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FILM UPDATES:

* Just came back from the Science & Psychedelic Conference in Denver, where we interviewed Dr Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps The Score, Dr Christopher Timmerman, the world's leading scientist studying 5-MeO and Tommaso Barba, who’s leading the 5-MeO studies at Imperial College. Amazing content captures and will share more soon.

This week, I’m also heading to Bali, Papua New Guinea, and Nepal to capture more learnings for the film. Exciting times.

Let’s get into today's issue: Your Brain Doesn’t Care About Your Goals. It Cares About What’s Familiar.

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Hey friend,

Let’s get something straight. Your brain doesn’t give a damn about your vision board.

It doesn’t care about your 3-year plan, your 10x targets, or the fact that you listened to a Tim Ferriss podcast and took notes.

What does it care about?

Familiarity.

Your brain is less like a wise oracle… and more like a tired middle manager clinging to old spreadsheets:

“We’ve always done it this way. Let’s not rock the boat.”

Even if “this way” is the thing that’s making you miserable.

Why Change Feels So Hard (Even When You Want It)

You say you want love. But your nervous system’s like, “Yeah… but chaos is comfortable.”

You say you want freedom. But your body’s been trained to tighten up every time you slow down.

You say you want transformation. But your neural wiring? It’s still using Windows 95.

This isn’t because you’re broken. It’s because your brain was never built for your happiness. It was built for your survival.

And if suffering = survival (aka what you’re used to), then guess what it will keep recreating?

The Familiarity Trap

Here’s how it works:

Your brain rewards repetition.
Not truth, logic or what’s actually good for you.

Just what’s familiar.

So if you’ve repeated a story like:

• “I’m not good enough.”
• “I always get abandoned.”
• “I have to earn love.”
• “Rest is lazy.”

...then your brain wires those beliefs into your default operating system.

And it doesn’t just sit there quietly. It scans every moment, conversation, and opportunity for ways to confirm that script.

Because certainty, even if it’s painful, feels safer than the unknown or the unfamiliar.

Neuroplasticity: The Brain’s Loophole

The good news?

Your brain isn’t static. It’s a shapeshifter.

Thanks to neuroplasticity, your beliefs, behaviors, and identity are reprogrammable.
​ But, change doesn’t come from thinking different thoughts.
​ It comes from experiencing different truths.

This means:

• You don’t become confident by saying affirmations.
  You become confident by acting like someone who doesn’t need them.
• You don’t become free by knowing your patterns.
  You become free by noticing them in real time and choosing something new.

Change lives in the micro-moment between awareness and autopilot. That’s your leverage point.

The “Familiarity Rewire” Practice

Try this:

1. Identify a familiar pattern that keeps showing up.
   (E.g. Overworking, avoiding conflict, people-pleasing)
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2. Track the payoff.
   ​ What emotional “hit” are you getting from staying in that pattern?
   (Comfort? Control? Certainty?)
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3. Interrupt it consciously.
   ​ Do something unfamiliar—small, but real.
   Say no. Take a break. Speak the truth.
   Watch what your nervous system does.
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4. Celebrate the new signal.
   ​ This is key. Your brain needs reinforcement.
   Even a fist pump or breath of pride helps lock in the new wiring.

Repeat that. Often.

Because repetition isn’t just how you got here. It’s also how you get out.

Final Thought

Your brain is a creature of habit.
But you? You’re a creature of awareness.

And when awareness leads, the wiring follows.

So the next time you wonder why it’s so hard to reach your next level, pause and ask:

“Am I chasing the goal… while clinging to the identity that fears it?”

Because your brain doesn’t care about your goals. But the real you, the one watching the mind, feeling the truth, choosing the moment, that part of you does.

And it’s ready.

All the best and see you next week

Nic “same goals, different motivation” Kusmich

PS. → Ready to set and achieve your goals? Join the Neuroscience of Change - an online program rewiring what’s really running you. And right now, you can name your own price (Pay What You Can) as all proceeds go towards me helping to complete this film.

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