I used to love playing with legos as a kid. Me and my brother would have lego wars, where I had the red and yellow pieces, and he had the blue and white ones. We would build castles, robots, trucks and have imaginary but intense battles full of deep plots, twists and a conclusion.
What I loved about it was how the same piece can be used in so many different ways at the start, but once it is part of a castle or a truck, there it will remain till the end of the game, until we break it down and reuse it.
Neuroscience has taught me that the brain is not very different from lego pieces. Neural networks are highly adaptable, the same networks can be used in multiple situations for different purposes. For instance, the network that helps you move and jump also helps you enjoy the beats of your favourite song. And every time your neural networks learns a certain pattern of response to a particular stimulus, it lays the groundwork for a habit. If A happens, then I’ll do B.
Your identity is like a castle made out of lego pieces, where the individual blocks are your habits. If you can break it down, you can rebuild yourself into another castle, or a monster truck. You can change parts of you that you don’t like, and build more on the parts that you do.
The foundational blocks are harder to change (but not impossible). The more recent habits are more easily replaced. Every year, every day, we are adding on to our habit load. Habits that are loosely formed today will become intrinsic parts of you in a few months. It becomes vital that you pay attention to what habits you are allowing to remain, and which ones need to be taken out immediately before more damage is done.
Eventually, it’s just a game. Happy building.
A very interesting perspective.
very useful and interesting. Thank you