The Neuroscience of Metacognition with George Haymaker

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs, seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down the neuroscience of metacognition. To drop these value bombs, I brought to George Haymaker and to EO Fire Studios. George is a former entrepreneur, recovering alcoholic, and pain pill addict, now a neuroscience educator and coach who helps entrepreneurs and other business professionals optimize brain performance and leadership capability using brain science so they can operate at their highest level without mental overload, decision fatigue, or reactive leadership patterns.

0:37and today we'll be chatting about metacognition, also talking about stress and how to better control it and also about the impact of sleep, exercise, diet, nutrition and mindfulness on our brain, what impact it has and oh so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to George and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients and even white label your own software Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.

1:18Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession-resilient businesses, and create legacy income for their families through franchising. Get started today with Franocity's Franchise Funding Guide, packed with real-world strategies to launch your business without draining your savings. visit franocity.com. That's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y dot com. George, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, John, great to be on with you. Thanks for having me. My response to that would be that I think most people think that to be successful, they have to work harder.

2:05And from a neuroscience perspective, that's not always the case. By working harder and not respecting our brain and what it needs, sometimes we actually inhibit performance, not enhance it. So by having a better understanding of our brains, how it functions, what it needs, actually establishing a relationship with it where there's give and take on both sides is really in best service of being successful because the brain does have limits and it's important to understand what those are. And in order to maximize performance, we have to give our brains what they need. Well, George, this is going to be a powerful episode because as Fire Nation heard in the intro, you're a recovering alcoholic, pain pill addict, and now a neuroscience educator.

3:01And we'll be talking about the neuroscience of metacognition today. But I think to start off right, we have to know what is metacognition and how do we get it? Yeah, it's a few things. It's our brain's ability to observe, understand, and intentionally influence our own mental activity. So sometimes I feel like things are happening in our brain and and we just feel like, you know, we're a prisoner to it. And so instead of being overwhelmed by it, it's important to be able to step outside of ourselves and look at our mental activity objectively. And so instead of just being, you know, consumed by our mental activity, it's important to be able to look at it objectively, and that's part of what metacognition is.

3:48It's understanding how our brain constructs our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. You know, our brain isn't just reacting to the world. It's actively predicting and building our experience in our mind based on past learning and how we've tagged those experiences emotionally and how it relates to our psychological needs. Such as, you know, this pattern that I'm living with, you know, this way of thinking or reacting that I'm engaged in was constructed to meet a need at some point, but it might not be serving me well anymore. So this metacognition awareness gives us real power to replace patterns that aren't helpful rather than just coping with them or feeling like we're subjected to them.

4:35Metacognition also means understanding and managing our mental resources, things like glucose levels, neurotransmitter levels, focus levels, the ability to regulate emotions, regulate even our motivation. so that we're filling our mental resource tank as full as possible and expanding it over time, actually, the size of the tank, and then spending those resources as efficiently as possible every day by knowing what are high consumers of energy and what are more efficient consumers of energy. We develop metacognition by just slowing down and practicing awareness, looking at our brain objectively, creating a relationship with our brain and reflecting and responding instead of just reacting and intentionally questioning how our mind is building experiences moment by moment.

5:32So ultimately, metacognition is what allows us to stop being a passenger in our own mental life and actually become the driver or architect of it. So George, as humans, we all experience stress on some level, but I want to break down exactly what stress is. And then let's talk about how the heck can we control it better? Yeah. So stress is a funny thing. It's not really about the situation that's causing stress. It's about how our brain is interpreting and ultimately predicting the situation that we are labeling as stressful. So two people, you and I, for example, could be involved in the exact same situation, but interpret it completely differently.

6:17I might view it as stressful and you may not. And it's based on how we're interpreting the situation or how our brains are from our past experiences. And therefore, you know, how our brain predicts the response. So our brain's number one job is to conserve and manage mental resources, seeking predictability in an ever-changing world in the interest of safety and survival. So its job is not to buy us a bigger house or drive a nicer car. It's mainly to just manage our resources and our brain and body

6:59to find predictability in the world in the interest of keeping us safe and in survival. So when our brain senses what it perceives as a threat to that, even if it's just an emotional one, like uncertainty or rejection or discourse, it can trigger a stress response that actually is in preparation to help us survive. So controlling stress isn't really about removing the challenges. It's about changing the story that our brain tells us about the challenge. So when we see a situation as a threat, you know, our threat center in our brain, which is the limbic network, it activates flooding of the brain with some neurotransmitters and hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine and it floods our body with adrenaline.

7:57That's when we view the situation as stressful. When we view it more as a challenge and not as stress, we suddenly, the response in our brain is different. The chemistry shifts. We get a little cortisol and a little norepinephrine, but not nearly as much as we do when we view it as stressful. And therefore our brain can stay sharper, calmer, and more creative. So it's really about changing our view or interpretation of situations that we currently view as stressful, reconstructing that interpretation in a different way. Now, George, humans, they just seem to get stuck in this recurring emotional and thought patterns that just are not helpful.

8:46You know, it's kind of like this circling the drain of despair, so to speak. Why is this? The number one job of the brain, as we discuss, is to, you know, predict, you know, what our environment is and what our responses should be to it. And so in the brain, in the interest of what prediction means, in the interest of conserving resources, it's not going to grind through the analysis of every single situation to the end because the brain's busy. It's got things to move on to. So it's going to scan the environment, take in sensory information, take a reading on our body, go to our memory banks and pull like situations from our memory banks that are similar to what's going on now and make a prediction on how to respond.

9:37And so, you know, this is all in the interest of keeping us safe and in survival. And so these patterns that, you know, we're stuck in, they served us at one point in the past. Okay. They met our needs in some way. Even if they are not helpful today, it's what our brain remembers. We have memories of these things that are these patterns that are built into our brain. And so, again, the brain goes encounters a situation that's like a previous one. And in its effort to conserve resources and predict the best response, it's going to go back and look for like circumstances that happened before. And so if the way you've been dealing with a pattern has kept you relatively safe and in survival mode, it's going to keep bringing forward the same pattern over and over again, because it knows in the sense that the brain works, that it's kept you safe and in survival.

10:35And so it's going to keep regurgitating the same patterns over and over again, which is why we feel like we're stuck and we're actually just living in old wiring in the brain. So the good news is the brain is plastic and it can reorganize itself into any way that we choose. There's 85 billion neurons in the brain and they're all connected and mapped in certain ways based on how we've grown up and all the experiences that we've ever had. So if those patterns are no longer serving us, those neurons are more than happy to move around and create new patterns. But we have to show it the way. The brain doesn't lead the way we do.

11:12And so the brain is merely a reflection on everything, all the experiences that we give it. And so what we have to do is take the lead on identifying new patterns that we think are going to be more helpful and start to diagram those, attach reward to those, attach our identity to those, and construct them in such a way that they're more helpful. They work better for us. And then we have to practice the heck out of them, right? Because the brain is built on repetition. It learns by repeating over and over and over and over again, which is how these old patterns that aren't helpful anymore got stuck in the first place is because we've repeated those so many times.

11:56And so we just have to move on to new and different, better ways of being. And then the brain will catch up and reorganize itself. And, you know, before you know it, if you just stay fastidious and committed and motivated to the task, the brain will follow. And, you know, you don't even notice it happening. It just begins to learn and reorganize itself. And before you know it, these changes aren't hard anymore. they become automatic and autonomic in our brain. They've actually shifted from the front thinking part of our brain where it's energy consuming and feels hard. It begins to transfer to the back part of our brain where things are automatic and they're habits.

12:42And there are things like brushing your teeth and riding the bike. And so if we stay with them long enough and stay with the process, then eventually they become a lot easier. Now, I think a lot of people that are listening are nodding their heads right now because we've been through this, Fire Nation, especially as entrepreneurs. Man, it's an emotional rollercoaster. We're going to be up, we're going to be down, we're going to be somewhere in the middle. That's the life that we signed up for, but it's so important to know how to deal with these feelings, how to deal with this stress, how to deal with these emotions.

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14:21So visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial and see why thousands of businesses are switching. That's highlevelfire.com, where marketing, sales, and automation finally come together. High Level, join the revolution. One of my favorite places to visit during the summer is my hometown in Maine. My parents have a beautiful home on a small lake, and it's one of the most peaceful places I know. The wailing of loons, kids laughing while tubing around, and the warm sunshine peeking through the trees. Now, to make trips like this happen, every year we work really hard. Running a business from the road isn't always easy, but location independence has always been a high priority of ours.

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16:16That's the beauty of it. Franocity provides personalized one-on-one coaching at no cost to you, and they have access to over 600 franchise brands. And Franocity just doesn't help you pick a franchise. They help you understand the business model, investment risk, scalability, and operational reality. Get started today with Franocity's franchise funding guide, packed with real-world strategies to launch your business without draining your savings, visit Franocity.com. That's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com to download your free franchise funding guide today. George, we're back. And as I said before the break, some of my favorite topics, sleep, exercise, diet, nutrition, mindfulness.

16:58I love these things. I mean, I am in bed every night at 9.15 PM. That's just my, that's my routine. I'm up at 6 a.m. So I want to be in bed by 9, 9.15. I try to eat right every single day. I exercise every single day. My nutrition, I try to keep spot on. And for mindfulness, I'm trying to meditate. I'm on a pretty consistent time, pretty consistent right now with my 21-day Deepak Chopra challenge. It's been quite enjoyable. But I want to know what those things have as an impact on our brain that you've experienced. Yeah, well, first of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your patterns because I'm sure they're serving you well.

17:41And you're critical. If you think of your brain as like a tank, a mental resource tank, okay? And we have the ability to determine the size of that tank. And by having these good practices, we can actually expand the size of our tank. And then with also with these practices, we determine how full we fill the tank every day. And so these these four things that you mentioned, sleep, exercise, diet, nutrition, mindfulness are very influential in filling the tank to the degree that it gets filled. And then also over time, expanding it. And then, of course, you know, once we start the day with a full tank or as full as we fill it based on our lifestyle habits, then we start to spend those resources.

18:40And that's a whole nother topic is spending the resources efficiently. But starting with sleep, sleep is critical. There's a whole lot more that happens during hopefully the eight hours of sleep that we're getting than we realize. It clears waste from the brain. So neurons that are not being used anymore or other toxins. We have fluids that come up out of our body and pull that waste out of there. So it cleans, actually cleans the brain, consolidates our memory. Everything that we learned from the previous day is transferred from short-term to long-term memory. It resets all the compartments of our brain.

19:24our emotional stores or the regulation stores are reset. Our cognitive part of our brain is reset. So it's like a modem, right, that gets kind of fuzzy and built up all day long from its use. And then, you know, you know, we like reboot it and then we clear out the fuzziness. and and and you know REM sleep in particular is very important there's a whole different a range of different types of sleep that we get every night different brain waves that are all critical in these processes we typically need to go through four to six of those they last about 90 minutes long so that's why you're you know you're wanting to get you know a good night's sleep so that you get all those cycles in.

20:14And if we don't get enough sleep, it really affects our attention span, impairs our ability to learn. It increases anxiety and impulsivity. So sleep is just critical. It's like a cleanup and repair cycle for our brain every night. Exercise, there's a whole lot that happens. Obviously, we know that we're getting an influx of blood and oxygen and glucose into the brain when we speed up our system like that. It actually also delivers what's called a brain-derived neurotropic factor from our body into our brain, which is like fertilizer for the brain. It really helps new neurons develop. It helps them connect better.

21:01It just really adds fortitude to the entire process that happens in the brain. It really helps our mood. It reduces anxiety. It clears out cortisol. It enhances our memory. And it strengthens the prefrontal cortex. So there's a whole lot that happens while we exercise. I think a lot of us exercise for our bodies. but don't realize the amazing and necessary effect that it has on the brain. As far as diet and nutrition, which are related but a little different, the brain runs on glucose, which we get from carbohydrates. Complex, obviously, are better than simple carbohydrates because we get a more steady release of glucose into the system and not these large dumps that we get from simple carbohydrates.

22:01and then we crash afterwards. The brain also runs on amino acids, the building blocks of protein, which, you know, helps support all the brain structures, healthy fats and micronutrients. Poor nutrition, just like poor sleep, results in brain fog, mood swings, neurotransmitter imbalances, omega-3s, which are the healthy fats. They help support cell membrane, fluidity, They're vital for mood and memory. And as many of us are understanding now, there's a real connection between the gut and the brain. They talk to each other constantly. We're finding out that what we eat and the condition of our gut, having the proper bacteria in our gut is critical for the operation of the brain.

22:53A lot of our serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter associated with well-being and mood, is produced in the gut. So, you know, eating for brain performance means stability. We're trying to choose the things we eat so that the brain can be stable and not have these spikes of, for example, glucose, where we get these rushes of glucose from eating improper foods. and then we crash afterwards. So we really should be thinking about not just eating for our bodies, but eating for our brains. And lastly, mindfulness, it really helps to train the brain. So again, the brain learns by repeating things and by practicing.

23:42That's why, you know, when we learn a new language or learn a new instrument or learn a new sport, you know, it takes time, We have to repeat the activities over and over again for it to sink into the brain. Well, the brain goes about the same process of repetition for learning with respect to how well it can focus, how well it can regulate emotion, how well it thinks, attention. All of those things can be built up and improved and enhanced through practice. when we practice mindfulness which you know could be meditation it could be breathing could be yoga you know could be any number of things that quiet the mind and allow us to you know focus on one thing and clear out distractions it really helps to shrink and reduce the activity and the the fear and emotional centers of the brain so not our not all or not all not in addition to improving the cognitive areas of the brain, our ability to focus and pay attention to things really helps calm the emotional part of the brain.

24:56Helps us really pay attention to what's going on throughout our body, increases metacognition to where we're aware of everything. So even if we just engage in short practices, like starting our day that way, It helps set the tone. So our, you know, our brain and body start to work together. They, they, it's, you know, they begin to just get introduced to that as the first thing that we put into them during the day. It helps set the tone and set the path, set the path for the entire day. George, that was just a masterclass on all things, sleep, exercise, diet, nutrition, mindfulness. I mean, Fire Nation, it's all about how are you going to structure your day?

25:36I mean, You heard George commend me for having a day that's set up to give me the best chance to tackle all of life's challenges. And we're all capable of doing this. I didn't just create this overnight. This took time and commitment and sacrifice and working on it and putting in the reps to get to this place. And I'm still having things to work on and I'm still doing it every single day. So George, take us home, brother. The science of change. The science of change is a multi-step process. The first step is just to be aware of our old patterns. Identifying the thoughts and emotions and behaviors that keep repeating that they aren't helpful to us.

26:22This is the moment when we move from the unconscious reaction to our patterns and feeling like we're subject to them to the conscious observation of them. So it's becoming metacognitic. OK, it's it's it's establishing a partnership, but an objective one with our brain and our mind. Step two would be to identify the psychological need, because we all have six basic needs as human beings that that we're always that we're hardwired to try and fulfill. And so we have to we want to identify where these old patterns that aren't helping us anymore. Or, you know, what was the need that it was trying to meet at the time it was trying to meet it?

27:06And a lot of times, you know, when I work with people that have unhelpful patterns, we'll go way back into their past and find the origins. And a lot of times it's in childhood. And so in the effort to try to meet their needs at that time, they develop these patterns that, you know, were kind of workarounds for the brain to satisfy their needs. But, you know, maybe they just weren't real helpful, but it worked at the time. And now because these patterns have been repeated so many times, we've brought them with us into adulthood. And so we're incurring situations that are in our adulthood that are triggering these old patterns.

27:45And so we that's why we get stuck in them. But the first step is to identify where they came from and find out what need that they were trying to fulfill at the time. And then we work on loosening the grip of that pattern. So we find out, you know, you know, why it's not serving us anymore, why it was helpful at one point, but not now. What's the cost of holding on to that pattern? What negative effects is it having on our life? And so we begin to chip away at the pattern and and loosen our emotional hold on it, because a lot of these patterns are very emotional. Right. And emotional emotion is like glue.

28:21It causes these patterns to be very sticky. And so if we can chip away at them and loosen the glue, then we open our minds to new possibilities. But we have to loosen the glue first in order for the mind to consider new things. And then what we do is we identify a new pattern, the pattern that we'd like to have in these situations that are currently triggering old patterns. So how would we like to have the pattern look? How would we like to think, feel and act in these moments? And to do that, we have to effectively tie it to the identity that we want for ourselves. So this is where we tie our thoughts, feelings and actions to the actual roots of who we are.

29:03What is the identity of the person that we want to be for the rest of our lives? What are the values that that person has? What is the belief system? What you know, how are those things going to fill the needs that we have as human beings? And then we start to lay on top of that root system, the foundation. We lay on top new patterns that are made up of thoughts, feelings and actions that align perfectly with the vision of that new person. And then we just start to practice, right? Once everything is in alignment and we figure out this new person, we envision that person. We actually draw a picture of that person.

29:42Then we just start to practice being that person. and again the brain learns through repetition and so if you just think of this metaphor that we've spent our whole life become being a certain way and it's like this old oak tree that we have in our backyard and that oak tree is well grown and well established and it has these deep thick roots some of these roots are not helpful helpful anymore but now what we're going to do is we're going to say that we're going to have a new identity for the rest of our lives and we're going to move over to a different part of our property and plant a brand new little sapling tree.