Transcription
The modern world is designed to keep you mentally lazy. Information is delivered to you in bite-sized pieces. AI chatbots can now write your emails. And social media algorithms decide what you consume next.
There's growing evidence to suggest that our brains are actually getting weaker. A great analogy for this is physical fitness. 100 years ago, people didn't exercise their body deliberately in the same way that they do today. Back then, our daily lives demanded enough physical exercise to keep us fit.
In the modern day, however, people walk less. They spend less time outdoors. They work less manual jobs. And so, if you want to stay fit in the modern world, most of the time, you need to actually schedule it into your day. You need to schedule time to go to the gym, go on a run, go on a walk, etc., etc.
So, in the same way, we are heading towards a place in our society where now the cognitive heavy lifting that used to be baked into our lives is gradually getting automated away. And if we want to stay mentally fit, we need to exercise our brain in the same way that we exercise our body. And so in this video, I want to share three signs that might suggest your brain is getting out of shape.
The first sign is that reading feels extremely boring and laborious for you. So last year I spent a lot less time reading than I usually do. And what was interesting was I started to notice that my attention span began to get worse and I just felt less mentally sharp. Now, I didn't automatically attribute this to reading, but this year I've reintroduced the habit into my life, okay? And I've really prioritized it. Made sure I get a little bit of reading done every single day. And I find that already my attention span has improved quite significantly and I just feel mentally stronger.
Uh there's a lot of scientific evidence to prove this. Uh neuroscience shows that reading improves attention span, memory, critical thinking skills. These are things that Maryanne Wolf, who's a neuroscientist, she calls the reading circuitry part of your brain. And she says that if you don't use this reading circuitry through reading, then this circuitry actually atrophies. It it starts to wither away. So this is another reason why it's very important to have a reading habit in your life because it literally makes your brain stronger. Reading is the strength training for the gray matter in your brain.
The second sign is that your brain feels overstimulated. There have been periods in my life where I felt very unproductive and distracted. And I've noticed a pattern during these times. I've usually been caught in this cycle of seeking the next hit of dopamine, right? Constantly trying to get more stimulation from like cheap places like video games and scrolling and junk food and this kind of stuff. But the problem with this is when you try to do something challenging, you try to do a deep work activity like reading or writing or doing some kind of creative work, it's very challenging because now you've trained your brain to expect that spike in your dopamine every single minute of your day. And so now when you're doing something like writing which is quite challenging you know it takes a long time it takes a lot of patience and you don't get the same kind of stimulation as you get from a Tik Tok reel. Well then now you know your brain's just going to say [ __ ] it. Like I'm not going to I'm not going to spend my time here. I'd rather go and look at some short form videos. Right? And so this is one of the big problems of being in this overstimulated state. The solution of course is to reduce the amount of stimulation that uh is in your day. So basically start to let go of certain habits that give you that quick spike in dopamine that feel good in the moment but don't actually lead to any long-term meaningful progress towards your goals.
And the third sign is that you over consume and undercreate. I remember when I had this realization for myself. I realized how much I was consuming and then I looked at what I was actually contributing into the world, what I was actually giving of my own to the world and I realized I wasn't producing anything. I was spending all this time consuming hours and hours every single day consuming and practically no time creating anything. I remember when I had that realization really made a shift inside of me and I realized that I don't want to be merely a consumer. You know, I want to bring something of my own into the world. And I think that this is something that's inherent in all of us. Human beings are designed to create. It's baked into our psychology. It's baked into like our brains really, our brain chemistry. We are designed to be creative.
Now, does that mean everybody needs to become a content creator? No. Does it mean everybody needs to have an artistic career? No, it doesn't. Okay? When I say creativity, I really mean it in a very broad level, right? It can be teaching, it can be cooking, it it can be writing, it can be pottery, whatever it is for you. If it gives you a way to express yourself in some way, then I consider that a creative medium. And again, there is a lot of science to back this up. People who have some way of expressing themselves, some creative medium in their life, they tend to maintain higher cognitive function with age. They tend to ha have less anxiety, less depression, greater sense of well-being. So to me the evidence is clear. If you want to have a strong mind, create.
All right. So now that we've talked about the signs, how do you actually ensure that your brain not only stays fit but actually strengthens over time? Well, the answer is the same as for physical fitness. Deliberate training. You want to train your brain the same way you train your body. There are a handful of activities that you can do that contribute to a stronger brain. Uh some of my favorites are reading, writing, and mindfulness. These are some of the best practices you can do to maintain mental fitness.
Reading improves your attention span. It improves your vocabulary and it gives your mind new building blocks to work with. Writing on the other hand helps you um memorize things better. It helps you articulate your thoughts better and it helps you think more creatively and mindfulness helps you gain what we call metacognition which is the ability to be aware of your own mental processes. It's also really good for just as a relaxation technique to help you manage your emotions. So really, really powerful combo if you can do all three of these on a daily basis. This is something that I do. I try to do every single one of these on a daily basis because, you know, I want to have a strong brain. I want to be as mentally jacked as possible. And to me, doing these three habits, these are like the the cornerstones, the foundation really for a healthy, fit mind.
In fact, I challenge you to commit to this 30-day mental calisthenics protocol. For the next 30 days, read 10 pages a day. Write for 15 minutes a day and practice 10 minutes of mindfulness per day. You can read about whatever fascinates you, whatever you're interested in. You can write about what you're reading about or whatever insights you're having in your life. You can just write about your day. And then you practice mindfulness by setting a timer for 10 minutes. and focusing on, for example, your breath. Do this for the next 30 days and you will feel significantly mentally sharper. You'll be more focused. You'll have better attention span. You'll have more ideas. You will feel more creative. Other people will perceive you as more intelligent. You'll perceive yourself as more intelligent. Give it a try and see how it goes.
By the way, starting soon, I'll be helping a small group of people double their output and focus. If that's something that you're interested in, if you're an ambitious person, you want to get more done, but you don't want to burn out along the way, then check the link in the description of this video and uh look at the details. All right, that's all for this one. Take care.