Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself – Introductory Lecture

Good evening! I want you to turn to the person next to you, look them in the eye, and introduce yourself as a genius. Let’s get started, geniuses! I’m so happy to be here with you tonight. Before we begin, I have a few questions for you. How many of you believe that the way you think has a direct impact on your life, that your thoughts shape your reality? Do you believe that?

How many of you woke up this morning and consciously created your future? The biggest reason many people don’t do this is because they don’t truly believe it’s possible. But if you knew, deep down, that this was absolutely true, would you ever skip a day? Would you ever let any thoughts slip by that you didn’t want to experience?

Neuroscience tells us that your brain is structured to reflect everything you know about your life. It’s essentially a record of your environment—an artifact of your past. So, if you believe this, does your environment control your thinking, or does your thinking control your environment?

If you wake up in the morning, get out of bed the same way, shut off your alarm with the same finger, put on your favorite slippers, walk into the bathroom, and follow the same routine, then look at yourself in the mirror, repeating the same habits, and finally, rush through your day the exact same way you did yesterday—did your brain change at all?

You’re thinking the same thoughts, doing the same things, creating the same experiences, yet secretly expecting something to change. Would you agree? Your brain is wired to think the same way as your environment. As long as you keep thinking in the same way, doing the same things, you’ll keep creating the same life.

The quantum law is still at work, but you are thinking in line with everything you already know, which leads to more of the same. To truly change, you need to think beyond your environment. Every great figure in history, from William Wallace to Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr., knew this—they had a vision, an idea so vivid in their mind that they lived as though that reality was already happening.

Can you believe in a future you can’t yet see, hear, or touch, but you’ve thought about enough times that your brain begins to think as though it’s already real? Neuroscience says this is absolutely possible.

Your personality creates your personal reality—it’s that simple. Your personality is shaped by how you think, act, and feel. The current personality sitting here today has created the present reality, your life as you know it. Would you agree?

If you want to create a new reality, you’d have to fundamentally change the thoughts you think, the habits you repeat, and the emotions you’ve memorized—because they’ve become part of your identity. Most people try to create a new reality while staying the same, and it doesn’t work. You need to become someone new.

So, as you keep thinking the same thoughts, performing the same actions, and experiencing the same emotions, neuroscience tells us that “nerve cells that fire together wire together.” If you keep repeating these patterns, you’ll continue creating the same experiences. To truly change, you must think, act, and feel differently.