Ole, where's the science???

Negativity Bias

Do you know the video with the cucumber behind a cat? The cat turns around and jumps away scared. Why? It is clearly a green cucumber, but if there is only a 2 percent chance that it's a snake, then nature and evolution rewards the cats that jump away, and the cats that don't do it, exit the gene pool.

For us humans it's the same. Negatives and dangers are more useful to pay attention to for our survival, therefore we are slightly biased towards negatives. It's how our brain is wired. Although in many situations nowadays it's not a tiger or anything near life-threatening. And that's good to know.

Neuroplasticity

This is one of those words that put many people off. Complicated. But it's actually quite awesome, it's the ability of the brain to change.

Neuroscientists will kill me for this way of putting it, but I believe it's helpful: the brain is like a muscle. What you repeatedly pay attention to, gets stronger. So if that's something positive, your brain makes space for that.

I'd say we use this to our advantage.

Tiny Habits

This is a superskill to understand and wrap your head around. We don't quit habits because we lack willpower, we do so because we start too big. 88% of people quit their new year's resolution within 2 weeks. That sucks to be honest. Because it's really ineffective.

That's why THI is a tiny habit. So that it remains fun and doable. So don't punish yourself for thinking that you don't do enough, just do something small, consistently, miss one day, get back at it, and you'll secretly do way more than the average person. #lifehack.