Missed last week’s insights on The Fasting Revolution? Here’s the link to catch up before diving into this week’s edition.

Introduction

Are your habits helping you grow, or holding you back? Habits are more than just routines—they’re the invisible drivers behind many of the decisions we make, often without us realizing it. In both personal and professional life, habits can be the difference between reaching new heights or staying stagnant. If you’re a founder, leader, or high-performing professional, understanding the power of habits is essential for unlocking your full potential.

I could only achieve so much until I finally figured out the (neuro)science of how habits shape our daily lives, how belief and persistence can rewire those habits, and how you can break free from patterns that no longer serve you. By reprogramming your habits, you can create a stronger mindset, enhance your leadership, and foster an environment of growth—for yourself and your team.

The Power of Habits—How They Shape Our Daily Lives

Charles Duhigg, in his best-selling book The Power of Habit, breaks down the science of habit formation into a simple loop: cue, routine, and reward.

This loop is what keeps you reaching for your phone first thing in the morning, snacking mindlessly during work, or reacting to stress in predictable ways. The brain craves efficiency, and habits make life easier by automating repetitive tasks.

Habits can dictate how we approach challenges, make decisions, and lead our teams. For instance, consider the habit of eating. You may think it’s the most natural thing to do, at a cadence that is somehow very similar every day. Then one day, you skip a meal and you immediately feel you are about to die. This is the habit of your body expecting a certain thing at a certain time and fully autopiloting towards that goal.

(Fortunately, if you are a reader of this newsletter, you know we can easily break this habit by fasting, but still the first few times you will feel the pain. That’s an automatic reaction of your system getting out of automation mode).

Understanding this loop gives us the power to change. By recognizing the cues that trigger unwanted behavior, we can start to rewrite the routine and ultimately, the outcome.

Mind Over Matter: The Role of Belief in Changing Habits

What if the key to changing habits was not just about willpower but belief? In You Are the Placebo, Dr. Joe Dispenza explains how our beliefs have the power to reshape our physical and mental reality.

Similarly, in Mind to Matter, Dawson Church explores how focused thought can alter brain chemistry and neural patterns, making it possible to reprogram even the most ingrained habits.

This insight right there is so powerful. If you believe you’re a poor public speaker or that you’re always stressed, your brain will reinforce those beliefs through your habits. But by consciously shifting your beliefs, you can start building new habits around positivity, resilience, and confidence.

Have you watched Inside Out 2? That’s literally what the movie is all about!

Research supports this idea. In studies on neuroplasticity, scientists have found that our brains are incredibly adaptable—our neural pathways can be rewired with consistent focus and practice. This means that with the right mindset and belief, you can truly “hack” your brain and break free from limiting habits.

How I Reprogrammed My Mind for Positivity

Changing habits is not just theoretical for me—I’ve lived through it. For years, I struggled with negative thinking. And yes some of it was due to Gluten… but for the rest, it was all about my habits!

I saw the world through a glass-half-empty lens, which affected my personal life and professional performance. It wasn’t until I made a conscious decision to “brainwash” myself into positivity that things began to shift.

(And for this I’m extremely thankful to Shawn Achor and his book The Happiness Advantage, a must-read if you want to go deeper into the topic!)

How did I do it? Through small, consistent changes. I started each day with affirmations and visualizations, training my mind to expect the best outcome in any situation. In the last few months, after my microdosing protocol (more on this in the next articles!😉), I even started a gratitude journal, forcing myself to focus on what was going right instead of dwelling on what was wrong. Over time, these practices became habits, and slowly but surely, I noticed a shift. The glass-half-empty view became half-full.

Reprogramming your mind for positivity isn’t an overnight fix, but it’s possible—and the results are incredible.

By reinforcing positive thoughts daily, I noticed improved focus, better leadership, and a new sense of resilience in both my personal and professional life.

Persistence and Repetition—The Foundation of Habit Change

As Napoleon Hill famously wrote in Think and Grow Rich,

This statement holds the key to changing your habits: persistence. Habits, both good and bad, are formed through repetition. It takes persistence to break away from negative patterns and establish positive ones in their place.

If you’ve ever served in the military or practiced sports at a high livel, you’ll recognize this principle: your actions become second nature through repetition, just as new habits can become automatic through consistent effort. Whether you’re building a new morning routine, practicing better communication as a leader, or fostering positivity, persistence is essential.

Success is not about talent—it’s about consistently showing up and reinforcing the right behaviors until they become automatic. Habits don’t change overnight, but with persistence, they can be reshaped into something powerful.

(Small alert and clarification here: repetition and struggle are NOT the same thing. Most people think that you can achieve success just by working hard, putting in second place your health and wellbeing. The reality though, is that if you are not healthy, you won’t recognize a bad repetition, and hence end of with a bad habit once again!)

The Neuroscience Behind Breaking Bad Habits

Our brain’s neural pathways are like well-worn trails in a forest: the more we travel them, the deeper they become. These pathways explain why it’s so hard to break bad habits—your brain has literally wired itself to follow that path. However, just as paths can be rerouted, so too can neural pathways.

Neuroscience shows us that mindfulness, habit stacking, and reward restructuring can all help disrupt unwanted patterns. Mindfulness helps by bringing awareness to automatic behaviors. Habit stacking links new habits to existing ones, making them easier to adopt. Reward restructuring allows you to replace the “reward” of a bad habit with something more beneficial.

Habits in Leadership and Building Team Culture

If you’re habitually late to meetings, avoid difficult conversations, or regularly operate in “firefighting mode,” those behaviors will ripple through your team. Leaders set the tone, and their habits often become the unspoken norms within the organization.

To foster a high-performing team, it’s essential to model the habits you want to see in others. Consistent communication, openness to feedback, and a focus on personal development are all habits that, when reinforced, create a culture of growth and innovation. Positive habits lead to a positive culture, and a positive culture leads to sustainable success.

Let’s Wrap It Up

Habits are powerful forces in both our personal and professional lives. By understanding how they work, we can begin to take control of them, rather than letting them control us. Whether it’s breaking free from old patterns or developing new, positive ones, habits can be reprogrammed through persistence, belief, and mindful action.

Reprogramming your habits isn’t just about willpower; it’s about understanding the deeper mechanisms of how your brain and body work. By leveraging insights from neuroscience, repetition, and personal development, you can make lasting changes that will lead to more focus, productivity, and resilience—both at work and in your personal life.

So, what habits are shaping your life right now? Are they driving you toward your goals or holding you back? Start small—choose one habit to focus on, and begin the journey of rewiring your brain for success. Remember, persistence is key. The more consistently you reinforce positive behaviors, the stronger and more automatic they will become.

I encourage you to reflect on your own habits and take that first step toward change. Share your journey with me in the comments, or connect with me on LinkedIn to continue the conversation. Let’s build a community of professionals committed to growth, resilience, and high performance.