Chris Anderson sits down in the studio with Michael J. López, an organizational change consultant, keynote speaker, LinkedIn Top Voice, and author of Change: Six Science-Backed Strategies to Transform Your Brain, Body, and Behavior. Michael spent more than a decade at Big Four firms leading transformation programs, played college football, and started his own company at 50 with his wife five months pregnant. He is 53 now, with one-year-old twins.
This one is for the man who sets the same goal every January and quits it every February. Michael says the problem is not your willpower. Your brain has one job, to keep you alive, and it does that by predicting what happens next and steering you toward whatever is easiest. Every hard thing you try to do fights that. So you need a different relationship with effort, and you need to write your goals differently.
In this episode:
- Your brain is a prediction machine, and why that gap is what stops you - Quitters Day, and why motivation runs out in the third week
- Too many goals at once, and why the adult brain can only chase one - Nouns versus verbs, the single shift that keeps you going
- Dopamine without effort is dangerous
- A habit is the opposite of change
- The "I don't want to do this" voice, and why it is the signal to go
- Getting kicked out the door at 50, and the best and hardest year of his life - Why do you think you're done? Stagnant means not improving.
- Seven figures and hate your life, or six figures and home with your babies - Emotions are waves. Turn and face them.
- The 12 hour rule. Move forward, not on.
- Failure is what rewires your brain. Never the same mistake twice.
- Read a book, turn a page, and do not let the AI easy button do your thinking - The Upgraded Man Journal, answering Andrew Menechian and leaving a question for the next guest
Find Michael at michaeljlopez.coach. His book Change is on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and audiobook. He is on LinkedIn and Instagram at michaeljlopez9, and he hosts the Top Voice Podcast every Tuesday.
If you have quit the same goal more than once, this one is for you. Follow the show, and send this to a man who keeps saying "I'm starting Monday."
This episode may or may not be sponsored. Some product links are affiliate links, meaning we'll receive a small commission if you buy something.
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