Ladies and gentlemen, this is your brain. Everybody take your hands, go like this, put them together and rub them a bit, and the first thing is this. The brain has two hemispheres. Take your brain and pull it together. Does anyone know what your left brain is good at?

The left brain is really good at logic, logical functions. It’s good at math, making lists of things to do. Here’s the thing. The left brain gets used a lot. One of the things that we have proven and this is what we’re teaching around the world which is actually pretty dangerous, is that 73% of what we’re learning only challenges the left brain. That means the other side of our brain, which is just as big as the other side, only gets used 23% of the time. What do you think the right brain is for?

Creativity. It also involves emotion and complex problem solving. This is one of the challenges. Companies now around the world are saying schools are not doing a good job of preparing students for the real world and they have to spend more money having to retrain students. The world is changing very fast and just knowing math is not going to allow you to adapt and change and keep up with the world. Schools are really good at the left brain, but the question is how do we challenge the right brain?

Now take your hands and put them like this. We’re going to take our hands and pretend like we’re working out. Pretend that in your left hand you have a weight that’s really heavy. Pull it up on the count to 3 and really stress it. Bring it up one more time, and feel the burn. Okay, let it out. Now go ahead and grab onto the arm. Notice even when you fake it it really forces the muscle. That’s how we build the body. This time, on the right side, pretend to put a feather in your right hand and lift it up quickly. Shake it out. Now, if you grab onto your arm notice no stress, tear, shaping, or strengthening. Now would you ever exercise your body that way? Why? No balance, right? We’d never do that to our body but we do that everyday in traditional schools. If that right brain is weak, you lose half of your decision making ability. We get way too logical, and this is why we get challenged in relationships. There’s one thing that can help us save this. This is called the neural pathway. It connects the right and left brain and allows you to make good decisions. Take your hand, put one finger out like this, pretend you’re touching something hot on the stove, and what’s the first thing you do? You make a noise and pull it away right? When you touch something hot, the electricity goes up to your brain, first to your left side and gives it the information. The left moves it to the right side and because it’s emotional, it screams. Then it goes back to the left side and says to move the finger. Then it sends it back to the right side because it controls our body and physical movement, and the right sends the message down to the finger and moves it away. The same is true of all decisions in your brain. If your brain is healthy and the left and right are working well together, you have better understanding, have better relationships, and you get better results.

How many of you have heard the word genius? Tell me someone you’ve heard of that’s a genius. A lot of people often can only think of 3 or 4 geniuses. In fact, recent studies in the brain show that 1 out of 11 children are born at genius capacity. Researchers questioned if you could become a genius and not just be born one. They studied brains of geniuses and compared sizes. They were the same. There are no extra parts to a genius brain, it has all the same parts your brain has. They wanted more research. They took the brain, put it in a meat slicer, and sliced it like sandwich meat. They took the slices and saw the biggest difference in the brain. The genius brain has 3 to 8 times as many wires that move between the 2 sides of the brain. But wait, they did more research. Can we build those connections or are we born with them? From the moment that you are born to literally the second life leaves your body, your body has everything it needs to build and create new connections every single time and be a genius. There are 2 things I want to give you before we leave tonight. These are the two ways to build your brain everyday so you can be a genius.

Number 1, use your body. Your body generates electricity that allows your brain to build those connections. When you sit for a long time you get tired and sleepy. One of the things have to do is engage that body. Reenergize that body. That’s why every few moments I’ve been having you give high fives, move your seat, or turn to someone next to you. It resets the attention span in your brain. Take one hand and touch your ear. Take the other and touch your nose. We’re going to see if you brain is working. Ready, set, switch. Switch, switch! Shake it out, give yourselves a hand.

Your brain has an equator and has an electrical meridian. When electricity crosses from one side to the other, it has to have a message. If you throw a Frisbee, you’re getting smarter. If you throw a ball, if you kick your leg like this. Every time it crosses the body the electricity fires. When the brain stays healthy and it creates longevity. All of these things are accomplished simply by moving the body.

The second thing is this. The way your brain works is that when you build these connections, you now have new ways of moving things between the brain. The more you repeat doing the same thing, the thicker the line gets and this is called routine. The connection gets stronger and stronger. Your auto pilot system takes over because of these thick connections. But you can build thick connections for bad habits too. So to break them, you need to build connections in different ways. So the number two thing is to try new things. Try new and different ways of getting things done all the time. If you eat with your right hand, try with your left.

You do these two things and your brain will be happy and healthy.