3 scientifically proven ways to strengthen your brain _ inc

11/1/2015 3 Scientifically Proven Ways to Strengthen Your Brain | Inc.com

http://www.inc.com/petereconomy/3scientificallyprovenwaystostrengthenyourbrain.html?cid=sf01002 1/7

3 ScientificallyProven Ways toStrengthen YourBrain

How a Botched

TODAY'SMUSTREADS

THE INC. LIFE

3 to StrengthenYour Brain

Scientifically Proven Ways

We must cherish our brains, enrich them, and make sure they know how important they

are to us.

bizzwriter @

IMAGE: Getty Images

BY PETER ECONOMY

http://www.inc.com/theinclife

http://www.twitter.com/bizzwriter

http://www.inc.com/author/peter-economy

http://www.inc.com/author/peter-economy



It's no secret that our brains contain the motivating energy that drives our everydaylives forward to the success and happiness each one of us seeks. We must cherish them,enrich them, and make sure they know how important they are to us by trying our bestto boost them every possible opportunity we can. Here are 3 waysto do just that.

1. Try new things

It's definitely not a secret that the geniuses we are most familiar with have always madea habit of trying new things. People like Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci were polymaths,good at many subjects, never just focusing on one. Could there be a reason for theirdiversity in skill?

Turns out, every time you try something new, you form synaptic connections andgenerate greater neural plasticity. Plasticity is related to the number of connectionsbetween neurons, how it affects connections following formation, and the longevity ofthose connections. Shortly put, plasticity determines the amount of information yourbrain can take in, how well you can apply it, and finally, how long you retain it for.

2. Practice your creativity

It is a commonly held myth that creativity only requires the right side of the brain. Inreality, creativity takes an enormously large range of brain activity--on both the left andright sides. When thinking creatively, you make associations between remote topics andswitch between conventional and unconventional thoughts in order to form novel ideasfrom which you can draw your conclusions.

So, it turns out that creative thought actually promotes cross-hemisphere activity in thebrain. Keep in mind, however, that creativity is mistakenly defined as artsy activities.Creative cognition and thought is actually much more than painting or dancing. It canbe a way to work smarter at your job, or an idea for improvement that saves yourcompany millions of dollars.

3. Challenge yourself, constantly

Take every chance to think deeply about something. When people write and/or talkabout things like "training your brain," many us call to mind games like Sudoku orTetris. While playing these games and completing crosswords is certainly a good way tokeep from falling too idle--they actually aren't good for much else.

The benefit of constantly challenging yourself is similar to trying new things: You areforced out of your comfort zone and must learn new modes of action in order to

scientifically proven

more

http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/3-remarkably-effective-habits-for-a-happier-more-successful-you.html

http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/learn-the-9-life-hacks-of-really-creative-people.html

http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/3-proven-ways-to-make-your-biggest-dreams-come-true.html



The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

overcome an obstacle when your first (or comfortable) approach does not work.Allowing yourself to be constantly challenged creates much more space in the mind fornew connections to be made.

So, take a leap of faith, try something new, and push yourself. Your brain will thank youfor it.

PUBLISHED ON: OCT 28, 2015

Like Inc. on Facebook

INSPIRATION CHRONICLES

How a Botched Surgery Led This Founder toCreate a Doctor Rating System

Serial entrepreneur David Norris almost died from a staph infection. The experience

inspired him to launch a big data startup providing physician performance

transparency.

IlanMochari @BY ILAN MOCHARI

NEXTARTICLE

http://www.inc.com/inspiration-chronicles

http://www.twitter.com/IlanMochari

http://www.inc.com/author/ilan-mochari

http://www.inc.com/author/ilan-mochari



IMAGE: Getty Images

David Norris

Fifteen years ago, when he was 36 and living in the Dallas area, a doctor told DavidNorris he needed a routine surgery to repair a torn meniscus, a piece of cartilage in theknee. Norris was in and out the same day.

Over the next three days, the knee swelled to "twice its normal size," Norris recalls. Hereturned to the doctor, who removed the fluid with a large needle--and then discoveredthat Norris had a potentially fatal staph infection. He was immediately hospitalized. Hestayed for three weeks, treated with aggressive antibiotics.

Those three weeks are why Norris is on a mission tochange how patients choose doctors. He's the CEOof Santa Monica, California-based MD Insider, astartup that has raised $13 million from investorsincluding Tim Ferriss and Bill Ackman. The big ideais to arm patients with more useful data to comparephysicians. So far, the startup has some big-namebelievers: Customers include DirecTV, Oracle,Starwood Hotels, and Expedia. MD Insider also sells

its software-as-a-service to hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic, NorthwesternMedicine, and Mount Sinai. Here's how it got started.

A FICO for MDs.

http://mdinsider.com/

http://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/what-tim-ferriss-looks-for-in-a-startup.html



A FICO for MDs.

MD Insider has created what Norris calls a "FICO score for doctors." Using analytics, MDInsider has crunched--and keeps crunching--the performance track record of everydoctor in the U.S. Based on those track records--and factors like a doctor's network,education, experience, and location--the startup's algorithms produce an "MD InsiderProvider Score," grading doctors on a scale from 1 to 100.

For large self-insured companies, the data helps employees find a better doctor.Employees can see, for example, if a doctor has experience with shoulder surgeries--butprecious little with knees. (Which, as it turned out, was the case with Norris'sdoctor.) For hospitals, the data can help patients research and book appointments withthe doctors, thereby relieving hospitals of high call volumes, a major administrativeheadache.

The hospitals can also use the data as a metric in recruiting and retention. Hospitals canevaluate if there are specific surgical procedures for which the staff does (or does not)have high levels of experience. That knowledge can help hospitals market theirspecialties, compare their staff to that of other hospitals, fill voids on the staff, or referpatients to different hospitals.

A Man of Many Startups--and Setbacks.

When Norris was again after his hospitalization, he stored antibiotic vials inhis refrigerator. He can still recall the pungent ammonia-like aroma of the fluid, whichtwice a day he injected into his arm. After one month, the infection was gone. Whatremained was outrage. The more he spoke to doctors, the more he learned staphinfections weren't always accidents. "Often it's a result of bad preparation for theprocedure," he says.

At the time, Norris was leading ObjectSpace, a Dallas-based, business-to-business provider. The 400-employee company was prepping for its IPO on the Nasdaq.

As is so often the case in life, lousy news came in double doses. The timing of the IPOcouldn't have been worse. "We filed for a public offering right before the market tankedin 2000, so the IPO never happened," he recalls.

Norris had to retrench. He sold part of ObjectSpace to another tech company, thenliquidated the rest after a few years. He learned two key lessons, which he describes inan interview on Mixergy. First, every penny counts. You'll need them, if the economygoes south. Second, speed is vital. Had ObjectSpace IPO'd one month earlier, it mighthave had enough cash to survive.

home

software

http://www.inc.com/kimberly-weisul/why-self-insurance-can-be-perilous-for-entrepreneurs.html

http://mixergy.com/interviews/david-norris-md-insider/



Over the next decade, Norris would launch two successful startups: Seattle-based OnRequest Images, which sold custom photographs to large companies at stock-photo prices, and Los Angeles-based BlueCava, which offers technology tohelp companies target mobile and online ads. But he did not yet know how he'd connectthe dots of health care, patient research, and his serial entrepreneurship.

The Right Idea, the Right Time.

In 2012, Norris met Dr. Jay Calvert, who through mutual acquaintances sought outNorris to discuss a business idea: that data could help patients make better choices thanthey could if they relied only on subjective reviews on sites like Yelp.

Norris spent six months researching it. Was the data out there? Could you acquire it? Theanswer to both questions was yes. That persuaded Norris to leave BlueCava and co-found MD Insider with Calvert. The next step was raising capital, so the company couldacquire the data it needed. Norris says the company spent $6 million obtaining doctordata from "hundreds" of different billing providers, going back 10 years.

Fortunately, Norris had plenty of fundraising experience. BlueCava had raised $35million, including $4 million from Mark Cuban. For MD Insider, Norris raised an initial $2million from angels, then another $1.5 million on the equity crowdfunding platformAngelList. That was enough to cover the beginning of the data-buying process. (Earlierthis year, the company raised an additional $9.5 million in Series A funding.)

Now, Norris is focused on growth, selling to more health systems, and continuing toexpand what he believes is the company's early competitive advantage: its massive,integrated, digitized, vetted, usable set of data. (However, he declined to share thecompany's first year sales totals.) The company has more than 50 employees, a numberNorris believes will double by the end of 2015.

Meanwhile, he's enjoying a new level of satisfaction from this particular startup. Neverbefore has he heard such "heartwarming" stories about customers using a toolhe's helped to create. He says: "There's a satisfaction at a human level that's really,really great."

software

PUBLISHED ON: OCT 28, 2015

Like Inc. on Facebook

http://bluecava.com/company/

https://angel.co/md-insider

3 scientifically proven ways to strengthen your brain _ inc

Documents