The Working Machine Inside Us

For the past two years, I have been training by brain to think certain ways and it is the hardest thing I have done in my life.  I have put my brain on a passive mode when it comes to do certain tasks and now I have to switch on the active button and my brain gives me hell every time I try to make it think differently.  I am getting better every day but it is constantly a battle each day still as the bad habit has continued for too long. Every time I make my brain think the new way, it hurts; there is always this burning sensation in my temple and it feels like someone just smack me on the head physically at times. The mental torture is almost the same as the physical torture that one has to endure.

Some people say we are born smart but I don't buy that.  We were all born the same and we started in life on the same pace.  Our genes may be different but our brain and other body parts are all the same when we came into this earth.  How we think and act are dependent on our environment. If a child was raised in a family where academic is treasured, then more likely the child will do well in school. And if a child was born in a family where school was not put as a priority, then the child will more likely not to take school seriously. We see these prodigy on television playing the piano well at the age of four, and we think he was blessed with good DNA. No, he was blessed with parents who make him practice the piano every single day at the age of two or even younger.  There is no magic potion to it. Those children had to train themselves (or had someone trained them) and they have to put in some sweat in order to get to that point.

If we want to be smart, we have to adopt a new mindset. We have to know that we can get there and that there are techniques that can prune and shape our brain.  Our brain is like a muscle. In order for it to work efficiently we have to train it and be active in doing so.  We have to be motivated enough to go through the tension that the training might inflicted on our brain. At this very moment, it contains billions of neurons and they make connection every single day in order for us to form long lasting memories and to help us think quicker at every step of the way in our life.  When we know that we can get smarter and that we can train our brain to think quicker, we can handle the process of change, even if it gives us hell.