Overcoming Limbic Friction With 3 Tips That Will Make You Act Now For Success!
Is limbic friction blocking you?
We, humans, are a curious lot. We know what to do, but often, we have a hard time actually doing it.
We know we should exercise, but we curl up on the couch and binge watch our favorite show. We know we should eat healthy, but we end up eating an ice cream sundae or a bag of Doritos. We know we should focus on getting our work done, but we pick up the iPhone and scroll through social media.
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What is Limbic Friction?
Limbic friction is the gap between “wanting to do a thing” and actually “doing that thing.” This term was coined by Dr. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford.
Limbic friction meaning comes from the friction between two parts of our brain: the prefrontal cortex, the part of our brain that controls rational thought, and the limbic system, the part of our brain that controls our impulses, our primitive, reflexive actions.
The prefrontal cortex considers the past and the future, the limbic system is focused on the now, the present.
The conflict between these two parts of our brain reflects our constant struggle between rational thought (“wanting to do a thing because we know it is good for us (in the future)”) vs our impulse (“doing the impulsive thing because it feels good (now)”).
Limbic friction makes us gravitate to the easy action, the reflexive, impulsive action, the action that feels good (in the present).
In How To Succeed In Life? By Building Systems For Success! we described our 7 step formula for success in life. The keys to success in life are to design effective systems for success and to execute them consistently, day after day, to make small, deliberate progress to our goals.
However, as we mentioned in closing, the best systems are useless if we don’t execute them!
How, then, do we overcome limbic friction?
3 Tips for Overcoming Limbic Friction
How do you Beat Limbic Friction?
To beat limbic friction we need to optimize our systems and retrain our brains.
Tip 1. Leverage Your Mental State for Overcoming Limbic Friction
Some tasks are best performed at specific times during the day.
Scott Adams, in How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big quotes, “At 6:00 AM I’m a creator, and by 2:00 PM I’m a copier“.
A critical trick for overcoming limbic friction is to match our mental state to the system at hand.
To understand why this is fundamentally so important, we need to dive deeper into what neuroscience has discovered.
Dr. Huberman, in Build or Break Habits Using Science-Based Tools, describes how to break up a day into three phases, and how to align the execution of habits / tasks based on the neurochemical signature in our body during that phase.
Note, the actual time of execution may be flexible within the phase, and this flexibility actually yields longer-lasting habits and systems.
Phase 1: 0 – 8 hours after waking
In this phase, our bodies are in a particular neurochemical state wherein neurotransmitters like dopamine, adrenaline (epinephrine) and cortisol are at elevated levels. Dopamine boosts our motivation, our drive.
This mental state gears our body towards action and focus-oriented tasks.
This state can be further heightened with exposure to sunlight, cold baths, exercise and caffeine.
Phase 2: 9 – 16 hours after waking
In this phase, our bodies move towards higher serotonin levels and reduced adrenaline and cortisol levels. This neurochemical state relaxes our body, and aligns it for tasks that require less focus and more experimentation (trial and error).
This state can be further heightened with heat (hot baths, sauna).
Phase 3: 17 – 24 hours after waking
This phase is for resting and sleep, to recover the energy consumed to overcome limbic friction, for neuroplasticity. Ideal conditions for this phase include low lighting and cooler temperatures.
Align Your Body and Mind for Overcoming Limbic Friction
We will design our systems to align tasks with the states our body and mind are in:
Tasks requiring high limbic friction, more focus and precise execution should be scheduled during phase 1. Our state of mind is such that we will have the energy, motivation and will power to overcome the higher limbic friction. Habit formation, acquiring new knowledge and skills, and activities that we find hard to perform are examples that align with this state of mind.
Tasks requiring low limbic friction, less focus and average execution should be scheduled for phase 2. Habit maintenance (activities we are already comfortable doing), meditation, journaling, music are examples of tasks that align with this state of mind.
As Dr. Huberman says, “A lot of habit formation has to do with being in the right state of mind and being able to control your body and mind“
Tip 2. Figure out the price for overcoming limbic friction and pay it
Scott Adams offers this advice, “If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it. It sounds trivial and obvious, but if you unpack the idea it has extraordinary power.”
Whatever we do comes with a price, a cost.
- If we want to get fit this year, we need to exercise: the price is the hundreds of hours and effort we spend in the gym.
- If we want to become a successful blogger, we need to write a lot of posts: the price is the hundreds of hours spent in writing, and learning the associated skills and knowledge.
While the price may seem daunting initially, note that the price is negotiable – picking the right system or reframing the system may lower the price to make it worthwhile to perform.
- If we want to get fit this year, we need to spend 30 minutes, alternately, on cardio and weight training, every day.
- If we want to become a successful blogger, we need to spend 30 minutes writing every day writing, and 30 minutes learning about blogging every day.
Maybe, 30 – 60 minutes a day is not too much to pay to become fit or a successful blogger.
Once we have figured out the price for success, we need to pay it. If I have a packed schedule, how do I get 30 more minutes? Am I willing to wake up 30 minutes earlier? Am I willing to forego 30 minutes of something else, to make time for success?
The difference between wishing for success and attaining success is simple: design a system with a price tag you are comfortable with, and pay the price!
Tip 3: Visualization & Task Bracketing to Lower Limbic Friction
Dr. Huberman also describes two related techniques, visualization and task bracketing, that lower limbic friction.
Psychology distinguishes two types of memory: episodic memory (for events / episodes) and procedural memory (for processes, scripts, recipes).
Procedural memory is very relevant for systems, since systems consist of actions, habits, routines and workflows, and involve a sequence of steps.
Visualization for Overcoming Limbic Friction
Research in psychology has shown that visualization, a mental exercise of systematically walking through the steps in a system, if, even performed once, significantly increases the likelihood of successfully executing the system.
Neuroscience research describes how the visualization exercise primes the same neurons that are needed in the actual execution of the system, a kind of mental practice – that is why this technique works!
Sports athletes have regularly used visualization to improve their performance.
In fact, a study conducted by Dr. Biasiotto at the University of Chicago showed that a group of basketball players that did nothing but mentally visualize making free throws for 30 days had almost identical improvement (23%) as a group that physically practiced shooting every day.
Task Bracketing for Overcoming Limbic Friction
Dr. Huberman also describes psychology research on how adding task bracketing (the activities 10-15 minutes immediately prior to the habit execution and the 10-15 minutes immediately after the habit execution) to the task execution during visualization and spreading the rewards over the entire sequence can accelerate the formation of a habit or routine and lower limbic friction.
Focus on task bracketing helps with neural imprinting for the execution of the habit or routine.
Action Plan for Overcoming Limbic Friction
To break through limbic friction and attain success in life, we need to adopt the following:
- Structure our systems for success by scheduling our activities to align with our mental state.
- Figure out the price for the system, and pay it. Move from wishing and wanting to doing.
- Visualize executing the system, step by step, including the task bracketing.
Reframing our success systems and re-training our brains will unleash our full potential! We will act now for success in life and everything we want to achieve.
