Today’s Brilliance from Doug Vermeeren

As I have had the opportunity to study more than 400 of the world’s top achievers I have found a single interesting key to creating greater productivity and success in all areas of life.

It begins with our neurotransmitters.

Thoughts move through our brain over a pathway that begins with a neuron, then crosses a bridge called a synapse and is received ultimately by a receptor called a dendrite. Neurotransmitters send signals over the synaptic bridge between neurons and dendrites. This is the exact place where the critical thing happens. The information in the thought either makes the jump over the synaptic bridge and continues on or it does not.

Simply put, there are two kinds of neurotransmitters: those that activate and allow the message to go forward, and those that inhibit the message and prevent it from going forward.

So when it comes to creating success which one is more important? While they both are important I would argue that there is one that may play a more significant role in creating success. Which one do you think it is?

Most people would say that it is the neurotransmitter that activates that connections leads us to greater success. After all, we often hear that we need to be proactive and those that are out there “doing more are getting more done.” But is this true?

No.

In fact, success on the inside at a molecular level all the way to success at an outside level is a matter of inhibitors.

Think about it. Everyday and in every way there is an overwhelming amount of information coming in at us from all of our senses.

In fact, too much information is coming in that we can possibly process. If our brain had to analyze and sort every bit of information it reacted with it would be paralyzed by processing. That is why our inhibitors are so important. They sort everything into either important or non-important. The most important things it lets become activated the non-important it eliminates.

We see the same effect in the world outside our brains. Successful people do not try to participate in everything. They understand that they can only succeed if they eliminate or inhibit things that are not important. They understand that success means a clear focus on the most valuable opportunities.

Less successful people on the other hand let every small distraction and meaningless opportunity steal their attention from the most valuable things. When the valuable things come last your cannot every create that which is most meaningful.

The one significant key to success is simple: learn how to inhibit those things that are unnecessary or unimportant. That is called productivity.

Often times people erroneously consider that the definition of productivity is simply to get things done. And they argue that productivity is increased when you get more done. While that is partially true, the real definition of productivity is better stated as minimizing input while increasing output.

Thus, the key to being successful in anything is not to do more. It is to do less, while ensuring that which we do is done more effectively. Learn to inhibit more of the distractions that keep you from the important things in life and you will find that your levels of success will increase.