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Rob Dial (11:05)

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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a lot of other things.

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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'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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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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