Changing your brain is like learning to drive a car
Learn a few basic mental moves in one easy area, he says, and you can use them for work, love, and how you treat yourself.
Madefor · Andrew Huberman - Change Your BrainAndrew Huberman, who teaches people how to change their brains for the better through behavior, offers his explanation as a driving lesson.
Picture a new driver in an empty parking lot, he says. There you practice the simple moves of handling a car, speeding up, slowing down, and turning. It is safe and contained, but the point is bigger. Once you can do that, he says, "you can take that car anywhere."
He means you can go far in that same car and handle all kinds of road conditions and surprises along the way. The car stays the same, but where you take it changes.
He argues that changing your brain works in the same way. The parking lot practice is learning what he calls behavioral steps that bring more awareness and more neural plasticity, the brain's ability to rewire itself with experience. He does not spell out a list of exercises here. His point is that practicing those basic steps is what lets the skill travel.
That travel is the payoff he describes. The same learned process can be used at work, in relationships, and in how you treat yourself. He sums up that work as "building processes."
"You're learning how to drive the car that is your brain, so to speak," he says.
Questions people ask
What is neural plasticity?
It is your brain's ability to rewire itself by strengthening, weakening, or forming connections between brain cells in response to experience. It is strongest in childhood, but it continues throughout life. Focused attention, repetition, and rest help support it.
What are the basic behavioral steps that help the brain change?
Researchers often point to the same few: pay close attention to one thing, practice it repeatedly, get enough sleep, and manage stress and energy. Starting with one small, specific behavior in a low-pressure setting makes repetition easier. Huberman's point is that those habits of learning matter more than the first habit you pick.
Why start with something easy instead of tackling the biggest problem first?
A small win lets you practice awareness and repetition without strong emotion getting in the way, much like practicing in an empty parking lot. Once the process feels familiar, it takes less effort to use it under pressure. That is why skills learned in one area often transfer to harder ones.