Value Your Brain

Value Your Brain

In order to be truly successful, your brain will need to function at a higher level.  Let me explain what I mean by that. 

As you know, I am an expert on the brain.  As a neurosurgeon and a psychiatrist, I know the brain quite well.  I have observed my own brain and also the brains of many other people. I have observed that the brain can be made to perform at a higher level than one might expect.  Here is how it works.

Imagine flowers growing in a field.  Under optimal conditions of light, water and nutrition, the flowers will develop to their full potential.  The results are glorious!

Consider the computer.  If a computer is built to be more powerful and faster, its software will also be faster and more efficient, producing better results in less time. And if the software is more sophisticated, then the computer will achieve even more.

Now let’s consider a student who is studying for a test.  In order to do really well on the test, he knows to learn the material, but also with a focus and an intensity such that he learns it well. He intends to do well on the test.  He studies with intention, and with intensity.  He is making his brain function at a higher level.  Then, when taking the test, his brain is working at its highest level, with high expectations, driven to achieve its full potential, as evidenced by a test score that is as high as possible. 

So it is with the achievement of success in life. Results will be better, and with high achievement, if one keeps in mind his own ability to make his brain work better and more efficiently, as a matter of choice.  One can turn on his brain, to a higher level, by deciding to do it.  Brainstorming ideas, setting goals, making plans, writing and following schedules, all are brain activities that will be done better when one decides to make his brain work at a higher level, and to see how good it can get! 

I often tell students that the math you learn in school is not about the arithmetic you will need to know later in life.  If is about teaching your brain the skill of analyzing and thinking precisely when it becomes important to solve complex problems, and to be precise when it is important to be precise. In the same sense, the more you learn and the more you expect your brain to function at higher and higher levels, the more success you will achieve in life. 

The accumulation of brain power over the course of a lifetime can be astounding! I would challenge you to show yourself how you can achieve more by making your brain function at higher and higher levels.

After all, it is what successful people do.