Brain Audit

More photos of The Brain Audit 3.2. The Brain Audit Book and Super Cuatro are spotted in action.

The adventures of Super Cuatro, The Brain Audit Super Hero. Click to view larger images and view the entire portfolio.

On his way to the White House	Flying to the White House	At the White House with Mom

Conquers Washington, DC	Receiving the monumental Brain Audit	And his family in Washington, DC

At the airport with The Brain Audit	Takes all the seven bag of the conveyor belt	At the airport with mom Marina Brito

Marina Brito, Near Washington D.C., USA
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Here’s my photo for the Brain Audit contest. As you’ll see, my wife lent me a hand (or two).

Jon Pietz, Needham Massachusetts, USA
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The Stinker, er, Thinker.

Where Dave does all his best thinking.

Dave Charest, Brooklyn, NY, USA

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Chris Garrett in Matakana, New Zealand

Chris Garrett at Kelly Tarlton’s, Auckland, New Zealand

Chris Garrett, UK

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Here are a few more entries for The Brain Audit Book from around the world

Much luck (to you and Sean… and me!)

Alex Kuzelicki, Australia
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If you haven’t made the Butter Chicken the recipe is on Page 113. And Yes! Sean can cook too!! Yummy stuff.

This is the butter chicken on its way to TVNZ- New Zealand. A small thank you for asking Sean on The Breakfast Show. And yes, if you are wondering the rest of the butter chicken was eaten by Renuka
The page again 113.

Renuka Menon, Psychotactics Office, Auckland, New Zealand
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Marsha colouring Cuatro

Marsha D’Souza, All of 5 years old, Auckland, New Zealand
(Marsha and Sean are best friends)
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

And the photos keep coming in for The Brain Audit competition. Today’s photos are from New Zealand  and all the way from the Arctic Circle.

It’s child’s play..

Martin Thompson, Auckland, New Zealand
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I am sending the photo of The Brain Audit book, which travelled with me and a couple of friends 150 km north of the Arctic Circle. We had to carry all our food for 10 days on our backs, but I couldn’t resist packing the book as well. There is something very weird (in the nicest way) about reading about marketing when you don’t see a living soul for days.

All the best from Europe.

Ondrej Ilincev, Prague, Europe
PS: I am the one on the right.
PPS: I thought there would be more snow as well, but we were very lucky with the weather and it was 20-25 degrees Celsius.
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Here are a few more photos

“Giants in their field”

Peggy Gower, Near Chicago, Il, USA
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Here is Cuatro studying the Brain Audit at MIT…I actually took this picture at night.

J
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And a few more from Milan

These photos of The Brain Audit were taken in Milan’s orthopedic joint replacement surgeon in the Seattle.

Milan Shannon Moore, Seattle, Washington, USA

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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Here are a few photos from New Zealand

And another one from Cornelia

And the last one…

PS. I had a lot of fun cutting, gluing etc.

Cornelia Luethi,  Auckland, New Zealand
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Thought I had better not disclose where you go for coffee or you will both be inundated with fans J

Steve Munford, Auckland, New Zealand
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Next Step: Send in your entries with Cuatro. The deadline is approaching.

You can download the images of Cuatro here.

>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

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The Brain Audit Book makes its way to the UK, India, USA and The Netherlands.

The Brain Audit Photo above is  called, “Can’t See The Forest For The Trees!”

And this one is called, “Air’s Thin Up Here.”

Dwight Schwersensky, California, USA
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“If I had to keep just one book out of my entire library, I would keep Sean D’Souza’s Brain Audit.”

Ankesh Kothari, Mumbai, India
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David Rothwell at hockey practice with Charlie and some light reading…We’re frowning because the sun’s in our eyes!

David Rothwell, UK
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Brain Audit Book photo. Since New Zealand is the land of the kazillion sheep and we have two border collies…I thought why not put the two together?

Erwin van den Boogaard, The Netherlands

P.S. Please tell Cuatro to relax, they don’t bite – at least not yet

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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Today we have the Brain Audit Book photos from the US and Germany

And another one

And the last one…

Perry Droast: Hanford, CA, USA
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Never trust a black cat on a Friday…

Heidi Dreher, Kolbingen in the South of Germany
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

The Brain Audit does make people outrageously happy ! Proof !  Noel (’look what I have here’…Hee, hee, hee) trying to make me jealous with his copy of the Brain Audit during a Skype call.
P.S. Postal strike in my region ! No kidding. Things should be back to normal on Thursday. Fingers crossed… I want to win the competition !

Luuk Christiaens, Merchtem (Belgium)
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I am an orthopedic joint replacement surgeon in the Seattle, Washington area and a raving fan of your work!  Took a few photos in the Operating Room with The Brain Audit Book.  Your concepts of focusing on one problem and one solution to get to the target profile has helped me to reshape not only my marketing, but also my surgical focus.  I have been able to hone my practice to the three operations that I really love and that focus has made me the most experienced surgeon in one of these (mobile bearing unicondylar knee replacements) in the entire Pacific Northwest!  Thanks again and keep the good stuff coming!!!

Milan Shannon Moore, Seattle, Washington, USA
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Just a taste of better things to come…Are you ready for the good stuff?

The value of a good education = priceless

Buy THIS Book – it’s GOOD!

Chase and The Brain Audit

Brain Traffic Control

Marina, Chase & The Brain Audit

All of Chase’s bags are off the conveyor belt

Marina Brito, Near Washington D.C. USA
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Here are a few more Brain Audit Book photos from around the world…

My current job contains a lot of travel so I seem to spend 1/2 my life in airports… and every time I collect my bags I smile to myself. So, this seemed only appropriate for my entry I couldn’t actually find a non-moving conveyor at Heathrow so I had to settle for a moving one. I’ve attached the ‘making off’ to make you smile.

Needless to say, security gave me some very very funny looks

Shane Heenan: London, UK
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Bonnie Domeny: Sacramento CA, USA (This is Bonnie’s client Josh Walsh with The Brain Audit Book)
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Mike Hayden: Mountain View, California, USA
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

And here are some more entries…

Andy D’Silva at the airport with his red bag and The Brain Audit.

I know this should be the first photo

The last red bag has been taken off the conveyor belt but I think Andy has disappeared.

Andy D’Silva: Toronto, Canada
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I was lucky enough to be able to attend Ken McCarthy’s System Intensive UK seminar. In a master stroke of opportunism, I managed to grab Ken to pose for a photo with myself and the Brain Audit book. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t really do either of us justice – but who cares!!

I am just thrilled to have been there and met the man who introduced me to yours and Sean’s crazy, but thoroughly entertaining and educational world.

Stephen Nettleton: Norwich, UK
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Here are a couple of photos from a very intelligent and wise marketing bird called Shaggy!

Stephanie Philp: Raglan, New Zealand
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Ok, I’m back after my extended ‘vacation’.

And here’s a biggie: I’m amazed at this book. And if you’ve ever wondered about the factor of getting old (and stupid), or wondered how we learn (and unlearn stuff), then you need to read this book. I intend to take snippets of the information and put my own spin to it over the weeks and months to come. You’ll understand all of that information so much better, and how it relates to talent—if you read this book.

If there was one recommendation I’d make for Feb 2008-Feb 2009, it would be this one.

The Brain That Changes Itself

You may not have heard of Paul Wolfe.
You may never hear of Paul Wolfe.

But someday soon Paul Wolfe will grow his business.
And by the time we finish with the year 2012, Paul will be extremely successful.

So what is this prediction based on?
You see Paul doesn’t have many subscribers to his website (At last count he had less than 20).
In fact, he just started doing YouTube Videos a while ago (Maybe a month or less).
And those videos have bad lighting. And aren’t something magical.

But the magic isn’t in the videos.
Or the subscriber list.
It’s in the daily routine.
You see, every night before he goes to bed, Paul writes down what he’s done every single day.
And the achievement for the day.
And every single day he’s doing a little bit more. And more. And even more, as you may expect.

Which tells me one thing.
I don’t care how talented Paul really is.
I don’t care if his videos never improve.
I know that he’ll succeed.

Because the DNA of successful people is exactly the same. They keep at it. They do stuff every day, and keep at it relentlessly.
Which is why this is my prediction for 2012.

Paul Wolfe will be running a reasonably successful business.
Despite the recession.
Despite the blah, blah.
Despite everything you hear.
He’ll do it.

Watch this space.
Or watch his videos.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/howtoplaybassdotcom

And here’s the reasoning why: http://www.psychotactics.com/artmastery

The poster for the the movie “Elf”

Now I don’t want to boast, but this is what I do.
I run blogs at:
http://www.psychotactics.com/blog
http://www.brainaudit.com/blog
http://www.spidersecret.com/

Less frequently at:
http://www.cavechronicles.com
http://www.stickybusinessbooks.com

Write articles, per year:
http://www.5000bc.com (about 100-300 a year)
http://www.psychotactics.com (about 50 a year)

And monitor no less than four to five forums:
On the Psychotactics Courses forum, just this year, the tally is 4000 posts (This includes reviews of articles/websites/and detailed answers to questions which may take as long as twenty minutes per post to answer). On 5000bc, you can find 7000+ posts (we lost about 5000 of my earlier posts when 5000bc crashed in 2007).

I write two courses a year at the very least
Each course has about 200+ pages of notes/graphics (these take a lot of time–the graphics)
There’s audio.
I also present these courses live (which means the Keynote/Powerpoint slides have to be created as well).

I will often do mini courses or mini products.
e.g. The re-write of the Brain Audit book.

On top of this there’s assorted stuff like:
Full colour cartoons for the blog.
Audio files for the blog.
And other assorted requests like Vanishing Reports in 5000bc. etc.
And in the past I’ve created the entire website design, HTML, graphics etc.
I still do the graphics and website design for any new website or revamp (e.g. new Psychotactics and now 5000bc revamp in Dec 2008).

And then I respond to every email for every subscriber (yes, every subscriber).

The question is when do I sleep, let alone go on vacation or anything.
Just reading this list should make you tired.

But here’s what’s happening.
In about 25 minutes I’m off to play badminton.
I’ll be back in 3 hours.
Then have lunch.
Probably go to the cafe.
And that’s the end of the day.

How is this possible?
It is. And there are ways to do all of the above, because though it seems like there’s an army of elves doing all of the above, there’s just Renuka and I. And she likes the trips to the cafe as much. Plus she takes her parents out twice a week, so those days are half-days for her.

How does this all happen?
Where are the elves?

Aha, you didn’t think I’d give the answer so easily, did you?

My wife Renuka, sniffled.
She sniffled. She sneezed.
Achoo!
Achoo!
Achoo!

For thirteen years she sneezed.
Her eyes would get all red and puffy.
She tried all types of anti-allergy medication.
It would work for a while, then it was back to achoo!

Incredible as it seems, the problem was in her brain.
Your brain reacts to allergies with a code. And that code has a ‘virus.’ So when you run into dust or pollen the virus kicks in. It says: Execute command, and the virus starts rolling out.

How do we know it’s a virus? And not a program instead?
We know it because most of us don’t sneeze with pollen. Or dust. Or after drinking wine. But Renuka’s brain had accumulated a whole bunch of viruses. And to try and subdue these viruses, she’d take anti-allergy medication. But anti-allergy medication simply stops the virus from executing. It can’t erase the virus. And frankly, erasing the virus is a waste of time.

All we need is to re-wire the brain to stop running the program in the first instance. The brain needs to have a completely different code written to deal with dust. Then it stops sneezing.

Which is what Renuka did
She visited an anti-allergy clinic. Or should I say allergy-elimination. But were they able to prevent dust or pollen from entering her system? No they weren’t. But they were able to write a new program onto her brain. A program that ignored the dust, pollen, etc. A program that was fresh and didn’t have any viruses.

And so it is with talent and learning.
Trying to fix the problem with medication (more courses; more training) isn’t going to help at all. Instead all the brain does is replicate the anti-allergy syndrome and pretends to learn. But eventually the virus kicks in and you’re back to where you started. If you truly want to learn a new skill. If you truly want to develop a talent, you’re wasting time trying to eliminate the virus.

What you need to do is write fresh code.
Code with no viruses in the first place
And the achoo goes away forever!

Note: Renuka doesn’t sneeze. She can enjoy her wine, go out amongst the flowers in spring, and dust away to her heart’s content. And it was all done with no pills, no medication and simple re-writing of code. (It’s actually a simple system of re-wiring and no wires are involved–just in case you’re wondering). 

Read Part 1 of How To Bypass A Brain Virus

I was sitting at my favourite cafe in Takapuna with Renuka’s niece, Marsha.
Marsha was only three and half years old at the time, and happily drinking her um, ‘coffee’, when she looked upwards (as most kids do), and noticed a black object on the glass.

“What’s that?” she asked.
“Fungus,” I said.

“Fungus,” she repeated about three-four times.
Then promptly she forgot. And asked again.
Of course I told her it was called fungus. And she nodded happily.

When she went back home to her mother, she ran through the door and said “Mama, I saw a bungus.”
Of course confusion reigned till I stepped in to clarify that it was a fungus.
And Marsha was delighted to correct herself and say the word correctly.

Most adults don’t act like Marsha
They’re defensive. Incredibly defensive.
They’re attacking. And it gets a bit scary how they fight back at times.

They don’t want to make a mistake.
They don’t want to appear in a bad light.
They are insecure. Because if they weren’t insecure, they would have no problem making mistakes. Or letting the world know about mistakes.

Most of us want to appear perfect.
We don’t want to make mistakes.
We don’t want others to learn that we’ve made a mistake.
In effect, we’re dolts.

Even a three and half year old knows better.
In fact the reason why kids have an enormous learning capacity is because they follow a very clear pattern of:
1) Learn
2) Talk
3) Implement
4) Make mistake.
5) Go back to start.

Most kids are smart because they’re professional mistake makers. They live in a world of ‘conscious incompetence’. Most adults are dolts.

They learn less not because they don’t have the time. Or because they have no talent.
They learn less because they can’t be like Marsha.

This isn’t a learner sign: It’s a ‘I’m going to make a mistake’ sign

Think of anything you’ve ever learned.
Anything.
Ever learned.

And the only way you’ll have learned it is by making a mistake.
Look at the act of learning the alphabet.
Speaking; walking; running; talking; dancing, and just about anything.
And you’ll never be able to point out even one instance in your entire life that was learned without making a mistake.

This idea of willfully making a mistake scares the heck out of most people.
It literally means that you have to make mistakes—and that if you don’t make mistakes you can’t learn. If you can’t learn, you can’t acquire a new talent. If you can’t acquire a new talent, you remain exactly where you are.

Are you scared?
You should be.
Because the younger you are, the less you’re afraid of making mistakes. The older you get, the more you tell your brain it’s bad to make a mistake. The older you get, the more you feel you have to learn something quickly, and correctly the first time.

Yet that’s not the way the brain learns at all.
The only way the brain learns is through actively making mistakes. The brain’s most powerful tool is to make the mistake, recognise the mistake, and then try to remember the mistake. This is so that it doesn’t make the mistake again, or doesn’t create mistakes of an equal intensity.

This process needs time and effort.
The smaller, and simpler the task, the quicker the brain is able to eliminate mistakes. The more complex the task, the more time and effort is required to make the mistake, recognise it, remember it and finally correct it.

And yet the correction factor is almost never 100%.
So let’s say you’re learning a new dance step for instance. The brain has to first goof up. Once it has goofed up, it has to recognise the goof up, or it won’t improve. Once recognition sets in, all your neurons have to fire in the right sequence to memorise this mistake.

The more you muck up the dance step, the more your brain has to work out what’s wrong. And with every mistake, it eliminates only a percentage of the error. It’s only when it eliminates 100% of the error, does it then get that dance step right.

What’s interesting is that you’re never learning one step at a time.
You’re learning several steps. And the brain has to go over this whole sequence of making the mistake, recognising it, memorising it and then fixing it.

And it has to do this entire sequence for every single mistake.

Luckily our brains have enormous computing power.
And they’re able to process these mistakes and make corrections in a matter of milliseconds—if we are willing to make the mistake, that is.

The biggest reason we don’t get talented is for a simple reason.
It’s because we can’t bear to make a mistake.
And as you can now tell, that’s the biggest mistake of all!

Note: During this lesson I had to go through this exact process, because I was trying to learn how to insert an ‘em-dash’. On my PC, I have to press Alt + 0151 on my keyboard to get an ‘em-dash.’ On a Mac, it’s different. I have to press  Shift+ Alt + – to get the same result. I learned how to create the ‘em-dash’, and then promptly goofed it up. I had to go back several times to learn it. And now I think I have it. Or do I?

2007 World Skating Champion: Miki Ando

When you look around you and see talented people you may run into a common misconception.
You may believe that those considered ‘talented’ or ‘creative’ require less practice.

Makes sense, huh?
If you’re already talented, where’s the need for practice?
You already have what it takes.

Your brain is genetically engineered towards your talent.
You should be coasting downhill, while the others struggle.

Yet the evidence all around you, points to the exact opposite situation.
The top athletes in the world practice long hours.
The top artists in the world seem to be stuck to their palettes.
The best speakers go over their material, time after time, after time.
The best figure skaters do their routines hypnotically.

In fact, when research was done on the top figure skaters, here’s what the researchers found.
They found that the mark of the top skater is the ability to do their spins and jumps.

And that the absolute crème da la crème skaters did more jumps and spins, when practicing.

The researchers found that the slightly lower-ranked skaters did just a little less practice.
And took more breaks in between their jumps and spins.

Less practice, eh?
And yet we strongly believe that talent is inborn.
Because if talent were indeed inborn, then where’s the need to practice?

Where’s the need to do yet another jump and turn?

Surely even at the highest level of sport, one figure skater would be so overloaded with talent, that it would be impossible for others to catch up. Surely it would be impossible, no matter how many hours of practice their competition puts in.

Talent or creativity is the result of many, many hours of frustrating practice.
Because when we have courses, like say Article Writing for instance, I can tell you who’ll be the star of the course.
I can tell you within days of the course beginning, who’ll write better articles than anyone else.
I can tell you, even without knowing that person’s background, or capability, or any so-called talent.
I can tell you based on momentum.

The ones who consistently write better, faster, and with more panache are those who practice.
Day in, day out. Week in, week out.

The momentum builds on itself.
Suddenly patterns emerge.
Suddenly the achievement is higher.
Suddenly the pats on the back increase.

But is momentum alone enough to create a factor of skill?
Obviously not.
However, it is one of the most critical factors, as compared to everything else.

Because whom would you rather believe?
The perception of the average person on the street—who believes in inborn talent?
Or the figure skater doing yet one more practice jump and turn?

People believe they’re good at drawing…or bad at drawing

How this this crazy notion come about? How did we get it into our heads that we were good or bad at something? I’ll tell you how.

Let’s take drawing, because most people simply can’t draw…

So why can’t they draw? Is it because they’re not talented? Let’s see, shall we?

Imagine a skill you’re good at: Like walking around a banana peel, for instance.
Imagine someone put five banana peels in your path.
Or ten. Or twenty-five. Or even fifty.

Would you be able to avoid the banana peel, and walk right along?
Silly question, eh? But what’s the banana peel got to do with your brain?
The brain recognised the danger of the peel. It recognised that the peel could create damage.
You could slip; fall; hurt yourself; even die.

So the brain pays attention. It prevents you from stepping on the peel in the future.
Drawing, on the other hand,  doesn’t cause you to slip; fall or hurt yourself.

So your brain has no need to pay attention.
Yet, imagine you did a drawing as a child.
Imagine that every time you did that drawing you were slapped.
Not just slapped hard across the face. But ridiculed. And punished.
What are the chances you’d become really outstanding at drawing?

Pretty slim, huh?
So let’s take the exact opposite. Let’s say you did the drawing, and your mother was really excited. She showed it to everyone. She told you (and told the world) how talented you were. She brought you more crayons. More paper. More encouragement. And despite being ‘lousy’ at drawing, she felt no intimidation when showing you—a little child—how to draw.

And so the stirrings of talent begin.
You become talented.
You draw more.
You use drawing as a weapon to get attention.
You spend more time, understanding the medium and patterns better.
You get more attention. You draw even more. And the attention feeds on itself, resulting in more effort, more training.
And voila, you’re an artist.

You see it’s stupidity that causes us to believe in talent.
Talent is nothing but a seed, well watered.

Which is why most of us have a ‘talent’ to speak almost one language.
Most of us have a ‘talent’ to press door bells, and speak on phones.
Most of us have a ‘talent’ to recite and write our alphabet from one end to the other.

Which brings us back to drawing
Surely drawing is a lot more complex than reciting and writing the alphabet.
You think so? Tell that to a three-year old child.
Watch as she struggles with just the letter A. Or B. Or the combination of A, B and C.
So what makes her talent grow?

It’s the banana peel of life.
Her parents know that that child will ’slip and fall’ if she doesn’t learn her alphabet.
So they make the alphabet fun. They show the child a cat. And say the letter C.
They show the child a ball, and you guessed it, it’s the letter B.

And soon, every child becomes a genius at the alphabet.
And you know what, if you are a genius at the alphabet, I can indeed teach you how to draw using NOTHING but the alphabet.
And could you then become a genius at drawing?

Hmmm…food for thought, eh?
So what are your questions? Because as you can tell, this is indeed going to be a long, long series.