September 29, 2025 • 17 mins
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In this episode Dr. Jon Finn explores how to thrive in the AI revolution by mastering brain states and developing strategic habits. The AI-Edge Success Cycle provides a framework for measuring and optimizing performance as AI transforms industries and eliminates jobs across sectors.
• Recent announcements show massive AI investments in the UK and major companies cutting jobs while implementing AI
• The four-step AI Success Cycle starts with measuring Brain States across recharge, mindless tasks, and complex thinking
• Building a Future Ambitious Meaningful Story (FAM Story) creates context for short-term improvements
• Distinguishing between "ice cube" tasks (routine) and "ice sculpture" tasks (complex) helps identify where AI can assist
• AI functions as a "battery pack" for your brain, extending capabilities rather than replacing them
• Daily Will Power stories and the Nine Action Factor model help turn knowledge into consistent action
• Building better recharge habits (sleep, stress management) is often the first priority for improving brain states
• Success requires both working excellently with AI and excelling at tasks AI cannot perform
• Training as a Habit Mechanic Coach provides expertise in human-AI performance psychology
Visit our website to get "Training Your Brain for the AI Revolution" for just $1 Â and start your journey to becoming a Certified Habit Mechanic Coach.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Hello, habit mechanics.
It's Dr.
John Finn here.
Hope you're well.
I'm doing a semi-walking podcastbecause I'm actually sitting
down just whilst I look at ascreen.
So it's been a while since I'vedone a pod, so I just want to go
back to the basics, but I wantto do that through the lens of
(00:22):
where AI is right now.
So we've seen a lot ofannouncements in September, and
one of the biggest announcementswas the 150 billion or so pounds
of investment into the UK, uh,largely by American tech firms.
(00:47):
Also, we're seeing associatedtechnologies like um
Rolls-Royce's small nuclearreactors are seen as a really
important part of the jigsawpuzzle of actually powering AI.
(01:10):
And if you just look at the top10, top twenty most valuable
companies in the world rightnow, they are they are all
AI-based or AI-relatedcompanies, and um, or the vast
majority are, with NVIDIAleading the charge with a
(01:31):
valuation of four trillion.
This is not going away.
What I have in opening in frontof me is a story from the Wall
Street Journal.
So the headline is Walmart CEOissues wake-up call.
AI is going to change literallyevery job.
(01:52):
And they report that headcountis expected to stay flat over
the next three years, despitegrowth plans, as AI eliminates
and or transforms roles.
And actually, if I just scrolldown the screen, I see
Lufthansa, the Americ uh theGerman um aviation company, um,
(02:14):
with an article that waspublished seven hours ago, and
the headline is Luft Lufthansato cut 4,000 jobs by 2030 amid
AI push.
And the subcopy is the company'sreviewing activities that it
said wouldn't be needed in thefuture due to duplication or the
(02:35):
increased use of artificialintelligence.
So I'm not trying to scareanybody here, I'm just getting
you into the loop where thingsare at.
This is not the millennium bug,it's not going away.
But what we can do is get readyfor it, and we can capitalise on
the opportunities that arealready here.
And to do that, we just have togo back to the basics.
(02:59):
So we've got to start bymeasuring our brain states,
getting that brain state scoreto better understand where am I
every day in terms of spendingtime getting high-quality
recharge?
Where am I every day in terms ofhow much time do I spend doing
(03:21):
busy, mindless tasks?
And where am I every day interms of my ability to do
complex high-impact thinking,the kind of work that AI cannot
do autonomously?
And once we have that, we thenmove into this into step two,
(03:44):
and I'm going through the AIsuccess cycle here, which is at
the heart of the of training ourbrain for the AI revolution,
which you can now actually getfor one dollar via our website.
So, step two is we gotta buildout that longer-term strategic
plan so that our brain state ourbrain state intelligence score,
(04:08):
our brain state um human eye,our readiness score is in the
context of the kind of thingsthat we want to achieve in our
lives.
So the vehicle for creating along-term strategic plan is your
fam story or future ambitiousmeaningful story, and if you
(04:34):
work through this in the book,there's a structured
step-by-step way to developingthat vision of the future and
working it all the way back totoday.
And then what we really need tofocus on is a clear map of the
next 30 days, so we have a clearfocus, and we build up when we
build out that map, we're goingto be thinking about what Ice
(04:57):
Cubes jobs do I want to achievein the next 30 days.
Ice Cube jobs, ice cube tasksare things like um things that
you do without a massive amountof cognitive effort, like um
basic administration jobs,things that you don't have to
(05:20):
really think too much about,things you've done lots of times
before.
You have lots of neurons in yourbrain for those things, you
don't have to think about themtoo much, and they're fairly low
energy, and you get through themquickly.
So it's a bit like freezing icecubes.
The other kind of tasks thatyou're gonna have to be working
on in the next 30 days are morelike building ice sculptures,
these are high-charge,high-impact uh tasks.
(05:43):
You don't build an ice sculpturetypically in one sitting, you
build it up um over a number ofdays, weeks, sometimes months.
And those types of tasks are notjust the kind of stuff you do at
work, but it's also the kind ofwork you need to do on it on
yourself, like building bettersleep habits or stress
(06:06):
management habits or leadershiphabits or whatever it is you
want to work on.
So if you have a clear list ofthose tasks going into the next
30 days, it's going to be easierto get the kind of stuff done
that you want to get done.
Um, so you can live the kind oflife that you want to live in
the short term, medium term, andlong term.
(06:29):
And this is where we can alsobring AI in.
So in um in this 30-day plan, wecan start to think about which
tasks do I need to completewhere maybe AI could speed
things up.
So, is there any agentic AI thatI could use to um freeze my ice
(06:50):
cubes faster?
And are there any LLMs, largelanguage models like Claude or
Chat GTP that I might be able touse to co-work with me on
building my ice sculptures?
So we can start to plan to usethese new AI technologies to
(07:17):
help us to get the tasks that weneed to complete or we want to
complete in the next 30 days, orthat we're going to complete in
the next 30 days if we want tobe very um deliberate with our
language.
We can use AI to speed this up,and this is for me the main
(07:38):
utility of AI, it's like abattery pack for your brain.
So your brain is like a battery,and AI is almost like an
extended battery pack that youcan plug into it, so that you
can get the stuff that you needto get done faster, more
effectively, whether that'sbuilding a new sleep habit or
(08:00):
getting through a complexproject, or just being more
efficient and effective with howyou um get the work that you
need the the admin type workthat you need to get through
every day, be more efficient andeffective with how you get that
done, and then what you need isum a daily strategic tool.
(08:22):
So you've got an understandingof your brain states in step
one, in step two, you've startedto map out your long-term
strategic plan for your healthy,happy, high performing at your
best life.
Um, you've got a clear breakdownof the next 30 days, you've
broken that down into ice cubetasks, ice sculpture tasks, you
(08:44):
know which are the highestpriority tasks to complete, but
then you've got to get it done.
So, step three, you've got towork with the day designer,
which main tool is the willpowerstory.
So, a tool that you can use totimeline your day and give you
(09:05):
the very best chance of gettingthe things that are most
important for you actually done.
So the willpower story allowsyou to map all this stuff out,
um, so you've got the bestchance of doing it, and then
finally, um we have step four,which is about automation, and
(09:30):
it's you working with theroutine engineer system, so that
you can um not just know thatit's a good idea to be creating
a willpower story every day, butum you can actually do it, so
you can build the habits ofdoing of doing it by using the
nine action factor model theworld's most powerful behaviour
(09:53):
change system so that you canactually put the willpower story
into practice every day, andthen in maybe two weeks or the
next 30 days, you do your breastassessment again, and you reset
your 30-day goals, and then soon and so forth.
(10:14):
So, that's the AI success cycle.
So, again, you're gonna keephearing these stories about AI
and how it's disrupting, and itis gonna take jobs, it's gonna
create some new jobs as well.
I'd think just being veryrealistic is not gonna create
anywhere near as many new jobsas it takes, or certainly that's
(10:36):
how it looks right now, thingsmight change.
Um, but if you're listening tothis and you're thinking about
how you can become ahigh-performing human being in
the AI era, then you've alreadyyou've already got a massive
competitive advantage foryourself, for your family, for
(11:00):
your livelihood, etc.
But it's no good just noddingalong and saying, Well, that
that seems like a good system tobe using, or I've read the book,
and I I've I've also read thehabit mechanic, and you know,
I'm aware of these tools, we'vegot to put them into practice.
It's more important than everbefore that we put these things
(11:21):
into practice, um, and that'swhy we've actually we're making
it a priority to to help as manypeople as we can get trained up
to become certified habitmechanic coaches, because that
is the ultimate training to geta deep mastery of systems like
(11:43):
the success cycle and the nineaction factors model and all of
our habit building systems, sothat you can actually put this
stuff into your pract intopractice every day for yourself,
but also for people in your lifethat you love and you care about
and you want to help, whetherit's your kids or your partner,
(12:04):
or you want to help your team atwork, or in fact, if you're
thinking about well, actually,I'm scared about my position
being vulnerable, so what's planB?
That might be to set up your ownbusiness to become you know an
expert as a human AI performancepsychology coach, and I think
(12:25):
that is gonna be a massivelygrowing uh marketplace as more
and more businesses realise thatjust buying the AI technology is
not enough to get the return oninvestments they expected
because they're gonna need theirpeople to be brainstead
intelligent as well, so you cancreate a thriving business by
(12:51):
becoming a certified mechaniccoach because you'll become a
human high-performancepsychology expert, and we are
currently releasing periodicallylimited numbers of uh training
grants where we cover a massiveamount of the training because
again, we're passionate abouthelping people to become print
(13:13):
state intelligent.
We think that is the um numberone skill for the AI era for the
AI revolution.
Um, and we want to train morecoaches up because that's not
just helping one person.
If we train up a coach, we canhelp many people because because
(13:35):
everyone who trains to become acoach is going to help others as
well.
So if that's of interest, let usknow.
But yeah, I'll be back moreregularly now talking all
things, um, health, happiness,and being at our best in the AI
era.
But it's good to reconnect,don't let your hue, horribly
(13:58):
unhelpful emotions, get too uhobsessed with the potential
problems with AI technologiesbecause you know there are many,
but most of those are out of ourcontrol.
What we can do is we can focuson turning up and being at our
(14:19):
best and using this technologyfor good, and I think the
primary utility of it is itspeeds up our ability to change
our own behaviours, um, so wecan be healthier, happier, and
at our best more often, and theprimary target of the first um
(14:41):
behaviours you wanna you wannachange, or in other words, the
new habits you want to build.
I would say for many people,it's just getting better
recharge, uh better habits soyou can spend more time in
recharge brain states, soincluding better sleep habits,
better stress management habits,better confidence habits, better
habits with how you deal withpressure, and then better habits
(15:06):
around um making sure you canget into your high-charge brain
states every day.
Because the key for success inthe AI era is being able to work
excellently with AI, not justuse it as a search engine or use
it now and again, but it's tobecome excellent at using it, so
(15:28):
it's like a natural extent, it'sa natural extension of how you
think and how you do things.
But second to that is you alsoneed to get good at doing the
things that AI can't do, andthere are many things that it
can't do, and actually, you onlystart to work out those things
by using it.
Um, but to to be able to do tobe able to get excellent at
(15:50):
using AI and also get reallygood every day at doing the
things it can't do, thatrequires high charge brain
states, and they're increasinglyelusive in a world where we're
cognitively overwhelmed, um,people are burnt out, etc.
So for many people that I speakto and work with, I often see
(16:11):
the priority initially is tobuild better habits around how
um they manage brain states.
So, yeah, but if you do yourbrain state assessment, you'll
see what's most important foryou, and you can make big
improvements quickly, and that'swhy we always say you're only
(16:32):
ever one brain state habit away.
Hello, habit mechanics.
It's Dr.
John Finn here.
Hope you're well.
I'm doing a semi-walking podcastbecause I'm actually sitting
down just whilst I look at ascreen.
So it's been a while since I'vedone a pod, so I just want to go
back to the basics, but I wantto do that through the lens of
(00:22):
where AI is right now.
So we've seen a lot ofannouncements in September, and
one of the biggest announcementswas the 150 billion or so pounds
of investment into the UK, uh,largely by American tech firms.
(00:47):
Also, we're seeing associatedtechnologies like um
Rolls-Royce's small nuclearreactors are seen as a really
important part of the jigsawpuzzle of actually powering AI.
(01:10):
And if you just look at the top10, top twenty most valuable
companies in the world rightnow, they are they are all
AI-based or AI-relatedcompanies, and um, or the vast
majority are, with NVIDIAleading the charge with a
(01:31):
valuation of four trillion.
This is not going away.
What I have in opening in frontof me is a story from the Wall
Street Journal.
So the headline is Walmart CEOissues wake-up call.
AI is going to change literallyevery job.
(01:52):
And they report that headcountis expected to stay flat over
the next three years, despitegrowth plans, as AI eliminates
and or transforms roles.
And actually, if I just scrolldown the screen, I see
Lufthansa, the Americ uh theGerman um aviation company, um,
(02:14):
with an article that waspublished seven hours ago, and
the headline is Luft Lufthansato cut 4,000 jobs by 2030 amid
AI push.
And the subcopy is the company'sreviewing activities that it
said wouldn't be needed in thefuture due to duplication or the
(02:35):
increased use of artificialintelligence.
So I'm not trying to scareanybody here, I'm just getting
you into the loop where thingsare at.
This is not the millennium bug,it's not going away.
But what we can do is get readyfor it, and we can capitalise on
the opportunities that arealready here.
And to do that, we just have togo back to the basics.
(02:59):
So we've got to start bymeasuring our brain states,
getting that brain state scoreto better understand where am I
every day in terms of spendingtime getting high-quality
recharge?
Where am I every day in terms ofhow much time do I spend doing
(03:21):
busy, mindless tasks?
And where am I every day interms of my ability to do
complex high-impact thinking,the kind of work that AI cannot
do autonomously?
And once we have that, we thenmove into this into step two,
(03:44):
and I'm going through the AIsuccess cycle here, which is at
the heart of the of training ourbrain for the AI revolution,
which you can now actually getfor one dollar via our website.
So, step two is we gotta buildout that longer-term strategic
plan so that our brain state ourbrain state intelligence score,
(04:08):
our brain state um human eye,our readiness score is in the
context of the kind of thingsthat we want to achieve in our
lives.
So the vehicle for creating along-term strategic plan is your
fam story or future ambitiousmeaningful story, and if you
(04:34):
work through this in the book,there's a structured
step-by-step way to developingthat vision of the future and
working it all the way back totoday.
And then what we really need tofocus on is a clear map of the
next 30 days, so we have a clearfocus, and we build up when we
build out that map, we're goingto be thinking about what Ice
(04:57):
Cubes jobs do I want to achievein the next 30 days.
Ice Cube jobs, ice cube tasksare things like um things that
you do without a massive amountof cognitive effort, like um
basic administration jobs,things that you don't have to
(05:20):
really think too much about,things you've done lots of times
before.
You have lots of neurons in yourbrain for those things, you
don't have to think about themtoo much, and they're fairly low
energy, and you get through themquickly.
So it's a bit like freezing icecubes.
The other kind of tasks thatyou're gonna have to be working
on in the next 30 days are morelike building ice sculptures,
these are high-charge,high-impact uh tasks.
(05:43):
You don't build an ice sculpturetypically in one sitting, you
build it up um over a number ofdays, weeks, sometimes months.
And those types of tasks are notjust the kind of stuff you do at
work, but it's also the kind ofwork you need to do on it on
yourself, like building bettersleep habits or stress
(06:06):
management habits or leadershiphabits or whatever it is you
want to work on.
So if you have a clear list ofthose tasks going into the next
30 days, it's going to be easierto get the kind of stuff done
that you want to get done.
Um, so you can live the kind oflife that you want to live in
the short term, medium term, andlong term.
(06:29):
And this is where we can alsobring AI in.
So in um in this 30-day plan, wecan start to think about which
tasks do I need to completewhere maybe AI could speed
things up.
So, is there any agentic AI thatI could use to um freeze my ice
(06:50):
cubes faster?
And are there any LLMs, largelanguage models like Claude or
Chat GTP that I might be able touse to co-work with me on
building my ice sculptures?
So we can start to plan to usethese new AI technologies to
(07:17):
help us to get the tasks that weneed to complete or we want to
complete in the next 30 days, orthat we're going to complete in
the next 30 days if we want tobe very um deliberate with our
language.
We can use AI to speed this up,and this is for me the main
(07:38):
utility of AI, it's like abattery pack for your brain.
So your brain is like a battery,and AI is almost like an
extended battery pack that youcan plug into it, so that you
can get the stuff that you needto get done faster, more
effectively, whether that'sbuilding a new sleep habit or
(08:00):
getting through a complexproject, or just being more
efficient and effective with howyou um get the work that you
need the the admin type workthat you need to get through
every day, be more efficient andeffective with how you get that
done, and then what you need isum a daily strategic tool.
(08:22):
So you've got an understandingof your brain states in step
one, in step two, you've startedto map out your long-term
strategic plan for your healthy,happy, high performing at your
best life.
Um, you've got a clear breakdownof the next 30 days, you've
broken that down into ice cubetasks, ice sculpture tasks, you
(08:44):
know which are the highestpriority tasks to complete, but
then you've got to get it done.
So, step three, you've got towork with the day designer,
which main tool is the willpowerstory.
So, a tool that you can use totimeline your day and give you
(09:05):
the very best chance of gettingthe things that are most
important for you actually done.
So the willpower story allowsyou to map all this stuff out,
um, so you've got the bestchance of doing it, and then
finally, um we have step four,which is about automation, and
(09:30):
it's you working with theroutine engineer system, so that
you can um not just know thatit's a good idea to be creating
a willpower story every day, butum you can actually do it, so
you can build the habits ofdoing of doing it by using the
nine action factor model theworld's most powerful behaviour
(09:53):
change system so that you canactually put the willpower story
into practice every day, andthen in maybe two weeks or the
next 30 days, you do your breastassessment again, and you reset
your 30-day goals, and then soon and so forth.
(10:14):
So, that's the AI success cycle.
So, again, you're gonna keephearing these stories about AI
and how it's disrupting, and itis gonna take jobs, it's gonna
create some new jobs as well.
I'd think just being veryrealistic is not gonna create
anywhere near as many new jobsas it takes, or certainly that's
(10:36):
how it looks right now, thingsmight change.
Um, but if you're listening tothis and you're thinking about
how you can become ahigh-performing human being in
the AI era, then you've alreadyyou've already got a massive
competitive advantage foryourself, for your family, for
(11:00):
your livelihood, etc.
But it's no good just noddingalong and saying, Well, that
that seems like a good system tobe using, or I've read the book,
and I I've I've also read thehabit mechanic, and you know,
I'm aware of these tools, we'vegot to put them into practice.
It's more important than everbefore that we put these things
(11:21):
into practice, um, and that'swhy we've actually we're making
it a priority to to help as manypeople as we can get trained up
to become certified habitmechanic coaches, because that
is the ultimate training to geta deep mastery of systems like
(11:43):
the success cycle and the nineaction factors model and all of
our habit building systems, sothat you can actually put this
stuff into your pract intopractice every day for yourself,
but also for people in your lifethat you love and you care about
and you want to help, whetherit's your kids or your partner,
(12:04):
or you want to help your team atwork, or in fact, if you're
thinking about well, actually,I'm scared about my position
being vulnerable, so what's planB?
That might be to set up your ownbusiness to become you know an
expert as a human AI performancepsychology coach, and I think
(12:25):
that is gonna be a massivelygrowing uh marketplace as more
and more businesses realise thatjust buying the AI technology is
not enough to get the return oninvestments they expected
because they're gonna need theirpeople to be brainstead
intelligent as well, so you cancreate a thriving business by
(12:51):
becoming a certified mechaniccoach because you'll become a
human high-performancepsychology expert, and we are
currently releasing periodicallylimited numbers of uh training
grants where we cover a massiveamount of the training because
again, we're passionate abouthelping people to become print
(13:13):
state intelligent.
We think that is the um numberone skill for the AI era for the
AI revolution.
Um, and we want to train morecoaches up because that's not
just helping one person.
If we train up a coach, we canhelp many people because because
(13:35):
everyone who trains to become acoach is going to help others as
well.
So if that's of interest, let usknow.
But yeah, I'll be back moreregularly now talking all
things, um, health, happiness,and being at our best in the AI
era.
But it's good to reconnect,don't let your hue, horribly
(13:58):
unhelpful emotions, get too uhobsessed with the potential
problems with AI technologiesbecause you know there are many,
but most of those are out of ourcontrol.
What we can do is we can focuson turning up and being at our
(14:19):
best and using this technologyfor good, and I think the
primary utility of it is itspeeds up our ability to change
our own behaviours, um, so wecan be healthier, happier, and
at our best more often, and theprimary target of the first um
(14:41):
behaviours you wanna you wannachange, or in other words, the
new habits you want to build.
I would say for many people,it's just getting better
recharge, uh better habits soyou can spend more time in
recharge brain states, soincluding better sleep habits,
better stress management habits,better confidence habits, better
habits with how you deal withpressure, and then better habits
(15:06):
around um making sure you canget into your high-charge brain
states every day.
Because the key for success inthe AI era is being able to work
excellently with AI, not justuse it as a search engine or use
it now and again, but it's tobecome excellent at using it, so
(15:28):
it's like a natural extent, it'sa natural extension of how you
think and how you do things.
But second to that is you alsoneed to get good at doing the
things that AI can't do, andthere are many things that it
can't do, and actually, you onlystart to work out those things
by using it.
Um, but to to be able to do tobe able to get excellent at
(15:50):
using AI and also get reallygood every day at doing the
things it can't do, thatrequires high charge brain
states, and they're increasinglyelusive in a world where we're
cognitively overwhelmed, um,people are burnt out, etc.
So for many people that I speakto and work with, I often see
(16:11):
the priority initially is tobuild better habits around how
um they manage brain states.
So, yeah, but if you do yourbrain state assessment, you'll
see what's most important foryou, and you can make big
improvements quickly, and that'swhy we always say you're only
(16:32):
ever one brain state habit away.
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