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How to Avoid Losing Your Ability To Learn
How to Avoid Losing Your Ability To Learn
The young brain is a plasticity machine. But then right about age 25 (+- 2 years), everything changes. After that, we need to engage in a set of processes in order to get those neural changes to occur and stick around - AH
By the time you're a teenager, you can learn most things passively. You can see someone walking or talking and easily pick up on it. But as you grow older, that gets harder and harder. You need active effort.
Your brain is like a muscle. If you don't use it, it atrophies. That's why you should actively learn stuff. Triggering neuroplasticity improves a specific skill and sustains your ability to learn as you grow older. You don't want to lose that.
So, if there's a huge trend pushing people to work out more, this tool is for your brain. Just knowing this could be enough to bug you. But to get the most out of it, let's put it into practice.
Action for the day
Plan the time to learn something new.
Choose anything you want. Maybe: guitar, Spanish, coding, public speaking, dancing, singing, cooking, drawing, pickleball, web design, etc. What's something you've always wanted to learn?
Now is the time. I'm sure you're busy. So don't overwhelm yourself. Just block out 10-30 minutes to start learning that thing today/this week. It could be just reading a bit about the topic. This tiny action will pay huge dividends in the future.
The more you delay this, the harder it gets. Whether you're under 25 or above. This not only saves you from early cognitive decline, but you also have a lot of fun learning along the way.
So, go learn something! Choose a specific thing and time to do this. It'll be so much fun. If you're not sure what to do, just review my examples and do one you like. Here's a shortcut to add it to your calendar.
Here's the clip of Andrew explaining this. Oh, also, don't forget to drink some water :)
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