Category Archives: Brain

Brain Boy

How To Go Infinitely Meta

Being able to go meta is a good skill to have.

This is the main reason why couples go to counseling.

It’s not because the counselor has gone to an ultra-classified school where the true secrets of relationship success were revealed.

And by visiting these esteemed counselors, they find out the inside scoop on how to REALLY make a relationship work.

The reason people go to counselors is to have an independent (as much as that’s possible) third party keep things objective.

The counselor serves as the “meta” view of the relationship.

Sometimes, though, this is troubling. What if this “meta” view is biased?

A recent study showed that when people go to a medical doctor (who is supposed to know what’s what) and then get a second opinion, EIGHTY PERCENT of the time, the second opinion of the second doctor was different than the first.

But the ability to “go meta” in any way is helpful. If we had enough resources, we could get lots of “meta opinions” and then take an average of something.

Luckily, unless you have a strange lump and you can’t “go meta” on yourself, you CAN go meta in a lot of other situations.

This is a skill that you can practice.

For example, if you are talking to somebody, when it’s there turn to talk, try and see yourself from an objective third person position, while they are talking to you.

Many people do this without really thinking about it.

If you are the type to write yourself a “to do” list every morning, it’s kind of the same thing.

One view of yourself is the writer of the list. Then later in the day, you the, “fulfiller of the list,” is in a slightly different viewpoint.

(Of course, if you’re at the supermarket and you can’t read your writing, you can’t really call yourself to ask what you meant…)

One way being meta is very helpful is how you pick up data, information and skills.

You can approach the data, skills or information as the “learner.”

Or you can step back and see yourself as the “learner” while the “meta you” is learning how to learn.

This takes being your own coach to an entirely different level.

Most people don’t even think of terms of “learning how to learn.”

It’s one of those things we just “do.” Like walking and talking.

But as you well know, there’s spitting out a bunch of gibberish, and then there’s skillful communication, where you eloquently put together strings of words that can move people’s emotions on deep levels.

If you can do that by “learning how to talk” imagine what you can do when you learn how to learn.

Click Here To Learn How

Self Service Brain Surgery

Self Service Brain Surgery

When I was a kid I had this 150 in 1 electronic kit.

It had a bunch of raw circuit elements, with these little springs.

You could connect the various elements together by sticking a small wire into the spring, and into another spring.

All in all, you could make 150 separate circuits.

The two I can remember are a lie detector, and a strobe light.

Of course it came with an extensive manual; connect point C3 to point D9, for example.

Each circuit had 5 to 10 connections.

It’s a good metaphor for how our brains work.

They have all these separate “components” that can be “wired” together in different ways.

It also helps to understand how our subconscious processor works.

I think it’s better to think of it as an ultra-fast computer rather than some metaphysical mystery.

It computes ultra fast, base on sensory inputs (sights, smells, etc.) and memory, and it’s output is a “feeling,” either a good one or a bad one. Good means go, bad means don’t.

Like when you hear a song that is associated with all kinds of good memories or experiences, that song triggers all those memories on an unconscious level, which then delivers a good “feeling.” You can then take that feeling and consciously recall all those good memories. That’s kind of what happens when you “zone out” for a few minutes.

Similarly, when you encounter some sensory evidence that brings up a ton of “bad” memories, you get an opposite reaction. A bad feeling that makes you freeze. You suddenly want nothing to do with anybody, and get that feeling of wanting to curl up into a ball and hide from the world.

The good news is that you can use the “circuit theory” to rewire HOW those automatic feelings are generated.

Those original circuits were wired when you were very young. Too young to even process language in some cases.

But you learned that some “experiences” were bad, and were best if you didn’t act.

You also learned that some “experiences” are good, and told you to charge ahead.

So way later on, in your current life, any similar experience will trigger those same bad (or good) feelings.

But they are NOT hard wired in there. They are only connected (metaphorically) like on those springs. All you have to do is bend the spring a little bit, pull out the wire, and stick it somewhere else.

Now, you don’t really need to open up your brain pan and look in the mirror while you work on your gray matter with electrical tools.

You can rewire your noggin by imagining certain things in certain orders.

This is a lot of what NLP is, conscious manipulation of emotions and images.

Only what they usually leave out of most NLP trainings is you have to do it A LOT for it to “stick.”

It’s not a “once and done” thing like it’s usually taught.

But just like playing the piano or juggling, the more you practice, the better get.

And if you want to “practice” feeling fantastic in as many situations as possible, check this out:

Fearless

Big Picture

Simple Steps – Huge Results

A lot of famous statements are taken out of context.

Like the famous one from Shakespeare where one of his character said, “kill all the lawyers.”

Many people use that today as prove that lawyers are evil, and always have been.

But the context of how it was used was the opposite. The character was talking about how to destroy a society.

Since civilized society is based on laws, if you kill all the lawyers, they’ll be nobody left who understand the law, and society will descend into chaos.

Another famous saying that is often misunderstood is PT Barnum’s, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Most people attribute this to people who are taking advantage of poor innocent people like pensioners and old ladies.

But the whole context of the statement is there’s a sucker born every minute, because each sucker is trying to further take advantage of others.

Meaning the easiest people to take advantage are those who are always trying to take advantage of others, or looking at some “shortcut” so they can get the good stuff without having to do the work that “honest people” need to do.

Get rich quick, lose fifty pounds in one week, make money in real estate with no money down, etc.

But there ARE some simple statements, easy to understand, that DO tell us eternal truths.

And these same statements and simple stories have been around for thousands of years.

Aesop’s fables are one such source.

Taking on the attitude of the turtle will generally help you, in the long run, more than the rabbit.

Sure, we all want to race ahead and get the good stuff before everybody else.

But while some people are busily chasing each and every shiny new object, or jumping on each and every fad, there’s also people like the turtle who are slowly and steadily going after some HUGE goals.

And getting a little bit closer every day.

If you set HUGE goals, WAY out there, and make thinking about them part of your daily life, you will have purpose.

You’ll never feel lost. You’ll always believe there’s SOMETHING you can do to get closer.

One thing you can do to make ANY goal easier to achieve is improve how you think.

Just like doing general physical exercises will help you in any sport.

Working on your brain will help you in ALL areas of life.

The sum total of your life is the result of your daily habits and behaviors.

Your daily habits and behaviors are based on the quality of your thinking.

Change how well you think, change everything.

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Intelligence Accelerator

Learn To Say No

Freedom From Mental Prison

If you watch old Samurai movies, or old Chinese Kung Fu movies, you may notice that some of the dudes have interesting hair-do’s.

The tops of their heads are bald, but they’ve got these pony tails in back.

Turns out that one of the old emperors decreed that EVERYBODY has to cut their hair like that.

To show their allegiance or something.

All the men went, “Ok!”

But all the women said, “Um, no.”

I remember when I was a kid. In The U.S. they tried desperately to get everybody to start using the metric system.

But most people said, “Um, no.”

There’s a famous story that happened during WWI, between the Brits and the Germans.

It’s pretty complicated, involving theories of human altruism, “tit for tat” behavior, but the gist of it is pretty fascinating.

You had Brits on one side, Germans on the other. They had “learned” without speaking to each other to “pretend” to shoot at each other.

The Germans would blast some trees to the right of the Brits, and the Brits would reciprocate.

Everybody was happy, nobody was getting killed.

Basically the leaders of each country told the young men to go and kill each other.

And the young men figured out a way to say, “Um, no.”

Of course, once the dudes in charge found out, they put everybody on rotation, so they wouldn’t “learn” to “not kill” each other.

And shoot at each other like obedient soldiers!

Truth is that no matter who you are, where you are, what you’re doing, there’s always going to be some dude in charge who wants to tell you what to do.

And it’s up to YOU to accept it, and do it, or say, “Um, no.”

Of course, this can lead to serious trouble. It helps to understand WHY you are doing things, even if you’re being told to do them by other people.

Nobody wants “The Man” coming down on the for disobedience!

One way to not feel so “trapped” even when we HAVE TO do what we’re told, is to always have plenty of ways to look at things.

Plenty of people have died throughout history in POW camps. Most thought it was a horrible experience.

Others found a way to find freedom even there.

The more control you have over your mind, the more control you’ll have over your life.

If you control your mind, and your thoughts COMPLETELY, there’s not much others can do to rain on your parade.

Luckily, there’re plenty of practice exercises to help you strengthen your mind.

Giving you a MASSIVE advantage, one that only YOU know about.

Get Started:

Intelligence Accelerator

Know Where To Tighten

What Life Are You Building?

You’ve heard the joke about the plumber, right?

Guy calls a plumber about a leaky pipe in the basement.

Plumber comes, wanders around in the basement for an hour.

Just looking. Then finally he pulls out a wrench, and tightens in one spot.

The leak stops.

The bill was $100. The homeowner was shocked.

Why so much?

All you did was looking around for an hour, and then spend one second tightening something.

The plumber responds, “Five bucks for looking around, ninety five bucks for knowing where to tighten.”

Maybe you’re familiar with the straw that broke the camel’s back?

Now, is it really that ONE straw?

Meaning if the camel was happily walking down the street, with NO straw on it’s back, and that one super magical piece of straw landed on him, would it STILL break his back?

Of course not.

Every piece of straw was JUST as important.

Of course, there’s going to be ONE that puts it over the edge.

Like ONE snowflake is all it takes to start an avalanche, right?

Not really. You also need a crapload of snow piled up in the right configuration.

This is one of the problems with having a conscious mind.

We tend to miss out A LOT of what’s going on.

We see some waitress or waiter get “discovered” and become a famous actor overnight.

What we DON’T see is that same person has been visualizing, dreaming, and actually PRACTICING their whole adult lives.

So when an opportunity comes, they pounce on it.

They are READY.

If you don’t get this, you risk not doing ANY preparation, so when “opportunity” comes you get passed by.

And you wonder why OTHER people are lucky!

Part of “getting lucky” is making yourself READY for opportunities.

Figuring out what you want, and practicing.

At the VERY LEAST you should have three or four LIFE GOALS that you think about once or twice every day.

Hopefully spend some time journaling on.

And if you’re REALLY serious about getting them, you actually DO THINGS on a daily basis that will keep getting you closer.

Life is, after all, a journey.

Not a destination.

Journey’s take time.

Sometimes you get lost.

Sometimes you have to backtrack.

Sometimes you find wonderful things, people and experiences you’ve never heard of before.

But so long as you keep moving forward, you’ll keep getting closer.

You certainly WON’T get closer if you’re waiting for somebody else to tell you what to do, or “discover” you, or “make it easy” for you.

What you DO on a daily basis will slowly ADD UP to your life.

What kind of life are you building?

Your brain is your most precious asset. No matter how smart, insightful, creative you are, you can ALWAYS get better.

Which means you’ll ALWAYS increase your ability to prepare, find and capitalize on opportunities.

Learn More:

Intelligence Accelerator

Trial and Error Is Necessary

The Positive Feedback Life Loop

When I was a kid I loved science.

I even had a subscription to Science Digest when I was in junior high school.

I read all kinds of books on Quantum Physics.

Of course, they had all the math stripped out, and only had the easy to understand concepts.

When I got to college, and had to start studying REAL science, it was pretty difficult.

Once you put the math in, it gets less “entertaining” and more work.

But without the “work” it really IS only entertainment.

But once you “do” the “work,” and you start to understand how things REALLY work, then you can USE science, rather than merely appreciate it.

If nobody ever took the time, the MASSIVE amount of trial and error that goes into scientific research and discovery, we wouldn’t have much stuff. No medicine, worldwide instant communication, air travel, microwaveable cheeseburgers.

This happens on a global scale, and this happens on a personal scale.

The more you understand, the easier it is to interact with the world and get what you want.

Most people are too scared, too worried, and want to be told what to do.

Since there are a LOT of people waiting around to be told what to do, and few people who not only KNOW what to do, and are willing to tell others, most people end up not getting much.

However, the good news is that it’s really easy to get out there and start figuring it out.

In fact, built into your brain is a super learner. Now, most people misunderstand this to be a “super undertander. Meaning if you say the magic words or listen to the right mix of sounds you’ll suddenly be blessed with universal understanding.

Doesn’t really work that way.

If it did, we really wouldn’t need our bodies. We’d just be this big brained creatures that sit around all day and understand stuff.

Because you have BOTH a brain AND a body, you need to use them both.

Use your body to get out and interact with others. Enjoy the world through your senses.

Use your brain to keep getting better each and every time.

That’s what learning is. Action, review, understanding, more action.

But if you don’t take action, and you aren’t OPEN to the feedback, you won’t learn.

Once you kick off this feedback loop, and see how easy it is to get better and better, you’ll wonder why you didn’t get started much earlier.

If you want to learn TONS of easy exercises to accelerate the process, check this out:

Intelligence Accelerator

Think Outside The Box

Think Outside Your Head

I saw this funny video the other day.

The kind where you want to use as few brain cells as possible.

It was this dog, who had this box. The way he was holding the box, was all he could see was the inside of the box.

So he kept walking around in circles, bumping into things.

Because he was a dog, and not an astrophysicist, he didn’t think to put the box down, take a look around, and then choose another strategy.

There are lots of videos like that. Cats, dogs, all acting goofy.

But we humans, who often times fancy ourselves as superheroes of logic and scientific thinking, don’t often do much better.

Sure, we convince ourselves that we’re giving it our best shot, but most of the time, we’re like that poor dog.

Crashing into things, but we just back up a bit, and then crash into them again.

Naturally, it can be tough to tell if you’re really doing the same thing or not.

Because humans, we’re doing things a little bit more complicated than walking with a box in our mouths.

We’re interacting with other humans, or other complicated systems.

And as the saying goes, “you can’t step in the same river twice,” every time we interact with the system, even if we ARE blinding doing the same thing over and over, the SYSTEM is changing, so it actually is possible to get a different result.

In the short term, this is pretty good. Just back up, try again and keep going until you get it right.

But every time you succeed with this strategy, it actually reinforces the idea of doing the same thing over and over.

Short term, pretty good. Long term, not so good.

A lot of times it’s better to simply try something different. Sometimes a little different, sometimes a LOT different.

This can be frustrating. Because once you change something, you’ll feel a little uncomfortable.

And when you feel uncomfortable, you’ll be much more sensitive to things that “seem” like failure, but are really feedback.

Or you’ll more likely to “interpret” feedback AS failure, rather than feedback.

One way make this a LOT easier is to simply expand your thinking.

Learn to think in different ways, so you’ll see things differently.

Then taking different action will seem a lot easier.

Kind of like discovering a new route to work that’s quicker and easier.

You aren’t driving around blindly hoping to find a new way, you’re using your enhanced thinking skills to FIND a new way so you don’t have to stumble around.

The more you work on your mental skills, the easier it will be to “try on” different behavioral skills, you’ll be able to get a lot more cool stuff.

(Or meet more people or make more money or whatever you want.)

Learn How:
Intelligence Accelerator

How To Jump Over A Tree

Jump Over A Tree

When I was a kid I was insanely curious.

As most kids are.

I broke a lot of stuff, just trying to figure out how it worked.

Being curious is a good trait to have.

But, you may say, “curiosity killed the cat!”

Sure, you can be TOO curious. Meaning you don’t know when to quit.

I ran into a morbid website the other day. Pictures of people just before they died.

How did they die?

By taking selfies.

In really messed up places.

It’s important to take risks. But if you take the WRONG risks, or too many risks, then you will end up dead sooner than you should be.

However, many people tend to take TOO FEW risks.

And that is the worst risk of all. Because if you are too risk averse, you’ll end up being USED by other people, or at least by circumstances.

Because if you NEVER take a risk, and ALWAYS play it safe, you’ll largely be dependent on others, or society, or the government, or the gods, or luck.

But the good news is that it’s pretty IMPOSSIBLE to take action, without a little bit of risk.

Nothing you do is certain. If anything WERE certain, that would mean you could predict the future.

And nobody can do that.

The trick (or skill if you prefer) is to always look for BALANCE.

The right amount of risk, balanced with the right amount of caution.

The right amount of curiosity, with the right amount of awareness.

It’s easy to get “stuck” in extreme view points.

But the magic is in the middle. Where the balance is.

Where you’re on the edge of your current level of skill. When you’re just straddling the outside edges of your comfort zone.

Not hiding in the middle, nor blasting away without a second thought. But slowly, carefully and courageously expanding it.

Once upon a time there was a kid, who wanted to become the best jumper in the world.

So he asked his local martial arts guru what to do. The guru planted a little sapling.

And said, “Every day, jump over this.” And left.

He came back ten years later, and that “kid” was now leaping over a huge oak tree.

All you’ve got to do is choose SOMETHING. Something small. Half risky, half safe. Half curiosity, half knowing.

And SLOWLY push out the limits of what you can do.

If you did that with your brain, imagine the life you could be building.

Instead of waiting around hoping for something to “happen,” like most people do.

Get Started:

Intelligence Accelerator

Peanut Butter Chocolate Love

The Danger Of Safety

When I was a kid one of my favorite commercials was for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

If you’ve never eaten them, it’s chocolate with peanut butter inside.

The commercial has two people, a guy and a girl, walking down two sidewalks.

The girl is eating chocolate as she walks.

The guy is eating peanut butter. From the jar. As he’s walking down the street.

Seriously.

Then they both come around the corner, and crash into each other.

You got chocolate in my peanut butter!

You got peanut butter in my chocolate!

BOOM! A new candy was discovered.

Funny commercial, but many inventions and discoveries are created this way.

You’re trying something, you make a mistake, but then you learn something new that you NEVER would have thought of before.

Maybe you make a wrong turn, go into a strange neighborhood, go into a 7-11 to get a slurpee, and meet your dream lover.

All kinds of inventions, simple ones, that we take for granted, were invented by accident.

During the space race to the moon, all kinds of things were invented, because there was a NEED that wasn’t there before.

One of the drawbacks of having a conscious mind is that we think we need to plan and predict everything.

If we don’t know all the steps, we’re afraid to move forward.

Sure, it’s good to look before you leap, but you’ve still got to leap!

The saying isn’t “look before you take safe baby steps!”

Your brain is an incredible tool. Once you’re moving forward, UNSURE of what’s going on, that’s when your brain starts humming.

Like a chainsaw running at HIGH RPMs. That’s when your most efficient.

Not when you’re carefully moving forward and making ultra sure that everything works out according to plan.

Think of all the people that moved from the East Coast to the West Coast during the California gold rush.

Think they would have made the trip if they KNEW exactly what was going to happen?

The entire planet was populated by people who just kept moving forward, UNSURE of what they were going to find over the next hill.

Only that they’d figure it out when they got there.

Imagine if humans NEVER developed that ability!

We’d still be chasing after zebras for dinner!

Luckily, your brain is ALREADY pre-wired for you to be an explorer. An adventurer. A discoverer of new ideas and inventions.

Fire up your most valuable asset, and get out there!

Learn More:

Intelligence Accelerator

Whole Brain Myth

Do You Want To Use Your Whole Brain?

When I was in High School, I loved reading the Far Side.

It was still published every day, and it was before those books became popular.

If you aren’t familiar, it was usually one goofy picture with a small caption.

Like a scientist who invented a device to understand what dogs were really saying.

And it had a picture with a dog, saying, “Hey! Hey! Hey!…”

Or one where a guy standing in front of an elevator that just opened. And in the elevator was a mama bear, and her cub. Only the only spot the guy could walk into was between them.

There was another one of two scientists in this laboratory, looking at another scientist, who was writing all kinds of complicated equations on the board. One scientist says to the other,

“I wish I could be more like him, he uses 50% of his brain!”

Of course, the idea that we only use 10% of our brain is not really true.

Sure, we never use all it at the same time. But that’s like our body. Sometimes we’re walking. Sometimes we’re sitting. Sometimes we’re using only our fingers. But we don’t say “humans only use 10% of our bodies” because that’s clearly ridiculous.

In fact, if you want to get a REAL workout, try doing some four-count-burpies. This is an exercise that uses a LOT of your muscles, and chances are you won’t last more than a couple minutes.

But here’s the thing. You CAN strengthen different parts of your bodies. You CAN become a world class juggler for example, and still ONLY USE 10 percent of your body at any given time.

You CAN train to do 1000 pushups in a few months. But you’ll still ONLY be using 10% of your body at any given time.

But so will some super lazy potato chip eater. If they NEVER exercise, they are also using 10% of their body at any given time.

So the question isn’t really, “how can I use more of my brain?” The question is, “How can I identify the parts of my brain that I want to use better, and how can I exercise them so I WILL use them better?”

The first question is, what do you want to do?

Become more creative?

Improve your memory?

Be able to solve problems more quickly?

Boost your general IQ?

You can do all of these, simply by doing the appropriate exercises.

Just like Jack Lalanne became super famous by doing a kajillion pushups, you can become famous by becoming a super genius.

Just start training, and never stop.

Get Started:
Intelligence Accelerator