BLOG 073120: How You Got So Good At What You Do Best — The Journey from Ignorance to Your Unique Talents!
How You Got So Good At What You Do Best — The Journey from Ignorance to Your Unique Talents!
How your unique talents are formed!
My last blog asked the question, "Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?" I spoke about focusing on and utilizing your unique strengths on a consistent and regular basis and posited the numerous benefits of doing so.
This blog will take you on the journey of how your strengths are formed early in life as certain "talents" and through practice and conscious and unconscious effort, become grooved-in neural pathways and networks of connections.
Starting Out with 100 BILLION Neurons
You're born with over 100 billion neurons in your undeveloped brain. They're growing dramatically inside the womb starting about 40+ days after conception. Soon, your neurons start trying to link with each other through what is called synaptic connections. Within three years, each of the 100 billion neurons has up to 15,000 successful connections. Wow!
(How much is a billion? To get a sense of the magnitude of a "billion", check this out: if you could spend one dollar a second, it would take you almost 12 days to spend a million dollars; it would take you 31.7 years to spend a billion! Now, multiply that one billion by 100 to understand how many neurons are in your head at birth.)
An overabundance of possibility
However, this is an overload of information, so during the next 10 years, the brain begins to refine and focus its connected networks. The strong connections get stronger; the weaker ones die off. This is a culling/pruning process. Basically, your brain "grows backward!"
By the time you reach your mid-teens, you've eliminated HALF the synaptic connections. Yet, your brain has created some specific information highways where the neurons fire easily and rapidly.
This is where your unique talents are born! And, these childhood passions are caused by various synaptic connections in your brain.
One other thing... this configuration of your mental networks doesn't change much after your mid-teens!
Jumping ahead
Think about some of your talents today... (recall that a talent is a pattern of thinking, feeling, or behaving that can be productively applied. Are you "naturally" organized, patient, competitive, trusting, good at connecting with complete strangers, confrontational, strategically oriented, action-oriented, a risk-taker, future-focused, innately inquisitive, detail-oriented, etc.?
Look at what you do today—we tend to be drawn to occupations where we can use our talents. Is your role a good fit for your unique talents?
The Gallup Organization found that many people don't have the opportunity to use their talents and strengths in their jobs on a regular basis. People are often promoted to their "level of incompetence." (In the 1969 book The Peter Principle, Laurence Peter first mentioned this phenomenon.) How about you? Have you been pushed into (or chosen) a role that's wrong FOR YOU?
Why the interest? Karl Pribram - "The Magellan of the Mind"
My interest in the anatomical brain and its development of the mind started in the late 70s. Leading trainings four nights a week and 42 weekends a year gave me the opportunity to learn how people were creating (or not) results in their work and personal lives.
In the later 80s, I had the opportunity to sit at the feet of one of the pioneers in the neurosciences, Dr. Karl Pribram (1919-2015), as a trainer for The Summit Organization, Inc., a California state-wide personal and professional development corporation, where I led over 3,000 workshops.
Karl was often referred to as the "Magellan of the Mind" and at the time was an emeritus professor of psychiatry and psychology at Stanford University.
Trained as a neurosurgeon, he devoted his life to shedding light on the function and structure of the cerebral cortex. He worked with many of the icons in the field... Karl Lashley (Yerkes Laboratories of Primate Biology-Yale University), Richard Sperry, Paul Bucy, B.F. Skinner, George Miller (The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two), and physicist David Bohm, among others.
I last saw Karl and his spouse, international best-selling American author, Katherine Neville, at their apartment in Washington, D.C. in August of 2005, while he was serving as Distinguished Research Professor in cognitive neuroscience at Georgetown University. We had a great time catching up with each other and the paths we'd traveled since.
The impact of neural networks is profound
Taking into account the impact that your brain has on what you do and how well you do it is imperative, especially in today's fast-paced, high-volume, overwhelming, information-centered world.
Watch for upcoming emails/blogs explaining how you can achieve stress-free productivity by using your unique talents and strengths.
Reach out to me via an email (jimc@bsf.consulting) or by calling (919-263-1256) if you'd like to talk about your specific and distinct situation. I welcome your thoughts and questions.
And, if you know any business leaders who could benefit from this information, call me and we can talk about their situation. You may play golf or tennis with them or attend other business events together. You'll be doing them a BIG favor.
Jim Castiglia, Founder
Business Street Fighter Consulting, LLC
919-263-1256
http://www.BSF.Consulting 
