Yes, your brain is a muscle and it can be trained. You can improve your brain’s performance and become smarter.
There is a misconception with the brain by which people believe you are born with a certain brain capacity and there’s nothing you can do about it. But when it comes to the body, people get obsessed to look better or perform well.
It is true that some people are smarter than others with the same amount of effort, the same way it is also true some people are more athletic than others. But look at it this way: if Spud Webb became an NBA player and won the Slam Dunk Contes in 1986 with only 1.68m, why can’t you make your brain have a top performance just because “you are not good with numbers” or “you can’t do two things at the same time”?
There are different types of intelligence and the same way there are exercises for your biceps or chest, there are exercises for each and on of them.
The main problem we are facing nowadays is the immense drop on our attention span duration. We are living a moment of instant reward, which means that any content which doesn’t make the cut, will probably be dismissed immediately.
Why are we more afraid of being fat than ignorant?
Some people exercise to become healthier, others to look good and some just want to increase performance in a specific way. By training you can improve your endurance, speed or strength and get better results. The brain works the same way when you are lacking focus, calculation skills, problem resolution or reaction time.
You can see this in your daily life and how people give up so easily when a problem challenges their brain capacity. Why does this happen? When you go to the gym, you don’t start lifting 50kg per arm because you might not be that strong yet so you will choose lighter weights until you reach that goal.
When was the last time you challenged your brain? Let’s explain it with a personal example: a Rubik’s cube. I always wanted to solve in under 10 secs like some people can do, but I was very afraid of trying it “because that was just for very smart people”. But that’s very far from the truth. One day, I decided to get one and set a goal to solve it in less than one minute by the end of 2017. It’s been one month and I’m already at 2 minutes. Nothing impressive, right? But the cube is my dumbbell for puzzle resolution.
There are also different tools you can use to increase your reaction time and memory like http://www.humanbenchmark.com/ or specific games which make your brain to be focused on different elements at the same time.
You can learn whatever you want. Take advantage of the vast amount of information and knowledge you have access for free with just your internet connection. Read, watch videos, practice, get involved int it. Don’t say “I’m too dumb for that”. Face the unknown and make it familiar.
--- I previously published this article in my Medium profile. You can check it out here: https://medium.com/@jaimepichardogarcia/your-brain-is-also-a-muscle-train-it-869d65780062 ----