After writing numerous articles for Forbes, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the wonderful feedback I’ve received on topics I’ve covered, such as self-awareness and how becoming self-aware can help you rewire your brain.
Every time I publish something along these lines, I hear from readers who tell me the words I shared gave them hope. They finally believe their habits are not fixed, and that their brain is not some finished product they are stuck living inside. This encourages me and reminds me of my own journey.
More than once, I have sat in an airport or a waiting room, reading an online article that gives me hope and new knowledge on how to live. This is always exciting, but along the way, I’ve also made an important discovery.
Hope alone is just the beginning, and for hope to result in personal transformation, it must be acted upon.
The High of a Good Idea
Whenever you discover a new concept about the brain, the ego, or human potential, it produces something close to a chemical response. You feel lighter and as though you’ve found a secret the rest of the world missed. So for a few days, you tell everyone you know about it.
Then the feeling fades, and your habits quietly return to what they were before, and nothing changes. I write this as someone who spent years making this exact mistake. Always eager to discover new insights, I spent far too much time acquiring knowledge and not nearly enough time putting it into action.
This proved very costly in the end, and it wasn’t until I pivoted that my life started to improve.
What the Science Actually Promises
Neuroplasticity is real, and researchers have shown that the adult brain continues to form new neural connections throughout life, which is genuinely good news for anyone who assumes their patterns are permanent.
Forbes senior contributor Nell Derick Debevoise, who profiled my own path away from an ego-driven leadership style for this publication, put it precisely, noting that the same plasticity that lets old, fear-based patterns take root is what makes it possible to reshape them, but only through consistent practice and not through insight alone.
The Bridge Nobody Wants to Build
This is why I begin most mornings with fifteen to twenty minutes of a very old sequence of movements, paired with a short-spoken intention I say before I start. None of it is complicated, but starting my day with yoga, meditation, and intention sets me up to apply the additional knowledge I will receive throughout the day.
The gap between knowing something and being changed by it is the bridge that very few people want to construct. This process takes time, and the work is often mundane and repetitive. But it’s also one of the most important steps you will ever take.
Hope tells you a different life is possible, but practice is the only thing that gets you there.