Change Your Brain Every Day - Achieving SUCCESS: What Is The Starting Point?

Episode Date: December 5, 2017

The truth is, that in order to achieve your wildest dreams and goals you must first start at the ultimate starting point: your brain. In this first episode of a series called “Success Starts Here”, Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen discuss the importance of laying the best possible foundation for success by optimizing the physical function of the brain.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Hey, everybody. We are so excited to start a new series called Success Starts Here. And obviously what we mean is between your ears that there have been so many books about success and almost all of them that we've ever heard of or ever read ignore the most important organ that's responsible for success. It seems to me like they probably don't never have taken it into consideration or don't know

because they focus on things like habits or relationships or, but they don't think about the fact that those things won't ever be better if you've got a brain problem. And I never really understood the impact of this either until I started to see your work when we started dating, I was so sort of fascinated. Well, that's what's kept you here for 12 years. Well, that's not what's kept me here, but it did fascinate me. Yeah. You almost canceled your first date. I almost did.

I was a psychiatrist. Yes. And you're like, well, they're all crazy. Because the ones I have met have not been helpful. Not at all. So, um, so in our society, I think we think that we have the notion of success and failure backwards, right? We've been taught that if you dream big, work hard, have passion, purpose, and a positive mindset, if you learn from your mistakes and persist you can be anything you want in life unfortunately that's just not true and it's sad it's a myth it's sad and it's

and if the physical functioning of your brain is not properly balanced no amount of training harder using success principles will get you to where you want to be. In fact, based on the brain imaging work we do here at Amen Clinics, we discovered that the harder some people try, the worse things actually get for them, that their brains actually drop in activity when they try. And so they try and it doesn't work. They try and it doesn't work. They try and it doesn't work they try and it doesn't work they try and it doesn't work and then they say to heck with it and they stop trying demoralized i would think i'm not it's a concept that martin seleggman has he's a psychologist from the university of pennsylvania called learned helplessness ah i like that term and it, you try and it doesn't work. You try and it doesn't

work and then you give up and then people blame you. And you sort of see you think you can't do it. So what the heck? Or they blame you as lazy, uh, and so on. So it's really counterintuitive to what most people have taught, but any program or book on success that ignores where success truly starts in the physical functioning of your brain is doomed to failure because anyone who tries to follow these steps to success will not be able to focus, remember, or implement the strategies on a consistent basis. So in this series, uh, and in a new book I'm working on, uh, take a look at success and how to achieve it as well as failure and how to avoid it. And you really like the story. I love the story. So I'm going to digress for one second. Cause this is really cool. Um, you're right. I almost canceled my first date with you. I actually didn't know who he was. I did not know who you were when we went out. So unlike a lot of

people, you know, that recognize him or know who he is, he wasn't on PBS at the time. So I didn't actually know who you were. And, um, you, I just thought your work was sort of interesting and fascinating. And I'm like, Oh, that's kind of cool. Different than most psychiatrists. That was enough to sort of keep me interested. I liked it, but you didn't know who I was. I'm sure you probably did, didn't you? But I felt like an idiot when I actually found out. So three things happened within a couple of weeks.

One, you invited me to hear you speak. And I show up and there's these like, there's like over a thousand like just raving fans running up with their books to be signed. And I'm like, uh, I think I missed something. What's going on here? So that was kind of funny. And then the second thing was maybe it was a week later or so we were walking and this woman came running up to you and she was crying and she said, you saved my son's life. And I'm like, huh, there's something super cool going on here. Like, this is really interesting. And there was one, there's a story where, um, my, one of my

friends calls me and she's got a child who is, has always been troubled. She's one of Chloe's little friends when they were babies, but this child was growing up to be troubled. We could see it from day one. It was just, she wasn't like other kids, right? Getting in more trouble, which is screaming, falling, just not, not the same and not doing things the same way other kids were doing. And so she calls me one day, she, and she says, uh, she was pretty successful. And so she was trying really hard to get into the places that she knew would be helpful. She'd done a lot of research and she calls me and I, we'd only been dating like a month. And so she says, I finally got into this doctor. I've been trying to get into see like for over a year, he won't take new patients. Like I no way. And, and I finally like was able to through someone I

know, like get her into, to see this doctor. And I'm like, Oh, I go, that's really cool. She said, yeah, he's like this amazing child psychiatrist. She's like going on and on. And I'm like, oh, that's really cool. I go, well, let me know. I said, if you want to talk to, um, maybe just have me mention this to the guy that I'm dating, I'm dating a child psychiatrist. Um, you know, maybe, maybe he'd have something to say about it. She's like, nope. I already like, it took me so long to get this appointment. Like I already, I've got this covered. I'm like, all right. She's like, but who are you dating? And I mentioned your name. And she literally starts screaming on the other end of the phone. It was you she was talking about. So I was like, wait a minute, how am I missing all this stuff? But the final thing, so I said

there were three, there was actually four. The final thing was this, and it all sort of happened pretty close together, all these things in succession. And I had to take a step back and go, wait, like, like, this is really cool. So it got my attention and it takes a lot to get my attention. I'm not easily impressed. Someone wrote you a letter and it was amazing. And I, I was astounded actually by this letter. And so it's one of my favorite stories of all the things that you've done. We've got a lot of really great stories, but I want to read it because it was like, it was one of the things early on that just really hooked me. So this is, uh,

Dale. Okay. This is a story of Dale. He was brought to the clinics in shackles at the age of 17. And, um, you know, by all accounts, he just, this guy was failing. He was failing in life. He was failing. He wasn't getting a job. He was, you know, hadn't done well in school. He'd been kicked out of his house and now he's in jail. So here's his story. And we have permission to read it. It says, dear Dr. Raymond, I am the mother of Dale Bream, who was treated at Amon clinics in 1999. Dale was in trouble with the law and brought to the clinic in Northern California in shackles. After he was evaluated, scanned, and treated, Dale was able to be gainfully employed for a year in retail sales.

He then joined the Army, where he excelled. After basic training, Dale became a Special Forces Army Ranger. Dale was able to make a success of his life because of the treatment he received. Dale was able to make a success of his life because of the treatment he received. Dale was killed in action in Iraq on March 18th, 2006, just three days before his 24th birthday. We take great comfort in knowing Dale died a hero. I thought you might be interested in part of, in the part you played in this hero's life. Dale was, Dale was buried at, my eyes are starting to water. Dale was buried at Arlington Cemetery with great honor. Here,

here is part of the Department of Defense release press on Dale's death, or press release, sorry, on Dale's death. A ranger team leader, Bream was a six-time veteran of operations enduring an Iraqi freedom. His awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal for Valor, Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Army Achievement Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, and many more. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, Purple Heart, and two Army Commendation Medals. Thank you, Laura, proud mother of Sergeant Dale Bream. Yeah, it still brings.

It's one of my favorite stories. I mean. And so when you think about failure i mean he was there i mean you know there's just very few things besides being in an orange jumpsuit and shackles and being put in a cave well and and a lot of that is the ultimate of failure and being a decorated war hero dying serving your country is the ultimate and i know there are people who are they just the automatic thing is well he died he died and he died young someone with headed down that road was likely to not have a very long life and if they did it wouldn't have been a very good life um but not usually a long life by all you know by statistics statistically speaking he died doing something

with purpose something amazing we're going to talk about purpose in this uh course for sure but he died on his terms right doing something he loved. That he was good at. For a mission that was greater than himself. And rather his mom and dad hating themselves because he didn't turn out the way they wanted to. He was able to make them proud. And I'm a former infantry medic, U.S. Army, 3rd Armored Division. After I got out and went to medical school, I went back and did my psychiatric training at the

Walter Reed Army Medical Center. And so, you know, when i left the army 10 years later as an army major so this is a population that's very important to me yeah it really bothers me it's it's something that burdens my heart that we need to do better with our veterans i have a very special place in my heart for veterans and army personnel or military personnel so do i and we don't do a good job of taking care of their brains but ask yourself so where does success start and so if we think of the things of success where does happiness start in your brain where does feeling relaxed or stressed out start in your brain and your brain where does a healthy body or obesity and diabetes start your brain's related to motivation purpose absolutely but you know we say obesity and diabetes people go your pancreas and i'm like no it starts in the moment by moment decisions

your brain makes every day we're going to spend a lot of time talking about decisions where able to focus where do great relationships start or where do abusive relationships start yeah and i know for you i mean that was sort of a new idea it was a very new idea but it made sense where does getting into the college of your dreams start or where does dropping out of school start in your brain where does financial success or bankruptcies start in your brain in the moment by moment decisions you make every day? Where does all success and all failure start between your ears? So you shouldn't take care of your brain because it's sort of a cool thing to do. It's absolutely an essential thing to do. So, and I know some people listening because I know I've been through some really hard health challenges and things like that. There are some people who are going to hear this and they're going to say, but I, that nothing in my brain would have changed the fact that I got X disease or that I got, you know, in my case, the type of

cancer I got or whatever, but I'm going to push back a little bit as somebody who's been down that road to hell and depressed and all those things. I didn't have this information, so I didn't know and I couldn't be my own advocate. But the truth is I could have gone through that easier, recovered faster, and made a lot better decisions had I known. I had no idea. And that was why I did not like psychiatrists. They put me on a wrong

medication that made me behave, you know, in a way that I just didn't care about anything. So it's, well, psychiatry is really a brainless organless profession, which is ridiculous. And I say that, um, sadly, but, and I say it, I will say this. this it's ridiculous it's the only medical specialty that never looks at the organ it treats now listening to the podcast you don't have to get a scan to get benefit out of that no but scan can be super helpful um so over the next uh eight more podcasts we're going to talk about creating sustainable joy and where does that start in the pleasure centers of your brain and are you wearing them out uh are you supporting them so we're going to talk about that so what i hear you saying is that you actually can control

and help yourself feel more joy or less joy by the decisions you make. And by the habits you engage in that are good for your brain or bad for it. Right. That's cool. Now we're going to talk about thinking like a CEO. So strengthen the brain's executive center to make great decisions and avoid ones that ruin your life. We've been just hit, you know, day after day with, you know, these famous people being

fired for sexual indiscretions. And, you know, we had a podcast recently about men behaving badly. I know we need to do one on women behaving badly too, though. Well, having five sisters, absolutely. Then we're going to talk about change. There's a podcast called Embrace Change. The brain hates change, but you can turn your ruts into super highways of success. We'll talk about how to do that. The next one on master your mind, how to feel happy and present while conquering worrying and negativity. We have undisciplined minds as a society we're just so quick to react we're going to get the monkey mind trained and under control we'll talk about connect how to reinforce how to use your

brain to have better relationships and then you know I think my favorite podcast is think different when people do bad things ask why then get then get them help, sort of like Dale. We're going to talk about fueling success. So here, your work with nutrition will be the star. And finally, love your brain so you can love your life. How to engage in the habits that'll boost your energy and keep your brain strong for a lifetime. It's your brain. You remember in 1992 when Clinton was running for president and his campaign manager, James Carville, came up with, it's the economy, stupid, right? It does no other message matter. And I've often thought since then, it's the brain. Stupid. It's like, focus, keep it clear. It's the brain.

And protect it. Love it. Stay with us. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month.