4010: [Part 1] How to Increase the Volume of Your Brain and Make Optimal Decisions by Benjamin Hardy

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[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_01] This is Optimal Living Daily. How to increase the volume of your brain and make optimal decisions. Part 1 by Benjamin Hardy of BenjaminHardy.com. And we're narrator Justin Malik reading you blogs every single day of the year. This is one of a few shows where we narrate articles for you. You can search for Optimal Living Daily in the podcast app of your choice. And follow or subscribe to listen to lots of great content being narrated to you.

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01] Now today's article is a little longer than normal. I'll read the first half today and then finish the rest for you tomorrow. So with that, let's get right to part 1 as we optimize your life. How to increase the volume of your brain and make optimal decisions. Part 1 by Benjamin Hardy of BenjaminHardy.com.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_01] Perhaps the biggest myth in Western culture is that we are born with a fixed and intrinsic personality. That who we are when we're born is who will be when we die. This view is extremely dominant among baby boomers who grew up in homes and with parents who had been absorbed in trait-based value systems. In chronological order, let's examine the dominant leadership theories over the past 180 years. In the 1840s, the great man theory of leadership assumed that only men could be great leaders.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01] If you didn't have that trait of being a man, you were not destined to be a leader. Your nature is fixed and you have no ability to rise up to challenges or grow into your goals. This theory was the pervasive and cultural belief system for nearly 100 years. In the 1930s and 40s, the trait theory of leadership assumed that people are born with certain qualities that make them excel in leadership roles. The obsession with traits continues.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_01] Although the dominant theories in academics have shifted over the past 80 years, common practice shows that most businesses are continuing to operate in the 1930s and 40s. According to Harvard Business Review, the use of personality assessments are on the rise, growing as much as 20% annually. The dominant view continues to be that people are who they are and that you can't change them. There continues to be, for most companies, almost a complete disregard for the power of context,

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_01] environment, and the ability to radically transform people. The research in psychology shows a much different story. To quote Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, social psychologists argue that who we are at any one time depends mostly on the context in which we find ourselves. But who creates the context? The more mindful we are, the more we can create the context we are in. When we create the context, we are more likely to believe in the possibility of change. End quote.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_01] Who you are depends on the situation you are in. In one situation, you're one person. In a different situation, you're someone else. Your greatest power as a person comes when you realize you can create the situations around you, that you can alter your own environment. According to Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, quote, If you do not create and control your environment, your environment creates and controls you. End quote. Very few people take ownership over their context. This is your creative control.

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_01] You can change your surroundings and your inner states. Both are connected. Very few businesses intentionally design their culture, but instead build their businesses around personality types, which then go on to unconsciously create a culture that has no power, because it wasn't designed intentionally. When you create your situations, you then are made aware just how much power you actually have to transform yourself. According to what psychologists call the Pygmalion effect,

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_01] you are either rising up or falling down to the expectations of those around you. Hence, Jim Rohn has said, quote, Don't join an easy crowd. You won't grow. Go where the expectations and the demands to perform are high. End quote. Your brain changes, and you can change. In that same HBR article, the author argues that the use of personality assessments to hire is a bad idea.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_01] Measuring a person's integrity or cognitive ability are far more predictive of success. Both integrity and cognitive ability are fluid, not fixed. They can be changed and in radical ways with the right influence and behavior. For example, the cerebellum, which is the area of the brain focused on brain function and mental ability, only makes up 10% of brain volume, yet houses over 50% of the brain's total neurons. Your neurons are the tools through which your brain changes,

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01] as they make new and distinct connections, which form habits of thought and behavior. According to Psychology Today, neuroscientists are perplexed by this disproportionate ratio of neurons in the cerebellum. Put simply, you have a lot of potential for change in your brain's ability to function and process. Brain plasticity is a common term used by neuroscientists, referring to the brain's ability to change at any age, for better or worse. As your brain changes, your personality changes.

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01] Research has shown that physical exercise and increased fitness can improve brain functioning by literally increasing your brain's volume, blood supply, and growth hormone levels. Pushing yourself mentally strengthens the connections between neurons, improving neuron survival and cognitive functioning. Put simply, if you push your body and mind regularly, your brain will literally change in size, dimensions, and connections. Interestingly, routine activities do not challenge the brain, but actually keep it stuck.

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_01] Doing the same thing over and over isn't optimal for growth. To quote Napoleon Hill, a good shock often helps the brain that has been atrophied by habit. End quote. Good habits will take you a long way, but not if they become too routine. You'll get stuck. You need to continually be pushing yourself to the next level of difficulty. You can't get stuck in one mode or role. As you advance yourself, you need to take on new roles and continually reinvent yourself.

[00:07:01] [SPEAKER_01] Take what you've learned and use it to propel you to new heights. To quote Leonardo DiCaprio, every next level of life will require a different you. End quote. What made the Beatles so brilliant? They never plateaued. They never got too routine with their work. They always reinvented over and over. Music theory professor David Thurmeyer explains, quote, Above all, the Beatles remained curious about all types of music, and they continually reinvented their own music

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01] by injecting it with fresh influences from multiple cultures. This experimentation adds a dimension to their work that separates it from the contemporary's music. To be continued. You just listened to part one of the post titled, How to Increase the Volume of Your Brain and Make Optimal Decisions, by Benjamin Hardy of benjaminhardy.com. I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_01] Thank you to Benjamin. Great stuff so far. A quote I really like from this one is, who you are depends on the situation you are in. This is really relatable to me recently from something I was watching. There was a documentary that started in, I think it was the 1960s in England that interviewed seven-year-olds. And the ongoing slogan in that movie is, give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_01] Meaning that the most important milestones for a kid's life will happen by the time they're seven and those personality traits will persist throughout the person's entire life. But whether or not that's completely true is up for debate. And Benjamin is clearly on the other side saying that it can all be changed depending on your environment. Sort of reminds me of the nature versus nurture debate. Are we born to be a certain way? And then how much of our upbringing

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01] and environment changes that? Has to change us to some extent. I'm sure we've all experienced life circumstances or situations in which we found ourselves changing even if for just a moment. And that idea, if we assume it's true, means that like Benjamin said, we can really put some effort in to change our environment, to optimize our lives. But of course the key word there is effort because it definitely won't be easy. But we'll hear more about this tomorrow so I'll stop there for today.

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01] Wishing you a great day and weekend if you're listening in real time and I'll catch you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.