Episode 93: Dr. Kyra Bobinet studies why brains make change difficult

2025-08-12

You’ve experienced this before, right? You know you’re supposed to do something. You’ve learned that a good habit is what you need or a bad habit needs to be changed. You know you should spend more time on this and less time on that. You know it’d be good for your emotional health, your body, or your soul. But you don’t do it. There’s a gap. Dr. Kyra Bobinet, MD-PhD, calls it the “Know-Do” gap. It all stems from work she’s done for years studying, r...

You’ve experienced this before, right?

You know you’re supposed to do something. You’ve learned that a good habit is what you need or a bad habit needs to be changed. You know you should spend more time on this and less time on that. You know it’d be good for your emotional health, your body, or your soul.

But you don’t do it. There’s a gap.

Dr. Kyra Bobinet, MD-PhD, calls it the “Know-Do” gap.

It all stems from work she’s done for years studying, researching and trying to make practical information about how your brain works, namely your habenula (huh-BEN-yuh-luh). It’s the part of your brain that tracks your failure. It can keep you out of trouble: “Last time you tried between those trees, you fell and almost died. Don’t do it. Bad!” But it can also keep you mired in bad habits, indecision, and self-doubt: “Remember when you tried that diet, and you fell off it? What a failure. Don’t try losing weight again. You’ll never do it! You’ll fail again!”

Dr. Bobinet has a magic (but, really, not so magic) way to calm down your habenula and self-critic: the iterative mindset, which she details in her book Unstoppable Brain (2024, Forbes Books).

You’ve got to change from focusing on failures and trying to keep adding good habits and removing bad habits the same way … and recognize that every time you hit a bump, it’s time for a new iteration. Change things up! What worked to help you last year, last week, yesterday, may not work again. Iterate, iterate … change, change … try, try …

I interview Dr. Bobinet here about all that, plus, especially, her nearly brand-new smartphone app Fresh Tri, which offers a platform to learn about her research and how it applies to your habits and health as well as anonymous community support and tips and ideas to change your thinking when your habenula gets going and you’re sure this one’s the absolute failure. It’s all free content and functionality right now with the possibility that more targeted videos and help might be pay-to-play. But for now … go play with all that’s there!

So, stop logging failures, start logging iterations … and listen in …

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