Can You Program Genius?
In Episode 6 of A Touch of Genius, we get a little brainiac. We begin to explore the relationship between mind and brain in order to help us optimise and improve our personal Genius. We get curious about our magnificent brain and how we can program it to develop our potential.
We also start to unpack how these two statements impact us, and how we can impact them:
“Neurons that fire together, wire together,” and “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”
Think of the brain as being the physical hardware, and the mind as being the software that runs it. Both need to be taken care of, because if not, we are not functioning at our best.
Do you ever stop to think about how your own brain works? How does it handle all your core bodily functions like blinking and breathing, whilst also handling more conscious functions like typing, driving, thinking out strategies, playing an instrument, listening to someone, or handling heavy machinery? We have so many programs running within the brain at once, that it’s quite the miracle machine, isn’t it?
Do you understand how your mind is set up to function? You’ve probably seen those images presenting the mind like it’s an iceberg — that tiny peak that sticks out of the water is the conscious part of our minds, and the mega chunk that lies below the waterline is the subconscious part, which drives practically everything, right down to how often we blink and breathe and what we choose to have for breakfast.
This is where all our beliefs, attitudes and values are packed in. The things that drive our actions, behaviours and results. We think we live through our conscious mind, but it’s the big chunk of the subconscious mind that’s hidden under the imaginary waterline that really controls what’s going on. Which is why when we reach a point where we hit the proverbial iceberg like the Titanic did, we’re actually crashing into our own beliefs.
During our core development phase up to about 6 years old is where we take in crucial information from our surroundings. This is what starts to inform our own belief system, our attitudes and eventually our values. If we’re not encouraged to have a positive attitude to explore our curiosity and develop our skills with, then it’s no surprise if we don’t do just that. If we keep hearing our parents caution us about how dangerous the world is, it’s not surprising that many people choose to stay within their town and never leave. If you keep hearing that somebody met an untimely death or harsh repercussions because they acted differently from all the rest, it may condition you to stay within the box of societal norms and not develop your talents or ideas.
To get the rest of this content, tune into Episode 6 here.
