It’s hard to get your brain do things that you want it to. We think it’s easy. We think we’re in control, but the more you pay attention the more you realize we are much less in control of ourselves than you think.
Give me a minute here. You know I’m a personal responsibility guy and that I love the idea of taking 100% responsibility for EVERYTHING that goes on in your life. I don’t want to get into that today though. What I want to talk about is our habits.
Your brain works on habits. It loves habits. Habits take much less any energy then decisions. It is always trying to build and reinforce habits.
Here’s the kicker.
You don’t even know it’s happening or how powerful these habits are. You think, “I tell my brain what to do and it listens,” and that’s sort of true – in the sense that you tell your muscles to work, right up until they tell you they aren’t going to work anymore.
We lost power not too long ago. Try explaining to your brain that turning on the light switches is pointless in a power outage. Can you guess how many times I hit the switch for the kitchen light in a three-hour period?
You can train yourself, but you can’t just “tell” yourself. You are in control of building your habits, but to a large extent your habits are in control of you.
You can work with your brain to create better habits and habits that will get you where you want to go.
This month in the PAES newsletter we’re covering some important things to do for your brain as you get ready for your exam. We’re covering how to create habits (and which ones), so that on exam day you don’t have TEST-TAKING ANXIETY.
Reducing your anxiety down to zero is my goal for this issue. Zero may be a long shot, but I think we can get there. I’ve got six techniques for you, and the sooner you start practicing them and making them habits the sooner you’ll be getting the scores you deserve.
I’ve wrapped this issue in the theme of taking the PANCE, but the sooner you start using these techniques the better. You’ll see all of you test grades go up as you practice as well as see your anxiety go down. In fact, by the time you get to the PANCE I hope they are second nature, like walking and chewing gum at the same time.
Let me show you how to win.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace