Do we come into this world as conservative thinkers?
Or are we born with a radical bent?
Not surprisingly, we aren’t born with a blank slate.
We come into this world with Version 1.0 embedded in our brains.
So if you look at the most isolated to the most populated places on the planet, you’ll find we’re born with the same core Version 1.0 software.
And yet the software gets a sort of ‘virus’.
Some of us turn extremely conservative. We detest radical thoughts.
And some of us turn extremely radical. We in turn detest conservative thinking and actions.
But showing contempt for the other side is crazy. Because everything on the planet, including talent, is a matter of structure. Structure is conservative.
Talent is also a matter of art. Art is radical free-thinking.
Creativity and Talent do not exist in thin air. They need structure.
Structure is boring without creativity. It would make our lives drab and doom us to boredom.
Creativity without structure would lead to complete chaos.
Both must exist side by side.
Our iPhones, our cars, our houses, our computers: everything is based on someone’s ability to transcend their radical or conservative virus, and use both sides to create something new.
We can live with a virus that forces us to be ultra-conservative or ultra-radical.
Or we can understand that they’re like yin and yang.
That one cannot actually exist without the other.
The day you learn how to use the conservative as well as the radical part of your brain, that’s the day you’ll learn faster than ever before.
But can you do it?
Can you actually step over to the other side?
Try it. You’ll be amazed at what you find there!
(Watch this video by Jonathan Haidt as well: You may need to be online to watch it)
Here’s an interesting story about ‘creativity’.
It’s so interesting that I’ll reproduce it verbatim.
What’s even better is that it’s about a painting.
And how the painting linked to article-writing?
You’re dying to know, huh? Well read on.
This note is from Catherine Marechal, who lives in Italy and whose first language is French.
Happy Birthday Sean!
I want to thank you and let you know of an unusual result of the article writing course. I have been painting a lot with my left hand. I always had difficulty just finding the time to paint. Now I just do it almost every morning and have no problem finding the time…. and my painting is very different from my right hand work!
What is the link with article writing?
As you know I had problems with keeping only one idea in my article outline. After a conversation with Leah, when I told her I thought my problem was because I was mostly right brain. She asked me if I was left handed. I said no, and that as a small kid I was ambidextrous but the French school system decided that I would be right handed. and I became right handed.
After talking with Leah, I decided to do my article outline handwriting with my left hand. In fact it worked, you said that you could not see any change to do in my article.
My friend Celeste Varley (the painter and teacher) who I have been encouraging to take your article writing course, suggested that I try to paint with my left hand rather than doing with both hands (but mostly my right hand was predominant) after I told her the story.
So here is my birthday gift, one of my left hand painting
Catherine
Incredible, huh?
That a mere shift of the hand not only made her article-writing a whole lot better, but that Catherine is now painting frequently, and with great confidence. And that is indeed the power of the brain when it decides to achieve things, rather than just back away and pretend that about a lack of ‘talent’.
You don’t think of serial killers as creative, do you?
They go about killing people, while all the time following a very creative pattern.
And detectives are able to figure out the serial killer based on the killer’s creative pattern.
Once the detective works out the pattern, it’s not hard to track and throw the serial killer away forever.
Your brain has a serial killer too.
It’s called the ‘I can’t do that’ syndrome.
And like a serial killer, it sticks to the pattern, killing the chances of learning a new talent.
And there’s no detective to put that serial killer behind bars.
So your brain’s serial killer runs rampant.
And the older you get, the more you get set in your ways.
With every passing year, you decide that you’re beyond help.
You bolster yourself with silly lines like ‘You can’t teach an old dog, new tricks’.
And quite the opposite is true.
Your brain has a hundred billions neurons.
All waiting to be lit.
But instead they lie dead.
Killed by the serial killer.
The killer of talent.
It’s not some outsider.
It’s your own brain cells that are killing the other ones off.
If you want to stop the killer, you have to be more ‘creative.’
Take up activities like music, or dancing, or learning a new skill is crucial.
Even playing a game like Scrabble once a week will immediately boost your creative skills.
Turning on the lights in your brain.
And scaring the killer off for good!
Sir Robert Winston has done more research on the human body and brain than your cousin.
Yet most of us believe our cousins, our friends, or others who know close to nothing about their brains.
In an ongoing study of the human brain, Sir Winston studies children.
Should you learn small chapters of information and keep repeating them several times?
Or should you go through an entire body of knowledge and then repeat it several times?
Should you take in a birdy’s view? Or get to ground level?
There’s no easy answer to the question.
Because layering may be caused at one level, by learning everything from one end to the other. And layering may be caused by repeating one action over and over.
Let me give you an example:
I go for badminton, and am coached to improve my game. And for the entire hour of coaching, I hit one shot over and over again. So I’ll hit the same shot maybe 300 times or more in an hour. Or a variation of the same shot with subtle improvements.
But then I go and play 6-8 games in a row. And then I have to play a whole variety of shots, and deal with a variety of opponents. Some who are so good, they drive you up the wall. And some who are so bad, they drive you up the wall.
The good ones, because they make you think and move quickly.
The bad ones, because you have to force yourself to concentrate despite the silly errors that slow the momentum. So the layering happens at various levels. Both through intense repetition. And then through actual duration of play.
And at both levels, there’s a distinct improvement. So not only does the next coaching session improve as a result of the game, but the next game improves as a result of the coaching practice.
And this brings us to an understanding of what’s happening in the brain
At first the brain is all flustered. What it needs is a matter of stability. Some people get that stability by reading the entire material and then digging through the specifics. Some people need to focus on the specifics to move ahead.
So how do you decide?
You can’t.
You have to do long periods of repetition (as I do in my coaching sessions).
And short bursts of multiple learning (and I do in the game).
Alternating between the two allows your brain to learn and apply at different levels.
And speed up learning like never before.
See that bridge. That’s a ‘bridge of pain’ or ‘no-pain.’ Find out how your brain deals with creating permanent pain.
I play a lot of badminton these days.
And after running on the courts for two hours, I’m fine.
But the next day, my knees are sore.
I find it difficult to bend my knees. And have to use some sort of pain-relieving balm.
So I decided to use my brain as a balm instead
And drive resources from my brain to make sure my knees are not sore any more.
So all I did was focus on my knees not being sore.
And believe me, I’m no magician.
Incredibly, they’re not sore any more.
Now this sounds bizarre, doesn’t it?
Probably as bizarre as learning a new skill.
When you learn a new skill you’re in extreme pain.
And of course, you have all those naysayers saying, “You’re not talented.”
So there’s a lot more than mere extreme pain. There’s discouragement too.
But the brain can rise above all of this pain to create permanent success.
You see the brain works on the system of synapses and neurons (wait, don’t glaze over, because I’ll explain)
Think of neurons as two sides of a cliff.
Neuron 1 is one side of cliff.
Neuron 2 is the other side of the cliff.
There’s a wide, deep ravine in between those cliffs.
To cross over, you need a bridge
That bridge is the synapse bridge.
When we learn something new, the brain keeps building a bridge between the two cliffs.
All the time, as you go through your day, your brain is building new bridges.
The more you repeat a learning or action, the more the brain works on strengthening the bridge, because it recognises the bridge as important.
So you can create a bridge of pain.
And the brain will keep working on that bridge so that your synapse (bridge) is one one of pain.
Day after day. Week after week. Month after month.
Pain and more pain.
So that a once rickety bridge becomes a steel structure.
A structure that’s permanent, and can take on even more loads of pain.
Thus increasing your pain manifold.
Really talented people recognise the failure and the pain
But they rise above it forcing their brain to remember the joy and achievement.
The excuse-makers find a way to focus the brain on the pain and failure.
And the brain gives us exactly what we want. It creates a stronger bridge of pain or joy—depending on what you choose.
So do you want to fix muscular pain?
Or creative pain?
Get your brain to swing into action. And see how it fixes the so-called problem faster than you think.
