Translator: Bob Prottas
Reviewer: Leonardo Silva Growing up I wanted to be an astronaut
more than anything and then I met Brian. Brian was 11 years old. He was labeled
"Severely Mentally Impaired with Autism." He couldn't speak
or understand spoken language. One day I was struggling
with my tape recorder that wouldn't work, and I'd taken it everywhere
to be repaired. He took it from me and literally
took it apart down to the screws and he put it back together
in the blink of an eye. What problem solving skills
that denied his diagnosis. I realized suddenly we knew more
about the universe and travel to the moon then we did about our own brain. I decided at that very moment
I had to be part of discovering ways that we can unlock
the immense human potential of our brain. There is so much that we can tap into
if we just flexed our cortex. As a brain scientist, 30 years and running I have dedicated my life to understanding,
protecting and healing the brain. We've learned more in the last 5 years
than all the years cumulative. With our fancy brain imaging technology
we can literally see normal people's brain changing in real time
as you learn something new in just hours. We're learning a lot
about what is it that harms the brain and what makes it work better, and yet it typically takes one to two
generations before scientific discoveries trickle down to make a difference
in our lives. Well, guess what?
That's not acceptable. Because we also know that our peak brain
years right now are in our early '40s. Well, that stinks,
because that means you're living -- we're living the last half of our life
with our brain in a state of decline. But it doesn't have to be like that. I'm the most optimistic person
because of what I know. But I'm also impatient.
Our brain can't wait another year. So I'm going to share with you seven
secrets that are scientifically validated of how to turbocharge your brain, and I call them secrets
because they literally challenge what we hold is true, that we think
is good for our brain, that is not. Ready? Secret 1: Single-task. (Laughter) Our brain is exquisitely designed
to do one thing at a time, and yet, in our fast-paced, charged life, we literally do one to 5 things
on top of each other. We think it's necessary
and we think it's beneficial. Nothing could be further from the truth. Your brain is not wired to do 2 things
that require effort simultaneously. It's quickly toggling back and forth
from one task to the other and it's literally being done
by hijacking your brain's smartest engine, your brain's frontal lobes. When you're multitasking
you're degrading your brain systems, lowering your mental function,
and increasing stress hormones. Single-task and you will see a significant
increase in mental productivity. Secret 2: Inhibit information. In this day of information overflow,
we have access at the touch of a finger to massive amounts of information. We are now exposed to 200 times
more information today than we had even 20 years ago.
Wow. Our brain with so much information,
what is does -- We thought the more information
I take in the better for me, right? It turns out the highest
performing individuals are not those who can remember the most. But rather those who know
what to block out, what to inhibit,
what to bounce from the get-go, and just to focus on the few things
that they're doing. Secret 3: Detox Distraction. One of the most common questions
that I get asked is: "Is technology good
or bad for your brain?" And I say: "Yes." (Laughter)
Right. Because you know it's not technology
in and of itself that's bad for our brain, but it's that we let it control us,
instead of us managing it. We can't even stand to be without
our cell phone for a single minute, and some of you are sitting there and it's
beeping, buzzing and you're looking at it because we've become addicted
to the ping of our technology. Right now science is showing that we work only 3 minutes uninterrupted. How can you do high-level thinking
in just 3 minutes? Way too much. We're working with major corporations now to teach them how to increase
their mental productivity. The secret that they have
the most trouble with, that they want the most help with,
is Detoxing Distractions. Okay now, this is the really big one. This is the powerhouse.
Big Idea Thinking. Big Idea Thinking is the supreme,
unleaded fuel for your brain, and Big Idea Thinking is not
a supercharged computer that can do big data storage
and then retrieve it when you want it. No, Big Idea Thinking is when
you've taken ideas from disparate areas, you combine it with your rich knowledge
that you already have and you form some generalized
higher-level way of thinking. So some of the ways that we do
Big Idea Thinking is if you synthesize. How do you extract the essence
of talks that you hear? Or news stories that you hear,
synthesize or interpret? How many times do we have books and books and books and we can't remember
if we read them or not? Because we didn't interpret the message. Interpret, what does it mean?
What's the bottom-line meaning? And 3:
Powerhouse transformative communications. Think about emails that you write.
What does your subject line say? Is it boring? Is it rote?
Is it something anyone can write? "Meet me at 2." What if you came up
with a transformative subject line that was so powerful
everyone wanted to read it? And what about the message? How often do you just do a deluge
of information without really saying something
that shows your deeper-level thinking? Big Idea thinking
is what makes your memory and thinking and learning the most robust. I've shown in randomized trials
when you engage in Big Idea Thinking you increase your brain
at all levels of health. Think about increasing your brain's
blood flow by 8 to 12%. That's really happy for a neuron
to get more brain blood flow. We also show 30% increase
in the speed of neural connection across the central executive network, which is what's important for planning
and reasoning and problem solving. Big Idea Thinking is for the brain what
push-ups and pull-ups are to the body. Secret 5, and this fits in with balance:
Calibrate. Calibrate how much effort
you're going to spend on things. So many times all of us,
our mental energy at the end of the day, you're so mentally exhausted
you're thinking: "Oh brain please jump-start
again for me tomorrow." Because we spend too much time
on things that we should do very quickly, or we don't take enough time on things
that we should really spend longer on. One of the phrases
that I like to tell individuals is: "When you're hunting elephants don't waste
your mental energy chasing rabbits." So do your rabbits quickly, but take time
to do your elephants, your weighty things, and, for most individuals,
the elephants need to be done when your brain is in its prime time, and that typically is the first 2 hours
of the day for most people. Secret 6: Innovation. And I loved -- Our brain is really wired to be inspired
from young till late life. Every single day it likes to create
something new, jump-start. It hates status quo.
It quickly goes backward on rote. But when you start innovating on things,
your brain starts firing on all cylinders. Think even about your conversations
that you have with loved ones. How boring are they sometimes? "Hey honey how are you doing?
What's going on? Fine. Goodbye." What if you innovate?
It could spark a little romance. (Laughter) Secret 7: Motivation. Motivation always trumps talent. So many people have so much talent,
maybe ourselves included, but we don't live up
to our full potential. One of the key ingredients
that typically is missing is motivation. And you say: "Well motivation is elusive."
It's not like flipping a switch and say: "Hey brain get motivated
on something you hate." Right? It's easy to be motivated when you're
doing something you're passionate about. Well, one of the secrets to motivation is
using some of these other strategies. Think about a task that you don't like
and what if I said I want you to take this task
and innovate a little bit? Why don't you change it and make it
a little bit more interesting? If you get the person
to put some brain in the game, they're going to get more motivated.
Innovation fuels motivation. Motivation injects in our brain the most
powerful neurotransmitter, dopamine Dopamine in the right balance makes us
happier and increases speed of learning. Motivation is the fuel that makes you make
the impossible possible. Thirty years I now know that our brain can
do so many things that we aren't doing. My dream is that every single person put
their brain at the front of their lives. You need to realize that you are
the driver and you are the mechanic of the most powerful engine
in the whole world. What a responsibility. Take these 7 secrets
and supercharge your brain. Because without brain health
you do not have health. Thank you. (Applause)
