6-5 Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

I love reading history and being inspired by the biographies of extraordinary people. One of the most unusual people I've ever read about, is inspiring not only because he was so extraordinary, but also, because he was so ordinary.

 

 Santiago Ramón y Cajal was a born troublemaker. In rural Spain of the 1860s, there weren't many options for oddball juvenile delinquents. So that's how at 11 years old, Cajal found himself in jail. Cajal was stubborn and rebellious. Who knew that Santiago Ramón y Cajal would one day not only earn the Nobel Prize, but eventually become known as the Father of Modern Neuroscience?

 

 Cajal was already in his early 20s when he began climbing from bad boy delinquency into the traditional study of medicine. There's evidence that myelin sheaths, the fatty insulation that helps signals move more quickly along a neuron, don't finish developing in some people until they're in their twenties. This may explain why teenagers often have trouble controlling their impulsive behavior. The wiring between the intention and the control areas of the brain isn't completely formed. When you use neural circuits however, it seems you help build the myelin sheath over them; not to mention making many other microscopic changes.

 

 Practice appears to strengthen and reinforce connections between different brain regions, creating highways between the brain's control centers and the centers that store knowledge. In Cajal's case, it seems his natural maturation processes coupled with his own efforts to develop his thinking, helped him to take control of his overall behavior. It seems people can enhance the development of their neuronal circuits by practicing thoughts that use those neurons. We're still in the infancy of understanding neural development. One thing is becoming clear, we can make significant changes in our brain by changing how we think.

 

 Cajal met and worked with many brilliant scientists through his lifetime. People who were often far smarter than he. In Cajal's autobiography however, he pointed out that although brilliant people can do exceptional work, just like anyone else they can also be careless and biased. Cajal felt the key to his own success was his perseverance. What he called the virtue of the less brilliant, coupled with his flexible ability to change his mind and admit errors. Anyone, Cajal noted, even people with average intelligence, can change their own brains so that even the least gifted can produce an abundant harvest.

 

 People like Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution has made him one of the most influential figures in human history, are often thought of as these, sort of, natural geniuses. You may be surprised to learn that much like Cajal, Darwin was a poor student in school. He washed out of medical school and ended up, to his father's horror, heading out on a round the world voyage as the ship's naturalist. Out on his own, Darwin was able to look with fresh eyes at the data he was collecting. Approaching material with a goal of learning it on your own, can give you a unique path to mastery. Often no matter how good your teacher and textbook are, it's only when you sneak off and look at other books or videos that you begin to see what you learn through a single teacher, or book, is a partial version of the full three dimensional reality of the subject, which has links to still other fascinating topics that are of your choosing. Taking responsibility for your own learning is one of the most important things you can do.

 

 Santiago Ramón y Cajal had a deep understanding, not only of how to conduct science but also of how people just interact with one another. He warned fellow learners that there will always be those who criticize or attempt to undermine any effort or achievement you make. This happens to everybody; not just Nobel Prize winners. If you do well in your studies, the people around you can feel threatened. The greater your achievement, the more other people will sometimes attack and demean your efforts. On the other hand, if you flunk a test, you also may encounter critics who throw more barbs, saying you don't have what it takes.

 

 We're often told that empathy is universally beneficial. But it's not. It's important to learn to switch on an occasional cool dispassion that helps you to not only focus on what you're trying to learn, but also to tune people out if you discover that their interests lie in undercutting you. Such undercutting is all too common, as people are often just as competitive as they are cooperative. When you're a young person, mastering such dispassion can be difficult. We're naturally excited about what we're working on, and we like to believe that everyone can be reasoned with and then, almost everyone is naturally good hearted towards us. Like Santiago Ramón y Cajal, you can take pride in aiming for success. Because of the very things that make other people say you can't do it. Take pride in who you are. Especially, in the qualities that make you different, and use them as a secret talisman for success. Use your natural contrariness to defy the always present prejudices from others about what you can accomplish.

 

 I'm Barbara Oakley. Thanks for learning about learning.