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#48: Change your brain, change your life
Shem Opolot
December 01, 2023
Hi! Welcome to The Friday Fix! You’re reading this because you probably stumbled upon this post somewhere on the internet instead of where it should be—in your inbox. But no worries; we can fix that.
Who am I? I’m Shem Opolot, a health professional turned content creator, passionate about helping people be their best selves in life and work.
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I have over 10 years of work experience in healthcare, program management, and data analytics on two continents. So, I know a little about helping you work smarter
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I’ll occasionally make you laugh
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Happy December Friday 🎉 Speaking of drinks (because Dezemba), scientists uncovered that the infamous red wine headache isn’t a function of quality or volume. So allow Four Cousins connoisseurs to indulge in peace.
Estimated read time: 5 minutes
ONE THING I’VE LEARNED
Change your brain, change your life.
I was a virgin for a LONG time.
And everyone who found out was always amazed by my self-control, so today, I’m sharing the key to the padlock of my old iron underpants for free.
It all begins in your brain. You see, the human brain is a jumbled ball of electric circuits that’s addicted to patterns. The brain likes to repeat itself, and that’s why we’re vulnerable to so many cognitive biases, like why every older generation thinks the younger generations are a mess or why when you see a car you like, you begin to see that car everywhere you go.
But some parts of the brain are malleable, capable of expanding or contracting depending on what you “feed” them. The fancy term for this brain malleability is neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity makes your brain a construction site with funding for endless renovations. And if your brain is a construction site, your brain cells are eager construction workers willing to build a new walk-in closet at a moment’s notice.
Take a thief, for example. The first time they stole, it was probably innocuous. They nicked a pen, perhaps. But when they got away with it, the resultant thrill excited their eager brain cells, driving them up the wall of the construction site, pleading for more of that cement. Consequently, the thief stole again—something bigger, of course—for another thrill. The loop repeats until over time, a pen becomes government funds.
Have you ever stopped at nine burpees (I hate them, too) instead of the prescribed ten while exercising unsupervised? Skipping that tenth burpee tells your brain you’re the kind of person who only does nine burpees or less. The kind of person who doesn’t push through. Eventually, skipping that burpee translates into failing to wake up early in the morning.
But there’s hope:
The next time you plan to do ten burpees, do eleven instead.
The next time you plan to run a mile, run a mile and a half.
The next time you get a craving in the middle of the night, drink water instead.
Doing a little more than you want rewires your brain—and by extension, YOU—into a new version of yourself with better resolve. Turning down that piece of cake emboldens you to turn down that temptress later.
So, how did I stay a virgin for so long? I did 11 burpees instead of 10. I turned down that slice of pizza.
SHAMELESS PLUG
This is an altar call! Gather all ye heathens who get yer news from WhatsApp and bar gossip. Subscribe for salvation. Subscribe to make it to News heaven.
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MY FAVOURITE THINGS
A quote
Think—wooden floors, old leather, and sometimes, humans.
A good mark of something well made is that entropy makes it more beautiful.
Now playing
The Good Library
Read a book this weekend.
A picture
I’m not above sharing my Spotify Wrapped like everyone else. The honorable mention(s) are Artist(s) #5 (if you want to dabble in pop-y country), and song #1 by HRVY was the icing on the fantastic cake that was Four Weddings and a Funeral 🔥. Please share your top songs with me; I love discovering new music.
PRO TIP
Auto-sum in Excel
Here’s your data:
You want to calculate the total amount paid out. You could whip out a calculator and do it manually like a government secretary, or you can use the SUM function like so:
But there’s a much better way.
On a PC, click the cell directly below the figures you want to add up and hold Alt + =. On Excel for a Mac, it’s ⌘ + Shift + T.
Done.
WHERE FUN GOES TO FLOURISH
The Friday Fix playlist
Brain teaser
From Braingle.
The following are five pairs of words. Each word in each pair has a rhyming word which, when put together using ‘and’ forms popular English phrases.
E.g. rack, bite = black and white
1. Sins, doubts
2. Drum, flow
3. Kites, songs
4. Sack, north
5. Bride, rested
Hints:
1. Details of a situation
2. Arrive and depart
3. Ethics of something
4. Backward and forward
5. Known to work
Answer below
Shem’s picks
✔️ Read: NPR’s annual “Books we love” list
✔️ Learn: How to be a good amateur presenter
✔️ Play: Which city is more north?
Brain teaser answer
Answer:
1. Ins and outs
2. Come and go
3. Rights and wrongs
4. Back and forth
5. Tried and tested
Have a great weekend,
— Shem
Et cetera
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