To simplify and better visualize the construct of our brain, neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean articulated the concept of the “triune brain” – Neocortex, Limbic System and Brain Stem.

But, the brain has many complex sub-systems. One of those is the anterior cingulate cortex. The anterior cingulate cortex includes subcallosal and precallosal portions that have extensive connections with the insula, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hypothalamus, and brain stem.

In other words, it touches each one of the triune brain parts.

Why should you care?

You should care because recent research into the anterior cingulate cortex is helping to unlock the mystery of how the old brain (Brain Stem and Limbic System) communicates with the new brain (Neocortex).

Still, why should you care?

You should care because this communication is where inspiration occurs.

Our old brain (Brain Stem and Limbic System) has been around for millions of years.

Our new brain (Neocortex) is a recent addition. Some neuroscientists peg the existence of our new brain at just 75,000 years.

As a result, the old brain is significantly more evolved and powerful than the new brain. And its powers are just beginning to be understood.

One of those powers is inspiration. Inspiration is the means by which the old brain communicates ideas to the new brain.

But inspiration is hard to come by. The few who are able to on-ramp this powerful communication highway have changed humanity with their inventions and become enormously wealthy in the process: the automobile, rockets, light bulbs, the Internet, Google, Facebook, the iPhone, and the microwave.

How Do You Turn on Inspiration?

There are certain things you can do to access this powerful inspiration-based communication system. And the common variable is slowing down your brain:

• Meditation – Meditation slows down your brain waves, enabling the anterior cingulate cortex to orchestrate communication between the old brain and the new brain.
• Aerobic Exercise – Aerobic exercise exhausts the brain. In this state, the old brain and the new brain are in sync and able to better communicate.
• Massage – A deep massage relaxes the entire body, including the brain, slowing it down.
• Warm Bath/Hot Shower – Hot water raises your body temperature. Several benefits of this rise include: Improved blood circulation, Improved lymph circulation, detoxification, increased metabolism and calmer central nervous system. The brain is part of the central nervous system.
• Moderate Consumption of Alcohol – Alcohol is a depressant, which means it slows down the brain and the central nervous system’s processes. One or two glasses of alcohol does the trick.
• Take a Nap – When you enter and exit sleep, you must pass through the alpha state. In the alpha state, brain waves are slowed down, enabling the anterior cingulate cortex to work its magic.

All habits have triggers. A habit trigger is something that sets a habit in motion. According to my research, there are six common habit triggers:

#1 BIOLOGICAL

Hunger pains are a trigger that tell us it is time for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Feeling groggy is a trigger that tells us it is bedtime.

#2 TIME

We have morning habits, afternoon habits and nighttime habits. The alarm clock or the sun peeking through the blinds in the morning are time-driven triggers that tell us it is time to wake up in the morning. January 1st triggers us that it’s time to start losing weight.

#3 VENUE

We have habits that are triggered when we enter the kitchen (I’m hungry), the bathroom (brush teeth), the family room (watch TV), our workplace (drink coffee) or drive along some street (McDonalds arches – time for a hamburger).

#4 EVENTS

Cell phone sounds tell us its time to check our messages. Calendars alert us to begin certain habits – an upcoming half marathon triggers us to begin training. Black Friday triggers us to begin Christmas shopping.

#5 EMOTIONS

Feeling sad triggers us to eat ice cream or candy. A stressful day at work triggers us to drink that glass of wine or have a beer. Falling in love triggers us that it’s time to settle down, get married and start a family.

#6 PEOPLE

Who we associate with can trigger certain habits. One friend might be a trigger to go to a bar and drink. Another person to gamble. Yet another to exercise.

Awareness is the key to habit change. Being aware of the triggers that set in motion certain habits, enable us to surround ourselves with those triggers or distance ourselves from them.

In my book, Change Your Habits Change Your Life, I spent three years studying the brain. The reason?

Habits are dictated by your brain.

When a behavior, thought or emotion is repeated enough times, neurons (brain cells) inside your brain begin to talk to each other. This repetitive communication is known as a synapse.

In a real sense, a newly created synapse is a lot like paving a new highway.

With enough repetition, a small golf ball sized mass of brain cells inside the limbic system, called the basal ganglia, becomes aware of this new highway or synapse, and stretches its long tentacles (dendrites) into the area around the synapse. This connects the basal ganglia to the synapse, essentially imprinting the synapse as a habit.

What I discovered in my research for my book is that the health of your brain impacts how efficiently your brain forges and maintains a habit.

There are certain things you can do that help to improve brain health, brain performance and, thus, make habit change much easier and more permanent:

• Coffee – This is really about caffeine. 100 mg of caffeine a day, about one cup of coffee, helps to suppress a brain chemical known as adenosine. When enough adenosine builds up inside the brain, this triggers the desire to sleep. Caffeine, by suppressing adenosine, helps maintain the flow of dopamine and glutamate, brain chemicals that keep you motivated, focused and alert.
• Tumeric – Tumeric contains curcumin. Curcumin is a spice that has anti-inflammatory properties, which help brain cells to remove free radicals (waste inside every cell).
• Cinnamon – Eating 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon a day can slow the breakdown of sugar, helping to maintain a steady flow of glucose (brain fuel) into brain cells. Cinnamon is also an antioxidant which helps to remove those nasty free radicals from inside every brain cell.
• Fruit or Fruit Juice – Every cell in the body, including brain cells, requires energy in order to function. The most common source of energy for cells is glucose. Fruits and fruit juice contain glucose and can provide a quick source of energy for brain cells to function optimally.

Eating right and consuming certain nutrients, helps improve brain health, making it easier for brain cells to forge new habits.

When my three kids were young, Easter was a magical day. My wife and I would hide dozens of plastic Easter eggs around the yard.

What made the Easter Egg Hunt so magical? My wife and I would hide dollar bills in a few of those Easter eggs.

Our kids would run around the yard, scrambling to find the treasure inside the Easter eggs. During this treasure hunt, our kids would be smiling, laughing and, well, happy.

You see, the magic was not in finding the treasure. The magic was in the hunt.

This is why pursuing dreams and the goals behind those dreams is so important to living a happy, fulfilled life.

Pursuing a dream is a lot like going on a treasure hunt. It’s the journey that makes life worth living. The pursuit of each dream is a Treasure Hunt.

Begin your Treasure Hunt today. Pursue your dreams. That is where you will find happiness and fulfillment.

One of my gym friends, Bruce, was telling me about one of his employees while we were working out.

“He’s such a gentleman,” Bruce said.

“What do you mean by gentleman, Bruce?” I asked.

“In all of the thirty years he’s worked for me, not once have I ever heard him curse or utter a bad word about anyone.”

Everyone has a brand. You may not be aware of it, but your brand is a neon billboard that tells others who you are.

What you do and say, on a daily basis, creates your brand.

• “He’s a gentleman.”
• “She’s very smart.”
• “He’s a hard worker.”
• “That woman is the nicest person you’ll ever meet.”
• “He’d give you the shirt off his back.”
• “She’s a fair weather friend.”
• “The best Accountant I’ve ever had.”

Your brand follows you wherever you go and pays visits to family, friends, co-workers and acquaintances, when you are not even in their presence.

What would you like your brand to be?

I know what I want my brand to be for next year. I want to be a gentleman.

So, my big goal for next year is go an entire year without cursing.

How about you? What would you like your brand to be next year?

Find one positive, brand-changing attribute, and make that your goal for next year. Pick just one. Make it simple. Eventually, it will become a daily habit that will broadcast who you are to the entire world.

Theodore Roosevelt organized a Tennis Cabinet. This group of tennis players included certain friends, diplomats and power brokers. They would regularly meet to play tennis and discuss important world and national issues. Roosevelt relied on them for their insight and wisdom, helping him to form decisions that impacted the lives of millions.

Benjamin Franklin loved organizing groups for very specific purposes: to create the first library, road improvements, writing, etc. The Leather Apron Club’s purpose was to debate questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy, and to exchange knowledge of business affairs. He formed the Junto, a social and self-improvement study group for young men that met every Friday to debate morality, philosophy and other related topics. This elite group of intellectuals were at the core of Philadelphia politics and cultural life for some time, helping Franklin to form a new republic that would change the world.

Henry Ford organized a group he called The Vagabonds. This group included Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs. Every summer they would take road trips to camp or hike. During those road trips they would discuss and debate various business, scientific and technological issues facing them.

History is replete with many famous, successful figures who organized groups which became a springboard for creative thought, motivation, inspiration, insight and focused action.

Organize your own group of positive, upbeat, success-minded individuals to help advise, inspire and motivate you in pursuing and achieving your goals and dreams. It only takes two to form a group.

Who will be in your group?

As one year comes to a close, it’s a good time to ponder and ask yourself some questions:

• In an ideal world, what would your upcoming year look like?
• What do you wish for in the new year?
• What dreams would you like to come true?
• What goals would you like to pursue and achieve?
• What new knowledge would you gain?
• What new skills would you acquire?
• How much money would you make?
• How much money would you save?
• How much would you weigh?
• How many miles would you be able to run?
• How fit would your muscles be?
• What new, powerful relationships would you like to forge?
• What exotic places would you travel to?
• What new job would you have?
• What promotion would you receive?
• What fun things would you do?
• How much time would you spend with your family?
• What would your ideal, perfect day look like in the new year?

The answers to these questions form the roadmap for your life in the upcoming year.

Every desired destination requires a roadmap.

I want you to imagine you are standing alone. All around you, you see only trees. There are a hundred trees to you left, right, in front of you and behind you. To the right, you notice a hill. You begin to climb that hill. As you get higher on your hill, you notice that there are more and more trees. When you get to the top of the hill, you realize the whole time, you’ve been standing in a forest, covered with tens of thousands of trees.

The hill and the forest are metaphors. The hill represents daily self-improvement. The forest, opportunities.

Through formal education, self-education and/or deliberate practice, you become more expert in your career, profession, industry or craft.

As you become more expert through self-improvement, as you climb your hill, you gain insight. The more insight you gain, the higher you ascend on your hill, the more opportunities you see.

Once you reach the level of expert, you realize all along that there were a forest of opportunities standing right in front of you.

Those opportunities, however, were invisible to you until you gained knowledge and expertise.

One of the hallmarks of successful entrepreneurs and top leaders is the ability to see what others cannot see.

They look out into the great ether and they see Uber, the paperclip, future Tom Brady’s, colonies on mars, vertical integration, Chinese manufacturing, revolutionary processes, etc.

Opportunities reveal themselves to those who are prepared to see them. Gaining knowledge and becoming expert in your craft through daily practice, give you insight and enable you to see what is invisible to everyone else.

Everyone has critics. Especially when you are starting out in life.

There are Good Critics – Critics who lift you up and inspire you. Good Critics offer constructive advice and mentoring.

There are Bad Critics – Critics who tear you down and demotivate you. Bad Critics just criticize. They don’t help steer you in the right direction or mentor you.

If you are unfortunate and happen to work for (boss), live with (family members) or spend time with (friends) Bad Critics, here are some strategies that will help silence them.

Gain Expertise

Become expert at what you do. Study every day to gain more knowledge. Practice every day to become more skilled in what you do. This helps build confidence in your knowledge base or skills. The more you become an expert in what you do, the fewer mistakes you make and the quieter those Bad Critics become.

Distance Yourself

Separate yourself from the Bad Critics. This may mean getting a new job or it may mean spending less time with family members or friends.

Ignore Them

“Water off a duck’s back.” That was a phrase an old boss of mine used to say whenever one of our Bad Critic clients decided to criticize our hard work. Ignoring Bad Critics isn’t easy. It takes practice. You must gain complete control over the negative, emotional part of your brain (amygdala). With practice and over time, this becomes a habit and gets much easier to do.

You can’t avoid Bad Critics. They are everywhere. But you can quiet them, through daily self-improvement, eliminate them, by avoiding them, or you can develop a teflon outer barrier, by forging the habit of ignoring them.

“My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?” – Charles Schultz

Charles Schultz, an American cartoonist, was best known for the comic strip Peanuts.

In that quote, Schultz was not really asking a question. He was, in tongue and cheek fashion, revealing the true secret to happiness.

And what is the secret?

It is really two things:

1. Making a living doing something you are passionate about and
2. Making a living doing something in which you have an innate talent.

Passion and Innate Talent = Fulfillment.

Fulfillment = Long-Term Happiness

When you spend your life earning a living doing something you are passionate about and posses a talent for, you will live a fulfilled, happy life.

That is the true secret to happiness.