Episode Summary
In this Think Thursday episode, Molly explores why December feels so emotionally intense and why anticipation plays such a powerful role in our thoughts, feelings, and habits. Anticipation is not just psychological. It is driven by the brain's predictive systems that simulate the future long before it arrives.
Using findings from neuroscience, including research highlighted in Neuron, University College London, Stanford University, and studies on dopamine and reward processing, Molly explains how imagining the future changes our emotional state in the present. She shows how anticipation can create craving, heighten anxiety, and influence behavior before anything even happens.
Importantly, she connects this science to behavior change. When we understand anticipation, we gain the ability to shape our emotional experience, support our habit goals, and build a stronger relationship with our future selves.
What You Will Learn
Key Insights from the Episode
Practical Tools from the Episode
1. Anticipate the emotional landscape, not the event.
Shift from worrying about what will happen to planning for how you want to feel.
2. Rehearse your chosen identity.
Imagine yourself acting in alignment with your values to strengthen the neural pathways that support follow-through.
3. Shorten the distance to future you.
Ask questions like:
4. Anticipate urges with curiosity.
Recognize that urges are forecasts of relief, not emergencies.
5. Create micro anticipations that ground you.
Examples include expecting the first sip of warm tea, a quiet step outside, or the feeling of waking up proud the next morning.
Studies and Sources Mentioned