When we can stay at the top of our everyday life activities, solve challenges and employ our expertise well, we feel smart, effective and empowered. The source of this power sits in our brain, in what scientists call cognition.
Cognition has a strong link with our mental and physical wellbeing, but it is also responsible for all of our abilities, behaviour and performance, ultimately the key to our personal success.
As humans we all have the same potential in our brains, the way we nurture this potential determines our different abilities and achievement in our lives. And it’s never too late to nurture the potential of our brains!
First of all, our cognition allows us to live in a world of events and challenges and to adapt to different situations. At the lower level of this ability, we share this with all animals. Think about being in a forest, looking around alert for any threats coming and trying to devise strategies to get some food. This is at the basis of our survival. We can think about the ways we employ our attention and planning abilities in our everyday living, such as while we’re driving or shopping for the coming week.
One of the key abilities allowing us to successfully deal with the world around us is learning. Our ability to learn is a powerful mix of cognitive processes, at the centre of which sits our memory. Remembering things is not just about avoiding forgetting appointments or recalling birthdays, but it’s the basis of our wisdom. Memory allows us to gather new knowledge and build experiences, learning from our mistakes. Good cognitive ability is the key to our children's preparedness and has a significant impact on their long-term academic success. However, learning isn’t something related to the youth only, as we can keep learning new things during our entire lifespan. Actually, that is the secret to maintaining an active and powerful brain even into old age.
Learning is also essential for being successful at work, together with our ability to concentrate, to get organised, to solve problems and make prompt but accurate decisions. These are all cognitive abilities that together determine our productivity. The productivity of the company is made up of the productivity of its employees, so we can say our brain actually powers our workplace.
Conclusion: Our brainpower underlies our performance, whether we’re athletes needing concentration and mental resilience to run a marathon or we’re coaches needing good communication and social skills. Whatever our life goals are, our brainpower will help us achieve it.
Martina Ratto
Cognitive Scientist