Enhance your Success by Minding your Brain

If you want to stay sharp, make good decisions, and be successful you have to start with YOU.

One way to do this is to take responsibility for your body and take better care of yourself. As you get older, your mind ages just like every other part of your body. While a loss of your bullseye dart-throwing abilities might be a little depressing, it’s far more depressing to feel your mental capacity slipping. The best defense is a good offense. There are many things you can do to enhance your success and your mind’s abilities, and you can make a difference right now.

The more you can increase your mental capacities, the better you will manage your family, business, and decisions. Taking better care of your brain is a sure way to increase your success across every part of your life. And there’s no time like today to get started. Pick a few of these strategies and begin enhancing your mind today!

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” Jim Rohn

You can enhance your success and mind in simple and enjoyable ways, like these:

Sleep!

Nothing does more for your memory, motor skills, and cognitive skills in general than a good night of sleep. Strive for at least seven hours of sleep each night. I know every entrepreneur and parent is laughing right now, but this is a “must-do” and if you are only getting a few hours of sleep a night you need to have the addressed. To find out how much sleep you should get based on your age visit SleepAdvisor.org

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes says this about the importance of sleep:

Sleep is important to a number of brain functions, including how nerve cells (neurons) communicate with each other.  In fact, your brain and body stay remarkably active while you sleep.  Recent findings suggest that sleep plays a housekeeping role that removes toxins in your brain that builds up while you are awake. 

Sleep affects almost every type of tissue and system in the body – from the brain, heart, and lungs to metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance.  Research shows that a chronic lack of sleep, or getting poor quality sleep, increases the risk of disorders including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity.

If you are unable to stay asleep that long experiment with your diet, exercise, and nightly routines. If you do not have the time to sleep that long you need to prioritize your schedule and put yourself in front of the line. A skilled sailor cannot be a sailor if there is no ship to sail.

Experiment with your diet.

Your diet can have a significant effect on your mental health. Simple changes like cutting back on milk products, gluten, processed meats, and artificial colors and flavors will have a noticeable and favorable effect on your mind. The effect food has on my focus and resiliency is evident when you compare my afternoon work progression after having a light vegetarian lunch or succumbing to a hearty serving or two of greasy pizza. If a change in lunch changes your mid-afternoon imagine how cutting out certain food for 30 days would feel?

One way to do this is to do a “Whole 30” challenge. This is a 30-day whole food eating exercise where you cut out all processed food, added sugar, dairy, and more? Sound impossible? There are books to follow with recipes and an entire community online that raves about the life-changing effects of a Whole 30. If it could increase your chance of success and change your life for the better would it be worth trying?

Do mental puzzles.

These can include crossword puzzles, word scrambles, Sudoku, chess, or any other type of mental exercise. You could even do math problems. Give your brain a workout each day. Staring at your computer or phone does not count as a mental workout. Try unplugging a give your mind an analog workout and see how you feel after a week or so.

Learn something new.

You could learn a language or how to play the banjo. Maybe you want to learn how to paint portraits or rebuild a Chevy V8. Your brain actually changes structure when you learn. Keep your brain’s neuroplasticity in tip-top shape by challenging it regularly. If you don’t use it you will lose it.

Listen to music.

There’s research that supports the idea that listening to classical music increases certain types of intelligence. Enjoy yourself by listening to music while boosting your mental capabilities. Try this as background music while making dinner, driving to work, or in your office.

Exercise.

Exercise strengthens nerve cells by a variety of mechanisms. It also improves blood flow to the brain. Studies show that animals that are exercised learn up to twice as fast. Try a simple exercise like walking around after dinner or at lunch, or jogging on the treadmill while listening to an audiobook. The key is to get your blood flowing and to enjoy the process enough that you’ll do it consistently.

Be social.

Studies show that social people have significantly better brain function than those that are less socially active. Social activities provide a different type of stimulation that does your brain good. Stop staying couped up at your computer and get out of the house and mingle with others. Studies show that having friends and being social doesn’t just improve your health, but it also will make you live longer.

Practice variety.

A routine can be limiting to your mind. Change up your activities. Instead of doing the same thing each night, shake things up a little bit. You might go out to eat one night, go bowling another, and stay at home and cook something new on the next evening. New experiences challenge your brain.

Your brain loses up to 10% of its weight between the ages of 20 and 80. If you want to stay sharp and continue your progression to a successful, amazing life you can start making a difference right now. You can strengthen your mind by exercising your brain regularly, eating better quality food, getting more rest and being social. By taking better care of YOU, you are increasing your chance of a better life.

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change”

-Michael Jackson

Growing older is inevitable, but should never be an excuse for not living an amazing, successful life, you can get ahead of the curve, enhance your success and mind your health today.