Because the brain cannot store energy. You HAVE to take action…listen and learn!

This morning I was contacted by a very well known author who is currently putting together a book on the topic of personal development. Specifically, what are the keys that successful people use in fulfilling their dreams and reaching their ultimate achievements. wealth, and happiness. Wow! What a tough assignment!

He wanted to know from my perspective, that of a neuroscience research expert, what would be my suggestions.

Well I gotta tell you, it was not easy to reduce my answer down into a digest, sound-byte size, but here are the four keys that I came up with:

If you remember, understand, and apply the following- limitless achievements will be yours:

1. Learn the revolutionary science of how your brain works and build your skills around techniques based on that knowledge;

2. Remember that successful people are always doing things they are not sure they even know how to do;

When you start to put together some of the findings from the recent brain research you can really jumpstart your productivity and achievements.

For example, do you think you have a terrible memory for names? Turns out we all do, and it’s not us, its our brain!

Scientists used to think that all memories were stored in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. This is now known to be incorrect. The Hippocampus is used for short-term memory storage only. So when you learn someone’s name that you just met, those neurons fire up into the hippocampus where they are stored for a short time. Usually from 7 seconds to about 12 minutes depending on several factors we don’t need to go into here.

The average time is about 45 seconds. At that point, your brain’s amygdala, in order to conserve energy, will order that set of neurons (with the new name attached) to stop firing (if you have not ordered the impulse sent to long-term memory)

Over the last several days I have posted the following quote on Twitter from my “Revolutionize Your Brain” book: “Your brain doesn’t have to believe in your goals at the start. Nothing of any significance was ever accomplished by a realistic person!”

Yesterday on Twitter, I got a stinging response from a Doctor of Psychology who said she would have to disagree. The research shows that the best decisions, she said, “are a result of rational analysis of problem & alternatives plus intuition.”

I’m not sure what research she was referring to but I would of course not agree with this statement based on the Neuroscience emperical research data that I have seen.

Only 1/6th of your brain’s thinking is done at the “rational” cognitive cortex level. This is therefore only 1/6th of your brain’s power! 5/6th of your thinking (and brain’s power!) is done at the nonconscious level. What I like to call “Nancy” (NC) or your 500 lb gorilla!

Some years ago, after decades of driving a small car, I said “Oh what the heck” and bought a big Tahoe SUV. I had never had an SUV before, thought they were too expensive. And this one was no exception! (It cost 3 times my first house!) But, in the throws of mid-life crisis I said what-the-heck and got it!

Man was I proud of that thing. Big Black Tahoe with fancy wheels and heated leather seats! What a deal! But as soon as I got that thing home, I got very upset. I thought I had the only one like it, but now it seemed like everyone in Florida that had a black Tahoe moved into my neighborhood, ’cause I saw them everywhere! On the highway, the interstate, on the way to the grocery…it seemed like everyone had one just like mine!