Of course, we're talking about our minds, which are the most powerful weapon we have. It is the principal pen we use to write our fate because of its power and precision.
Few years ago, the idea that we use 10% of our potential became popular. Later, it was discovered that things are more complicated than that, because if we rely on limited processes like attention or short-term memory, we also rely on other processes that seem to have no boundaries, like imagination or learning.
The mind conserves resources.
Thus, our mental abilities are limitless. We'll see that habits or mental programming drive most of our behaviours. Habits of disconnection on a known route. The mental action we release to work with distant concepts is also widely understood.
Our clever minds automatically try to conserve energy. We recall our predecessors' struggles to get necessary nutrition.
We can assume they saved mental energy to hunt or chase animals all day. According to research, the top long-distance athletes have higher cerebral oxygenation during intensive efforts.
Once we understand that our mind does not enjoy wasting energy because it fears running out and that many of our tasks are automatic, we will realise that we may not use 10% of our capacity, but we certainly do not use a good chunk. Knowing the consequences is crucial.
There are exceptions, but the part of our mind we don't use is mostly related to creativity and problem-solving. This biological reason opposes the brain's economising inclination and causes much change aversion. Our method may not be the greatest, but switching to another wastes energy and is unknown.
Visit the Middle Ages to see an accused judged. The judge wants to convict the accused at any costs, but to avoid suspicion, he advises that the accused choose a paper from a box marked "guilty" and "innocent".
However, the judge marked both as guilty.Since he and the judge haven't gotten along, the accused guessed it. You think the accused did what? If his presumption was wrong, he would have been convicted if he condemned the judge. However, if his idea was correct, the judge would have been fired, but the accused had no guarantee that his replacement would be better.
One of the papers was eaten by the accused. He then said that looking at the one in the box and deducing the opposite would reveal his fate. The remaining paper read “guilty,” and an enraged judge who had fallen into his own trap liberated the accused.
Let's get back to the present: we all use our minds to save or better our lives. We can't control everything, but we typically have more control than we think. Thus, our ultimate potential resides between estimation and reality, genius and repetition.