The Habit Mechanic - Unlock your Human-AI Edge

Train Your Brain for the AI Revolution (2/6)- How to Measure Your Brain States

• Dr. Jon Finn

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Unlocking peak mental performance in the AI era requires understanding exactly how your brain functions throughout the day. In this enlightening episode, Dr. Jon Finn reveals the first critical step of the Success Cycle—measuring your brain states—and explains why this skill will become humanity's most valuable asset.

Your brain operates like a solar-powered lighthouse, cycling through three distinct states: Recharge (recovery mode), Medium Charge (routine task mode), and High Charge (premium performance mode). Most professionals achieve only 1-2 hours of high-impact work daily, with the rest consumed by routine tasks. But by understanding your brain's natural rhythms and optimizing them, you can consistently achieve 5-6+ hours of high-impact work while actually working less overall.

Dr. Finn introduces the Human AI Readiness Brain State Assessment, a proven tool measuring fifteen key dimensions of your cognitive performance. Your score reveals your current profile: Cross-to-Bear (losing 4-5 hours of premium thinking daily), Jagged Jewel (losing 2-4 hours), or Arrowhead (losing 1-3 hours). This measurement forms the foundation upon which the entire Success Cycle builds.

Traditional approaches to improving performance fall dramatically short in the AI era. A comprehensive study of over 52,000 people showed that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy—considered the gold standard—fails to produce meaningful improvement for 58% of participants. The fundamental problem? These approaches focus on providing knowledge rather than building habits, when research shows 98-100% of human behavior comes from habits, not from knowing what we should do.

The Success Cycle offers something fundamentally different—a systematic approach based on a proprietary nine-factor habit mechanic system. Just as sports science revolutionized athletics by revealing the science behind peak physical performance, understanding brain states will transform how we work with AI. Ready to measure your brain states and begin optimizing your performance? This episode gives you everything you need to take that crucial first step.

Speaker 1:

Hello Habit Mechanics. It's Dr John Finn here. I hope you are having a fantastic week so far. I want to begin by saying thank you so much for supporting the launch of Train your Brain for the AI revolution, the proven four-step system to become irreplaceable. No tech skills required, because we just hit number one in the UK and the US Amazon charts this weekend, which is a big achievement, for we are a boutique company highly specialised, and when you're on Amazon, you are fighting against some absolute publishing giants.

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So the traction for the book has been beyond belief. Actually, the traction for the book has been, um, beyond belief. Actually, people are clearly looking for this type of, these types of insights and this type of help. So I know there'll be many of you listening that um got the book, uh, left reviews, and we really appreciate that. And if you haven't done that already, please, uh, please do. Especially if you've got the book, do leave a review. That's really, really helpful.

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So this is the second in a six-part series about train your brain for the ai revolution and right in front of me now I'm pleased to say I've got my hands on the hardback copy of the book and it is beautiful. It's a beautiful product and in the book. In fact, on the back of the hardback cover, but also just at the start of the introduction in this book and the paperback, there is a map. There's a really nice map of the book to show you the journey and, in a way, this is the journey that we're going on in this podcast series. So in the first episode of the series, we introduced the big ideas behind train your brain for the ai revolution. We talked about brain states, the lighthouse brain, the different assistants that we've introduced to to help out, willpower, um and we. We unpacked the success cycle and actually talked about how this all fits into you being happy. For me, happiness is massively misunderstood in the world that we live in, and Chapter 7 is the happiness equation, something I've talked about a lot, but I've never put it into a distinct chapter like that before. So I hope that was instructive and insightful and it's given you more confidence about what you need to do to feel good more often and also to perform at your best more often, because those two things are intertwined.

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So as we look ahead to this episode and the following four, we're going to talk about in this episode how to measure your brain states, so brain state measurement. That's step one of the success cycle. Step two will be the next episode, where we're going to talk about planning with the task director, just showing you how to use the task director system, and then the episode after that will be step three optimization, with the day designer. The episode after that will be step four automation with the routine engineer, and then the final episode will be sort of a it's like a bonus step, step five, which is about how you can use the success cycle to change other people's lives, whether as a certified ai edge coach or a certified ai leader, or just using it in your life generally to help other people. I think that is the success cycle is the most powerful system we've created because of its simplicity and it pulls together so many of the other tools that we've created over a long period of time. So and we know that this can not only help you, but it can help the people that you want to help as well whether you want to do that formally and set up a business doing that, whether you want to use this to supercharge the business that you work in or the teams that you're helping, and whether or whether you just want to use it in a more informal basis.

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So let's zoom into step one, brain state management. So what we're going to cover in this and you can hear, yeah, I'm looking at the book here, you can hear, hear the page there we're going to cover. So there are. We're going to go from chapter 8 through to chapter 13. That's what's going to follow me and at a high level, you're going to learn how to measure your brain state, or brain states, so you can actually get a tangible score. Some of you may have done that before, but then, following that, in chapter nine, we really go deep into. What do those scores actually mean? No-transcript. Optimising them is beneficial for our health, our happiness, our performance, and I believe genuinely that getting good at doing that is going to be, if it isn't already, humanity's number one skill.

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There's so much noise out there in the coaching space, in the self-help space, and it's all very well intended, but it's often so wide of the mark. It's just a set of dispersed tactics and it's never, ever talking about the root cause of all the problems that we've got, which is our brains. And if our brains are not working well, life is difficult. So if we want to do better. We've got to recognize that our brain is a physiologically adaptive system and that there's a big difference between knowing what we need to do to be at our best and actually habitualizing it, and there is a behavioral bridge, essentially, which has nine core pieces, which is the nine action factor model, and then, also in this section, we talk about why in more, in more detail, why these traditional things that we're doing don't work, and I share some data, actually in chapter 11 from a study that included over 52,000 people.

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It's about cognitive behavioral therapy, and it's frightening how limited it is in terms of actually helping people. Yet we have rammed down our throat almost every day that that is the number one thing we need. Well, it isn't the data is very clear on that. Yet we have rammed down our throat almost every day that that is the number one thing we need. Well, it isn't. The data is very clear on that. Cbt is maybe one part of a nine-part solution, or talking, which essentially gets our brains working a little bit better.

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So, yeah, and then what I really like is chapter 12 is called like sports science for your brain, and this is what is so exciting for me having you know I've come from an elite sports background and in fact I can't go into any details, but we have been speaking recently to some of the biggest sports teams in the world. They are really interested in what we're doing. So we're almost we still work in sport, even though we don't really publicise that too much, because they recognise that of all the development they've had and of all the physiological development that's been brought in by sports science into their organisations. And if we just take one of the highest profile sports football or soccer we've seen the physical development of players. It's night and day today compared to what it used to be 20 years ago. But they also recognize the psychological development hasn't caught up and they know psych's important but they don't feel like they've ever been able to unlock it properly and they see this as a as the solution for that. So for me, what AI tools can actually do, just coming outside of the sports context to for our physical development? So I get into the details of that in chapter 12 and there's chapter 13 as well, bringing us back into the success cycle. So that's what you're going to hear. So that's what you're going to hear.

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I know many people are real champions of this work. They have a mechanic approach and they're really enjoying. And you know Tougher Minds more generally. I've been doing this for over 25 years now. Tougher Minds has existed for I think, 14 years as a brand. We've worked with tens of thousands of people and that's increasing every single day. So just in the last few weeks, we've got about another thousand people using our approach.

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But it's often not that obvious because the world is so crowded. But you should be really proud of yourself for using these approaches and actually you should be trumpeting what you know, because this is like the Dyson for coaching. We've completely reinvented how to help ourselves and others change their behaviour, and that should be at the heart of all coaching and change programmes. It's about changing behaviours, which means changing brains right, and just by reading these books, you know more about this stuff than 99.9% of people on the planet. Honestly you do, because I consume this things in this space all the time and they're just not on the mark. So you know, don't underestimate, if you're using these approaches, what you actually know, because it is different to everything else that's out there. But again, the key is is to put it into practice so you can actually get the benefits.

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So I really like that idea is this is this is. It's different. No one taught us how to do this. We've created it ourselves um, on the shoulders of giants, for sure but we've had to put it together piece by piece, including with people that are listening to this podcast. So we really appreciate everyone's support in doing that. But I just want to give you a bit of a shot in the arm that you know a lot more, lot more than the most people do, um, so talk about it, put it into practice, use it to help other people, because people need this. They need to get away from those tips, tricks and hacks, because that all that stuff's just stuck in the stuck in the knowing phase. We've got to help people to use the success cycle. So if you're getting through the book and you're starting to get your head around the four steps and share it with other people, so yeah, that's enough from me. Again, thank you so much for listening.

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If you're listening to this over the Easter break, hope you're having a relaxing time and then we will be back with all the other episodes in due course, but right now I'm going to show you, or talk you through, how you can measure your own brain steps. Success cycle, step one measurement. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Loud zoo, chapter eight measuring your starting point. Sarah focused on her phone's battery indicator 15% and dropping fast. It's amazing, she told me. When I started working with the success cycle, I realised something ironic as an AI era professional, I had sophisticated tools monitoring everything from my step count to my sleep quality. Monitoring everything from my step count to my sleep quality. I tracked my project deadlines, my team's performance, even my stock portfolio, but I had no way to measure the one thing that mattered most my brain's capacity to work effectively with all these tools.

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Think about your own typical workday. Do you start with good intentions but get derailed by constant interruptions? Find yourself handling endless small tasks instead of doing your most important work, end each day feeling you've been busy but unsure if you've accomplished anything meaningful. These aren't just productivity challenges. They are signs that your brain states need attention. Your brain operates in three different states throughout the day. Sometimes it needs to shine at full power for premium thinking work. Other times it needs to operate at medium power for routine tasks. And, crucially, it needs proper recharge states to maintain its capacity. Without understanding these brain states. You might be trying to do strategic work when your brain is in a recharge state or wasting your peak thinking hours on routine tasks that AI could handle. Even worse, you might be unknowingly doing things that deplete your brain's power just when you need it most. That's why the first step in the success cycle is measuring your brain states using a proven habit mechanic tool called the Human AI Readiness Brain State Assessment. Through our work with thousands of professionals, we've refined this assessment to reveal exactly how well your brain is operating in our AI augmented world. The Human AI Readiness Brain State Assessment.

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Take a moment to rate yourself honestly on each statement below. You'll score from one to 10, where one means never and 10 means always. Think of this like checking your lighthouses various systems. Each statement reveals something important about your brain's current functioning. Statement 1. I find myself responding to urgent issues instead of having a plan or sticking to my plan. Remember 1 means never and 10 means always. You're probably somewhere in between. Write down your score. Statement 2. I get interrupted by others emails, phone and my own self-doubt or negative self-talk and it takes me longer to complete my work. Again, remember One means never and ten means always. You're probably somewhere in between. Write down your score.

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Statement 3. I sleep poorly and it takes longer to complete my work to a high standard. Statement 4. I waste time doubting my decisions, second-guessing myself and beating myself up. Statement 5. My mind feels foggy and it slows down my work. Statement six I put off important tasks even though I know they need doing. Statement seven I feel overwhelmed and I make mistakes that take time to fix. Statement 8. Statement 9. Statement 10. Statement 10. My mind jumps between tasks instead of focusing on one thing. Statement 11. I get distracted, including by my own self-doubt and negative self-talk. Statement 12. I feel like I could achieve more if I felt more confident and focused. Statement 13. I waste time because I'm not thinking clearly. Statement 14. My diet choices leave me feeling sluggish and it takes me longer to complete my work. Statement 15. Lack of regular exercise, for example, 10,000 plus steps, and elevated heart rate reduces my mental energy and focus. Now write down your total score. Please note you can access a digital version of this self-assessment, which auto-calculates your score at.

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Your score isn't just another metric. It's the foundation for your entire transformation through the success cycle. Your score isn't just another metric. It's the foundation for your entire transformation through the success cycle. Think of it like running a diagnostic scan on your most valuable professional asset. Your score reveals exactly what your task director, day designer and routine engineer need to know to help you optimise your performance. Getting that initial score was eye-opening. Sarah remembered it wasn't about judgement. It was about finally understanding what I was dealing with. Once I had that measurement, my specialist team could help me create real change. Even better, when colleagues saw my transformation, they asked for help. Walking them through the brain state assessment helped me realise how clearly I could now explain these concepts to others. In the next chapter, you'll discover exactly what your score means and how it maps to specific opportunities for transformation. You'll learn how to create the kind of results you've seen in Sarah's story consistently finishing important work by early afternoon, having energy for family and personal growth and thriving in our AI augmented world. Your Brain State Score isn't just a number. It reveals specific patterns that will show you exactly where to focus your transformation effort.

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Chapter 9 Understanding your Score. Success Cycle Location Step 1 Progress 40% complete. Sarah sat in front of her laptop staring at her score of 95. I felt two things simultaneously, she told me later. First relief, finally understanding why I was struggling wasn't just about willpower or better time management. But then came the crucial question what could I actually do about it? Your brain state profile score reveals something fundamental about how your brain is currently performing. Through our work with thousands of professionals, we've discovered that scores typically cluster into three distinct profiles. Let me walk you through each profile. Through each profile.

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First, if your score is between 91 and 150, you have what we call a cross-to-bear profile. Like Sarah, you're probably losing four to five hours of premium thinking time each day. This isn't just about feeling tired or unfocused. It's about your brain operating far below its natural capacity for extended periods. If you have this profile, you're likely experiencing significant mental fatigue that makes complex thinking difficult. You may feel a constant sense of being overwhelmed, even by routine tasks. You might have difficulty prioritising and making clear decisions. Poor quality sleep leaves you starting each day already depleted and you may be struggling to create more value in your work than AI could because your brain is operating far below its capacity. Second, if your score is between 61 and 90, you have what we call a jagged jewel profile. Think of this as operating at partial capacity. You're likely losing two to four hours of premium thinking time each day.

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Your brain shows moments of brilliance, but maintaining consistent high performance remains challenging. With this profile, you typically experience periods of clear thinking mixed with unexpected mental fatigue. You might have good performance on some days, but difficulty maintaining it consistently. Your sleep patterns likely vary in quality, affecting your next day capacity. While you're successfully handling routine work, you may struggle with more complex challenges. You're creating solid value in your work, but not yet reaching your full potential.

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Third, if your score is between 15 and 60, you have what we call an arrowhead profile. This profile indicates you've established good foundations but still have untapped potential. You're probably losing 1-3 hours of premium thinking time daily. More importantly, you have opportunities to enhance your performance further. This profile typically shows generally good mental clarity, with room for improvement. You have the ability to handle complex work, but not always at peak efficiency. Your sleep patterns are mostly reliable, with occasional disruptions. You're creating good value in your work, with potential to achieve even more, and while you're having success with some premium thinking tasks, you're probably not yet maximising your capabilities.

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Understanding your profile is crucial because it reveals exactly where to focus your efforts. Sarah discovered this firsthand Once I understood what my score meant. I could start making specific changes that actually worked, instead of just trying random productivity tricks. I could focus on a systematic approach to improving my performance. But what really fascinated me, sarah added, was discovering that these patterns weren't random at all. They were signs of how my brain was actually functioning throughout the day, sometimes operating at full power, sometimes running on reserve energy and sometimes desperately needing recharge time. This was the key that unlocked everything else. Understanding these profiles transforms your own performance and, if you choose, offers a powerful framework for helping others thrive in the AI era. Whether you're interested in formal coaching, already seen as a mentor in your organisation, or simply want to help your team adapt to AI, these insights give you the foundations for guiding others towards success. Insights give you the foundations for guiding others towards success. To help you improve your own score, let's explore the brainpower modes that underpin it in more detail.

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Chapter 10. Optimising your brain states for the AI era. Success cycle location Step 1. Progress 75% complete.

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Sarah reflected on what she'd learned about her lighthouse brain. She understood how hue and willpower work together and how her brain's battery system needed proper charging, but something still wasn't clicking in her daily performance. I understand that my battery needs charging. She told me during one of our sessions. But how do I know what kind of work to do at what time of day and how do I make the most of my energy once I have it? Earlier, we explored how your brain, like a solar-powered lighthouse, operates on three distinct power modes. Now let's dive deeper into how understanding and optimising these modes transforms your ability to create value in the AI era.

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Remember, your brain cycles through three states. First, your recharge brain state. This is when your brain needs essential recovery and maintenance. Second, your medium charge brain state. This is when your brain handles routine tasks efficiently. Third, your high charge brain state. This is when your brain performs its most sophisticated thinking. Understanding how these states work and how to optimise them using the success cycle transforms your ability to create value in the AI era. Let's explore each state in detail. Recharge brain state the recovery mode. This is your brain's essential maintenance mode, like powering down the lighthouse in the daytime, just as the lighthouse uses this time to recharge its solar batteries.

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Your brain needs dedicated recovery periods and these work in two distinct ways. First, there's deep recharge through quality sleep, your brain's fundamental restoration period, like a lighthouse running on minimal power during daylight hours. Your brain needs high quality sleep to fully restore its systems. When Sarah first started tracking her sleep, she discovered she was only getting six fragmented hours. No wonder her battery kept running low. Second, there's light recharge through strategic recovery periods throughout the day. These moments allow your brain to reset and prepare for peak performance. Sarah learned to take short walks between intensive tasks and practice focused reflection in the evening to process the day's stress before bed.

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Medium Charge Brain State the Routine Task Mode. This is your steady state operating mode, perfect for routine tasks that need consistent but not maximum power. Think regular meetings, basic communications and standard administrative work. Sarah discovered something crucial about this mode. The success cycle helped me identify exactly which tasks belong here. More importantly, it showed me how to use AI tools strategically during medium charge periods, freeing up my limited high charge time for truly valuable work. High charge state the performance mode. This is your brain's premium power setting and it's what makes humans irreplaceable in the AI era.

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Irreplaceable in the AI era Like the lighthouse beam at its brightest. This state enables the kind of sophisticated thinking that AI tools struggle to replicate Solving novel problems, making nuanced strategic decisions and creating innovative solutions that go beyond existing patterns innovative solutions that go beyond existing patterns. But just as a solar-powered lighthouse can't maintain its brightest beam continuously, you can only sustain this state for limited periods, typically 4-5 hours per day when you are optimising your recharge time. Here's what makes this capacity even more powerful in the AI era.

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While AI tools can't replace your premium cognitive abilities, they can significantly enhance them in two ways. First, ai tools can handle supporting tasks that would normally drain your mental energy, allowing you to focus your high-charge state purely on the kind of thinking that creates unique value. Consider how Sarah used this in her strategic planning work. Instead of spending her precious high-charge hours gathering data, formatting reports and organising meeting notes, she let AI tools handle these medium-charge tasks. This meant she could dedicate her full premium thinking capacity to what truly mattered identifying emerging patterns in customer behaviour, developing innovative service approaches and making nuanced strategic decisions that AI couldn't replicate. Second, ai tools can help you achieve aspects of premium cognitive work even when you're not quite at peak charge levels. When Sarah needed to develop a complex proposal for a new project but wasn't quite in high charge mode, she used AI to help structure her thinking, generating initial outlines, finding relevant research and handling basic writing tasks. This allowed her to focus her remaining mental energy on the sophisticated aspects of the work developing unique insights, crafting innovative solutions and making strategic decisions. Through this partnership with AI, she could effectively extend her capacity for sophisticated thinking from four to five hours to five to six plus hours per day.

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This insight transformed my entire approach to work. Sarah explained Instead of trying to do deep strategic work when my brain was in medium charge mode or wasting high charge time on routine tasks, I started matching my activities to my energy levels. I began using AI to handle more medium-charge tasks, which freed up my premium thinking time for truly high-value work. This awareness becomes crucial because most people make a fundamental mistake. They attempt to perform high-charge work while their brain is in medium charge mode or, worse, desperately needing recharge. It's like trying to run a lighthouse's brightest beam setting when the power supply is low. You'll either fail or damage the system by trying.

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The difference between struggling and thriving in the AI era comes down to how well you manage these power modes. Those who ignore their brain states, force themselves to work against natural energy patterns and try to do everything at once will eventually burn out. Meanwhile, those who understand and respect their brain states, match their tasks to appropriate energy levels and use AI tools strategically, will thrive. But here's what makes this truly exciting Once you understand these states, you can create extraordinary value while actually working fewer hours. The key is learning three things First, how to protect and maximise your high-charge hours, which can include using AI to augment your high-charge thinking. Second, use AI efficiently during medium-charge periods. And third, ensure proper recharge time. If you're curious about the deeper science behind these brain states, you'll find more details in Appendix B, where I unpack the central role of activation levels and how they underpin your physical and mental energy levels. Congratulations You've now completed step one of the success cycle. Whether you're working to improve a cross to bear, refine a jagged jewel or enhance an arrowhead profile, you now have a clear understanding of your starting point.

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But before we move forward, we need to understand something crucial why traditional approaches to helping people to be their best, or what we call improving brain state performance, are failing in the AI era. The traditional methods simply aren't equipped to help people optimise their brain state, regardless of their current profile. More importantly, you'll discover how the success cycle offers a fundamentally different solution Chapter 11. Why traditional solutions fail. In the AI era.

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Brain state optimisation isn't a new challenge. Even before AI entered our workplaces, professionals struggled to perform at their best. Traditional approaches to improving human performance, from cognitive behavioural therapy to wellness programmes, have consistently fallen short of delivering lasting results. These traditional approaches are even less suitable for our AI augmented world, where optimising brain states becomes more crucial, yet more complex. Sarah's experience illustrates this perfectly. Not only was she dealing with the usual challenges of maintaining peak performance, but three new AI systems were placing extra demands on her lighthouse brain. Her brain states were constantly disrupted by switching between tools. Despite working longer hours, she felt less productive. Despite having AI assistance, she felt more overwhelmed. This reveals an impending crisis that most organisations haven't recognised yet.

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While billions are now being invested in AI tools and training, three crucial challenges are being overlooked. One how to optimise our basic basic brain states something we struggled with even before AI to how to prevent AI tools from making this optimization even more difficult. Three how to help people use these tools to make optimization easier. The traditional approach problem. Those who do recognise this challenge often assume we must have proven solutions. After all, modern medicine can fix most ailments with reliable treatments and predictable outcomes. Break your arm, medical experts can repair it with proven protocols, but when it comes to getting your lighthouse brain operating at full power, improving focus, managing stress, enhancing overall mental performance, the standard approaches are falling significantly short.

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Let's examine why by looking at what's considered the gold standard evidence-based approach Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, cbt. Most modern coaching, training and therapy approaches mirror CBT's principles and CBT has been extensively researched. What these studies reveal is concerning. The largest and most comprehensive peer-reviewed analysis ever conducted on CBT was published by Professor Pim Quijpers and colleagues in 2023. It looked at over 50,000 people across 409 studies, who were struggling with their mental wellbeing. The results are stark 58% of people who received CBT showed no meaningful improvement. Of the 42% who did improve, the research revealed that 19% would likely have gotten better without any treatment. In simple terms. In simple terms, only about one in five people benefit from CBT. Specifically. Remember, this is considered the gold standard treatment. Even more concerning, when researchers followed up a year or two later, they found no real difference between people who had received CBT and those who hadn't. This reveals something fundamental about how our brains work, even when people understand exactly what they need to change and are given specific techniques to make those changes.

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Lasting transformation remains elusive. If traditional approaches struggle to create lasting change in relatively straightforward behaviours, how can they possibly help us master the complex demands of our AI-augmented workplaces? We're not just trying to change a few specific thoughts or behaviours. We're aiming to fundamentally transform how our brain operates throughout the day. Let's look at three common approaches organisations are currently using to help employees adapt to AI tools. Each of these approaches illustrates why we need something fundamentally different. Illustrates why we need something fundamentally different, an approach that aligns with how our brain actually works, not just what we think should work. Technical training Companies invest heavily in teaching employees how to use AI tools, but knowing how to operate a tool doesn't mean your lighthouse brain is optimised to work with it. It's like having a sophisticated new lens for your lighthouse but never learning how to keep your beam steady.

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Traditional Performance Coaching and Training Programmes. These programmes focus on time management, goal setting, productivity techniques, leadership development and team performance. They provide valuable knowledge about what to do differently, but here's the crucial gap Knowing what to do isn't the same as doing it consistently. Just like most people know they should plan their day, prioritise important work, delegate effectively or build trust with their team, they still fall into old patterns. It's like knowing exactly how a lighthouse should work, but never mastering the day-to-day practices to maintain peak performance.

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Wellness programs While well-intentioned, these typically focus on stress management, better sleep or positive thinking. Again, they provide knowledge, but not the system for turning that knowledge into lasting habits. Most people already know they should manage stress better or get more sleep, but they don't consistently do what they know they should. It's like knowing your lighthouse needs a steady power supply, but never establishing the routines to keep the batteries charged the root of the problem. All these approaches share the same fundamental limitation they focus on providing knowledge rather than building habits. This misses a crucial insight from neuroscience 98 to 100 percent of human behavior, what we think and do, comes from our habits, not from knowing what we should do.

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Your brain contains over 1 trillion microscopic biological moving parts, including neurons, synapses and neural pathways, all working together to drive your automatic behaviours willpower. Instead, it operates through deeply embedded patterns, which is why simply knowing what you should do differently rarely leads to lasting change. To transform how you work and think, you need an approach that can rewire these neural pathways, not just fill your head with more information. Think about something simple like maintaining a healthy lifestyle, that is, sleep well, eat well, exercise regularly. Most people know what they should do and have the skills to do it, yet knowledge alone rarely creates lasting change. We don't do what we know we should do. Instead, we do what we're in the habit of doing.

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Current approaches are like trying to learn to drive by reading the driver's manual, without ever getting behind the wheel. Sure, you get detailed explanations of proper steering technique, understand which pedal is the brake versus the gas, and know exactly when you should check your mirrors, but without actually developing the muscle memory and creating lasting habits through practice, that knowledge is fairly useless. The same applies to changing how your brain works. Understanding what you should do differently isn't enough. You need to rewire your brain's automated patterns. What we need is an approach that goes beyond just providing information, one that helps us actually build new habits and optimise our brain states for the AI era.

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Only then will real breakthroughs happen. These breakthroughs aren't theoretical. We're already seeing them emerge among professionals who've discovered how to work with their brain's natural patterns rather than against them. But the path to these breakthroughs often begins with struggle. Sarah's experience illustrates this journey perfectly. Despite having access to the latest AI tools. Despite understanding good productivity principles and despite trying various wellness techniques, she kept struggling. But her story doesn't end there. Like many breakthrough moments in human performance, her transformation began with understanding how things actually work, not just what to do. Think of how sports science changed athletics forever by revealing the science behind peak physical performance. Now we stand at a similar turning point with artificial intelligence.

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The emergence of AI gives us unprecedented opportunities to enhance our cognitive capabilities, but to seize these opportunities, we need a systematic approach that works with how our brain actually functions, not against it. This is where the success cycle comes in. The habit-building principles that underpin it are based on our proprietary nine-factor habit mechanic system, which is, as far as we know, the world's only integrated brain-based behaviour change solution and most advanced habit change system. It stands apart in several key ways. For example, our trait habit loop reveals what truly drives human behaviour by recognising the deep evolutionary patterns that shape our actions, while other habit models stay on the surface. Trait helps you work with your brain's natural patterns rather than against them. Then our nine action factor model provides a complete framework for creating lasting change, rather than focusing on just one or two aspects of habit formation. Like most approaches, it brings together all nine of the essential elements that research shows matter most but are actually never considered in one systematic behaviour change blueprint. You'll find detailed explanations of these scientific foundations in the appendices, but right now let's focus on the positive impact the success cycle can have on your life.

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Chapter 12. Like sports science for your brain, like sports science for your brain, to understand what's possible when we learn to optimise our lighthouse brain's performance and get it working with AI, let's recall the dramatic examples we explored earlier. First, there was the brain state optimised and AI-enhanced audiobook production that got the work finished 233% faster and 90% cheaper. Second, there was winning by design's prediction that AI will enable companies to operate core sales and marketing functions at just 2% of current costs while achieving better results. 2% of current costs while achieving better results. These aren't isolated cases. Among our clients who are learning to combine AI tools with optimized brain states, we're seeing similarly remarkable transformations across many fields.

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This combination mirrors the revolution that happened in sports performance through sports science. For example, sarah, who we met earlier struggling with traditional approaches, experienced this shift first-hand. Just as athletes move beyond simple, try-harder advice, when sports science revealed how the body actually works. Sarah discovered that understanding her brain states made all the difference. Before sports science, athletes relied solely on willpower and general training principles Work harder, train longer, push through the pain. Similarly, before understanding brain states, professionals like Sarah relied on working longer hours, forcing focus through willpower and pushing through mental fatigue. But once scientists began understanding how the body works and the science behind peak physical performance measuring oxygen consumption, tracking muscle recovery, performance measuring oxygen consumption, tracking muscle recovery, monitoring heart rates the transformation was unprecedented. Athletes could now train smarter, not just harder, achieving levels of performance previously thought impossible. We are at a similar turning point with cognitive performance. Just as sports scientists transform physical achievement by understanding the body's inner workings, we can now transform mental performance by understanding how our brain works.

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With AI, this creates a powerful three-part transformation that can help you achieve your big goals faster than you ever dreamt possible. First, by optimising your brain states, you enhance your lighthouse brain's natural capacity. Just as athletes learn to monitor their heart rates and hydration levels, you'll learn to understand and optimise your brain's energy patterns. Like maintaining a lighthouse's power system, this optimization makes it easier to achieve and sustain periods of premium cognitive performance. Your lighthouse beam becomes naturally stronger and more consistent, naturally stronger and more consistent. Second, with this foundation in place, ai tools then transform how you handle routine work. Think about all the tasks that typically slow your progress Writing emails, organising information, handling basic communications. Modern AI tools can automate many of these tasks, significantly reducing the drain on your system. It's like upgrading your lighthouse's basic operations to run more efficiently, preserving power for when you need that bright beam the most. Finally, building on optimised brain states and automated routine work, ai tools accelerate your progress toward big, challenging goals. When you're operating in a high-charge state, doing your most valuable thinking work, ai tools can work alongside you, extending what's possible. Just as modern sports equipment enhances an athlete's natural abilities, ai enhances your cognitive capabilities. Your lighthouse beam not only becomes stronger, but can now reach further than ever before, illuminating new possibilities while you focus on spotting key insights, developing strategies and making crucial decisions. Let me show you what this means in practical terms. Just as athletes, using sports science, exponentially improved their training performance and recovery, optimising your brain states with AI creates similar breakthroughs in cognitive performance.

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Most professionals today can only sustain one-2 hours of high-charge, high-impact work daily, with the rest of their time consumed by routine tasks. Through understanding how your lighthouse brain works. With AI, you can consistently achieve 5-6 plus hours of high-impact work while actually working less overall. Imagine what this could mean for you. Perhaps you're working on a book you've wanted to write for years. You could complete it in six months instead of 12, while still excelling in your career. Or maybe you're leading important projects at work. You could bring them to completion in half the time while maintaining better work-life balance. The audiobook example shows this isn't just theory. When you combine optimised brain states with AI tools, you can achieve significantly more while working less.

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Picture completing your most valuable work by early afternoon, having real energy left for family and personal goals. Imagine building your business or advancing your career without sacrificing the other parts of your life that matter. These aren't just dreams. They're the kind of transformations we're seeing when people understand how to get their lighthouse brain working optimally with AI. Sarah experienced this transformation firsthand. Before understanding my brain states, she shared I would spend entire days feeling busy but achieving little. Now I complete my most important work by early afternoon. Letting AI handle routine tasks during lower energy periods, I have more impact at work and more energy for my family.

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This transformation extends beyond individual performance. This transformation extends beyond individual performance. Just as sports science revolutionised entire teams and organisations, understanding how our brains work helps everyone perform better together. Teams solve problems faster because people are at their best during important meetings. Work becomes more enjoyable because people tackle challenging tasks when they have the most energy, while letting AI handle the routine jobs. Most importantly, people feel better at work because they're working with their natural energy patterns instead of fighting against them.

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This brings us to a crucial moment. You've seen why traditional approaches fall short in the AI era. You've discovered how optimising your brain states can transform your performance. But just as reading about sports science doesn't make you a better athlete, understanding these principles isn't enough. You need a practical system to put them into action. So, that said, let's get back to the success cycle. You've already completed step one, but let's recap the four-step system again so you can consolidate what you have learned and confidently move on to step two and continue your journey to making positive and lasting changes in your own work and life.

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Chapter 13 your next steps in the success cycle, you've seen how combining optimized brain states with AI can transform your performance, just as sports science revolutionised athletic achievement. Now it's time to discover exactly how to create this transformation in your own life through the success cycle, your step-by-step path to mastering cognitive performance in the AI era. Sarah gazed at her brain state profile score feeling a mix of concern and hope. After struggling with traditional approaches and discovering the potential of combining brain states with AI, she was ready for specific guidance. Understanding my score was helpful, she said, but I needed to know exactly how to use this information to create real change. This is where your success cycle journey becomes truly transformative.

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Just as sports scientists use precise measurements to understand an athlete's current capabilities before designing training programs, your brain state profile provides crucial baseline data about your cognitive performance. Like Sarah discovered, your score isn't just a number. It's a window into your brain's current performance patterns and, more importantly, its potential for optimization. Remember, the four steps of the success cycle are designed to create lasting transformation. Unlike traditional approaches that focus only on providing knowledge, each step is designed to help you build the lasting habits that drive real performance improvements.

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Just as sports science helped athletes move beyond try-harder advice to systematic scientific training methods. First comes measurement through your brain state profile, this crucial baseline reveals exactly where you're starting from and what's possible. Just as athletes need accurate data about their current speed, strength and endurance. Before creating effective training programmes, you need robust insights into your current brain state patterns. Other performance improvement programs skip this essential step, which is part of the reason why they struggle to deliver consistent results.

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Second is planning with the task director, your strategic advisor for matching tasks to brain states. This specialist helps you develop a success blueprint that goes beyond simple time management to true energy optimization. You'll learn to identify which activities need your premium thinking power, which activities can be enhanced by AI tools and which can be fully automated. This isn't just about managing time. It's about optimising your brain's energy for maximum impact. Third is optimisation with the day designer, who helps you craft schedules that respect your brain's natural rhythms and, if helpful, reset these rhythms. Instead of forcing yourself to work against your energy patterns, you'll learn to align your most important work with your peak performance periods. This is similar to how elite athletes structure their training around their body's natural recovery and performance cycles, using science to maximize results while minimizing burnout. Fourth is automation with the routine engineer, who helps you create systems and triggers that make optimal performance natural rather than forced. This is where real transformation happens, when better brain state management becomes automatic, just as athletes develop muscle memory that makes peak performance automatic, you'll develop neural patterns that naturally optimise your brain's performance with AI tools.

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Getting my score was eye-opening, sarah shared. But when I started working with the task director, I immediately felt like I was gaining more control over my life, instead of just using random hacks. For the first time ever, I felt like I was using a systematic approach to being my best. Now let's return to your journey. Having completed step one, you're ready to begin step two with the task director. In the next chapter, you'll discover one of their most powerful tools your future, ambitious, meaningful story. This process will help you connect your current reality with your greatest potential, creating a clear path forward, just as it did for Sarah. But first take a moment to appreciate how far you've come. By measuring your brain states, you've taken the essential first step toward mastering your performance in the AI era. More importantly, you've begun a journey that can transform not only your work but your entire life.