Download Free PDF Guide: Unlock Your 86 Billion Neuron Potential

The Most Valuable Asset You Already Own

Let me tell you something that changed how I see myself and every person I meet.

You have 86 billion neurons inside your skull right now. Not millions. Billions. That’s more nerve cells than there are stars in the Milky Way visible to the naked eye. Each of those neurons can form up to 10,000 connections with other neurons, creating a network so complex that scientists still can’t fully map it.

Here’s what hit me: If each neuron represented one dollar, you’d be worth 86 billion dollars from birth. Not because someone gave it to you. Not because you earned it. Simply because you exist as a human being.

But we don’t think this way, do we? Most of us wake up feeling ordinary. We look in the mirror and see limitations. We scroll through social media and feel small. We’ve somehow convinced ourselves that our worth depends on our job title, bank balance, or follower count.

That’s the lie I want to destroy today.

The Numbers That Should Change Everything

Let’s get specific about what you’re carrying around in that head of yours.

86 billion neurons means 86 billion pathways of possibility. Every single neuron is a potential route to a new idea, a new skill, a new connection. When people say “I have no options,” they’re ignoring the biological reality sitting between their ears. You have more options than you could explore in a thousand lifetimes.

86 billion neurons means 86 billion opportunities waiting to be activated. That business idea you’ve been sitting on? There’s neural real estate available for it. That language you wanted to learn? The hardware is already installed. That relationship you want to repair? The processing power exists.

86 billion neurons means 86 billion tasks you’re capable of performing. Think about everything your brain handles right now without you even noticing—regulating your heartbeat, processing these words, maintaining your balance, storing memories, planning your next meal. And that’s using a fraction of your capacity.

You have no shortage of things to do. You have no shortage of potential. The only shortage is in how we think about ourselves.

Case Study: The Taxi Drivers Who Grew Bigger Brains

Here’s something that should make you sit up straight.

In 2000, neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire studied London taxi drivers. These aren’t ordinary drivers—they spend three to four years memorizing 25,000 streets and thousands of landmarks before earning their license. It’s called “The Knowledge,” and it’s considered one of the most demanding memory tasks in any profession.

What Maguire found was remarkable. The hippocampus—the brain region responsible for spatial memory—was physically larger in taxi drivers than in the general population. And here’s the kicker: the longer they’d been driving, the bigger their hippocampus had grown.

Your brain isn’t fixed. It grows. It adapts. It literally reshapes itself based on what you ask it to do.

Those 86 billion neurons aren’t just sitting there waiting. They’re ready to reorganize, strengthen, and multiply their connections the moment you give them a challenge worthy of their potential.

Why We Think Like Chickens When We Could Think Like Eagles

Here’s the painful truth I need to share.

We have narrowed our thinking to that of a chicken. We’ve limited ourselves to just grain and water—the bare minimum for survival. We wake up, eat, work, sleep, repeat. Our neural networks, capable of solving impossible problems and creating beautiful things, spend their days processing TikTok videos and worrying about what strangers think.

A chicken has about 200 million neurons. You have 86 billion. That’s 430 times more neural processing power. Yet many of us live lives no more ambitious than a chicken’s—focused entirely on the next meal, the next small pleasure, the next distraction.

I’m not saying this to shame you. I’m saying it because I’ve been there. I’ve wasted years operating at a fraction of my capacity, not because I lacked ability, but because I lacked awareness of what I actually possessed.

The Story of Ben Carson: From “Dumbest Kid” to World-Renowned Surgeon

If you want proof that recognizing your neural worth can transform everything, look at Ben Carson.

Growing up in inner-city Detroit, Carson was labeled the “dumbest kid in fifth grade.” His single mother worked multiple jobs and could barely read herself. By every external measure, Carson was destined for failure.

But his mother did something that changed his life. She limited his television time and required him to read two library books per week, writing reports on them. At first, Carson hated it. Reading felt impossible. His brain seemed incapable.

Except it wasn’t.

Those same 86 billion neurons that everyone had written off began firing in new patterns. The struggling student developed a love of learning. The “dumb kid” graduated from Yale and the University of Michigan Medical School. He became the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital at age 33 and performed the first successful separation of twins conjoined at the head.

The neurons were always there. What changed was how Carson used them—and more importantly, how he saw himself.

Your Body Is a Miracle You’re Taking for Granted

Let’s expand beyond the brain for a moment, because understanding your full value requires seeing the whole picture.

Your body contains approximately 37.2 trillion cells. Each cell performs thousands of chemical reactions per second. Your heart beats about 100,000 times per day without you asking it to. Your lungs process around 20,000 breaths daily. Your immune system is fighting battles right now that you’ll never know about.

The DNA in a single cell, if stretched out, would be about 6 feet long. The total DNA in your body would stretch to the sun and back multiple times.

You are not ordinary. You are not replaceable. You are a walking universe of complexity that took billions of years of evolution to create.

And yet—how do we treat this miraculous system?

We poison it with processed food. We deprive it of sleep. We flood it with stress hormones by worrying about things that don’t matter. We sit motionless for hours while scrolling through other people’s highlight reels. We treat the most sophisticated machine in the known universe like it’s disposable.

The Real Poverty: Ignorance of Self-Worth

There’s a kind of poverty that has nothing to do with money. It’s the poverty of not knowing your own value.

I’ve met wealthy people who live like beggars internally—constantly seeking approval, never satisfied, always comparing. And I’ve met people with almost nothing materially who carry themselves like royalty because they understand what they truly are.

When you know you’re priceless, you don’t accept crumbs. You don’t stay in relationships that diminish you. You don’t work jobs that crush your spirit without working toward something better. You don’t numb yourself with addictions because you understand that you’re damaging something irreplaceable.

The external circumstances matter less than the internal recognition. Once you truly grasp that every human being—including you—carries wealth beyond calculation, you start making different choices.

How Modern Life Shrinks Our Self-Concept

Let me explain how we ended up thinking so small.

Social media trains us to see ourselves through likes and follows. Every time you post something and check how it performed, you’re outsourcing your sense of worth to an algorithm. Your 86 billion neurons are being programmed to believe that strangers’ opinions determine your value.

Consumer culture tells us we’re incomplete without products. Advertisements work by making you feel inadequate, then offering a solution for purchase. After seeing 5,000+ ads per day, is it any wonder we feel like we’re not enough?

Education often measures worth through standardized metrics. A child with 86 billion neurons gets reduced to a letter grade or test score. Creative genius, emotional intelligence, and unique perspectives don’t fit on report cards, so we learn to discount them.

Work culture reduces humans to productivity units. Your worth becomes tied to output, billable hours, and performance reviews. The miraculous being that you are gets compressed into a job description.

None of these systems are designed to remind you of your true value. You have to do that yourself.

Practical Steps to Honor Your 86 Billion Neurons

Knowing your worth intellectually isn’t enough. You have to live it. Here’s how:

Feed Your Brain Like It’s Worth Billions

Because it is. Stop consuming mental junk food—mindless scrolling, negative news cycles, gossip, and content designed to outrage you. Instead, feed your neurons with books, meaningful conversations, creative challenges, and information that expands rather than contracts your worldview.

Move Your Body Daily

Physical exercise increases blood flow to the brain, promotes neurogenesis (the birth of new neurons), and releases chemicals that enhance mood and cognitive function. Your 86 billion neurons work better when you treat the body that houses them with respect.

Sleep Like Your Brain Depends on It

Because it does. During sleep, your brain consolidates memories, clears metabolic waste, and repairs neural connections. Chronic sleep deprivation literally shrinks brain volume. Seven to nine hours isn’t laziness—it’s maintenance for your most valuable asset.

Challenge Yourself Constantly

Remember the London taxi drivers? Their brains grew because they demanded growth. Take on projects that scare you. Learn skills that stretch you. Put yourself in situations where your neurons have to form new connections to survive. Comfort is the enemy of neural development.

Guard Your Mental Environment

You become what you consistently expose yourself to. If you spend time with people who think small, you’ll shrink. If you consume media that promotes fear and division, your brain will wire for fear and division. Deliberately curate your inputs.

Practice Gratitude for Your Biology

Every morning, take a moment to appreciate the miracle you are. Thank your heart for beating. Thank your lungs for breathing. Thank your brain for thinking. This isn’t wishful thinking—gratitude literally changes brain chemistry and promotes wellbeing.

Every Human Life Is Priceless

What’s true for you is true for every person you’ll ever meet.

That homeless person on the corner? 86 billion neurons. The refugee fleeing violence? 86 billion neurons. The difficult coworker? 86 billion neurons. The person who cut you off in traffic? 86 billion neurons.

When you truly understand human value, you can’t treat anyone as worthless. You can disagree with choices. You can set boundaries. You can protect yourself from harm. But you can’t look at another human being and see trash, because you know what they’re made of.

This isn’t just ethics—it’s biology. Every person carries the same miraculous neural architecture. Every person has unlimited potential encoded in their cells. Every person deserves the chance to recognize and develop their inherent worth.

The Choice You Face Every Day

You wake up each morning with 86 billion neurons ready to fire. The question is: what will you use them for?

Will you spend another day scrolling, worrying, comparing, and shrinking? Will you continue treating your miraculous brain like a garbage disposal for whatever content the algorithm serves you?

Or will you finally accept the truth of what you are?

You are not your job title. You are not your bank balance. You are not your follower count or your relationship status or your past failures.

You are 86 billion neurons organized into the most complex structure in the known universe. You are trillions of cells working in perfect coordination. You are billions of years of evolution culminating in this moment.

You are priceless. Act like it.

Your Transformation Starts Now

The gap between who you are and who you could be isn’t about getting more. It’s about recognizing what you already have.

Those 86 billion neurons are waiting. They’ve been waiting your whole life. They’re ready to learn, to grow, to create, to connect, to solve problems you haven’t even imagined yet.

Stop thinking like a chicken. You’re not here just for grain and water. You’re here to soar.

The only question is whether you’ll finally give yourself permission.

Download Free PDF Guide: Unlock Your 86 Billion Neuron Potential