Your Brain on Growth

Our brains are complex and malleable supercomputers. They are also the key to growth. 

The human brain is more than just a processor, sorting and storing information as it comes in. It is also a predictor, running predictive models that govern conscious and unconscious actions. 

In order to operate this predictive model, our brains first require a hypothesis: an educated guess as to what will happen when we do something different. 

Consider a challenge all new employees face—finding a document within a new filing system. Their brain hypothesizes: If I look in the folder labeled Forms, I will find the new hire form I need.

Then, their brain collects data to test that hypothesis, and the data either confirms or disconfirms what they currently believe will occur. 

Data: There are no forms here for new hires. 

Conclusion: This is the wrong folder.

Hypothesis 2: Maybe I need to look in the HR Forms file… 

And the cycle continues.

In fact, our brains run these models constantly, making an incredible number of predictions each day.

And these predictions have an impact on our feelings and motivation. 

That’s because when they are wrong, our dopamine levels—the feel-good chemical responsible for making us feel motivated—drop. Things feel difficult. 

It also encourages our brains not to make the same mistake again. 

When we are right, we are rewarded with a small dopamine spike. It feels good, and we want to get it right again.

This is learning and what it feels like to grow. 

Our brains, due to neural plasticity, physically change when we learn. Neurons develop cell-to-cell connections called synapses. Each time we run a hypothesis, new synapses form between neurons that were not previously connected. 

New learning, something outside our comfort zone like we experience at the launch point, takes extra effort. But, that mental effort translates into faster neural growth. 

Stress creates new neural pathways, but it feels slow. 

Then, we hit the sweet spot. The predictive models we’re running get more accurate. What we are learning feels easy, but not too easy. It feels hard, but not too hard. Growth not only is fast, it feels fast. It’s exhilarating to feel competent and confident because we are getting surges of dopamine. 

Then we reach the third section of the growth curve—mastery—and our growth slows. Reality now matches expectations. There's a little dopamine, but not as much.

You know where to find every file you need. 

You are no longer learning.

But growth requires learning—the creation of new synapses. We need to find a challenging, new predictive model to fuel the supercomputers in our heads. 

We need more dopamine to keep us motivated and engaged. 

We need to find our next learning curve. 

Which of your predictive models are highly accurate? How can you challenge them?

What predictions are supplying you with dopamine?