← The Mindset Mentor
The Mindset Mentor
How Hobbies Change Your Brain
00:17:06
Have you ever wondered why no matter how many habits, routines, or goals you try, your life still doesn’t change the way you want it to? In this episode, I’m going to show you the five mental shifts that can completely change the way you see your life, because the people who become unstoppable don’t just work harder, they think differently. If you can change the way you interpret stress, confidence, motivation, failure, and identity, you can literally change the course of your entire life.
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Rob Dial
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Rob Dial
Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another episode. And I am running a free workshop on March 25th called Identity Upgrade. And you should be there because after 20 years of studying and teaching self development, I've seen thousands of people try to change their life through habits and routines and actions. But nothing will stick long term if you don't change your identity because your behavior will always fall back to who you believe that you are. So in this workshop I will show you step by step how to upgrade your identity and get rid of fears and limiting beliefs so that you can finally change the course of your life. So if you're ready to become the next version of yourself, go to 2026upgrade.com and save your seat there. Today I'm going to be talking about how hobbies change your brain. Because let me ask you a question. When was the last time that you did something purely because you enjoyed it? Not because it made money, not because it was productive, not because it helped you build your career. Not because it was something that you had to do, but just because it was something that made you feel like you were alive. Because there's something really fascinating and kind of sad about adulthood. Most adults don't lose their hobbies because they're busy. They lose them because their identity slowly collapses into basically one dimension, which is work or their job. That's it. And then when that happens, something really subtle starts happening to the brain. It starts to go into mental stagnation. And the scary part is that most people think that's just basically what adulthood is supposed to feel like. So today, I want to talk to you about how to reverse that, and I want to talk to you about how to bring more joy and creativity in your life and how to actually improve your brain while we're at it. Okay, so let's dive in. One of the biggest psychological shifts that happens in adulthood is what I call identity compression. You know, when you're a kid, your identity is wide, like you're an athlete, and you're an artist, and you're a builder, and you're a gamer, and you're a musician, and you're, you know, a curiosity, like a curious explorer. But when adulthood happens, it's like all of that just compresses into just this little tiny bit of who you are. You're like, slowly, it feels like your identity just compresses into just, like, one thing. And that's like, what you do for work. And maybe, if you're lucky, it's like two things. What you do for work and that you are a parent. That's basically what a lot of people's lives come down to. And your brain kind of stops exploring all of these new places in your brain, these new ideas and these new things to get curious about, and it starts optimizing. And optimizing is useful in most cases, but when it comes to your brain, that comes with a cost. Because the brain doesn't thrive on optimization. The brain thrives on novelty, on new things, on exploration, on creativity, on new ideas. And when your exploration disappears, your brain starts running the same neural loops over and over and over and over again. And then you have the same problems, and you have the same routines, and you have the same thoughts day in and day out. You know, 95% of your thoughts are the same as they were yesterday. In psychology, that's most people, 95% of your thoughts are going to be the same as they were yesterday. And that's the beginning of what people call mental stagnation. But neurology, when you look at it and what's happening in your brain, it's more closer to cognitive atrophy. And so this is where all of it kind of gets really interesting when you look at hobbies. Sure, hobbies are fun. Hobbies can be entertaining. But hobbies are also really good for your brain. And hobbies are also a nervous system regulator. Most people try to regulate their nervous system nowadays by numbing themselves. Things like alcohol or drugs or scrolling or eating food or binge watching Netflix or whatever other numbing behaviors they come up with. So when their nervous system gets all out of whack, they go to numbing. Let me just stop feeling everything altogether. And the reason why they go to those things, because those things basically sedate your brain. Hobbies, though, they do something completely different than numbing. They engage the brain, and they also calm your nervous system. So when you have an activity like painting or woodworking or martial arts or playing music or going out and even just gardening, all of those have measurable effects on lowering your cortisol, which improves your mood, and it also regulates your dopamine as well. And so what's good about a hobby is when you engage in a hobby, you're activating a neurological state that's called directed attention restoration. And this is the brain recovering from the exhaustion of life and work and constant decision making and trying to be productive and pushing and pushing and pushing. And what's happening is the good thing about having a hobby is that it calms your nervous system and you're working on something that is meaningful and not just numbing your way out of it. So you're creating in some sort of way versus just consuming or numbing, which is really, really good for your nervous system. And instead of just scrolling, you might have actually created something. A beautiful song, or your garden might be better, and you might have some food, or you might have made a beautiful painting. And so the beautiful part about hobbies is that you're able to actually calm the nervous system in a productive way. And you might get some fruits, or you might get some paintings, or you might get a beautiful piece of music that you've made from doing it as well. Here's another part that most people don't realize when you look at it, when you're trying to create, you're in a little bit of a mode of play. And play is not a childish behavior. Like, when we think of playing, we think like, that's what kids do. I'm an adult. I'm not supposed to play anymore. But play is actually a core cognitive mode inside of your brain. And when adults stop playing, three things start happening neurologically. Number one, your creativity is going to start to decline. Number two is your cognitive flexibility drops, which is like you being open to new ideas and new things. And number three, your problem solving actually gets worse. In neuroscience they actually call this functional fixedness. So your brain becomes really good at doing things the exact same way that it's always done, which is good for routine, but it's terrible for creativity, it's terrible for innovation, it's terrible for new ideas, it's terrible for expanding of the brain. And we will be right back.
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Rob Dial
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Rob Dial
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Rob Dial
And now back to the show. And so hobbies reintroduce the play circuits into your brain. And this is where you know, this play is where creativity lives. It's where your curiosity lives. It's where new ideas and insights come from. Which is why some of the greatest breakthroughs in human history came from people who were just playing with new ideas. They weren't like grinding away at their computer to try to figure out how to solve a problem. No, they're in the middle of play and just creativity. And because their brain was making these new neural connections and they came up with new ideas, they were playing, they were being creative, they were just sitting around and they were thinking to themselves different ways than they've ever thought to themselves. And the beautiful thing about hobbies is that it also expands your identity like a deeper layer that most people never really think about. And I really think about a lot when I think of hobbies. Is that a hobby? It isn't just good for you, it doesn't just regulate your brain, it also protects your identity as well. Because if your identity only exists in your place of work like it does for most people, then every failure at work becomes like an existential crisis. It's an identity crisis. It's a shot at your ego and it feels like the world is crumbling. But when you don't just go to work and you're not just a parent, those are two very important things. Don't get me wrong, but you do
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Ad Host 1
a lot of other things.
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Rob Dial
Then you're expanding your identity of who you actually are. Like you're a leader, you're a father or a mother, you're a musician, you're a runner, you're a writer, you're a builder, you're a student of something. Now your identity has multiple pillars versus just like one or two pillars. So if one of the pillars collapses, your whole life doesn't collapse with it. And this is one of the hidden psychological advantages of hobbies, is they basically diversify your identity portfolio Just like a smart investor diversifies their money, smart humans diversify their sense of self. You're not just a person that goes to work and has a job. Like, you're much, much more than that. And I know a lot of people listening to this right now have forgotten who they actually are. You've forgotten what you love to do.
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You.
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Rob Dial
You've forgotten what excites you, because you've just been stuck in the same mundane routine for the past five years or 10 years or 20 years. And so you've gotten so locked into an old routine, you've forgotten who you are. You've forgotten all of the things that make you excited. It's time to break out of that routine and expand who you actually are. And this brings us to something really important as well. Like, many people believe that they can just figure out their purpose by sitting on their couch and thinking about. They think like their purpose comes first, and then they start taking action. But in reality, what I have found is that purpose is usually discovered through curiosity, through doing something new. And that curiosity usually starts as some form of a hobby. Like, think about it. Almost every meaningful pursuit in life started as something that somebody did just because it was interesting, not because they were trying to make money, because it was profitable. It was interesting. Somebody was excited about something. They pursued it. They fell in love with it. They mastered it. And it became part of their purpose and their meaning and why they feel like they're alive on this planet. Your brain's constantly giving you signals of curiosity, like little tiny whispers of interest. But most adults ignore them because they think, like, oh, well, that's not productive. Like, I just need to focus on being productive. And I'll tell me. I'll tell you this. Like, focusing on just being productive all the time will kill your fun in life. Like, trust me, I've gone down that route for years where I've just gone, I'm going to be productive, and I'm going to go hardcore at work, and I'm going to throw all my hobbies away. That's not the way to go. You know, like, what if those curiosities and those little thoughts of like, hey, this sounds fun. Maybe I should try this thing? You know what? Maybe on Sunday I should go try some. Take a pottery class or something like that. What if those, like, little curiosities or ideas are actually breadcrumbs that you're trying to. The universe or God or whatever it is is trying to lead you in a direction of something? What if the hobby that you feel Drawn towards is actually your brain saying, hey, there's something meaningful here. Like, maybe we should explore this. You know, some hobbies stay hobbies, and that's completely fine. That's amazing if you can find a hobby that actually fills your cup. But others, they slowly evolve into passions like missions and careers and creative outlets and, like, the ways that you want to actually impact the world. Like, purpose rarely arrives as, like, a lightning bolt. Like, I don't know, anybody's just been sitting on the couch and like, oh, my God, I found my purpose in life. Like, more often, it starts as something that you're curious enough to just try. Like, I always tell people, if they want to find their purpose and their passion here on this earth and this life that you have, like, just continue to ask yourself, like, what am I really interested in learning or getting better at? There's usually something that lives in there. So now when you look at it, something that's. That I would say is one of the most important things that people don't realize about the brain is that your brain is built to adapt. It's built to grow. It's built to be constantly having new challenges and new ideas. But it only does that when it's challenged and when it has novelty and it's doing something different. When you repeat the same routines over and over again, you have the same problems that you're solving, and you're in the same environments every single day. The brain starts to conserve energy because it's smart. And it does this by running the same neural pathways over and over and over again. In neuroscience, this is called neuro efficiency. And so, you know, the brain becomes very good at doing the same things the same way over and over and over again. That's a good thing when you're trying to create good habits in your life. But there's a downside to it. You know, when you stop learning, when you stop exploring, when you start, you know, you stop trying to create in some sort of way, the brain starts to reduce the growth in new neural connections inside of your brain. And over time, that can lead to what's called cognitive rigidity. And that's where thinking becomes less flexible and creativity declines. Like, you see this a lot like with older people, right, where they've been doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over again. And you try to give them a new idea, and there's no flexibility to the idea. You start talking about, we should do something different, no flexibility. Start talking about something that's progressive in the world. They don't want anything to do with it. You see it a lot with older people. You know, they become less flexible in their thinking, and their creativity declines. And they do the same things over and over and over again, and they get so set in their ways. There's literally basically no more cognitive flexibility. And I don't know about you guys, that scares the shit out of me. Like, I don't want to become somebody like that. I want to become someone who's always open to ideas and trying to be creative. And when you have hobbies and creative activities, they do the opposite for your brain. When you learn a new skill or you challenge yourself to become better at a skill, like painting or building something or playing music or playing tennis or just trying something that's just new for you, the brain changes and activates neuroplasticity, which is just the process where neurons in your brain form new connections and strengthen existing ones. And so when you have a creative hobby, you also increase the. The. The activity in your brain and a part of your brain that's called the default mode network, which is a part of your brain that's associated with imagination, with insight, with creative problem solving. And this is why people often have their best ideas. And when they're doing something creative, when they're doing something they love, when they're doing something that's playful. You know, some hobbies are just for fun, but some hobbies actually improve the brain when you do them over and over again, when you try to keep improving, when you challenge yourself, they keep your neural networks flexible, and they stimulate dopamine pathways associated with. With motivation, with drive, with curiosity. And they literally help your brain stay younger and more adaptable over time. So, in other words, when life becomes nothing but routine and work, your brain slowly starts to decline and slowly starts to narrow. But when you do something new and you challenge yourself, you explore and you create and you play, your brain actually expands and gets stronger. And so if you feel like you've been stuck for a while and you feel like your brain's been stuck lately, if life started to feel like it's way too repetitive and you feel, like, mentally dull, don't ask yourself, what's wrong with me? Like, just try asking yourself a different question. When was the last time that I let myself do something fun or I let myself explore just because it seemed interesting and I just wanted to do something different? Because hobbies. I used to think of hobbies as, like, distractions or just something that I would do to have some more fun. But Hobbies are expansions of your humanity. Like they regulate your nervous system, they protect your identity and sometimes if you follow them long enough and get passionate about about them enough, they can actually lead you to your purpose as well. So that's all I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, you will absolutely love my free workshop that's coming out on March 25th. It is called Identity Upgrade. I'm going to be live with you and I'm teaching because after 20 years of studying and teaching self development, I've seen so many people try to change their life and and see that nothing sticks because they don't change their identity first. And so in this workshop I'm going to show you step by step how
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- [20:47]
Rob Dial
change the entire course of your life. So if you're ready to become the next version of yourself, go to 2026 upgrade.com and register for free once again 2026 upgrade.com and with that I'm going to leave you the same way leave you every single episode. Make it your mission. Make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing
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