LearnStorm Growth Mindset: The Truth About Your Brain

- [Instructor] So this
is your brain, say hi.

Okay, it's a representation of your brain.

Brains don't have hands, they have lobes

and other structures which we'll get to.

But I wanna talk to you about your brain.

You see, your brain is
capable of incredible things

but I think a lot of times,
we can feel pretty down

on our brains, on ol' Thinky Pinky here.

We beat up on him, say bad things

about our brain's abilities.

Say, we have trouble
understanding a subject in school

or solving problems or
learning a new skill.

It's easy to say, oh I'm not smart.

I'll always be this way.

Hey, stop doing that.

What we think of as intelligence,

what we think of as
smartness, is not fixed,

is not stuck in one
place, is not permanent.

Your brain can improve.

Your brain can grow.

Come with me on a journey of discovery!

Here we go, into the brain.

Excuse me, coming in hot.

This is a thing called a neuron.

Oh hey, welcome to the
inside of your brain.

A neuron is a brain cell.

There's over a 100 billion of these things

making up your brain.

Put it this way, there are
over 13 times more neurons

in your skull than there
are human beings on Earth.

Lot of 'em.

They're the cells that help you think.

Mind you, a single neuron,
and let's call her Nellie,

hi Nellie the neuron, Nellie on her own

can't do all the thinking your brain needs

to even pick up a glass of water.

Fortunately she's got friends.

There's dendrite Dave,
there's Alonzo the axon,

there's Magna myelin, and
look little Sally synapse.

So teensy tiny.

Your brain behaves like a muscle.

If you're serious about
lifting weights, right,

and you keep it up on a regular basis

for a long period of time,
weeks, months, years,

you're gonna develop muscles.

But you don't grow
muscles by doing nothing.

It takes effort, it takes struggle,

repeated failures in fact.

You mess up and then you learn,

and then eventually you
manage to jump the log

or whatever problem
you're trying to solve.

Wait, we've lost focus
here, back to neurons.

When you struggle your
neurons are struggling too,

and that's important because
when neurons struggle,

they lean on each other.

They make connections, they start to form

this densely connected
network inside your brain

allowing little jolts of
electricity to pass down them

more and more efficiently.

That's thinking faster, that's
your brain getting smarter.

That's your brain muscle
gettin' swole kid.

So the next time you say to yourself

I can't do this, I'm just too dense,

remember that brain
density is your friend.

If fact the denser you
are the more connections

between Nellie and her
neuron pals that you got

inside your brain, the
stronger and more powerful

your thinking parts become.

The more you work
through your frustrations

with the right learning
strategies, the more your neurons

get more used to working together,

the closer you are to
being that much smarter.

Now get out there and do your best.

Don't give up, grow those
brains, and remember,

you can learn anything.