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&lt;p&gt;You keep your resume current, your suit pressed, and your hair trimmed—but is your brain in top form?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Jeff Brown doubts it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Harvard Medical School psychologist and co-author of &lt;em&gt;The Winner&#39;s Brain&lt;/em&gt; is appalled by how we treat our noodles. &quot;People don&#39;t take care of their brains--they don&#39;t prioritize them,&quot; he says. &quot;They think about their weight, muscles, everything you can think of about appearance. But they don&#39;t prioritize the brain.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.vault.com/VCM/articles/the_winner%27s_brain.png&quot; width=&quot;134&quot; height=&quot;169&quot; alt=&quot;The Winner&#39;s Brain&quot; align=&quot;left&quot;/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Brown, who studied the thinking patterns of successful people from Kerri Strug to Whoopi Goldberg for &lt;em&gt;The Winner&#39;s Brain&lt;/em&gt;, believes that anyone can be successful—as defined by the presence of the eight &quot;win factors&quot; defined in the book: Self-Awareness, Motivation, Focus, Emotional Balance, Memory, Resilience, Adaptability, and Brain Care.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though the others take a while (read the full scoop on the book here), &quot;Brain Care&quot; is pretty straightforward—and Brown believes it pays major dividends. &quot;That&#39;s the number one thing that people who want to be successful need to do-- feed and take care of their brains,&quot; he says, &quot;because that&#39;s where the success is coming from.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Ready to win? Here are a few quick tips from Brown for boosting your brain power:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. Take care of it&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;It&#39;s kind of like buying a new car but never taking it to the car wash; it&#39;s like taking brand new shoes and wearing them in the rain and mud,&quot; Brown says of our brains. He reminds us that to function properly, a noggin needs leafy greens, Omega 3s and 6s (that&#39;s why fish is called brain food!), rest, and exercise. Bonus tip: light exercise while doing a mental activity like listening to a book on tape or studying flash cards may help you remember and retain new information—the extra oxygen in the brain improves its function.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. Expose yourse&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lf to new things&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Do something different! Your brain is constantly storing the fresh information, and you never know when it will come in handy. &quot;You want to introduce unique and novel experiences into your life so you can navigate them when similar situations surface,&quot; Brown advises. &quot;It&#39;s what people who are using their brains and having a winner&#39;s brain are doing: exposing themselves to a variety of experiences that they can draw on in the future.&quot; Small changes like walking different routes to work or trying a new food a few times a week are excellent brain fodder.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Practice delayed gratification&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&quot;Our culture says you can have what you want when you want it, how you want it, and that&#39;s just not true,&quot; Brown says. &quot;Anybody that we spoke to that has been successful, it&#39;s something that they had put their time into.&quot; Though slogging through &quot;all stick and no carrot&quot; tasks may not seem fun, you&#39;ll build better discipline—and you may be surprised by how addictive the buzz of achievement is. But, to get the emotional reward, Brown reminds us, &quot;You have to see it through.&quot; Practice finishing what you start.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Read Vault&#39;s Full Interview with Jeff Brown Here&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--Cathy Vandewater, Vault.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Cathy Vandewater

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