Cognitive Dominance At 5 : Reflections

Dr. McLaughlin took a moment to reflect on the journey that took place in writing and publishing his book Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon's Quest to Outthink Fear.

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Transcript
 

It's coming up on my fifth anniversary of my book Cognitive Dominance: A Brain Surgeon's Quest to Outthink Fear. It seems like just yesterday that this work was published. I’m happy to say that, although it was an incredibly challenging creation, this work has paid me back in dividends I never imagined—not in terms of royalties, but in the wisdom I’ve gained from the journey.

This book draws on my 32 years of experience making life-and-death decisions in brain surgery, boiled down into a strategy for enhanced performance. But it’s not just about neurosurgery; it also draws on my experiences as a businessman, a youth wrestling coach, and a family man. It’s essentially my life story told in an adventure format.

Along the way, I learned a big idea and used it to transform myself. Mixed into the narrative is 3,000 years of philosophy, cognitive science, performance literature, and medicine—all packed into 400 pages. Together, we, the reader and I, stumble upon a framework to dismantle fear and unleash its potential. When you dismantle fear, something very different shows up—something people call confidence. I don’t call it confidence, though. I call it love: love for the people you serve, love for what you do, and most importantly, love for who you are.

I hope you enjoy it.