Emily McDonald

I'm going to do that task or I'm going to write this book or whatever it is.

And then we have, you know, and that kind of is the seesaw with the default mode network, which is really the network that's active when we're not working on anything specific and we're just allowing ourselves to imagine a future or our mind is wandering.

And it's really interesting when you start to think about

how your default mode network holds this concept of who you are.

And it also is active when you are imagining.

And so now we start to put all these pieces together and you start to realize, okay, so this may be future that I'm imagining for myself, this default behavior that I'm doing when I'm not actively focused on consciously changing, right?

Because we're

creating a new life requires responding and not reacting.

But if we're reacting as an old version of ourselves, then we are acting as that story of who we are.

And so it really is that default mode network activity, that self-concept, that story of who we are, that identity that we hold, whatever the labels that we use to describe ourselves, that's really driving this default behavior, way of thinking, way of feeling.

And

One of the things that I always say is your identity is your destiny in this life.

And I really look at this from the neuroscience standpoint specifically in that whoever you see yourself as, whatever the labels are that you identify with, that's going to determine your behavior, your thoughts, your emotions.

It's going to determine the underlying kind of motivations that you feel and

And those, they determine our habits.

And I get asked questions.

I mean, there's a specific question I get in my comments all the time.

It's like, I'm trying to go to the gym.

I'm trying to be more active, more fit, but I keep falling off.

I'll do it for two weeks and then I keep falling off.