and compassion for so many different types of people.

That is the biggest gift I never asked for. It has helped me in my work as a life coach in understanding the traumas that can hold people back from being their best.

My only regret is hurting people I loved," Alison shares. "My family and friends were concerned for me. They probably thought they could lose me forever."

But they didn't. Today Alison is a successful wellness coach, writer for the Huffington Post, and speaks at conferences all over the U.S. about trust, intimacy, and intuition.

WHY IS THERE A GAP?

As you read through Alison’s story, you probably built up a picture in your mind about her.

You may have thought of someone with weak willpower, bad teeth, and scabs all over her body—rather than an extremely bright Berkeley student who was spending time with successful San Francisco neuroscientists.

Yet, 85-90% of people who use a drug even as villainized as methamphetamine never become addicted to it as Alison did. [1]

And 6 out of 10 people who do become addicted have a story similar to Alison’s—they realized they needed help, and confronting the deeper psychological issue through therapy is what ultimately helped them to overcome the addiction. [2]

In fact, only about 4% of people who use meth become seriously addicted—meaning the drug is causing serious harm to their health or lifestyle and they cannot stop. [3]

Compare that to a 34% obesity rate in America and one may even conclude that meth is less harmful than junk food! 

Methamphetamine death statistics: [4] , Junk food death statistics (Heart Disease): [5], Obesity statistics: [6]

 Why is it, then, that even after reading Alison’s story and knowing the statistics, will you still walk away from this article feeling exactly the same about meth?

THE EXAMPLE RULE

As I wrote about in my article on fear, your perceived dangers are based in the primitive part of your brain known as the limbic system.

This primitive brain doesn’t think rationally.

It thinks in terms of images and feelings. And it burns those images and feelings into your memory so you instinctively know to avoid potential dangers. 

The more examples of these images you see, the more dangerous you will believe the threat is. This is known as “The Example Rule.” [7]

The Example Rule cycle goes like this:

 The more times we repeat this cycle, the more we believe it’s true.

Meanwhile, we don’t hear the stories of Alison—the bright student who did meth, realized she had a problem, and got effective treatment. Her story simply isn’t as compelling as the bright student who did meth, got addicted, and overdosed.

And we surely don’t get the examples from the 85-90% of people who use the drug occasionally without a problem. We would shame those people for their drug use or even treat them like criminals.

No one felt that shame more than Alison.

"It took years to get over the shame of feeling like a criminal drug addict," she told me.

"9 years after rehab is when I finally came out and shared my story publicly with my blog readers. I had kept it so secret because I felt like there was something bad about me. Then I decided to own my story and that it could be an empowering one instead of a shameful one."

Undoubtedly, there are thousands of other people feeling that shame who will never come forward as Alison did.

So if after years of The Example Rule giving you plenty of images of the dangers of meth, some science blogger comes along and tells you that those images represent an extreme minority, you won’t believe him.

Because the images and feelings are burned so deep inside you that your primitive brain tells you they must be true. [7]

HOW THE EXAMPLE RULE APPLIES TO YOU

The Example Rule doesn’t just apply to things we believe are bad, it also applies to things we believe are good.

If we see good looking people with tanned skin, we’ll believe in the idea of a “healthy tan.”

If we’re told by parents and teachers that a college degree is the ticket to getting a good job, we’ll take out those student loans!

If we see everyone else counting calories, we’ll believe that’s the most important factor in our health.

All of the examples have some level of truth, of course. Meth is harmful, sun exposure is good in small doses, a college degree is generally a good thing, and calories are a factor of your health.

The problem occurs because we believe these examples are absolute facts. We don’t dig deeper into the complex issues that lie beneath, and we distrust any information that go against our examples.

So we treat meth users without a problem as criminals.

We ignore the potential dangers of skin cancer.

We don’t consider the high paying jobs you can get without a college degree.

And we adhere to the “calories in, calories out" philosophy.

HOW TO FIND THE TRUTH

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to defeat The Example Rule.

Like I said earlier, even readers who trust the most won’t fully believe that a demonized drug like methamphetamine isn’t as dangerous as we’ve been told—I didn’t believe it either!

Stats…facts…rationality…unfortunately none of that is enough to overcome the primitive brain’s feelings and emotions. But you can fight back.

1. TAKE A MOMENT OF SELF-AWARENESS

The first step is to simply take a moment of self-awareness.

When you begin to feel that fear, disgust, or belief that something has to be true, pause. Begin to question whether your feelings are based on real evidence, or examples you have seen through the media, TV, rumors, etc.

Taking this moment to pause will turn on your pre-frontal cortex—your modern brain—and give you more willpower to try to find the truth. [8]

2. EMBRACE YOUR DESIRE FOR THE TRUTH

Once you’ve taken this moment, think about the genuine value of understanding the truth.

Deep down, humans have a desire to understand the truth—especially when it comes to health, prosperity, and justice.

And your modern brain’s desire for the truth can overcome your primitive brain’s feelings and emotions the same way it can overcome your primitive brain’s desires to indulge and procrastinate. [9]

Despite the feelings, emotions, and motivations of the primitive brain, your modern brain is the one in control. And remembering how important the truth is as an individual or as a society might just give you the willpower to find it. 

CONCLUSION

Alison Cebula was not who I thought she would be when I was lucky enough to meet her. I was expecting someone who fit the “meth head” example I’d seen through anti-drug ads, the media, and Breaking Bad.

Instead I found an intelligent person who felt out of place, made some bad decisions, realized she had a problem, and got the help she needed to take care of the bigger problems she was dealing with.

She is amongst the 96% of people who use methamphetamine without it completely ruining their lives. But we don’t hear their stories, we hear about the 4% who do have a serious problem with it.

And we believe those 4% are the majority because of The Example Rule. The more we see examples of something, the more likely we are to believe its true—regardless of the facts.

To overcome this tendency, you must pause, take a moment for self-awareness, and tap into your inner desire to understand the truth. Because like an inspiring purpose, your primitive brain is no match for your genuine desire for the truth.

*Sources