This lecture is part of a course from The Great Courses called Outsmart Yourself: Brain-Based Strategies to a Better You taught by Peter M. Vishton, Ph.D.. This course and over 300 other courses can be accessed with a subscription to Wondrium.
The human brain is very complex, but in this lecture Professor Peter M. Vishton, Ph.D. suggests some easy and proven ways that you can influence your brain particularly when it comes to bad habits. Dr. Vishton first suggests that the mere act of writing down when you perform a bad habit is a good start to getting control of it. He goes on to cite studies of positive and negative reinforcement for conquering bad habits and how effective they have been. He sums up the lecture by reminding us that most of the things we do during the day are habitual and as Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do”. So we might as well try to get control of our habits instead letting them control us. This 30-minute lecture is available on The Great Courses YouTube channel.