See a photo of Katie, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Q&A with Katie Snapp, Question 4:

Q: Boiling down your approach to its simplest terms sounds like “change your story, change your life.” However, you seem to possess unusually solid knowledge of the neuroscience behind such an approach. Can you talk about how neuroscience enters into your story and leadership work?

A: I love science. At some level we think of “behavior” as being something intangible and therefore more difficult to manage. But not so true if you have some fundamental concept of the science behind our brains and our conscious minds. Our neuronal networks are built over repetition. Firing them enforces hardwiring them. So those deeply entrenched beliefs or repetitive thought patterns that we just mentioned that are drilled into us are changeable, whether adopted early in childhood or just a part of what we believe work or leadership should be like.

These beliefs (and the same thing goes for habits) are pathways in our brains that are easily accessed because they are strongly wired. We used them a lot so they became hardwired. BUT … that does not mean we cannot unwire them. True. Through conscious behavior change, we can avoid using those old networks and can start building the ones we want.

The journey begins with recognizing your patterns and habits, owning them, reassessing them, and then changing those that we want to let go. Try telling your story in the future. Where do you want to be? Who do you want to become? What do you want to extend that you are successful at now? Then focus on that desires outcome — the future story — and you will be setting the new paths in your brain to make them happen.

It is a little more complicated than that, but our minds have a way of making reality of whatever we focus on. You are reinventing your story!