Todd Conrad

I think about this twice a day. Every morning when I sit down to read & again when I begin to work, I say to myself, “Accept the initial agitation.” When you try to focus, Andrew Huberman explains, “the brain circuits that turn on first are of the stress system.” Meaning: “The agitation and stress that you feel at the beginning of something—when you’re trying to lean into it and you can’t focus: you feel agitated and your mind’s jumping all over the place—that is just a gate. You have to pass through that gate to get to the focus component.” There’s a common misconception, @hubermanlab continues: “the misunderstanding around how these brain circuits work has led to this idea...a kind of obsession with the idea that we have to feel good in order to be productive.” “And nothing could be further from the truth.” The truth is it’s the reverse: we have to be productive—we have to start working, we have to lean in and get going, accepting the initial agitation—in order to feel good. So along with “accept the initial agitation,” sometimes—when I don’t feel especially good, motivated, interested, or energized—I say to myself, “Forget how you feel right now.” “It will feel good,” Huberman says, “but there’s a whole staircase in which it feels kind of lousy...The early stages of hard work and focus are always going to feels like agitation, stress, and confusion.” “Remember: there’s a gate of entry. You have to wade through some sewage before you can swim in clear water. That’s the way I always think about it.” - - - “Mood follows action.” — @richroll The clip below is from Andrew’s 2020 interview on Rich’s podcast (youtu.be/SwQhKFMxmDY)