“I just can’t do the math!” “I don’t learn very easily.” “I can’t pay attention long enough to learn.” 

If you have ever entertained any of these limiting beliefs before then, I am here today to dispel the myths of these thoughts, even though I have never met you or seen your academic ability before. Here is the secret we were never taught in our education system. You are capable of learning anything. Anything at all.  Now, will you learn at a different pace? In your way? Maybe but when you have been force-fed information in one accepted method, it isn’t easy to recognize your abilities.  Too many have been fed messages of not being good enough or right in the way they think, and soon they stop trying and accept they will not be successful at learning certain things. This is a lie, and it is wrong. You can know anything, and here is why.

Working The Brain Cells

The human mind is a great tool. We each have one, but it is up to us to determine what information is essential and something we want to learn and what is not. Each decision we make will drive our experience in learning and, more importantly, our learning attitude.  Here are some facts. When you start to learn something new, it can be an initial struggle because you have to build the connections in your mind called dendrites, allowing the information to process and the activities to occur. That is what learning is.

Every time you learn something new, your brain is being reshaped. This process is called neuroplasticity.  Where the unique experiences you have become a part of your basic biology. Meaning your brain develops neurons that provide paths to understanding things and doing things. Dendrites are fibrous extensions from neurons that grow as a lesson is learned. Every healthy person can do this in all areas of learning. The only thing that stops it is a limiting belief of some sort. Something you have agreed to because of circumstance or experience in your life.

The more you experience something in reality through practice or mental visualization, the more you create a neural pathway that allows the neural transmitters to move through a synapse into the dendrites. This process is the way your brain learns, grows, and changes. Learning new things expands your mind.  A lack of activity will atrophy a reason and weaken these firing synapses.

Belief Is The Catalyst

Since we all have this ability to learn anything, the only thing that stops us is our own accepted thoughts about anything. Real learning is not easy, meaning there will be some failures as you figure it out and your brain starts to build the synapses you need.  It is OK, and in fact, will allow you to make stronger connections as your mind takes the lessons learned and adds them to the process. This goes for everything from a physical skill like shooting a basketball to a mental gift like calculus.

Our mental ability to believe we can understand whatever it is we are setting out to learn will determine our success in that endeavor. Or it will determine our failure.  That could be seen as a lot of pressure, but I prefer to look at it as the ultimate personal power. We are all responsible for ourselves, what we learn, and how we apply that to our lives. So be optimistic about your abilities, and your success will be attainable.

Pruning the Mind

When you do not use a thought or a neural cluster, the brain will take neurons away from that cluster and use them elsewhere.  So the thoughts you choose are critical. For example, I was a very ardent baseball player when I was a youth, and my brain created a lot of neural clusters designed for me to hit, catch, and

throw easily. But over the years, I do not do those things, and the brain has found a better use for those neurons.

I tried to play some whiffle ball once quickly and was extremely frustrated at the foreign feel of hitting. But, with a bit of practice, the good news is that you can rebuild the neural pathways and much quicker.  That is where the phrase, “Just like riding a bike,” comes into play. You will quickly remember and rebuild those skills.

Pruning takes place at night when you are asleep, and this is when your mind determines which pathways need to be strengthened and which ones can be forgotten.  How do they make this choice? They don’t you do, by your thoughts, actions, and emotions.  These things show the mind what is important to you and held in your focus. It will treat the fertile garden of your mind just as you prioritize it.  Learning to visualize and use your imagination can control the pruning and build the neural pathways you want.  That is the power and responsibility we all have in our lives, right now today!

“There is nothing I can’t learn!” Say it with conviction. You will feel the confidence build back in you.

To believe anything else is like poison to the mind!!