Think, Learn, Succeed: Understanding and Using Your Mind to Thrive at School, the Workplace, and Life

By Dr. Caroline Leaf, Peter Amua-Quarshie and Robert Turner

Our thought lives have incredible power over our mental, emotional, and even physical well-being. In fact, our thoughts can either limit us to what we believe we can do or release us to experience abilities well beyond our expectations. When we choose a mindset that extends our abilities rather than placing limits on ourselves, we will experience greater intellectual satisfaction, emotional control, and physical health. The only question is . . . how?

Backed by up-to-date scientific research and biblical insight, Dr. Caroline Leaf empowers readers to take control of their thoughts in order to take control of their lives. In this practical book, readers will learn to use

- The 5-step Switch on Your Brain Learning Program, to build memory and learn effectively
- The Gift Profile, to discover the unique way they process information
- The Mindfulness Guide, to optimize their thought life and find their inner resilience

Dr. Leaf shows readers how to combine these powerful tools in order to improve memory, learning, cognitive and intellectual performance, work performance, physical performance, relationships, emotional health, and most importantly a meaningful life well lived.

Each of us has significant psychological resources at our fingertips that we can use in order to improve our overall well-being. Dr. Leaf shows us how to harness those resources to unlock our hidden potential.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781493407897

Dr. Caroline Leaf

Dr. Caroline Leaf holds a PhD in communication pathology from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Since 1981 she has researched the science of thought as it relates to thinking, learning, renewing the mind, gifting, and potential. Dr. Leaf is an international and national conference speaker on topics relating to optimal brain performance, such as stress, toxic thoughts, male/female brain differences, thinking and learning, controlling our thought lives, wisdom, and how to identify and use one's natural gifts. She is frequently interviewed on TV stations around the globe, has published many books and scientific journal articles, and has her own TV show starting in 2013. Leaf and her husband, Mac, live with their four children in Texas.

Book preview

Caroline Leaf marvelously addresses the single most important issue of our lives—that we can learn to control our brains, take charge of our minds, and improve how we feel, think, and live. We do not need psychiatric medications: we need knowledge, reason, and love to move beyond our suffering to lead fulfilling lives.

Peter R. Breggin, MD, psychiatrist and author of Guilt, Shame and Anxiety

"I first encountered Dr. Caroline Leaf’s work by observing how her Switch On Your Brain book, with its 5-Step Learning Process, took my husband, Peter, from despair to hope in his neuroscience graduate program. I have also since recognized the applicability of her work for children’s educational success and focus. Even our own son appreciates its utility with school work. I believe the content of this book is revolutionary. In my eighteen years of practice as an obstetrician and gynecologist, predominantly providing care for patients in inner-city communities, I come across many women who may be considered without hope. Many seem to be stuck in a cycle of poverty, with its untoward effects on family, often seeing themselves as victims. I believe once they get a hold of this book, read it, and apply it, they will realize there is power in their minds to change not just their own lives but the lives of their children and their communities. As a famous Ghanaian educator Dr. James Kwegir-Aggrey once said, ‘If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation.’" 

Mercy Amua-Quarshie, MD, MPH, diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Dr. Leaf helps us develop healthy thoughts, and her scientifically researched and clinically applied work illuminates the way we live, love, and learn. The techniques and exercises in this book will benefit you in school, work, and your relationships!

David I. Levy, MD, clinical professor of neurosurgery and author of Gray Matter

In nearly thirty years as a neurologist, I have witnessed a global shift in the ‘way’ we are thinking, along with an epidemic decrease in our overall mental health and an epidemic increase in neurophysiologically disruptive disorders. Consequently, I believe this new text by Dr. Leaf should be a required read-and-study for all of us who want to think, learn, and succeed—this is a message of practical hope that is a scientifically based program of action.

Robert P. Turner, MD, MSCR, QEEGD, BCN, associate professor of clinical pediatrics and neurology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine and Palmetto Health Richland Children’s Hospital; associate researcher, MIND Research Institute, Irvine, California

Wow! Another amazing book written by Dr. Leaf! In simple terms, she effectively describes how complex neurophysiological processes can either help or impair your success in life. It is so exciting to see Dr. Leaf nailing down several misconceptions and myths in the medical world. Paraphrasing a truth I learned from her, we are not a product of our own biology. We have brilliant minds that help us transform the barriers we face into stepping stones, leading us to a place where we can reach our full potential—not through excessive or unhealthy work schedules but by being mindful in everything we do, from the thoughts we think to the foods we eat to the ways we work and rest. As an endocrinologist, I see how ‘toxic’ thinking affects my patients on a daily basis. Oftentimes, this thinking is a huge barrier stopping them from being able to maintain their well-being, restore their health, or achieve their goals. My hope is that everyone, especially patients with endocrine dysfunctions, will read this amazing collection of life-giving, truthful information! Understanding the wisdom Dr. Leaf is sharing can make a huge difference in changing your life for the better.

Irinel Stanciu, MD, fellow of the American College of Endocrinology

No matter your situation in life, you have the power to make positive changes. Dr. Leaf has done a masterful job of describing how different mindsets, through quantum effects, change our brains. Through simple steps outlined in this book, you can change your brain and experience a successful life. So don’t stay stuck in defeat—apply the steps in this book and experience the triumphant life!

Timothy R. Jennings, MD, DFAPA, former president of the Tennessee and Southern Psychiatric Association and author of The Aging Brain

The brilliant Dr. Caroline Leaf travels ‘beyond mindfulness’ in this landmark work, giving the tools to developing meaningful cognitive transformation in order to succeed! She rightly dismisses neuromyths that are taken for truth in our current society, similar to what is encountered in the physician-patient interaction after superficial web search–level knowledge has to be put in context. We also see a rise in fatalities due to OUD (opioid use disorders) and SUD (substance use disorders) at epidemic proportions in our nation. These disorders stem in part from past physical and emotional trauma that we are all subject to. The salient points brought to light by Dr. Leaf give us insight into how these habits are formed in the disordered mind. She also gives us hope by bringing to light God’s methodology to address the very origin of the outward manifestation of these mind problems. Another triumphant work, Dr. Leaf!

Avery M. Jackson, neurosurgeon, CEO, and founder of the Michigan Neurosurgical Institute PC

As Dr. Caroline Leaf’s former professor for her Masters and PhD degrees, research mentor, and longtime friend, I am delighted and excited to see how the research on the mind-brain connection and cognitive neuroscience she began with her degrees as a communication pathologist has developed into an extraordinary book that will help people think, learn, and succeed in every area of their lives. This well-researched book not only shows individuals how much power they have in their minds but how to use this power wisely. Not only has Caroline applied these scientifically researched concepts successfully in her clinical practice, educational, and corporate spheres but she has also applied this approach in her own personal life and with her family—so her latest book needs no more validation than her own success story!

Dr. Brenda Louw, professor and chair, Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, East Tennessee State University

"Dr. Caroline Leaf is an incredible gift to us all! In her new book, Think, Learn, Succeed, she unlocks and reveals the wisdom and science behind how we process information to understand how we individually think! This is the golden ticket! With her research, revealed in this book, we can now unleash our full potential and get beyond the fog that comes with not thinking clearly or successfully. This is the answer for the student who struggles with learning and retaining information and the executive who deals with anxiety before that big board presentation. . . . I firmly believe, as a medical doctor, that Think, Learn, Succeed can make the difference in our personal health—cognitive and physical. This book has the potential to make a real difference in dementia and cognitive decline. The mind changes the brain, and I know this book will do just that for you. This book is a must-have, must-read, must-do! I wish I had this book when I was going though medical school, and I will definitely recommend it to my patients and anyone who is a student! In fact, I use all of Dr. Leaf’s books in my practice and recommend them to my patients because they work." 

Jason Littleton, MD, chairman of Family Medicine at Orlando Regional Medical Center and founder and CEO of Littleton Concierge Medicine

"Dr. Leaf has an amazing mind and a special gift of communication. As a counselor and someone who helps lead counselors internationally, I cannot recommend Think, Learn, Succeed enough! It is a powerful resource that shows people how much they are able to help themselves by giving individuals both the knowledge and the resources to change the way they think, thereby changing the way they live their lives."

Dr. Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors

"Dr. Leaf’s work has had a tremendous impact on my life. In 2015, I was severely depressed and had many panic attacks. I exhausted myself going from one psychiatrist to another, to no avail. Through Dr. Leaf’s research, I found the resources that completely healed me and changed my life and the lives of others. What is most striking about Think, Learn, Succeed is how Dr. Leaf is so driven with a passion to encourage each of us recognize how powerful we really are and how much can be conquered if only we get our minds right—diseases, hardships, and crises can be overcome with the power of the mind. In Think, Learn, Succeed, she gives us a practical guide to help us grow into the mindsets that will bring us abundance in life.  In this book, you will find Dr. Leaf bringing a bold proposition to the table: a new paradigm that can bring about a true revolution in wellbeing and healthcare. I am confident that we’re about to enter a new phase of healthcare that will be led by her Dr. Leaf’s research and resources. We’ve been asking ourselves what could happen if we were to build a system that is not focused on the disease; I strongly believe Dr. Leaf already knows the answer, and we as an organization are fiercely joining forces with her to accelerate her vision."

Igor P. Morais, doctor of dental surgery, University of Brasilia, Brazil, and researcher in oral surgery and public healthcare

Dr. Leaf provides a pedagogical approach to living a fulfilling life. As you read through the pages of her book, you become her student, discovering how your mindset may be keeping you stagnant in life and learning her methods, proven over decades of scientific research and application, to change it. She reveals how negative thoughts subtly hijack our minds through various life experiences, becoming the blueprint by which we build our lives. This book exposes the destructive nature of unhealthy thoughts and teaches you how to harness the power of your own mind, unlocking your ability to learn information you may have found intimidating or impossible. It transcends all walks of life, including college students looking to perform better on exams, professionals wanting to excel in their careers, stay-at-home parents desiring to function with more clarity, and retirees trying to stave off or mitigate the effects of Alzheimer’s. As with embarking on any meaningful journey, her methods do not offer a quick solution but they do offer a guaranteed and long-lasting one if you put in the work. I charge you with the assignment of reading this book if you are looking to free your mind of chaotic and unproductive thinking, increase your IQ, and take command of your life.

Lillian Lockett Robertson, MD, OB/GYN, FACOG

"Think, Learn, Succeed addresses many issues we struggle with in today’s school environment. If I can sum this book up into one overarching theme, I would say this book helps to teach ‘personal responsibility.’ Dr. Leaf brings a unique approach to learning. From the chapters on mindset, the gift profile, and the 5-step learning process, she makes it is so easy to understand and teaches it in a very concrete way. Every chapter in this book is extremely necessary for today’s learners, especially in the public school environment, where fear and loneliness may try to take control of students’ thought life. Not only does this book help teach students to think and learn but it also pulls in the very important aspects of a healthy lifestyle, especially in building positive mindsets. This is the start to developing students’ goal-setting and dream-building, which is an important aspect in our schools. Many students lack a sense of purpose and come from toxic environments. They do not understand how their learning in school and in life is impacted by their own thinking, mood, and emotions. This book makes it clear how to create changes for every aspect of our mind, body, and emotions and addresses the need to be explicitly taught. I also love the activation tips that are placed at the end of each chapter, which provide easy and reasonable ways to activate learning. As educators, we know that if we do not have an end-product to learning, the learning remains in short-term memory and will not be sustained."

 Angela McDonald, MA, superintendent and CEO of Advantage Academy

© 2018 by Caroline Leaf

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2019

Ebook corrections 03.06.2019

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4934-0789-7

The Switch On Your Brain 5-Step Learning Process and The Metacog are registered trademarks of Dr. Caroline Leaf.

This publication is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed. Readers should consult their personal health professionals before adopting any of the suggestions in this book or drawing inferences from it. The author and publisher expressly disclaim responsibility for any adverse effects arising from the use or application of the information contained in this book.

This book is dedicated to everyone, because everyone needs to think, learn, and succeed in school, work, and life!

Let’s stop striving and let’s start thriving—together!

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

—William Ernest Henley, Invictus

Contents

Cover    1

Endorsements    2

Half Title Page    8

Title Page    9

Copyright Page    10

Dedication    11

Poem    13

Foreword by Dr. Peter Amua-Quarshie    17

Prologue    19

Acknowledgments    23

Introduction: Are You Succeeding or Just Surviving?    27

Section One:  The Mindset Guide    35

1. Thinking and Learning to Succeed    37

2. The Thinker Mindset    46

3. The Controlled Thinking Mindset    54

4. The Words Mindset    61

5. The Controlled Emotions Mindset    65

6. The Forgiveness Mindset    70

7. The Happiness Mindset    73

8. The Time Mindset    78

9. The Possible Mindset    81

10. The Gratitude Mindset    84

11. The Community Mindset    87

12. The Support Mindset    91

13. The Healthy Stress Mindset    95

14. The Expectancy Mindset    98

15. The Willpower Mindset    102

16. The Spiritual Mindset    104

Section Two  The Gift Profile    109

17. The Purpose of the Gift Profile    111

18. The Gift Profile    128

19. Characteristics of the Seven Modules    149

Section Three  The Switch On Your Brain 5-Step Learning Process    171

20. What Is Learning?    173

Section Four  The Science    205

21. What Is Memory?    207

22. The Geodesic Information Processing Theory    227

Epilogue    241

Afterword by Dr. Robert P. Turner    243

Appendix    245

Notes    261

Recommended Reading    293

Back Ads    316

Back Cover    321

Foreword

Just over ten years ago I was in a very tight spot. I had to take an all-day written exam in the neuroscience graduate program I was in. No one I knew had passed that exam, and those who had failed were basically kicked off the program. It seemed clear to me there was a conspiracy to force me off the program, due to a series of previous events.

Studying the vast amount of information was not going well for me—I was very frustrated and losing hope. I could not sleep well. I was in this state of mind when, one night about 2:00 a.m., I was flipping through TV channels and came across Dr. Leaf being interviewed on a talk show. What caught my attention was the eloquence with which she was able to explain how the brain works in practical terms. I was a neuroscience student and already a medical doctor, and what she said made sense to me. When I found out from her website she had developed a process that had helped many thousands of students around the world excel in their studies, hope started to fill my heart. I dared to ask—Could I possibly pass the impassable? As I began to use the Switch On Your Brain 5-Step Learning Process and its tool, the Metacog, from what I could glean from her website and her book (which I later ordered from South Africa), I knew the answer to my question was a resounding yes!

After passing the exam by using her methods, and leaving that program with a master’s in neuroscience, I have collaborated with Dr. Leaf ever since.

Dr. Leaf has written some great books over the years; however, I must confess, this is my favorite for many reasons. First, it was the material in this book that saved my academic career. Second, I have taught students from high school to graduate school using the principles in this book and have seen their academic and emotional lives change. Third, the principles in this book have helped my own family. And finally, this is my favorite Caroline Leaf book because of highly emotional reasons that go way back to 1976, when I was about twelve years old. That was the year of the Soweto school riots in South Africa, an event that shocked the world. I looked with horror at pictures of children carrying their dead and injured friends from the line of fire. Years later Dr. Caroline Leaf worked for twenty-plus years in the townships, including Soweto, and dramatically changed hundreds of schools and hundreds of thousands of students through the principles, processes, and techniques explained in this book. 

In this book, Dr. Leaf lays out a roadmap to success in our schools and colleges, the workplace, and our personal lives. I suggest you read the book in the order she has laid out, because each principle and process builds on the previous one. There is no quick fix or shortcut. I encourage you, dear reader, to stay the course—I believe the journey will be well worth it, not just for you but for subsequent generations as well.

There are profound changes taking place in classrooms, workplaces, and businesses around the world. Information is increasing at an exponential rate; however, the management of information has not kept pace. Information overload is not just negatively affecting our effectiveness but our mental health as well. I believe this book offers a timely solution to the problem.

Peter Amua-Quarshie, MD, MPH, MS,

assistant professor of basic medical sciences

Prologue

Everyone seems to be talking about mindfulness and taking the time to invest in yourself. But how do you really make your mind work for you? How do you use your mind to shape your life? How do you invest in yourself, creating a lifestyle that promotes both brain and body health? How do you go beyond awareness of, calming down, and acknowledging feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations in the present moment to making sustainable, long-lasting changes? You are the captain of your soul, after all!

It is easy to say you want to take care of yourself, but how do you take care of the mind, which takes care of everything else? The answer is not some pill, diet fad, magic number, Instagram account with over a million followers, or some quick-fix memory program. We all have significant resources at our fingertips. Our minds are incredibly powerful—we can use our thoughts to improve our overall intellect, cognitive performance, and mental and physical well-being. Harnessing these natural resources will give you power over your present, depth and context to your past, and anticipation for the future.

How you understand and use your mind is predictive of how successful you will be. We all think, feel, and choose in unique ways; we all define our own meaningful success. This book is all about helping you get to that place where you succeed in all these key areas and make that switch to a life that is well-lived and filled with meaningful success. This book is about mental self-care. It takes you beyond mindfulness into a lifestyle of cognitive transformation that is both sustainable and organic—suited to your Perfect You.1

Mental self-care is integrally interwoven into a life of meaning, which naturally evolves into success in school, work, and every other area of your life. It is the key to finding your vocation: what gets you out of bed in the morning, and every morning to come. You can only be you, and who you are is brilliant, exciting, and inspiring.

Indeed, many years of research and many thousands of people later, I am still taken aback by the power of our minds to

learn effectively

change circumstances

increase creativity

improve memory and its functionality

increase emotional control, allowing emotions and stress to work for you and not against you

experience intellectual satisfaction

Whether you are at school and just want to learn how to learn, whether you are in corporate life and need to improve your memory and performance, whether you are a stay-at-home or working parent juggling professional and personal responsibilities, whether you feel your mind and memory are not functioning as they should—you need this book because you are a thinking, learning being. You are always thinking and learning, every moment of every day. The questions we need to ask, then, are: What should I think and learn? How should I think and learn?

Are you thinking and learning to succeed?

In this book, I will provide you with three practical, scientific mental self-care tools to help you develop successful thinking and learning habits and achieve sustainable, long-lasting change in your life. I have researched, developed, and presented these three tools over thirty years to hundreds of thousands of people around the world and have been amazed at the results:

The Mindset Guide—a practical guide that will give you insight into the power of how mindsets can change your brain and develop cognitive resilience, which is essential to success.

The Gift Profile—a tool to find your customized thinking—the unique way you process information to understand how you think. Understanding how you think will activate the power of mindsets, turning them from being nice to know about into real, driving forces of change in your life. Stop talking and start doing.

The Switch On Your Brain 5-Step Learning Process—a technique to build memory and learn successfully, based on how the mind processes information through the brain. The brain is designed to grow constantly, and the power of mindsets can really only energize sustainable, successful change when we think in our customized ways and build useful memory.

Mindsets contain power; customized thinking activates this power; the five-step process builds this power into long-term sustainable change. So, these powerful tools can help you improve your memory, learning, cognitive and intellectual performance, work performance, physical performance, relationships, and emotional health.

You will shift your life from survival mode to success mode!

Acknowledgments

When I wrote the first draft of this book and gave it to my team, waxing on excitedly about how Microtubules and tubulin as neurobiological quantum computers explain how, in my Geodesic Information Processing Model (the theory and research I developed thirty years ago), memory is essentially seen as part of the cognitive process, where the new descriptive systems are reconceptualized or redesigned, they politely looked at each other and then me, and said, No one except you and your academic colleagues are going to read that. And this was six weeks before the manuscript due date.

What happened next was an amazing experience and ended up producing my best work—this book, the seventeenth book I have written.

Dominique, one of my team (and my second daughter, a Pepperdine graduate with experience working in Hollywood), sat me down and said very directly, Mom, what are you trying to say? I have grown up with your scientific thinking and learning methods and they work; they are revolutionary. You are a mind specialist, but what you have just explained is too complex. And so began a day-long discussion