Learning

To learn about success, we have to understand learning, because almost every success is based on learning, which again is closely related to change.

Brain Connections

Our brain provides the hardware for learning: nerve cells connected via synapses with other nerve cells. All of them form a large network of cells. Brain activity is triggered by active nerve cells that activate other cells according to their connections. So the connections are vital for the brain, and they represent the contents of the brain, more than the nerve cells themselves.

Learning means to change the connection pattern. There are two modes of learning.

1. The first mode of learning is when the brain creates new connections, which means forming new synapses. This mode happens quite frequently when you are young. In this building phase for the brain connections, there is much activity in creating new connections. When you get older new brain connections are rarely being made. At the age of 18-20, only about 5% of your learning is based on the creation of new brain connections.
2. The second mode of learning is when the brain uses existing connections. This mode is happening all the time, and becomes the dominant mode from the age of 20 onwards. For adults, 95% of their learning can be attributed to using and modifying existing brain connections.

It seems clear how new connections lead to learning, but how can old connections be related to learning? The clue is that not only the connection itself is important, but also its size. Connections in the brain can be compared with streets and paths. Some connections are used very often: these are the highways. Other connections are not used that often and correspond to medium and small roads. Finally, rarely used connections correspond to tracks, dirt-roads.

There are two relations between the connection size and the use.

• Connections will be used according to their size, which means that highways are used more often than tracks.
• The connections change based on their use. Unused roads become smaller and narrower, and they may even disappear. Heavily used roads get bigger and wider.

In our context, this means that we already have most of the brain connections in place. The brain is full of connections. Not all of them are equally important. Some of them are used often, and some of them are rarely used. Their use affects their size and especially their width.

The Process of Magnifying

The learning by using existing connections can be a powerful way of of the learning, which leads to success. The key idea here is to magnify instead of to create. It means to find small connections that already work and to make them bigger. The working of the brain will ensure that this implies that extensive connections shrink automatically. The process of magnifying is much more efficient than creating something from scratch and out of thin air.

Magnifying is a natural way of working. It implies that things that are done often, and then they tend to repeat themselves. In the context of success, magnifying means to focus on existing success, thereby increasing future success and making success more likely. No wonder that it is called focus; whatever you focus on is magnified. Small successes tend to lead to more significant success if they get appropriate attention. It is complicated to turn a loser into a winner, which would change some qualities. However, it is a natural thing to turn a small winner into a big winner, which just adjusts quantities.

This approach is again related to the growth mindset. As success is all about learning and change, it is crucial to have a positive attitude towards your potential to be successful. In the growth mindset, success is due to work and effort that has been put in, and it is not a static trait. This mindset matches quite well the idea of magnification.

What does that mean for you? You have to analyse your current situation and find small successes. Make sure you believe in yourself and in your potential to be successful. There is no point in claiming a failure to be a success. Instead, it is essential to find existing events that are successes.