The Habit Mechanic - Unlock your Human-AI Edge

Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution (1/6): The Hidden Problem No One’s Talking About

• Dr. Jon Finn

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Hello, Habit Mechanics — Dr. Jon Finn here. In this special 6-part series, I’m unpacking my brand-new book Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution: The Proven Four-Step System to Become Irreplaceable (No Tech Skills Required).

In this first episode, I reveal the hidden Brain State problem that’s quietly sabotaging performance in the AI era. You’ll hear the first 7 chapters of the audiobook, plus exclusive commentary on how to master your Brain States — the key to unlocking focus, energy, and long-term success in an AI-augmented world.

Whether you’ve read the book or you’re just curious, this series will give you powerful, practical tools to stay ahead — at work, in life, and with AI.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • Why Brain State mastery is now the #1 human superpower
  • What makes our coaching system the "Dyson of performance coaching"
  • How to apply our proven 4-step brain-based system (including tools like the 3-to-1 Reflection)
  • Why brain-smart teams will win the AI race
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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

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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.

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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.

Speaker 1:

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.

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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.

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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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

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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.

Speaker 1:

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.

Speaker 1:

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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

Speaker 1:

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Chapter 7.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.