I'm Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh, a Neuroleadership Coach and Forbes Coaches Council member.
Direct answer: yes, and not through mood alone. Repeated activation strengthens neural pathways, the same mechanism that builds any skill.
A negative thought pattern repeated for years becomes the fastest, most automatic route the brain reaches for under pressure, whether or not it's accurate. The same mechanism builds an accurate pathway just as strongly, with roughly six weeks of consistent practice.
In this shorter Friday edition, I break down the mechanism and the specific practice that rebuilds it.
A real story from an operations director whose team started translating his words before repeating them, and the specific tracking exercise that interrupts the loop within a week.
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● Does negative thinking affect the brain?
● Does negative thinking change brain structure?
● How long does it take to change a thought pattern?
● Is negative thinking a personality trait or a habit?
● Can a leader's negative thinking affect their team?
● Does AI disruption make negative thinking worse?
---
AI Cafe Conversations: Neuroscience-based AI leadership for executives. Hosted by Sahar (The AI Whisperer) | New episodes Wed & Fri
🔗 Connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saharandradespeaker/
📧 Work with me: sahar@saharconsulting.com
🌐 Website: https://www.saharconsulting.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:12):
Does negative thinking actually change your
brain, or does it just feel thatway?
Here is the direct answer.
Yes, it does, and not throughsome vague mood mechanism,
through the exact same processthat lets you get better at
anything else you repeat.
That should worry you a littleand it should give you the fix
(00:37):
as well.
I am Sahar Andradi, a physicianby training, non-practitioner,
Muru leadership coach.
Quick note before we start (00:45):
same as always, everything here is my
experience and my opinion as acoach, not a diagnosis, not a
fact about you.
You decide what fits.
This is the Friday Forbesarticle-like edition.
Shorter, more practical, builtlike an article you have read,
(01:09):
not a deep dive.
Today's question came straightout of what people are actually
typing into solution forms.
Does negative thinking affectthe brain?
The direct answer is yes.
Here is the mechanism, and hereis what to do about it in the
next five minutes.
(01:29):
Let's talk about the crisis.
Neuroplasticity is the brain'sability to change based on
repeated activity.
Repeated activation strengthensthe neural connections behind
it.
Over roughly six weeks ofconsistent repetition, new
pathways form and get easier toaccess.
(01:52):
This is genuinely good news,most of the time.
It's how you got better at yourjob, how you learn to read a
rule, how a skill that used totake conscious effort now runs
on autopilot.
The problem is neuroplasticitydoesn't check whether the
(02:14):
pattern being repeated isuseful.
It threatens whatever getsrepeated, including a thought.
If a leader runs the samenegative loop over time, every
time something goes wrong, asentence like, this is going to
fail, like the last one.
(02:35):
That loop isn't just anunpleasant mood.
And it's not just self-prophecy.
It's a pathway gettingrehearsed.
The same way a golf swing or asales pitch gets rehearsed.
The more it fires, the easier itfires.
(02:56):
And the faster the brain reachesfor it next time something goes
wrong.
Often before there is even realevidence, the situation warrants
it.
I worked with a director lastyear who described it perfectly
without knowing the mechanismbehind it.
She said every setback, big orso or small, funneled into the
(03:20):
exact same two words in her headwithin seconds.
Of course, a dropped call, amissed number, a hard piece of
feedback, same two words everytime, faster each time.
That's a pathway that had beenrehearsed for years, firing on
(03:42):
schedule.
For a lot of leaders right now,this loop has a very specific,
very current trigger, AI,artificial intelligence.
A new tool rolls out, a mandatearrives to move faster than the
team feels ready for.
And the same rehearsed linefires.
(04:03):
I am going to fall behind.
Everyone else already gets this.
That's not a verdict on anyone'stechnical ability.
That's a well-worn pathway,meeting a fast moving and
familiar trigger.
And AI is currently generatingmore of those triggers more
(04:24):
often than almost anything elsein a leader's week.
There is a physical way topicture this, and it makes the
mechanism less abstract.
Think of the brain's pathwayslike trails through a field.
The first time a thought fires,it's like walking through tall
(04:44):
grass.
Slow, effortful, resistance thewhole way.
Each repeat presses the grassdown a little more.
After enough repeats, the trailis worn smooth and the field and
the feet find it automaticallyfaster than any other route
across the same field.
(05:06):
A negative thought that's fireddaily for 10 years isn't a
stubborn habit.
It's the smoothest trail in theentire field.
And the brain under pressurealways takes the smoothest trail
first.
Why?
Because the first function ofthe brain is protection, and the
second function of the brain isefficiency.
(05:29):
Here is what makes thisspecifically dangerous for
leaders.
The higher the stakes, thefaster the brain reaches for
whatever pathway is mostrehearsed.
Not whatever pathway is mostaccurate.
Under real pressure, there is notime to reason from scratch.
The brain grabs the nearestwell-worn roof.
(05:52):
If that roof says this alwaysgoes wrong, that's the story
that shows up in the boardroom.
Not because it's true, butbecause it's fast.
And under threat, fast wins overaccurate almost every single
time.
This matters more for leadersthan almost anyone else in an
(06:14):
organization because a leader'srehearsed pathway doesn't stay
contained to their own hand.
It gets spoken out loud inmeetings, in one-on-ones, in the
tone of a single email, dozensof times a week.
A leader with a well-wornnegative trail isn't just
experiencing it privately.
(06:36):
They are broadcasting it insmall doses to everyone who
reports to them constantly,whether they intend it or not.
This is also why will poweralone rarely fixes it.
Telling yourself to just thinkpositive, and I hear that a lot.
(06:57):
Oh, just think positive.
And people, it's funny that evengurus of wellness and
affirmations that are just thinkpositive, but they never tell
you how to do it.
They never show you the way.
It's like if you were able to doit, couldn't you have done it
already?
I distress.
Telling yourself to just thinkpositive doesn't compete with a
(07:19):
pathway that's had years ofrepetition.
It's not a contest of intention,it's a contest of which route is
more worn.
Let's talk about the cost ofthat.
What this actually costs aleader in practice, three things
and they compound.
First, decision speed underpressure gets hijacked by the
(07:42):
most rehearsed story, not themost accurate one.
A leader whose default loop runstowards catastrophe would read
ambiguous situations as worsethan they are.
More often than not, simplybecause that's the fastest
interpretation that isavailable.
(08:03):
I call that catastrophizingcatastrophizing everything.
That's what I call it.
Second, it's contagious in avery practical sense.
Leaders set the interpretiveframe for a rule.
A leader who reflexivelynarrates, of course, this
failed, teaches a team withoutever meaning to that setbacks
(08:27):
are catastrophic rather thanordinary.
Teams learn what to expect fromleadership by watching the
pattern, not the policy.
I think of an operationsdirector who told me his team
had started translating his realwords before repeating them back
in planning meetings.
(08:47):
He had said something like, Thisquarter is gonna be difficult.
And by the time it reached thefront line, it had become
leadership thinks we're failing.
You know, it reminds me of agame that we used to play when
we were kids.
It was called um, it's a Frenchword, it was called Telephone
Cassé.
Telephone Cassie means like thebroken phone, and what it means
(09:09):
is like we would sit in a circleand we would whisper a word for
the first person, and by thetime the tenth person hears it,
it's something totally, totallydifferent.
Totally.
So that's exactly the samething.
Nobody was lying.
His team has learned correctlythat his default framing skewed
(09:30):
towards the worst version ofevents, and they had started
compensating for it without evernaming what they were doing.
The cost wasn't one bad meeting,it was a slow erosion of how
much weight his actual wordscarried by the time they reached
the people who needed them most.
(09:52):
This particular version of theloop had real numbers behind it.
Deloitte's 2026 Global HumanCapital Trends Report found 60%
of executives already use AI indecision making.
Only 5% say they manage it well.
That gap, using something dailywhile feeling unable to manage
(10:16):
it well, is exactly the kind ofambiguity, a reverse negative
loop fills in fastest, usuallywith the worst case
interpretation, whether or notit's accurate.
Third, and this is the one thatsurprises people, the loop gets
more efficient over time, notless.
(10:36):
If nothing interrupts.
That's the nature of athreatened pathway.
Left alone, this doesn't leveloff.
It gets faster and moreautomatic, which is exactly why
leaders often report the patternfeeling heavier the longer their
career goes.
When what's actually happeningis the group has simply had more
(11:02):
years to live to.
There is a version of this thatshows up specifically in high
performance, and it's worthnaming directly.
The same repetition that buildsa negative move can build an
excellent one.
A leader who has spent yearsrehearsing what did I do well
here, what's the next rightstep, has built that pathway
(11:25):
just as strong as anyone'scatastrophic one.
The mechanism doesn't care whichdirection it's pointed, it only
cares about repetition.
That's actually the most usefulpart of this whole conversation,
and it's where the fix actuallylives.
What's the solution?
(11:46):
If the mechanism is repetition,the fix is also repetition.
Just point it somewhere else onpurpose.
This is not about forcingpositively like thing positive,
right?
And it isn't about pretendingany problem isn't real.
It's about catching theautomatic loop the moment it
fires and consciously running amore accurate one in its place
(12:11):
on purpose, especially on thelow stakes moments where it's
easiest to practice.
The goal isn't to never think,of course, this happened.
The goal is to notice it fastand have a rehearsed accurate
alternative ready before theautomatic one runs a more
meeting.
This is the same territory as mybrain framework, catching a
(12:36):
pattern while it's firinginstead of only recognizing it
after, once it's ready, shapethe decision.
The accurate alternative doesn'tneed to be inflated, it just
needs to be true and specific.
Not everything is fine when thebrain won't buy anyway.
(12:56):
Something closer to this is onedata point.
Here is what I actually know.
Here is the next concrete step.
Said enough times, in enoughsmall moments, that sentence
starts to compete with the oldone.
Not replace it overnight,compete with it.
(13:17):
And over weeks, when more often.
In practice, this looks smallerthan people expect.
It's not a journaling practiceor a mindset overhaul or sitting
on the floor meditating forthree hours.
It's not that.
It's catching the two-wordreflex of course in the 10
(13:39):
seconds after it fires andreplacing it with one specific
true sentence about whatactually happened.
Not five sentences.
One, the brain doesn't need aspeech to start building a new
trail.
It needs the same short route,walk again and again and again,
until the new one is just assmooth as the old one.
(14:03):
The six-week window mattershere.
Neuroplasticity researchconsistently points to roughly
six weeks of consistentrepetition before a new pathway
becomes generally easier toaccess than the old one.
That's not a discouragingnumber.
That's a specific buildabletarget.
Six weeks of catching it andredirecting it on purpose in the
(14:27):
moment that matters least.
So it's available in the momentsthat matter most.
This is worth naming directlyfor anyone whose loop gets
triggered by AI specifically.
The six-week rebuild worksexactly the same way here.
The goal is not forcingconfidence about the tool that's
(14:48):
still new, it's catching theautomatic um behind within
seconds and replacing it withsomething true and specific.
What you actually know, what youare actually learning, what the
next concrete step is.
One, what you actually know asreal data, not thinking about
(15:13):
it, not imagining it, notperceiving it, not what someone
else is saying.
What concrete information youhave, what you actually know,
what you are actually learningyour own way.
What's the next concrete stepfor you to do?
Repeat it consistently thatcompetes with the old loop the
(15:36):
same way it does with any othertrigger.
A simple way to start, pick onerecurring stressor, a specific
type of meeting, a specific kindof message, and track for one
week how often the automaticloop fires before you have even
finished reading or hearing thetrigger.
(15:57):
Most leaders are surprised bythe number, and it's rarely one
or two times a day.
It's closer to a dozen.
Most of them so brief, they werenever noticed as a thought at
all, just felt as a mood.
That tweak of tracking alonestarts to interrupt the
(16:17):
automacity.
Because noticing a pattern isthe first step in walking a
different trail instead of theold one.
They say this, they say, onceyou know what you have, that's
halfway to the solution.
Like we say, once you knowwhat's going on, you already
know what to look for as asolution.
(16:38):
If you don't, you will neverhave a solution for it.
You don't know what you don'tknow, right?
I want to be honest about thetimeline because vague promises
don't hold up under realpressure.
This is not a one-conversationphase, it's a rehearsal
practice, the same as anythingelse a leader trains, like
public speaking, likenegotiation, like reading a
(17:00):
balance sheet.
Nobody expects those to beautomatic after one attempt.
The negative loop got years ofpractice.
The new one needs weeks, notyears, and it doesn't need
consistent consistency, notintensity.
A few seconds of redirectioncaught early, repeated often,
(17:23):
beats one long, effortfulattempt to think positive during
the worst meeting of the board.
You might be thinking, I don'thave time to rehearse my
thoughts, I have a business torun, a department to run, an
organization to manage.
Fair.
But the rehearsal is alreadyhappening every single time the
(17:45):
old MOOC fires, uninterrupted.
You're not choosing betweenrehearsing and not rehearsing.
You are choosing which pathwaygets the repetition.
The one that reaches forcatastrophe by default, or the
one that reaches for the nextaccurate step.
Again, we need to remember thatthe brain default is negativity.
(18:08):
The brain default is negativity.
The first one is running forfree, whether you intend it or
not, which is the negative one.
The second one takes maybe 10seconds of attention caught
early, and it's the version thatactually serves the decision you
are about to make.
There is a second objection Ihear often.
(18:29):
It's just who I am.
I've always been the person whoexpects the worst.
This way I don't fool myself orsomething along those lines.
That framing treats the patternas fixed identity instead of
what it actually is.
A trail that got worn throughrepetition, which means it can
be reshaped through repetitiontoo.
(18:51):
Nobody is arguing you shouldbecome someone else.
The argument is narrower andmore useful than that.
The trail you have walked themost isn't necessarily the trail
that serves you best.
And it's not permanent justbecause it's old.
I have seen leaders push back onthis exact point and then notice
(19:15):
once they actually startcatching it, how many times a
day do all do fires without themeven choosing it?
That's noticing alone changesthe ratio.
You can't redirect a patternyou're not tracking.
The tracking is the first 10seconds, the redirection is the
next 10.
(19:36):
20 seconds.
That's all you need.
20 seconds.
A handful of times a day againstyears of automatic repetition
sounds small.
Over six weeks, it's not.
So if this is a pattern yourecognize in yourself or in
someone on your team, the placeI head point to is the pressure.
(20:02):
It's a free life 45-minutesession I run once a month.
And this past Thursday,yesterday, July 30th, we covered
the first model in the 2026series, the thermostat versus
thermometer.
The difference between reactingto pressure and setting the tone
in the room regardless of.
(20:23):
The model applies directly tothe pattern we just walked
through, noticing the reflexbefore it runs the room, and
choosing the response on purposeinstead of by default.
If negative loops are a patternyou or someone in your team
lives inside, it's exactly thekind of think worth fully five
(20:46):
minutes of your Thursday.
If you missed it, the recordingis available.
And the next live session isThursday, August 27th, 2026 at
11 a.m.
Pacific Time.
Same format.
One model taught in full, onetool practiced live 45 minutes
free.
(21:06):
And you can register atsaharendradi.com slash pressure
dash.
Link is in the show notes.
If you want to have therecording of the last one, send
me a comment, email me at saharat saharconsulting.com or
comment here and I'll be happyto send you the recording.
(21:28):
As I always say, leadershipdoesn't fail.
Nervous systems too.
Before I leave, I always say,show me some love.
Subscribe, comment, rate, shareour podcast.
Thank you for your support andmake us one of the top 2% global
podcasts.
(21:48):
It's a small production, verysmall production.
So I so appreciate your support.
Please share it so I can reachmore people that might need this
advice.
Till I see you again nextWednesday or our normal long
episode of AI Cafe ConversationsPodcast.
The only podcast that talksabout AI leadership and
(22:10):
neuroscience.
We cover anything neuroscienceof pressure.
We cover everything leadershipunder pressure.
Till we meet again, peace out.
Does negative thinking actually change your
brain, or does it just feel thatway?
Here is the direct answer.
Yes, it does, and not throughsome vague mood mechanism,
through the exact same processthat lets you get better at
anything else you repeat.
That should worry you a littleand it should give you the fix
(00:37):
as well.
I am Sahar Andradi, a physicianby training, non-practitioner,
Muru leadership coach.
Quick note before we start (00:45):
same as always, everything here is my
experience and my opinion as acoach, not a diagnosis, not a
fact about you.
You decide what fits.
This is the Friday Forbesarticle-like edition.
Shorter, more practical, builtlike an article you have read,
(01:09):
not a deep dive.
Today's question came straightout of what people are actually
typing into solution forms.
Does negative thinking affectthe brain?
The direct answer is yes.
Here is the mechanism, and hereis what to do about it in the
next five minutes.
(01:29):
Let's talk about the crisis.
Neuroplasticity is the brain'sability to change based on
repeated activity.
Repeated activation strengthensthe neural connections behind
it.
Over roughly six weeks ofconsistent repetition, new
pathways form and get easier toaccess.
(01:52):
This is genuinely good news,most of the time.
It's how you got better at yourjob, how you learn to read a
rule, how a skill that used totake conscious effort now runs
on autopilot.
The problem is neuroplasticitydoesn't check whether the
(02:14):
pattern being repeated isuseful.
It threatens whatever getsrepeated, including a thought.
If a leader runs the samenegative loop over time, every
time something goes wrong, asentence like, this is going to
fail, like the last one.
(02:35):
That loop isn't just anunpleasant mood.
And it's not just self-prophecy.
It's a pathway gettingrehearsed.
The same way a golf swing or asales pitch gets rehearsed.
The more it fires, the easier itfires.
(02:56):
And the faster the brain reachesfor it next time something goes
wrong.
Often before there is even realevidence, the situation warrants
it.
I worked with a director lastyear who described it perfectly
without knowing the mechanismbehind it.
She said every setback, big orso or small, funneled into the
(03:20):
exact same two words in her headwithin seconds.
Of course, a dropped call, amissed number, a hard piece of
feedback, same two words everytime, faster each time.
That's a pathway that had beenrehearsed for years, firing on
(03:42):
schedule.
For a lot of leaders right now,this loop has a very specific,
very current trigger, AI,artificial intelligence.
A new tool rolls out, a mandatearrives to move faster than the
team feels ready for.
And the same rehearsed linefires.
(04:03):
I am going to fall behind.
Everyone else already gets this.
That's not a verdict on anyone'stechnical ability.
That's a well-worn pathway,meeting a fast moving and
familiar trigger.
And AI is currently generatingmore of those triggers more
(04:24):
often than almost anything elsein a leader's week.
There is a physical way topicture this, and it makes the
mechanism less abstract.
Think of the brain's pathwayslike trails through a field.
The first time a thought fires,it's like walking through tall
(04:44):
grass.
Slow, effortful, resistance thewhole way.
Each repeat presses the grassdown a little more.
After enough repeats, the trailis worn smooth and the field and
the feet find it automaticallyfaster than any other route
across the same field.
(05:06):
A negative thought that's fireddaily for 10 years isn't a
stubborn habit.
It's the smoothest trail in theentire field.
And the brain under pressurealways takes the smoothest trail
first.
Why?
Because the first function ofthe brain is protection, and the
second function of the brain isefficiency.
(05:29):
Here is what makes thisspecifically dangerous for
leaders.
The higher the stakes, thefaster the brain reaches for
whatever pathway is mostrehearsed.
Not whatever pathway is mostaccurate.
Under real pressure, there is notime to reason from scratch.
The brain grabs the nearestwell-worn roof.
(05:52):
If that roof says this alwaysgoes wrong, that's the story
that shows up in the boardroom.
Not because it's true, butbecause it's fast.
And under threat, fast wins overaccurate almost every single
time.
This matters more for leadersthan almost anyone else in an
(06:14):
organization because a leader'srehearsed pathway doesn't stay
contained to their own hand.
It gets spoken out loud inmeetings, in one-on-ones, in the
tone of a single email, dozensof times a week.
A leader with a well-wornnegative trail isn't just
experiencing it privately.
(06:36):
They are broadcasting it insmall doses to everyone who
reports to them constantly,whether they intend it or not.
This is also why will poweralone rarely fixes it.
Telling yourself to just thinkpositive, and I hear that a lot.
(06:57):
Oh, just think positive.
And people, it's funny that evengurus of wellness and
affirmations that are just thinkpositive, but they never tell
you how to do it.
They never show you the way.
It's like if you were able to doit, couldn't you have done it
already?
I distress.
Telling yourself to just thinkpositive doesn't compete with a
(07:19):
pathway that's had years ofrepetition.
It's not a contest of intention,it's a contest of which route is
more worn.
Let's talk about the cost ofthat.
What this actually costs aleader in practice, three things
and they compound.
First, decision speed underpressure gets hijacked by the
(07:42):
most rehearsed story, not themost accurate one.
A leader whose default loop runstowards catastrophe would read
ambiguous situations as worsethan they are.
More often than not, simplybecause that's the fastest
interpretation that isavailable.
(08:03):
I call that catastrophizingcatastrophizing everything.
That's what I call it.
Second, it's contagious in avery practical sense.
Leaders set the interpretiveframe for a rule.
A leader who reflexivelynarrates, of course, this
failed, teaches a team withoutever meaning to that setbacks
(08:27):
are catastrophic rather thanordinary.
Teams learn what to expect fromleadership by watching the
pattern, not the policy.
I think of an operationsdirector who told me his team
had started translating his realwords before repeating them back
in planning meetings.
(08:47):
He had said something like, Thisquarter is gonna be difficult.
And by the time it reached thefront line, it had become
leadership thinks we're failing.
You know, it reminds me of agame that we used to play when
we were kids.
It was called um, it's a Frenchword, it was called Telephone
Cassé.
Telephone Cassie means like thebroken phone, and what it means
(09:09):
is like we would sit in a circleand we would whisper a word for
the first person, and by thetime the tenth person hears it,
it's something totally, totallydifferent.
Totally.
So that's exactly the samething.
Nobody was lying.
His team has learned correctlythat his default framing skewed
(09:30):
towards the worst version ofevents, and they had started
compensating for it without evernaming what they were doing.
The cost wasn't one bad meeting,it was a slow erosion of how
much weight his actual wordscarried by the time they reached
the people who needed them most.
(09:52):
This particular version of theloop had real numbers behind it.
Deloitte's 2026 Global HumanCapital Trends Report found 60%
of executives already use AI indecision making.
Only 5% say they manage it well.
That gap, using something dailywhile feeling unable to manage
(10:16):
it well, is exactly the kind ofambiguity, a reverse negative
loop fills in fastest, usuallywith the worst case
interpretation, whether or notit's accurate.
Third, and this is the one thatsurprises people, the loop gets
more efficient over time, notless.
(10:36):
If nothing interrupts.
That's the nature of athreatened pathway.
Left alone, this doesn't leveloff.
It gets faster and moreautomatic, which is exactly why
leaders often report the patternfeeling heavier the longer their
career goes.
When what's actually happeningis the group has simply had more
(11:02):
years to live to.
There is a version of this thatshows up specifically in high
performance, and it's worthnaming directly.
The same repetition that buildsa negative move can build an
excellent one.
A leader who has spent yearsrehearsing what did I do well
here, what's the next rightstep, has built that pathway
(11:25):
just as strong as anyone'scatastrophic one.
The mechanism doesn't care whichdirection it's pointed, it only
cares about repetition.
That's actually the most usefulpart of this whole conversation,
and it's where the fix actuallylives.
What's the solution?
(11:46):
If the mechanism is repetition,the fix is also repetition.
Just point it somewhere else onpurpose.
This is not about forcingpositively like thing positive,
right?
And it isn't about pretendingany problem isn't real.
It's about catching theautomatic loop the moment it
fires and consciously running amore accurate one in its place
(12:11):
on purpose, especially on thelow stakes moments where it's
easiest to practice.
The goal isn't to never think,of course, this happened.
The goal is to notice it fastand have a rehearsed accurate
alternative ready before theautomatic one runs a more
meeting.
This is the same territory as mybrain framework, catching a
(12:36):
pattern while it's firinginstead of only recognizing it
after, once it's ready, shapethe decision.
The accurate alternative doesn'tneed to be inflated, it just
needs to be true and specific.
Not everything is fine when thebrain won't buy anyway.
(12:56):
Something closer to this is onedata point.
Here is what I actually know.
Here is the next concrete step.
Said enough times, in enoughsmall moments, that sentence
starts to compete with the oldone.
Not replace it overnight,compete with it.
(13:17):
And over weeks, when more often.
In practice, this looks smallerthan people expect.
It's not a journaling practiceor a mindset overhaul or sitting
on the floor meditating forthree hours.
It's not that.
It's catching the two-wordreflex of course in the 10
(13:39):
seconds after it fires andreplacing it with one specific
true sentence about whatactually happened.
Not five sentences.
One, the brain doesn't need aspeech to start building a new
trail.
It needs the same short route,walk again and again and again,
until the new one is just assmooth as the old one.
(14:03):
The six-week window mattershere.
Neuroplasticity researchconsistently points to roughly
six weeks of consistentrepetition before a new pathway
becomes generally easier toaccess than the old one.
That's not a discouragingnumber.
That's a specific buildabletarget.
Six weeks of catching it andredirecting it on purpose in the
(14:27):
moment that matters least.
So it's available in the momentsthat matter most.
This is worth naming directlyfor anyone whose loop gets
triggered by AI specifically.
The six-week rebuild worksexactly the same way here.
The goal is not forcingconfidence about the tool that's
(14:48):
still new, it's catching theautomatic um behind within
seconds and replacing it withsomething true and specific.
What you actually know, what youare actually learning, what the
next concrete step is.
One, what you actually know asreal data, not thinking about
(15:13):
it, not imagining it, notperceiving it, not what someone
else is saying.
What concrete information youhave, what you actually know,
what you are actually learningyour own way.
What's the next concrete stepfor you to do?
Repeat it consistently thatcompetes with the old loop the
(15:36):
same way it does with any othertrigger.
A simple way to start, pick onerecurring stressor, a specific
type of meeting, a specific kindof message, and track for one
week how often the automaticloop fires before you have even
finished reading or hearing thetrigger.
(15:57):
Most leaders are surprised bythe number, and it's rarely one
or two times a day.
It's closer to a dozen.
Most of them so brief, they werenever noticed as a thought at
all, just felt as a mood.
That tweak of tracking alonestarts to interrupt the
(16:17):
automacity.
Because noticing a pattern isthe first step in walking a
different trail instead of theold one.
They say this, they say, onceyou know what you have, that's
halfway to the solution.
Like we say, once you knowwhat's going on, you already
know what to look for as asolution.
(16:38):
If you don't, you will neverhave a solution for it.
You don't know what you don'tknow, right?
I want to be honest about thetimeline because vague promises
don't hold up under realpressure.
This is not a one-conversationphase, it's a rehearsal
practice, the same as anythingelse a leader trains, like
public speaking, likenegotiation, like reading a
(17:00):
balance sheet.
Nobody expects those to beautomatic after one attempt.
The negative loop got years ofpractice.
The new one needs weeks, notyears, and it doesn't need
consistent consistency, notintensity.
A few seconds of redirectioncaught early, repeated often,
(17:23):
beats one long, effortfulattempt to think positive during
the worst meeting of the board.
You might be thinking, I don'thave time to rehearse my
thoughts, I have a business torun, a department to run, an
organization to manage.
Fair.
But the rehearsal is alreadyhappening every single time the
(17:45):
old MOOC fires, uninterrupted.
You're not choosing betweenrehearsing and not rehearsing.
You are choosing which pathwaygets the repetition.
The one that reaches forcatastrophe by default, or the
one that reaches for the nextaccurate step.
Again, we need to remember thatthe brain default is negativity.
(18:08):
The brain default is negativity.
The first one is running forfree, whether you intend it or
not, which is the negative one.
The second one takes maybe 10seconds of attention caught
early, and it's the version thatactually serves the decision you
are about to make.
There is a second objection Ihear often.
(18:29):
It's just who I am.
I've always been the person whoexpects the worst.
This way I don't fool myself orsomething along those lines.
That framing treats the patternas fixed identity instead of
what it actually is.
A trail that got worn throughrepetition, which means it can
be reshaped through repetitiontoo.
(18:51):
Nobody is arguing you shouldbecome someone else.
The argument is narrower andmore useful than that.
The trail you have walked themost isn't necessarily the trail
that serves you best.
And it's not permanent justbecause it's old.
I have seen leaders push back onthis exact point and then notice
(19:15):
once they actually startcatching it, how many times a
day do all do fires without themeven choosing it?
That's noticing alone changesthe ratio.
You can't redirect a patternyou're not tracking.
The tracking is the first 10seconds, the redirection is the
next 10.
(19:36):
20 seconds.
That's all you need.
20 seconds.
A handful of times a day againstyears of automatic repetition
sounds small.
Over six weeks, it's not.
So if this is a pattern yourecognize in yourself or in
someone on your team, the placeI head point to is the pressure.
(20:02):
It's a free life 45-minutesession I run once a month.
And this past Thursday,yesterday, July 30th, we covered
the first model in the 2026series, the thermostat versus
thermometer.
The difference between reactingto pressure and setting the tone
in the room regardless of.
(20:23):
The model applies directly tothe pattern we just walked
through, noticing the reflexbefore it runs the room, and
choosing the response on purposeinstead of by default.
If negative loops are a patternyou or someone in your team
lives inside, it's exactly thekind of think worth fully five
(20:46):
minutes of your Thursday.
If you missed it, the recordingis available.
And the next live session isThursday, August 27th, 2026 at
11 a.m.
Pacific Time.
Same format.
One model taught in full, onetool practiced live 45 minutes
free.
(21:06):
And you can register atsaharendradi.com slash pressure
dash.
Link is in the show notes.
If you want to have therecording of the last one, send
me a comment, email me at saharat saharconsulting.com or
comment here and I'll be happyto send you the recording.
(21:28):
As I always say, leadershipdoesn't fail.
Nervous systems too.
Before I leave, I always say,show me some love.
Subscribe, comment, rate, shareour podcast.
Thank you for your support andmake us one of the top 2% global
podcasts.
(21:48):
It's a small production, verysmall production.
So I so appreciate your support.
Please share it so I can reachmore people that might need this
advice.
Till I see you again nextWednesday or our normal long
episode of AI Cafe ConversationsPodcast.
The only podcast that talksabout AI leadership and
(22:10):
neuroscience.
We cover anything neuroscienceof pressure.
We cover everything leadershipunder pressure.
Till we meet again, peace out.
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