Live Younger Longer

What failure teaches us
When it comes to change, we often think, “Go big or go home.” And if we
fail, so what? Just try again. But our brains are sneaky in the way they
work. And this mindset may actually work against us.

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How? There’s a tiny, primitive part of the brain called the habenula, which
is present in most living animals. It’s like the “negative reward” or “failure”
center of the brain and is known for its role in shaping behavior based on
past failures and disappointments (see 
this illustration
).
If you think about it, there’s a reason humans evolved to have a center like
this in the brain. Imagine a million years ago, a human climbed a tree to get
some food but fell and broke a leg. The brain remembers the pain of that
failure. It’s a subconscious memory that we don’t usually recognize, but it
plays a big role in preventing us from experiencing repeated pain. The
habenula tries to protect us from future failures by inhibiting us, sometimes
even physically.
What if, on the other hand, climbing that tree resulted in finding delicious
fruit to eat? That success also is ingrained in memory. Previous successes
motivate us to repeat the successful action.
How does this feature of our brains impact us now? If we try to make a
change but fail, the habenula records that failure. The next time we try to
repeat that activity, our habenulas deter us in subtle ways. On the other
hand, if we try to do something we’ve been successful at before, the
memory of that first success enhances our chances of success the next time.
When we try to make big changes and fail, our next attempt is likely to be
less successful. Unfortunately, many of us try the same change over and
over only to reinforce the failure memory in the habenula. It’s much better
to register tiny successes than big failures in our path toward change. Once
we understand this part of our brain, we can make sure the habenula works
for us rather than against us.

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