Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

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 of them said he felt that he had a narrow field of vision - visualized his hands in front of his face like blinders on a race horse - while his memory went round and round on carousel…. 

Ed commented on my suggestion that people who do rote work, and
fail to expand their intellectual interests beyond a certain defined
field, diminish their brain power over time.  He asked … Are you saying that people who not just learn new things, but experience new things in order to keep the brain function at a higher level?  And how late in life can we do this?

Let’s look closer at Ed’s thoughtful insight and question, to see why we lose keys and forget names. Surprisingly, you have far more control over what you remember, than most people realize.

Continue what many do daily to block the brain’s proclivity for good memory, for instance, and you are more likely to live the myths that keep us forgetting.

People who believe the myth that memory loss and age go together, for instance, develop more stubborn patterns of forgetting. The brain takes a holiday from its role to remember.  Surprisingly, forgetfulness comes from the ways we train our brains to think like a slug…. Frustration follows when we’d rather they suddenly perform like a race horse, than a slug at the Derby.

Here are five surefire ways to empty key memories, while prompting people around you to expect you’ll forget:

1. Eat a heavy meal before you give a talk and you’ll have to call your brain back to attention, for every bite it’s now working hard to digest. You just assigned your noodle the busy role of digesting … so how can you expect it to pop up names or find fast facts … simply because you’re next on the speaker’s list.

2. Panic whenever key words goes missing in your mind, and you teach the neurons to misfire and to defend your panic, more than to create new neuron pathways to an answer you’re looking for. Still looking for keys to open that door? One way to remember …is to hook keys onto the same familiar place … hey … but panic is far faster on a busy day. Why worry about the fact that panic takes all your brainpower away from remembering anything? It’s easier to see your aging self as a tiny lost vessel in that storm vast sea of forgetfulness.

3. Flip your keys into the nearest corner you spot at the moment … and simply get on with your day. That way you build a basal ganglia for confusion – and your poor brain will never remember that last dark hole’s location. Don’t let that stop you though, but do prepare for another black hole search for keys.

4. Tell yourself that memory leaks out with age. That way your brain abandons its natural proclivity to remember and takes on the easier role of the slug you’ve assigned it. Remember, your brain is shaped by what you expect of it, and memory is limited each time you perpetuate memory misconceptions. Eventually a new reality sets in and you’ll forget what’s needed to keep your brain fueled and well oiled. You’ll forget that memory was more about  use it or lose it  than about age.

5. Blast somebody near you for losing your keys again. It feels better at the moment, so why worry that your mind fills with the stress hormone, cortisol.  Or who cares that cortisol comes with angry words … and let’s face it… you didn’t anyone’s need help to find your dam keys again anyway.

Anger over lost keys, you say? Hey,  that’s another post about those who live with cortisol surging through the clefts of their brains…. coming to Brain Based Business soon …. Hey, that’s if I remember to write it.

Ed asked about the aging memory,  and it just so happens that new research about memory and an aging brain … brings amazing good news monthly. Learned forgetfulness can be turned around today and already recognized before the week is out. It’s based on new studies about plasticity that rewires your brain nightly as you sleep - based on what you do for memory that day. In other words, try any of the tips in this post, and that action alone will build new dendrite cell changes for remembering.  

Did you remember any of the new tricks here that will jog your memory?

Calm down and not to worry, if you forgot. I’ll repeat just the tricks below in a few words each … in another trick for a healthy brain.

Start here for the fun of remembering… and try one that adds zip to your day.

a. Eat light and avoid fats and sugars before a talk or a think tank
b. Stay calm and link what to hear to what you already know so when you hear a name – link it to a feature on a person’s face. I once met a guy called “Harry Bignose,” who had a hairy nose the size a country pump.  Ok – that one was easy.
c. Attach a small hook onto your keys and snap them onto a belt or bag, but make sure it is the same place repeatedly, so your brain grows new neuron connectors for finding keys in the same place.
d. Tell somebody else about this post to improve your memory. Did you know that to teach a thing at the same time you learn it, helps you retain 90% more of what you learn. Not bad returns for a simple lesson to help a forgetful friend.
e. Thank people around you for anything they do in your favor. That way your brain fills with serotonin, a hormone for well being,  and will soon forget to blast them…

Did I just say you can teach your brain to forget? Ok, it’s true … and now the secret is out. Your brain operates more by how you use it, than by your age. So, why not remember more treasured memories, and forget more misconceptions better suited to an empty bucket than a human brain. What do you think?