FIERCE GENTLEMAN PRESENTS

23 SCIENTIFIC KEYS
to

CHANGING

Any

BEHAVIOR
A Fierce Gentleman eBook

by Andrew Ross Long

www.fiercegentleman.com

INTRODUCTION
Changing your life is hard.
Luckily, there are scientifically proven ways to do it that gives you the best chance of
success.
Anyone who is trying to change their own behavior without understanding this science needs to
stop, now. First, read up on the science. Learn to do it the more effective way. Then, start again,
with better strategies, and create the life you've always wanted.
Youve taken a really important first step by downloading this book: it contains the shortcut
version of the science culled from many of the top bestsellers of the day plus, summaries of
cutting-edge research that is not published in books yet.
Ive put this together as an aid to help as many people as I possibly can to achieve their dreams
and live the lives theyve always wanted to live.
Here's the other thing you should know: behavior change is hard. Hard like algebra. You will
work on it for "a while" before you get to that dream-life. What is "a while"? In most cases, years.
But that's okay. The secret of self-development is that everybody has to work hard and put in a lot
of work if they want to achieve something great.
Dont let it scare you off. Let it strengthen your resolve.
At FierceGentleman.com we believe that every man is destined for greatness.
(Every woman, too.)
So, below we give you the keys to greatness: 23 scientific keys you need to change anything in
your life.
Of course, information alone does not lead to life change. (That's one of the keys.)
But never before has so much high-quality, scientifically-validated information been available for
free, to anyone, to get their path started.
So lets get YOUR path started.

23 Scientific Keys to Changing Any Behavior

KEY ONE. Willpower is weak.
Environmental influences are much more important than willpower.(1,2)
ACTION STEP: To change your results, change your environment. For example, if you want
to eat healthier, throw out all your junk food and replace it with green vegetables and fruits,
instead.
KEY TWO. Information does not lead to action.
Emotions lead to action. This one is harder to back up with scientific studies, but it has long
been my personal experience...over 10 years of studying both my own behavior, and the
behavior of others who I'm trying to help.
Just knowing that smoking is bad for you or kale is healthier than Doritos isnt enough to
change behavior. Knowing that information is on par with not knowing it, in terms of how
motivated you will be to change your behavior.
What actually changes behavior is an emotion such as fear, anger, love, or hope; the love that
makes you want to walk your 6-year-old daughter down the aisle, which convinces you to
finally throw your cigarettes in the trash and not buy anymore. The fear and pain of losing
your mother to early cancer that compels you to eat organic vegetables at every meal. These
are the building blocks of real change.
The information is free. Changing your emotions is why you would hire a professional coach
or put yourself through a 10-day meditation retreat.
See also (2)
ACTION STEP: Learn to change your emotions to change your motivation to do a particular
task.
KEY THREE. The Internet destroys your ability to focus.
The very nature of the internet is that it contains small, bite-sized chunks of information that
are sometimes boringand sometimes delightful. Maybe is addictive like nothing else out
there, according to neuroendocrinologist Dr. Robert Sapolsky at Stanford. See also the
book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr.
ACTION STEP: Turn off your internet access when you want to focus.

KEY FOUR. Facebook makes you unhappy.

Researchers surmise that it is due to all the social editing that people do to present only the
happiest possible face of their lives. When browsing our feeds, we inevitably compare
ourselves to others, and feel bad about our own lives despite our own highly-edited
contributions. This is a particularly nasty form of social comparison that breeds depression.
ACTION STEP: Delete your account (unless you're using it for business.) If you must keep
your account, limit your access to it to once per day at most. Oh, and go ahead and like the
Fierce Gentleman page.
KEY FIVE. Modern processed foods are engineered to flood the reward centers of
your brain, and potentially trigger food addictions that will wreck your health and
wellbeing.
The science of nutrigenomics looks at how everything you put in your mouth sends a message
to your genesand over time, certain eating patterns (such as the Standard American Diet,
full of packaged foods and processed, refined carbs) can turn on or turn off gene
expression that leads to cancer and degenerative diseases OR, gene expressions that slow
aging and fight of disease. So, a good idea is to skip all packaged foods, and eat vegetables
instead.(4,5)
ACTION STEP: Throw out all the junk food and packaged food in your house. Go shopping
and buy dark, leafy green vegetables, fruits, tubers, nuts, and seeds instead.
KEY SIX. Exercise makes your brain bigger.
It also gives you more self-control, lifts depression, and stamps out anxiety. (6)
ACTION STEP: Go for a 10-minute fast walk. If thats too easy, do 30 minutes. If thats too
easy, make it a half-hour jog. If thats too easy, run stairs. If thats too easy, lift weights for 1
hour. Make it a habit, at least 4x a week.
KEY SEVEN. Meditation makes your brain bigger.
It also gives you more self-control, lifts depression, and stamps out anxiety. (7) Yes, the
benefits of meditation and exercise really are similar. Its best if you do both.
ACTION STEP: Set a timer for 5 minutes and sit down and watch your breath today. If
thats too easy, set a timer for 15 minutes. Continually challenge yourself in this way over
the next 30 days until you have an easy, daily meditation practice.

KEY EIGHT. Alcohol makes you stupid.

Also fat, sick, ugly, weak of will and -- eventually -- dead. Its not that alcohol itself is a
toxin its that the body manufactures a toxic substance in the process of metabolizing
the alcohol you ingest. In what other part of our lives do we celebrate or engage in a social
ritual that involves poisoning ourselves?
ACTION STEP: Give up alcohol.
KEY NINE. Take time off work.
Overwork drains your willpower and makes you stressed and sick. Humans, like all other
creatures, have become accustomed to a cycle of sprint and relax. Read Tony Schwartzs
work on Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time for more.
ACTION STEPS: Spend at least 24 hours per week without looking at a digital screen.
Spend at least 2 days per month in Nature. Spend at least 3 weeks per year not working.
KEY 10. Maximize neurotransmitters oxytocin, GABA and serotonin.
While minimizing activities that have you "chasing the dopamine dragon."
Activities that stimulate dopamine: shopping, gambling, pornography, binge eating.
Activities that stimulate serotonin, oxytocin & GABA: getting a massage, swing in
a hammock, spending time with loved ones, meditating, praying, listening to music,
reading. (See The Willpower Instinct.)
Most people need to minimize dopamine and maximize oxytocin, GABA and serotonin
because the culture itself maximizes dopamine think salacious billboard advertising,
internet pop-ups, titillating click-bait in the Twitter stream, and constant notifications on
our smart phones.
ACTION STEPS: Spend at least 24 hours per week without looking at a digital screen.
Instead of checking your email or surfing the internet to relax, write a letter, pet a kitty,
swing in a hammock, get a massage, meditate, pray, listen to music, or read a hard book.
KEY 11. 60% of our daily decisions are habitual.
That means that changing our habits is critical to changing our lives over time. (See BJ
Fogg's Persuasion Lab at Stanford University and The Power of Habit by Charles

Duhigg.) Recognize how many of your behaviors are habitual. Realize that you can change
these habits, and you can put a better life on autopilot (with some work.)
ACTION STEP: Write a list of all the healthy habits youd like to have. Flossing your
teeth, running, juicing, socializing?
KEY 12. Start with tiny habits.
I call this a "wedge" that we can drive into your life to get leverage for further
improvement. The smaller the initial change, the higher the likelihood of success. My
favorite example: switch from drinking coffee to drinking tea in the morning. Youll get
a gentler boost of caffeine, and cancer-fighting benefits as well. (See The Power of
Habit by Charles Duhigg.)
ACTION STEP: Choose the smallest possible change you can make in your life today
such as flossing just one tooth. Do it. Then plan to do it again tomorrow.
KEY 13. The habit process comprises a Cue, a Routine, and Reward.
To add a new healthy habit to your life, use a pre-existing Cue to trigger a new Routine,
and be sure to Reward yourself with something. But make the Reward match the size of
the habit. If you floss one tooth, maybe reward yourself with a simple pat on the back. If
you write a novel, reward yourself with a trip to Tahiti. (The Power of Habit by Charles
Duhigg.)
ACTION STEP: Define in writing the Cue you will use to trigger the new tiny habit
(Routine) as well as the actual Reward you will give yourself once you do it. (Make sure
the Reward is something you actually care about and want to experience!)
KEY 14. Realistic self-knowledge is what wins.
Thinking carefully about how, when and why you will fail in your efforts at behavior
change give you an edge. People who are radically optimistic about everything tend to
underestimate their failure patternsand then they fail. (8)
ACTION STEP: Rather than saying, "I WILL accomplish this!" Ask yourself, "Will I?"
KEY 15. Optimism is dangerous. Uncertainty actually leads to better outcomes.
In The Willpower Instinct, Dr. Kelly McGonigal covers this: smokers who are the most
optimistic about their ability to resist temptation are the most likely to relapse four
months later, and overoptimistic dieters are the least likely to lose weight. The tempted

self is an unpredictable and unreliable enemy. . . we need to take steps to predict and
constrain that self as if it were another person. (Behavioral economist George
Ainslie, quoted in The Willpower Instinct, p 167).
ACTION STEP: What constraints can you put on your Tempted Future Self? Write
down 5 ideas and act on 1 of them.
KEY 16. Breathing is key.
Breathing more fully and more slowly builds willpower while reducing craving and
depression. (The Willpower Instinct.)
ACTION STEP: Try breath pacing. Sit down and breath for 5 minutes, trying to reach 45 breaths per minute.
KEY 17. Sleep is key to health, longevity, and willpower.
Most people run a constant sleep debt. Adequate sleep builds willpower and reduces
stress hormones (among many, many other benefits). (9)
ACTION STEP: Say No to whatever will keep you from going to bed at a reasonable
hour tonight. Aim to get exactly 8 hours of sleep. Turn off all digital screens 30 minutes
before bed.
KEY 18. Relaxation is key.
The colloquial sense of relaxation is "pop a beer and turn on the TV." Wrong. Both of
these things are toxic to willpower and behavior change. Actual relaxation involves lying
flat on the floor and progressively tensing and relaxing all the major muscle groups for
not less than 10 minutes. Try it. You'll see. (The Willpower Instinct.)
ACTION STEP: Lie flat on you floor (or on your bed) and relax all major muscle groups
for at least 10 minutes.
KEY 19. Rewarding yourself disproportionally to you results can set you back.
We habitually use good behavior as a 'moral license' to indulge in even more 'bad
behavior.' This is the reason many people gain weight on diets. (The Willpower Instinct.)
But wait, didnt I just say reward yourself when building a new habit? Yes, but not too
much. Thats why we match the Reward to the size of the habit.

ACTION STEP: Look at the Rewards you have in your life, and look dispassionately at
your Results. Are you actually achieving up to the level of your Rewards, or are you over
(or under) rewarding?
KEY 20. Forgiveness, not guilt.
Being self-critical makes behavior change harder. Self-forgiveness increases
accountability. (The Willpower Instinct.)
ACTION STEP: If youve been too hard on yourself, let it go. Say I forgive myself and
move on.
KEY 21. Immediate gratification is toxic.
Whenever you experience an urge for....anything, wait 10 minutes. See if you still have
the urge. Most of the time, you won't. (The Willpower Instinct.)
ACTION STEP: Next time you find yourself saying, Oh, I should check Facebook! set a
timer for 10 minutes. The urge will pass.
KEY 2. Don't believe everything you think or feel.
Feelings aren't facts. Your thoughts aren't necessarily true. (This applies to everyone else,
too.) Be an observer of your experience, without having to act on every little impulse.
ACTION STEP: Practice observing your thoughts in meditation. Practice labeling each
thought as useful or not useful.
KEY 23. Finally, The Most Powerful Secret To Behavior Change: Paying Attention.
Training your attention and self-awareness pays the best dividends...and it's free. The
faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the
very root of judgment, character, and will An education which should improve this
faculty would be the education par excellence. William James.
ACTION STEP: What education is William James, father of modern psychology, talking
about? The education of attention. And what educates attention by bringing a wandering
attention back, over and over again, forming the root of judgment, character, and
will.? Meditation. It all comes back to meditation.

FEELING STUCK?
You may be thinking, Ive tried SO many things, and maybe it worked for a day or two and then
it stopped working.
Or maybe you feel like Why even tryIve failed before at other attempts to change. Why
doesnt it work? Am I doing something wrong?
If this is you, I can help.
In my 10 years of coaching Ive helped many people overcome their obstacles and get on the
straight and narrow path to the life of their dreams.
Even the self-identified hard-cases who had tried everything under the sun: books, lectures,
videos, audiotapes, self-hypnosis, tapping, EFT
If youre feeling ready to make massive forward progress, then I want that for you.
I cant guarantee Im the right Coach for you or even that Coaching is the right thing for you,
right now.
But, I do know you deserve the best possible life you can imagine for yourself.
And if you dont currently have that, then I want that for you.
So heres what Im offering to everyone whos read this far in the book (if thats you,
congratulations!)
Contact me using this link and grab a spot on my calendar for a powerful 1-hour Coaching
conversation.
Its 100% free & confidential, as my way of saying Thank you for joining my list.
Click here to see if I have any spots open.
The best one-hour Coaching session Ive ever received. Daleen P.
I look forward to speaking with you.

SOURCES
I've read tons of books and research articles on the subject of willpower, habit formation,
interpersonal neurobiology, and cognitive science, and I've been involved on the ground-level of
helping other people change their patterns, habits, and lives for over 10 years.
So although the majority of the above assertions are backed by solid science, a few of them are
from my own experience with over 500 individuals and their life-change journeys.
If you're interested in further reading, see the excellent books, articles and presentations below.

The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Review this brief presentation on Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg

1. Paper The Physiology of Willpower: Linking Blood Glucose to Self Control; see also
studies by Baba Shiv at Stanford

2. Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

Facebook Use Predicts Decline in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults

4. Evidence for sugar addiction

5. Daily bingeing on sugar releases dopamine

6. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John Ratey

7. A whole host of studies on how meditation increases cortical thickness

8. Ahluwalia & Burnkrant, 2004; Burnkrat & Howards, 1984; Hotgraves & Yang, 1990;
Sheldon et all 2003.

9. Literature review of effects of sleep deprivation on decision making