BRAIN HACKS.

• Author: Penrod, Emma

There are no shortcuts to genius, experts say. But the path to productivity may be simpler than you think.

Genius. Some view it as an inborn gift, perhaps combined with a stroke of luck that strikes at just the right time. Many others see it as something completely outside our control and not likely to happen to any one person.

Others imagine that perhaps it can be manufactured--learned, even--by unlocking the secrets of those who have come before. A belief that fuels an entire self-help industry.

Researchers, like the rest of us, have long sought to explain the origins of talent and innovation. And while there is still no guaranteed method for pulling Earth-shattering, fail-proof ideas from the ether, science has begun to shed light on some possible means of, at least, maximizing productivity and opening the door to creative insight.

But most of the gimmicks you've heard about, they say, probably don't work. The path to maximum mental functioning is likely both simpler-and much more difficult--than most of the silver bullets found on today's market.

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There are three basic mental states that lead to success in business, according to Holly Strokes, a Salt Lake City-based hypnotherapist known as The Brain Trainer. The creative mindset is necessary for envisioning new ideas, realism is essential for implementing ideas in feasible ways, and the internal critic is useful for identifying and solving problems.

All three are necessary to launch a business venture. But while society often gets caught up in the worship of the creative process, Ms. Strokes says that in her experience. it's not the brainstorming phase that troubles most entrepreneurs.

"Your mind is full of all these million dollar ideas," Ms. Strokes says. "The problems is, we have all these ideas, but then how many of those ideas do we follow through on?"

Ms. Strokes believes most would-be entrepreneurs "shoot themselves in the foot" with habits that engage the critic mindset too early and leave too little time to allow the realist to put a creative vision into practice. The solution, she says, is to examine--and rebuild-your mental habits.

"A lot of those brain habits have to do with messages we picked up through years of schooling, or even through our experiences," Ms. Strokes says. "Maybe we tried something and it didn't work out, and now our brain says, well, nothing will work out."

People who tend to get stuck in these dubious, self-critical mindsets tend not to be...