Archives for June 2014

The more we use our brains, as we get older, the greater the density of our brain. Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, being dense is good. Brain density is measured by the number of synapses (connections between neurons) and the myelin sheath (the coating of the neural fiber). When we engage in daily learning and daily aerobic exercise, we increase the production of Nerve Growth Factor (NFG) in our brains. NFG is a protein that helps grow and maintain neurons. Increasing the production of NFG is important when you consider that the average person loses 10% of their brain weight in a lifetime, with more of that brain loss occurring at age 60 and beyond. Learning and aerobic exercise also help increase the number of glial cells inside the brain. Glial cells protect neurons and the myelin sheath. Albert Einstein’s brain, at the time of his death (age 75), had an above average number of glial cells. Einstein was still working on his unified field theory almost up to the time of his death.

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is part of our old brain (brain stem, aka subconscious) physiology. It is like a toggle switch in the brain. When turned off, the new brain (neocortex, aka conscious) is in charge. When the RAS is turned on, the new brain is placed in temporary hibernation and the old brain takes over. We are placed in autopilot where fight or flight instincts replace higher brain functions. Another primary function of the RAS is as a sensory filter. It blocks out almost all sensory input. If it didn’t, our brains would be overwhelmed and we would go insane. When we set a big goal, pursue a major purpose or follow a life dream, our RAS becomes tuned in to sensory data that will help us achieve the goal, purpose or dream. Opportunities we did not see previously, become obvious. The law of attraction is actually the RAS system at work. You are not actually attracting opportunities but rather becoming aware of them thanks to the RAS. This is why those who set big goals or pursue a major purpose or dream in life are so much more successful than everyone else. Their RAS is working for them, allowing them to achieve great things in life.

40% of all of our daily activities are habits. Habits are unconscious behaviors that we engage in every day. Many habits are good, like showering every day, brushing your teeth, brushing your hair etc. But many are also bad like drinking to much alcohol, overeating, watching too much T.V. Bad habits hold us back from living a successful life and good habits help move us forward to a successful life. Due to our habits, we are either unconsciously moving towards success and a happy life or unconsciously moving towards failure and a miserable life.

The first step in changing your habits and your life, is to self-assess. For one week write down every bad habit habit you have which is holding you back in having an ideal, successful life. Be brutally honest with yourself. Until you know which bad behaviors are responsible for the life you have, you cannot possibly hope to change that life.

Your habitual thinking can make you healthy or unhealthy. Positive thinking has the effect of reducing stress. Negative thinking has the effect of increasing stress. Stress sets all sorts of neurochemicals in motion and also turns on certain genes that suppress our immune system. If you want to increase your immune system’s ability to fight diseases, germs, viruses and parasites you need to engage in Rich Thinking. Here are some tools that will do that:

• 5 to 20 minutes a day of mediation
• Read your list of positive daily affirmations
• Make it a habit of associating with other positive, upbeat, happy people
• Avoid associating with other negative, depressed, unhappy people
• Read something inspirational when you feel the onset of stress
• Listen to relaxing, soothing music when you feel the onset of stress
• Google some jokes to read when you feel the onset of stress
• Aerobic exercise will produce hormones that help reduce stress
• Daydream about your ideal, perfect life

A positive, optimistic mindset is a common thread amongst most wealthy people. A negative, pessimistic mindset is a common thread amongst most poor people. Gratitude is one of the most important variables in shifting your thinking from negative to positive.  When you make gratitude a daily habit it reprograms your brain from negative to positive. It helps put you on the path to prosperity. It’s very much like a computer app that says to your brain: “I want to attract more good things into my life”.

The practice of gratitude can take many forms. One such form involves random acts of kindness. It could be anything, big or small, that helps improve the life of another person: buying a meal for a poor person, putting change in a parking meter, returning a stray garbage can, helping someone with their shopping bags etc.

The Daily Five strategy is a simple tool to help you make gratitude a daily habit. Each workday commit to performing just one act of random kindness. It will force your brain to shift from negative to positive by making you become conscious of opportunities to be kind to others.

The Daily Five strategy is a great tool to help you achieve a major goal in life. It’s a simple strategy. Each day do five small things that will help move you forward to achieving your major goal. These five things should take no more than an hour each day to accomplish. If done every day, they are like snowflakes on a mountainside; accumulating benefits every day until one day when you experience an avalanche of success event. This avalanche of success is always some unintended positive consequence. Achieving a goal is not a linear process. It involves detours, obstacles, and challenges that can never be anticipated. The Daily Five turns you into a human guided missile, enabling you to navigate those detours, obstacles and challenges.

One of the common threads amongst all the wealthy in my study of the daily habits of the rich was obsession. The rich were single-mindedly obsessed with achieving a long-term goal or in pursuing a major purpose or dream. Pursuing a long-term goal, dream or purpose infuses you with a passion that allows you to focus and persist. Obsession, by definition, is an unrelenting focus backed by persistence. You can’t force obsession. You either have it or you don’t. It is the byproduct of setting a long-term goal or in pursuing a major purpose or dream. Human beings are goal-seeking mechanisms. We function at an optimum level only when we are obsessed with achieving something big in life. Goals, purposes and dreams are catalysts for great achievement in life. They lead you down a path towards your new life.