3 Ways to Rewire Your Brain For Optimal Success

When you read the words rewire your brain, images of Frankenstein, and a science experiment gone wrong come to mind.

However, this could not be further from reality. Here I share 3 ways to rewire your brain. A healthy brain, will lead to more success in life, and in business.

Firstly what does rewiring your brain actually mean?

The concept comes from a process called Neuroplasticity. This is our brains ability to adapt, and change over time.

A more detailed description from Merriam-Webster states: Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. This is what fascinated me, the very idea that through repeated daily actions, we can program our brains to grow, and develop new neural connections. Here are 3 ways we can all rewire our brain for optimal success.

1. Eliminate all negative news feeds:

The sheer volume of negative news, that we are subjected to on a daily basis, is at first overwhelming, and secondly embarrassing. We turn on our TVs, and regardless of the news outlet, it’s a constant barrage of murder, and violence.

We scroll through our Facebook feeds, and many times the dominating stories are negative, many of the comments are filled with name-calling, and invariably someone is insulting someone else’s viewpoint. Now think about what this is doing to our brains? All that negative energy been consumed daily. This in turn, causes stress levels to rise. We know from medical research, that chronic stress over long periods of time leads to various diseases including cancers.

Earlier this year I decided to take action.I made some simple adjustments that have made hugh differences to my stress levels, and overall health. I stopped watching, and paying attention to the news on TV in the mornings. I replaced that with meditation, reading, and working out. I took control of my Facebook feed. Did you know you can control the news feeds, and articles you receive from Facebook? In addition you can select which feeds you see first. I prioritized my news feeds so that they are now filled with positivity, innovation, and learning. These two simple adjustments that everyone can make, have greatly enhanced my daily attitude, my mood, and my confidence.

2. Maximize your daily free time:  

Life is busy, and free time is a luxury. On any given day we have more free time than we realize. The trick is to pinpoint that free time, and fill it with activities that will provide the nutrients for our brain to start the rewiring process.    

Most of us have a commute to work. The average commute time in the United States is 25 minutes. We can use those 25 minutes to grow, and prosper. If you are driving to work, why not listen to some podcasts? Two of my favorite podcasts that I highly recommend are The School of Greatness hosted by Lewis Howes, and The Tim Ferriss Show hosted by Tim Ferriss.If you ride the train or subway to work, and prefer to read, pick up a book or select your favorite e-book, and use this time to stimulate, and challenge your brain. Think of this like gym time for your brain.                                                

A big change I made earlier this year was utilizing my time more wisely during my work breaks. On a typical workday, I have a 30-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks. I would spend that time listening to sports radio, checking my Facebook feeds, and staying current on world events. Over time I realized that this was not serving me well or allowing me to grow. I changed my approach, and substituted sports talk, and world events with podcasts focused on positivity, self-improvement, and learning. The effect is like compound interest. These small changes repeated over time can have dramatic results.

For example, If each day we spend 30 minutes doing this, that equates to 2.5hrs weekly, (based on a 5 day work week) which is 10 hours monthly or 120 hours yearly. Think about that for one minute..... That’s 120 hours we can allocate over the course of a year, that will dramatically contribute to the rewiring process of our brain.

3. A New Incentive to Exercise:

Do we really need another incentive to exercise? If you care about the long-term health of your brain then yes we do. Research now shows that exercise plays a significant role in our brains over all health.

In their book, The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness by Alvaro Fernandez and Dr Elkhonon Goldberg they write..... Through increased blood flow to the brain, physical exercise triggers biochemical changes that spur neuroplasticity – the production of new connections between neurons and even of neurons themselves. They go on to add ...........Further more Dr. Gage’s work of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, have shown that exercise helps generate new brain cells, even in the aging brain. This sounds like science fiction but it is not. The flip side of this is many studies now show a link between Dementia, and a lack of exercise.    

The importance of these findings cannot be overstated. According to alz.org, Alzheimer’s disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. At the very minimum, daily exercise will at least help in the fight against dementia. This alone has given me an additional incentive to remain active daily.                

Its encouraging to know that with the right mindset, and the correct application of the tools we all have, the ability to rewire our brain for success in business, and in life is not science fiction but an everyday reality.

I will conclude this article with the wise words of Mr. Spock, "live long and prosper".