Your Amazing Biology
Introduction
The Scottish philosopher Sydney Banks (1931–2009) taught that we’re only ever one thought away from feeling happy or sad.1 We all have the ability to control our thoughts, but few people consciously direct their thoughts toward happiness. How we think has a direct bearing on how lucky we are. It’s possible to paraphrase Syd Banks and say that we’re only one thought away from feeling lucky or unlucky. Someone who thinks he or she is lucky will experience more luck in life than someone who constantly feels he or she is unlucky. This is because we attract to us whatever it is we concentrate on. Scientists have discovered that our brains continue to develop throughout life. By changing the way we think, we can achieve almost anything we desire.
Not long ago, I watched a soccer game with my eleven-year-old grandson. He adores the game, and I’m sure he’d love to become a professional footballer when he grows up. Until recently, I believed that exceptional sports people were born with special talents and most of us could never hope to emulate their particular skills. However, if I’d played soccer at school, loved the game, participated in every opportunity to improve my skills that I could, practiced constantly, and remained totally focused on the goal of becoming a professional player, who knows what might have happened. Many of us blame our lack of success on bad genes, a belief that ensures we remain watching from the bleachers, rather than playing on the field.
Other factors come into play, too. Desire and motivation are essential for anyone wanting success in any field. A young man I know was an extremely talented swimmer. For years, he got up early every morning to train. After school, when his friends were having fun, he’d be back in the pool training again. I was surprised when he suddenly gave it up.
“I realized the price was too high,” he told me. “I thought I wanted to be a champion swimmer, but I didn’t want it that much.” It turned out he was following his father’s dream. I’m sure he’d have carried on if he’d been pursuing his own dream, as that would have provided him with the necessary motivation. Of course, if he had carried on and succeeded, everyone would have said how lucky he was. They wouldn’t think of the countless hours he’d spent training and preparing for success; he’d simply be “lucky.”
If you’re prepared to pay the price, you can be “lucky” at your chosen sport. Over time, as you practice and train, your physical body will change, and the muscles required for your particular sport will develop.
In addition to the human body, your brain will also change to reflect what you’re working on. You are not limited by your IQ (intelligence quotient). Your intellectual ability can be measured at any time, but it’s impossible to measure your potential, which is unlimited. The science of neuroplasticity proves that your brain constantly changes and grows all the way through life. Consequently, the report cards you received during your school days have no bearing on the person you are today. If you say you can’t do something because you’re “not smart enough,” you’ll be correct—you’re holding yourself back from your true potential. While you may blame your lack of success on your bad genes or lack of education, the reality is that you’re smart enough to achieve anything you set your mind on, assuming you want it badly enough. If you set a worthwhile goal, motivate yourself, and do the necessary work, you’ll achieve success. Interestingly, people will ignore or forget about the hard work you put in to achieve your goal, and will simply describe you as “lucky.” I remember seeing Engelbert Humperdinck on television shortly after he became successful in the 1960s. He didn’t like being referred to as an “overnight success,” as he’d put in many years of hard work before he became famous.
The American psychologist Lewis Terman (1877–1956) was a professor of Educational Psychology at Stanford University when he adapted and standardized the IQ test. In the 1920s, he started a thirty-five-year study of children with high IQs. He believed that children blessed with exceptional genes would lead highly successful lives. His 1,500 test subjects did become healthy, successful adults. However, none of them won a Nobel Prize or became a world-famous musician. Interestingly enough, two people who were rejected from Terman’s original group did win the Nobel Prize, and Isaac Stern and Yehudi Menuhin— both rejected—grew up to become internationally famous violinists.2
In 1993, Norihiro Sadato, a Japanese scientist, discovered that when blind people read Braille, the visual cortex of their brains lit up on PET scans. This demonstrated that this area of the brain had changed as a result of the loss of sight. In fact, it was essential that this area of the brain changed to allow these people to read Braille. This is one example of the brain’s plasticity.3
In 1999, Dr. Eleanor Maguire, a British neurologist, performed MRI scans on London taxi drivers, and found they had much larger posterior hippocampi than the people she also scanned who were not driving taxis. The posterior (or rear) hippocampus section of the brain relates to navigation. To become a licensed taxi driver in London, you need to memorize all 25,000 streets in central London, and also know all the points of interest on each one. This information is known as “the Knowledge,” and it takes the average person two to four years (and twelve attempts), before he or she is fully licensed. It’s a remarkable feat of memory. Eleanor Maguire discovered that the size of each taxi drivers’ posterior hippocampus was related to the length of the person’s driving career. This finding indicates that the brain grows as information is acquired.4
Even imagining you’re doing something affects the motor cortex of the brain. Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, currently professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, asked a group of volunteers to imagine they were practicing a simple piece of music on a piano. They did this every day for five days. Interestingly, the part of the motor cortex that controls the movement of the fingers expanded in the brains of the volunteers in exactly the same way as it did in the brains of people who actually played the piece.5 This experiment demonstrates that thoughts have the power to change the physical structure of the brain.
So it follows that what you think about luck is reflected in the makeup of your brain. If you’re not happy with any aspect of your life, you can change the way you think about it, and this will effectively rewire your brain. Consequently, if you feel you’re unlucky, you can turn this around completely and start thinking like a “lucky” person. Positive thinking works. It takes time, but focusing on the positive rather than the negative ultimately affects the brain’s makeup.
There’s an interesting exercise you can do which demonstrates the power of positive thinking. In the evening, before going to bed, sit down quietly in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, and relax. Take ten slow, deep breaths, and then think about the day you’ve just had. Think about the people you’ve interacted with, and your responses to them. Think about the frustrations you experienced, as well as the accomplishments. Once you’ve covered all the main events of the day, take three slow, deep breaths, and open your eyes. Spend a few minutes thinking about what you’ve just done. Did you feel anything in your body while you were reliving the day? Did you feel tense or angry with anything you thought about?
Stand up, stretch, and maybe walk around the house for a minute or two. Sit down again, close your eyes, relax, take ten slow, deep breaths, and go through your day again. However, this time, you’re going to put a positive slant on everything that occurred. If, for instance, someone cut you off in traffic on your way to work, you probably tensed up as you recalled your commute. This time, simply wish the person well. Remind yourself that the driver had no power to affect your thoughts. You allowed yourself to become angry. As you relive the experience, let your negativity float away, and see yourself calm and relaxed, instead of angry and frustrated. Continue going through your day, putting a positive slant on everything that happened. When you’ve finished, take three slow, deep breaths, and open your eyes.
Again spend a few minutes thinking about what you’ve just done. Did you notice any stress or frustration in your body as you relived your day from a positive point of view?
You can release any negativity by reliving the experience and seeing it work out exactly the way you wanted it to. By releasing negativity and adopting a more positive outlook on life, you’ll notice changes in every area of your life.
We’re lucky that we have the ability to effectively reprogram our brains, and become the person we want to be. It’s never too late, either. Some people develop their talents early in life. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), for instance, is a good example of a child prodigy. We hear more about child prodigies than we do about “late bloomers.”
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, better known as Grandma Moses (1860–1961), the famous American folk artist, took up painting in her seventies and was still painting in her nineties. André Kertész (1894–1985), the Hungarian-born American photographer, didn’t become famous until he was in his eighties. Colonel Harlan Sanders (1890–1980) started franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was sixty-five. Child prodigies are rare, but there are many late bloomers.
In the next chapter, we’ll look at different methods you can use to take control of your luck.