Your brain is not necessarily going to cooperate with us on this venture. While your mind has an intention to learn, your physical brain is trying to keep things, well, lean. Like an overactive housekeeper, if the brain doesn’t think this is emotionally charged content, valuable to your survival, out it goes. It’s relegated to the same pile as the morning drive to work that we talked about earlier. So, you have to convince your brain that this is important. You have to care. Now that we have your attention…
Change is always harder than it looks—that’s a physical reality, not just an aphorism. An old, ingrained habit makes the equivalent of a neural highway in your brain. These old habits don’t go away. You can make new neural highways alongside, going a different route and making shortcuts, but the old highways remain. They are always there for you to revert to—to fall back on. Practice may not make perfect, but it sure makes permanent.
Practice makes permanent.
Realize that these old habits will remain, and if you revert to one, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s how you’re wired. Just acknowledge the lapse, and move on with your new intention. It will surely happen again; just be aware of when it does, and get back on the right path again. It’s the same thing whether you’re changing your learning habits, quitting smoking, or losing weight.
The topic of change, be it personal or organizational, is huge and complex.[158] Appreciate that it’s not easy, but it does yield to consistent effort. Here are just a couple of suggestions to help you manage effective change:
Block out some time, and fight for it. Keep track of what you’ve accomplished, and review your accomplishments when you feel you haven’t done enough. You’ve probably come further than you think. This is a great use of your exocortex: use a journal, a wiki, or a web app to track your progress.
Remember the danger doesn’t lie in doing something wrong; it lies in doing nothing at all. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
It takes something like a minimum of three weeks of performing a new activity before it becomes habit. Maybe longer. Give it a fair chance.
As we’ve seen throughout, your thoughts will physically alter the wiring in your brain and your brain chemistry. You have to believe that change is possible. If you think you’ll fail, you’ll be correct.
Start with the low-hanging fruit. Set up a small, achievable goal, and reward yourself for reaching it. “Rinse and repeat”: set up the next small step. Take one step at a time, keeping your big goal in mind but not trying to map out all the steps it takes to get there. Just the next one. Learn what you need to know for the goals further out once you get closer to them.