Mindful Curiosity from Where You Stand

Ask  What if… questions to fire neurons that open curiosity’s eyes and cultivate wonder.

Mindful Curiosity from Where You Stand

What if you were to blaze trails typically reserved for the curious – by running with one new possibility?

The simple question What if… stokes working memory to think more like a genius that way J-Mac did when he ignored autism and landed a life-changing basketball shot.

Curiosity refuels your brain with chemical hormones to see wonders you missed yesterday.  It nudges you to touch options beyond your reach last week.

Curiosity extends your reach into ventures that engage other top minds. What if’s drive four hot new areas here at the Mita International Brain Center this week.

We’ll share more soon …

Meanwhile, how will you  challenge mindful curiosity from where you stand today?

Perhaps more importantly – When what if … opens your curiosity – what’s the next step to innovation that follows?

Curiosity Leads to Awareness

A sense of wonder is to awareness what sunshine is to daylight. How so?

Check your awareness at this link and you will also spot your own curiosity potential.

Would you agree that strong opinions prevent that mental growth that curiosity can propel? Your turn…?

When Competition’s Paradox Means Defeat

Does Competion Ensure Defeat?

Is the competitive approach Americans crave – also a force driving us out of the game?

NPR showed rivalry’s problem, by contrasting  Finland’s winning model.  Finland’s stated distaste for unabashed competition, opened access for national excellence across schools. Ours?

Cooperation Launches Growth

Compare Finland’s winning approach to U.S. test-based struggles. Have rigid tests handed unfair advantages to a few while excluding our brightest minds?  Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of  Centre for International Mobility, showed Finland’s as a winning team:

In my country … we believe in cooperation and sharing. Cooperation is a core starting point for growth.

Imagine what pulling-for-all could do across your  organization.   See dividends rise! Check out the new tug-a-war between what NY Times calls individual creativity and group creativity.

Do you agree that the origin of Apple’s greatness speaks to the power of collaboration? If so, you’ll likely also agree that rivalry shoved togetherness dangerously off-course across our nation.

In spite of competition’s flaws we default mentally to strap on blindfolds and oppose, attack or displace, rather than build. Some claim that current US contests hand  money and power to a few greedy sharks who buy unhealthy influence over all. It doesn’t have to be that way!

Do you see Competition as Barb or Brain Booster?

Some suggest that social competition may be the reason for bigger brains and few disagree with scientific evidence. My question reaches beyond mere cranial capacity. What  ethical influence does warfare and competition play to shape brainpower?

Brain gurus such as David Geary show positive proof of growth through competition. Any negatives though, to smack-down-matches you’ve observed lately?

Does peer rivalry increase antagonism or foster benefits?

We know from neurogenesis that people improve their lot by beliefs moved into winning tasks. We also know that competition increases IQ when people  improve a personal best. It’s opposite how competition works against intelligence – when one goes after another with self-interest or unfair advantages. Who’d attribute fairness to a fox hunter’s advantages against a common fox with far fewer resources? Compare that inequity to personal growth that adds to collective gains.

Run that extra mile, write a finer essay, rebuild a better prototype, swim faster, and you literally reshape your brain chemically and electrically for higher intelligence.  Even simple competitions, can alter brainwaves up or down. The jury’s still out however, if competition adds or reduces brainpower for a more successful life collectively.

Does Social Media Hurt or Help Competition?

Research is sobering. Scientists suggest, for instance, that constant Facebook, Twitter and Bebo rivalry, can actually decrease attention spans, foster instant gratification, and encourage self-centered warfare. Through competitions for followers, or one-up-ship news reporting, people reboot their brains to live winning results in the moment.  Over time?

No surprise that competition alters brainpower, yet further investigation may offer fresh insights about negative or positive effects to the human brain.  Benefits dominate some research and yet we’re warned of definitive ways competition can hurt more than help.

Before choosing competition or collaboration consider effects of each on brainpower:

How Could Competition Mean Fewer Losses?

1. Use tone to build goodwill. Even within competitions,  tone tools open opportunities for life-changing dividends. In healthy rivalry, tone draws success like the moon attracts tides on an ocean shore.

2. Network to enhance wisdom. Fuel your brain with chemical hormones for growth and learning, by planning times ahead to engage others, rather than merely racing against them on a dime.

3. Interact across ages and cultures. Get to know people who differ from you and emulate their diverse offerings. Connect more with people unlike yourself to learn from and value differences.

4. Ask great questions. Listen, then act on hot answers that refire your efforts. To read or hear alone, works less magic in the brain than to act on answers from 2-footed questions.

5. Put feet to new beliefs. Change even deeply held assumptions, when others hold finer ethics up to the rainbow. Weigh differences, forgive fast and let go often.

6. Run from cynics or bullies. Propose competitive solutions to problems raised. Opposite abuse or toxic competitions, lie steps toward peaceful solutions, from multiple intelligences.

7. Link to high performance minds. Build  with those who lead change for improvements. Facilitate innovative minds and lead fixes for broken systems, that trap hebbian thinkers.

8. Engage opposing views. Show strengths in alternative perspectives, by stepping out of comfort zones to embrace unexpected answers that lead to visible improvements.

9. Try new technologies. Rarely is it easy to learn new online skills but each time you step up to a new plate, you stretch and exercise your brain’s working memory for competitive edges.

10. Send growth zingers to peers. Draw from serotonin to affirm competitor’s ideas and share your own insights when appropriate, to offer genuine encouragement.

Here at the Mita International Brain Center, we use smart skills to create  communities that compete, win and grow together. Skeptics and naysayers will always be with us, yet each day offers every chance needed to join brilliant minds who advance our world through healthy rivalry at the peaks.

Would you agree that competition against self  powers-up brains for consensus-building together? It also harnesses differences into wins

What’s your take – Is competition a barb or a boost to brainpower?

Perhaps more importantly, How can we achieve more sustainable wins together?

For further discourse about your brain’s role to increase wins – see also:

-          Ten Popular Idols Kill Innovation

-          Power up Brains for Consensus

-          Brainpowered Tone for Engagement

-          Values for Brainpowered Climate

A Brain on Persistence

All good intentions aside – projects often fall off the tracks before completion. Has it happened to you?

Why do so many power-packed-possibilities flicker, fizzle and die before they reach their potential? Some blame it on disorganization. Others attribute derailed efforts to laziness.

Why do Some Ideas Hang in and Others Let Go?

Neither laziness nor disorganizations’ the culprit – if you consider how a brain hangs onto one idea and lets go of another.

Research now shows scientific support for persistence as it links to working memory and basal ganglia, as illustrated in the video here.

Think of new ideas as sketched onto your brain’s scratch pad – or your working memory. Then imagine a new and different idea that erases your original sketches to make room for its details. Make sense?

Working Memory’s the Brain’s Sketch Pad

Working memory – that place where you configure and apply novel ideas – comes equipped to lose that data when you focus on other issues. So what would bridge the gap between research or concept idea and successful implementation into renewed practices?

Persistence comes from five principles that factor in the brain’s staying power. These include:  targeting expected outcomes; critical first days; outsourcing detailed steps; tackling barriers; encouraging yourself and others.

First, Sketch specifically what you have in mind for outcomes. Then tweak and clarify this expected outcome at regular intervals, as the project moves forward. When you focus on a specific outcome, the brain’s working memory stretches to step that focused plan into reality.

Second, Before the working memory erases your ideas to make room for the next facts or details – capture critical details on a white board, email them to a friend, or apply key parts so that you move the initiative closer to your brain’s basal ganglia where it sticks and stays.

Third, Secure your ideas in more permanent storage spaces than the working memory’s non-reliable sketch pad. You might create a computer file with the ideas, map out an action plan with dates for each next step or hang an outline of your plan beside your computer, and include daily steps into your to-do-lists for the week. Keep your steps front and central, so that persistence stands a chance.

Fourth, Articulate, and then tackle barriers that limit your ideas. Check the research findings, or ask  support from progressive peers but avoid cynical toxins in these early stages.  Stress from  a cynic’s scorn literally defaults your progress back to comfortable habits.  Keep alive working memory possibilities, by tossing in solutions, and your brain stays alert until the project is finalized.

Finally, encourage yourself and others to zip along with a bit of attitude – so that novelty and play open serotonin’s gateways into genius.

What do you do to keep the magic alive in promising new projects?

See related posts:

Expect More Memory by Outsourcing Key Facts

Basal Ganglia – Working Memory and Change

Use Your Words

My Christmas rang with unforced rhythms of grace in the form of a simple strategy offered to my little grandson.  It happened after a busy day of  trains – when a one-and-a-half-year-old took his tired voice to the table and his parents responded.

Use Your Words

Usually very well behaved, the baby cried for his dinner to hurry up. It’s what happened after – that left me proud of my children, and taking mental notes about the power of well-suggested strategies.  A seemingly simple  tool  triggered progress and  maintained dignity as the baby clearly  enjoyed his improved tone.

A calm, caring tone modeled by his parents assured the baby that he’d get dinner faster by simply using his words.

From a toddler’s limited lexicon, Hendrik plucked out a choice word, that and was promptly passed his dinner.

I saw in my kids’ gift to my grandson, the power of offering simple tools that help others win more than lose.

Armed with a new approach to express his frustration in good tone, while holding onto evident love from family, the baby thoroughly enjoyed his meal. Within minutes my grandson told his charming stories,  giggled with the rest of us and shared his Nana’s silly straw. It made my day!

He transformed dinner into a fun place to linger with family, because his parents offered him a plan he could run with. All because of one thoughtful strategy – both baby and parents won.  So did the magic of Christmas.

See any similarities to coach others  or support civil discourse that offers strategies for more wins on different sides of issues?

In that simple challenge to use your words I spotted benefits for moments when frustration sets in.

  • Speak kindly rather than push people into a corner metaphorically – when cortisol flows into their brain.  Calm shows serotonin care with strategies that stoke well being.
  • Model tone to a frustrated person rather than adopt poor tone in response. Friend and colleague Bob Moesta suggests looking at all issues through the eyes of the other person. Yes!
  • Suggest strategies that fit and improve a person’s talents and situation.   That strategy might be kindled and designed in a mutual mentoring manner.

What tool might you offer to help a person get past communication that works against brainpower? How could you help others by modeling civil discourse, even in a place of personal frustration?

What strategies could begin to restore stronger discussions – with civil discourse – where you work?

Innovative Brainpower for 2012?

In case you hadn’t noticed, ground-breaking leaders differ from most administrators who maintain rules and regulations out there. Neuro discoveries show 3 distinct traits that spark innovative leaders’ brains.

Innovative Brainpower for 2012?

Most agree there’s no turning back, yet some still insist that leaders are born, rather than made. And it’s true that at times we seem stuck in well worn ruts we’ve spun in past years.  Luckily research proves otherwise, and now we have proof of personal triumph from leaders like Norman Doidge in The Brain that Changes Itself.

Whatever current culture reveals to the contrary, people carry gene pool potential for more creative leadership.  I’m convinced we could reshape a far finer 2012 with brainpowered tools used more as strategic imperatives.

1. Appreciate new ideas rather than criticize lost opportunities.  That simple act of genuine thankfulness extends its magic by unleashing serotonin into any workplace. Wherever this molecule of well being thrives, people find cause to celebrate the wonder of workplace successes.  How will the neuroscience of celebration move your workplace from last year’s challenges to solutions for a new era?

Are you willing to think of innovation as more that a nice thing to dream about?

Looking for opportunities beyond that stuck-in-the-mire cortisol world? Why not open a few windows where neuro and cognitive sciences can reboot your leadership for mind-bending business ventures.

2. Kindle ideas from more diverse talents and expect new advances.  Have you seen leaders capitalize on novel designs through communicating good tone across differences, for instance.  How so?

The human brain comes with unique equipment that links tone and talent development – to fuel innovative cultures across silos. It’s quite straightforward, if you simply mimic those who value differences.

Diversity can move leaders from broken practices into renewed approaches. When mutual mentoring leads to mind-guiding risk-taking hormones such as dopamine often generate productivity as a result.

3. Tackle tone toxins that come from cynics or bullies. Check out dangerous mental toxins that come to work with bullies and cynics.  Ignore these caustic signals and you’ll  see people slip into the kind of stress that literally shrinks the brain.

The best way to beat intimidation is to trigger creative visions.

Whenever you cotton onto the notion that people or problems diminish you, that self-critique begins to bury your brain’s tools for excellence. In contrast, your brain holds hidden reflection equipment to build visions that develop confidence and take risks to achieve mind-bending results. Yes, regardless of other’s impressions of your work plans or character.

Have you ever wondered how some people envision greatness past human hurdles that shut down brilliance at work?

Below are several brainpowered pathways that lead away from stress and toward more creative leadership opportunities at work:

  1. Laugh – yes, especially when the chips are down,  and you’ll build neuron pathways in directions away from stress.
  2. Golf as a way to relax in nature’s best– even as you capitalize on improving your swing with each new shot.
  3. Embrace a novel adventure, a playful distraction to rejuvenate your brain from ruts that imprison you in stress.
  4. Risk replacing one idol that holds you back – with an innovative alternative that could sprint you forward.
  5. Encourage another brainy bloke, rather than find flaws or name faults as stressed-out critics tend to nitpick.
  6. Recognize and flee from 10 tragic toxins in minds of bullies and cynics.
  7. Ask two-footed questions that shut off stressor spigots, and open your day into what if … possibilities.
  8. Act on even just one life-changing brainpowered dream. Then inspire others by using the tone to create across differences.
  9. Check out the wonders and woes of change – then flee from any fear that stunts new growth.
  10. Rewire your brain to act courageously by choosing ethics – even when good seems to lose against the odds.

How do you stack up against those who’ll lead life-changing discoveries in 2012?

What if 2012 Propelled Robust Peace?

What if a brain’s wiring no longer defaulted daily back to war and violence? Neuro-plasticity shows how it happens. Have you seen it happen?

Lasting peace means reversing a dozen areas identified below. Peace follows when you lead innovation with the brain in mind! To understand how war shuts out ingenuity for peace, is to spark harmony’s opportunity for innovative growth. How so?

What if 2012 propelled peace?

One highly touted combat courseTHE ART OF WAR hails sustainable fighting by the Pentagon’s top few Generals. There leaders learn top tricks from veteran warriors who see war linked to ensure US dominance.

Could taxes currently equipping our war culture, support a 2012 peacekeeping future? Peace shifts us from rape and violence to brainpowered renewal when we awaken a healthier vision together.

War may seem as fine art to a few pinnacled Generals at the Pentagon – yet it’s sheer murder to many gunners on front lines. But my question is: What if we transformed warrior realities that cling to dominance desires,  into renewed national legacies that value humans as capital though peace? How so?

What if robust peacekeeping replaced the politics of force?

What if 2012 fostered peace?

What if for every …

Program offered on strategies of war – one is facilitated on the power of sustained peace?

Word printed on the hazards of war – a communication exposes the wonder of peace?

Human supported to kill others – a human is supported to reshape conflict into peace?

Game advertised where violence is central – a robust peace game plan is promoted?

Accusation made about those who differ – a testimony is given for peaceful co-existence?

Dollar spent on sustaining warfare – a dollar is offered to market sustainable peace?

Team trained to kill – a team is developed to build doable strategies that learn from diversity?

Song composed to remember downed warriors – a melody hails fallen peacekeepers?

Base outfitted to support fighters – a camp is constructed to defend integrity and uplift mercy – through peace?

Textbook tale of warrior’s wonder – one is published on life-giving marvels of harmony?

Medal offered for combatant’s bravery – an award if presented to salute valiant accords?

Weapon constructed to kill – an equal tool is crafted to extend life and reboot liberty?

Let’s Rewire Brains for Lived Peace in 2012.

Why foster warrior cultures built into the brain’s chemical and electrical circuitry for dominance?  Let’s substitute daily war triggers for more poignant forgiveness plans, for instance. Humity – packed into the power of robust peace!

Happy 2012 from Mita International Brain Center – where we value peace and learn daily from each of you!

Will you join us in peace that comes without guns or gridlocks?

For every human wounded by war, a robust peace plan could generate new life and genius across differences!

Your turn…?

Is Christmas a Soft Skill?

Over the past few decades,  soft skills seemed to skid over  cliffs, where they remain less visible, and far cheaper than more-in- demanded hard skills.

Is Christmas a Soft Skill?

What if Christmas is a soft skill, though? Would that diminish or cheapen its value?

Christmas stokes belief. It takes skill to see God as divinity, and humans as created.

Is belief a soft skill?

Christmas inspires giving. It takes skill to profit others and delight in a giver’s blessings.

Is generosity a soft skill?

Christmas stokes magic and wonder  into tiny lights and rhythmic bells.

Is wonder at Christmas  a soft skill?

What do you think?

Could Christmas  open new opportunities to  meld soft and hard skills into smart skills?  Could it help us use and value both sides of the brain for a more prosperous year?

See post: Reflect Change with Smart Skills

Over the past few decades soft skills have skidded over the cliff, so they are less visible, paid for or demanded than more favored hard skills.

What if Christmas is a soft skill, though? Would its value diminish or cheapen?

Christmas stokes belief. It takes skill to see Divinity as real and humans as created.

Is belief a soft skill?

Christmas inspires giving. It takes skill to profit others and accept a giver’s blessings.

Is generosity a soft skill?

Christmas stokes magic and wonder into tiny lights and rhythmic bells.

Is magic within Christmas lights and bells a soft skill?

Could Christmas open new opportunities to meld soft and hard skills into smart skills? Could it help us use and value both sides of the brain for a more prosperous year?

A Serotonin Christmas

Thankfulness circles into serotonin celebrations and fuels the human brain for surprising outcomes.

A Serotonin Christmas

Today, for instance,  I received a poignant reminder of serotonin’s circular Christmas magic from Sue Dungey.  A waitress at Brantford’s, Williams Fresh Cafe on Market St, Sue stirs thanks in many who stop by for a warm meal.  She  did even more for me.

Recently, I co-facilitated an amazing meeting, in Brantford, Ontario with leaders from the Re-wired Group.

From that encounter, I’d like to share  a magical overflow for what I’ll call – a serotonin holiday season.

Out of sheer gratitude for Sue’s care during our busy meetings in Williams Fresh Cafe – I slipped a brief letter of thanks to the restaurant’s management team. Never thought a thing of my two-bit note again – until today when this response came back from a thankful waitress! Wow!

Gratitude extends the magic!

Sue emailed back her gratitude to extend the circle:

Dear Ellen:  I just wanted to drop you a quick note to properly thank you for the very kind email you sent on my behalf.  It was an absolute pleasure having you in our cafe last month and I was delighted to be able to assist you and your colleagues.  I am not sure if you are aware but Williams Fresh Cafe is a chain of roughly 75 restaurants across Ontario with our home office also base in Brantford.

The CEO of Williams came to the store yesterday to meet me and thank me on behalf of the company.  I was quite taken aback and frankly a little shocked.

I also learned yesterday that your kind email was sent to every store in the chain to be posted on the employee boards, and that I was named employee of the month with what we call the golden apple award.  It is because of customers like you that I still enjoy my job.

Thank you so very much for remembering me and should you find yourself back in Brantford please feel free to email me and I will book our room for you in advance.

Merry Christmas Ellen and God bless

Sue Dungey

Sue’s note – in response to my brief note below – proves how thankfulness sincerely spoken can become a golden apple to those (like Sue Dungey) who deserve it most!

Imagine thanks as a tool to build springs of hope

My original note of gratitude about Sue – read:

Greetings Managers at Williams Fresh Café,

I’d like to commend your amazing restaurant, and especially extend thanks to a superior employee – Sue Dungey. My reason for genuine appreciation is that Sue represented your café in brilliant ways at every turn during a recent visit.  How so?

On Tuesday, December 6th, I organized a business lunch between two leaders from Detroit and two of us from Rochester, NY. As a Canadian/American  citizen myself – I felt so proud to be back in Canada.  What an unexpected pleasure to find the kind of service Sue offered us at your restaurant.

First, we enjoyed great food, in a terrific atmosphere. Second, Sue offered us a quiet area in the restaurant to meet and were able to hold ideal discussions, without even asking for such service.

Sue and others served us as if they were glad we were there! Sue welcomed us at the door, helped us to get a top lunch by making numerous suggestions, and ensured that we had an enjoyable experience, at every step of the way.

When a waitress serves clients as she would engage or care for her own family, or as if she owned the business – she has done far more than folks expect. That was Sue, and I cannot thank you enough for hiring folks like this hostess who leaves a lasting impression in every way.

We’ll be back!

Best, Ellen Weber

My simple thanks circled back, through brilliant leadership at Williams Fresh Café, and through Sue’s golden apple emplyee-of-the-month service.

Appreciation extended its magic and serotonin into MBA and other leadership programs we’ll facilitate in the coming term.  How will the neuroscience of thanks rewire your holiday season?

Thankfulness circles into serotonin well being and fuels the human brain for surprising outcomes. Today, for instance, I received an unexpected reminder of from Sue Dungey, a game-changing waitress I encountered at Brantford’s, Williams Fresh Cafe on Market St. How so?

Last week I co-facilitated an amazing meeting with game changers from the Re-wired Group, in Brantford, Ontario. We planned a dynamic innovative pathway forward, but that’s not the purpose of this article.

Out of sheer gratitude for Sue’s care during our busy meetings in Brantford – I was inspired to send a brief letter of thanks to the restaurant’s management team. Never thought a thing of my two-bit note – until today when this response came back from the waitress! Wow!

Gratitude extends the magic!

Sue emailed back her gratitude to extend the circle:

Dear Ellen:  I just wanted to drop you a quick note to properly thank you for the very kind email you sent on my behalf.  It was an absolute pleasure having you in our cafe last month and I was delighted to be able to assist you and your colleagues.  I am not sure if you are aware but Williams Fresh Cafe is a chain of roughly 75 restaurants across Ontario with our home office also base in Brantford.

The CEO of Williams came to the store yesterday to meet me and thank me on behalf of the company.  I was quite taken aback and frankly a little shocked.

I also learned yesterday that your kind email was sent to every store in the chain to be posted on the employee boards, and that I was named employee of the month with what we call the golden apple award.  It is because of customers like you that I still enjoy my job.

Thank you so very much for remembering me and should you find yourself back in Brantford please feel free to email me and I will book our room for you in advance.

Merry Christmas Ellen and God bless….Sue Dungey

Sue’s note – in response to my brief note below – proves how thankfulness sincerely spoken can become a golden apple to those (like Sue Dungey) who deserve it most!

Imagine thanks as a tools to build futures of hope

My original note of gratitude about Sue – read:

Greetings Managers at Williams Fresh Café,

I’d like to commend your amazing restaurant, and especially extend thanks to a superior employee – Sue Dungey. My reason for genuine appreciation is that Sue represented your café in brilliant ways at every turn during a recent visit. How so?

On Tuesday, December 6th, I organized a business lunch between two leaders from Detroit and two of us from Rochester, NY. As a Canadian/American citizen myself – I felt so proud to be back in Canada. What an unexpected pleasure to find the kind of service Sue offered us at your restaurant.

First, we enjoyed great food, in a terrific atmosphere. Second, Sue offered us a quiet area in the restaurant to meet and were able to hold ideal discussions, without even asking for such service.

Sue and others served us as if they were glad we were there! Sue welcomed us at the door, helped us to get a top lunch by making numerous suggestions, and ensured that we had an enjoyable experience, at every step of the way.

When a waitress serves clients as she would engage or care for her own family, or as if she owned the business – she has done far more than folks expect. That was Sue, and I cannot thank you enough for hiring folks like this hostess who leaves a lasting impression in every way.

We’ll be back!

Best, Ellen Weber

My simple thanks circled back, through brilliant leadership at Williams Fresh Café. Appreciation extended its magic and serotonin into MBA and other leadership programs we’ll facilitate in the coming term. How will the neuroscience of thanks rewire your holiday season?

Infighting to Innovation – with Mindguiding

Are you relying on people moving into new waters, wwithout oars to move? For instance, people in toxic workplaces may need help to interface with innovation.

Infighting results in shutdowns or shotguns  that eliminate the innovation many value and still crave.

One newly introduced skill -mindguiding -  draws from right and left brains to convert infights into inventions. How so?

From Infights to Innovation with Mindguiding

Mindguiding, or mutual mentoring builds the impetus for new insights that replace old assumptions. It’s quite simple yet it works wonders.

Experienced mentors and hot-out-of-college zealots, mindguide  one another into new possibilities for both.

See progress past gridlocks or compromise?

Infighting sparks when people point out blunders, or ignore upstarts’ insights.  Innovation stirs passion for risks across differences.  Rather than damn the dumb mindguides,  stir passion for new talent.

Infighting zeros in on facts that appear wrong or missing to critics who feel compelled to set folks straight. Innovation favors ambiguity as mindguides engage widely diverse perspectives toward new understandings together.

Infighting comes from stagnated pools at work,  where experts refuse to be outwitted by newbies they see as misinformed plebs or underlings. Innovation spikes as mindguides look at problems together – with solutions more in mind.

Infighting offers platforms for seasoned cynics to seize positions of power, while avoiding reflection on growth opportunities. Innovation steps beyond blame by developing the mental capacity to combine multiple intelligences as tools for finer solutions.

Infighting comes from the demand for one way.  Even demands for one experts’ newly minted way, comes with dangers of flawed assumptions about what works best and why. Innovation focuses on less familiar talents that infighters tend to miss, and mindguides emulate. How so?

To focus more  on  talent and offer intelligent innovation that critics miss -  mindguides:

1. Look for more linguistic intelligence. Want words to come easier, poetry to mean more, speeches to ring truer, or books to yield more wealth? Then play with words, do crosswords, compete in scrabble, debate, or offer to speak to a local club. Search for new ideas on the internet, write a blog, or tell your best idea in 140 letters or less, and and that too will boost your linguistic brainpower. What could you improve today alongside a person who masters language?

2. See more musical intelligence. Want music to move and shake your creative projects? Pop on Gregorian Chant to pop you out of stress. Play Bach or Handel to plan your next creative project. Toss tunes from Shumann, Chopin or Liszt into your romance and watch it grow. Or gain inspiration from Soul, Blues or Calypso. Imagine mindguiding with  Don Campbell who uses musical intelligence to jack up productivity, and improve innovative  moods on a bad day. What would you learn-teach in such a  setting?

3. Spot intrapersonal intelligence. Need intuition for better decisions, common sense for keen insights, contentment in your own company, simple ability to laugh more on a busy day? Thanks to neurogenesis, we now know this intelligence too will grow with use. Panic a bit too fast? Feel sidelined a bit too much? Run from risks or new adventures? Grow sad when others celebrate family ties? If so, you’d enjoy a heaping dose of intrapersonal smarts to add contentment and turn those tougher days around. Plan a lunch alone at your favorite digs, practice smiling to improve a mood, ask a question to your day, or plan a risk today that would ratchet up contentment.  With  personal intelligence, you mindguide with personal reflections – so that your brain rewires  for a more clever you.

4. Highlight bodily kinesthetic intelligence. Would you like to dance, better? Then step and move beside a person who dances well. Want to move with coordinated grace? Then shuffle and stretch in ways you hope to grow more memory within body muscles themselves. It’s much the same for skills intelligence to smack a tennis ball with greater ease, or put together furniture with finer flare. Do it to grow it. Then expect new wonders as the brain kicks into kinesthetic mode alongside movers and shakers.

5. Check for mathematical or logical intelligence. Why not start a schedule to plan your next week, since sequencing and patterning is at math smart’s core. So’s organization at the heart of math IQ as is seeing the bigger picture. Like other intelligences mathematical genius grows more through math ideas that take you feet first, and then on new flights – with use. Mistakes add growth in math, yet schools use errors as arrows to kill a brain’s best. Even Einstein said that Education’s what remains after one’s forgotten everything learned in school. Have you found a mindguide  to use and grow logical mathematical alongside, in spite of limitations learned at school?

6. Observe visual or spatial intelligence. Grab a paper alongside an artist and sketch your funniest memory in the last few weeks. Or attend an art class together, and learn to paint. Visit galleries, surround yourself with images that teach you more about life, or create an avatar to show your thoughts to an online community. Graph ideas, select visuals to explain life, or take photographs with people you value for their spatial intelligence – and you’ll invent more through use.

7. Find interpersonal intelligence. Interview a person you know to discover what makes that person smart? Ask, “How are you smart?” rather than the more traditional question “How smart are you? Narrow that person’s narrative about personal intelligence into one or two words, and you have already grown intelligence interpersonally. Would you agree that people high in interpersonal intelligence will come away with amazing insights here? Or can you see how the exchange itself offers opportunity to expand one’s interpersonal acumen?

8. Draw on naturalistic intelligence. If you spend excessive time breathing in refreshing scents of spring, surrounded by sounds of brooks running, or captivated by natures’ change for different seasons, you likely possess good amounts of naturalistic intelligence. You’ll gain more though, by using patterns and designs found outside to solve problems faced in any situation. People who compare soil types, animal or tree patterns, or rock formations – all hold nature’s wisdom for mindguiding possibilities.

For better balance than infighting, why not take brainpower to new levels through mindguiding.  First, survey your own multiple intelligences to see what’s stronger and what acumen you’d like to expand with a co-teacher/learner. Then, plan one activity a week with a person who differs from you – yet includes a strength you most enjoy. Watch for infighters though, because they tend to ambush innovation and shut down  risks for the sake of personal power problems.

How could you move from move from infighting to innovation through mindguiding?

A Case for New Hires?

A Case for New Hires?

Some say the old workplace is gone. Others say new opportunities may never emerge. I say that organizations invigorate new opportunities when they hire innovative workers.

Is it time to look past stagnant employees to discover innovative IQ

It’s not about hiring younger workers. It’s not even about favoring people with vast experience or leadership qualities.  It’s about finding innovative potential, for a workplace that supports visible change-making.

Susan Solovic suggests you hire the best candidate,  not the “best job seeker,”  and I agree for several reasons. Change for longtime workers can be brutal since learning new approaches, requires massive rewiring of vast cortical connections.

A new hire’s innovative skills are likely in plastic competition with neural networks developed by senior staff, over time where ruts tend to tank a workplace into stagnant quagmires.

Brainpowered tools for change  with new hires:

1). New talent development. Drop mentoring for mindguiding practices that both teach and learn from others. With similarities no longer promoted, multiple intelligences spring into action.

2). Whole brain assets. Capitalize on both left and right brainpower, when you risk solutions that bring together offerings from both arts and sciences.

3). Alliances across departments. Pose 2-footed questions across isolated silos in ways that cross-pollinated curious teams and motivate solutions together.

4). Workplace adventures that celebrate play and humor – added daily to improve broken routine practices.

5). Ethics in action through what if … questions that build integrity and ratchet up your bottom line?

6). Interactive roundtables to replace meetings, where you listen with your brain, and stoke opposites to ignite innovative ROI.

7. Workplace wellness where venting toxins turn into tone that celebrates goodwill across differences.

8). Caring communities where challenges and heated competition trigger trust and curiosity to build prototypes across disagreements.

9). Reflective growth plans that shift focus from performance reviews about weaknesses to intelligence-fair appraisals

10). Smart skills to blend hard and soft skills into smart skills that double as brainpowered tools.  Rewire your brain to win far more – based on skills from its  fertile areas.

Before  gridlock and compromise become norm, wealth and new opportunities follow.New hires can be supported to act opposite toxins at work that spark in-fighting or flame accusations. If you hope to build goodwill across people who disagree or departments that differ, for instance,  then look for people rooted in the brain chemistry of forgiveness.

Oh, by the way, why not give current workers a chance to show evidence of the above skills before looking for innovative new workers – willing to build on strengths for a new era.

Comments Kill or Propel Innovation

Tone  kills or advances new neuro discoveries, and a brilliant PBS Brain Series shows how so. Check out 28 comments that followed the enlightened panel discussion to see brain tonic and toxins in hot pursuit.

While Charlie Rose and Dr. Eric Kandel’s Brain Series suggest game-changing opportunities, poor tone in feedback comments later truncates that process with striking setbacks. Rose models the brain’s best innovative IQ when he affirms people’s thoughts before sharing his own views on the other side.

Charlie Rose Brain Series

In contrast, feedback comments at PBS brain series site reverted to toxic tone that erodes any chance of innovative growth together.  When comments diminish people, belittle opposing views, or attack novel ideas, innovation dies. Have you seen tone grow innovation or reduce its chances where you work?

My own lifetime work shows tone as a power tool for exploring mental frontiers together.  The key is to disagree while building goodwill across differences. Sadly, old beliefs about what it means to think or to be smart can cause  amygdalas to flare.

Tone can  grow or shrink IQ

Did you notice how the best speakers at the PBS Brain series thanked people for their offerings, before they tossed their own ideas into the ring. What if instead of hurling insults, comments transformed PBS panel’s edges into higher IQ opportunities by piggy-backing onto other’s ideas?

Imagine if playfulness and fun boosted good ideas here.  In contrast to bare-boned competition or jealousy – why not toss in good tone to create an extravaganza of PBS brain discoveries.  A fireside chat that pulls people and novel insights into game-changing practices for a new era.

To celebrate  vastly different angles is to walk new ideas rather than shoot them in the foot. This brain series could open doors to chase more  genius through engaging neuro discoveries. Count me in!

Perhaps I noticed the tone problems more because at Mita we design discovery festivals to foster adventures that raise IQ. I do know that people enjoy a harbinger of intelligent possibilities,  when they risk merriment to move beyond mental toxins.

Dr. Eric Kandel Brain Series

What if comments proposed a novel plan?

Pulitzer ideas like Dr.  Kandel’s come from tone that rewires human brains for delight in spite of everyday disappointments. Did you notice Kandel’s proclivity to share experiences respectfully, rather than out-perform ideas on the other side?

Celebrate others’ ideas and you literally change a brain’s structure. And good tone also alters who you are and how you can win,  with wider dividends for others. Oh, and ideal tone touts  a robust sense of humor that forgives easily and laughs at self.

Regrets tend to flee, and grumpiness fades when fun and playfulness become part of a discussion that leads people forward. We have a policy here at the brain center that names problems only when one is ready to propose a doable solution.

I like to think of good tone as a skill that alters a brain from arduous to awarding. Plasticity in the human brain uses both right and left brain to change the very structures of brains that act on new ideas.

Good tone stokes curiosity in the brain

Good tone questions with respect

Ask two-footed questionsand you’ll be less likely to offer one-side opinions too quickly. The human brain comes with tools to wonder together, when good tone leads the way:

1. Amygdala for the jubilant person is that tiny sac of neurons that remains open to wonder most of the time. It rarely overheats,  and triggers delight as an emotional pattern. How could you train your amygdala to celebrate more?

2. Cortisol withholds its dangerous toxins from people who laugh and play.  Imagine meetings that motivate new mental approaches as workplace solutions. What tactics do you use to counter cortisol with celebration?

3. Neuron pathways create habitual synapses for jubilation to reshape moods for those who favor fun over frowning. Can you see how today’s action shapes tomorrow’s brainpower?

4. Plasticity rewires the playful brain nightly for further joyful responses.  Deep seated contentment finds novel opportunities to prosper, by simply doing what you want others to see in you.

5. Dendrite brain cells connect positivity to positivity for those who celebrate mental rejuvenation – from stagnation to curiosity. Practice one positive act and watch chemical and electrical activity reboot you mentally for more regeneration.

Good tone propels innovation

6. Basal ganglia defaults to playful habits, replays celebratory practices and routinely laughs at the little things with those who rejoice more.

7. Working memory keeps you focused on facts that build concrete solutions worth celebrating. Your working memory tools spring into action to solve complex problems in celebratory settings.

8. Brain chemicals refuel positive moods, increase natural drugs for well being, and add hormones for humor and play.  Serotonin, sometimes referred as molecule of happiness, stirs up chemicals to win.

9. Serotonin spikes sincere satisfaction, and a healthy sense of confidence in those who capitalize on celebration.

10. Brainwaves organize by a hierarchy, control  neuron communications and alter the brain’s circuitry.  Celebrate positive tone for circuitry that builds goodwill even in war zones.

What if your molecular switch stoked wonder from several angles presented. Could you move a discussion beyond compromise or gridlock?

Tone propels innovation when you:

Comments can transcend or kill

1. Invent one refreshing solution to replace a routine that leaves you bored or in a rut. It could be as simple as driving to work along a different route. Brain fact: Boredom is more a negative perspective shaped by daily choices,  and stored in brain as a reality.

2. Uplift your work area with natural lighting.  Brain fact: Environments influence your perspective, and a healthy well lit workplace often inspires new outlooks.

3. Thank a cranky worker for even a small accomplishment.  Brain fact: Well being comes grateful outlooks – fueled and extended by serotonin chemical hormones.

4. Give an offender the gift of forgiveness, by letting go of a grudge. Brain fact: Anger, fear, and frustration lead to incriminating perspectives fueled by dangerous cortisol chemicals.

5.  Propose winning alternatives to an observed annoying habit.  Brain fact: Venting leads to negative outlooks, that create new neuron pathways to more complaints.

6. Act as the person you want others to see in you, and that you’ll become. Brain fact: Dendrite brain cells use the outside world to shape positive perspectives, based on what you do in a day.

7. Vary your background sounds and add music for more motivating outlooks. Brain fact: Music changes brain wave speeds in ways that impact moods and alter perspectives.

8. Stir curiosity and engage others by tapping into their interests.  Brain fact: Lectures  or talks can work against listener perspectives because passive listening fails to improve listener views.

9. Shift routines up daily. Brain fact: Hebbian workers rely on unchanged perspectives that kill incentives, limit focus or even shrink human brains with narrow opinions and stilted views.

10. Enjoy differences as assets.  Brain fact: Risk gaining new outlooks today from a person who differs in age, culture, gender, career or beliefs.

11. Sleep well in order to perceive your world well. Brain fact: Brain waves can bring either poor perspectives or peak performance, based on how you activate and manage them in your favor.

12. Research and open mentally to new and different ideas daily.  Brain fact: Hook even difficult facts onto one thing you know already and perspectives grow and expand with learning.

13. Change on regular basis.  Brain fact: Your brain’s basal ganglia stores old perspectives that can haunt you, while working memory holds new facts that upload innovative views.

14. Diversify your talent development to engage new perspectives. Brain fact: Multiple intelligences are common to all, used by few, and can be cultivated daily for mental health.

15. Create rather than criticize. Brain fact: Cynical or critical mindsets literally block creativity, limit talent in you or others, and stomp out innovative perspectives.

16. List key reminders that guide healthy perspectives.  Brain fact: Memory can be outsourced by simple lists that help you remember to free your mind for finer perspectives that frame a day.

17. Inspire novel young ideas. Brain fact: Plasticity enables people of all ages and backgrounds to rewire their outlook in ways that keep the brain younger and more agile.

19. Encourage yourself and others to spot goodness.  Brain fact: Encouragement changes the chemistry of a brain that frames itself for serotonin, and ratchets up good tone for profitable views.

19. Communicate with care, openness and honesty. Brain fact: Meta messages destroy relationships through implications different from message spoken, and can fog friendships.

20. Integrate from ideas and people across many fields.  Brain fact: It often takes an integration of  hard and soft skills to gain wider perspectives that solve problems with the brain in mind.

21. Relax and practice letting worries go.  Brain fact:  Stress literally shrinks the brain, narrows perspective, and kills tone for healthy communications.

22. Seek new ideas from growing relationships. Brain fact: Greet colleagues through speaking people’s names, to stoke perspectives that spread well being.

23. Risk innovation one perspective at a time.  Brain fact: Inspire creativity and invention through teaching others at the same time you also learn and create yourself.

24. Collaborate to propose solutions from new outlooks. Brain fact: Create new neuron pathways collectively and you’ll add diverse solutions to workplace  problems  encountered.

25. Celebrate those who view the world from different lenses. Brain fact: Women’s and men’s brain differ biologically and intellectually, for instance,  in ways that alter perspectives.

Ready for a few facts about your brain that engage good tone for innovative wins?

Pushing Snooze Buttons at Work?

Did last night’s sleep calm your brain? Or did it hammer you with side effects of medicine?

Pushing Snozze Buttons at Work?

Here’s the Skinny

You’ll spend one-third of life sleeping, so why not do it well. How so?

Top up REM‘s deep sleep benefits with 1 or 2 new tactics:

  1. Remain upbeat and relax in sleepless spaces.
  2. Listen to music that slows racing brainwaves.
  3. Retire about the same time nightly whenever possible.
  4. Create comfy settings to sleep. Remove TV or iPads from bedroom.
  5. Set aside conflicts by considering  possibilities, and you’ll sleep better.
  6. Eat heavier foods earlier in a day, and sleep offers new dividends.
  7. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine, sugar or alcohol before bed.
  8. Exercise earlier in the day, but avoid rigorous workouts near bedtime.
  9. Forgive that person who clobbered your efforts -and watch pardon set a new stage for amazing sleep.
  10. Lower blinds and draw curtains to maintain darkness in sleep area. Darkness maintains melatonin levels for sleep.

What do you do to  sleep well enough for good moods to follow you at work the next day? Use any tools that rock brain waves to sleep?

Slow Brain Waves -  Speed up Sleep

Pushing Snooze Buttons at Work?

Rocket science isn’t needed to show how sleep comes from slower brainwaves.  In contrast to an active mind energized by fast moving beta brain waves, sleep’s more like daydream states.

Sit through dry lectures, or boring meetings, and you shift gears to alpha brain waves.

Why use boring meetings to tank waves on an EEG screen though?

You can shift down into theta waves so your body relaxes because of simple choices you make. Watch your heart rate and respiration lower slightly, as your mind tends to move back and forth between creative energy and deep relaxation. Even a few minutes of walking stairs or deep breathing can cause slower delta waves to kick in.  While this state lasts, your  brain moves delightfully back and forth between delta and theta benefits. Wave changess alter your sleep patterns too.

In the first stage of sleep, EEGs show the brain waves slowing down progressively through a thirty minute period. Your brain at that point shifts into REM or rapid eye movement sleep.

Nathaniel Kleitman, discovered in the 1950s, that is REM sleep a person’s eyes flutter rapidly in all directions. In REM stages of sleep people dream, and when woken in that stage you may feel like a Mack truck hit you – but you will likely remember your dreams. Interestingly brain waves at the deepest sleep speed up again – even though the brain remains dormant to conscious thought.

The key is to sustain brain waves suitable for the moment, based on what you hope to accomplish. Easier said than done for a person prone to stress. For example, alpha waves are generated by the relaxed brain, so that you have vivid memories, aha moments, and you feel at peace with the world.

Pushing Snooze Buttons at Work?

Chemicals and Electricals Alter Sleep

Serotonin chemicals are released which is characterized by high performance and researchers tell us that when some people begin to move from alpha waves into theta movement, sleep soon follows. Serotonin also increases melatonin – the chemical that aids sleep in a darkened room.

In contrast, the stress hormone cortisol is released in dangerous doses in people who sustain stress in the lives. This can be caused by poor diet, lack of priorities, too little sleep, habits such as meta messages which generate poor relationships, and lack of reflection that helps you grow and progress in daily doses.

Whether sleep is poor because of stress, or it is quiet and relaxed in calm, you’ll enjoy three terrific books, to sustain brainwaves for sleep at night and higher performance in day.

Check out:

Dr. Daniel Amen’s book, CHANGE YOUR BRAIN CHANGE YOUR LIFE, which suggests wonderful ways to tackle anxiety, diminish anger and break obsessions.

Dr. Anna Wise in, THE HIGH PERFORMANCE MIND, to find practical helps for improved creativity, spirituality, and relationships.

Journalist, Jim Robbins in, A SYMPHONY IN THE BRAIN,   explains the science behind activating brain frequencies you may not normally use.

Having just returned from a week’s adventure with my darling grandson, I’m glad to know how to repay sleep debts.

Ever emptied your rest reserves, and need more?

So What’s Your Problem?

Pushing Snooze Buttons at Work?

In a normal sleep cycle, EEGs show the brain slows down progressively over a thirty minute period. After that point, the brain shifts into a  trance-like sleep known as REM, or rapid eye movement state. Without enough deep sleep, or REM, people are prone to workplace disasters caused by sleep deprivation.

Serious accidents – from poor sleep – show how we act slower, and often get it wrong.  How so?

The Bhapol explosion on December 2, 1984, for instance, shot poisonous gas that killed over 6000 people. Then, two years later, on April 26th, the Chernobyl explosion exposed millions to radioactivity 100 more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. Sadly, on March 24th, 1989, 12 million gallons of crude oil gushed from Exxon Valdez and wiped out sea life across Prince William Sound.

Sleep problems as well as related accidents are more common than most people realize, and so it’s no surprise that sleep-deprived people also succumb more to sickness. Research shows 51% of the American workforce feels exhausted at work.

Sleep disorders hurt both groups and individuals. Organizations pay more than $100 billion in lost productivity we are told. People pay in personal problems such as depression,  anxiety, or human failure.

Does sleep work well for you? If so, you likely benefit from all three 30 minute cycles, as they play out and replay several times throughout a good night’s rest. Think of ideal sleep in 90 minute segments, that replay consistently for about 7 to 8 hours.  When it functions well, the process rewires your brain’s dendrite brain cells in unique ways.

Sleep Cycles that Restore Brainpower

Pushing Snooze Buttons at Work?

In the first 30 minutes you’ll sleep rather lightly, which is why 20 minute power naps work especially well during the day.

In the second 30 minute segment, REM takes over and allows your brain to restore levels of oxygen to the cornea, while you dream. Avoid waking in REM, unless you’re prepared to feel like a Mack truck rammed into you, and then left you groggy for much of the day.

In the third 30 minute phase, your brain shifts backs into lighter sleep, and if awakened in this phase, you’ll like feel frisky and ready to take on a new day.

Successful sleepers learn to increase their sleep benefits in several ways. Simply plan to sleep in 90 minute chunks, for instance, and you’ll avoid waking in any REM phase throughout the sleep cycle. darken the room and your brain releases more melatonin for better sleep. Avoid too much food or drink close to bedtime and be careful what medications you take late at night. Then, enhance your sleep by planning to awaken in the lighter cycle that either precedes or follows REM sleep.

Did you also know that you tend to sleep about the same time each night, and your brain no longer needs an alarm clock when you retire about the same time nightly. That’s because the human brain comes equipped with its own alarm once it learns your patterns.

Luckily, new research shows how sleep debts can be repaid! To ward off negative effects of snooze loss, experts tell us to simply repay any outstanding slumber debts, once life quietens down a bit. If you stay up too late during the week, sleep in a bit more on weekends. If last week saw you moonlighting on a few occasions, crawl under the covers early a few nights this week.

For those who need help with more serious sleep dysfunctions, new research and supports come in frequently at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. For instance, it was discovered quite recently that sleep deprivation can also raise the risk of cardiovascular problems.

At Sleepeducation, you’ll find many more solutions than I could pack into one brief blog.  It’s all about brainpowered tactics for sweeter dreams at night, and landing a few peak performances the following day.

What works well for your finest sleep?


Monitor Your Inner Voice

Check out your internal dialogue  - and accurately predict  brainpower in your day, week, and life.

Monitor your Inner Voice

Research shows how inner discourse holds a mighty influence on mental and emotional health.  Self-talk literally  determines your success opportunities, and predicts your wins.

Does your inner dialogue short circuit or fortify possibilities?

Self-talk that fuels your confidence and frees you to develop and use new talents, takes awareness. How can you sharpen an alertness to upgrade from negative to possibility self-talk?

Reboot inner monologues before naysaying becomes your self-fulfilling prophecy.

Monitor your inner voice.

Set a timer to ring every hour for one day and at each ring, jot down your specific  thoughts. Count every unchecked negative inner statement and you may be surprised how your inner voice can spell trouble.

Diffuse Flawed Self-Talk to Open New Wonder

1). Run from regrets such as Wish I had … Rather than hold yourself responsible for what’s not always in your control, why not reframe your next step forward.  Ask what if … and visualize the next positive step toward a solution.  When you run past missed chances by focusing on new opportunities –  wisdom  illumines novel opportunities ahead.

2). Avoid it’s-always-been-that-way-thinking, with inner words such as, I already do … Rather than default back to tired routines, run from ruts  stored and replayed in the basal ganglia, with its propensity for timeworn everything. Break the cycle of rigid routines by overriding  your mental storehouse.  Inwardly articulate adventures for a life-changing experience.

3). Calm your amygdala with words such as,  what would it look like to act the person I’d like others to see in me today? Tame the brain’s amygdala with confident inner language that builds finer messages to win over life’s difficult situations. Speak possibilities and reset the default that pulls you down with negative or self-diminishing inner talk.

4). Reverse moods with words such as What if I chased one new initiative with good moods only at the helm? Then fuel your inner conversations  toward a successful  next step opportunity toward your newly planned venture.

5). Flip negative assumptions with words such as, If they had it to do again, they’d likely have …Add ideas and inspiration people would come if people sensed your care and support, and felt your forgiveness. Then repeat these words until you react positively to those people, in spite of their behavior.

Act on new self-talk and your brain simulates positive aspects -  like ticker-tape typed across the brain.  Alter self-speaking to winner status, and  expect success in future. When you rid your discourse from that never ending pattern of defeat, room for triumph emerges.

Inner talk changes lives daily, with a simple choice to rewire flawed beliefs about who you are. Speak inwardly instead – about openings that engage the leader you hope to become.

IT Brain on Design

Ever wonder why some things stick – like the topic of your last blog post – while other facts fade faster, such as names, details or directions for an IT fix?

IT Brain on Design

Steve Job’s Typical Synapses

Your brain’s hundred thousand miles of network fibers comes equipped to expand and benefit from learning at its synapses. So why does genius rarely happen at the peaks like it did for Steve Jobs?

Top-shelf-learning occurs when the brain synapses.  When it fires new connections and integrates new facts with familiar ideas. When you link what you already know or use with what you expect to learn.

Google Reader Application

Think of it this way. Recently I was trying to add Google Reader to my Word Press blog.  My brain needed to form an association between a complex visual image of this icon at my blog and its roots in widgets and pluggins foreign to my skills. I needed to program different groups of neurons across both sides of the brain to integrate with what I already know about this process.

Doodads –  Pluggins – Perplexity

Every time I add a new widget or pluggin to my blog, I hold my breath that related neurons for this task will fire simultaneously. That electrical circuitry strengthens new neuron pathways to help me upgrade my blog with Google Reader directions I read on the Internet.

Learning, is the brains way of expanding its capacity and changing its very structure. Dendrite spines grow as protrusions onto synapses, in your motor cortex – the region that allows you to plan and execute new skills.  This rewiring of the brain builds the strongest case for active engagement is so critical.

Increase  synapse’s strengths and learning increases as:

1). Emotional connection fortifies the link between neurons. For example you learn more if you design an innovation – such as my Google Reader extension that allows further interactions with people at my blog. Learning integrates rational and emotional brainpower. It’s similar to the brain’s ability to integrate and store emotional and reasoned responses in its amygdala.

2). Curiosity cultivation creates a robust opportunity for learning fueled by passion. When you question with two feet, by asking What if…? or Where to from here…? you draw wonder from diverse insights, and you build new neuron pathways across both sides of the brain. In so doing, your setting generates further curiosity for innovative improvements, and less tolerance for tired traditions generated for a past era.

3). Motivation’s interplay between effort, talent and progress through change that reboots brainpower. New IT concepts all seem daunting at first, so that overwhelming sense can easily slip in and shut down growth opportunities – with cortisol. If I can locate doable tasks, simply stated in one-step-at-a-time- approaches, I can create solutions while enjoying the process. . Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwartz found people become more willing to follow and apply instructions tasks broken down into simple steps. Have you noticed that too?

4). Visualization’s images that open additional dimensions into advance learning. I’d like to develop and use my spatial intelligence to improve the blog’s outward appearance as much as make it a more functional platform, by the way it positions user-friendly tools.

5). Hooked links from what you know to what you hope to learn strengthen neuron pathways to new skills.  My two-bit facts about Google Reader, Word Press pluggins and Word Press widgets still await a learning synapse opportunity when readable directions come along. Soon after I locate  a simply stated and complete set of directions – I plan to Google Reader to this WP blog!

Excited that my brain will run at that time – to create yet another new neuron pathway toward technology’s use. In the meantime, my chemical and electrical circuitry stand fully charged – ready to bolt out of the gates.  When directions appear I plan to pack the best horse to race my blog into a new win. Have you seen it happen?

Human brains come equipped to latch and link what you already know and do to new opportunities that come from apply new discoveries.

Rather than engage in blame games or vent about confusing IT directions, it’s far better to focus on  hooking talents onto IT tools.  Rejuvenate your trouble spots and increase synapse strengths while your brain grows multiple intelligences through use.

Seem like a logical choice for tackling your next technology problem? Still searching for directions that will fly this Google Reader baby out of the gates with breakneck speed. You?

A Brain on Celebration

The last place most people spot any  celebration is at work.  In fact, polls suggest that 75% of employees feel disengaged, suffer from crippling stress or dislike their jobs. Have you ever wondered why folks would rather move grave yards, than take their talents into work?  Or why university leadership classes tend to tank into drudgery?

A Brain on Celebration

What if organizations transformed grind into gala?

Expect playfulness and fun to boost business. In contrast to bare-boned competition – celebration’s an extravaganza that pulls people and insights together to commemorate vastly different angles. Talents alter performance reviews into  that sheer triumph that finds space to chase after genius. Ever meet people who mix, inspire and support successes into mutually beneficial inventions?

Mita festivals foster the kind of fun that raises IQ. People enjoy a harbinger of intelligent possibilities when they risk merriment to move beyond mental toxins.

What if questions celebrate the wonder of discovery

Question to celebrate genius ideas through channeling wonder across diverse groups. To wonder or inquire is to celebrate new perspectives. Toss curiosity into any organization and you create new neuron pathways past obstacles.  Questions help to sidestep setbacks that await every entrepreneurial journey. Neuro discoveries show the brain’s fun loving equipment to reframe perspective into rejoicing.

Celebrate brainpower

Ever long to move past a misstep? Look at challenges with solutions in mind, and ask what if – to find a celebrity’s fluidity for new insights on the other side of problems.

What if novelty increased celebrity DNA at your organization?

Target novelty and rejoice in risks that toss your guts into butterfly flutters.  Risks spin your brain’s hypothalamus into surges of hormones that trigger the pituitary gland adrenalins and activate adrenal glands near your kidneys so you breathe faster and blood races through your body.  Your brain’s equipped to survive the thrill while chemicals rage through your brain, your pupils dilate,  and in milliseconds your immune system jumps in.

Celebrities who risk high-stake decisions, draw on the brain’s feel good chemical – dopamine -  to motivate initiatives that defy logic. Your brain’s hardwired to enjoy dividends and  inspire winning ventures without robbing sleep at night.

What if risk today sparked a new celebration tomorrow?

Move multiple intelligences into action to upgrade fun’s IQ at any organization. Laugh more or wonder more, for instance, and you commemmorate  intrapersonal intelligence at work.

Years ago, I read a story about Inuit who apologized to seals before they hunted, and who laughed easily in spite of hardships. From that story, until I traveled to Northern Baffin Island, curiosity drove my desire to gaze across frozen tundra through Inuit eyes. Humor kept interest alive on Baffin, I discovered firsthand.

When a blizzard shut down Igloolik’s only car – a taxi, I piled onto a skidoo as Oonark headed to the airport.  The biggest of four bags hurled into a snow bank, as we flew over uneven snow in a race against time.

I held onto blowing bags, and held my breath, yet Oonark laughed at icy obstacles we hit. Hanging onto bags flying in icy wind , Oonark’s expression showed sheer delight. Against the blizzard’s background, she showcased all I valued in this intelligent community.

As my eyeballs thawed under icy lids, Oonark burst through the airport door – red-faced and smiling. Hurling my large bag in front of me, she asked. “Any breakables here?” The bag had flown off the skidoo three times I was told. “No problem.” I shot back, “Could’ve been me flying off that pony!” Looking back, Inuit humor and curiosity changed my approach to how we celebrate at the brain center, in spite of setbacks.

The Mita Celebration of Innovation, empowers workers and MBA grads to replace a workplace problem with a celebratory solution. It’s a talent-trade-show of sorts.  Innovators engage others in a novel practice such as a new way of tracking financial gains.  Or celebrities exchange wisdom about  a newly deigned product such as a paten-worthy invention. Have you seen it happen?

What if you proposed a plan to celebrate innovation at your organization?

Reflect to foster the kind of tone that rewires human brains for delight in spite of everyday disappointments. Celebration’s tone surpasses even those brief highs from unexpected pleasures. More significantly, it displaces disappointments in any given moment, with expectations for a finer future.

Because celebration literally changes the brain’s structure, it also alters who you are and how you support others to win,  in spite of the odds. It specializes in that robust sense of humor that forgives others and laughs at self. Regrets tend to flee, and grumpiness fades when fun and playfulness become part of a workplace or university culture. We have a policy here at the brain center that only names a problem when you also propose its doable solution.

I like to think of celebration as a skill, since it holds the power to change a brain from arduous to awarding. Plasticity uses every celebrated event to use both right and left brain in ways that change their very structures.

What if you advanced celebration on both sides of the brain?

1. Amygdala for the jubilant person is that tiny sac of neurons that remains open to wonder most of the time. It rarely overheats,  and triggers delight as an emotional pattern. How could you train your amygdala to celebrate more?

2. Cortisol withholds its dangerous toxins from people who laugh and play.  Imagine meetings that motivate new mental approaches as workplace solutions. What tactics do you use to counter cortisol with celebration?

3. Neuron pathways create habitual synapses for jubilation to reshape moods for those who favor fun over frowning. Can you see how today’s action shapes tomorrow’s brainpower?

4. Plasticity rewires the playful brain nightly for further joyful responses.  Deep seated contentment finds novel opportunities to prosper, by simply doing what you want others to see in you.

5. Dendrite brain cells connect positivity to positivity for those who celebrate mental rejuvenation – from stagnation to curiosity. Practice one positive act and watch chemical and electrical activity reboot you mentally for more regeneration.

6. Basal ganglia defaults to playful habits, replays celebratory practices and routinely laughs at the little things with those who rejoice more.

7. Working memory keeps you focused on facts that build concrete solutions worth celebrating. Your working memory tools spring into action to solve complex problems in celebratory settings.

8. Brain chemicals refuel positive moods, increase natural drugs for well being, and add hormones for humor and play.  Serotonin, sometimes referred as molecule of happiness, stirs up chemicals to win.

9. Serotonin spikes sincere satisfaction, and a healthy sense of confidence in those who capitalize on celebration.

10. Brainwaves organize by a hierarchy, control  neuron communications and alter the brain’s circuitry.  Celebrate positive tone for circuitry that builds goodwill even in war zones.

What if your molecular switch stoked wonder – just the other side of  workplace compromise or gridlock?


10 “It’s Your Biz” Brainpower Tools

Keep your business moving forward because  you can beat the odds, Susan Wilson Solovic challenges in her new book,  It’s Your Biz.

It's Your Biz - Brainpower Tools

Susan offers award winning solutions to build a finer business in spite of current jobless trends.

It’s brainpowered tools in this book that especially caught my attention though. Those adjustments we make to move from traditional leaders into effective gamechangers. Susan shows how it’s done best.  And applied neuro discoveries show why brains can lead you forward,  in spite of a recession or other speed bumps that hold most people back.

Check out 10 tools Susan advocates to build business into mind-bending entrepreneurship:

1. Risk-taking to run with a novel blueprint. Solovic reminds us of daunting odds on one hand, and on the other she shows benefits of – moving “beyond your comfort zone, rolling the dice and going for it.” Research spotlights the brain’s feel good chemical – dopamine -  to fuel risk-taking and defy logic. Your brain’s hardwired to land you  dividends that inspire winning ventures without robbing your sleep at night. What risk today could land your business on an advanced horizon tomorrow?

2. Confidence to dance alone at times and live new discoveries. As Solovic infers, entrepreneurship leaves some lonely, isolated and even depressed. Luckily confidence can be regained though. It turns out your gene pool comes hard-wired with a unique mix of inner strengths, known as intrapersonal intelligence. With each individual action, even a highly relational person builds new neuron pathways for further confidence to go it alone at times. What character building aspect best describes your approach?

3. Curiosity to learn new approaches. Susan suggests in It’s Your Biz, you take time to listen by asking open-ended questions, that relate to a client’s interests or strengths. The brain grows and engages more working memory to design innovative outcomes, when curiosity revs up insights through great questions. When was the last time you heard a surprising response to a question you asked, such as – What if…?

4. Tone to sell novelty across differences. When Solovic suggests that success means constantly selling your business – she also infers tone skills that engage people as capital.  Apply neuroscience to sales is to become a game-changer.  Build goodwill across differences,  listen with your brain, and you’ll equip clients for innovative sales advantages. Why do others need what you hope to sell this week?

"It's Your Biz" - Brainpower Tools

5. Support networks that segue into diverse opportunities Move beyond compromise. Urgently needed for an innovation era – are more diverse networks. Leaders who engage the brain’s plasticity gain a wider vision through shared talents. How could you strengthen your support network through building trust with diverse leaders?

6. New perspective to move forward after failure. It’s Your Biz, highlights the fact that obstacles and setbacks await every entrepreneurial journey. Neuro discoveries show the brain’s equipment to reframe your perspective whenever you misstep. Look at challenges with solutions in mind, and find fluidity for new insights – much like Niagara Falls dances and sprays behind  magnificent rainbows near my home. How could one new perspective offer innovative results to reframe your perception against delightful new lights today?

7. Courage to toss sacred cows that prevent winning decisions. Solovic builds a terrific case for planning new business encounters and seizing opportunities.  Capture mental benefits for raising your bottom line, by  releasing sacred cows that hold you back. Run with courage to win, and you’ll  stomp out cynicism, negativity, unhealthy focus on “beating” the competition,  and lack of ethics at work. What tired tradition could you abandon, in order to advance new business opportunities today?

8. Vision to see openings beyond gridlocks. Susan’s It’s Your Biz gives  readers remarkable focus tools to gaze forward. Merely glance back at past disappointments.  Here’s the rub though. The process of learning such brainpowered skills can be brutal for adults at first.  Why so? Turns out that learning requires massive rewiring of vast cortical connections. Yes – it’s far more difficult than simply learning new visionary approaches.  Your new skills come into plastic competition with neural networks that dwelled on past regrets.  They fight for a place among pattern of engaging disappointments that landed you in ruts financially and emotionally in the first place. So how will you gaze through today’s windshields and focus less on rear view mirror watching?

9. Commitment to avoid stress and stay the race. Solovic reminds entrepreneurs to manage stress. Her wisdom brings to mind recent Harvard studies that show stress as gaining ground in ways that displace commitment and increase depression at work. How do you stand up against current stats that show stress shrinking the brain and robbing commitment?

10. Time management to meet new challenges at their cutting edges. Susan shows how time is more than money, and nothing kills startups like procrastination. Do you manage time as an opportunity to hit at high performance deadlines with richer results in mind?

As you mine gems from It’s Your Biz, it’s easy to celebrate Susan Solovic’s goldmine of wisdom. No wonder this book found a top place on New York Times Best-Seller List. Which idea here could ratchet up your talents today – to land similar ratings at your workplace?

Scared or Smart?

Have you ever feared failure when you really needed to win?  Just as you hit cutting edges of  a brilliant opportunity fear can stalk genius – so we all lose.

Scared or Smart?

Terrified‘s a fitting response to salacious front-liners that favor greed and tout  ethical lacks to cripple entire communities.

Recently I switched on a light and bees swarmed at me out of nowhere.  My heart hit the floor while my feet flew toward the nearest entrance! Has it ever happened to you? Have you feared attacks when you least expect them?

The bees formed a hive – undetected while we worked in other areas of the brain center. To stir an active beehive, suddenly triggered a lifetime fear of  stingers that appear without notice. Exterminators  removed the bees. The attack reminded me though, of the high price we pay for sudden  terror that irradicates brainpower.

Where’s hope many ask – when fear’s hard to tank and stress strikes as killer bees?

Should we not also ask:

  • Why is there a 400% rise in adults taking anxiety medications?
  • Or why do more than 1 American in 10 now take anti-depressant pills?
  • Or why are only 1/3 of those who are deeply depressed – getting help?

With or without meds, here’s another rub to consider.  Your brain comes equipped to reboot innovation beyond fear. How so?

Fear may  shut down genius like  tsunamis shut down cities, but alternatives reside in a healthy and alert brain. Harvard Director of Risk Communication, David Ropeik, reminds us that brains hard-wire to fear first, and reflect second. Have you experienced brilliant insights on  just the other side of fear’s luring traps?

Fortunately,  the brain comes with capabilities such as tone tactics for tough times,  to create genius opportunities beyond fear. Look terror in the eye, and watch your brain expose its toothless bites.

Your amygdala offers unique tools to transform fear into genius – when you act on the other side of anxiety. How so?

1. Name what upsets you. Worrisome thoughts often slink into  dark mental spaces, to stalk and rob brainpower.

2. Choose novelty to improve reality and fear begins to fade. Share new insights with a trusted peer and  lock in genius opportunities even more.

3. Embrace change in your day by going with the flow at times to stoke innovations that come from curiosity run amuck.

4. Enroll in a workshop, read blogs, or attend a seminar on the topic of your fear. If death scares you, take a class on afterlife. Fear loneliness? Then read a book on healthier relationships.

5. Attempt to do things that caused fear in past. Start slowly, and you’ll gradually gain mental courage to lead genius on the other side.

6. Risk new experiences that grow talents. Ski, dive, enjoy dinner alone, or offer your insights to experts. Risk-taking builds mental tenacity.

7. Focus on learning new skills, see beauty in life,  laugh with family, invite friends to lunch, or consider new career choices. Emphasize brilliance that folks crave, and fear tends to fade in response.

8. Draw on faith, and spend time with God if you believe in Divine help.  Hang with people  sensitive to spiritual  wealth and energize your spiritual IQ.

9. Show kindness when others toss around fear, and build new neuron pathways to brilliance that literally rewires IQ based  on what you do.

10. Visualize a peer overcoming fear, propose one small step toward smarter outcomes, and celebrate every trace of progress that peer makes.

To  run or hide from fear is to magnify its peril.  What’s your genius plan of action, the next time fear hits through media, peers or selftalk?

Worthwhile reading on the topic of mastering fear – is also Dr. David Dobbs’ Mastery of Fear findings.

See further posts on Fear:

Question to Refuel Finances Past Media Fears

Expect to Bypass Bullies and Cynics at Work

10 Tragic Traits in Mind of Bullies and Cynics

Fear Epidemic Runs Economy

Run From Financial Experts

Brainpowered Tools to Disagree

Brains Offer Olive Branch to Enemies

Choose Brain Parts to Sink or Swim

Hidden Traps Undo Brainpower

Courage to Climb on Sinking Ground

Radical Reconfiguration for Money and Mind

Higher Education Reinvention

Holiday Blues for Business Boom

Question to Raise Curiosity

Question to raise curiosity

When you question with two feet the brain creates new neuron pathways toward answers from both right and left sides.

From early in life we ask mind-bending questions that determine if we’ll win or lose. Check out this inquisitive baby who found better adventures than taking a nap.

Here are two-footed questions that show how the brain works with curiosity:

1. How can you earn more money today than I spend today?

Hints = Question to Refuel Finances Past Media Fears

2. What one different approach could you improve today and how?

Hints = Question to Leap Over Life’s Ruts

3. What mental equipment of yours would create a novel opportunity today?

Hints = Question with the Brain in Mind and Move

4. What’s new about your brain that can unleash more personal capabilities?

Hints = Question Research to Create Cutting Edge Tools

5. What key myth would your skills rejuvenate toward a finer future?

Hints = Question Myths and Reboot Brainpower

6. What adventure would strengthen your legacy to family this week?

Hints = Question Ahead for Grandparent or Family Roles

7. How are you smart and what would improve your IQ today?

Hints = Question to Know How You are Smart

8. What one step would bring you closer to what you want to know most?

Hints = Question with Two Feet to Spark Curiosity

9. What one broken system at work would you like to fix and how so?

Hints = Question Broken Systems with Solutions in Mind

10. What 2 personal strengths would a top growth survey show?

Hints = Question Brainpower Through Growth Surveys

What question would offer life-changing solutions to your week?

Why Most Meetings Suck

When Tom Hansen said most meetings suck, he hit on a rampant waste of human talent today.

Why Most Meetings Suck

That problem begs the question: How do you engage talents, considering that:

  1. Only 5% of what’s heard sticks.
  2. Tone determines who bullies or motivates.
  3. PowerPoints can short circuit brainpower.
  4. New facts hook best onto familiar realities.
  5. 2-footed questions draw on both sides of the brain.

Mindguiding Trumps Mentoring

Meetings no longer rank the enemy of innovation when people teach one another. Shift your next meeting from a mentor approach – where one leader delivers – to mindguiding, or mutual mentoring. Innovation emerges when newbies teach veterans, veterans teach folks across traditional silos, and managers learn alongside folks they manage. Could a Steve Jobs be found at the table?

Tone Motivates or Silences

Ever notice how tone can flare an amygdala, fuel serotonin for creativity, release cortisol to shut down talent, or draw in dopamine to risk novelty?

How could tone build courage to risk innovations at your next meeting?

Death by PowerPoint

Rather than rely on bells and whistles of one talker, stir people’s multiple intelligences and innovation will reboot your next meeting.  How so?

  1. Round table seating allows for people to interact.
  2. Alternating leaders draws on unique facilitation approaches.
  3. Shared visuals allow people to toss in new insights.
  4. Key ideas applied could lead to mock-ups ready to market.
  5. Mind-guiding allows people to piggy back on others’ strengths.
  6. Questions build curiosity as a segue into novel contributions.
  7. Baroque in the background ups productivity.

Complete survey to learn how people speak and feel heard at your reconfigured gatherings.

Question to Stoke Action

Two footed questions facilitate people to speak and feel heard.

  • Stir enthusiasm for new ventures by asking, What if…?
  • Hook new possibilities onto familiar practices by asking , Where to from here…?
  • Create entry points for diverse talents by asking, How will you contribute that cutting edge to …?

When meetings draw on multiple talents -  members upgrade  from bored to brilliant. Could it happen at your next gathering?

DNA of Winning Perspectives

Walter Scott offered heads up on the brain’s propensity to propel or stalemate talents, when he said,

Success or failure is caused more by mental attitude than by mental capacity.

Your brain relies on accurate perspectives to win you success.

DNA of Winning Perspectives

In contrast, one distorted outlook can cloud current opportunities, barricade you from goals,  and cause deep disappointments.  Inconsistency of appearances can rob your  confidence and undermine your courage to lead.

Views that drag you into ruts may come from allowing past mistakes or letdowns to cloud future opportunities.

Distorted vision  emerges when you narrow or restrict focus to any one angle, without consideration for the other side. Ever allowed that persistent-need-to-be-right to block you from a relationship you once enjoyed?

Shift your outlook into mental wins, such as optimism, and you soon spot the difference.  In that framework, your brain leads you forward like the flash- pause-flash- pause of a lighthouse guiding ships safely away from hidden shoals during a storm.

Look at challenges with solutions in mind, and you’ll find fluidity – much like Niagra Falls dances and sprays behind  magificent rainbows near my home. No wonder innovative results tend to follow those who regularly reframe perception against delightful new lights.

Redirect Perspective from Loss to Wins

We now know more about how plasticity can change one’s mental perspective to step confidently into the future. Yes,  in spite of past missteps.

Imagine where peaks ahead of you today could lead -  if you simply changed your route to get there.  How so? Hitch your wagon to a star, so that you’re less likely to stall in ditches, if the sky darkens.

No question – your new view  requires repetition, to replace stress that settled you  into  cortisol driven views in the first place.  Thanks to the brain’s plastic ability, outlooks that once held you back, begin fade with each confident step toward rejuvenated goals. You literally alter your brain cell connections for more confident perspectives along the way. How so?

Amazingly, every act in the opposite direction of worry, negativity, or cynicism – adds chemicals and electricity for bold new paths to a calmer life.

New perspectives for winning directions take root in the brain’s basal ganglia, that storehouse of your actions and responses, which lies beneath the prefrontal cortex. Focused on a novel goal, the basal ganglia  shoots an enormous number of neural signals to guide the brain toward your rewired focus.

The brain holds chemical and electrical equipment for mapping new directions – away from worry, anxiety, or self-doubt.

Your brain tends to lead you to what you focus on and do. According to neuro specialist Dr. Doidge, the brain does not distinguish well between should or should not. For instance, if you focus on “not worrying,” you literally build more neuron pathways to worry.  Reason enough to choose a  relaxed perspective?

Tools that draw on neuroplasticity – gain positive targets, through altering perspectives for  unrealized talents.

Knowing that it starts within you rather than in others, look first look in opposite directions of  anxiety that wires entire organizations for pessimism and loss. Then, focus today on one novel way of thinking, however unnatural at first, in order to rewire from anxious to calm.  Let us know what challenges  you win over by the day’s end, that hold back others around you.

New Perspectives for Winning  Brainpower

1. Invent one refreshing solution to replace a routine that leaves you bored or in a rut. It could be as simple as driving to work along a different route. Brain fact: Boredom is more a negative perspective shaped by daily choices,  and stored in brain as a reality.

2. Uplift your work area with natural lighting.  Brain fact: Environments influence your perspective, and a healthy well lit workplace often inspires new outlooks.

3. Thank a cranky worker for even a small accomplishment.  Brain fact: Well being comes grateful outlooks – fueled and extended by serotonin chemical hormones.

4. Give an offender the gift of forgiveness, by letting go of a grudge. Brain fact: Anger, fear, and frustration lead to incriminating perspectives fueled by dangerous cortisol chemicals.

5.  Propose winning alternatives to an observed annoying habit.  Brain fact: Venting leads to negative outlooks, that create new neuron pathways to more complaints.

6. Act as the person you want others to see in you, and that you’ll become. Brain fact: Dendrite brain cells use the outside world to shape positive perspectives, based on what you do in a day.

7. Vary your background sounds and add music for more motivating outlooks. Brain fact: Music changes brain wave speeds in ways that impact moods and alter perspectives.

8. Stir curiosity and engage others by tapping into their interests.  Brain fact: Lectures  or talks can work against listener perspectives because passive listening fails to improve listener views.

9. Shift routines up daily. Brain fact: Hebbian workers rely on unchanged perspectives that kill incentives, limit focus or even shrink human brains with narrow opinions and stilted views.

10. Enjoy differences as assets.  Brain fact: Risk gaining new outlooks today from a person who differs in age, culture, gender, career or beliefs.

11. Sleep well in order to perceive your world well. Brain fact: Brain waves can bring either poor perspectives or peak performance, based on how you activate and manage them in your favor.

12. Research and open mentally to new and different ideas daily.  Brain fact: Hook even difficult facts onto one thing you know already and perspectives grow and expand with learning.

13. Change on regular basis.  Brain fact: Your brain’s basal ganglia stores old perspectives that can haunt you, while working memory holds new facts that upload innovative views.

14. Diversify your talent development to engage new perspectives. Brain fact: Multiple intelligences are common to all, used by few, and can be cultivated daily for mental health.

15. Create rather than criticize. Brain fact: Cynical or critical mindsets literally block creativity, limit talent in you or others, and stomp out innovative perspectives.

16. List key reminders that guide healthy perspectives.  Brain fact: Memory can be outsourced by simple lists that help you remember to free your mind for finer perspectives that frame a day.

17. Inspire novel young ideas. Brain fact: Plasticity enables people of all ages and backgrounds to rewire their outlook in ways that keep the brain younger and more agile.

19. Encourage yourself and others to spot goodness.  Brain fact: Encouragement changes the chemistry of a brain that frames itself for serotonin, and ratchets up good tone for profitable views.

19. Communicate with care, openness and honesty. Brain fact: Meta messages destroy relationships through implications different from message spoken, and can fog friendships.

20. Integrate from ideas and people across many fields.  Brain fact: It often takes an integration of  hard and soft skills to gain wider perspectives that solve problems with the brain in mind.

21. Relax and practice letting worries go.  Brain fact:  Stress literally shrinks the brain, narrows perspective, and kills tone for healthy communications.

22. Seek new ideas from growing relationships. Brain fact: Greet colleagues through speaking people’s names, to stoke perspectives that spread well being.

23. Risk innovation one perspective at a time.  Brain fact: Inspire creativity and invention through teaching others at the same time you also learn and create yourself.

24. Collaborate to propose solutions from new outlooks. Brain fact: Create new neuron pathways collectively and you’ll add diverse solutions to workplace  problems  encountered.

25. Celebrate those who view the world from different lenses. Brain fact: Women’s and men’s brain differ biologically and intellectually, for instance,  in ways that alter perspectives.

Listen further to these facts about your brain to add winning perspectives and move your day forward beyond mental snares that hold you back.

Rss Feed Tweeter button Facebook button Technorati button Reddit button Myspace button Linkedin button Webonews button Delicious button Digg button Flickr button Stumbleupon button Newsvine button Youtube button