our bodies are living to be a hundred
years but live for what if our brains
aren't going to keep up with our bodies
right now our lifespan is double what
our brain span is fortunately
discoveries that we're making for our
body are now being made for our brain
bringing about a fundamental paradigm
shift in things that we can do to make
our brain healthier in how you think for
the first time ever we're discovering
ways to stay mentally vibrant and active
till the end of life barring of course
major brain maladies and injuries so
this brain movement it's being propelled
by evidence showing yes we can make our
brain smarter who knew if someone who
told me this a decade ago I would have
said there is no way that is science
fiction but the evidence is clear it is
now science faction but first I need to
debunk some myths far too long
we have believed that I lived under the
misunderstanding that smart is something
that's fixed and it's measured by things
that we haven't understood very well for
example we thought that you're born it's
a trait that you're born with that can't
be improved or change that much IQ is 6
IQ was never designed to measure the
highest bar our brain could achieve and
when I ask corporate executives around
the country how do you hire the smartest
and brightest people and I said oh well
we use IQ and GPA and SAT and what
college they went to and what degrees
people have you know what you're right
it never predicts who's going to succeed
because smart is more than IQ
it is not fixed it's things like
ingenious creative insightful
resourceful and much much more so how do
we make our brain smart thin the science
of smarter thinking is that you engage
your brains frontal lobe our frontal
lobes our CEO our command station where
you do your decision-making your
planning your problem solving it is the
largest part of our brain that has the
most connections throughout your entire
brain it's the last to develop it's
twenty-five first to decline age forty
but it doesn't have to happen we can do
something to halt and reverse that to do
it to reverse the brain decline these
are the things that we have found in
this really is the big kahuna for a
brain scientist and for you personally
when you change your brain we see you
make your brain healthier when you use
your frontal lobe we're able to change
your brain at all levels of Health
increase brain blood flow oh my gosh
that matters to neurons they like the
glucose and the oxygen increase your
connectivity of the different connects
canet works talking to each other and
even increasing the white matter that
connects it take this for example our
brain blood flow we lose two to three
percent every decade beginning in our
20s with complex thinking we've been
able to show that people can regain
eight ten and twelve percent in just
hours this is huge this is why it
matters so you think how do I get those
changes in my brain you have to think in
higher-level ways to engage your brain
and I'm going to give you some
strategies that we've shown works
through using our brain imaging we can
see brain change
in real time and see people change on
cognitive test so I'm going to give you
strategies and I call them brain powers
the brain power of one this is where you
single-mindedly focus on one thing and
avoid the task to do two things at once
and you don't let distractions come in
the brain power of two this is where you
look at your long list of things to do
and you figure out what are the two most
important things they're going to make
the most difference to your day and you
spend your brain prime time doing those
what I and one of the things that I use
to help people remember that is when
you're hunting elephants don't get
distracted chasing rabbits right because
our rabbits take our whole day away and
then the brain power of deep this is
where and this is the most
transformative it requires the most
effort and it's where you take
information in from all the sources
blend it with the rich knowledge that's
already in there and you form abstracted
ideas general ideas synthesize
synthesize constantly ten twenty thirty
times a day talks you hear TV shows
conversations synthesize get off of
automatic pilot the brain power of let's
reduce the amount of information Big
Data freezes our brain the brain power
of innovative thinking our brain was
wired to be inspired the connections
happen faster when you're inspired by
what you're doing it hates status quo
and it hates automatic pilot our brain
goes backwards on those add to these
strategies healthy habits eat sleep move
your feet okay that sounds pretty simple
doesn't it things they make sense that
we could do then why haven't we been
doing them because we didn't know we
didn't know that you could make your
brain smarter and because we didn't know
we were doing
things that we thought were good for our
brain turns out toxic and we have to
stop for example multitasking the bane
of our society the science shows it
breaks down your brain at every level of
Health and makes you physically sicker
it increases your stress we thought
let's strive for near perfect memory
that must mean mentally robust
memorization does not equate to
understanding look what's happening in
our education system today the more that
we do this rote robotic regurgitation of
information guess what the lower our
deeper level thinking and advanced
reasoning is happening and then we felt
will constant workout if I keep my
memory active that must be good right
wrong turns out our brain needs downtime
it needs time to have aha moments to
have more energy and to be more
productive
doesn't that sound grand for your brain
to be more energetic and more productive
at a time when we're working so fast we
can hardly keep pace with life or think
a new thought at the end of the day
we've got to make the time to think
deeper and also take the time to be
inspired by what we can do we can no
longer accept the fate that our brain is
living an entire lifetime after our
brain has peaked take Luke he didn't
accept the seat of fate of that he came
to me to be involved in high-performance
spring training and spent one week 12
hours at the end of the week he said I
feel like I have undergone cognitive
resurrection he said I knew I could work
my body stronger I've worked thousands
of hours
becoming office I had no idea I could
make my brain stronger and smarter and
more decisive he said I wish I'd known
that 20 years ago you see the highest
grade I ever made was a C I would give
anything to be able to go to graduate
school and to be a brain scientist to
help my troops because they need brain
health I looked at him and I said Luke
do not accept those outdated notions of
GPA to find your smart nail and so guess
what he took the challenge he applied
got accepted to the top tier and he's
going to succeed because he knows how to
work hard so what about you
are you willing to take the stand and
say brain let's go I am going to be
blaze this path and make sure my best
friend ears are out there I'm guessing
that you have not even begun to tap the
potential within your brain if you begin
to use your brains resolution I believe
that if every single person here begins
to embrace the extraordinary power that
you have right inside your head this
amazing gift that you've been given that
we're going to give so much to the world
think about it our brain is the most
important asset and resource that you
have it's the power source behind
everything that you do make sure your
best brain ears smarter healthier or
ahead of you thank you
you