By: Derrick R. Pledger

Did you know that humans spend approximately 12.5 BILLION hours on social media platforms every single day?  When Smart Insights (TM), a UK-based digital marketing firm, published this factoid, I was blown away.  As an IT Executive, I am a staunch advocate of leveraging technology and social media to augment the way we communicate, interact, conduct commence, learn, and entertain.  Nevertheless, our civilization is facing an existential crisis as it relates to attention-grabbing content that does very little to help improve our lives or nurture the right mindsets to achieve our desired life outcomes. 

Now onto the 500 Pound brain analogy.  In reality, your brain could never weigh 500 pounds.  The average adult brain weighs about three pounds, but humor me a bit as I explain the metaphor.  What I’d like you to do is imagine if your were brain were an actually body?  How would you describe your brain’s diet?  Is it healthy?  Balanced?  How much time do you spend ingesting pointless content, browsing funny cat (or dog) videos, watching the latest TikTok challenge shorts, scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (now “X”), or binge-watching your favorite series on Netflix, Hulu, or BritBox?  Again, use your imagination; if our brains could metaphorically gain “weight” based on what we feed them everyday, most of our brains would look morbidly obese!  Your brain is actually just like a body. In the same way that years of an unhealthy diet can result in diabetes, heart disease, or stroke, failing to prioritize learning, allowing negative thinking to dominate your mind, and ignoring discipline can cause your brain to become diseased also. The resulting conditions, such as stress, mental health issues, and endless procrastination will affect your behaviors and impede progress toward your goals.

This figurative concept of “brain obesity” is literally killing the mindsets that are necessary to achieve the goals and objectives that many of us have set out to achieve.  Without the right mindset, your journey to better health, loving relationships, increased wealth, or a career to be proud of will continue to be elusive.  I spent two years writing my second book, Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds, because part of my life’s mission is to bring maximum awareness to the behaviors, patterns, and habits that compound to turn anyone into a “habitual achiever“.  Many of us want to achieve something of importance across a variety of domains in life.  In order to do so, you must fill your brain with the right “nutrients” that will help you remain disciplined, productive, and unwaveringly consistent.  Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds is filled with easy-to-consume content and repeatable patterns that we all can adopt to drive better outcomes in our lives.  Many of these concepts are not new; I’ve simply consolidated principles and approaches from some the greatest authors, achievers, entrepreneurs, entertainers, and leaders into very short chapters (“recipes”) designed to challenge your perceptions, biases, and behaviors that intersect to form your individual mindset (you can find example “recipes” in subsequent blog posts on this site).

You…and YOU alone are responsible for both creating and claiming the future that you desire.  I’d like to play a role in helping you understand as well as maintain the right mindset that will help propel you to reach your North Stars–those achievements that are most valuable or desirable to you.  Here at 500 Pound Media, our foremost goal is to build to a community of achievers from all walks of life through the distribution of engaging content that raises the standard across personal and professional development ecosystems.  Please join us…and remember to bring your proverbial “appetite”.  Get your copy of Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds today to begin your evolution to an outcome-based life.   Your future is waiting for you… 

Mindset Matters, 

Derrick R. Pledger

Author: Your Brain Weighs 500 Pounds

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