Ep925 Understand the Mechanics(Habits)

Why do we repeat behaviors even when we know better, and how do simple actions become automatic routines? The Mechanics of Mindset breaks down the neuroscience of human behavior to reveal how your brain builds, maintains, and rewrites habits.

In this episode, we unpack The Habit Loop—the four-step neural process of Cue, Craving, Response, and Reward that governs roughly 40% of your daily life. Discover how your prefrontal cortex hands control over to the basal ganglia, why relying on pure willpower almost always fails, and how to redesign your environment to make positive changes effortless.

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Yo, it's your main man Rahim Rai C L Man. 40% of roughly everything you do today is gonna be done without conscience. You dig? Everything that you do in your life is done without conscience almost, right? You think you choose to grab your phone or you choose to go check the refrigerator for the third time, you didn't. You feel me? Your brains, Bom Slam Gum Lada did it. You feel me? On autopilot to save you energy, you dig? To save you energy and time. Every single behavior you repeat, good, bad, or unintentional runs on a simple four-step neutral engine, the habit loop, right? And this is like if you don't understand how the habit loop works today, I'm gonna describe how your environment controls your decision. But once you break down the mechanics, you can rewrite your daily behavior code. Like you know how you code some shit, you can change it up, right? Like today, I'm gonna break down how your brain actually builds habits and how you can hack the system, man. This whole week I'm going off nothing but habits and how they are built. You feel me? Like what to do when a habit is this way, what to do when a habit is that way. Once you know that, hey, you can move different, you dig? So I'm gonna I'm gonna break down the mechanics, then I'm gonna break down the goddamn how to prepare the space, then I'm gonna tell you how to start small, then we're gonna talk about how to integrate those daily habits. Then you wanna talk about how to sustain them. Like everything got a connecting point to them. Like once you know the basis of it and why is this this way, and why this run on that type of system, and what system this gonna require. You can move different, you can think different, you dig? And so today we're gonna hop right into it, man. We're gonna get smarter together, man. Let's get it, let's go. Alright, the first thing is, right? We're gonna get into the four-step loop. The four-step loop, all right. It's the call the first one is gonna be always the cue. Sorry if the listeners don't hear me too good. The cue, right? If you got the right cue, right, you damn near can uh turn yourself into a a the damn perfectionist because you your your your all your cues match up, right? And basically what a cue is is in the trigger, it's a trigger, like for like basically if you're in a time, place, or an emotion or notification, they alert your brain to initiate a certain behavior. And once you initiate this certain behavior, it came from that cue. It's because you went to that environment, it's because you was placed in that emotional um state, like just knowing that you saw that notification, it struck your brain a different way, right? And this caused a this is a cue. This caused something something to happen. This was basically the beginning of of the process, right? So once you got the beginning of a process, man, and you know, okay, what what triggers your cues, you're gonna start not going there. You're gonna start moving different, you're gonna start thinking a different way, you're gonna start seeing things in a in a frame that you know, okay, I can handle this now. I can I can do this now because I know how to handle my cubes. I know when something triggers me. I know what environment, what places, and what times of the day I am not allowed to do certain things. So this is the first step, right? And the second step is the craving, the internal drive or desire for a shift in state. Like it's um seeking novelty, script, scripts relief, or a dopamine boost, right? And this is for the people who what have that that other thing, right? That environment made you wanna go get high. That environment made you wanna breathe in and breathe out. That environment made you wanna what? Just do things that you normally do. Yo, you're not thinking none of it. This is what you regularly do when you come over here. When you when you with these people, this is what you regularly do. You feel me? This is the regular craving. When I'm around y'all, this is the regular thing that I fiend for. This is the regular thing that I want. So once I know I want something, what I'm finna do? You dig? I'm finna make sure I'm in that environment. I'm finna, hey, I'm finna get the I'm finna get what my body been asking for, right? And the next thing you do is step three. The body responds. The physical action routine or thought process execute address the crate. This is what I just say. It's finna get what it's want. Like your body finna get whatever it you used to doing when it gets over here, or whatever it's used to eating over here around this day of the week, it's finna do it. Because it's routine that way. You feel me? It's it's like basically you this damn near it's bound to happen consciously. Like it just gonna happen. You're not thinking about it. You just gonna sit there and you're gonna be doing it. You're gonna be serving it, you're gonna be serving yourself a face full of food. You're gonna be running. You're gonna look up, you're gonna be writing, you're gonna be doing whatever that habit is called of. You dig like whatever, however, you created that habit. That's how you created it, right? And the last thing is the reward, the final payoff that satisfies the craving and reinforces the newer pathway for the future repetition. Basically saying you just got yourself stronger in that area. Now you damn sure likely to do it next week or tomorrow or when you go over there or at the time of the day. You dig? So once you know that you're so pertinent to do something, man, you gotta get yourself out there. Like, I know that this triggered the wrong blood cells in me. I don't want this around me. I don't want to be doing it. I don't want to put myself in that situation where I'm stressed out about something and I'm not feeling my best no more. Nah, I'm gonna change this up, you dig? Because neurology, right? As the loop repeats, controls just from a pre-fluid context, logical decision decision making, to the automatic execution. You feel me? Like this is gonna start happening automatically if I keep on doing the same thing over and over and over. I'm getting my mind stronger in the wrong way. You feel me? I'm getting my mind stronger not to do something that's that that's good for me. That's that's in the wrong way. So just look at things that way, right? And the next thing is, man, the system hack for this behavior. I gotta get out this hack, right? The hack cue. Make trigger obvious for good habits. Leave workout gear out and invisible for bad ones. Move phone to another room, right? Like just what I just said in the other one. Like sometimes you know that this habit is not good for me. Like, you know this shit is obvious. Let me leave this shit right here. Because it's easy for me to grab it. You dig if I'm making shit, if I want to make something harder on me, why why have it right there beside me? You feel me? If I'm trying to start smoking, why be around people who smoking? If I'm trying to stop doing a certain thing, why be around it, right? This is how you hack your your habits. You hacking it now. I told y'all I'm gonna talk about hacking and how to just get yourself out of that whack, right? Once you get yourself out of that whack, it's because you have deleted some bad cues out your life. You feel me? You made triggers obvious for good habits. You dig, and you made the ones invisible for the bad habits. You that shit don't even come across your mind anymore because you don't even see it anymore. And once you don't see something no more, it's no longer thinking about it or or going that way about it. You feel me? You're not gonna do nothing, right? So let's so let's um think about that when I'm when I'm performing a certain thing. Keep it going, keep it going. I'm performing something, right? Then the next step you can do is what? Hack the craving, adjust friction by pairing required action with enjoyable activities, temptation bundling. Like you gonna watch a little TV and you gonna what be on the treadmill working out. You think at the same time, you just putting two things in one. You're not trying to take away what you love, you're not trying to do a lot of what you don't do. You feel me? You gonna smoke your blow and you're gonna eat some fruit with it. You did you gonna you're gonna do things that bundle everything you want in one. Like, don't just not enjoy life. Enjoy life and still do what you gotta do. Don't enjoy life and and be unhealthy. You feel me? Enjoy life and be healthy at the same time. Like, know that you can have all your cake and you can eat it because it's your cake, this is your body. You can you can hurt it and you can fix it up. You feel me? You can do what you want to it. So let's make sure our habits match that, right? And the heck response, make action friction free using the two-minute rule. Scale down the target action so it's it's takes under two minutes. So make sure everything is easy. When you get up in the morning, make sure everything out of the iron, you're just getting up and and putting clothes on and getting everybody out the door. You dig like make sure everybody's face clean, make sure everybody, you know, and and did the basics. Like, once your routine is like this, you ain't the kids gonna do it automatically too, because they so used to it. So you gotta get them in the in the habit base too, so they can have that reward system. You feel me? Like, deliver immediate positive reinforcement right after completing the action to the loop. You feel me? Like, let yourself, you know, give up give yourself a hand clap, give yourself a pat on the back once you know you did something that you're supposed to do. Like, really reward yourself with something positive, reward yourself with something that's gonna push the um momentum, that's gonna push you up to a better place. Then you ain't gotta think no more about doing this thing that's good for you. Like when I get up in the morning, I'm finna go run. I'm not finna go think about it. I know I'm finna go run right now and go run after I gotta do this in the morning. Like just knowing that I that's on my mind, it's it's routine. It's no way of me stopping that routine because it's routine. Something gotta break down on me for me not to go run. You feel me? Something gotta break down. I can't, I gotta be able to not physically do it for me not to do it. You dig because my routine is so impacted on running a mile every day. And it's gonna be like that, right? So get you some good routines in your system. Get you some good habits in your system. Y'all know how to hack your system by just changing up the environment. You feel me? When you go, you see, it's not you waking up in the phone. You gotta your phone right beside the bottom right by the bed. So, of course, you're gonna get up and get right in the phone. Go put your phone in the bathroom, go put your phone on top of the dresser, put it somewhere where you gotta get up and reach it. You dig, maybe this habit will change you getting up and getting straight to the phone. Maybe you'll get up and cut it off and you'll go what wash your teeth, brush your teeth and wash your face, right? You'll go get up and go run. You'll get up and go do whatever's needed because now you what moving that habit to a different place. Once you move the habit to a different place, you're really not gonna maintain it how you was when you was over there. Remember how a person moves, say, bro, I was doing good when I was over here. Ever since I came over here, man, I done fell off. You did. It's because that environment had changed. It's because their um their place of doing this was probably far than this, or they um those people over there wasn't really on it. Like them people over there was on there. So once you get on something strong and get on something heavy, man, just think about it, like, bruh, hell no. Uh-uh. I this I've been fucking myself up with this habit here. Like, like lay your habits down, like sit them bitches down and say what I do when I do go here. What I do when I do, you feel me? Like, what's the regular declarer? And ask yourself if it's hurting you or is it helping you? Is it making you better? Like, what's up with this habit? Because either way, it's suggesting your future. It's it's making it gooder or worse. So let's think of that. You feel me? If my situation is becoming greater, you feel me? Uh is my situation becoming worse. Worse, worse. I don't know why. Worse is not a word. Say worse is not a word. That's just a word in my brain. But anyway, look, man, let's get to the call to action right. Resilience. I mean, reliance on willpower fails every time. Long-term changes come from altering the cue or swapping the response while keeping the same reward. You feel me? Like you gotta swap something out. You got to. Once you swap something out for something good, like saying no to something else is saying yes to this. And saying yes to this is saying no to that. So what's I must what I'm gonna swap out? You feel me? No to this, but we still gonna have this at the end of it. You feel me? No to that, but we gonna do this from now on. Like when that mindset kicks in, habits gonna get to running. You feel me? Habits gonna get to like damn, like my habits so fucking impactful on my day to the point where I just ain't, I I done really, I didn't um ate up my time. Like, I ain't got no time to the bullshit. And this one, this one good thing I like. Like reading and writing, running. You feel me? Like, they keep me to be myself, they keep me, goddamn, having a mental so I can really operate and see from a a a full spectrum, right? And go act on it and I see what I know I'm not doing. My main thing is doing and being disciplined with my actions. Like sometimes I'm very undisciplined with my actions, sometimes I'm very disciplined with my actions. So it just uh it's just uh um a time and matter of getting your shit right to the point where you know, hey, this is what I do. You feel me? It's it's second nature now. And that's what you want. You want every good habit second nature. So if you don't take nothing away from this, let me see what habits I got and let me see what caused this. Like what caused me to overeat? Like what caused me to not want to um do what I need to do? Like what caused me to come in here and lay down? Like what caused me? Ask yourself, what caused me? It just came to me. What caused me to not do? What caused me to not have? What caused me to not act on? It is and once you see this this habit, like every day you got like shit, well, it's however long you up, 16 habits, it might well say. Probably just four. But this it's some type of habit is just eating you away. And you see which habit is eating you away. Say which habit is causing my failure. Say which habit is causing my destruction. And once you can fill that blank in, now you got something to work on. Now you can look at this habit and you can drink you know, you can put it on clothes that it needs to have on, so we can operate at a high level. So y'all think about that, man. Y'all start playing all time, y'all start planning y'all like, man. If you have y'all in any kind of way, man, y'all like y'all come in, y'all subscribe, man. For the listens, man. Thank y'all, man. Hope God bless y'all in a major way, man. Yo. Man.