How to Rewire Your Mind
The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality,” however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A.”
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work — and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
This is an excerpt from the book Art &Fear written by David Bayles. I think it holds a valuable lesson for us all.
It is okay to make mistakes.
Mistakes give us an opportunity to learn. The beauty of creation and getting started is that we open ourselves up to learning. An imperfect start is better than no start at all.
We won’t be an expert on day one, but we can embrace the mentality of the ‘quantity’ art students. We have to give our- selves permission to create junk, knowing that we will get better as we go along. Trying to be perfect from day one is an easy trap to fall into.
We can apply this mentality to any skill we want to improve.
- To become a better writer, start by writing one sentence.
- To complete a marathon, start by walking one mile.
- To save for retirement, start by saving one dollar.
- To learn how to cook, start by making one recipe.
- To become a better decision maker, start by making one decision.
- To build mental toughness, start by doing one extra rep.
To begin rewiring our mind, all we have to do is take a single step in the direction of our goal. We learn something new every step of the way. To paraphrase General George Patton, “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”
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Now we need to solidify our new connections. Rewiring our brain is like building new habits.
Once our new behavior or way of thinking becomes automatic, our brain is rewired and our new connection is formed.
How long does this take? Researchers estimate that it takes on average 66 days to cement a new habit. Some of our rewiring will take longer, while other connections may come more quickly.
Rewiring our mind is a process, not an event. It requires changing our thoughts and behaviors. This can be challenging. However, in his book Atomic Habits, James Clear outlines four laws of behavior change, which can help us stick with the process of rewiring our mind.
- Make it Obvious — We can set up cues to trigger our new thought pattern. If we are working on managing our emotions and we lose three games in a row, we can use that as a cue to take a break and regain control.
- Make it Attractive — We need to be motivated to make a change. After losing a game, we might want to get back in and try again, but if our frustration builds then we will play worse. If we know we play better and win more often when we are calm and confident, taking time to cool off will be more attractive.
- Make it Easy — If changing our behavior is difficult, we won›t want to do it. Taking a break in this instance is simple and straightforward. We can pause the game or turn it off and walk away. We can set an automatic timer on our phone to go off in 20 minutes. This step is where we rewire our brain.
- Make it Satisfying — When our behavior change comes with a reward, we satisfy our motivation and program our brain to remember what this feels like. After taking a break, we feel relaxed and have mental clarity. If we don’t feel like taking a break, we can remind ourselves how we will feel after we do.
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I have enjoyed writing this blog series about my book, Hard Wired. If you’d like to get a copy, you can find it on Amazon — here is the link: Amazon Link. I’d love to connect! You can reach me here via email brandonlgustafson@gmail.com or connect with me on social: LinkedIn or Instagram.
