Changing The Brain For Better Productivity

Why Is Change Hard To Achieve?

The latest research in neuroscience confirms what we have already learned, that is, our brains are hardwired to resist change.

That’s the bad news…

The good news is that this hardwiring can be changed and there are specific ways to do this.

The brain is very good at making connections, it does it by literally hardwiring itself. When repeated and reinforced over time, these connections become very strong. Most of them support us in living our daily lives in things like walking, talking, driving a car etc.

Limited Memory

Because we only have a very limited amount of working memory, these regular tasks are done by the subconscious. Who hasn’t driven home on occasion when tired and couldn’t remember the drive home?

It is built to detect changes and is constantly dividing, comparing, contrasting and differentiating everything it comes across. Again, most of it done under the surface, subconsciously.

We know that these automatic and programmed actions and thoughts serve us well in most cases but some do not and can cause common problems such as self sabotage, procrastination, relationship issues and many others.

What Can I Do About It?

That’s great to know, but what can you do about unhelpful programmed hardwiring?

Well, as I mentioned earlier the brain is constantly hardwiring everything it can, good or bad, and it usually sees change as a threat, especially as you get older. Trying to remove unhelpful habits, beliefs etc. can be extremely hard work and can take years to achieve.

Making new connections however, is relatively easy to do but it is not so easy by yourself. How many people (maybe even you) have read the books, attended the seminars, know the theory yet still resist taking real action?

Gaining new insights and developing your focus on where you are going rather than what is wrong is best done by working with someone else, like as an experienced coach who is familiar with these principles and has a proven methodology for effective behaviour change.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

The Productivity Coach

Extraordinary Results for Professional and Personal Freedom

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Linda Testimonial

Working on setting goals and achieving them is only a part of what coaching is about. Probably far more important for most people is who they become during the process.

What do I mean by that?

Well, it is only when you are faced with some of the roadblocks on the journey to your goals that you learn things (with help from your coach) about yourself that can literally change your life. 

As you’ll see, that is exactly what happened when Linda decided to work with me…

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

The Productivity Coach

Extraordinary Results for Professional and Personal Freedom

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Neural Maps

Neural Maps

In terms of productivity, developing new attitudes, behaviours and habits are not only desirable, they are essential.

They are necessary because without them you won’t be able to function effectively. Most routine things you do are done on “autopilot”, like driving your car, cleaning your teeth, doing your job etc.

As a human being you (along with everyone else) constantly:

•    Make connections in your brain

•    Divide things into pair of opposites (such as good, bad, right wrong)

•    Look for coincidences

•    Compare & contrast

•    Differentiate

•    Make meaning out of the connections you make

What you are doing is making new neural pathways in your brain and strengthening existing ones. These maps show up in areas such as skills, habits, opinions and beliefs.

Sadly, as I see it, most people seem to live their whole lives unconsciously, totally conditioned by family, peers, marketers, advertisers and propaganda. They don’t have an original thought; everything they think is thrown up habitually by their subconscious minds, some of it dysfunctional.

Does Intelligence Matter?

But no matter how much you improve the processing power of your “human computer” there is still the matter of the “data set” with which it views the world.

Put another way, the data on your “human hard drive” determines to a large extent how you interpret “new data.”

Or simpler still: depending on your experience of life up to this point, how you react to new experiences can differ radically.

For example, a man having been rejected by a woman may perceive that moment as humorous or devastating.

A woman may perceive the apparent sexual advances of a man as threatening or flattering.

A speaker may perceive laughter as his audience laughing with him – or at him.

Why?

Same stimuli + different perceptual instruments + unique neural map = different data”

“Neural map” refers to our best understanding of neuroscience to date: neural networking.

The human mind can be viewed as a complex network of data and connections between those data. (Warning: colossal understatement follows.)

In relation to your well-being, the data matters and the connections matter.

These connections are a complex web of different sensations, feelings and beliefs and actions.

Which neural maps may be hindering your productivity?

Why not create new, more empowering ones?

If you liked this article, why not share it via your favourite social media site by clicking on one of the links below?

Congruence and Productivity

What is an Emotion?

This is the sixth post and last post on how success and productivity can be stymied by emotional reactiveness.

It is said that emotions are the body’s reaction to a thought. Fair enough.

It follows then to say that if there was no bodily reaction to an event or thought then there would not be an emotion.

In a sense, all you would be left with is an opinion, a viewpoint.

In her book Molecules of Emotion, Candace Pert puts forward a strong argument that not only do thoughts trigger feelings by the release of chemicals in the brain, but the opposite is also true. Feelings affect thoughts. Just think of a time you were sick. The chemicals communicate in both directions, from brain to body and body to brain.

Who is Driving The Bus?

She has the view (which I share) that the subconscious mind IS the body because that is where the emotional memories are stored.

Whether we like to admit it or not, our subconscious minds run the show.

If we consciously aim for a goal that subconsciously we believe we do not deserve or are not worthy of, then the subconscious will win. It wins because it uses feelings to get its own way.

You are not aware of the real reasons, all you know is you don’t feel good and that is enough to stop you. Of course, gut feelings can be and often are beneficial as well.

All I am suggesting is that you take a look. It may well change your life.

Get Congruent

People who learn to steer their subconscious mind so it is pointing in the same direction as their conscious mind are far more likely to achieve their goals than those who do not.

We call this congruence.

My job as a performance coach is to enable my clients to be as congruent as possible so that self sabotage and other self limiting behaviours are minimised.

Simple isn’t it?

It is okay to write or say this, but it is not so easy to stop the feelings coming up when things aren’t going so well.

Or is it? My job is to help you do that.

If you like this article and would like to share it on your favourite social media site, please click on the appropriate link below.

Finding Fault With Others

This is the fifth post (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) on how success and productivity can be stymied by emotional reactiveness.

“When one experiences truth, the madness of finding fault with others disappears.” Goenka

All sorts of problems you have with other people and situations can be examined and with a little practice you can catch yourself while the incident is taking place or at least shortly after.

I was on my way to work one morning, walking along the footpath on a busy road in an industrial area, when I noticed a vehicle approaching with its left indicator on. The driver wanted to turn into the driveway that I was just about to walk over. I stopped and waved him through.

Well, that is exactly what he did but he drove straight past without even looking at me or putting his hand up to say thank you. My immediate reaction was one of anger at his apparent rudeness.

Almost immediately I asked myself what it was about his actions that I did not like.  After a few seconds’ reflection I realized that it was his apparent unwillingness to acknowledge me that got my blood boiling.

But wait a minute, isn’t that what I have been doing to myself all these years? And to others?

I have been more than willing to note everything that I’ve done wrong and beat myself up over it, reinforcing my inadequacies, but I have never acknowledged the good things I have done.

Wow!

That poor man was an unwitting accomplice in another act of self-healing.  He may not have seen me, maybe he did deliberately ignore me, he could have been under a lot of stress or there was some other reason entirely.

Whatever it was, it belonged to him, not me.

Sometime ago a young man called Bill came to see me because he was finding it hard to cope at work. He found himself getting really irritated at a female co-worker far too often and didn’t know why. He knew it was irrational but couldn’t stop it.

Bill and I sat down together and had a look at what it was he did not like about her behaviour. The trait she displayed that he recognized as his own was selfishness. He saw that that was exactly how he had been behaving at home, refusing to help around the house and generally being uncooperative with his parents, especially his mother.

Bringing that to the light of day caused him to take stock and start to consider others as he would consider himself.

While it is very obvious that someone who takes and does not give is very selfish the converse can also be true. That is, someone who will only give and refuses to receive is also selfish.

Why is that?

Simply put, they are not allowing others to give. Denying others the opportunity to do what you love to do is not a fair exchange – is it?

Anna found herself getting slightly irritated with her mother at a family barbecue one evening. She overheard her mother putting herself down with a throwaway comment similar to “I couldn’t do that, I am not smart enough”.

Through her previous work with me she had learned how to apply the mirror. On closer inspection she found that was exactly what she had been doing to herself for a large part of her life. Yet she had not been consciously aware of it.

Until now.

Andy was at a business meeting one evening and started talking to a woman with a Scottish accent. He took a dislike to her almost immediately and withdrew from the conversation and possibly some new business. When we looked at this incident together a week or two later he was able to understand the cause of his discomfort and deal with it.

She had came across to him as being a “know it all”. On reflection, he recognised that quality in himself at times. Also, her accent and looks reminded him of an aunt he had when he was young that he disliked intensely.

Fortunately, he was able to meet with her again soon after and discuss doing business together.

As a result of our work, she no longer bothered him as he had “made the darkness conscious” and learned to be more accepting of himself.

Do any of these examples ring a bell for you? If so and you would like to delve a little deeper into your own behaviour give me a call. Initial meeting is free and without obligation.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444

Why We All Need A Coach

The one critical reason why we all need a coach is that sometimes our perception of a situation is skewed and one dimensional. We all could do with someone to assist us to obtain a more balanced perspective in life.

It can be like riding a tobbogan down a hill in the snow again and again. There are many ways to get to the bottom but if you keep going down the same path you’ll make deep tracks that make you go faster but seriously limit your ability to change direction.

You get comfortably stuck in a rut.

If that rut is your life then the tracks that cause your problems are your fears, beliefs and habits.

Counter-Productive Belief

For a long time I ran my business with the belief that I should really look after my customers.

“Nothing wrong with that” I hear you saying to yourself. Perfectly true. But it wasn’t until someone helped me see what I couldn’t. That yes, I was looking after my customers but I wasn’t looking after me. There was an awful lot I was doing at my expense while thinking I was doing the right thing.

I was unable to see both sides of the equation.

Once seen from this new perspective and acted upon, it made a huge difference in terms of profit and self confidence.

Sport and Life

Having a coach to help you with your goals, beliefs and to develop empowering habits really does make sense. How many top sports people do you know that don’t have a coach? I’m certainly not aware of any.

You are participating in the most important game of all, your life.

Make the most of it.

Committed to YOUR Personal Productivity,

James is a productivity coach specializing in working with people who are procrastinators and those who want results quickly. His ability to get brilliant results with his clients is quite amazing…

“Fast Tracking YOUR SUCCESS… SuccessFULL Living!”

To Find Out the “5 Secrets of REALLY Successful People” go to…

The Productivity Coach

P: 0421 210 444