#GrowYourBrain

The greatest mistake of a man is to be afraid of ever making one.

- Elbert Hubbard

This quote inspires us to not be afraid of making mistakes. But did you know that there’s much, much more than just thinking that? Scientists have found that something actually happens inside your brain when you make mistakes - something good. This is how your brain grows, develops and becomes smarter.

Psychologist Jason Moser studied the reactions in the human brain that happen when you make a mistake. He found out that there are two responses when you make a mistake: the ERN response and the Pe response.

ERN responses happen whether or not you realize you’ve made a mistake. It’s basically increased electrical activity that happens when the brain experiences conflict between a correct response and an error. Pe responses are thought to reflect conscious attention to mistakes. They only happen when you know you made a mistake. Also, when we make a mistake, synapses fire. They are electrical signals that move around your brain when you’re learning. This is proof that making mistakes grow your brain.

But what is brain growth exactly? It’s not physical growing, or else your brain would be massive. It’s growing in connectivity. When you make a mistake, inside your brain, there are three possible types of growth:

1) New pathways can form in the brain

2) Pathways can become strengthened in the brain

3) Pathways can connect in the brain.

This is why people with a growth mindset (people who are risk-takers and not get depressed by mistakes) as opposed to a closed mindset (people who are scared of making mistakes and get put down by mistakes) learn more and better. For example, Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper company for ‘not being creative enough’. But he didn’t let that stop him. He created Disney, a world full of imagination and fun. Also, J.K. Rowling, the author of bestselling series Harry Potter, was rejected 12 times before a publisher took her manuscript. We can do this too. Don’t let your mistakes get you down, and you will rise to the top eventually.

Let’s embrace our mistakes, learn from them and grow our brains. We’ll not only learn more, but also be more persistent at solving problems and an out of the box thinker. Let’s all have growth mindsets!

P.S. If you want to learn more, go to the link below to explore about why embracing your mistakes and having growth mindsets matter!

Link: https://www.youcubed.org/evidence/mistakes-grow-brain/#:~:text=When%20we%20make%20a%20mistake,brain%20has%20two%20potential%20responses.&text=The%20second%20response%2C%20called%20a,reflect%20conscious%20attention%20to%20mistakes.