In this solo, podcast‑style video, concussion‑survivor David Brimacombe argues that people with post‑concussion syndrome (PCS) often stall because they focus on outcome‑based goals rather than building repeatable systems. Drawing on James Clear’s Atomic Habits and BJ Fogg’s behavior design, he outlines a simple, scalable daily framework—morning and night routines that include the “Maui Habit” (grounding and affirming a great day), a 4‑8 breathwork pattern to down‑regulate the nervous system, and a gratitude note. He explains how these low‑friction habits create a feedback loop that reshapes identity, gradually rewiring the brain’s safety‑first bias that keeps sufferers stuck in old, symptom‑reinforcing patterns. Brimacombe emphasizes incremental habit stacking, the long‑game perspective (weeks to months), and the importance of belief work, offering a 10‑minute “Belief Reset” audio and promoting his PCS Resilience Collective program as further support. The overall message is that recovery is driven by consistent, small systems that alter self‑identity, not by trying harder to hit distant goals.
Chapters
What if the reason you were stuck wasn't because you weren't trying hard enough, but because you were focusing on the wrong things? A lot of people with post-concussion syndrome focus on goals. I have a goal to become better. I have a goal to be able to walk for more than 10 minutes or eat whatever I want or get up and hang out with my friends. But the problem with goals is that if they aren't achieved, then that becomes a failure, and the failure is another reinforcement. That this isn't working. Hi and welcome. My name is David Brimacombe, and after 7 concussions over 20 years, I learned a lot about how creating systems is more important than goals in your recovery. Let's begin. So I'm sure you've felt this way. You've maybe had post-concussion syndrome for a while. You're stuck in a rut and you're thinking, well, I have a goal. I have a wedding in 3 months. I need to be able to function, to be, um, be able to be part of that wedding party. I have maybe a desire to go back to work full-time or to work out in a week or 2 or a month or 2. But the problem lies in goals is that there is an endpoint, and if you do not reach that endpoint, then there is going to be greater setback, and setback creates that negativity. That negativity becomes a loop that reinforces itself. Now, I'm not sure about you, but I got stuck in this a lot. I was constantly telling myself, well, by next week, next month, I'm going to be able to walk up and down the stairs without feeling out of breath, or I'm going to be able to go back to work for the full day and not have headaches and sensitivities and all those things. Now the problem was is that that wasn't actually happening. I wasn't actually achieving those goals, and it was a massive setback to the system. My symptoms would actually escalate. I would feel more symptomatic. I'd feel more anxiety. I'd feel like I was at a worse place off after missing that goal than before. Now it came to me after reading the book Atomic Habits. Okay, by James Clear. The concept that our systems are what is going to determine the outcomes in our lives, not so much those goals. Okay, because every day— okay, every day those actions that you take are a vote for your future self. You're creating systems and protocols that are actually going to reinforce that this is who I'm becoming. This video, we're going to focus on the concept of systems in your PCS recovery. why you need to have them, and where we can start with them in order to have the most success. So one of the main goals that I had in my recovery was— I had a goal. I just wanted my life back. I wanted to be able to live and to, to kind of socialize and be an active participant in my household, be a functional husband and father. I just wanted to be who I was. Back then, okay? And I thought the best way to do so was to focus on creating scalable goals. So next week, I want to have a gratitude journal that I'm working on. The week after, okay, I want to remove items from my diet. And then the third week, I want to be going to sleep and getting up at the exact same time. Da da da da da da. Now I created these goals, but I didn't have any structure. to actually achieve them. Now, therein lies the problem. You can have all the goals in the world, you can have all the desires, all the intentions, all the, the wishes, but how are you going to get there? Those are great aspirational points. This is what I aspire to, but what is the structure? What is the how? If you don't have a how, it doesn't matter, okay, all the whys in the world, okay? You need the structure. Now, what does that structure look like at the beginning of your recovery? For me, it was very, very simple. I focused on the bookend of my day. What did I do when I got up, and what did I do prior to going to bed? Now, this was a focus for me because I found that I was highly irritable first thing in the morning. I was nervous, I was tense, there's lots of tension in the system, and I think a lot of that was just built-up anxiety. Knowing that it was going to be a tough day. I was going to have symptoms. It was going to feel long. I was going to, around lunchtime, feel like I could fall asleep at any point. So I knew it was going to be a tough day. So I needed to find a way to reshape that, to set the foundation first thing in the morning. So what I did is I did 3 simple things to start. And again, you don't have to do this the way I'm explaining it. I'm just providing you a baseline. an example to go off of. Okay, the first thing I did, and the simplest thing but probably the most impactful, was I did what's called the Maui Habit. Okay, so what this is, this is from BJ Fogg, and basically all you're going to do, you're going to plant your feet on the floor and you're going to tell yourself, today is going to be a great day. Okay, now the beauty of this, the beauty of having that simple foundation of your day, is that when I would get up Those first thoughts in my mind, that rumination of again, this is another day, another tough day. I have to go to work. I have my basketball practice after, and I don't have lunch made yet, and I don't know what I'm gonna have for supper. Da da da da da da. Okay, the list of issues was long. Okay, so what I did is by putting my feet on the floor, grounding my feet, feeling the the floor beneath my feet. And saying with as much sincerity as I could muster, today is going to be a great day. What I was doing is I was reinforcing to my system that this was possible. And again, the first few times I said it, I think I said it with a lot of insincerity. I would just say it for the sake of saying it. But over time, it started to take hold and it started to actually feel Like it was having an impact on me. So I would say it, and then I would go on with my day. Now, the second phase is I would add some kind of breathwork. It started really basic. Now understand that if you want to downregulate, if you want to calm your system down, you always want to elongate that exhale. So I would do a simple 4-8. So it's just 4 seconds inhaling, and then in 8 seconds. Exhale. Again, what you're doing is you're telling your system it's safe, it's okay. Okay, so that's step 2. Step 3 was the last thing I did, is I went ahead and I wrote one thing I was grateful for. It could be as simple as I was grateful for breathwork or for my Maui habit, and I'd put that on the mirror. That way, when I walk by, I could see it multiple times. in the day. Okay, that was my morning habit. Super simple, super easy, super— um, there's so little tension and friction in doing that that I could do that. I knew I could do that every day. My nighttime routine was the exact opposite. I would go look at that gratitude sticky. I'd reinforce, yeah, today has been a good day. This was a good part of my day. I'd maybe think of other items That were good. Then do some breathwork, get my body ready for bed. And then before I went to bed, feet on the floor, sitting on my bed, today has been a great day. Close my eyes and go to bed. Now here's the beauty of that, is that you've just created a small, small scalable routine. Now, do I have to do those 3 steps in perpetuity? No. That is your baseline. You have now convinced yourself that this is easy. I can do this. So in a few weeks, I'm going to add something else. Maybe I want to add a little bit of movement. I'm going to add a glass of water to rehydrate myself in the morning. Whatever it is, okay, you've now set the baseline. You've carved out the time of your day. You've made it routine. Now I'm just going to add a few layers. And again, This is how your recovery is meant to work. It's based on setting small systems that can scale and scale and scale. Your recovery isn't going to happen overnight. And again, I used to think that I was going to find this magic bullet, a supplement, a treatment that I'd go in, I'd go and see my chiropractor, he'd give me this adjustment and be like, whoa, life is normal again. I don't have any symptoms. And again, there were things that helped, maybe 5% better, 10% better, but nothing was the end-all be-all. I had to create the systems. I had to create the belief. I had to change myself before my symptoms would change. I— again, you have to look inward, okay? You have to look at yourself. Now, there's trouble in that because it is difficult. To look within yourself to find that motivation, that belief to do it. But there's also great hope because you have now convinced yourself that you can change your state. You can change your, your position in your recovery. You have the power. It is an empowering position. It's an amazing position. Okay? Okay. But it starts with small, scalable structures in your day, okay? It's about systems, not about goals, okay? And the last thing I want to talk about is just your identity shift and why this is so important, okay? Understand that your brain is constantly focusing on what have you done in the past. Your past is a— in its eyes is a determinant of what you're going to do forever, okay? So anytime you stray from that path, you go away from what you were doing What you're telling it is this is not safe. So I've now gone away from my typical get up, be angry, have frustration. I've now gone this way. I get up, I'm not so angry, I don't have the frustration, I don't have the angst. I'm going this way. So the brain initially tries to veer you back, pull you back to that original path, only because it is abnormal. Only because it goes against who you were. Okay? Again, your brain is trying to keep you safe. It is very, very simplistic in that matter. It is not trying to optimize your wellbeing. It is not trying to help with your PCS recovery. It's trying to keep you safe. And its belief is that how I keep you safe is I keep you doing what you've been doing for the better part of your life. By adding a small new system in your life, what you're doing is you're slowly changing that identity. You're turning the knob every day just a little, and over time that knob does a 360. And now guess what? You're a completely different person, and your brain's accepted that. Your body, your nervous system no longer sends the alarm bells when you do these things. It takes time. That first part of your recovery isn't so much that these habits that you're forming are going to have a huge impact on that recovery in the moment. It's about the long game, okay? I want you to think about 5 days, 5 weeks, 5 months down the road. It's not about right now. You're changing who you are. You're creating systems that'll alter that identity and change how your brain views you as not only as a person, but as someone who is willing and able to do the things that it needs to do. Again, this is no, no blame on you. I sat in that bed for weeks not wanting to even start, but I decided one day that the only way I was going to be healed and to be the person I want to be is if I just started. I just got up and did it. Okay, it wasn't easy, but those systems I made Okay, those small morning and nighttime habits were the systems that allowed me to change the rest of my life, and it gave me the confidence, it gave me the belief that this was now something I could do. If you're right now stuck without that belief, okay, down below I have what's called the Belief Reset, which I think is an amazing tool. All it is is a 10-minute audio, so you're going to listen to it, it's going to go through some simple concepts, rehearse some some of those beliefs that you need to instill. And it's also going to do a bit of yoga nidra, which is basically forcing you to feel your body, different parts of your body, be present, get out of rumination and into the moment. Okay, so that's down below. Okay, there's also a link to the waitlist for the PCS Resilience Collective, which is my program that's going to help walk you to the person you know you can be. I appreciate you listening to the end of this podcast. I appreciate you putting the time, and your future self appreciates you for the efforts that you are taking. Even in those hardest moments, you are putting in the reps because those reps today are going to be light work in the future. But if you don't start today, that future may not happen ever. You need to start today. Thank you very much. I hope you have yourself a fantastic day. See you later. Bye.
