Hardships, the gateway to resourcefulness

When we are comfortable and our basic needs are met, when we have access to a shelter and enough food, we start to get philosophical about life.
We may start noticing how the color on the yogurt packaging is too bright, how the neighbor's car is always parked two inches onto the sidewalk, or how the ceiling light in our building is too dull.
When our stomachs are satiated and a shelter is shielding us from the elements, we start meandering as our brain doesn’t need to focus anymore to be able to keep us alive.
All of a sudden, saving the koalas from the industrial giants that are building factories on the animal breeding ground becomes a subject of interest to us, only to be replaced by a different cause the following month.
This drifting is caused because our brain is not designed to spend energy on things that are beyond our basic survival needs, like food, shelter and the perpetuation of our genes through our progeny.
Hardships make us resourceful, especially when our livelihood is threatened, when we are in a situation where food and shelter become scarce.
In these moments, ideas on how to get the next bite or a warm refuge to shield ourselves from the inclement weather start flooding our head.
We are a walking aggregate of cells, bacteria, and a myriad of other components. The affairs of this whole "society" are managed by our brain.
These "occupants" rebel when they can't have access to proper nutrients in the same way people rebel in a society where access to food becomes difficult.
Situations like this cause our brain to start noticing things, coming up with crafty solutions to meet our and our "occupants" basic needs.
But how do we get our brain to help us in normal, comfortable circumstances?
Our brain is an energy guzzler, and because food was not as easily accessible to our ancestors as it is to us, the brain “learned” to save energy, and use it sparingly prioritizing vital and important functions.
When things are important to us, we do them on a regular basis, we are passionate about them and we feel strong emotions when engaging in them.
The combination of strong emotions such as intense happiness, or intense sadness, along with steady repetition is the key to unlocking the potential of our brain.
It starts viewing that repeated activity as important, and devises ways to make it easier for us by building new or strengthening existing neural pathways dedicated to these activities.
Our brain tends to latch onto things that are steeped in strong emotions and to discard the rest as non essential.
Our body works in a similar fashion, it promotes the growth of the muscles when we convince it to do so through use and regular exercises.
In the same fashion, our body will shed its muscles, when we stop using them for extended periods of time.
The brain will interpret this neglect as a signal that these muscles are not necessary to us anymore, and will gradually send a signal to our body to break them down.