Speaker 1: Hello Habit Mechanics .
It's Dr John Finn here.
I hope you're having a fantastic week so far.
I hope by now you have at least noticed that we've released a
new book Train your Brain for the AI Revolution, the Proven
Four-Step System to Become Irreplaceable.
And possibly most importantly for many people, no Tech Skills
Required and possibly, most importantly, for many people, no
tech skills required.
So for some of you you may have read the entire book.
For others you may be thinking about reading it.
For others still, you may be a few or more chapters in.
So what I've decided to do, what we've decided to do here at
tougher minds hq, is to release the entire book as the entire
audio book, which has been free for a while anyway inside the
app, but we thought we'd put it into the pod as well and put a
bit of a commentary around it.
So installment is going to be chapters one to seven of the
book, then there will be all the chapters connected to step um
two, then all the chapters connected to step sorry, all the
chapters connected to step one, then all chapters connected to
step two and three and four and so on and actually saying that
out loud makes me realize there will be six uh segments to this
podcast.
So if you if you've if you've started reading the book, then
you will understand that our renewed mission is to help
people to master their brain states, because we genuinely
believe that this is going to be humanity's most important skill
the ability to understand how our brain actually works and
start getting more control of how our brain is functioning
through the brain state model.
We know that psychological performance, what we might call
cognitive performance, is the final frontier of human health,
happiness and performance.
But it's like the Wild West, literally.
There are loads of things out in the market, loads of claims
being made and a lot of it is absolute nonsense.
It's made up or it's drawn from theoretical models that were
created way before we actually understood how brains worked.
And what we've been doing here at tougher minds for over 25
years now is rebuilding the performance coaching model from
the the ground upwards or from the brain downwards, and we like
to think of it as the dyson of coaching.
So anyone who's experienced our coaching, they know it's
different.
Anyone who's read the habit mechanic, they see that what
we're doing is different because we start with the brain and how
the brain works, and not just that, we show you how to move
from knowing what it's a good idea to be doing and how to
automate that.
So you've got a behavioral bridge between knowing and doing
.
And what we've done inside of the new book train your brain
for their evolution is we've tried to make that simpler still
through our four-step success cycle methodology.
Um, so that's what you get inside of train your brain for
the ir revolution.
It's designed to give you simple you a simple practical
framework that you can use immediately, and you can learn
this system in under three hours , and you can show others how to
use it as well if you want, and you get something which we
believe is humanity's most important skill.
So we want to share this with as many people as possible and
fundamentally, there are three core things that we talk about
inside Train your Brain for the AI Revolution.
The first thing is that brain performance is your hidden AI
era advantage.
It's not about the tech.
The tech's pretty straightforward because it's so
heavily invested in in the sense of it's easy to use.
What is much more challenging is getting our brains working
well, because AI tools and they will transform our world as we
know it they are only as good as you and your brain because
humans have to operate the tools to get the most out of them.
So the first thing that we want to help people to do is to get
personal mastery over their brain states, and we see this as
as your new secret weapon in being at your best and getting
all the stuff that you want to get done to the standard.
You want to get it done without burning out.
The second core thing that we talk about in Training your
Brain for the AI Revolution is that we see that human AI
coaching is the future of leadership.
So if you want to lead others, you want to coach other people
or you want to lead in an organisation, the key is going
to be helping others to master their own brain states, and we
map out in the book how you can start to coach others to thrive
in the ai world.
So human ai coaching I've not heard anyone else even use that
term, never mind write a book centered around it and we're
actually already training people to become certified human AI
coaches and by going through the book you'll see exactly what we
mean by that.
The third core idea in Train your Brain for the Air Evolution
is that brain smart teams will win the AI race.
So if you've got a business, if you're running a team and you
want to be a thriving organisation, the key is going
to be to get your people brain smart as quickly as you can,
because what we see going forward, it's a bit like Lean.
Sigma 6 was fundamental for manufacturing firms being
successful in the 80s, 90s, early 2000s.
We see those famous case studies of people like GE and
Toyota car manufacturers.
Much like Lean, sigma 6 was crucial for them.
We see that brain state intelligent cultures are going
to be the key for successful organizations and teams in the
AI era, and at the heart of a brain state intelligent culture
are brain smart teams.
That means teams who understand how their brains work.
In other words, they understand brain states, understand how to
manage their brain states individually and collectively,
because that's how the only constant in the AI era is new
problems to solve, and actually we can solve those problems
faster than ever by using AI, but we can only do that if our
brains are working really well.
So there's some of the things that you learn about in Train
your Brain for the AI Revolution .
It's what all of our work is currently centred on, so we're
helping people one-to-one, to manage their own brain state.
So we're doing lots of one-to-one coaching and you're
seeing lots of the fantastic case studies coming out of the
work that people like our head of coaching, andrew Foster, is
doing Got senior leaders talking about how they have doubled
their salary, talking about how they're being offered equity
sharing businesses because they are now being seen as AI leaders
and they're attributing that to the work that we're doing with
them.
We're seeing our first group of human AI coaches going out into
the world and having a similar impact to Andrew Foster and the
team.
So actually coaching people within their own businesses or
setting up their own coaching practices and actually training
people in the skills that we talk about when unpacking Train
your Brain for the AI Revolution .
And then we're also working with organisations to create
BrainSmart teams and help businesses to create behavioural
bridges between what they know or what they'd like their people
to do, to actually automating more of that really great
behavior that makes it easier for people to engage in the
business, but also for the business to thrive and everybody
in it to thrive.
So, yeah, so what's going to come up then is, um, the first
seven chapters of train your brain for the air revolution.
My temptation is always to say the Habit Mechanic, because
that's so wired in my brain.
But I don't think I've slipped up yet on this pod, but excuse
me if I do in the future.
But what you get in chapter one is your first three-minute
brain state, state two, and we introduce the three brain states
in chapter two.
It's called unleashing your brain's full potential in the ai
era.
So we start to talk more about so.
In in chapter one we go quite deep on recharge, the recharge
brain step, and in chapter two we talk a bit more about medium
charge and high charge and then we introduce the success cycle
at a high level.
Chapter three we talk about the lighthouse brain.
That might be familiar to some people from the Habit Mechanic
and we go further with that concept inside of this new book.
And we go further with that concept inside of this new book.
Then we talk about chapter four .
We talk about the brain's power modes, extending that
lighthouse brain metaphor, talking about a solar-powered
rechargeable lighthouse or battery that's running the
lighthouse.
Then we introduce Willpower, who is one of the core
characters in the lighthouse brain.
We introduce Willpower's assistants in chapter 5 where we
fully introduce the success cycle.
So you're going to meet the task director, the day designer
and the routine engineer and you'll learn more about those.
And then chapter 6 we give you a practical example of the
success cycle in action, and that's a distinct feature of
train your brain for the ai revolution.
Compared to the habit mechanic, the habit mechanic is packed
full of case studies of people that we've worked with, people
that we admire, people that are highly successful for train your
brain for their evolution.
There's some part of it that people really like, because, if
multiple people have told me is there told me, there's a
constant narrative going through of Sarah's story.
So we show you how Sarah uses these tools in her daily life.
And then chapter seven, which I really like, is the happiness
equation, where we really draw out what is happiness and what
are the core components.
For me, happiness is like an equation, and if you understand
what the equation is, you've got a much better chance of it
working in your life.
So we unpack that.
So that's it.
So coming up, you're going to hear chapters.
I'll include the introduction as well as a bonus, just so you
understand how to get the most out of the book but then you'll
hear chapters one to seven.
I would really encourage you to look at the e-book, look at the
physical book.
There are lots of very powerful visuals in the book book.
There are lots of very powerful visuals in the book.
Um, obviously, we can't get those across in an audio book,
but the book is is organized around the four core steps of
the success cycle and there's a the bonus step, which is the
learning how to help others.
And you know, the physical book and the e-book are just very,
very deliberately put together.
I think the physical book is it's under 10 UK pounds and I
know it's discounted on Amazon, so in the US it's probably just
over $10.
So we've made it as cheap as we can.
Literally, we just want to get this out there, so we're not
making anything on the book.
The physical book it's pretty much break even.
Do get a copy.
It's not going to break the bank and I think that, um,
you'll get more out of it because, again, it's a book to
be written in and to be um for you to, to encourage you to take
notes and things from.
So, anyway, yeah, enough of me twittering on.
Next you're going to hear the book and, as ever, if you have
any questions, thoughts, reflections, then get in touch.
We would love to hear from you.
This book is brought to you by tougher minds.
Publishing train your brain for the ai revolution the proven
four-step system to become irreplaceable, no tech skills
required.
Written, written by Dr John Finn and read by me.
Dr John Finn Our mission I created this book because I
believe mastering our brain states will become humanity's
most vital skill for health, happiness and success in the AI
era.
I'll guide you in mastering your own brain states and show
you how to help others do the same.
This book is dedicated to the pioneers who will help humanity
master its brain states and create an extraordinary future
in the AI era.
Thank you for being a pioneer and joining me on this mission.
How to get the most out of this book?
Inside offices, worldwide professionals stare at their
screens, surrounded by AI tools that promise to transform their
work.
Each offers incredible capabilities analysing data,
managing projects, handling routine tasks.
Yet, despite all this technological power, many feel
more overwhelmed than ever.
Something isn't clicking.
To understand what isn't clicking, consider this
counterintuitive truth Success in the AI era doesn't require
mastering every single artificial intelligence tool.
Instead, the foundation lies in mastering something far more
sophisticated your brain, the most complex technology in the
known universe.
The key is understanding how to optimise your brain's three
essential energy modes, what I call your brain states.
This book provides a science-based system for
optimising how your brain naturally cycles through
different states throughout the day.
Learning to match these brain states to different types of
work transforms how you create value in our AI augmented world.
And even if you have not used any AI tools yet, you'll still
get a great deal out of this book.
Through our work with over 20,000 professionals, from
Fortune 500 executives to world-class athletes, we've
proven these brain optimization principles work in real world
settings.
Building on the foundation of my best-selling book, the Habit
Mechanic, I've created the Habit Mechanic AI Edge System to help
you thrive in this new technological landscape.
How this book works, you'll learn the success cycle, our
proven four-step system for optimising your brain states in
the AI era.
You can start using these practical tools immediately to
enhance your performance and reduce overwhelm.
By the midpoint of the book, you'll have everything you need
to implement this systematic approach for thriving in our
AI-augmented world.
The second half provides deeper insights into the science
behind these practices, helping you refine your approach as you
gain experience and as AI technology evolves.
And as AI technology evolves, work through the success cycle
steps in sequence from understanding your brain state
patterns to organising your tasks, to optimising your daily
rhythm, to making improvements automatic.
Each step builds on the next.
Keep this book accessible as you integrate new AI tools into
your workflow.
The opportunities ahead are extraordinary and they're yours
to capture through optimising how your brain works with these
powerful new technologies.
If you have any questions about any area of this book, I am
here to help.
Just send me an email at contact at toughermindscouk, or
contact me via our website, toughermindscouk.
Let's begin with a simple but powerful tool that will
immediately make it easier for you to improve your brain state
management.
Chapter 1.
Your first 3-minute brain state tool.
Welcome, I'm Dr John Finn.
For 25 years, I've specialised in the behavioural science and
psychology of resilience, performance and leadership,
completing three degrees, including a PhD, in these fields
.
My expertise lies in helping individuals, teams and leaders
optimise their cognitive performance during periods of
significant change.
I've helped over 20,000 people.
Now, as we enter the most profound technological
transformation in human history the AI revolution, I'm
dedicating myself to helping people succeed in this
unprecedented era of change.
Whether you're just beginning to explore AI tools or already
using them regularly, the principles in this book will
help you integrate these technologies more effectively
into your life so you can thrive .
My research has revealed something counterintuitive
Professionals excel in the AI era not by mastering every
emerging technology, but by understanding and optimising
their brain's neurobiological energy patterns, which I call
your brain states.
More on the science later.
Those who grasp these patterns are completing sophisticated
projects in a fraction of the time, while maintaining energy
for what matters most in their lives.
Building on the principles from my best-selling book, the Habit
Mechanic, I've developed a practical four-step system
called the Success Cycle to help you master your brain states
and give you the human AI edge, so you can seize the
extraordinary opportunities of the AI era.
Whether you're seeking promotion, starting or growing a
business, developing your team or wanting more energy for
family life, mastering your brain states transforms what's
possible.
As we enter this unprecedented period.
Technology can either overwhelm us or help us create the lives
we truly want, and this system ensures you'll be among those
who thrive.
Your three brain states.
You have three brain states.
Here's a quick overview.
First, your recharge brain state.
This is your essential recovery mode when your brain rebuilds
its energy reserves.
Second, your medium charge brain state.
This is your efficient processing mode, perfect for
handling routine tasks.
Third, your high charge brain state.
This is your peak performance mode, enabling sophisticated
thinking and complex problem solving.
While you'll learn to master all three brain states, we begin
with your recharge brain state, the foundation for everything
else.
Without proper recharge, both medium and high charge states
become impossible to maintain effectively, making it
impossible for you to be healthy , happy and perform to your
potential.
Let me share a simple tool that will help you activate your
recharged brain state more easily.
I will introduce this tool using Sarah's story.
Sarah sat at her desk, her screen filled with three new AI
tools her company had recently implemented.
Each promised incredible productivity gains.
Yet she felt more overwhelmed than ever.
I have all these powerful tools , she told me later, but some
days I can barely focus enough to use them effectively.
Other days, I'm so wired from constant notifications that I
can't wind down.
At night.
I couldn't switch off, couldn't recharge.
There had to be a better way.
Sarah's transformation began with a simple but powerful tool
the daily three-to-one reflection.
The purpose is simple yet profound to help you calm your
thinking and achieve what we call the recharge brain state,
your brain's essential recovery mode.
Most importantly, this tool helps you learn to redirect your
mental spotlight to consciously guide your attention away from
threats and worries toward more helpful patterns of thinking.
To make the daily 3-1 reflection even more powerful,
you can activate brain circuits that naturally enhance positive
thinking through this pre-reflection routine.
First, choose one of these options Either take a
five-minute walk focusing on slow, calm breathing, or jump up
and down for five to ten seconds or more.
Second, quickly open and close your right hand several times.
Third, force yourself to smile while doing this.
Fourth, begin your daily three-to-one reflection, which
I'll show you how to do shortly.
This pre-reflection routine is powerful because it activates
your accumbens striatal prefrontal cortex network, what
Dr Kelly Lambert calls the effort-driven reward circuit.
By using your right hand specifically, you're engaging
the left prefrontal cortex, which is associated with
positive emotions.
Your right side activates your left brain.
Adding a smile strengthens this positive activation even
further.
Okay, ready, here goes.
Take a few minutes to complete the following two steps.
Step 1.
Rate yourself First.
Ask yourself this question how well did you do your best to be
your best and achieve your goals ?
Today?
You could say you did great or you failed, but I'd like you to
be a bit more accurate, because this will be more helpful for
you.
So please rate yourself from 1.
You failed to 10, you were perfect.
You are probably somewhere in between.
Write or type out your score.
Step 2.
Complete a focused reflection.
Write down or type out 3 or more positive or helpful things
about your day and then one area you can improve in the next 24
hours.
For example, here's one of Sarah's early reflections I am
proactively trying to get better at using AI tools.
I had breakfast with my family using AI tools.
I had breakfast with my family.
I am doing a three-to-one reflection, one thing to improve
in the next 24 hours get to bed 10 minutes earlier tonight than
last night.
At first it seemed too basic.
Sarah shared how could just writing down three positives and
one area for improvement help me to be at my best in the AI
era?
But within days I noticed something changing.
I was calmer.
I could see more clearly which tasks needed my best thinking
energy.
Most importantly, I was starting to understand my own
brain's patterns.
Here's the fascinating part of how this works You're actually
using your high-charge brain state, through focused writing,
to activate your recharged brain state.
I'll say that again.
You deliberately got yourself into a high-charge brain state
in order to activate a recharged brain state.
This is what makes the technique so powerful.
I use the 3-to-1 reflection every workday evening to process
the day, switch off and prepare for deep sleep.
And while it's called a 3-to-1 reflection, I actually write
down as many positive or helpful thoughts as I can possibly
think of.
The act of writing or typing is crucial.
It forces you to direct your mental spotlight away from
threats and worries toward helpful patterns of thinking.
This deliberate redirection of attention is the cornerstone of
training your brain, making daily 3-to-1 reflections easier.
To make it easier to complete regular daily 3-to-1 reflections
, I have created a PDF template.
I use this and if you want to use it, go to toughermindscouk
forward slash.
Train your brain.
To download your copy.
I will also remind you to complete exercises like the
daily three-to-one reflections in the Habit Mechanic podcast.
Listen to it here toughermindscouk forward slash
podcast.
Finally, our Habit Mechanic University app is also designed
to make completing regular daily 3-1 reflections easier.
To learn more, go to toughermindscouk If you want to
learn more about the science behind the daily 3-to-1
reflection.
I unpack it in Appendix A when I reveal the brain mechanics
behind emotional regulation.
But don't worry about that right now.
Let's keep going Now that you have this tool for activating
your recharged brain state, you might be wondering about your
medium and high charge states.
How do they work with AI tools, how can you optimise them for
peak performance and how do you maintain the right energy
throughout your day?
We'll explore all of this in our next chapter, but first, if
it's helpful, make a note to remind yourself to complete a
three-to-one reflection this evening, as Sarah discovered.
At first it seemed too basic, but that simple practice changed
everything.
Every journey begins with a single step, and this one will
create the foundation for everything we'll build together.
Chapter 2.
Unleashing your brain's full potential in the AI era.
Now that you understand how to activate your recharge brain
state, let's explore how your other brain states transform
your work with AI tools.
Remember Sarah After mastering the 3-to-one reflection, she
discovered something fascinating .
Once I could reliably activate my recharged state, she
explained, I started noticing clear patterns in my thinking
and energy throughout the day.
Some hours were perfect for mentally challenging work, while
others were better for routine tasks.
Understanding these patterns completely changed how I used AI
tools.
Sarah had discovered what neuroscience shows your brain's
energy patterns shift between three distinct modes recharge,
medium charge and high charge throughout the day, each
perfectly suited for specific types of work.
The science behind these brain states is well established, as
highlighted in the 2023 paper.
Why is everyone talking about brain state in trends in
neuroscience by Yale University Academics?
I unpack more of the science in Appendix B, but right now let's
focus on how you can use these states to transform your
performance.
Medium-charge brain state your medium-charge brain state is
perfect for handling simple, routine and largely undemanding
tasks, for example, sending simple emails, helping a client
solve a standard problem or handling administrative tasks.
In recent years, these activities consume more and more
of our working hours, leaving little time for premium thinking
and doing our most challenging and high-impact work.
But here's where AI creates an extraordinary opportunity.
Consider this startling prediction from Winning by
Design, a leading sales training company that works with some of
the world's largest businesses Within the next 12 months, ai
will enable companies to operate many of their sales and
marketing functions at just 2% of current costs, while
achieving better results.
That's a staggering 98% reduction in costs with improved
performance.
This transformation is possible because AI can now handle most
medium-charge tasks faster and more efficiently than humans,
freeing us to focus on higher-value work.
High-charge brain state.
High Charge Brain State your high charge brain state enables
your most sophisticated thinking and high impact work, from
complex problem solving and creative development to
strategic planning.
This is your brain's premium operating mode, where your
unique human capabilities truly shine.
Unique human capabilities truly shine.
Our research shows most professionals can only maintain
one to two hours of this sophisticated thinking each day.
The rest gets consumed by interruptions, routine tasks and
mental fatigue.
But here's what makes this moment in history extraordinary.
While AI can't replicate this premium cognitive work, it can
dramatically amplify it.
Think of it as having an expert consultant instantly available
on demand, helping you complete your most challenging and
high-impact work in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of
the cost.
Here's a real-world example Producing the audiobook version
of this book, a high-charge brain state task, took one
person with optimised brain states just three days using AI
tools.
The same task for a previous book of identical length, when
AI tools were not available, required two people working for
ten days and cost nine times as much.
That's a 233% increase in speed and a 90% reduction in costs.
We're seeing similar transformations across many
professional fields.
A quick note about AI tools.
You might be wondering which specific AI tools we used for
examples like this audiobook production.
However, this book deliberately avoids recommending specific AI
tools because they evolve so rapidly.
Tools available at the time of writing might be renamed,
replaced or obsolete by the time you listen to this.
More importantly, the key to success isn't about using any
one specific tool, but rather understanding how to optimise
your brain states to work effectively with whatever AI
tools you choose to explore.
Ultimately, your journey will involve discovering which tools
work best for your unique needs and circumstances.
The success cycle your four-step AI edge system.
Achieving the type of result I shared isn't about working
harder.
It's about aligning your brain's natural patterns with
AI's capabilities.
This is where the success cycle transforms everything.
Just as elite athletes use sophisticated systems to
optimize their performance, our four-step system helps you
thrive in the AI era.
Step one measurement your brain state analysis.
Map your brain's energy patterns to reveal your biggest
opportunities for transformation .
Step two planning your strategic roadmap.
Match each task to the right type of energy and identify
where AI tools can enhance your capabilities.
Step 3.
Optimisation your daily rhythm.
Design, structure your day to maintain peak energy for what
matters most professionally and personally energy for what
matters most professionally and personally.
Step 4.
Automation your excellence engine.
Develop triggers and systems that make optimal performance
automatic, using AI tools to enhance rather than drain your
energy.
The results More quality recharge time, less routine and
mundane work and significantly more hours in your peak state,
doing the energising, high-impact thinking that makes
you feel at your best.
Sarah's experience shows the power of this system.
Within weeks of starting the success cycle she shared, I was
consistently finishing my most valuable work by early afternoon
.
Ai tools handled routine tasks during my medium charge periods,
while I saved my high charge hours for strategic thinking.
Best of all, I had real energy left for family time in the
evenings.
But creating this transformation starts with
understanding something fundamental about how your brain
works.
In the next chapter you'll discover a simple story that
helps you to begin controlling these complex patterns the story
of your lighthouse brain, chapter 3.
Your Lighthouse Brain.
Imagine you have a lighthouse in your brain.
Two important characters live there.
The first is Hugh, which stands for Horribly Unhelpful Emotions
.
The second is Wilhelmina.
Power, or Willpower for short.
Most importantly, willpower is Hugh's guide and mentor.
Hugh works in the Lighthouse's control room.
Think of Hugh using a beam of light from the Lighthouse to
constantly scan your thoughts, your feelings and the
environment around you.
Hugh's primary instinct is to spend its time looking for three
things First, threats from your past, such as memories of
mistakes or regrets.
Second, threats in the present, meaning any immediate problems
or challenges.
And third, threats in the future, including worst-case
scenarios about what might happen.
But that's not all when there are no obvious threats on the
horizon, not all when there are no obvious threats on the
horizon.
Hugh's second instinct is to find easy, new and exciting
things that make it feel good.
Hugh loves doing things and having experiences that give it
short-term gratification.
This isn't a character flaw.
Hugh's scanning and feel-good seeking behaviours are built-in
survival programming that helped humans thrive for hundreds of
thousands of years.
The problem is that in today's volatile, uncertain, complex and
AI-augmented world, these same instincts often work against us
often work against us.
Hugh naturally gravitates toward medium-charge brain state tasks
, those routine, familiar activities that provide quick
satisfaction.
Answering a simple email, checking off an easy-to-do item
or scrolling social media all give Hugh the immediate reward
it craves while using minimal energy.
But high-charge brain state tasks, those complex, creative
tasks that create real value, require sustained mental effort
without immediate payoff.
Hugh instinctively resists these activities because they
demand energy and don't provide instant gratification.
When you sit down to write a strategic report or learn a new
skill.
Hugh often tries to redirect your attention to something
easier and more immediately rewarding.
This is where Willpower comes in.
There's a training room in the lighthouse where willpower
spends time learning how to help you fulfil your potential.
When Hugh notices a problem or gets tempted by short-term
gratification, it can call willpower for help.
Think of it as a mentoring relationship.
Willpower doesn't just solve problems for Hugh.
Over time, it teaches Hugh how to automatically respond more
helpfully and effectively.
You've already experienced this mentoring relationship in
action through the three-to-one reflection.
This practice is itself a high-charge task that is
designed to move you into a recharged brain state.
It's a high-charge task because it requires focused mental
energy.
When you first try it, hugh might resist, preferring to
check emails or scroll social media instead.
But with Willpower's help, you learn to direct your attention
deliberately, building something valuable through sustained
mental effort.
When you completed that exercise , you were actually using
Willpower to guide Hugh's spotlight of attention.
Instead of letting Hugh randomly scan for threats or
problems, you deliberately directed that spotlight onto
three specific areas.
First, how well you did your best today, rating yourself out
of 10.
Second, three specific positive or helpful things about your
day.
Third, one clear area for improvement.
Third, one clear area for improvement Think about your own
reaction when reading earlier about AI's impact on sales and
marketing, how 2025 could see costs reduced to just 2% of
current levels.
Where did Hue direct your spotlight?
Did you feel threatened, skeptical?
Now consider your reaction to the audiobook example, seeing
how AI tools helped complete in three days what previously took
two people 10 days.
Did your spotlight focus on opportunity or threat?
This awareness of where Hugh directs your attention is
crucial, but even more important is learning to deliberately
redirect that spotlight.
That's exactly what the three-to-one reflection helps
you practice.
By writing down your thoughts.
Think of it as going to the gym for your brain.
You're strengthening Willpower's ability to guide
Hugh toward helpful patterns of thinking.
Like any high-charge task, this skill becomes easier with
practice.
What starts as a challenging task gradually becomes more
natural as willpower helps Hugh develop new patterns of thinking
.
This deliberate redirection of attention creates a powerful
transformation.
When willpower can do its job properly, your Hugh becomes
calmer and more balanced.
This makes everything easier, from building good habits around
sleep and exercise to staying focused at work and generally
being at your best across all areas of your life.
As we like to say calmer you, better you.
But here's the challenge many of us struggle with in the rapidly
changing AI era.
Our modern world presents unprecedented challenges that
can overwhelm this delicate balance and put Hugh on constant
alert.
For example, there are four key challenges we face.
First, constant connectivity makes it hard to switch off.
Second, social media triggers endless comparison.
Third, ai tools promise productivity but create new
pressures.
Third, ai tools promise productivity but create new
pressures.
Fourth, notifications from devices fragment our attention.
But understanding these challenges is just the first
step.
In the next chapter, you'll discover something remarkable
about how these pressures affect your brain's energy system and,
more importantly, how to protect and optimize it in our
AI-augmented world.
If you're curious about the deeper neuroscience behind how
your brain processes these challenges, you'll find detailed
explanations in Appendix A.
But for now, let's focus on something more urgent
understanding and managing your brain's energy system in ways
that transform how you work and live.
Chapter four your brain's power modes.
Your lighthouse brain faces modern challenges that go beyond
just disrupting hue, your horribly unhelpful emotions and
willpower's relationship.
In fact, they drain the very energy source that powers your
entire system.
Let me explain how this works.
To understand how this system works, we need to understand
something fascinating.
Your brain is like a rechargeable battery that has
three distinct power modes.
A solar-powered lighthouse and yes, they are a thing powered by
a rechargeable battery provides a perfect metaphor for
understanding how these brain power modes work throughout your
24-hour cycle.
During daylight hours, a solar-powered lighthouse runs on
low power just enough to keep essential systems running while
it recharges its batteries through solar panels.
As dusk approaches, it increases to medium power,
running low-level lights that help ships see the lighthouse
structure itself.
Then, in darkness, when ships need it most, it operates at
full power, sending its bright beam far across the waters.
Your brain works in remarkably similar ways.
Just as the lighthouse cycles through three different power
modes, each perfectly matched to the demands in any given day,
your brain also cycles through three distinct power modes to
function effectively.
First, there is the recharged brain state, when your brain
needs essential recovery and maintenance.
Second, the medium-charged brain state, when your brain
handles routine tasks efficiently.
And third, the high-charged brain state, when your brain
handles routine tasks efficiently.
And third, the high-charge brain state, when your brain
performs its most sophisticated thinking and allows you to
tackle demanding tasks.
Understanding these three modes gives you a unique advantage in
today's workplace, while others struggle to adapt to AI tools,
you'll know exactly how to match your brain's natural rhythms to
different types of work and also reset your brain's rhythms
to work better for you.
This knowledge is becoming increasingly valuable as
organisations seek ways to optimise human AI collaboration.
Now that you understand your brain's three power modes, let's
look at what affects them.
Just as a lighthouse needs proper maintenance of its power
system, your brain relies on four key energy sources In your
day-to-day life.
Four key sources either charge or drain your brain battery.
First, there is sleep the equivalent of direct sunlight
for your brain's battery.
Quality sleep recharges your system, allowing willpower to
guide hue effectively.
Second is brain-friendly nutrition, the special fuel that
keeps your brain's battery running throughout the day.
When stressed, many people reach for brain-unfriendly
energy fixes like sugary snacks, excess caffeine and highly
processed foods.
These give brief energy spikes but lead to deeper crashes,
making it even harder for willpower to mentor Hugh.
Third comes movement, particularly walking, which acts
like a supercharger for your brain's battery.
Being stuck at a desk juggling multiple tasks drains your
battery further and also makes it more difficult to get quality
sleep each night.
Finally, there are relationships the social
connections that can either energize your battery or deplete
it.
Constant comparison on social media, lack of time to socialize
and strained relationships turn potential energy sources into
energy drains.
When your battery is low, several things happen.
First, hugh's threat scanning beam becomes erratic and goes
into overdrive, seeing dangers everywhere.
Second, Willpower lacks energy and struggles to maintain its
mentoring role.
Third, their relationship becomes Second willpower lacks
energy and struggles to maintain its mentoring role.
Third, their relationship becomes strained instead of
supportive.
And fourth, the whole system starts operating in survival
mode.
This creates a downward spiral.
The lower your battery gets, the harder it becomes to make
good decisions about sleep.
The more you crave unhealthy foods, the less you feel like
moving and the less energy you have to build and maintain
nurturing relationships.
But here's the good news you don't need to fix everything at
once.
You just need to understand how your lighthouse brain works and
start making small changes to protect and optimise your brain
battery.
In the next chapter, you'll discover a remarkable system for
getting your lighthouse brain working at its best.
Let's keep moving on your journey to thriving in the AI
era.
Chapter 5.
The Success Cycle.
Now that you understand your lighthouse brain and how
willpower helps guide you, your horribly unhelpful emotions,
let's discover the remarkable system you can use to optimize
your brain states and create lasting transformation.
This system is called the Success Cycle.
It helps Willpower and its three specialist assistants
manage your brain states effectively.
I'll use Sarah's story to help you understand how to use it in
your own life.
Six months ago, sarah was struggling to maintain optimal
brain states.
Three new AI systems competed for her attention.
Notifications constantly interrupted her focus.
Despite working longer hours, she felt less productive than
ever.
Most concerning, she had no energy left for family or
personal time.
By day's end, her hue was constantly scanning for threats
and seeking quick gratification, draining her battery brain and
making it impossible to maintain the high charge state she
needed for important work.
Then she discovered the success cycle, a four-step system that
helps willpower optimize your brain states throughout each day
.
Willpower uses three specialist assistants to implement this
system.
Let me introduce them to you.
First, there is the task director, who helps identify
which brain state each task requires, which brain state each
task requires.
Second, we have the day designer, who creates schedules
that recognise and take account of these different states.
And third, there is the routine engineer, who makes maintaining
optimal brain states automatic.
The success cycle works through four powerful steps.
Let me walk you through each one.
First comes measurement.
Just as a doctor needs to understand your vital signs
before creating a treatment plan , we begin by measuring your
brain's current performance patterns.
This reveals exactly where you're starting from and what
needs to change.
Next is planning, where the task director creates your
success blueprint.
This step identifies which activities need your premium
thinking power and which can be enhanced by AI tools, ensuring
every task gets the right type of energy.
Third comes optimisation, where the day designer crafts your
perfect 24-hour rhythm.
This isn't just about work hours.
It's about aligning every part of your day to build and protect
your brain's energy for peak performance.
Finally, there's automation, where the routine engineer makes
excellence an automatic process Instead of relying on willpower
.
You develop triggers and systems that naturally guide you
toward optimal performance, including strategic use of AI
tools.
Then you repeat the process.
The rest of this book will show you how to achieve this, step
by step.
As you master these steps, you'll naturally begin seeing
opportunities to help others optimise their own brain states,
just as Sarah discovered when her colleagues noticed her
transformation.
Each time you move through these steps, your performance
improves.
Measurement reveals new opportunities, planning refines
your approach, optimization enhances your rhythms and
automation makes improvements permanent.
This creates a continuous cycle of transformation that helps
you thrive in the AI era.
Chapter six the success cycle in action.
Now that you understand the four steps of the success cycle,
let's see exactly how Sarah uses this system to optimize her
brain state.
Her journey shows how each step builds on the one before to
create lasting transformation.
Step one measurement.
Getting that initial score was eye-opening, sarah remembered.
It wasn't about judgment.
It was about finally understanding what I was dealing
with.
Once I had that measurement, I could use willpower and the
specialist team to begin optimising my brain state.
Step two planning with the task director.
Sarah knew she needed a new approach to managing her work
with AI tools.
By engaging the task director's unique perspective, she began
creating a complete inventory of everything requiring her energy
.
This process led to a surprising breakthrough.
I had this moment that changed everything Sarah shared.
I was listing my tasks, expecting to focus on managing
AI tools and work projects, but by working with the task
director, I discovered a deeper truth.
Every activity requiring my energy from strategic planning
to quality sleep, from learning new technologies to maintaining
relationships was actually a task needing a specific type of
brainpower.
This wasn't just about time management anymore was actually
a task needing a specific type of brain power.
This wasn't just about time management anymore.
I could now see how to optimise my energy for each task.
Step 3.
Optimisation with the day designer.
Armed with this new understanding of her tasks,
sarah turned to the day designer to craft schedules that would
respect her brain's natural rhythms.
She discovered something profound about energy management
that most productivity systems miss.
Every hour of her 24-hour cycle either built or depleted her
brain energy.
What she did at 9pm directly affected her performance at 9am.
Her Sunday choices shaped her Monday capacity.
This changed everything about how I approached my schedule.
Sarah explained I could see how my evening Netflix binges were
disrupting my sleep, leaving my brain foggy for strategic work
the next morning.
My habit of catching up on emails before bed was activating
stress responses that made quality rest impossible.
Even my weekend pattern of sleeping late was throwing off
my brain's natural energy cycle.
By treating her entire 24-hour day as an integrated energy
system, sarah completely reshaped her approach.
She designed evening routines to build energy for the next
morning.
She scheduled AI tools strategically, not just to
handle routine tasks but to reduce cognitive load when her
brain needed to recharge.
She even positioned family time to enhance rather than drain
her energy, creating natural transitions between work and
rest.
Step four automation with the routine engineer.
With clear understanding of her tasks and optimal scheduling,
sarah worked with the routine engineer to make these
improvements automatic.
This step was crucial.
She shared Understanding task energy, and ideal scheduling
wasn't enough.
I needed to create systems that would make optimal performance
automatic.
I used the routine engineer to develop triggers and routines
that protected my brain power throughout the day.
My phone automatically goes into focus mode during important
work.
Ai tools activate during specific periods to handle
routine tasks.
Even my evening routine now naturally guides me toward
quality sleep.
The results by actively using the success cycle, sarah
transformed every aspect of her life.
She now consistently completes her most valuable work by early
afternoon.
She has energy for evening walks with her husband and
helping her kids with homework.
She's even started writing the novel she'd been dreaming about
for years.
But something unexpected happened.
As she mastered the system, sarah discovered she had become
her own human AI optimisation coach.
She wasn't just using AI tools, she was strategically
integrating them into her brain's natural rhythms.
Her team noticed the difference and soon she was helping them
apply the same principles Even at home.
She found herself coaching her teenage son to use these ideas
for his studying.
What surprised me most, sarah added, was discovering how many
people needed this kind of guidance.
As AI transforms more workplaces , the ability to optimise human
performance alongside technology becomes increasingly valuable,
both for your own success and as a way to help others thrive.
This isn't just one person's success story.
Through our work with thousands of professionals, we've proven
these brain optimisation principles create remarkable
performance improvements.
Now, as professionals combine these proven principles with new
AI tools, we're seeing even more extraordinary results.
It's not about becoming a technology expert.
It's about understanding how your brain actually works and
aligning that knowledge with AI tools in ways that make
unprecedented performance levels possible.
But before we begin measuring your brain states, let's
understand something crucial about why this transformation
matters so much.
In the next chapter, you'll discover how optimising your
brain states doesn't just make you more productive.
It's actually the key to lasting happiness in the AI era.
Then you'll learn about the same measurement tool that
launched Sarah's transformation, helping you begin your own
journey to sustained success.
Chapter 7.
The Happiness Equation.
Sarah studied her phone, scrolling through another batch
of notifications.
I felt busy all the time, she recalled later, but somehow I
never felt like I was actually moving forward.
Something was missing.
What Sarah discovered and what you'll learn in this chapter is
that true happiness comes from a delicate balance.
While part of happiness comes from pleasure and feeling good
in the moment, the deeper and more lasting part comes from
making meaningful progress in your life, from growing,
learning and developing yourself .
But here's the challenge of our modern world, hugh your horribly
unhelpful emotions.
That's the part of your lighthouse brain, constantly
scanning for threats and seeking quick gratification, can become
addicted to busyness.
The constant notifications, endless emails and stream of
digital distractions keep you occupied but prevent you from
entering the high-charge brain states where real growth happens
.
This creates a troubling cycle.
Remember how your brain, like a lighthouse, operates in three
distinct states High charge periods for your most
sophisticated thinking work, medium charge periods for
routine tasks and essential recharge periods for recovery.
The more time we spend responding to immediate demands
and seeking quick pleasures, the less time we spend in those
crucial high-charge states where we do the kind of work that
creates real progress the strategic thinking, creative
development and focused learning that make us feel truly
satisfied.
Even worse, this constant state of busyness prevents us from
getting the deep recharge our brains desperately need.
Poor sleep, rushed breaks and fragmented downtime mean we're
not just missing opportunities for high-charge work, we're
actually making it harder to access those states at all.
Making it harder to access those states at all, we end up
trapped in medium charge, handling endless routine tasks,
without the energy for either proper recovery or meaningful
progress.
The promise of the AI era is that we can break this cycle.
By using AI tools strategically to handle routine tasks and
reduce cognitive load, we can create a better balance across
all three brain states.
Ai doesn't just help with medium charge work.
It creates space for both proper recharge and high impact
thinking.
This three-part balance is actually the key to lasting
happiness.
First, we need strong foundations quality sleep, good
nutrition, regular exercise and positive relationships.
By helping us complete our work more efficiently and
effectively, ai tools protect these foundations in several
ways.
They reduce the need for late-night work sessions that
disrupt sleep, help us finish important tasks during normal
working hours and create clearer boundaries between professional
and personal time.
This means we can maintain consistent sleep and exercise
routines, spend quality time nurturing our relationships and
properly switch off at the end of each day.
Second, we need some medium-charge activities that
satisfy what psychologists call our hedonic needs, our natural
desire for pleasure and immediate gratification.
These include both necessary routine tasks and simple
enjoyments that help us feel good in the moment.
The challenge is that Hugh can become addicted to these quick
rewards, leading us to spend too much time scrolling social
media or handling minor tasks, at the expense of both recharge
and high-charge activities.
This is where AI becomes transformative.
By efficiently handling routine work like email management and
basic research, ai tools free us from Hugh's addiction to
busyness.
We can then consciously choose when to enjoy pleasurable
activities rather than being driven by them, creating space
for both productive work and genuine relaxation.
It's not about eliminating hedonic pleasure.
It's about putting it in its proper place.
Finally, we need regular access to high-charge states where we
do what psychologists call eudaimonic work, the kind of
meaningful activity that makes us feel we're growing and moving
forward.
This includes strategic thinking, creative development
and focused learning.
Ai not only creates more time for this work, but can enhance
our capabilities during these premium thinking periods.
Looking back now, sarah reflected, I can see how
understanding this balance fundamentally changed my
relationship with technology.
Instead of letting AI tools add to my stress, I learned to use
them intentionally to protect my energy.
I had better focus for deep work, real presence with my
family and proper rest.
I wasn't just busy anymore.
I was growing and actually enjoying my life.
Understanding this balance is crucial because it reveals
something profound about happiness in the AI era.
It's not just about using technology to get more done.
It's about using it strategically to create the
right mix of recharge, routine work and meaningful progress
that leads to lasting satisfaction a meaningful
progress that leads to lasting satisfaction.
In the next chapter, you'll discover exactly where you are
in this balance through the brain state assessment.
This isn't about judgment.
It's about understanding your starting point so you can begin
optimizing your own path to sustained happiness and success
in the AI era.