How to develop your growth mindset #2

Last week I wrote about the growth mindset and provided tip #1 on how to develop it on a daily basis.

Tip #2 Learn more about the plasticity of your brain.

It will help you grow your mindset on a rational level and believe that you can change.

Neuroplasticity is our brain’s capacity to learn. Our brains have the remarkable ability to make new connections and reorganize pathways or even create new neurons.

We used to believe that the brain is fixed after a certain age, but that is not the case. Research shows that our brain never stops changing as a result of learning.

Some examples of neuroplasticity:

Research from 2006 shows that London cab drivers have a larger hippocampus than London bus drivers. Why? Predetermined routes don’t require complex spatial reasoning.

Researchers in Germany taught adults how to juggle, caught the images of these adults’ brain by MRI scanner before they started learning to juggle and when they became more proficient. Already after 7 days there was an increase in grey matter in the area critical for visual motion recognition. This research suggests that learning a new skill is more critical than honing what you know already – our brain wants to be challenged.

Learning a new language causes the grey matter to grow in the left inferior frontal gyrus – an area that is active in language processing as well as other parts of your brain.

Check out this Interactive Brain Model. It will help you visualize the possibilities for your growth. Change is just around the corner.