Subtitle (71)
0:04- Most habits are good.
0:06They are working for you,
0:07you just don't realize it.
0:10There are parts of our brain
0:12that we really don't
understand how they work.
0:15We don't have access to them.
0:17I've called these the 'Second-self.'
0:20It's another self that we
don't interact with very much.
0:24We just see the effects of our habits,
0:28but we don't necessarily control them.
0:33And because we don't have access to it,
0:35we are very much influenced
by the things we can know.
0:40And the 'Introspection Illusion'
0:43is our tendency to focus too much
0:46on the pieces that we know,
the experiences we have;
0:51our feelings, our beliefs,
the reasons why we do things.
0:56So you don't recognize
0:58that a lot of the things that you do
1:01are out of habit instead of out of choice.
1:14It's hard to imagine that
people back in the 1990s
1:17did not know that they were supposed
1:19to eat more fruits and
vegetables than they are,
1:23The 5 A Day Program was
extremely successful.
1:27In one way, it convinced us all
1:30to eat more fruits and vegetables.
1:32So it was really effective
at informing people,
1:36getting them to realize they
should change their behavior.
1:39They were just trying to convince people,
1:41thinking, "If we can only get people
1:43to realize they need to do this,
1:45they will of course do it
1:47because it's good for your health."
1:48People don't work that way.
1:50The campaign did not
change people's habits.
1:54It changed their understanding.
1:56So the habit is a default.
1:58It's what you do when you're not thinking,
2:00and you intervene on that
2:03with more conscious, thoughtful decisions.
2:06Again, you have this
'habit self' out here,
2:10eating things that we've
all eaten all along
2:17And then, our 'decision-making
self' feeling guilty
2:21because we're not following through
2:23with what we now know we should do.
2:25The habit system is not part
of our conscious awareness;
2:32it's part of the unconscious.
2:38So if you have these two systems,
2:41the question is, 'How do
they relate to each other?'
2:44Unless we have some
understanding of how that works,
2:49it sets us up to be fighting ourselves.
2:52So we have habits to do one thing
2:54that we don't really recognize,
2:56and then we have our conscious
thoughts and feelings
3:00And in order to really meet
your goals effectively,
3:04those two things have
to be more integrated.
3:08If you are a successful person,
3:11your habits and your more
conscious, 'thoughtful self'
3:17are definitely working together.
3:19What we've learned in
the past couple of years
3:21is that people who have
really good self-control
3:25are actually acting on habit.
3:28They had figured out how to form habits
3:33that met their goals-
3:35for health, for productivity,
for relationships.
3:40Having an effective habit can set you up
3:46to do the things that you want in life,
3:49and can integrate both your habit self
3:54and your more thoughtful, conscious self.
