Which of you has the habit of starting a task, immersing yourself in the process, and then quitting without finishing it?
Today we will try to understand the reasons for this phenomenon from the perspective of the hormonal system.
Read about what is necessary to focus on your goal and how much time is needed for a new habit or action to become established.
How a lack of happiness hormones prevents you from finishing what you started
Usually, when we say we cannot finish tasks, we explain it from the perspective of the chakra system. We recommend strengthening the solar plexus chakra, which is responsible for willpower.
But this issue can also be viewed in terms of hormones and how they work.
I am not a specialist in this field; I researched this topic myself using books, for example, “Hormones of Happiness: How to Train Your Brain to Produce Serotonin, Dopamine, Endorphins, and Oxytocin” by author Graziano Breuning Loretta. So if you want to delve deeply into this, read relevant literature on the subject.
This book thoroughly explains how the reptilian brain works. In reptiles, the main function is to flee and survive. They have no thoughts at all. Everything is completely programmed.
We also have these reptilian reactions, and in a state of stress, the reptilian brain, responsible for survival, kicks in. But we differ from animals in that we have conscious reactions layered on top due to the larger volume of the human brain.
These four hormones (serotonin, dopamine, endorphins, and oxytocin), on one hand, provoke us to take action, but the pathways built in the brain finish developing around adolescence. It is believed that everything is already structured and determined.
From this point on, we become more conservative, following paths and trails familiar to the brain’s biochemistry.
If a person starts something and tends to quit, it indicates a need for dopamine, for vivid impressions, for something new.
When you get something new, or you anticipate something new, you get a high from it. The problem with this hormone is that it works only once: “Ooh, I signed up for a course, so cool! Now I’ll work on it!”
You listened to the first lesson and deflated. Because after that, there is no longer this hormonal reaction. There is no feeling of victory, no feeling of joy, no feeling created by biochemistry.
See also How you create illusions to justify inaction
Two ways to finish what you started
And here discipline comes into play.
At a more mature age, when a person’s brain and nervous system are already built, gray matter turns into white matter. Whatever you do, it takes more effort to introduce something new.
Everything new ends with teenage curiosity. That means there are only two ways that help to see things through to the end.
The first way is emotional shock. For example, you tried for a long time to implement something and failed, and suddenly it works precisely because of this shock. As you understand, negative shocks most often work with people. Whether you need it or not, that’s a question for you.
And the second point is repeated repetition. The older a person is, the more conservative they are, the more often they walk on habitual autopilot, along familiar routes, the more repetitions they need.
See also Why it is important to be flexible and how to learn it
The main difference between human and animal brain biochemistry
From the perspective of human biochemistry, we are characterized by expecting, predicting, imagining. The most important thing is to stop in time. No animal can do this.
It is the human brain that is capable of this because it has free neurons. I recommend reading Andrey Beloveshkin even for general development, to understand how it all works. You will find answers and explanations to many of your questions, especially regarding the reptilian brain.
Our primary reaction to stress is always reptilian. And only then does something more advanced kick in. Remember those jokes: “Why doesn’t a cat or a bird sit and ponder, regret, or consider itself bad, despite the fact that it didn’t save its offspring, and everything was devoured in front of it?” They don’t have that at all.
Animals do not have these free neurons that can build at least some pathways and learn something new.
That is precisely why almost all animals, except for great apes, are born as fully mature individuals. It takes about three months to mature, and they are already ready to move.
Three types of information. How we perceive it
We watch some broadcasts once, others many times, because we get stuck on certain thoughts. Have you noticed?
There are three types of information. The first type of information is absorbed immediately, some information is immediately rejected: “Not for me, I don’t even delve into it.” And on some, you get stuck.
At least, my brain works this way — I get stuck on something. I realize I don’t see what hooked me here, and I walk around with that thought for a while.
I usually copy it, write it down somewhere, open it, and try to reproduce it each time. When I’ve absorbed the information, I can easily repeat it; when it’s not mine, I can also repeat it.
But sometimes, I understand there’s something there, yet I can’t reproduce it, and I have to open and look at the source over and over again to see where I copied it from.
How to refocus yourself on what you need and why we more often focus on the opposite
Our brain is structured in such a way that ten times more neurons tell the eye what to pay attention to, what to look at, than the other way around.
That is, what you focus your attention on gives a command through the brain for the eyes to see. And if you are focused on negativity, no matter how hard you try, you cannot see anything else.
Therefore, to see something new, new opportunities, focus on the fact that you are looking for these opportunities, you are ready and open.
And this is where a kind of mantra comes into play, which you repeat over and over, like certain points. They allow you to fix and focus your attention, your energy. Accordingly, to retune your brain, or more precisely, the neurons in your brain and the entire hormonal system, so that it focuses on what you need.
And this is a long journey. Remember that fairy tale about 21 days — and you have a new habit? Given the above, even 90 days of daily repetition may not be enough for some, simply because they have been in something for a very long time.
See also: How to keep your focus of attention on the reality where you want to be
Write in the comments how much time you usually need to establish a new habit or implement a new action? Do you have difficulties seeing things through to the end?
Excerpt from a supporting webinar for clients of the Keys of Mastery Training Center, February 2020