Dr. Maya Shankar

We give a lot more weight to the peak of that experience, so the most emotionally intense moment, negative or positive, and then we give a lot of weight to the end of that experience.

It's called the peak-end rule.

So what does this mean?

It means that we can actually shape the end of our experience to reflect back on it more favorably.

So what does this look like in practice?

Well, if I have a really challenging workout, I might tack on a gentle stretching session just at the end, just for two minutes, because that I know is gonna be overweighted in my memory.

Or let's say there's something really, really uncomfortable, like bashing my head against the wall trying to get this paragraph out.

But I end the writing session by just mapping out a couple of bullet points for my next chapter.

Now I'm going to reflect back on it more favorably.

And so you can deliberately shape that end to make it more likely that you return to your goal the next time and more likely that you don't fall into old habits.

One tool is called cognitive reappraisal.

And this means deliberately reinterpreting an event in order to alter the emotional impact that it has on you.

So one thing you can do in these moments is to remind yourself that the reason why you're so fearful of these future outcomes is because you really, really care about your business succeeding.

And that's actually a great thing to care so much about something that it causes anxiety is actually not something to be taken for granted.

Lots of people have complacency when they go through their lives and all they want is a sense of meaning and purpose.

We also see the efficacy of this approach when it comes to stress.

So when we're feeling stressed, we often just think it's a really bad thing, but we know actually stress has positive impacts and stress is a signal to our brain that the thing we're about to do really matters to us.

And that's exciting.

That's why we're having this adrenaline-braced response, right?

I care about how this podcast is gonna go with Hala, right?