Your New Year Resolutions – Think About It

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: Cognitive Fitness (Harvard Business Review – November 2007)

Competency: Self-development, work/life balance, decision-making, problem-solving

Consultant Usage: Start with self; may be useful in coaching others

Who benefits: Anyone with a brain (really!)

What’s it about? Okay, if you are reading this around the time it was posted you are about 9-10 days into your New Year Resolutions!!  How’s it going?  Sticking to the plan?  Give up smoking (again)? New diet? And the ever-faithful new physical exercise regime? 

But how about this thought: Did you include a cognitive fitness plan?  A what?  A cognitive fitness plan? 

Yes, it seems that the brain needs exercise too.  What are you doing to stay mentally healthy?  Have you scheduled some brain exercises?

According to the latest brain research as reported in this HBR article, our brains don’t necessarily diminish with age as previously thought.  Rather, our brains are like our body, keep it fit and toned and it can even improve with age.

I loved the article’s opening story.  The authors reminded us of Winston Churchill’s propensity for alcohol, chain-smoking cigars, and a physical exercise program that was limited to walking from the office to the meal table and back.  Yet he lived into his 90s.  Of course there were other factors, but staying brain active was perceived to be a significant factor in his longevity. 

Staying cognitive fit is a contributing factor to longevity, stress reduction, and leads to better decision-making and problem-solving. 

So what is the gist of a cognitive fitness plan?  The authors suggest four (overlapping) steps to improve your mental hardiness and capacity.  

(1) Add new experiences to your life.  Take a walk and smell the flowers – you get points for cognitive and physical fitness for that activity.  Go somewhere you haven’t been before and work on your powers of observation.  Are you a hard working manager or leader who doesn’t have time to enjoy a nature walk?  Then practice the long recommended management by walking around.  Talk to your employees and customers instead of just financial analysts and shareholders.  Use your vacation time to go somewhere new.  Join a book club or, who would have guessed this was good for your mental health, participate in a poker night.  Teach a child how to do something.

(2) Work hard at play.  Remember when you used to laugh.  We don’t do that as much as adults.  But we should.  Even Reader’s Digest knew this as those of you who may have read it remember “Laughter Is The Best Medicine.”  Still is. Have fun but take risks.  Do you do a physical activity that you enjoy?  Set improvement goals: A faster time, a few more repetitions, a lower score.  Bridge, chess, crossword puzzles and sudoku all help increase the imaginative power of the brain.  Play expands the “right brain” and helps with innovation and creativity

(3) Search for patterns.  These are “left brain” activities that help us deal with complexity.  Challenge your existing mind set: Seek out and listen to people with a different point of view, seek a second right answer before making a decision, read different kinds of books and articles than you normally do.  Learn a new language. 

(4) Seek novelty and innovation.  This is more “right brain” development.  Be open to new and different experiences.  “Hang” with people who are different than you.  Ask them what they are learning, how they would do something, what is new in their world, how they would make your world better. 

The ideas above are just starting points.  There is a one-page sidebar with a specific list for a personal program of exercising your brain.  If you are more interested in the “what” than the “why” you can skip the article and go directly to the side bar…but you would be missing the opportunity to read something different, which, of course, is the whole point of the article.

Happy New Year and wishing you good cognitive fitness!

[tags]cognitive learning, cognitive fitness, neuroscience, brain exercises, mirror neurons, power of observation, self-development, managing yourself, bill bradley, william bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.