SEVEN WAYS TO REDUCE STRESS BY BECOMING A MASTER OF YOUR TIME

In the last several posts, I have focused on ways to achieve stress reduction in your personal life and work.  These have included changing thoughts and employing progressive muscle relaxation.  This week I focus on becoming a master of your time.  That is not the same as becoming a "time nut".  In working with clients regarding goal setting, I employ the acronym SMART where the "T" refers to "time limited".  I am not speaking here of traditional time management with to-do lists and other tools.  Rather, I am speaking of how we get ourselves into synchrony with nature.  To do this, we must manage our time well each day both for efficiency and for the synchronicity which leads to stress reduction.  For this post, I owe credit to Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey's meditation series where they cite Dr. Daniel Siegel's ways of using time to support our wellbeing and inner growth.  

The seven ways are as follows:

1.  Sleep time.  Get a full night's restful sleep.  More mistakes, accidents, and angry interpersonal exchanges occur for people who are fatigued.  As attributed to famous football coach Vince Lombardi, "Fatigue makes cowards of all of us".  

2.  Physical time.  Take time to move and let your body be active.  Our bodies are meant for movement.  If you are feeling lethargic, inefficient, in "brain fog" over something, get up and take a short walk at least.  Better yet, develop a regular exercise regimen.  Physical exercise is known to enhance feelings of wellbeing and good mental health.

3.  Focus time.  Be alone for a while to concentrate on what matters to you.  In a world in which we are bombarded with information, cell phones, emails, etc., take the time to focus on a particular task.  Stay with it until you have reached a break point.  Resist the urge to be distracted by other tasks, people, or intrusions.

4.  Time in.  Take time for meditation, prayer, self-reflection, progressive muscle relaxation with imagery and proper breathing as discussed last week.  It will help you relax, achieve a more focused and centered inner state, and be more productive when you return to work activities.

5.  Time out.  Set aside time to simply be here and rest into existence.  Enough said about this one. 

6.  Play time.  Set aside time to have fun and enjoy yourself.  It is only too easy to become overinvolved with the tasks of living and fail to stop and enjoy your life.  Even in small ways, whether it be to take a walk, enjoy a sunset, read part of a book, or whatever is enjoyable to you, make some time to enjoy each day.  I have treated too many depressed patients who fail to do this step.

7.  Connecting time.  Set aside private time between you and those you love and for whom you care.  It almost goes without saying that we are social beings.  As such, the joy of enjoying the company of others with whom you are close improves physical and mental wellbeing.

I know that some readers are saying that they can not use these seven ways each day. "I am too busy" they would say.  To them, I say consider implementing the steps gradually over seven weeks. Perhaps this week you can ensure that you get proper sleep time.  Next week add an element of physical time, and so forth.  Within several months you will have created a helpful habit of mastery of your time.  If you have trouble with unhelpful thoughts, e.g. "I can't do this", see earlier posts on changing your thoughts.  As is often said, if you don't take care of yourself, who will?

For additional help, go to the website www.successandmindset.com.  

STRESS REDUCTION THROUGH PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION

"I'm so stressed out".  If I had a dollar for every time I hear that from a patient or consulting client, I would have a considerable bonus.  American business loses millions of dollars each year to stress related illnesses.  However, stress is a choice, not an inevitability. Whether you have a high stress job such as an neurosurgeon, manager of a company, or are a worn out parent, you can feel that you experience unmanageable stress.  You likely desire relaxation but are unsure if you can achieve it.  In other posts, I have emphasized the role your thoughts play in creating the feeling of stress.  However, I want to offer you another alternative.  

The answer to your stress may be as simple as progressive muscle relaxation. This technique originated in the 1930s and is still popular today. There usually are three components.  One involves a focus on controlled breathing, not the frequent shallow or held breath of the anxious and stressed individual.  A second component is the use of guided imagery to achieve images of relaxing scenes.  With the third component,  muscle groups are flexed then systematically relaxed. The idea behind progressive muscle relaxation is that by breathing naturally, focusing on pleasant/relaxful images, and alternately tensing/relaxing muscle groups, your mind also becomes relaxed. Furthermore, this technique does not require any special training. In fact, anyone can learn to do it.

Ideally, muscle relaxation should be practiced between ten to twenty minutes three to four times per week.  Be prepared to develop your ability to relax gradually.. Through regular practice, you will  become competent at progressive muscle relaxation and will be able to better deal with the stress in your life. If you are willing to be patient and persistent, the effort will be worth it.

Progressive muscle relaxation is not only beneficial for stress reduction but also for the alleviation of chronic pain and insomnia. Migraines and cancer symptoms have also been helped by this method. Most of the time, I start with the arms, move to the head and neck, then the chest, then to the lower torso including the legs.  On my website www.successandmindset.com, under the tab Free Download, the complimentary ebook download includes a script for approximately 15 minutes of this process.  

Initially it is good practice to tense the particular muscle group only for several seconds and then release the tension.  The idea is not to strain any muscle but rather to help you learn the difference between tension and relaxation while maintaining regular breathing.  As I mentioned earlier, it can be helpful to use this relaxation technique in conjunction with imagery. For example, you could imagine you are like an ocean wave with power unleashed when flexed muscles are released.  Other images my clients find helpful include being on a cloud soft as a pillow as well as being on a quiet beach alone at twilight with the waves gently washing ashore.  

Progressive muscle relaxation helps you to be more able  to recognize signs of tension in your body. Once recognized you can employ the progressive relaxation procedure. Consequently, you will likely feel less stressed and more relaxed. In fact, you may even feel more energized. Progressive muscle relaxation has a long history of producing excellent results which means you can be confident that it is a legitimate approach to relaxation and stress reduction.

Usually most of my clients begin practicing by lying down on a bed or couch.  Over time and with continued practice several times per week, they become adept at employing progressive muscle relaxation sitting up so that they can employ the approach almost anywhere to include at work.

Progressive muscle relaxation works well for everyone. No matter what your vocation in life or the cause of the stress in your life, relaxation exercises can improve your sense of well being and your life overall. You may have a high stress way of interacting with the world but you can still learn to do these exercises and change your approach.  When combined with modern cognitive therapy approaches to changing your anxiety/stress producing thoughts, you will be less stressed, happier, healthier and more energetic. Again, go to the website to download a complimentary ebook which includes a progressive muscle relaxation script.  Don't allow life stressors to control you.

THINK YOUR WAY PAST STRESS

There certainly are many causes of stress.  These include economic uncertainty, money worries, relationship issues, career concerns, or health problems.  There really is only one cause of stress. Once you identify this cause, you are on your way to mastering the challenges of your life.  Without doing so, stress can take a large toll on your physical health and psychological quality of life.  

What is this cause?  The true cause of stress Is within your brain. It's what you think about, and how you interpret and react to the life challenges to which we all are subjected. The stress comes from your emotional reactions to your thoughts. It comes with our frequent but useless companion named worry.  I have heard worry described as useless for two reasons.  If the thing you worry about does not happen, you wasted your energy worrying.  And if the event you worry about happens, your worrying did not stop it.  Thus, worry is pointless.  

Now let me be clear.  There are stressful events which happen in life.  However, "to be stressed" is in most respects a choice we make.  It is how you respond to life stressors which determines your emotional reaction, not the stressor itself.  You can make the decision now to approach all life challenges with more reasoned thoughts and not allow thinking overreactions to produce emotional responses which leave you stressed and overwhelmned. For example, to tell yourself that you are "overwhelmned" and "can't handle this" creates the cognitive climate in which emotional overreactions to life challenges occur.  Learning to identify these catastrophizations quickly, challenge them, and substitute more reasonable thoughts will help you avoid excessive stress reactions.  

Emotions and deep feelings are the brain's reaction to thought. Our brains don't know whether something you think is true or illusory. Our brains can't distinguish truth from falsehood.  Thoughts create endorphins that are the chemicals of emotions. For every thought, there is an emotional response. Feelings like love and happiness have a positive and uplifting effect. Negative feelings like fear, panic and helplessness limit your ability to think and act. So if you tell yourself that you can't handle a situation, you are right but not for the reason you think. As is often attributed to Henry Ford, if you tell yourself you can or can't do something, you are right in either case.  That is because our thoughts will produce the emotions which will lead to behaviors which either will or won't help us manage any given situation.  

Most things you worry about never occur or aren't as bad as you anticipate.  Remember that stress comes from feelings manufactured by your thoughts and you can control your thoughts with practice.

Knowing how your brain is organized and how your thoughts influence your emotions can help you understand and manage stress. Use your brain to gather and analyze reliable information to avoid emotionally catastrophic reactions to life's challenges.  Your physical and psychological selves will thank you for it by giving you better health and well being.

NEUROSCIENCE OF CHANGING THOUGHTS AND CHANGING RESULTS

The signature line for the Success and Mindset Group is "Change your thoughts, change your results".  This idea has existed for as long as there have been humans and was encapsulated in the quotation from the Roman stoic philosopher Epictetus who said "It is not events that disturb men's minds, but rather their views of them".  It is a hallmark concept in modern cognitive neuroscience.  One positive aspect of the latest strides in neuroscience is an improved understanding of how thoughts and feelings are made and changed.

This research is good news for anyone wanting to change how they think, feel or behave and experience greater success and happiness.  I think that we all have certain thoughts that we either don't enjoy or that don't serve us well in how we show up in our lives. Let me give you an example of one set of thoughts on which I had to work.

Some years ago, my wife and I had been devoting more time and attention to caring for her aging parents: a mother who had suffered a stroke and a father who suffered kidney failure and required dialysis with frequent hospitalizations.  Between these two major health challenges, there were times where we were in a state of anxiety.  In a state of uncertainty,  it was easy for our minds to dwell on the negative possibilities.   So how did a knowledge of neuroscience help us navigate these waters and handle the challenges?

I had given attention to anxious thoughts concerning the future of my parents-in-law. My brain had responded by reinforcing a network of neurons around thoughts about them that included many negative possibilities. The more time I spent on these anxious thoughts, the more negative possibilities occurred and the more mental attention and energy was consumed. The more attention a thought receives, the stronger the cluster of neurons become and the more prominent the thought becomes in awareness. Any event which triggers such negative anxious thoughts can transform rapidly into many other negative/anxious thoughts and emotions. The emotions reinforce the thoughts and become a mood. A negative mood can persist long enough to affect your disposition and behavior.  I see this pattern replicated numerous times with the depressed patients I see in my clinical office or the challenged business owners and entrepreneurs in my consulting work.

You may not be able to control the initial triggering threat thought. But you can control how much attention you give it.  When I chose to take my attention off a negative thought and put it on another thought, say one of acceptance, ("God's will be done."), or gratitude ("I am so grateful for all the time we have had together."-particularly as my own parents died much earlier in my life), I reinforced the new thought. The more attention I gave to the new positive thought, the stronger the neurological association became.

Through repetitive focusing of attention on the new positive thought, it became the most dominant thought associated with my parents-in-law.. The new thought literally became wired in place neurologically. By repeatedly redirecting attention and belief to the new thought, the neurological reinforcement of the new positive thought comes from the brain disconnecting the old negative/anxious thoughts.

You want to keep taking attention off the negative thought and keep putting it on the positive thought. This may have to be done multiple times since the neural connection to the more habitual negative thought frequently is strong.  Attention off the negative thought translates into better feelings, better moods, and different behavior. This is not simply "positive thinking", though that's not bad.  It also can involve strategies to learn how to identify the negative/anxious thought, how to challenge and dispute it, and how to substitute the more positive and valid thought.  Really, are you a complete "failure" because something went wrong in your life or business?  I doubt it.  

Happiness is not something produced in those brief moments when everything is "perfect" and all upset is momentarily absent. Instead,  it is in being constantly present (i.e. - If I am not allowing myself the thought that things need to, must be, or should be different).  I watched Joel Osteen this morning as well as a segment of Oprah Winfrey's show, both of which focused on the wisdom of learning to be present and achieve a degree of contentment in your present life circumstances.  Who knew that this accords with modern neuroscience and that we actually can change our thoughts and thus change our results?

NEUROSCIENCE AND HELPFUL SALES HABITS

We all know that a habit is something we do repeatedly, often without thinking about it.  How do we get good at anything but to learn the skills so well that the performance is all but automatic?  If we look at highly skilled individuals in any area of endeavor, we can say that they go about their business in an almost automatic manner.  One of my colleagues, Bill Walsh of Powerteam International, refers to it as "unconscious competence".  So what does neuroscience contribute to inform us about helpful habits of highly skilled sales producers?  There are three habits which stand out:

1.     Focus:

Focus is a powerful strategy for sales personnel.  Most people have limited attention span. To help your sales force,  you can prevail by teaching them the importance of being present and focused.  Multitasking really does not work.  As in any endeavor, this is particularly true when a salesperson is learning a new skill or attitude. It has to do with how the brain works.

The frontal cortex, often referred to as the executive area, is involved with learning new information. This part of your brain can only concentrate on one thing at a time.  Just think about what you see when you watch professional athletes on the field.  They do not text or email but rather focus on execution of their skills (habits).  Top sales personnel, like top athletes, know that focus is needed in order to execute the sales program.

Sometimes, managers fall short on modeling focused behavior. During a meeting, they are often the first ones to pull out their smart phone to check messages. I remember that I had a manager once who spent so much time on her phone during meetings she chaired that occasionally she had no idea about what we were speaking.  I felt embarrassed for her for the example she was setting with lack of focus. The irony is that these managers often complain about the lack of focus of their team members when they themselves model the wrong behaviors.

2.     Practice

I often have heard people say to successful persons, "You're so lucky".  Actually, what they don't see are the hours, days, months, and years of hard work, dedication, and practice that went into the success they've achieved.  

So what's the neuroscience of practice? You are born with billions of neurons. Each one of these neurons has the ability to make tens of thousands of connections, called synapses. Continued connections become a neural pathway often referred to as a reverberating neural circuit.  Think of it as hard wiring.

When you practice, you form new circuits in your brain that can be easily accessed. These new networks get stored in an area of the brain called the basil ganglia.

Knowledge stored in the basil ganglia is recalled without much thought or effort. Here is where the "unconscious competence" comes into play.  If, for example, a prospect asks a tough question, the "practiced" or "unconsciously competent" sales representative delivers a response without hesitation. They are not spending time trying to think of what they should say or do.

3.     Delayed Gratification

This is a skill defined as the ability to put in the work to get the reward. Too often, sales personnel are taught to expect sales success without putting in the time or work.  Think of service before reward. Building referral partners through seeing how you can serve them is a strategy that produces good relationships. The result is shorter sales cycles and increased close ratios.  Many sales personnel do not implement this strategy well because it takes time to build a relationship.  The ability to defer gratification and inhibit impulses also is found in an area of the frontal lobe, just like the concept of focus we discussed earlier.

Successful sales personnel develop the habit of giving/serving in order to build relationships. This  might be giving a referral, inviting your partner to events, presenting at their event for free with no selling, and educating them on how and why you do business. Put aside your need for instant gratification and do the work in order to earn the reward.

Control the power of your brain. Focus, practice and develop delayed gratification skills. These are three simple but time honored habits that will help achieve extraordinary sales results.

NEUROSCIENCE PERSPECTIVE ON REDUCING WORKPLACE STRESS

Most of us have heard that it's a good idea to reduce workplace stress.  But I certainly have spoken to managers who say that stress motivates their employees to produce more.  I remember in graduate school learning about the finding that a certain degree of anxiety motivates performance but that too much anxiety interferes with performance.  So just what is too much stress? Recent research gives us good reason to focus on reducing workplace stress levels.  This has to do both with productivity as well as health since millions of dollars are lost each year in American business secondary to workplace stress. 

In a study from Germany, scientists from the from the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience worked with the University Hospital Bergmannsheil to reproduce a stress situation in the body using drugs and then examined the associated brain activity using MRI scans. For the volunteer research participants, the production of two stress hormones (hydrocortisone and noradrenaline)  worked to shut down the activity of brain regions for goal-directed behavior. Those regions that control habitual behavior remained unaffected.

The conclusion was that when we are stressed, we return to old patterns of behavior to include our normal habits instead of a focus on goals.  We lose our goal directedness and revert to more habitual patterns of thinking and behaving.  The combined effect of the hormones produced the behavioral change by reducing activity in the forebrain (orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex.)

In the workplace we want to facilitate goal-directed behavior.  Goals are the indices that help organisations work towards their over-arching mission and vision. They are the means of creating action steps.  Goals help individuals, teams and departments within an organisation to know which direction they need to take next and what is expected of them.

Managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and small business owners would be advised to keep these research findings in mind when creating and communicating work goals and targets for their employees.  A major component of leadership is being able to communicate effectively with staff and team members.  When stress levels are too high, goal directedness and attainment suffer as well as the health and well being of team members.

At Success and Mindset Group, we offer evidence based cognitive and neuroscience approaches to assist leaders in maximizing their effectiveness and that of their teams, reducing workplace stress, and increasing revenues.  For additional information, see the website www.successandmindset.com.

NEUROSCIENCE AND NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

Well, it's that time of year again.  Many of us are setting new goals for ourselves.  Why is it that so often we neither persist with nor achieve them?  Alas, out of the few people who do set goals, most don't take goal setting seriously, don't do it scientifically, and do it only once each year.  In all my work with coaching clients, client consultees, and patients, I always emphasize and teach goal setting and mindset change first.  Only then do I deal with issues of problem solving, decision making, time management, or any other area.  Until your specialized knowledge area is combined with goals and mindset, your knowledge will not allow you to accomplish much or maintain any changes made for very long.  

So what can neuroscience tell us about goal setting?  

1.  Repetition is a good way to embed a goal in your non-conscious mind.  I've always been told that "repetition is the mother of all learning".  However, it's also true for goal setting as well.  It turns out that neuroimaging of the brain shows us that initially setting a goal is a conscious activity.  However, it is in the non-conscious mind areas that behaviors become consolidated to the point of being unconscious and automatic, what we know as habits.  In fact, becoming unconsciously competent is a cornerstone of success for many people, and occurs through repetition.  New neural patterns form only after they've been repeated enough times.  If you make resolutions and don't continue to repeat and reinforce your desire for these goals, then no new neural connections are made and no new habits occur.  The best example of this is the frequent resolution by people to lose weight in the new year.  The goal is not repeated regularly and does not strengthen in the brain.  It also is true that 21-30 days are needed to consolidate a new habit on a neurological basis.  When you repeat your goals again and again, programming occurs in the subconscious mind.  You are best advised to rewrite your goals daily, think about them positively, repeat them, and visualize them occurring.  You can't force this.  It needs to be a process of creating new patterns of thinking and visualizing, as well as clearing away self doubts (mindset issue). So, it's not the resolution that you set once but the thoughts and visual images you focus on all day that create your new long term behavioral change by making the behaviors unconscious and automatic, i.e. a habit.

2.  Use emotion to create energy for your goal.  The strength and number of neural connections associated with a thought or behavior increase when you're in an emotional state. Unfortunately, too often this process occurs for negative thoughts and behaviors reinforcing avoidance and escape.  But it can work as well for positive thoughts and behaviors. Neuroimaging findings indicate that neural connections are stronger when formed with high emotion.  This also is why many "casually" formed resolutions fail as they are set with no emotion.  You're prone to become ambivalent, uncertain, and intermittent in carrying out your goal, particularly at the first obstacle.  Do not take goal setting lightly or casually.  Whatever your goal is, it's about your life and that's important. We know you can rewire your brain.  All the research in brain plasticity tells us so.  

3.  Take your goal setting seriously.  Rewrite goals daily.  Think about them constantly. Visualize yourself accomplishing them.  Then take massive action to accomplish them and soon your behaviors will become automatic.

In future posts, I will discuss what neuroscience can tell us about goal attainment.  But for now, make this the most successful year of your life.  For additional information, other posts, and a free ebook download, go to my website at www.successandmindset.com.  

FOUR BUSINESS BEHAVIORS TO AVOID

We all work to achieve the best of our goals in business and life.  However, sometimes we lose track and fail to achieve all we can because of the four behaviors below:

1.  Poor Focus.  Often business owners engage in excessive multi-tasking without getting anything important accomplished.  As a project gets nearer completion, the business owner or entrepreneur can lose interest and run off to some other project, without completion of the original project.  Multi-tasking taxes our brains and leads to less effectiveness.  I like the definition for focus given by Bill Walsh of Powerteam International: Follow One Course Until Successful.  If need be, bring in others who can help organize and prioritize your goal to get the project completed.

2.  Low self-awareness.  Often business owners, entrepreneurs, and employees fail to recognize that they may not be well suited to the tasks they have given themselves.  As I have discussed in a previous post, if you are not suitably matched for your job, you burn more oxygen to the brain, which normally uses 20% of our oxygen but more when we engage in  nonpreferred ways of using our brains.  This is a failure to align how our brains are wired to think and learn with what we are attempting to do.  At the Success and Mindset Group, we employ an assessment instrument which assesses attentional style and interpersonal characteristics to provide you feedback about your preferred ways of working.

3.  Trying to do too much.  Many business persons live by the mantra "Nobody does it better than I do".  As a result, they try to do everything and consequently things take longer to do, are done less well, with limited time for personal relationships and taking care of yourself.  Seek to put in place a diverse team with advisors and employees who complement your skill sets.  This is a sure way to maximize your chances of success.

4.  Risking your health and relationships.  Engaging in any or all of the above three behaviors places you at risk for your physical, mental, and emotional health.  If you experience significant work stress, you are more likely to lose productive time at work as well as negatively impact your relationships with your loved ones.  Avoiding any of the previous three behaviors will help reduce stress as well as create more time for proper rest, diet, exercise, and recreation. 

Avoid the above problem behaviors and you are on your way to better business success, personal health, and relationships.  For additional information on related topics, go to www.successandmindset.com. 

SCHEDULE YOUR SUCCESS

Why is it that some of what we think of as our best intentions do not happen?  I have spent weekend days saying how much I will get done and then find that I spent the time reading the newspaper, checking Facebook, going for a walk, until the day is gone.  I thought that I had made a decision to get some work done.  Alas, neuroscience tells us (and me!) that there is an illusory quality to the concept of "decision making".  It is only an abstract object in our minds.  As such, I never really experience the "weekend" but rather one moment after another.  In each moment, I never directed myself behaviorally to take action.  Other actions, as noted above, took precedence, were more comfortable, presented less resistance to me. 

So when are we the most productive and follow through the most with our intentions?  It is during those times which are scheduled.  When you act based on a schedule, there is nothing better than the desired action.  If I exercise at 7 AM every day, I don't have to think about what should I do or when should I do it.  If you compare this to an intention to "exercise tomorrow", there is all manner of activity in which I can engage, e.g. drinking another cup of coffee, watching the TV news, etc. giving me resistance to my intention to exercise.  When we think about decision making, note that if we have not created a clear, defined, and strong behavioral pattern to perform an action, it does not occur.  This is particularly true when our intended action goes up against well developed patterns of coffee drinking, reading the newspaper, watching TV, etc.  If you want to do a certain act, don't worry about "self discipline" or motivation.  Schedule the act specifically, condition yourself to do it without fail, and after 21 days minimum it will become a habit like so many others we have.

The point is: SCHEDULE YOUR SUCCESS.  For additional information, go to www.successandmindset.com. 

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN FEAR TAKES OVER YOUR BRAIN?

We all experience fear from time to time.  We worry about the economy, our own jobs, careers, and money.  Fear is a deep seated emotion critical to our self preservation.  In times past, there were fearful things which could kill us.  If you did not run from, hide, or kill the saber toothed tiger, you likely would die.  In our times, while the outcomes most often are less drastic, our body and mind react as they did in times past.  We exhibit an overgeneralized stress response and, among other things, our elevated cortisol levels wear down our bodies and mind.  This has been known for decades and is most often associated with Hans Selye.  However, today neuroeconomists give us a different perspective.  You ask, "What is a neuroeconomist?"  They study and decode the decision making systems of the human mind.   We've all heard the phrase "paralyzed with fear". Yet my favorite use of this word comes from Bill Walsh of Powerteam International who has referred to fear as "False Expectations Appearing Real".  What neuroeconomists tell us is that when the fear system of the brain is active, further exploration and risk taking cease.  When we are fearful and anticipate loss, we hold on more tightly to what we have and believe.  All the energy we put into worrying drains us from being able to deal with new tasks and take the actions which would help us refocus and engage in more productive use of our body and mind energy.

Thus, what we need is to shift our body and mind.  You can help to reduce the physiological stress response through a variety of methods to include breathing, mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, meditation.  Sometimes getting some exercise such as a good walk can help defuse the stress response.  If you go to my website www.successandmindset.com you can download an ebook offering you mental and physical strategies to reduce your stress. However, to help you get into the right mindset, consider asking yourself the following:

What assumptions about myself and my world can I discard as they are not helping me?

What options are available to me even in a time of challenge?

What can I do/say/think to restructure and reinvent myself now?

As you start to answer these questions, you likely will be able to see new possibilities for yourself that can help you past current challenges and free you from the brain paralysis of fear holding you back.  As always, Change your thoughts, Change your results.

WHAT MIND SKILLS DO YOU NEED TO MASTER FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS?

We know that there are skill areas needed for business success such as marketing, accounting, and customer service, among others.  Sometimes less noticed is the need to bring your mind into shape as well.  Doing so can take you to the next level in your business.  There are three critical mind mastery skill areas on which to focus:

1.  Adaptability.  This is your ability to manage change in your life and business.   It is obvious that the more adaptable and flexible we are, the more likely we are to succeed.  However, we often do not view ourselves as able to do so, often siding with the belief  "we are how we are".  This is a fixed (versus growth) mindset leading us to believe we can't change and that we know and are all that we can become.  I have spoken about this mindset duality in other posts.  Fortunately, neuroscience has shown us that we are far more influenced by our environments than we might have thought.  This includes the persons with whom we associate, activities on which we work, and our thoughts.  Changing those thoughts physically changes our brains.  Also, your mindset about change will affect and be influenced by those around you to include employees.  An employee with a fixed mindset likely will not fit well with a group of changed oriented, growth mindset individuals.

2.  Management of Limiting Thoughts.  Controlling our inner thoughts of self-doubt is manageable but not simple.  Self-doubt is one the major reasons limiting the success of entrepreneurs and business owners. Your overly critical inner voice really is trying to keep you safe, a very human motive.  However, it keeps you back and never is really true.  Is it really true that "I'm not good at sales", "I always mismanage people", and "I never take advantage of opportunities"?  No, but you can change negative inner voices when you first identify them, then challenge them,  and finally replace them with more adaptive thoughts. Until then, you will hold yourself back.  You can retrain your brain with more adaptive and successful inner voices.  Some people do this with well targeted positive affirmations much like a pilot light ignites successful operation of an appliance.

3.  Rebalance of focus.  Decision making is critical to all our successes and running a business.  The successful businessperson balances their attentional focus between the logical, thinking side of their brain, and the more emotional, feeling side. When these two sides are in relative balance, we make better decisions for ourselves and our businesses.  This is the left brain/right brain distinction but reality is more complex.  Suffice it to say for now that the breadth and direction of your attentional style combined with relevant interpersonal characteristics influence the type of manager you are.  For now, take stock of yourself, get feedback from others about your degree of balance, and consider what adjustments to make to your benefit.

For additional information and available assistance, go to the website www.successandmindset.com for further information.  Your mindset either helps you win or takes you out in the game of life and business.  Remember, change your thoughts, change your results.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO HAVE THE SUCCESS YOU DESERVE?

We all have some of the best intentions about what we want to accomplish in our work and personal lives.  What goes on that often we don't achieve our goals?  We work at it for a period of time and then something happens.  You wanted to make more money, lose weight, get along better with others.  You really did mean it.  Well, there are two primary neuroscience reasons why such returning to our old/previous behaviors occurs.  One is that our brain is wired to perform repetitive tasks without much conscious effort.  When you go to do the same thing, the neurons in your brain have been programmed to fire so that you automatically go back to doing the same behavior.  So, if your goal was to lose weight and you tend to eat chocolate when you feel stressed, then you might wind up eating half a box of chocolates before you realize you are eating. 

We have learned through science that our brains have certain set points, like your thermostat in the home regulates temperature.  Therefore, your brain can work against you.  However, I did mention two reasons.  The other reason is that we often don't consciously bring out what is sabotaging us.  In working with coaching clients, I often wind up asking one or both of the following questions: "What do you have to give up to accomplish what you want?", and "What would it mean about you to accomplish what you want?"  I had a coaching client who wanted to increase his income in his industry.  When I asked him the above questions, after some follow-up, he answered that he would have to give up his views of himself developed in his youth as not being smart and would have to craft a new self view.  For him to be more successful meant going against limiting views originally instilled in him by others.  I also have worked with individuals who want to start their own business but don't want to give up their current job.  For them, if their business was not successful, they have the belief that they would have and be nothing.  For them, it was better to not try than to try and fail. 

So, to be more successful, ask yourself the two questions above.  Also, it will be important to be more consciously vigilant of the programming we all have in our brains and make more conscious, intentional goals.  Sometimes you might need a mentor or coach to help with this process.  Becoming more consciously intentional and breaking repetitive patterns and habits which hold us back are part of the SAMURAI Success System (Success and Mindset Underscore the Relationship of Attention and Interpersonal Characteristics).  Go to the website www.successandmindset.com for more information.  As always, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Results. 

ARE YOU SUITABLY MATCHED FOR YOUR JOB?

Do you ever wonder why people leave jobs, voluntarily or involuntarily?  Well, many studies have indicated that people acquire jobs on the basis of their knowledge, skill, and experience.  However, they leave the jobs because of poor behavioral match leading to either poor performance or interpersonal problems.  Recent results from a Harvard Business Review study noted that staff turnover doubles when no "job suitability match" has been done.  It was also observed that 80% of staff turnover was caused by mistakes made during employee selection and recruitment.  Might it be that when our cognitive behavioral styles and preferences don't match up well with the requirements of the job that neurologically we are fighting ourselves?  In an excellent recent article on this topic, Paul Martin reported on a brain imaging study at the University of California School of Medicine.  In that study, it was found that the brain may have to work 100 times harder when a person is not using his or her natural behavioral preferences.  Mr. Martin further noted that normally the brain uses 20% of the oxygen taken in by the lungs. However, as more oxygen is needed when the brain is being used in its nonpreferred way, less is available to keep the body going.  The resultant problems and symptoms can include fatigue, listlessness, distress. 

We all have natural preferences in terms of what we like to do and how we like to do it.  We are well aware when tasks lead us to feel uncomfortable, usually when their demands do not match our typical behavioral preferences and styles.  If the task does not match our behavioral style, we either will try to avoid it or will be motivated not to do it, often leading to poor performance. Over time, as the leader or employee spends more time on tasks incongruent with their behavioral/interpersonal/cognitive style, they become less effective.  Even if some of the tasks are congruent, the employee becomes frustrated and all performance suffers.  Take the salesperson who is excellent interacting with others, scans well for nonverbal cues with prospects, but whose behavioral preferences do not include doing all the administrative paperwork associated with the sales process.  That salesperson fights him/herself and becomes less effective when trying to perform the tasks for which they are well suited. 

More companies are recognizing that it is important not just to hire people who are capable of doing the job but to have individuals who also prefer and enjoy doing the tasks.  It is critical to identify what attentional, behavioral, and interpersonal characteristics match well with the needed work environment.  If the person prefers stability and low risk, how well will they do in a higher risk environment?  They may be able to perform but at what cost in terms of the energy drain on their brains?

Increasingly there are tools available to assist businesses in this task matching.  Within the SAMURAI Success System (Success and Mindset Underscore the Relationship of Attention and Interpersonal Characteristics), Success and Mindset Group employs assessment tools focused on determining the individual's cognitive/attentional and interpersonal characteristics critical to determining if they match well with their required work tasks.  But what if they don't match well you ask?  It is possible to alter the tasks to take advantage of the individuals' preferred modes of functioning.  In the example above, some of the salesman's administrative tasks could be shifted to an employee who enjoys such tasks.  This can free the salesperson to do what he/she does best and lessens the energy brain drain.  For a complimentary consultation on your circumstance, go to the website www.successandmindset.com.  As always, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Results.

SEVEN STEPS TO INCREASED BUSINESS SUCCESS

Are you achieving all the success you want in your business and workplace?  What gets in our way so often are rather common problems:  poor goal clarity, lack of self-confidence, poor time and energy management, poor planning, lack of support and a helpful team, limiting beliefs about ourselves and our capabilities, and poor focus and attention.  We are the common element but the good news is that all the aforementioned areas can be changed.  So, here are seven steps to assist in improving your business success:

1.  Be clear about what you want.  It unfortunately is true that many people have no idea what they really want.  Write down what you want for yourself and your business.  You will feel more excited about your goals on a daily basis.

2. Change your thoughts, change your results.  That is the motto for the Success and Mindset Group.  The difference between those who are successful and those who are not often resides in the thoughts and beliefs we harbor about ourselves.  Are your thoughts and beliefs limiting?  You can change them.  The first step is in identifying the beliefs and then challenging their validity.  You can learn more about this by downloading my free eBook titled S.U.E. Your Way to Success on our website www.successandmindset.com.  There you can learn strategies to reduce your tendencies to global, overgeneralized, and overly internalized (blaming) thoughts about yourself.

3. Develop productive habits.  You need good time and energy management to achieve success.  Poor focus and attention can limit you.  Do you know your attentional style which influences your ability to focus and your relationship with your co-workers and team?  As you will see in other posts on the website, attentional styles influence different areas of the brain and your thoughts/beliefs as well.  All of these areas are part of our SAMURAI Success System (Success and Mindset Underscore the Relationship of Attention and Interpersonal Characteristics). 

4. Develop your skills and knowledge.  The late Dr. Stephen Covey, in his highly acclaimed book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, observed that taking time out to “sharpen the saw” pays dividends.  Immerse yourself in continuing education to take your life and career to a new level.

5. Develop and carry out a plan.  As Dr. Covey indicated, start with the end in mind.  Decide what end result you want and then reverse engineer the steps needed to get to that end result.  You will have to break down your steps into small ones.  Adjust your plan as needed.

6. Build a team and use them.  You cannot do it all alone.  All successful people have developed teams.  If you are the team leader, it is imperative that you develop the most cohesive team you can.  That is a topic in itself for a different time.  For now, get yourself a coach, advisor, and mentor, find people who have achieved what you want.

7. Celebrate your victories.  Mr. Blair Singer, consultant and trainer, recommends celebrating your little victories on the way to bigger victories.  This helps anchor your progress.  If you only celebrate if /when you reach your final goal, you may become discouraged along the way.

Embrace these steps to lead yourself to increased business and personal success, fulfillment, and happiness.  The SAMURAI Success System, mentioned above, incorporates all these steps and others as well.  See the website www.successandmindset.com for additional information.  Be sure to download your free eBook.   Remember, change your thoughts, change your results.  Wishing you the best.

STRESS MANAGEMENT IN THE WORKPLACE

We all talk about workplace stress management.  But how can brain science help us to achieve stress management in the workplace?  There increasingly is evidence that various relaxation techniques for stress can help us concentrate and focus better, strengthen our brains, and reduce age-related brain atrophy  These consequently influence company success factors such as increased workplace productivity.  Strategies for reducing stress include meditation, yoga, and progressive muscle relaxation.  In the last few years, there have been a number of research studies, predominantly with meditators.  The results have shown that meditators developed stronger connections between different regions of their brains and showed fewer signs of brain atrophy of white matter tissue, critical for brain connectivity.   Additional recent studies noted that individuals who practiced mindfulness meditation for one half hour per day for just eight weeks had changes in gray matter density in the hippocampus, an area associated with memory, as well as in the amygdala, associated with stress.  In other posts, I previously have reported that increasing activity in the caudal anterior cingulate cortex, in the frontal area of our brain, has been associated with more brain activity for those characterized with a growth mindset as described by Dr. Carol Dwieck of Stanford University.  Finally, in an article in the LA Times in 2013 titled "Mindful Management", author Robin Rauzi noted the existence of Executive Mind classes in the MBA program at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.  Meditation and the power of attention are taught as core skills for leaders and managers.  She also observed that multiple mainstream companies such as Google and General Mills have in-house programs to increase mindful approaches and credit such with increasing their productivity.

     Given the above, it should be clear that we need not wait for the company retreat to reduce our stress and burn-out.  Most such retreats involve time for self-contemplation, relaxation, meditation.  Perhaps leaders, entrepreneurs, small business owners, and network marketers might planfully and proactively promote such strategies in the work environment.  They all involve a focusing of one's attention, breathing, visual imagery, emotions, and bodily sensations.  These strategies can help to increase workplace performance as well as make us feel better about ourselves and our lives in general.   My team at Success and Mindset Group leads in the integration of leadership, organization development, and brain science to the end of enhancing leadership, improving team cohesion, reducing workplace stress, and increasing productivity.  For more information go to my website at www.successandmindset.com.  Change your thoughts and change your results. 

FIVE LEADERSHIP LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

As a person of Italian heritage on Columbus Day, and always interested in leadership issues, I sometimes wonder what leadership lessons we can learn from Christopher Columbus.  Well, I was fortunate enough to come across this enlightening post on the very topic from Mr. Larry Boyer on social media today.  Mr. Larry Boyer is a regular LinkedIn Top Contributor creating and sharing content on Big Data, Advanced Analytics, Risk Management, Leadership and Career Development. He applies his diverse background in physics, economics, management, and personal development to help organizations and individuals excel and achieve peak performance. I think he has done a masterful job on this issue.  Please read and see what you think:

Are we missing the critical leadership development lessons Christopher Columbus gave us?

More than 500 years ago Christopher Columbus set sail and discovered America. Was this a grand achievement for a man, a nation, humanity or generations to come? What are the lesson of personal achievement and leadership that Christopher Columbus has taught us?

Today we focus so much on the activity, the man and his deeds that we miss the deeper importance of Christopher Columbus. Did Columbus discover America? Did someone else? If he thought he discovered India did he really discover America? Was America really “discovered”? What about the treatment of the natives by Columbus and those who followed him? Christopher Columbus was revered by and inspired generations for a reason that is often overshadowed by today’s critiques.

What are we missing that can help us today?

5 Leadership Lessons from Christopher Columbus

1. Luck favors the prepared
2. Be Bold. Be Different
3. Ignore Nay Sayers
4. Find people who believe in you
5. Let go of the familiar and safe

Luck Favors the Prepared

Was Columbus just lucky? One of the first criticisms of successful leaders and visionaries they were just lucky to be at the right place at the right time. Anyone could have done the same thing. It’s just lucky this person did it and someone else didn't. Columbus was trying to sail to India and was just lucky he found something else instead.

What appears to be a lucky happenstance is the result of years of work and preparation. Leaders make luck happen through preparation. Columbus spent years developing his idea and going around Europe looking for financial backing. He had to believe and convince others that the world might be round. Like any great leader, Columbus spent a lot of time getting prepared for his opportunity. When an opportunity appears you need to be ready to both recognize it and to be able to take advantage of it.

Be Bold. Be Different.

Columbus had a bold idea. An idea that was different from everyone else around him and certainly different from his seafaring peers. In his day ship captains kept in sight of the shore, ensuring they would not fall of the edge of the Earth or be consumed by sea monsters. Columbus understood that if he continued to do the same thing everyone else was doing, he would at best continue to get the same results as everyone else. If you want to achieve something great it is going to have to be by doing something different than what everyone else is doing.

Ignore the Naysayers

Everywhere Christopher Columbus went people laughed at him for his idea that the Earth was round as he traveled Europe looking for support. He was sent away time after time. His peers and colleagues in the sail industry thought him to be a mad man for making such suggestions. Everywhere he went sharing his idea he was dismissed, ridiculed and marginalized. It is very easy to stat to listen to the voices of the naysayers. They will always be around. Leaders who believe in their mission will ignore the naysayers and continue moving forward.

Find People Who Believe In You

Leaders know they cannot be successful alone. They need the support of people who believe in them. Even if those people are uncertain themselves they believe enough to put themselves on the line and be part of your team. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain were the first. And then there were the people on his crew. Each of his supporters may have had different goals and objectives than Columbus, but they were all aligned in support him in his efforts. Undoubted some were less supportive than others. It doesn't matter. Great leaders use this support, whatever the level, to charge forward.

Let Go Of The Familiar And Safe

Perhaps the greatest lesson from Columbus’s leadership is to let go of what is familiar and safe and have the faith that you and your supporters will have what it takes to face the unknown, adapt and move forward. Columbus literally did this in that we simply cannot replicate in today’s business world. However we do know what it means feel secure and not want to take chances with our careers and finances and avoid taking risks. Those who let go and take a chance may fail at first. Getting up and moving forward, past your comfort zone, is where success lies. Leaders face their fears and move forward.

What have you learned from Columbus that you apply in your life today?

I hope these thoughts on the leadership of Christopher Columbus have been helpful to you.  You can read other posts on my website at www.successandmindset.com or contact me directly at doctorpaul@successandmindset.com for more information on how Success and Mindset Group can help take you and your organization to the next level. 

OVERCOMING YOUR FEARS ABOUT SUCCESS

We all strive for success in our businesses and in our lives.  However, there are times when fear gets in our way.  It is a part of our "inner game" in contrast with our "outer game". 

There are times when we are faced with something we have never done. Our inner voices, those messages we say to ourselves when we don't meet expectations, begin to surface.   Why try?  I can't do it.  These words and the beliefs behind them leave us vulnerable to crippling doubt, anxiety, indecision, and lack of action.  In short, they leave us vulnerable to fear..

Your inner game needs to be just as strong as your outer game to reach the next level of success in your business. When you hold yourself back it is time to look at your inner voices and beliefs, your mindset. Identify the limiting thoughts which are getting in the way.

As I have said on many occasions mindset is the key element for success in business and life.   Use it to your advantage. Get really honest with yourself about whether avoidance, sabotage or perfectionism are happening. Figure out the underlying belief, the root cause, to break free from your self-imposed obstacle to success. See my other post on the S.U.E. strategy, i.e. making your formerly limiting belief more specific, unstable, and external. 

Usually one of four main fears stop many entrepreneurs from saying yes to growing their business. The inner critic, those limiting beliefs, and your fears contribute to performance anxiety, perfectionism and time management problems. They include fear of failure, fear of making mistakes, fear of disapproval and fear of success.

F.E.A.R. is an acronym. It means False Evidence Appearing Real. It is not what needs to be done to grow your business. The fear comes from how you look at it. Others had already done what you are facing. Now it is your turn.

Fear, worry and doubt will take you out of the business game if you allow it to do so.  You will know if you are ready to take action and do things differently. Credit to Loren Fogelman for her listing of these five steps to quiet the inner voices and defeat your fear.

1. Figure out what is the underlying reason you are holding yourself back. You need to figure out what is happening. It may be old experiences, memories or messages we heard repeatedly which cause us to stay where are instead of taking a risk.

2. See if you can come up with alternative ways of looking at things. List as many different points of view as you can think of. Choose the one you like best. Try it on and see how it feels.

3. Focus on the reason why you want to reach your goal. Connect with your purpose.

4. Visualization. It is a powerful tool. Imagine yourself taking action. As you are doing this your brain is making changes preparing you for taking action.

5. Finally, focus on the small steps right in front of you. The small actions you take today will take you to your goal.

     As you take action, you overcome the doubts and fears holding you back.  Identify, challenge, and replace the limiting beliefs you have and interrupt the little voices in your head holding you back.  For further information, go to the website www.successandmindset.com for additional information.  Remember, change your thoughts, change your results..

SUCCESS BREEDS SUCCESS

Success breeds success. We've all heard that phrase.  But what does it really mean, particularly in a contemporary environment of brain training?  In an earlier post several months ago (April 6, Success Mindsets Change Your Brain), I mentioned the work of Dr. Earl Miller of MIT on how our brain responds to successful outcomes (he used monkeys).  We learned that successful experiences, even small ones, trigger the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.  What about learning from our mistakes?  We hear that a lot too.  Well, in the same study by Dr. Miller, mistakes teach us what not to do but not what to do.  As Blair Singer, trainer and advisor to Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki notes, we should spend less time on strengthening our weaknesses but rather building on our strengths.  Even more critically, the absence of success with no apparent mistake leaves us unsure with relatively little learning taking place at all.  Therefore, focus on successes, even small ones, and your brain dopamine will help solidify the learning.  I'm not saying to ignore your mistakes but rather to focus on the successes and do more of what got you to them.   It's brain science and good business practice, as we'll see in a moment. 

Here are five actions you can take in your life and business, credit to Scott Halford of Entrepreneur.com for some of his thoughts.  They are congruent with what we've just discussed:

1.  Look to experience success, not to learn from mistakes.  Focus on examining your success and try out what you think worked to get that success again.  If you must discuss mistakes, emphasize what was correct so you begin to head in a successful direction.

2.  Attend to your mindset.  Don't allow negativity to dominate.  If you do, you'll be stimulating more cortisol, which interferes with successful thinking.  You'll become more frustrated and make more mistakes.  Take a break if you must and come back with a new perspective.

3.  Practice.  Actually, that was my piano teacher's favorite word.  When you practice the same behavior which resulted in success, you build stronger neural pathways.  Focus on what you get right, ignore what you get wrong.

4.  Celebrate.  Celebrate your wins and ignore your mistakes unless your failure can be harmful.  As Blair Singer mentions from a Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) perspective, celebrating wins anchors them in our brain.

5.  Give positive feedback.  This is what you can do with and for others.  Notice what your subordinates do which is right and let them know as soon as possible. They too will benefit from the dopamine boost.  Be as consistent as you can with this.

So notice your and others' successes and repeat them.  Then indeed success will breed success.

CHANGE YOUR THOUGHTS, YOUR BRAIN, AND YOUR RESULTS

Up until several decades ago, scientists thought our nervous system was fixed and incapable of regeneration.  However, we are learning that we can reshape our neural pathways to make us more successful and happy.  What we think about can have as much power as what we actually do.  When I was younger and my piano teacher asked me how much practice I'd done, I would tell her that I'd done not much real practice but a lot of imaginal practice.  While she never accepted that, scientists at Harvard Medical have shown that there was more truth to my statement than even I had thought.  They conducted a study with volunteers who were asked to learn and practice a five-finger piano exercise.  Half of the volunteers were asked to actually practice two hours per day for five days.  The other half merely thought about practicing, holding their hands still while playing the music in their heads.  At the end of five days, both groups underwent a neural stimulation task allowing scientists to infer the function of the neurons.  It turned out that the same area of the motor cortex, involved in piano playing, had grown in the volunteers who thought about playing in an organized manner, just as the cortex grew for those who actually played.

So, it appears clear that mental training can change the physical state of the brain and that the brain doesn't know the difference between real and imagined exercise.  My piano teacher would have been amazed.  However, there is a problem and that is that negative experiences and thoughts can hinder our brain functioning.  Work in neuroendocrinology at Stanford University has shown that stress is associated with neural degeneration because of the production of cortisol which shrinks the hippocampus of our brain, one area known able to regenerate new neurons.  Therefore, depending on what you think, you can expand or contract brain connections leading to more or less ability to learn new information and function in new situations.   How can this be applied to a business environment? 

As I mentioned, the brain has a difficult time distinguishing between reality and imagination.  If we can limit our exposure to negative thoughts, people, and excessive stress, we can reduce their effects on our brains.  Instead, here are several applications:

1.  Resist the tendency to use negative and self defeating language.  This is a tenet of the mindset view as what we tell ourselves repeatedly becomes ingrained psychologically and neurologically as well.  Avoid limiting words such as "never", "can't", instead try "When I can", "How can I . . ."

2.  Use superlatives.  "I'm fine" rather than "I'm OK".  This takes you to a new energy level.  Gravitas in business often is esteemed but doesn't always do your brain well.

3.  Think larger than what you want.  Set your intention larger than you desire.  As you do so, you expand your thinking and begin to consider ways to make the larger goal more attainable.

4.  Begin and end communications and your day positively.  This sets the positive tone which helps keep dopamine, a neurotransmitter, flowing in your brain.  This contributes to increased sense of well being.

5.  Affirmations and declarations.  Begin to compile a list of affirmations, positive statements about yourself as you are and/or expect to be, e.g. "I connect well with clients and bring value".  Taking several minutes each day to repeat these sets your brain on the way to positive reshaping. 

So changing your thoughts changes your brain and your results.  Take control.

BRAIN AND BUSINESS SUCCESS

Business owners, entrepreneurs, and network marketers face numerous challenges in today's business environment.  How do you keep up and maintain productivity, produce cohesive teams, reduce turnover, lessen workplace stress?  As in my recent post, brain science increasingly is helping us by providing information about how we can use our brains to align with workplace and market demands to help us become more successful.  Answers are becoming more available from the new disciplines of neuroleadership, neuromarketing, and neuroeconomics, which I discussed in a recent post.

Recently, Dr. David Rock, editor of the NeuroLeadership Journal, offered five neural leadership practices to enhance our businesses:

1.  Foster fairness.  Neuroscientists have discovered that when people feel poorly treated, there is activity in the amygdala.  This is an area of the brain involved in processing memory and emotional reactions.  People remember being treated poorly.  It is better for business leaders to focus on creating relationships based on respect and acceptance.

2.  Take a social approach.  Our brain is a social organ needing social interaction.  Many business environments focus on results at the expense of social interactions  The unintended result may be that even the best performers may feel devalued.  Consider being more collaborative in the approach to getting things done in the workplace.

3.  Get sufficient sleep (but not in the workplace, my addition!).  Sleep is know to rejuvenate the brain, help consolidate memories, create new connections, and process solutions to problems.  Encourage employees to take breaks, go for a walk, take lunch breaks without continuing to work.  This helps recharge the brain and improves employee productivity.  Recognizing teams for accomplishment will encourage release of dopamine, a natural chemical brain energy booster.

4.  Attention to one task at a time.  Multitasking is overrated.  Brain research shows that when tasks compete for the same mental resources, the quality of the task performance is lessened.  Try to focus on one task at a time to increase the efficiency and completion of the task.

5.  Stop predicting.  Dr. Rock noted our human tendency to attempt to predict what will happen.  However, he observed that we can hold on to a prediction that may interfere with our seeking out a better strategy or decision.  We can help ourselves and employees by encouraging them not to jump to conclusions and to consider alternate strategies.

Dr. Rock's fifth practice brings us back to mindset, our belief system.  As I've noted in other posts, there is scientific support for the conclusion that negative mindsets activate different and more emotional areas of the brain than success (growth) mindsets.  Individuals with such negative mindsets (self-doubt, self-blame, negative view of the world) often do not look for or respond to corrective feedback and continue problem behaviors in business such as unhelpful attention and  leadership styles, poor team development, and personal unhappiness.  But how do you even know what your attentional, leadership, and mindset tendencies are?  Certainly, the five practices above are very helpful.  If you need or want more information, feel free to contact the Success and Mindset Group at www.successandmindset.com for more information.  As always, remember to Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Results.