3423: Habits Can Make You Stupid And Then Kill You by James Altucher on Creativity and Happiness

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[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_01]: This is Optimal Living Daily. Habits can make you stupid and then kill you. By James Altucher of jamesaltucher.com. And I'm Justin Malek. Happy Friday. Welcome to Optimal Living Daily or OLD, one of a few shows where we read articles to you.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_01]: You can check out our other shows covering different topics. Just search for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're hearing this, and you can follow or subscribe to the other shows.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_01]: But for now, let's get right to another post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Habits can make you stupid and then kill you. By James Altucher of jamesaltucher.com.

[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I've written 18 books. I've started 20 businesses. I've failed at about 17 of them, but some have done okay.

[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I've helped raise two beautiful kids. I have a podcast that I love doing. Sometimes I'm really lazy. Sometimes I do nothing.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I go play arcade games or watch TV or sit in the store and drink coffee and play on my iPad.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But to do all of the previously mentioned, I had to work a lot. Everyone is into habit p*** these days.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_01]: Do these habits for success. I'm guilty of this also. I'm a habit p***ographer.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_01]: But be very careful. Don't blindly do habits. Habits kill. Here's why.

[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: A. Life goes by too quick.

[00:02:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I like this salmon dish across the street. So a month ago, I said, I'm going to just eat this every day and make decision making easier.

[00:02:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Within a week, I was sick of it. I thought I was going to die if I ate another bite of salmon.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_01]: If you do the same thing every day, your brain gets used to it.

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Then the 10th time you do it, or the 100th time, your brain doesn't even realize it's doing it.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: That's why people who work the same 9-to-5 job for 40 years feel like the years went by so quick.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Because if you do the same thing every day, the brain shuts down during those activities,

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_01]: and it feels like just seconds have gone by when you think about it later.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_01]: People write, do these 100 habits every day. Do them at the same time, like a morning ritual, an evening ritual, etc.

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_01]: If you do that and you blink, you're going to be 90 years old.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_01]: B. You either grow or get worse.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_01]: B. You can't step in the same river twice. It's always changing.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_01]: One time I said, I'm going to do 20 push-ups a day.

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_01]: That works for about a week. Then you have to do 21 push-ups.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Then 25. Then 50.

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_01]: Then push-ups are no good.

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_01]: You've only worked one set of muscles.

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: You have to change your exercise.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_01]: You have to change your habits.

[00:03:46] [SPEAKER_01]: So then it's no longer a habit.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_01]: You could say, exercise every day.

[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Fine, but don't do it at the same time each day.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: C. Play versus habits.

[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I like to play, but if I play the same game every day, I'll get bored.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_01]: In the past week, air hockey, ping pong, pool, golf, mini-golf, some kind of small car race, skeet bowl, chess, etc.

[00:04:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Every game uses different parts of my brain and body, and I don't do it at the same time.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I do it when I'm not busy with other things.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_01]: But I do try to spend time every day playing.

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_01]: We're not so different from when we were kids.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_01]: If anything, we're more stupid.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I certainly didn't call playing baseball a habit when I was a kid.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_01]: It was fun, and it made me a better person, and I played every day.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_01]: D. Habits make you stupid.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I used to live in the beautiful country.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I would drive and notice the trees and the architecture and the leaves changing.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_01]: But then on the 50th time, on the same route, I stopped noticing everything.

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I'd get to my destination and not even remember anything.

[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_01]: How did I get here?

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_01]: If you take a different route each day, you keep noticing things.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_01]: You keep learning about your surroundings.

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_01]: The more new things that hit your brain, the less habits, the smarter you get.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Being present at every new moment forces the universe to deliver up a new experience on your plate of life.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Devour it, digest it, and you'll get more.

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: And E. Habits are for insects.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Bees have habits.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_01]: They do stuff with honey and flowers.

[00:05:24] [SPEAKER_01]: They do the same thing each time.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Ants have habits.

[00:05:27] [SPEAKER_01]: They build ant farms.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Humans don't have habits.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_01]: We have the exact same genes as 40,000 years ago,

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and if you take out violent death and infant mortality,

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_01]: humans probably lived longer then.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Because they had a wider variety of things to eat.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_01]: They had healthier exercise to get their food.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: They didn't eat at the same time each day.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_01]: They ate when they could find food.

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Nor did they exercise at the same time.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Exercise was, let's get food, which only occurred when they were hungry.

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Habits started when we were domesticated by wheat

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01]: and turned from nomads into farmers to grow the wheat.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Prior to that, variety was the spice of life.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_01]: And now to live long, to be smart, to live healthy, to have fun,

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_01]: variety also should be the spice of life.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So what do we do with all of the habits?

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_01]: I try to contribute every day, to have impact, to learn and then share.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_01]: But that's not a habit.

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_01]: That's called being a decent citizen.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_01]: You've just listened to the post titled,

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Habits Can Make You Stupid and Then Kill You,

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_01]: by James Altucher of jamesaltucher.com.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I take it to James.

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_01]: He does make a solid point there at the beginning.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_01]: If we keep the exact same habit and routine

[00:08:01] [SPEAKER_01]: when it comes to diet or exercise,

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER_01]: it might have the opposite of the intended effect.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_01]: But I think there's a middle ground here.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_01]: As an example, in the fitness world,

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_01]: if you've listened to my brother's podcast, Optimal Health Daily,

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_01]: you might have heard about this thing called muscle confusion.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_01]: You always want to be introducing new movements into your exercise plan

[00:08:19] [SPEAKER_01]: because our bodies are very smart and efficient.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_01]: You'll naturally find the least resistance and shortest path to success.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_01]: So if we're always doing the exact same exercise,

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_01]: like you mentioned push-ups in this article,

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_01]: eventually our bodies will adapt

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and won't be making a lot of progress or gains after a bit of time.

[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_01]: But by changing it up, confusing the muscles,

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_01]: we then have to work a bit harder and adapt again,

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_01]: leading to more gains.

[00:08:47] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a bit counterintuitive since we're always looking for productivity

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_01]: and efficiency in our lives.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01]: The same goes for diet, like he said.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_01]: If you're eating salmon every single day,

[00:08:57] [SPEAKER_01]: well, number one, as he mentioned, you'll probably get sick of it.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_01]: But number two, you might be missing out on some random nutrients

[00:09:03] [SPEAKER_01]: from other foods that you're skipping out on.

[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Dietitians will generally tell you to eat

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_01]: lots of different fruits and vegetables with lots of different colors.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So we're really getting a wide variety of vitamins and minerals.

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_01]: So as tempting as it is to stick very perfectly to something very rigid,

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_01]: maybe we can try not to be too specific

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_01]: and instead build a more general healthy habit

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_01]: that involves variety and changing things up.

[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So something to think about today.

[00:09:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for being here and following or subscribing.

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: And thank you so much if you've ever shared the show with someone

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[00:09:39] [SPEAKER_01]: Hope you're having a great Friday if you're listening in real time.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And I'll see you tomorrow over the weekend where your optimal life awaits.