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Dec31
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Facts about your brain are readily available in the research and yet unfortunately, far less evident in practice. For instance, did you know that you should void heavy meals before afternoon sessions where you want to think … apply new ideas … or in my case … facilitate others!
If you eat a huge lunch during mentally challenging days … your brain could appear to abandon you – for its more pressing job of digesting and processing foods…. 
Or did you know that if you… drink more water to fuel and energize your brain, you will achieve more and avoid crankiness. That’s why you should do more of some things at work … and less of others. Here are 10 smart skills that add mental acumen … and while each of the facts below traces back to research, none can help the person who fails to apply it at work.
1. Laugh at just about everything … especially at yourself
2. Apply something you learned yesterday to improve what you do today
3. Take risks to move your firm forward
4. Start everyday with a great question and end the day with reflection
5. For every problem you name … suggest a solution
6. Play with ideas… interests … and exercise
7. Surround yourself with the brightest and best innovators in your field
8. Teach others what you learn … at the same time you learn it
9. Motivate teams to use tone and avoid stressors
10. Target one achievement daily and expect evidence of a bull’s eye
Try one of these weekly and watch your mental acumen grow visibly. Why so? Each of the above suggestions is closely linked to new facts about how the human brain operates … to get more benefits from your efforts and talents. What do you think?
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Dec31
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What we need most in our complex and fast moving world, is insight about how to decode, analyze, or interpret graphic symbols of language. Smart skills develop a person’s intellectual capacity to receive, decode and transmit information efficiently. The human...
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Before multiple intelligences become commonplace in your circle, it’s likely you will want to motivate and inspire others to move in the direction of using more of their capabilities. It works well to recognize and point out what people do...
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While most would agree that organizations or governments rarely generate economic growth, people in any field can. Never underestimate the power of economic growth to motivate excellence at work. Noam Chomsky said it best … unlimited economic growth holds the...
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Whenever you’re in conflict with somebody, the brain can provide you with tools that saves and deepens the relationship, rather than damage it. In fact, when you look at how the brain operates to build peace, you see how many...
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Few realize the powerful part tone plays in the mind and in communication that opens the workplace into extravagant possibilities. Tone is a smart skill, often learned in hard times, and practiced by brilliant communicators. We all face disappointments and...
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Leaders in innovative and creative ideas, are likely leaders of everything else where you work. Once you spark more creative approaches, projects begin to vibrate to strokes of your imagination. With the help of art and of your intelligence, you...
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Dec30
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On a quick read check about 15 statements which show your strongest intelligences that generate smart skills. 1. __ I often fidget rather than sit still; I’d rather be up and active.2. __ I generally organize a time schedule for...
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Research rings far truer when you see precise details that support the conclusions. Details – when they are accurate can validate materials, lead to breakthrough computations, and add to profitability. Details speak from the curvatures, thickness, or aperture of a...
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We all like to work alongside those who persevere get it done, but the skill itself is one we too can master. People’s gene pool has something to do with it, but luckily so do they. Those who persist and...
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Do others applaud you for your patience and planning? Or, is tone a silent killer in your world - when things get you down. Some people suggest you follow your heart, when patience is needed, but you’ll find wonderful resources...
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Targets keep you at the helm of your mental game, in much the same way a well lit runway keeps a pilot in charge during takeoff. Targets light your talents in ways that bring results you deserve. If lives brain...
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Are you the kind who reads directions only when all else fails? No question, people have made famous discoveries by going off the main paths that too many tight directions restrict you to follow. Or perhaps you found yourself cursing...
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How did you spend you time in the last few days? Thomas Edison reminds us…. Time is the only capital we have and the only thing we can’t afford to lose. Think of your time today as your capital –...
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Organize your day around your passions and goals and watch your brain shape dreams into reality. If you can organize your interests and capabilities you can organize a career at the top. People who live overwhelming and disorganized lives, and...
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To know and draw from a person’s unique intelligences increases the opportunity to develop weaknesses as well of strengths. If you are brighter in music than in math, for instance, you’ll more likely develop logical skills through music than by...
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Dec29
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At some point the best in technological development will likely mesh with what you already know in many other fields. Einstein said it this way … “After a certain level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to...
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The same brain that is capable of creativity which allows a person to think and live outside rigid limits … is also capable of logically sequenced experiences that provide structures for brilliant results. Nietzsche compared sequences to the spider and...
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Accuracy is to any workplace what money is to a bank. The results you produce at work may be the only deposit that lets leaders see what you’ve really got – and in that sense accuracy is everything. The most successful business...
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When you create a target that inspires action, and passionately own the process, the human brain is conditioned to drive that plan to completion. But what about the person who finds it hard to finish anything on time? How about...
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A successful change path often emerges out of a well managed process. In fact, people change along the way when the process leads to higher performance. Do you remember the baseball Hall of Fame player, Yogi Berra’s words … “Whenever...
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To take firm action, is to make a difference. Do you? A personal action plan is the brain’s way to profit, regardless of how you define profit, and even when it is a small bit at a time. Without an...
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If you’ve planned a successful upshot for your talents today ... be prepared to get brainy results. Why so? Whenever we reboot the brain for a precise target we get brainier results much like the study cited in Success Magazine,...
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When was the last time you triggered a new project idea that others jumped on with enthusiasm? Smart skills for self starting help you to open the morning with a smile, by adding an extra shot of serotonin to add...
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The key to any successful plan is buy-in from participants, and what this process has proven is the importance of including people’s insights in formulating a consensus guide that preserves the best ideas. Not that consensus precludes change. Just the...
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Dec28
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When 83 of the world’s brainiest people predicted the next 50 years for NewScientist.com, many included advanced technology as the driving force behind changes they saw coming. Are you ready? From Arthur McDonald’s elucidation of dark matter, to Ray Kurzweil’s...
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Whenever we hold stubbornly to one side only of an issue, or defend our side in opinionated debates, we tend to rewire for argument, speaking down to others, or criticizing. Similarly, when we hear and articulate insights from the opposite...
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The brain’s ability to focus on possible solutions multiplies a person’s problem solving power. Research reaffirms problem solvers can also grow new brain parts in the process. How so? The Public Library of Science reported the brain’s proclivity to rejuvenate...
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Listening is a bit like a conversation between your heart and mind … and in its silence listening makes powerful sounds to the brain. It’s far more than the opposite of talking – which is waiting, not the creative force...
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Ask, answer, ponder and play with interesting questions ... to create synapses into buzzing networks of insights. Neural networks created through questions are physical equivalents of knowledge. And the changes in connections for networks is learning that grows new smart skills....
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Neurological research supports some business and learning practices, but it adds new strategies that may even seem counterintuitive at first. When was the last time you changed your basic approach to solve a problem at work? Researcher Draganski and colleagues showed how...
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The motivated brain rewires for quality results daily, so that we broaden and enrich our approaches at work. Stimulated employees tend to inspire others to reboot their brains in ways that lead to growth and success that most people crave....
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Dec27
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If you find one area that you consider your niche… or that thing you know best … you can begin to fuel better outcomes at work. It's about emphasizing your best talents which distinguish you as an expert in some area. Myth...
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Interesting comparisons made to middle management employees by researchers Roberts and Friend, showed that more successful people were also 53 percent more likely to engage healthy life habits than their less successful counterparts. Myth 9: “I suffer from less energy...
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If you’ve found yourself lashing out, anxious or fearful, you may be on the verge of letting the chemical cortisol rob hoped for results in the new year. Why so? It’s based on the mental misunderstanding that once stirred up,...
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If your new year could be limited by memory loss, this next mental myth is for you.Myth 7: “I can’t remember things anymore.” Reality: Memory is connected to how we store information and we can learn to retrieve facts when...
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Does it surprise you that your current pattern of behavior … both a work and home … is a far greater predictor of your successful results at work, than your family background. It’s also six times more likely to predict...
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Interestingly, in a study of business school graduates, researchers Fallon, Frost and others, found that conscientiousness was at least 5 times more likely to predict supervisor satisfaction, than was creativity or intelligence. That leads us to another mental myth that...
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What are your experiences related to harder work for better outcomes? An interesting mental myth links harder work and more success in ways that may surprise you. Myth 4: “If I worked harder and longer each day I could get...
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While organized people who simply show up tend to get better results than others who lack these qualities, there’s far more to a person’s business success story. That leads me to another myth … related to self-discipline … that impacts...
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Myths, about your brain’s capabilities … act like the fire alarm in your home … when they alert you to your chances of success in 2007. If you’ve settled for less because it seems to late for more… read on…Myth...
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Some stores sell more stress than hope during the Christmas season, which which leads to people’s feelings of failure. Unfortunately, these feelings often add to the limited success people predict for the coming year. and can also lead to emotional problems...
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It’s not enough to point out how high schools cannot change to meet new demands of current markets. Rather than accuse secondary schools of failing to promote problem solvers suited to changing business horizons … why not…1. Provide incentive for...
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More and more business leaders agree that some high schools seem unable to change to meet the demands of changing markets. Reluctantly I have almost joined their ranks for several reasons. Secondary schools cannot promote problem solvers suited to changing...
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People who pay attention tend to leapfrog over their peers who half notice practical knowledge focused people learn daily.Paying attention awakens your brain through arousing a symphony of cell synchronization. The grass grows greener, birds harmonize their well wishes and...
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Dec22
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In a Globe and Mail story yesterday, Michael Hartmann from the University of Toronto -- shows strong encouragement for more directors and board level training. Sounds like a great idea at first glance, and it appears that support is strong....
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Lately a few of us have been sharing stories and gaining more from the process than most people realize. Stories are how we learn,” Bill Mooney and David Holt wrote in The Story Teller’s Guide. Everybody loves stories told by...
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Dec21
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Most people write because they know stuff, but I write to investigate and discover something new and refreshing. It's different, but it works. Curiosity and wonder keep me writing the same way when my writing is published into books about...
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The Heath brothers tell a story in their book, Made to Stick - Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, that affirms how what you say is not what others hear. It’s based on tappers and listeners and Elizabeth Newton’s...
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Dec20
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Today I read a great book and it appealed to my own curiosity about why some ideas stick and others evaporate? In this new book titled, Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, authors Chip and Dan Heath, show how...
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Dec19
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Three crows jockeyed for the highest perch in an oak tree outside my window ... for the better part of the afternoon. Two screamed at a contender who positioned for power on higher limbs, and the three screamed relentlessly to...
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Stories not only make effective points … and beat the boredom of lectures that offer little more than a sore butt for the brain dead, stuck on a hard seat. Anecdotes boost the brain. What one story projects itself on...
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Dec18
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“When every physical and mental resources is focused, one’s power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously.” Those who live by Norman Vincent Peale’s words here, will be happy to know you can also grow new brain parts in this process.Good...
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Do you agree that …. The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.Those were William Jennings Bryant’s words to encourage people to look more at...
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Who are you anyway? New DNA tests show that we all came from African ancestors who, 60,000 years ago – began a remarkable journey. Follow your journey from this remarkable group through mapping your genes, and you may end up...
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Dec17
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In the mood to hear a fun exchange about your brain and your business? Tonight the Brain Based Business interview about how to get more from your brain at work, is playing over on Wayne Turmel’s Podcast, The Cranky Middle...
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Today’s Democrat and Chronicle reports what many people feared. No climbers were found in the Mt Hood Snow Cave. The rescue effort made me wonder what tactics these climbers are trying to communicate to their rescuers. Both sides are reaching for some clue, any clue...
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Where do the happiest people live, anyway, and would people who work with you generally see you in that zone? Recently, Adrian White a University of Leicester psychologist came out with a 'world map of happiness.'Data analyzed for this study came...
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It seems that everybody poses a trick these days to keep a brain from aging or to make it more intelligent in spite of age. And some anti-age brain ideas are well worth the read. Scott Adam’s post… Aging Brains...
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Dec16
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It’s the season of St. Nicholas Eve, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, Navidades, Hanukkah, Christmas, St. Lucia Day, Boxing Day and New Year's. Starting on or about the first of November, until the middle of January, it’s also a season of stressful...
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Everybody loves a good joke, but when the chips are down or you work with a chump, humor can be hard to find. That’s why the book, LaughLab is such a hit. LaughLab started as an experiment to discover the...
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My friend and fellow blogger, Ed Brenegar commented over at Talk that Kills Meetings, and Tips to Turn it Around that … Twice this week clients told me that their memories were just not what they used to be. One...
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Dec15
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Next time somebody tells you to “listen up” … tell that person that the human brain retains less than 5% of what you hear in any talk. Think that will slow down the talkers around you? It’s true. Those monologues...
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Do you remember that well known scene with Jack Benny as the popular cheapskate? When he encountered a gun-wielding rogue, who yelled… “Your money or your life!” Benny’s face showed surprise … and then he squeaked out the words …...
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If you think of your brain as a storytelling sage, you’ll also see it leaps onto the stage of your words in response to curiosity. Have you ever looked for new ways to engage fellow workers or customers at deeper...
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Dec14
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Anybody can predict what we can look forward to or fear for the future, but when NewScientist.com collected forecasts from the most brilliant minds in their fields, it’s worth taking a look. 1. Steven Weinberg predicts the discovery of a...
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Today I spent three hours on the golf course and that’s why I am working tonight. Was it worth it? You bet. A sport like golf allows me to capitalize on my kinesthetic intelligence and it’s better for business than...
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Dec13
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Most would agree that some of the best self-help software out there are created and sustained by people just like you and me. But have you ever wondered why the self-help industry benefits some businesses far more than others? Steve Pavlina...
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Today’s Democrat and Chronicle reports what many have been saying for some time. Depression is up in the workplace. They quoted a report from the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, where Harvard researchers used data from dozens of...
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Is your best yet to come? That's what some were asked at the New York Times, and you might be surprised at their response. Think about the flip side of what you do at work currently, and what you feel called...
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